NPF Avatars 5 - Let's Leave a Mark

[POS Industries]

"So no matter how much I cut off your head, you'll just pop up right here again unless I... break that crystal of yours. I'm sure you don't mind, of course?"

"Actually...."

The funny thing about darkness, such as the complete lack of light that escapes the aura of nothingness emanated by Pedros Nihilem, is that it's totally indistinguishable from other surrounding darkness, such as the vast empty black that was once the Pantheon of the Gods. So it's not much of a surprise that it didn't quite catch our hero Mesden's attention until bursting out from the floor beneath her, enveloping her entirely in an instant.

"....I think I'd like to keep it the way it is, thank you very much," POS sighed, crossing his arms in front of him as the crystal faded from view once more.

------------------------------------------------------------

"Too slow, buckos!"

As the crew of the unwieldy NPF megazord tried to figure out exactly how to pilot their mechanical monstrosity, Rei Overdrive's left energy blade came down through the head of the Wind Dragon head (which, along with the other four dragon heads, had just barely missed their target when Gaia finally fell apart and gravity went bye-bye, in case you were wondering).

Pausing for a moment to locate the megazord's main cockpit, Rei took aim with her right blade and plunged it forward.

------------------------------------------------------------

"Wow...nice place."

"Oh hey, thanks!" Rei Zeus beamed at Flare's compliment, "Yeah, you know how spaceships usually have this whole quasi-futuristic motif going with off-white walls and chrome and all that stuff? Yeah, we thought we'd go a different way with it. Plus, the Riyal is officially classified as an office building in our records, so Pe-chan decided to decorate accordingly. I think it turned out nice...."

"Bridge to transporter room," an older male voice came on over the intercom.

"Captain NexGen! Hiiii!! We're just on our way to join you! What's up?"

"Ah.... Okay," the former Gaian supermod continued, "Yeah, we're getting some weird readings from the, uh, other you's battle site. Seems an atmosphere has spontaneously appeared there. Scans are indicated it was generated by some kind of plush toy that's modeled after one of those Newb guys we have on file--Amalgam."

"Oh, neato," Rei Zeus pondered for a moment, "It'd be kinda cool to know how he pulled that off. We'll have to look into it one day. Anyway, raise shields, power up weapons, and open fire on his position. We'll be up there with you shortly, 'kay?"

[Mesden]

It didn't take long for Mesden to think of a cunning escape plan, considering the circumstances, she was being engulfed in some mysterious darkness that threatened to remove her from existing. What better to combat that than undefinable bright energy and a tool from a long time ago? As the nothing grappled about her form, Mesden brought her own energies forth. She tucked a couple of fingers and a small pendant in her hand into nothingness -- they just seemed to disappear, even if they were behind the veil of black Nihilem had produced -- and as she pulled her fingers down, a similar portal to the one she emerged from earlier ripped open, only this time brighter. Much brighter. The ethereal energy spilt forth from her realm, exploding into the hand that opened it and contained the SEAL device she had obtained from so long ago. The brightness removed Nihilem's horrid cease-to-be power and shaped into two large, cliche angel wings, seeming to brush back the darkness of the universe itself as it mixed with SEAL -- now embedded into her gauntlet covered hand -- battling this eerie power Pedro had acquired.


"You'll find that bright energies and devices against instant obliteration are a great asset to control when you step into a world of darkness...You didn't think it'd be so easy, did you? Oh, I thought the wings make a nice allusion to your statues over there, hope you like the bit of recognition." she bowed, basking in the light of her wings and sarcasm, "I'll have to thank KP again."

[mauve]

"Oh, for the love of-- Hey! Knock it off!" Mauve fumed, watching Rei destroy various parts of their Megazord. The mage tapped away at the control board and the robot hand shot forward to try and catch Rei before she could stab the proverbial heart. Or head? I dunno. Who's in charge of this thing?


"If this doesn't work and she ends up breaking our semi-kickass robot, can you turn into some sort of space suit for me? Y'know, so I don't die?" Mauve asked Eol after turning off the comm system.

Isn't there already some kind of atmosphere thing out there? he asked in return. Mauve shrugged.

"Maybe, but I'm not trusting it to last long."

Good point. I'll see what I can do.

[Flarecobra]

"Hey, Rei, mind if I wander around? See what all's around here?" I said, making myself sound curious about my surroundings.

[PyrosNine]

Japanese-English Emo-World-Peas-Bot: Hell's head pilot cursed.

"Gah! Who would have guessed a giant robot comprised of the most insane individuals I know wouldn't work coherently! It's time for me, the self-designated leader, to save our combined asses! RANDOM BUTTON PRESSES, GO!"

With a flurry of well timed button presses set to the beat of "Freckles, the tiggy remix" on a rainbow like control panel, Pyros entered a code that was the equivalent of the Konami code plus every street fighter combo that ever existed. After TBM in TBM plushie did a mini hadoken, a magical transformation did occur.

The giant mecha glowed an eery glow, whether it's inhabitants liked it or not.

"Self fusion, beginning, you [expletives. Especially you!]"

The space/time of the robot itself folded, and as the atoms were quite painfully rearranged, the robot fused with itself, originally the sum of it's parts, it was now the whole, which a specific branch of science concluded was entirely different.

"Fusion [expletive] complete. Are you happy?"

The new robot body was entirely different from the previous one, from having a sleek new frame to a neato working set of legs and arms, and every seat in the zord was replaced with a plush leather lay-z-boy. (Except for Ecurt, who lacked a seat to begin with, and Mime who only had his cheese transformed into provolone.) while everyone in it tasted purple for a few seconds.

The head was wearing a strange, Tiara like crown with two wings on it's sides (where Ecurt sat on the floor of his zord a much needed improvement), and seemed to have short blue hair as well as calm blue eyes and an beguiling face. It wore decidedly less armor and had two blue shoulder pads, a blue and purple sleeveless tunic that was more fabric than kevlar. The feet that were vast improvements on the previous two, wore light pants and hiking boots, as well as wore 6 empty sword sheathes for decoration only.

Mauve found her mecha arm to be much thinner than before, but armed with a strange rocket booster on it's fists, which the other arm had as well.

The giant mecha jumped back to avoid Rei's blade, and finished it's transformation: A thousand rocket launchers, lazer cannons, and miscellany death weaponry popped out of it's shoulders, while a pontiac GTO bulged in it's pants.

"Japanese-English Emo-World-Peas-Bot: Hell Alter Code F! Pacifist mode!"

The mecha opened it's bishounen mouth.
"Hello. I am Japanese-English Emo-World-Peas-Bot: Hell Alter code F Pacifist Mode. But you can call me Majimmier. I completely hate violence. Can't we talk this out?"

[Arhra]

Inside her drifting shell, Arhra Five decided she was happy. Her machine empathic powers had allowed her considerable plundering and she'd just finished incorporating most of the new technology she had accquired into her frame. Modifications to her giant robot were also near complete. She was about to spring back into action, unleashing super-robot-hyper-death the likes of which the world had never seen.

As she got ready to shed the armoured shell that had protected her and reveal her new glory to the world, Arhra saw the reconfiguring NPF megazord springing back as Rei Overdrive lunged at it with a stabbing motion. There was only one potential weapon she could use while still enclosed.

Damnit Arhra, think with portals!

Arhra sprang into action, energies diverted to her command.

If she had done things right, a portal would open just in front of the cockpit, Rei's jabbing hand-blade would pass through it and she'd stab herself in the back via the exit portal that had opened behind her. If Arhra hadn't done it right, Rei's hand would be past that point already, preventing the portal from opening and then her violent stabbing motion would possibly kill everyone piloting the voltromegazord.

Arhra Four, who had been a nominal giant robot part, despite actually being merely a moderate sized (pseudo-biological) dragon, found herself ejected as the transformation was made. Red eyes narrowed as she ruffled her oversized wings angrily. The cloak business simply hadn't worked out.

Seeing the five-headed dragon, Arhra's expression turned speculative. She correlated the ability of Amalgam to produce seemingly unending ammount of stuff with the power she shared with Matter-Eater Lad and came to one conclusion: unlimited supply of free food.

Perhaps not realising it was now possible to speak, Arhra opened her jaws like a chick demanding food from an overtaxed parent, pointed at the larger, five headed dragon's head and then pointed at her gaping maw. Evidentally she wanted food. Or possibly she'd fallen madly in love and wanted to be kissed. Either way, she was blithely ignoring the stabbing and possible spaceship bombardment happening to the other dragon.

Onboard the ship which, coincidentally, had just been ordered to fire at Newb, Arhra Two was feeling loved. She had been plucked out of the vacuum of space (which was a very bad place!) by her fiancee. She seemed to be walking with a dreamy expression, hints of pastel backgrounds and sparkles visible whenever you looked at her.

She came out of her daze slightly. "Oh, blasting Newb? That's nice. I like the motif too. So what is the plan now?"

* * *

Arhra Three had long been left to her own devices. After she'd been infected by Wilshasa's terrible poison, she'd been placed under the care of Kayessa (the weapon Arhra had created in the arena and then accidentally turned into a gynoid) to take her home and let her recuperate.

She woke early on, feeling like her blood was trying to escape from her body. A snake haired woman was just entering the room - one of Arhra's companions unimaginatively named Hydra. Arhra staggered to her feet and found she was looking very potbellied. "What is the meaning of this?" she demanded. Arhra looked paranoid for a moment. "SK hasn't been in here, has she?"

"No, your body is just trying to encyst any foreign material to get it out of your system. That's causing the swelling. Now you need to get some rest."

"Wait, just ho-"

Hydra chloroformed her.

Arhra stirred again, much much later and feeling much, much better. A giant lizard, a killer robot and a suspiciously anime-esque schoolgirl were all looking down at her. She relaxed - she was home and in the company of her companions. Sitting up, she noticed she seemed to be back to normal. Propped in a corner of the room was what looked like a large egg, at least a metre in height and composed of red-lit black chaos-diamond. She frowned. "That isn't the cyst, is it? Why is it so big?"

Kayessa (the robot) spoke first. "We were able to determine that you somehow acquired the abilities of one of your allies - someone called Rhiya - and you rejected thoe abilities along with the poison. This has substantially added to it's mass."

"Ah, but then how did it fit inside me and how did you get it out?"

Hydra spoke, "Uh, in quite a complex way..." clearly not willing to go any further.

Arhra One suddenly burst into the room. "Ah, you're alright! Everyone! Pedro has supposedly ascended to being the God of Nothing with weird oblivion powers and is planning to conquer us or something!"

"Oh. We'll have to beat the crap out of him then." Three said quite calmly. "Is there any more bad news?"

"Because you somehow switched powers with Rhiya-chan and your body has rejected Rhiya-chan's powers, you're now completely powerless." Yuri (guess) said brightly.

Arhra Three screamed her rage to the heavens.

She was left in her bed to come to terms with her powerlessness and the world shaking events that had happened in her convalesence. Gnawing on the 'egg' failed to give her super powers.

And so Arhra started talking to herself. That is, with no more of herself around. "Hmmm, the jerk has attempted to become a god and half-assedly manipulated us into doing something of absolutely no relevance to what he was trying to accomplish. Psssh, copycat. I did it better*."

"Still, this nonexistence power is troubling. It greatly complicates the essential ideal of walking up to him and beating the crap out of him. Some device or power necessary to overcome it is neeed. But who'd make something that exists solely to make you not not exist?"

Arhra gassped. "KP!" For the tournament, out of the many, mostly tacky, items that had been submitted, he had put in a device specifically that useless.

Then she sighed. Although she had plainly thought of this on her own, undoubtably whichever individual had been given it had put the SEAL into action by now and so she'd look unoriginal by going out and accquiring one. She needed some extra level of scheme to make it worthwhile, seeing the SEAL system also would only stop her and anything she was carrying being destroyed.

The level suggested itself.

Arhra suddenly burst in on her three companions, looking very driven.

"Kayessa! You wouldn't have happened to have recharged your superweapon since I asked back at the arena?"

"Uh, I've synthesised a new round. Its only one shot though."

"That will suffice."

"Get the other two thirds of the Chaos trinity out of storage would you?" Arhra asked Yuri, the self appointed housekeeper of the bunch. "I didn't want to remind everyone of certain unfortunate events** any more than I already have, but it seems drastic action*** must be taken."

"I'm off to see the Kneumatic Pnight."

Meanwhile, Arhra One had gone off and run into Fenris. "Soooo..." she said. "You're looking awfully grimly determined."

* For the uninitiated, Arhra manipulated the NPFers into destroying the one thing stopping her from becoming an omnipotent god of death.
** That whole omnipotent god of death business.
*** Not muffin bombardment, however tasty it might be.

[Nikose Tyris]

Cables snaked down the megazord, and enveloped Nikose/Power supply- then pushed through him, attaching various cables and mechanisms to him. Nenyel turned to liquid silver and pulsed into droplets, flowing up into the Megazord, and a silver face appeared in the corner of the view screens. "Weak points being marked and Identified." Chimed a sweet, musical voice, reminiscent of Half Life/Portal Gun Turrets. "We won't be destroyed- the damage is beginning to regenerate. Nikose is a part of the machine, and the machine is a part of him. Nanotechnology based on Nikose's regeneration is already flowing to begin rebuilding the damage- the different parts will be ready soon." and lo, all the scuff marks and damage from Rei was indeed healing and restoring itself.

"Nikose would also like to make sure that you attack Rei's legs and destroy them. He's complaining about something to do with short skirts and giant robot chicks. I'm not angry." she finished before her face went silent.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

A rich, warm room suddenly lit—alight with a pure, white beam with it’s not stolen customary, descending, “whump.” The room was all round, organic curves and wine-colored woods. It had the shape of a nautilus after a fashion, with most of the room occupying a central circle; only a railed stairwell curled down, around the raised center. The upward-spiraling walls were split into irregular nooks: nooks filled with various curiosities and reachable by no visible means.

Off center in this room was a desk that seemed to pour from it’s curved-teardrop surface down smoothly into the floor, merging just where a soft, brown, and fur-like carpet began to fill the whole floor. The room was lit only with an orange light—walking the fine line between bright and dim—and emanating from not only a multicolored, faceted crystal that grew from the room’s apex, but an intricate, organic series of smaller crystals that grew from the walls; exactly three of these crystals—looking almost like tallish-thin quartz formations—grew from the desk.

This was the scene into which Arhra was dropped—facing the desk: high-backed chair behind it turned away.

“I’ve been expecting you,” KP said, swiveling his chair about in a suitably egotistical way.

“I know, you brought me here yourself.”

“Silence!” KP’s yell was ludicrously melodramatic. “You’re ruining the mystique.” Arhra cocked an eyebrow as KP grinned. “In any case, I know why you’ve come. I do, in fact, have my brief moments of lucidity.”

Around the room, things began to shift. Black, chitinous plates—rounded and covered with innumerable, imperceptible grooves—slid down from within many of the alcoves, while the crystals—large, small, and almost-random—began to glow with a brighter, prismatic luminance. By turn, the black plates began to shine and images—luminescent, ephemeral images, almost transparent like sheen on air—emerged, hovering over them. The images, moving now, formed an abridged account of the current situation, as it had and was unfolding.

“So... what, have you people been sitting around here playing blackjack or something?”

“Poker, mostly. Certainly, you must have known my intentions and desires towards the pantheon. Who am I to stand in the way of such a masterpiece unfolding before me? Ah, but now... now the critical point has passed, and the flow of things must be... nudged. Xanatos foresight aside, I believe it may be time to further insure my initial investment.”

“And you expect me to believe any of this?”

“I expect you to follow of self-interest, the rest is inconsequential.”

“And the speech?”

“I like speeches!” KP stood from his leathern chair, and hesitated a moment; then, he pressed a button on the black console that rested upon the desk, “Sparky, have the project for today prepared by the time I arrive. Now, whichever Arhra, come. My plans are too convoluted for one place.” The pair shortly made their way from down the stairs and into a long, spiraling corridor in the same wood and chitin style of the office. And after a longer, and significantly unnecessarily roundabout order, the duo entered an oddly oriented spherical room, with fibrous pathways connecting the walls to a central sphere on all sides. An arrangement of incomplete, concentric spheres emanated outward from the center, and all were made from a crystalline, transparent material that glowed dimly.

This unusual, three dimensional arrangement seemed to suit the beings filling this room perfectly. They were vaguely insectoid beings with four long-fingered arms and odd, bulging legs. Each had two sets of eyes, one set faced forward, and one set straddling their elongated heads. These beings climbed the walls with ease, and leapt quickly around the sphere. It was, however, no place for humanoids who had in the room, but a single concession: a hollowed out area in the very center of the floor, accessible by four sets of stairs. KP rushed down these stairs, to meet with the purplish, feathered saurian in the center of the room.

“Well?” KP asked, openly specific. Sparky smiled his fanged smile and held up an odd device. It was long, black, and pointed on one end, with blood-red, slightly glowing crystals set into it. Various silver lines seemed etched over its surface, reminiscent of circuitry. In this, it seemed electronic, but on four sides were oblong, yellow-brown nodes that looked more fleshy than anything.

“Excellent!” KP pronounced, snatching it up from Sparky’s three-fingered hand, and working it into a large, yellow and black device on a nearby table. “Anyway, as I was saying,” KP resumed without looking at Arhra, “Normally, I could hardly be expected to part with such a thing as the SEAL System for any small price. Normally, insomuch as it can be normal, it is a ship system, so developing a small, nonintegrated version was no easy task. But, despite the difficulties, I do, as I mentioned, have another. And I will give it to you. But, certain consolations must be made.”

“Consolations?”

“Well, an investor must invest prudently, or he isn’t an investor: he’s broke. To that end, and in light of the dangers vis a vis ‘past indiscretions’, assurances must be made. Assurances that, as it stands, you’re in no position to make yourself.”

“Then... what?”

“Hm?” KP turned to face Arhra. “Oh, what’s that over there?” He pointed. As Arhra turned to look, KP lifted a simple black and yellow nail gun from the desk, pressed it to the back of Arhra’s head, and fired.

[Arhra]

Arhra's eyes widened as the nailgun fired. "Oh," she said, "That was unpleasant. Please excuse me for a moment."

Very gingerly she walked out of the room and closed the door. There came muffled screaming. It seemed to go on for quite some time. KP and Sparky waited.

Arhra's lung capacity was truely phenomenal.

Arhra walked in, looking slightly disheveled. As she approached the middle, she suddenly veered to the left and headed out a different door.

This time, there were words in the yelling, and periodic thumps.

Arhra emerged again, looking very disheveled and rubbing the back of her head.

"You still haven't answered my question." she said tonelessly.

[POS Industries]

"Whozavuh....?"

Expecting to hit 100% pure megazord cockpit, Rei Overdrive was a tad surprised to find her hand suddenly stabbing herself in the back though some portal-related hijinks. This plan would have worked beautifully, of course, were it not for the fact that it was Rei's physical body and merely a supercharged forcefield that all resonated on the same frequency.

Rei's hand was simply absorbed into her back and reformed at the end of her arm instantaneously.

On the bright side, it was enough of a momentary distraction to allow the megazord to go into Majimmier mode and issue its very polite little introduction.

"Hiya, Majimmier!" Rei greeted the robot, happily waving her hand in the air, "I'm Rei! You seem nice, but I've kinda got a job to do and there's some little NPFer dudes in your belly I got to get out. So if you could just hold still for a sec, I think I can take of that, 'kay? 'Kay!"

Forming her hands back into, well, hands, Rei focused beams from each of her fingers into an intersecting point, where the energy began to build in a sphere in front of her. The orb grew in size briefly before exploding forth in massive energy wave in the direction of the NPF megazord.

"ZOMGWTFHAX DOOM CANNON!!!"

------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, Rei, mind if I wander around? See what all's around here?"

"Hahaha, no way in hell," Rei Zeus laughed as the trio made their way down the corridors of the Riyal, "Restricted area, improper clearance, blah blah blah.... You're military, you know the drill. Sorry, hun!"

"So what is the plan now?" Arhra Two asked as they entered the turbolift.

"Well, I thought--Main Bridge--I thought we'd go upstairs and check out the fight on the big screen. If NexGen followed my orders to the letter, we should have some nice hot buttery popcorn waiting for us. Also drinks! Sound good?"

As the lift came to a halt and the doors whooshed open, the three of them were treated to the very differently decorated Riyal bridge. Functionality was the order of the day, uniformed crewmen working on sleek metallic consoles lining the circular walls of the room, with only a fair amount of black paint to drive home the monochromatic style. Captain NexGen sat in his chair in the center, eyeing the viewscreen as it displayed the battle outside which drew closer at the ship's approach.

"NEXGEN!! WHERE MAH POPCORN, BITCH?!"

"Oh, good god, Rei!" NexGen exclaimed, grabbing his chest as if expecting a heart attack as he turned to face her, "What is the matter.... Popcorn's over there, help yo--You look taller. And your hair's different. Eyes, too. And, um... other things. Also there seems to be another of you out there. What's the deal?"

"Oh, you know, Sailor Moon parody, bunch of different versions of me spawned. Technically, I'm 'Rei Zeus'," she explained while handing out popcorn to her guests, "Oh, and I'm engaged to Arhra here!"

"Hawt," NexGen shrugged, a bright flash filling the room for a second as the viewscreen displayed Rei Overdrive's Doom Cannon attack, and he turned around to face the front, "Mister Chekhov, report!"

"We are within weapons range of the target, sir."

"Excellent. Mister Paris, adjust heading two degrees starboard, full thrusters. Lieutenant Worf, fire the Master Blasters!"

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The three bridge officers just featured are actually named Ben Jergenson, Frank McKean, and Melissa Ishikawa, respectively. NexGen, the only surviving member of Gaia Online and one of the forum's supermods, is an obsessive Star Trek geek, as his name suggests. As a result, his first order as a starship captain was to have his crew entirely renamed. Ms. Ishikawa, a.k.a. "Worf", has an upcoming interview at Barnes & Noble later this week and is hoping for the best.)

Outside the ship, a pair of weapons on either side of the vessel began energizing, firing off twin volleys of crackling blue energy that sizzled through space toward their target: Plushie Amalgam Newb.

------------------------------------------------------------

"You'll find that bright energies and devices against instant obliteration are a great asset to control when you step into a world of darkness...You didn't think it'd be so easy, did you? Oh, I thought the wings make a nice allusion to your statues over there, hope you like the bit of recognition. I'll have to thank KP again."

"Oh, fantastic. I just knew that stupid thing was going to bite me in the ass eventually. And yes, the wings were a very nice touch. I enjoyed it immensely," Nihilem sighed as he glared at the SEAL system in Mesden's possession, finally rising from his seat, "Well, on the bright side, I get to test out the rest of these super-keen god powers I got through my totally awesome and original plan that was quite obviously better than Arhra's because I didn't run around telling everybody about it several months before I even put it into action. But I digress...."

POS' normally hazel eyes began to glow a dark, blood-hued red as he took hold of the back the late High Creator's throne behind him, ripping it out of the floor with a quick jerk as he ran at Mesden, a psychotic grin crossing his face as he flailed the throne at her.

"MAH GAWD CHAIRSHOT!!"