[Nexus] Inside 31

[Reinholdt]

[Arkham Street, Kirkbride Sanitarium]

Every ounce of common sense Reinholdt has says that it's too late and that he needs to flee and get help to deal with such a monster. He blinks in terror at the sight of Vygor and Tabitha, breath coming rapidly. But their impact is lessened from the immediate danger of Cal killing or rekilling or zombifying or whatever the hell he's going to do to Coralie.

Unfortunately common sense has always been kind of small and insignificant for him.

Reinholdt bursts in with a lout kitty spitting hiss shout and fires several times at Calublufiok as he shifts himself as quickly as he can into his human form.

[UncleWolf]

Inside-General

Beneath the IA and ISF HQs, a deep rumble begins as malfunctions in a pair of previously untested generators begin to occur. The ground beneath the bases begins to sink until there's a sudden bright light, enveloping both.

The twin explosions can be seen from any point Inside. When they subside, a great deal of the bases simply vanish, as well as many of the people in each. Even the majestic airships weren't safe, gone in the blink of an eye.


ISF HQ

Vasqeuz, in the ISF Comm Center, feels her heart tighten when it ends, seeing the sudden destruction. "They...they simply...v-v-vanished." She stammers, everyone else in the room looking at their maps and her in shock.

She takes a moment, listening to the new wave of incoming comm chatter as soldiers and other officials demanding to know what happened and who was in charge. Vasquez snaps out of her daze and looks at the others in the room. "Who's alive that's in charge?!?" She demands. Several of the others begin going through the active comm links, figuring out who was alive, and who wasn't.

A small, thin man, pale in shock, gives a swallow and looks up at her. "Y-You are, sir. No one else appears to be left."

Vasquez winces and grits her teeth. "Open up all channels, complete command override. Everyone needs to be informed, but we need to handle the situations we have now. Recall all units except those in permanent stations, and at the gate. Teleport them if you have to." She tells the room. "Reroute all surviving artillery and heavy weapons to fire on Jyarl's location. I want there to be nothing but glass by the time we're through." The man nods and does as ordered.

Yellow Zone

Viper Leader begins to raise his gun when the new orders come in. He slings his weapon and pulls out a dart pistol. He'll fire at the alien commander. If he's hit, he'll feel nannites going into him, analyzing his structure and repairing what damage they can. "You have 24 hours to deal with the infestation. Stay any longer without our permission, and you will be dealt with." He says before a bright flash of light occurs as he's teleported out, with the rest of the walkers.

Gate

All but ten of the prisoners are cut down, but still they fight on, refusing to believe that they're mortally wounded, crawling on their mangled limbs to try and reach the aliens, using pistols and jagged pieces of the gate and wall to try and kill them, ignoring all thoughts of defense.

Jyarl twists out of the way of the main beam, and even though his armor blisters from the intense heat, and his vision begins to fade from the radiation working through him, destroying his sight, all he does is thumb a button on his pistol and throw it into the air. It vanishes in a flash of light. After all, he wasn't going to allow his most prized possession be destroyed by the rain of fire that was about to occur.

As his last act, he drops his glove before diving at one of the tanks, using his own body and his armor's power core as an explosive charge.

The location device embedded in the glove beeps quietly under the noise.

[happyturtle]

Masks Temple

Xifra comes out of her private room, partially marked up with runes along her arms, and looks for Juan.

Dalachrech Temple

Lauretta goes to see Terrowin in his office.

[UncleWolf]

Hartwater Inn

Milos watches as Crissy bandages the hand. "Who is the Caller?" He asks, worried that they may have just gotten involved in something bad.

Masks-Underground

She'll find Juan in the "ceremony" chamber, sitting on a chair with Jillian's head resting on his knee as she clings to him, sleeping. He gives a slight smile as she enters.

[happyturtle]

Hartwater Inn

"I hear him, calling to be let out, but no one else does." She looks at Crissy. "Except thyself."

Masks - Underground

Xifra leans down to kiss him, and he'll probably feel the whispers of Cruelty as she does. "I missed you."

[UncleWolf]

Masks

Juan kisses her back before raising an eyebrow. "And if I may ask, what is that?" It's unclear what he means, but he figures she knows.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Office

If Lauretta knocks, Rebecka will open the door and let her in before leaving herself. Terrowin's not wearing his armour, for once; instead he's wearing padded under-armour, and he's sitting on one of the chairs next to the desk. "Hello Lauretta. Congratulations on your ascension to Initiate. Many weren't as well self-composed as you were, so well done on that too."

[happyturtle]

Masks Underground

"I was attacked. I might be again, so I decided to make some defensive runes." She traces a finger along one of the lines on the other arm. "I used the blood of the man I killed in the ink."

Dalachrech Temple

"Thank you, High Reverend, but it was Dalachrech who gave me the strength." That and her own experience the few times she was punished as a slave. Usually because the Mistress of the house was jealous of her and invented faults rather than because Nell/"Lauretta" misbehaved.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Office

"Dalachrech helps all those who serve Him faithfully in the ritual. Yet Gertrude had more difficulty in controlling her uncomfort than Elezibethele." So, the former drow slave coped better than the minor nobility.

[UncleWolf]

Masks-Underground

Juan nods. "And the whispers I hear?"

[happyturtle]

Temple of Dalachrech - Terrowin's Office

Lauretta lowers her eyes. "Reverend de la Moy - she is with Dalachrech now. But do you think she would wish to return?"

Masks Underground

"Cruelty," Xifra says, then, with a shiver. "They must not come together."

[Maxios]

The Courier is stumbling around the Red Zone, a saddened look on his face

[UncleWolf]

Masks-Underground

"And what would that be?" He asks, curious.

[happyturtle]

Masks - Underground

Xifra shakes her head, as if trying to clear it. "It's - an artifact, of some sort. It's bound to this." She takes out the coin, Trade, and lets Juan see it, but if he tries to take it from her, she'll resist. "There are more of them. Many more."

[Lord Magtok]

[Affidavit's Hangar]

Affidavit attempts to teleport the thing to a suitably harmless location...specifically, somewhere else in Inside, far away from the hangar.

Magtok frowns when the bomb doesn't land in his other hand like he'd expected, and looks down at it with an irritated frown, before returning his gaze to one of the intercom systems Affidavit's voice has been coming from.

...Affy, where did you put my bomb?

[UncleWolf]

Masks-Underground

Juan almost comments on how artifacts were dangerous, but decides that maybe she needs to learn that by herself. "You were looking for me I believe?"

[happyturtle]

Masks Underground

"Will you help me apply runes where I can't reach?" she asks. "I'll make it worth your while."

[UncleWolf]

Masks Underground

Juan smiles. "I know you will." He leans down and kisses Jillian's forehead before setting the tattooed woman down on the cushions to allow himself to get up.

[Mina Kobold]

[Arkham Street, Kirkbride Sanitarium]

The bullets hit the skeleton, sickening cracks echoing through the large room, but his chanting only growing stronger as his skull turn to an unnatural angle to stare judgementally at Reinholdt as the later changes to a human form.

Following his glare, the twisted imitations of Reinholdt's friends and families turn to face him as well as they begin dragging their undead bodies toward the sniper cat, their eyes hsowing none of the emotion they once possessed.

Not even Rabbit seemed to even recognice him.

[TechnoScrabble]

Inside-General

Beneath the IA and ISF HQs, a deep rumble begins as malfunctions in a pair of previously untested generators begin to occur. The ground beneath the bases begins to sink until there's a sudden bright light, enveloping both.

The twin explosions can be seen from any point Inside. When they subside, a great deal of the bases simply vanish, as well as many of the people in each. Even the majestic airships weren't safe, gone in the blink of an eye.


ISF HQ

Vasqeuz, in the ISF Comm Center, feels her heart tighten when it ends, seeing the sudden destruction. "They...they simply...v-v-vanished." She stammers, everyone else in the room looking at their maps and her in shock.

She takes a moment, listening to the new wave of incoming comm chatter as soldiers and other officials demanding to know what happened and who was in charge. Vasquez snaps out of her daze and looks at the others in the room. "Who's alive that's in charge?!?" She demands. Several of the others begin going through the active comm links, figuring out who was alive, and who wasn't.

A small, thin man, pale in shock, gives a swallow and looks up at her. "Y-You are, sir. No one else appears to be left."

Vasquez winces and grits her teeth. "Open up all channels, complete command override. Everyone needs to be informed, but we need to handle the situations we have now. Recall all units except those in permanent stations, and at the gate. Teleport them if you have to." She tells the room. "Reroute all surviving artillery and heavy weapons to fire on Jyarl's location. I want there to be nothing but glass by the time we're through." The man nods and does as ordered.

Yellow Zone

Viper Leader begins to raise his gun when the new orders come in. He slings his weapon and pulls out a dart pistol. He'll fire at the alien commander. If he's hit, he'll feel nannites going into him, analyzing his structure and repairing what damage they can. "You have 24 hours to deal with the infestation. Stay any longer without our permission, and you will be dealt with." He says before a bright flash of light occurs as he's teleported out, with the rest of the walkers.

Gate

All but ten of the prisoners are cut down, but still they fight on, refusing to believe that they're mortally wounded, crawling on their mangled limbs to try and reach the aliens, using pistols and jagged pieces of the gate and wall to try and kill them, ignoring all thoughts of defense.

Jyarl twists out of the way of the main beam, and even though his armor blisters from the intense heat, and his vision begins to fade from the radiation working through him, destroying his sight, all he does is thumb a button on his pistol and throw it into the air. It vanishes in a flash of light. After all, he wasn't going to allow his most prized possession be destroyed by the rain of fire that was about to occur.

As his last act, he drops his glove before diving at one of the tanks, using his own body and his armor's power core as an explosive charge.

The location device embedded in the glove beeps quietly under the noise.

City Gate

The armored aliens aren't doing so well themselves, having a horrible reaction time and being slowed by the armor has taken a toll on them. The remaining squad and their commander charge at the penal troopers, weary and battered, their suits venting hot steam from the primitive radiation purifying systems. Four more fall to the onslaught of the penal troopers, and the commander himself as well as all but one of the remaining tanks are turned into heaps of slag and molten armor by the blast generated by Jyarl's suit.

Yellow Zone

The commander is indeed hit, but his system reacts a bit slower to the nanites than a normal human's body would, so his troops help him up. He smiles, and is about to thank the human leader when he disappears.
"Such hurry-some creatures," he coughs, "Now, let's be good guests and oblige the man, shall we?"
He sends the audio record of the command to his leaders, and gets only a simple message back, one that makes him and his 14 remaining soldiers to twinge.
The Superiors have arrived. Act fast.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Affidavit's Hangar]

"Oh, so it was a bomb? Aha! Excellent! Well, it seems I've rather managed to catch you off guard!" Yeah...it's a safe bet that Affidavit has an even bigger grin on his face now.

...wherever said face is.

"As for where the bomb is, well, just...somewhere out in Inside. I'm sure it'll be obvious enough where when it goes boom."

Pause for a moment to let Magtok ponder how much trouble he'll be in when it's his bomb that makes part of Inside go up in flames...

"So what next? A detonating hedgehog to go with your laser goose?"

*****

[Sewers]

Meanwhile, beneath Inside...

Affidavit had initially planned on waiting a little longer before scouting the sewers to determine their potential for his little plans.

So, poof, three of the new creations 'port into the sewers, near the outskirts of Inside, accompanied by the White Creation. Been a while since that creation last made an appearance, hasn't it?

[Lord Magtok]

Affidavit's Hangar

Magtok shrugs.

So just Inside, then. I imagine if it were anywhere important you'd tell me ahead of time, to gloat about it and such, so...let's do this thing.

Wait, what? Is that a detonator, Maggy? Why did you just pull out a deton-Oh crap.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, fivefourthreetwoone, KA-BOOM! Who's not a villain now, KNAZI? HA!

He presses the button, and the bomb, wherever it is, goes off. A bomb designed to take out an entire hangar, lost somewhere in Inside.

[UncleWolf]

Gate

The last of the troopers are cut down, and the smoke clears, showing nothing but absolute carnage. There's a sudden crack of ozone as an unstable portal opens up, covering most of the street leading through the gate. On the other side, is a massive array of artillery, tanks, and man-crewed heavy weapons.

They open fire and a massive blast of plasma, napalm, and armor piercing bullets rip through, towards the remaining aliens.

Sewers

A camera zooms in on the Creations, and a silent alarm goes out.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Affidavit's Hangar]

Affidavit takes a moment or two to confirm where the bomb went off before replying.

He hadn't really paid all that much attention to where it was teleported to. But he got the right area anyway.

"Congratulations, Magtok. You blew up a bunch of poor people in the red district. Truly, you are a villain without equal." My my, so much sarcasm. "Compared to your original target, my hangar, it seems rather pathetic to be honest. No attempt made to even recover it and put it to better use. Disgraceful."

*****

[Sewers]

Unaware that they are being tracked (for now, creations are very hard to hide from for long), the four creations spread out and slowly make their way through the sewer system, making marks on the walls as they go.

[Reinholdt]

[Arkham Street, Kirkbride Sanitarium]

The bullets hit the skeleton, sickening cracks echoing through the large room, but his chanting only growing stronger as his skull turn to an unnatural angle to stare judgmentally at Reinholdt as the later changes to a human form.

Following his glare, the twisted imitations of Reinholdt's friends and families turn to face him as well as they begin dragging their undead bodies toward the sniper cat, their eyes showing none of the emotion they once possessed.

Not even Rabbit seemed to even recognize him.

Reinholdt shudders a bit, but bites clenches his fist to give him some willpower. He doesn't have time to deal with emotions right now. Not yet. Not yet...

He turns pink and goes to fly over the minions he lured towards him and try to swoop down and scoop up the body at Calublufiok's feet, intent on taking the group by surprise and hightailing it out of there shortly thereafter.

[UncleWolf]

Sewers

The White Creation and one of the others will find themselves hitting a dead end before a massive steel blast door slams shut behind them. If they can sense such things, they'll find themselves Teleblocked.

After a few moments, the man hole cover above them will rattle...

The other two, won't run into any such traps. Instead, a Crap Golem drops down from above at one of them, trying to swallow the thing.

[TechnoScrabble]

Gate

The last of the troopers are cut down, and the smoke clears, showing nothing but absolute carnage. There's a sudden crack of ozone as an unstable portal opens up, covering most of the street leading through the gate. On the other side, is a massive array of artillery, tanks, and man-crewed heavy weapons.

They open fire and a massive blast of plasma, napalm, and armor piercing bullets rip through, towards the remaining aliens.

Sewers

A camera zooms in on the Creations, and a silent alarm goes out.

City Gate

The fire cuts through the armored aliens and the final tank, as well as the two squads of reinforcements that were coming in to make the push into the city. On top of the wall, the three remaining aliens report a partial success on the move into Inside, and allow themselves to be killed.

Red Zone-Overgrown Streets

A small force consisting of scarabs, fire beetles, and consumers is starting to form up for a push towards the other overgrown streets since the sewer incursion failed. Unknown to them, the seven remaining light volcanic golems are scouting them out from atop a nearby building.

Yellow Zone-Near docks

The green therapod aliens have found a heavily infested area, and are using stolen fire hoses to spray a strange, foamy pink liquid over the purple webbing, causing it to wither away. Several of the bug aliens attack, but the green aliens manage to hold them off.

Blue Zone

Seeing the swarm of locusts, springbugs, and fire beetles overhead, the blue therapod aliens leap into action, their guns firing strange some sort of invisible beam that makes the air crackle and fill with static. The beams are surrounded by toroids of blue-white plasma fire.

((Wolfy, you don't have to respond to all this, just throwing in some stuff for everyone else.))

[happyturtle]

MagMart

"Aww, that wasn't very nice," Sunny says, talking to a Magbot who she found limping, after being kicked by a bratty kid. "It will just take a minute for me to fix your knee though." She starts pulling tools out of her bag when the rumble of explosions echoes through the store.



"Carl, please be okay..." she whispers. Then she looks back at the Magbot. "Now, just sit down here."

[Artemis97]

[Red Zone - Broken Plaza]

It had been a beautiful open square, once. Now, weeds grew up from between the uneven and broken paving stones. The buildings that surround the plaza still held onto a few remnants of their once grand architecture, though much of it had been stolen, shattered, or scorched away. At the center of the plaza a dry fountain rose, its basin no longer able to hold water. At its top, the figure of a woman poured air from a cracked vessel, her stone face turned to watch the events unfolding below.

An elf, dressed in simple but well made clothes, was setting up some tables at one side of the square, aided by a pair of strong young men. The elf took a more supervisory role, directing things and gesturing with a hand clad in a black iron gauntlet.

Satisfied that his assitants had things under control, the elf crossed to the center of the plaza and climbed up onto the rim of the fountain. He turned to face the square and raised his arms, seeking the attention of the people who milled about the square.

"Ladies and gentlemen! If I may take but a moment of your time, I have an offer to benefit you all!"He declares, his voice magically amplified, so that it carried beyond the edges of the plaza.

[Lord Magtok]

Affidavit's Hangar

Magtok rolls his eyes.

You think everything's a disgrace, Affy. You're just a bottle of smug and superiority complex without rhyme or reason. At least I have a place in this world, a life, a...a life! Seriously Affidavit, have you ever thought about that before? You don't have anything to do besides tinker in a lab and menace people. You claim to have a motive, but we both know the truth. There was hardly a soul left to oppose you after I ditched Town that Christmas, the perfect opportunity to enact any sort of grand scheme, but instead you floundered about like a headless chicken with your girlfriend. The Empire is at its weakest right now, weaker than it ever will be again, and I know you're going to blow this opportunity too. All you've really accomplished, the only truly relevant legacy you've left or ever will leave behind is Liquid Agony, and that's just because some apocalyptic masochist far more important than you uses it as a sick sort of curtain toy.

Magtok pulls out a new goose, and tries to shoot up the loudspeakers, one by one.

You're a walking punchline Affy, just like me, but at least I have the grace to acknowledge and embrace it. Everything is about accomplishing things and efficiency with you, but even with my completely half-brained and reckless approach to things, I'm still gigameters ahead of you. It's why you don't dare reveal your fancy secret hideout and why we're wasting our time here.

MagMart

The robot takes a seat, and then proceeds to mumble and whine. Somewhere in there is a muttered something about magical superchildren and some harsh opinions about the parents too lazy to prepare spells every morning for disciplining them.

He'll be fine, Miss Sunny. M'lord says the Mortal Coil are "Like Crazy Gun Ninjas With Guns, Like Those Guys in That Movie, but Real".