[Nexus] Inside 53

[Rebonack]

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

There are plenty of trees to hide behind! Those nasty dead trees with blackened bark and leafless branches that look eerily similar to clutching claws. Despite all his sword drawing and running around pellmell the skeletens don't seem to be paying any attention to the crusader at all.

Just...

Wandering around.

Aimlessly.

Or digging!

Some of them are using the digging tools in their hands to make holes.

As for number? Well... The cemetary seems to stretch off without end in sight aside of course from where the iron fence has clanged shut behind him. Which is of course impossible in any rational world that follows any sense of order, but the Nexus certainly isn't one of those places.

After all.

What fun is there in making sense?

Anywho.

There are about a dozen or so skeletens on the little hill the crusader is standing on currently. No doubt more of them are lurking about elsewhere.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"Your laws are draconian and you lack the power necessary to enforce them. I expect your kingdom to fall within a fortnight."

Kirin will head toward the door, hopping over things where she needs to.

[Rebonack]

[Abrajin's Library]

The tiny people begin to attack!

If our heroes are wearing any clothing they won't be able to punch through it.

But that doesn't stop them from trying!

How amusingly futile.

Anywho!

Four doors, once again. One on magical kingdoms, one on whimsical kingdoms, one on fallen kingdoms, and one on kingdoms which do not yet exists.

...

How could you write a book about a kingdom that doesn't exist yet?

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

Well then, Xavier steers them toward Magical Kingdoms. It's at least semi related, so that's something. When the reach the door, Xavier politely holds the door open for Kirin and follows right behind her.

[Luka]

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

There are plenty of trees to hide behind! Those nasty dead trees with blackened bark and leafless branches that look eerily similar to clutching claws. Despite all his sword drawing and running around pellmell the skeletens don't seem to be paying any attention to the crusader at all.

Just...

Wandering around.

Aimlessly.

Or digging!

Some of them are using the digging tools in their hands to make holes.

As for number? Well... The cemetary seems to stretch off without end in sight aside of course from where the iron fence has clanged shut behind him. Which is of course impossible in any rational world that follows any sense of order, but the Nexus certainly isn't one of those places.

After all.

What fun is there in making sense?

Anywho.

There are about a dozen or so skeletens on the little hill the crusader is standing on currently. No doubt more of them are lurking about elsewhere.

He'd stay there for a while wondering why exactly are the skeletons so passive even when he's around.

He doesn't mind about it that much, he looks for the nearest skeleton, and when he sees it, he charges towards it shield-first, and if the skeleton doesn't move away he'd be tackled with a shield whose impact could probably be hard enough to turn the skeleton into a dropped lot of 1 skull and a lot of bones, mahnee optional.

[Lord Magtok]

EMBOH Air-Vault

Spoiler

Show

[EMBOH Air-Vault]

Evade ship, evade!

Magtok's rather late warning seems to fail on Libby as well. Although she seems to just vanish, rather than slamming into a wall.

After a moment, she reappears, snaring a hand around the arm of a flopping-around Ice Hero and floating rather determinedly away from any of the walls.
"No need for him to wake up brain damaged."


Glancing out the exit...
"Maggy dear, I'm not sure evasion is in the cards."
What an odd thing to say, as the electrified rocket flies right past them!

And then turns back around, a small figure sitting amidst the sparks around its shell cackling wildly.
"I'm comin' back for ya!"

"Maybe I can kill the propulsion..."
Libby quietly questions her non-participation, in the face of an insane no-longer-flightless pixie seeking its revenge.


Down before there's a small crowd of individuals watching, in front of the bank. Most of them are figures certainly capable of pursuing, judging by the presence of at least three pairs of wings.
"Think it'll work?"
"Hey, it's what the boss said to do. Just go with it."

"No need. I wasn't going to do this at first, since it feels a little bit like cheating, but-"

Magtok opens a telewarp portal in front of the wee pixie man, between that rocket and the same. The other end appears just in front of those gawking hero-types, aimed at the ground by their feet. Should his portal placement go as planned, certain superfolk will be getting a rather bitter taste of their own medicine. Let's just hope, for their sake, that the rocket is non-lethal.

Now ordinarily, as he was about to say, Maggy hates this sort of shenanigans. It feels flagrantly unfair, there's not much that can be done to stop it, and doesn't require any sort of thought or creativity to employ effectively. That said, while he does hate this sort of tactical maneuver, he hates people who apply Pokemon logic towards cyborgs even more. Being electrocuted to death, or having half of his body shut down on him without warning...that's just disturbed. Better to sacrifice a little misplaced honor and take a cheap way out than to die like a punk at the hands of some twisted sadist who doesn't know how to fight with dignity, right?

Besides, that pixie totally has it coming.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"So, since that first room each of these has been subsections. It might be that going deeper isn't really getting up any closer... well, it's worth a try." Kirin will follow, and enter the next room.

[Lycan 01]

[Riftline Adventure Ride]

Dawn pulls the bottle of soda she bought earlier out of her saddle bag. She pops the cap loose, takes a few quick gulps... and then promptly dumps in the bits of strange crystal and arcane thingamajigs into the bottle, filling it up to the top with strange debris and fizzing soda. She then screws the cap back on tightly, grins, and looks around to see if there are any Mindflayer dudes or other major threats left.

[Rebonack]

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

Maybe it's because skeletens are often times mindless and will only do whatever action they were instructed to do? Maybe these ones were just ordered to stand around or dig holes.

Then the crusader clobbered a skeleten, shattering it into a heap of broken bones and powder.

Poor thing just wanted to dig a hole in peace.

As soon as the skeleten goes down all the OTHER skeletens within sight turn on the crusader and charge him! Which translates to eleven skeletens hobbling toward him intent on clubbing him with digging tools or clawing at him with their finger bones.

[Abrajin's Library]

Fleeeeee!

Through the door they go!

And on the other side?

A place that looks very much like a Walt Disney wonderland. In fact, it looks suspiciously like the resort down in Florida. Which is often refereed to as 'The Magic Kingdom'.

Any books found on the ornate shelves here are about Walt Disney and all the stuff it owns.

[Riftline Rucks]

Geneva frowns slightly at her the ship. This place is so small. Where could they have possibly put everyone?

"Dawn?" the hippogriff calls out. "We need to find the hostages they took before we blow anything up."

Because blowing up the hostages by mistake would be bad.

Sunder gives her hooves a firm shake to dislodge the squidguts from them. "Alright. What have we got left?" she asks, leering about at the various slugmen still oozing around and doing slugman things. "Was that the last of 'em?"

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

Xavier goes to pull a book off the shelf and flip through it. This place seems very foreign to him, so best to pursue the knowledge through the books contained within. "Hrm, this isn't right at all I don't think." He decides as he looks at the book.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"I agree." Kirin looks at the books. Huh... this symbol with the one big circle with two little ones on top of it is really common. Wonder what it means... oh, well. She'll see if there's any more doors.

[McBish]

Market Street

"No, that makes perfect sense to me. Unless they're really exceptional you don't have to worry much about loyalty. Plenty will take the steady, legal job that pays more without half the risks. Back home it's common knowledge that the government has a similar routine for hackers."

Angie smiles glad he understands. When she smiles she shows her age, much younger the might initially look. She is a fairly skinny girl only in her mid 20's. She could pass for late 30's if she tried. And if she didn't smile. |"Exactly this way there is one less pick pocket on the street and I have a someone who knows how to spot a thief. Thank you though for helping me out and returning my pouch to me. Let me get you something from the market as a reward."

[Rebonack]

[Abrajin's Library]

"Cease and desist!" thunders a man in a fancy black business suit carrying a briefcase. A second identically dressed man who could easily be his twin is close behind. "You both are in violation of the Magical Kingdom's intellectual property rights."

Boy, these two are getting into all sorts of legal trouble aren't they?

"All faeries, pixies, and other forms of similar beings are the intellectual property of the Magical Kingdom," he continues, pointing at Xavier. "You'll need to come with us so you can be properly re-branded to fall within the official guidelines of all Magical Kingdom Fairyland characters."

Holy crap they sound serious.

"And YOU are clearly based on Mirage from Magical Kingdom's Aladdin franchise. You're free to go provided you agree to remove all feline-like features from your person."

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

"...Excuse me?" Xavier just stares at the... lawyers? He puts the book down and faces these bizarre men. "I'm afraid I won't agree with... Well, whatever it is you intend to do. I can assure you that you don't have any such ownership over my entire species."

[The Bushranger]

[Interrogations: Red]

"Attached enough that it can't be operated by anyone else," Red says pointedly, frowning at what he sees as being a sure attempt to confiscate it out from under him. "And if it wasn't abandoned, and there were squatters, it wouldn't have been wrecked. It's how things work." He sounds pretty sure of this.

===

[Ruler's Plaza]

"Shawna von Letters. I normally don't play the nudist, but I was not expecting to get fried," Shawna says with a chuckle, the multicolor-haired techno-paladin accepting the offered hand with a firm shake. "And I doubt that you were planning to be thrown into me, so there are no worries."

===

[Riftline Rucuks]

Lydia manages to backflip away from the slippery Flayer, however her sword is going along for the ride! Thankfully she used her usual sword instead of the Lightning Rapier, being a little shy of that after the last time she used it...

"How many more?" she snaps.

[Luka]

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

Maybe it's because skeletens are often times mindless and will only do whatever action they were instructed to do? Maybe these ones were just ordered to stand around or dig holes.

Then the crusader clobbered a skeleten, shattering it into a heap of broken bones and powder.

Poor thing just wanted to dig a hole in peace.

As soon as the skeleten goes down all the OTHER skeletens within sight turn on the crusader and charge him! Which translates to eleven skeletens hobbling toward him intent on clubbing him with digging tools or clawing at him with their finger bones.

Because obviously you cannot have peace in undeff! now the skeleton has more peaces after the crusader just plain ran into it.

And now that he sucessfully "aggro"'d every monster around himself, he gets the cool part, a fight.
"YES!! COME TO MEEE!! I'M GOING TO KICK YOU IN THE FACE!!" or what's left of them, but whatever, crusading's fun if you do it right.

He shouts as the skeletons start to try an approach on him, and if they get on his melee range, he would try to do a low spinning attack, or to be more exact, attack the skeletons' legs with his sword in a low, spinning, wide sword swipe.

[Darkcomet]

[Interrogation Room - Red]

"No. No it is not," replies the pointy-eared questioner. "But I'd expected something like that. You see, we're willing to let you pilot that machine again..."

A slight smirk crosses her face. "...on one condition. I imagine you won't even mind that much, considering your apparent fondness of destruction. The real question is simple: How do you feel about black and navy paint?"

[Ruler's Plaza]

A tiny, floating spherical drone approaches Shawna and activates a holoprojector.

The projected object is a message detailing a hefty fine for collateral damage, to be paid to the Altaran Irregular Liaison Office. Because clearly that exists. Got to deal with the vigilantes and other organizations somehow.

Shawna should probably get DC to pay for that with all his corporate money. WATCHTOWER connections can pay off sometimes. She should also probably be glad she didn't quit.

[Rebonack]

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

The force of the sweeping attack is enough to hew through the legs of the first two skeletens and knock the next one off balance. Unfortunately taking the legs off a average skeleten simply means it can't run around anymore. Instead it'll crawl. Aside from magic that abolishes their animating force or totally ruining most of their axial skeleton keeping undead down can be fiddly.

But these guys?

These are really lousy skeletens.

Even knocking that one over causes it to burst.

The victory is short lived, though. Mostly because two skeletens aim to punch into the crusader's spine with some picks while another three try to bash him with shovels. And the last three skeletens? Just claw at him. Rawr, clawing.

[Zefir]

[Atriol]

"...what?" Yuki gives Mia a genuinely confused look on his face. "Did I do something?"

Raising his hand into air, Akira opens up a large standing gateway that leads to what appears to be a tiny tropical island with a single house, surrounded by sparkling blue water. "I'm sure you two could talk it out later. Now, come. We can discuss things in my personal demiplane."

[Atriol]

Mia just leaves it with the angry expression, returning to look less annoyed he follows Akira.

{]And Now For Something Completely Different[}

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Ever seen a street fountain before?

The middle of the broad footpath is a garishly colored rubbery material that provides traction even when soaking wet and a soft landing in case someone trips. Little jets of water are installed below it and spout spurts high into the air irregularly, filling the hot summer sky with iridescent mist. And there at the nexus of the fountains is a large public pool with a truly majestic geyser dominating it.

Fountain Way is another recent arrival to the City. And it was only a matter of time before it was discovered by teeming children and businesses wishing to take advantage of the money of said children's parents. Push carts have set up out of the reach of the spraying water and splashing children selling all fashion of summer treats.

Kids of all races dance about in the water, laughing and making merry. Parents play with their children or lounge in the sun outside beyond the range of the joyful ruckus.

Come take a dip in the water! Run through the fountains! Buy a hot dog! Have some fun! Enjoy the pool party!

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Between the kids playing with the jets of water is another person. The person has a fox tail and fox ears which defnitly identify her as a Kitsune. The young woman is a bit out of place, since she seems to be a bit older than the average kid. Still she seems to have as much fun with the jet's of water as the kids do. Crawling on the ground Mika waits for the next jet to come up, trying to jump on it before it rais to high. She succeds sometimes, but sometimes the stream hit her directly in the face. After all she doesn't seem to mind it.

[The Bushranger]

[Interrogation Room - Red]

"You want to hire me, then?" Red asks, smirking a little - and then sighing. "What exactly do you want with a giant robot, anyway?"

[Darkcomet]

[Interrogation Room - Red]

The interrogator frowns. "The Nexus is a dangerous place, and the Lord-Commander believes we must rebuild and unite if we expect to survive. Things may have been calmer for some time, but there is every reason to believe that this will not last. The threats the predecessor to both this organization and Remnant faced were great even for it, and if such events occurred again, we would be ill-prepared to face them with our diminished strength. Remnant's leadership has demonstrated a disgusting unwillingness to do anything but accept and enforce the status quo, leaving it to us to make a real difference." Emotion creeps into her voice, as those spouting about their causes always get like that.

"Defending this city and the Nexus as a whole is a war, Mr. Russel, even if some won't call it that. Some would say that this war can never be truly won, but we disagree. We believe it can, and to do it, we need everyone and everything we can get. The only question is if you're willing to fight that war instead of waiting for it to come to you. You won't have your machine in the latter scenario, as if you refuse, we'll have to confiscate it. We don't bend rules unless there's something to gain from it, after all."

[Deathkeeper]

Angie smiles glad he understands. When she smiles she shows her age, much younger the might initially look. She is a fairly skinny girl only in her mid 20's. She could pass for late 30's if she tried. And if she didn't smile. |"Exactly this way there is one less pick pocket on the street and I have a someone who knows how to spot a thief. Thank you though for helping me out and returning my pouch to me. Let me get you something from the market as a reward."

Market Street

"Uh, okay. I could go for something to eat I suppose." he says, trying to think of something inexpensive he can still use.
Mist is 18 by the way and he looks and sounds like it.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"And I I have never heard of anyone named Mirage, nor Aladdin. In addition, historical court decisions have stated that you cannot claim intellectual rights over any naturally-occurring phenomena, such as fairies, sapient species, genetics, real plants, innate magic, psionics, or climates." Kirin is serious here. She sounds like she knows what she's talking about. "If you claim ownership over all fairies and felinals, in addition, you are in violation of multiple slavery laws."

[KerfuffleMach2]

Ruler's Plaza

When Shawna grasps Krystals hand, she may feel quite a few old scars on her knuckles. Odd for somebody with a healing factor to have scars.

Krystal chuckles a little. Yeah, I don't think too many people actually plan on getting punted by a robot.

Most of the damage seems to be gone now. Krystal will move the previously broken arm a bit, testing it out. Seems to be good to go. Krystal stands up and stretches her arms out a bit. There we go. Much better.

She starts removing her jeans and red tank top. So, you got someplace to go to get more clothes? As Krystal is wearing a blue sports bra and black boyshorts, she should be covered enough to not get in trouble. Once removed, she'll hand the shirt and pants to Shawna. They should fit.

[Rebonack]

[Abrajin's Library]

"You're going to contest the copyright claims of the Magical Kingdom?" the lawyer asks, a hint of scorn creeping into his voice. "And I'll have you know that all of the objections you've raised thus far do not apply to fictional characters. Only to real entities. And since it is impossible to conclusively prove that anything is real everything is assumed to be fictional, yourselves included."

Uuuh...

What?

The second lawyer steps forward. "If you want to contest the copyright claim of the Magical Kingdom you'll have to prove that you both fall within the guidelines of Fair Use and you will be assumed guilty of Intellectual Property infringement until you can prove otherwise in court. You'll have to pay for this absurdly expensive litigation out of your own pocket, of course. Your best choice is to just submit to the terms of the Cease and Desist order."

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

The fox' activities are pretty similar to what most of the kids are doing. Though some of them have the good sense to jump on the water jets with their feet rather than their face. Others? Totally getting water up the nose too. The laughter is rather contagious.

A little human girl who's currently soaked in her street clothes is watching the fox whilst clutching a plushy sea horse. She seems to be curious, though not quite adventurous enough to approach.

Nearby a lifeguard in a white shirt and red shorts is totally watching the kids in the pool as opposed to ogling females in bikinis sunning themselves.

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

"Or we could just run away." Xavier says and gestures at the pair. Or at least the air in front of them. Suddenly the air in front of thier eyes shinys like the lights in the room. While they're hopefully distracted, Xavier tries to grab Kirin's hand and run toward another door.

[GrandDM]

[HLabs]
In a small, run-down building in one of Inside's less pleasant districts (but not the really nasty ones) is a large metal door in the ground. The only way to open this door is to be allowed by the owner. Below this door is a lift. Below this lift...

HLabs. A sprawling underground complex of shining steel and science. In a great hovering glass sphere, in the very centre of the web, sits Doctor Harald, master of HLabs.

He is currently talking over a secure video link, discussing an order for a micro-battlesuit.

[McBish]

Market Street

"Uh, okay. I could go for something to eat I suppose." he says, trying to think of something inexpensive he can still use.
Mist is 18 by the way and he looks and sounds like it.

"It is the least I could do." Angie says looking around the market. "I had some fruit from a stand over there. Otherwise if you see anything you want we can get that. So Mist are you a Kitsune?" She asks curiously looking at his tail, also if ears if they are showing and foxy.

[Lost_Deep]

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

Copi and Waldorf, on their way to somewhere interesting, walk past the fountains. Copi, deeming this place interesting enough to be the first destination, stops. "My... I haven't seen one of those since I went on a vacation to a museum, a couple years a realital slip and a lot of madness ago. I suppose it is the season for it." She smiles slightly. Good memories, it seems.

Abrajin's Library

"According to the theory of infinite alternate realities, everything is real somewhere!" Kirin shouts over her shoulder as the pair rushes toward parts unknown. If they're going to be ridiculous, she can, too!

[Deathkeeper]

Market Street

"Fruit sounds fine. And I don't really know what you'd call me. I started out human, so I didn't exactly have a family to help me classify."
He looks like the avatar I hopefully just switched to.

HLabs

"Well, I wouldn't call it a battle suit, per se, says the insect with the poor-quality webcam on the other end of the call, wringing his chitinous hands, "I really just want it to replace the human body I used to have. If you want to make it bullet-proof it's alright but I don't know if I can pay for that kind of options."