NPF Avatars: Pain and Amazement

[Raiden]

Raiden looked down at Garud and Premonitions from his spot atop the corpses.

"The only thing you'll regret, Garud, is coming down this tunnel."

Several orbs of electricity formed above Raiden's head. With a startling speed, they flew down toward the two fighters.

************************************************** *********
Raiden had already begun ripping up a large section of the floor when Mauve had used her fire spell. Since the slow was starting to wear off, he had put up the large floor piece between him and the source of the gas.

When the explosion went off, both of them in the room felt it. The brunt of the explosion struck the tiled floor that Raiden held up as a shield, but it still pushed him back several feet. Plus, the parts of his legs and fingers that hadn't been covered by the shield were burned and charred. When the large fire died down, he dropped the floor piece. His burns hadn't recovered yet, but at least his skin had quit smoking.

"Clever, Mauve. But eventually, you're going to run out of MP. Especially since you were low to begin with. You should have had the candy that I offered earlier. You might have strengthened yourself a bit."

Raiden moved toward her, his hands clenched and ready.

************************************************** *******
"Of course I'm stalling you, little sister. I told you that at the beginning. My only purpose for being here is to slow you down."

Raiden chuckled a bit.

"That, and to explore your Rune network. Quite a few interesting Runes in you, little sister. I might enjoy fracturing them one by one. Like that dragon you control. It's becoming an annoyance to me."

Mes felt another sharp precise pain. This time, it was slightly over her left temple. Her dragon gave off a sense of being greatly confused. It was as if it couldn't see, hear, or feel Mes's presence. She was completely gone in its mind.

************************************************** *******
As Raiden regenerated again, he felt his hips swirling in a strange way. That's when he noticed that Rhiya had joined them.

"Wonderful. I guess the Speed Raiden was too much for you, eh? Well, I must say, your spawning ability screwed you over, little girl. At least you could have killed the other puppet. Krylo has yet to make a lasting mark on me. Not from lack of trying, though."

The jiggle dancing was becoming an annoyance. His damascus blade had landed nearby. He picked it up, and looked over at Rhiya.

"As for these gloves..."

Without even showing any pain, he had sliced his left hand off. Once that had regenerated, he switched the blade hand and sliced off his right one as well. When the hands grew back, they were bare and without the gloves. Meanwhile, the hands that had been cut off dissolved, leaving the gloves lying on the ground.

"I think we've had enough of that dancing, don't you agree?"

[Premmy]

Red and purple were the first to move. They rushed to gaurd Garud while Blue and Green(Hereby referred to as regular) stood back and dodged. Red and Purple took on the attacks full force and were sent flying back severely damaged, their skin was charred off and their respective afro's were burnt masses of fiber. Premonitions looked at them. "Clean up goddammit." They both pulled out a heart simultaneously and crushed it in their hands with the sound of a bubble popping. Their wounds instantly began to heal and they were quickly back to their normal state. As they got up Premonitions was screaming angrily at the thunder god, about halfway throught hey joined him in eerie unison "WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS YOU SHOW-OFFY BASTARD? YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? YOU THINK I'M SCARED OF YOU?" you're damn right he was "THAT YOU CAN BEAT,ME? US? I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO REGRET!" he ran forward and his clones followed, moving wildly across the field, each with their own strategy that synched up with the greater one within their shared mind. Green Premonitions produced another super star, gold with two black eyes, and tossed it like a shuriken to Garud "CATCH!"

[POS Industries]

You've got to know when to hold 'em...

After looking over this new magically manifested pile of cash and, satisfied with its authenticity, returning it to the briefcase, POS looked over the contract that Raiden, still wearing that calm smirk, had slid over to him, having to hold it just right so that the sunlight coming through the giant window wouldn't reflect too much off the paper, an odd thing to have to do at three in the morning. Yes, this contract was air-tight, no loopholes to be found. Clearly professional work. He had to silently scoff at the words "Lifetime Agreement", of course. What? Nothing in here concerning my immortal soul?

"I trust you find everything to be in order?"

Pedro looked back up at the thunder god. It was all lies. He knew that as soon as Raiden started spouting off about subtle marketing techniques and achieving eutopia. Gods don't deal in corporations. That's the devil's playground.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, yes," POS nodded, "It's fine. Just have to make sure that there isn't any fine print on here. Standard stuff, you know." Fine print didn't matter. The contract was null and void even before he signed it. "Electric Takeover, Inc." was a front if he ever saw one, a wool that Raiden thought he could throw over the eyes of the capitalist swine to get his dirty work done for him. Whatever the god was up to, POS was sure that his expertise in any field was unnecessary, and while the silent killing of a slumbering girl in a sailor fuku was one thing, the further "dirty work" that Raiden had mentioned regarding the others was obviously out of his league as well not being anything more than a full-powered Raiden could handle with Arhra and her suit out of the way.

No, as soon as Arhra was dead, Pedro knew that Raiden had every intention of killing him, too.

Know when to fold 'em...

"As much as I was hoping that I could find out a little more about your operation before signing on the dotted line," POS sighed, "I suppose it wouldn't be wise to tip your hand too much. Corporate espionage abounds, of course." He laughed internally at the thought of Raiden just letting him walk out alive to go tell other companies about this.

Raiden nodded silently in agreement, that damn smirk still on his face. Bloody puppet, POS thought to himself, still wearing his own damn smirk, The guy goes through all the trouble of making this place, warping reality, boldly breaking the laws of physics, playing these games, and sends a fucking marionette to deal with me. First rule of corporate politics is to grease the palms yourself. Sending a representative is an insult.

"In that case," he said cheerfully, the smirk growing into a full maniacal grin, "the only way I'm ever going to find out the secrets of your grand entrepreneurship is to join the cause." He turned to face the doorway, looking over the still-sleeping Arhra. "So, how should I go about it, precisely? Strangulation? Too slow. Might wake up first, and I've seen what that girl can do. Slit her throat? Hmm, so messy. I just sto--er, bought these clothes and I'd hate to get caught in the spray once I hit her jugular. Hell, it's a party, right? Maybe I could have some fun first..."

No, wait, he thought, trying to keep from suddering visably, That's way too much, even for me. As abhorrently evil as Pedro O'Sullivan probably was, he had always had a difficult time acting the part, trying to lay it on as thick as possible. There were some things that he just couldn't stomach, and even considering.... that... was one of them. It's definately time to start wrapping this up, he thought to himself, reaching into his coat, still turned away from Raiden.

Know when to walk away...

"...or maybe," he said, swiftly pivoting around to face Raiden's general direction, "I could just use this gun!" Bringing his 180 to a stop, POS took very much less than careful aim at his target and fired fourteen very loud gunshots from the SIG 226 X-Five that he had "borrowed" during his last trip downtown, emptying the clip into the thunder god's head, neck, torso, desk, chair, and the window behind him.

And then Pedro noticed something odd about the window. While warm sunlight poured in through the glass, the holes made and the cracks growing from them were dark. Noticing the puppet's reduced regeneration powers were taking effect, albeit slowly, POS had no desire to spend any time analysing the situation and hurled the spent handgun at the cracking glass, shattering the window and revealing a most beautiful sight.

The interior of the Mashirosen. Basement Level 1, Section 14-Gamma, more specifically.

Pedro wasted no time. He grabbed the briefcase, leaped forward onto the desk, and called out to Arhra, hoping that she wasn't a sound sleeper, "Yo, Usagi-chan! Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!!" And with that, he slammed the case full of Raiden's blood money into the regenerating head of the god puppet and leaped out the window, just as the wall of the office behind him exploded in a wall of flame.

"I'm up! I'm up! Where's my bacon?" Arhra yelled over the roar of the explosion, running behind the now dissipating Ifrit.

The explosion propelling his jump, POS had just enough time to chuckle at the idea of "Pedro O'Sullivan: Action Hero" before landing badly on the concrete floor of the Mashirosen basement and twisting his ankle. "Son of a..."

He kept limping away as fast as he could, Arhra catching up to him as the flaming debris of Raiden's faux office collpased on top of the nearly fully regenerated puppet.

...and know when to run.

[The Wizard Who Did It]

The Dark Wizard looked up at the God towering over him. Hate was burning in his eyes, but he just smirked. His mouth sagged open, and he said clearly, “Yeah, sure thing.” Wait… what are you doing? Trust me, this will work.

In an instant, the Wizard’s cloak was brown, and the awe that was embedded into the floor had turned into a pearl white katana. The Wizard looked up at Raiden with panic. Then he whispered slowly, “… You’re… student…” Suddenly the Wizard shot his eyes toward Raiden’s face, flames dancing in the pupils. Energy seemed to exude from the Demonic Angelic Thing, and he started screaming at Raiden, “MAY THE DEVIL DAMN THEE BLACK! IS THIS SOME KIND OF GAME TO YOU! “BRING OUT YOUR STUDENT”!? IS THAT ALL I AM!? NOT A PERSON? NOT A FRIEND? A STUDENT!?”

The Wizard took a deep breath. Charon was shivering on his head. The dog had let go of the ball of energy, as it had gotten too large. It started to gravitate toward the ceiling, slowly growing. The Wizard started to charge with a blue light. His voice was calmer, but disgust was etched in every word, “Why did you do this? Why did you betray us? Why did you betray your friends? Why do you hurt us, attack us now? Why do you want to destroy us? The greatest nation on Earth. In the Universe. In the Multiverse. Why do you want to destroy that? Why do you want to destroy our hope? Why do you want to destroy this world? The histories have proven that our power has stabilized this land. Surely there is no profit in war for a God of Thunder. I never thought you would be the type of person to sell your soul to another, but that’s the only logical step. So, I ask you this last question, is there no logic to your madness?”

The Wizard sighed. It had taken a little while, but he had gotten to where he needed to get to. Another lesson that he had gotten from Raiden was to always set up a plan B. Not just to have one planned, but to set it up. It was like Chess. Your moves should have multiple purposes. In an ideal situation, moving a bishop would set up an attack and cause a discovered attack, and so on. The Dark Wizard was more intelligent than this Raiden gave him credit for. He had thought ahead a little. The paths to victory had been set, so now it was up to the Wizard to follow a path. But before that, he needed one important thing out of the way. One easy thing that could end the battle in Raiden’s favor right now.

“Also, Raiden, are you going to let me go?”

[Mesden]

"Fuck, hidden Runes. He has some in me scouting out what I am made of and now he has Aramene. Only one way to settle this."

She brought her hand to a glow again. Raiden had readied himself to speak, but only to see she had plunged her hand inside of her own chest. She drug out the dragon spirit and let him down. The creature seemed exhausted and nearly lifeless.

"Fine Raiden, but you still don't understand what I did when I took the realm into me. It wasn't just the mini realms, but the magnitude of abilities I can now power."

She flung her blades towards him again, Rune blocking it as it had before. Now another occurence happened to Raiden, he felt his shell he had around his gem was empty. He could feel it elsewhere, the gem was imbedded across his lips, sealing them shut.

"Now Raiden, this farce is over. You must think of me as nothing to fight me like this. Relying on one power to defeat me is something not even the Rune can do."

She began to speak her own silent words. The sigils appeared around the silenced Raiden's arms, binding them to his sides.

"Normally you could break this, but your strength isn't enough right now to shatter it. Or you could have spoke your own counter Rune, but once again I have taken away an option of yours."

She stepped forward, with her arm outstretched and clenching. Raiden could feel the pressure on his gem. Every microscopic crack made by the pressure felt like a searing flame all throughout his body.

She spoke again, this time binding his legs and again for his midsection.

She was now face to face with him. Her eyes were filled with scorn. She grabbed the puppet by its head and brought it forehead to forehead.

In a low grumble she spoke, "All I wanted was a reason. That's all I wanted. I know you wouldn't do all of this without just purposes, but you won't tell me. I can only assume that you have turned evil without this reason. Damn it, Raiden. Just one good reason and I would have stayed out of it. Hell, a really good reason and I might have helped you. I don't like fighting you. I don't like you having to torture me to keep me at bay. I don't like having to fight. You are making me. Damn it Raiden, just tell me."

She placed her hand across his face and the soul gem returned to his chest. Her other hand was grasped on it for safety measures as she wasn't pressuring it.

"Please Raiden, just one reason is all I ask."

[Darth SS]

OOC: I'm assuming I'm picturing this right.

IC: Darth stood there, as his usual slouching self. He raised an eyebrow as Raiden struck that ridiculous pose. Then he whirled his own saber around, both hands on the hilt, ending with it at about his shoulders pointed straight up.

"Okay. You're psychopathic. I can dig, I can dig. Now, I'll let you have the first swing. How are you going to get to me though?"

Raiden frowned, then stood up and got into an actual fighting position.

"Okay, resume."

Raiden waited. Oh fuckadoodledoo. This meant Darth had to go on the offensive. It was never good to go offensive in a sword fight. Oh well. Darth sprinted at Raiden, and did something absolutely fucking insane.

He tossed his lightsaber to Raiden. Raiden could literally catch it. Instead though, he knocked it over his head and whipped his sword around to bisect Darth SS. Darth, however, jumped and made himself spin in the air, like a log. Raiden's blade passed a precious inch beneath Darth, who then snapped his hand out and grabbed his lightsaber.

He spun again and made a large ugly gash right up Raiden back before landing on his feet. Viciously, he stabbed forward, intending to impale Raiden. The thunder god slid to the side, the energy blade passing underneath his arm, and brought his sword around to cut off Darth's head.

Darth stuck his chin to his chest, and the sword trimmed a bit of his hair. Like, ironically, lightning, he whipped his lightsaber down then jumped and spun his body again. The lightsaber came down right at Raiden's head, and he barely got his sword up in time. Somehow, Darth used that leverage to throw himself higher. Then he came back down with a massive two-handed swing.

Raiden blocked, as per-expectations. However, something odd happened. The ground crack, and the two fell through. Essentially, they'd just broken a small piece of reality. They landed on some odd giant tower. Darth was totally cool with that.

Instead of some snappy quote, however, Darth pressed his advantage. He whirled his lightsaber around in a circle behind his back, increasing the speed as much as he could before snapping it across. Another block. A vicious parry.

Then something unexpected. Raiden kicked, and slammed Darth clean through a pillar. He rolled, Raiden's blade missing and saw it tear through yet another conveniently placed pillar. Darth's blade snapped around at the newly exposed Raiden, who ducked. With a shower of sparks, the pillar was sliced clean in two.

Something happened right there. Darth went to the height of his ability, and Raiden honorably matched. Darth's lightsaber became nothing but a red streak, and the two began to fight impossibly fast. They didn't move. They just fought. Debris that fell on them never even touched the ground, as it was torn apart by the whirling blades far too fast.

Then they began to become ping-pong balls, tearing through the giant structure. With every strike, a small piece of space-time had a hole poked in it. The tower was collapsing around them. They slammed into each other another time, and paused, straining against one another.

The resulting shockwave actually tore reality apart again, landing them back in that same damn room. Raiden was the fastest though, and snapped his blade up, Darth's lightsaber flying from his hands.

Desperately, Darth tried to jump away. Not fast enough. He grunted.

Raiden's sword protruded from his back, ever so slightly. Darth fell onto the ground, with an inch of blade coming out of his back.

OOC: You may now taunt me. Before it becomes insane.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros smiled. Now things were getting fun. "Alrighty then. Well, since it'd be rude of me to fight with a blade whilst your puppet's unarmed, might as well stow it."

Pyros put the blade upon his back, where it remained. "Alright, I'm ripped, roaring, and READY TO GO!"

The God-Raged Puppet waisted no time. In the time it took for Pyros to finish saying his battle phrase, he was in PyrosNine's face. He slammed an enormous burst of electricty into Pyros, sending the Fire Angel slamming into the wall. But he didn't stop there. The electricity that had been around Pyros held on to him and went back to Raiden's right hand. With a thrust, he pulled the elecricity like a rubber band, slingshoting Pyros towards him. With his left hand he readed another massive strike.

Pyros couldn't break free or stop his movement, so he did the next best thing: He came towards Raiden faster than he wanted. Before the thunder god could release his thunder'd fist, Pyros was in his face this time, and ready. Pyros wrapped his hands around Raiden's head, and crushed it into his knees as well. Pyros sent destructive energy through his hands to he knees into a full circle.

"BURST!"

Raiden's head exploded and Pyros hopped away unscathed. The god was definitely as stunned as a god could get in God-rage, so Pyros made sure to use it. A powerful kick sent Raiden on the move, followed by another flame cannon. skidded along the ground smoking from the attack, yet continued his assualt. Masive bolts of lightning as thick as tree limbs came at Nein, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He darted between the their bulk as he snapped towards Raiden.

As soon as Raiden hit the ground, the snap triggered an explosion beneath him. He was blown back up in to the air, until he hit the ground again and felth another explosion, keekping him going. Pyros was skipping him like a rock in a sea of flame.

Raiden got angrier. With a roar he released his own explosion of electricity, blowing away the smoke and flame, and pushing aside the explosions. He was back on Pyros like Shiney on a spam thread, and Pyros returned with his own force.

"So puppet, do you fear your death? Are you capable of your own thoughts? Or is this some remote control deal? Do puppets dream? I suppose you'll find out after I'm done with you!" A fanged Pyros laughed as he took a thunder punch to the gut and returned with Redhot kick to the Raiden's side.

[GARUD]

Garud put his head down. His eyes went cold, dark, his voice without emotion... or even any sense of humanity.

"Raiden... you are right... I will regret coming down this tunnel... because I will kill you, Thunder God or no"

Garud looked up at the Thunder God. Two of Premonition's brothers took hits. It didn't phase him at all. The demon slayer was then hit in the shoulder. Despite making contact, and feeling a tremendous burn, he looked unfased. Just staring up at the Thunder God, he was hit by another. Again, burnt, yet unfased. Garud took a deeo breath. Instead of catching the shuriken, he just used his hand to redirect his motion.

~Chaos Shot!

The shruken had been hit with the chaos shot, and a small counter appeared on it. For two minutes, its effect would be greatly enhanced, before losing all its power. But Garud was not one to wait.

"Raiden, that always was your problem... you underestimated me. You always have. But that ends HERE!"

Garud's body convulsed violently. His arms became elongated, and grew red claws. His body became bigger, with scars scattered on it. His legs enlarged aswell, growing to become large, beastial-like. His head changed into the face of a... there was no name for it. His head became like an animal's, except for the fangs which were very large. Big black leathery-like wings produced on his back. His whole body was black, except for those red, glowing eyes.

"RAIDEN... LOOK UPON THE FACE OF DEFEAT! MY TRUE FORM!"

The demon slayer howled, and shot millions of ice shrapnel at his opponent, following the wake of the enhanced shuriken.

[Dragonsbane]

Deep within the heart of the shadows, something moved.

The dark area faded even more, shadow turning to pitch-black opacity, then growing even darker...until it radiated darkness the way a flame radiates light, the blackness of the very Void itself. The tear in reality was of indistinct proportions, but large enough for what was to come through. Anyone watching would have had a distinct feeling of something watching them even before a body materialized from the darkness around a pair of eyes whose hue matched the rip from which the being of darkness had just appeared.

A fairly simple, yet finely-made robe of ebon material swept the ground, the figure's cloak tossed for a few seconds more in a wind unfelt by this dimensional plane. The dark eyes swept the room in which he had arrived, and the figure's lips curved in a calm smile as he located the door with his name on it. Dragonsbane opened it with a wave of his hand, and stepped through.

[Truce]

Newbs, Lurkers, and Flamers poured out from the portals, and faced with their numbers Ecurt only had one option left to him. "Stop right there!" he commanded the newcomers who, for some unknown but still convenient reason, obeyed. Taking a deep breath, he asked a question, in the form of a single word. "Sex?"

For a moment everything was silent and Ecurt thought he had failed. Then, a lone newb raised his hand. "r0ph1! i i5 4 m4n. 4 m4n1y m4n. w007!" Soon, more replies followed after, such as: "n3wb! 0bvi0u51y 73h 4n5w3r i5 y35!", "i i5 700 1337 70 7311 j00." and "¥o|_| all s|_|&co|D¥;|<. |\/|¥ ])!&co|D¥;|<."

Soon, everything was out of control. Newbs began flirting with the "females", the "females" began flirting with the "females", lurkers just sorta shrugged, and flamers started calling everyone "9h3y." Meanwhile, with the reinforcements temporarily distracted with one another, Ecurt snuck by them, occasionally throwing out a 1337 statement to those who almost remembered that they were supposed to kill him. Eventually, he stopped just beyond arm's reach from Raiden, and looked into the Thunder God's eyes.

"You know as well as I do that the only role these minions of yours can fill is that of cannon fodder. Even if you consider me a waste of time, these outsiders are a still waste of mine."