NPF Avatars 5 - Capitalism Has Made It This Way

[Arhra]

With the fleshy meatbags of the NPF being slow in capitalising on the enormous mechanically augmented crustacean's weakness and in many cases ignoring it entirely, it was up to cold machine logic to save the day.

Of course, seeing the invading forces were largely robotic, it could be argued that cold machine logic was responsible for this whole mess in the first place. But anyone expressing that sort of sentiment deserves to have their organs ground down into lubricant.

Anyway, back to the cold machine logic solution; after Rei's bout of hugging and giggling (the subject of both actions being the double Mauves) she charged up her cannon of doom and blasted away most of the maintenance hatch defenders.

Kayessa, having had to reconfigure her targeting array after being caught in the explosion the crab had released, was finished in time to capitalise on this opening. She rushed forwards, weapon arm shifting again into a third configuration. Pointing it at one of the shock troopers, a lash of energy shot out, hitting the automaton squarely on the chest and latching on.

The missile trooper wasn't much phased by this - the grapple beam was completely harmless... technically. Of course, that argument didnt apply to Kayessa whipping the robot from side to side as she reeled it in while she continued to charge forwards, meaning a collision course with missiles pointed in her direction.

Neither did it didn't apply to her jabbing out with her other hand, fingers together in a tight wedge just as the grapple beam retracted fully. The chisel-like blow pierced through the crippled robot's torso, stabbing deep into its power core. Energy crackling over it, her sensors indicated the power core containment shield would critically fail in moments. Any heavy impact should be enough to make the battle-droid explode, possibly detonating the thing's missile supply too.

But she was in position, directly beneath the crab's maintenance hatch. With the battle-droid's limp form still tethered to her gun arm, she pointed the limb straight upwards and fired, launching the improvised bomb.

* * *

Interrupting me while I'm showboating?! Arhra thought as she flew through the air, right at Rhiya's mouth. Why that's just plain uncivilised! She didn't get nearly enough chances to dance as it was!

"Your witty repartee sucks!" Arhra yelled, flipping around in midair to change the fling into a flying kick. "Dragon Kick!"

She kicked Rhiya right in the snout. "Gnah! By gnose!" the dragon exclaimed, jerking back slightly. Arhra, for her part, tried to hide the pain of kicking something that solid. Slipping down, Arhra scrabbled for purchase, foot landing on Rhiya's lower jaw. Arhra's hand quickly snaked around a tooth on the roof of the dragon's mouth, straining to keep those jaws pried upon.

With the top of Arhra clearly in Rhiya's view, she bent over and began gnawing on Rhiya's snout. It packed quite a punch, seeing Arhra could drain energy through any physical contact. Seeing Arhra going to work as if she was fighting a giant candy dragon was almost more than Rhiya could stand.

Progress was made in other areas too, Arhra's energy drain embrittling the tooth she was hanging on to. "Ahaha!" Arhra shouted, wielding the tip of Rhiya's tooth triumphantly and biting off the weakened section, other arm now taking the strain of keeping Rhiya's jaws apart. Holding the tooth dagger-like, Arhra started stabbing Rhiya with herself. She refrained from a line like, "Stop hitting yourself!"

Even so, this was too much for Rhiya to bear. With a convulsive jerk, Rhiya swung her head up, jaws opening wide, sending Arhra flying upwards. The chaos being just beginning to call up magic to get her out of that predicament, Rhiya's head lunged forwards like a heron snapping some small wriggling thing out of the water. Her jaws closed over the flailing shape, swallowing Arhra whole.

"Ok, don't panic." Arhra told herself as she scrambled for a hold on the slick sides of Rhiya's throat, the pumeling action of peristalsis forcing her down. "Its not like you haven't been in this sort of situation before."

Things took a turn for the worse when Arhra reached the Place Where A Stomach Should Be. Below her, Arhra instead saw a ravening maw of inflowing power that narrowed down to a tiny speck of utter brilliance.

"Oh, a naked singularity. That does explain a lot." Arhra said to herself. She supposed about now was a good time to start putting that Awesome Escape Plan into action. Calling up chaos through her being, Arhra found the power warped, twisting away from her control. Her body jerked, Arhra suddenly aware of corrosion to the integrity of her being, boundaries blurring between herself and the great mass of chaos that made up Rhiya's body. Something was very, very wrong.

Fighting against dissolution, Arhra screeched with anger. She waded forwards into the abyssal maw, unravelling hands seeking to encompass it, letting her own hunger flow out to pull power back into herself. This was going to be messy.

[PyrosNine]

Nein was a bit annoyed, having a robot leap up to where he was (which was underneath the crab, about to attack the weakpoint with what THE BOSS taught him) and do the damage before he got the chance to strike for mass-....forget that.

Oh well. She may have shot it up with a bomb, but it could still use some more explosive force.

Pyros held his hands together in a signature pose.

"Flame Cannon!"

The blast followed after Kayessa's attack, with Kings hoping for an overkill on the giant crab.

[PhoenixFlame]

Having an open route to attack the Crab's weak point, Phoenixbot shifted her stance away from cutting offending robotroopers like small blades of grass, and swung her rightly massive beam scythe toward the crustacean's weak point, along with many other attacks by the assembled NPF. A poor observer might have believed they were preforming some sort of macabre combo-attack in a hopes of getting 1.5x AP from an enemy boss monster.

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Meanwhile, in Pedro's Box... Just as the Newbs came through, they noticed Phoenix finishing up a conversation via her hand device. A blank hologram floated in front of her, betraying no features.

"As of now, the plan is in play. Don't worry, I'll deal with everything."

She clicked a button, and the hologram switched to Phoenixcorp's Fleet Command Logo.

"Raven, I need you to reroute the gate, I have a new destination."

"Affirmative."

The blue gate closed, and a similar one ripped through the box in it's place, right behind the Newbs. Phoenix turned, and gasped upon seeing them.

"Agh?! What are you three doing here! Don't you have orders?" She slapped the side of her head, and gave a long sigh. "Look, I have use for you yet. Come with me." She beckoned, walking through the portal to the Kurosen Tower.

[Bailey]

Red, Green, and Blue each declared their new equip sets and then strode through the portal.

Red:
Spells: Pants, Penultima, Option.
Items: Relife Gem, Relife Gem, Coat of Arms.
Stance: Heavy Hitter

Blue:
Spells: Pants, First Aid, Decibel.
Items: Relife Gem, Relife Gem, Sleepgas Pistol.
Stance: Damned Doctor

Green:
Spells: Pants, Hide, Sprint.
Items: Relife Gem, Relife Gem, Escape Claws.
Stance: Speed Demon.

[mauve]

"You know, if you're gonna get all pervy, you can go imitate somebody else," Mauve said flatly, watching where TBMauve was moving his/her hands. "Or I can violently murder you, whichever you prefer."

She turned back to the camera.

"Battle continues to rage between Doukhobor Labs and POS Industries, but another threat may be looming on the horizon. While Rei and the Arena contestants have made considerable progress in their fight against the CRAB and troopers, the threat of corporate takeover-- and robot apocalypse-- still remains. In related news, several moments ago, reports from the Mod Station hinted at possible problems elsewhere in Nuklear City, including an alleged attack on the Kurosen. We all remember what happened last time the Kurosen was attacked." She cast a withering glare down at Raiden. "As of yet we have no statement on the identity of the attacker. Is Doukhobor Labs behind this latest aggressive movement as well? At this point in time it is anyone's guess. There has been no official statement on this latest attack, but NPFTV will release the information the moment it has been made public. Until our next broadcast, this is Mauve Mage reporting for NPFTV News."

[POS Industries]

The combo attack proved more than successful as the CRAB's internal systems began to overload, resulting in a massive explosion that bent and cracked the monster's outer shell whilst sending its legs and claws rocketing away in a glorious burst of flaming debris. The last few remaining robotroopers, seeing the battle was lost, made their best effort to flee the scene.

Meanwhile, as Mauve wrapped up her broadcast, Pedro quickly deactivated the cosplay gauntlets and reassumed his normal appearance, moving with exceptional speed across the arena in the hopes of quashing this potential public relations nightmare before it began. "I can assure you," he stated to the camera, smiling as Mauve pointed her microphone toward him, "That the citizens of NPF have nothing to worry about from these minor isolated incidents. Some inept corporate terrorism is hardly a problem for the new Defensive Kurosen Security™ system, jointly designed by the highly dedicated and innovative scientists at POS Industries and PhoenixCorp. The DKS™ system was designed to repel psychotic rune-spewing thunder gods, after all. What's one dateless wonder and his collection of cylon wannabes hope to do?"

"But Pe-chan," Rei interrupted, "our defense system at the facility isn't respo--mmphm mnn'm... hm?"

"Thank you, my dear," Pedro continued, holding his hand over the android's mouth as he held his gaze on the camera lens, never breaking his smile, "Merely a minor malfunction, not at all unprecedented and nothing to worry about. The DKS™ system's all automated, of course, so I'm sure everything's under control. Nothing to distract you viewers at home from the exciting action at the NPF Arena Tournament! And if you thought things were intense in the first round, just wait'll you see Round Two, coming right up, right here, on NPF-TV! Stay tuned!"

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Arhra ceased to exist in a small popping noise, apparently overwhelmed by the powerful internal core that drove the chaos diamond dragon.
Externally, Rhiya blinked a bit, satisfied, before allowing a burp to surface unhindered.

And then exploded.

Incandescent energy poured out, Rhiya being the epicenter of it all, obscured by brilliant, blinding blue-white light. The stands were vaporized, as was half her side of the pedrodome in the resultant blast. As C.R.A.B. collapsed in on itself, likewise exploding from damage dealt to its vulnerable core, the massive ball of nucleated energy overtook and engulfed the entire cybernetic monstrosity in brilliant energy, expanding uncontrollably.

Then, just as uncontrollably, the globe of explosive force imploded an instant later, sucking in on itself to such an extent that it created a temporary darkness deeper than the void in space. This anti light when gazed upon would hurt anybody’s eyes, much similar to the damage a retina would gain from staring straight at the sun. The implosion caused a shockwave to blow outwards, shattering windows and knocking those that weren’t careful over in a wide radius.

Within the dark globe of anti light, a figure writhed and struggled. The silhouette was foggy, its edges all fuzzed by some strange, charged force. As the figure reared up on its hind legs, its claws tore at itself, ripping off what seemed to be pieces of skin and breaking off horns. The deafening noise of the explosion fading away, others could now hear the dual-keening of the creature, a scream of two voices so horrifying that it grated on nerves and short-circuited some of the remaining robots.
Shedding skin, wings outstretched in agony, the creature swung its long neck as it tried to free itself. Chaos debris flew everywhere, and a horn fell from the sky, impaling the ground and crushing another robot.

Then with a sickening *SHHHHLUPP* sound, the single head and neck of the draconic figure split in twain, the two halves healing up rapidly to become two heads and necks on a single, massive body. Still rearing, the twin heads drew back, double jaws snapping open, and let loose a dual blast of blinding, chaotic energy. As the blast of energy faded away, another sickening splitting noise heralded the presence of two tails that lashed with pent-up fury.

The afterglow of the ex-implosion faded away, leaving chaotic energy crackling around the new entity along the cratered surface that used to be part of a pedrodome. The twin-headed, dual-tailed dragon bent their heads, shaking off the effect of the sudden change.

There was a low rumble, which grew, and gradually, people realized it was the sound of laughter.

Maniacal laughter.

Arhiyara raised twin dragon heads, both draconic faces grinning maniacally and cackling uncontrollably. Her body glowed with the ever-changing hues of chaos, ranging through every colour in the visible and invisible spectrum to even the nonexistent colours. Her pupiless eyes crackled with incandescent, chaotic energy, similar in hue to her entire glowing body. Two RFS thermometers wizzed around their heads, sometimes exchanging heads when the two came close enough.
They read: 3.1415…

[OOC: Arhra will post the new stats (I think) up in the discussion thread. I think he’s finished it]

[PyrosNine]

Pyros, who had watched Rhiya's entire transformation in awe, had only this to say.

"Huh. That's a new look."

Ignoring the total devastation and the fact he'd not found any candy within the crab, he put the sword back onto his back and waltzed up to the surviving stands, where Mauve and Mime appeared to be cohosting a news report.

Hopefully, Pyros would get a nice, first round survival interview.

[TheBlindMime]

"Awww... if you're gonna give me an option..." TBMuave reverted to the traditional man in black TBM, he had a sullen look upon his face. "If you aren't even going to kill me without question whats the point of hassling you. You, you're worse then Mesden." TBM would later wonder what his death wish concerning powerful women killing him was all about, but hey if the real TBM had to deal with it then so did avatar TBM. Thems the breaks.

TBM waved a cheerful hello to Pyros before taking up a sullen pose and walking towards the exit of the stadium his back to Mauve.

[Ugainius]

"Did I miss something?" Ugainius asked as he emerged from the bathroom. It had been a long fight but he had won in the end. Pity he didn't fight any actual enemies, only his internal bowl movements.