AMEN XLVII: Who's the Leader, Again?

[Zefir]

Main Room

"First off I want AMEN to be respected."

Zefir says, having things in mind which won't fit the scarcrows abilities.

"From my point, you could be a part of such a film," Zefir points at the TV. "If your really made to kill a special person, what would happen after you did?"

[ThePhantom]

Main Room

"I see. As.....for your question.....I'd likely drop....dead. Limitation of......the magic. So, how.....would you make....respect for AMEN?"

That's a common thing for things given life to kill someone, they will usually go away after they succeed.

[Zefir]

Main Room

Zefir nods. The mein problem is, who is his target? It might be something to worry about later.

"Respect, as far as I see it, is something we need to earn. AMEN is know for be the bad guys so we can't get respect by saving people. It's just not AMEN like. So I guess wen need to do something bad, something that shows off we aren't a groupe of incompetent thugs. At best we need a big show. Something like crush the tower of the mountain base of Virgil, just a bit more in our range of actions." He stops for a moment to leave El Cuervo a moment to get things.
"But whatever wie want to go for, we need to have a hight chance to succeed. On step one we need to arm ourself. Beating random encounter in Trog's or go to the Hunting Grounds. Those things offer item's after beat the encounter or hunt down a prey. The main target will depend on how many people we got. "

[ThePhantom]

El Cuervo listens and there is a great deal of logic in what Zefir says. As it stands, it only about a elite mook, getting to mini-boss status would be much better.

"So, which...is faster way to....power? The sooner....is better, yes?"

[5a Violista]

Maria has arrived in this room, too. Still hovering over the ground. She just finished saying something about some crooked man and his crooked wife.

She looks at the paused movie. "So how is everyone?" she asks.

[ThePhantom]

El Cuervo turns its head to look at Maria., no expression in its almost lifeless yellow glowing eyes.

"We are....fine. Figuring out.....ways to get......more powerful."

[Zefir]

El Cuervo listens and there is a great deal of logic in what Zefir says. As it stands, it only about a elite mook, getting to mini-boss status would be much better.

"So, which...is faster way to....power? The sooner....is better, yes?"

[Main Room]

I'm not sure i got the las sentence. Did you mean he is only an elite mook and becoming a mini-Boss might be better for him?

"Not this time." Zefir replies. "If we act fast we might get noticed AND more important we migth make mistakes. We need to get the AMEN members together as well. And for your first question, neither is faster. As far as I know the random encounters are ... random. There migth be none for months or 10 at one day. The prey in the hunging ground on the other side is there all the time, but they are very strong. "

And there Zefir notice Maria.

"Ah at last another member. as he said, but the others who joined the helicopter aren't back jet. Take a seat." he offers pointing at an empty spot next to El Cuervo.

[Aric Kale]

Cloning Tanks

Here's an area that Zane wasn't really aware of...now...where's the control room?
Ah, there it is...
Darkstar has taken to old habits, and he's wearing a dark cloak while sticking to the shadows. He should be difficult if not impossible to spot.

Any henchmen guarding the room will be swiftly dispatched via burning fingers through the eyes and throat in an assassination hold.
Now, now you will be ended...the pyromancer mutters to himself.

He breaks into the room and quickly scans the controls. After looking around, he finds the shutdown lever for the cloning tanks. Now, this wouldn't be permanent, so more drastic measures would need to be taken...therein would lie the difficult part of his plan...

One Mechano Panther guards the entrance to the room...Zane used his knowledge gained from service under Enshadu to rewrite it's mainframe. Now it would serve him and destroy any who would oppose him...unfortunately, it couldn't use its insta-cement, so he replaced that with extra reserves of black fire...hopefully it would do the trick.

The lights dim and the tanks all power down, if Mr. E was watching the power levels down here, he would probably send someone to investigate.

This will be...fun. his eyes burn, the fire within kindling.

He leaps down the last bit of the stairway leading down to the ground and begins to charge his flames...
Next round, the tanks would burn.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E's room

Difficult to spot is not the same as impossible to spot, and the cameras are going to pick up that change in the lighting when Zane burnkills the henchmen. Mr E focuses his attention as Zane goes into the control room, and when he starts lowering the power levels, its clear to him what Zane is up to.

So, he slams two buttons on his console, one to trigger the emergency defenses for the tanks, which are large steel plates that act to cover the vats, with anti-magic runes engraved on the plates. Best way to hold off people until reinforcements get there that E thought of. The other button is to sound the alarm throughout the base.

Main Room

He thinks of himself as an elite mook yes. El Cuervo nods at Zefir.

"Your thinking......is sound. Group....is good idea."

And then the alarm goes off. El Cuervo leaps off the couch and draws its sword.

"What.....is going on?"

[Zefir]

Main Room

Zefir jumps up from his seat as the alarm goes off.

"Looks like we got some problems." he then says a bit wooried. How do they know he was going to let AMEN do something. "Go check for the Cloning Tanks El Quervo, last time they blew half of them up. Those two will lead you the way. I check the security room. If you need assistance, just tell those two they are able to contact someone for help."

With that he will go for the security room to check the reason of the alarm, unless E in some way informs him.

[Aric Kale]

Cloning Tanks

Anti-Magic runes have been the death of Zane before, literally.
Not with this version though...this Mutant Darkstar no longer had to summon flames from his magical core, he simply had to use his own blood. Risky, yes, but worth it,

Now, steel plates require some extra work, but the pyromancer had a job to do...first things first, Zane spreads fire across the room, manipulating the fire into tendrils and shapes like drills to burrow through the metal shields.
This would take some time, but Zane is also aiming for power outlets and wiring, anything to permanently destroy these tanks.

So, no tanks will be destroyed this round, but next round, at least a quarter of them should be damaged beyond repair...far less than Zane was hoping for.
As for Mr. E, he's got a mechano-panther to deal with when he arrives.

[5a Violista]

"Sounds fun," says Maria, upon hearing the alarms.

She also stands up, then she goes back to hovering.

Unlike Zefir going to the security room, Maria just goes straight to the cloning tanks room: she can feel the fire burning. It feels like love.

By 'straight' I don't mean she just hovers to there. While still hovering in place, cracks form all along her greyish skin. A dim red ember glows under these cracks, and her entire being—body, clothes, hair, and all—turns into ash. The ash then blows throughout the hallway as if there were a heavy breeze blowing it.

The ash arrives at the [Cloning Tanks] and reforms together, making Maria again. Just past the MechanoPanther. It'll probably notice her but she's in, so it won't be able to stop her in the hallway. "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, else Jack will burn on his candlestick," she says to announce her presence.


I don't particularly know how these anti-magic runes work, so I'm going to just have her not use magic until I figure it out.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E's Room

Mr E grabs a mic and hits the intercom. After all, Zane knows they are on to him.

"We have someone trying to destroy the cloning tanks. All of you not wanting that to happen, get down there, now!"

Mr E is going to sit tight in his room for now, its better for him to direct people from there.

Main Room

The intercom crackles and E's voice comes from it.

"We have someone trying to destroy the cloning tanks. All of you not wanting that to happen, get down there, now!"

El Cuervo nods, looks like that's where the problem is. He unfurls his wings and starts flying down the hallways to get to the cloning vault. In the meantime, the henchmen still alive in the base are heading for the cloning vault en mass. They are the ones who need those the most, but it will be five rounds before they can show up in enough numbers to be a real problem.

[Zefir]

Main Room

"Well.." Zefirs starts as Mr. E's voice comes through the intercom.
He looks up at the cameras.
"You know something about the enemy?" Zefir obviously ask the man behind the cameras as he heads for the cloning tanks as well. Might be good if people know what to look for.

[Aric Kale]

Cloning Room

Zane is about to destroy more cloning tanks, when Maria flies in.
The Witch...you're not afraid of fire, are you?

Of course not...I doubt you even fear anything...too mad in the oft-exploding head.
No matter, he throws a small fireball at her feet, rapidly expanding the flames to try and wrap around her after it hits the ground.

The Panther does nothing to her, being programmed to stop people from entering, and since Maria floated by as Ash, she didn't register on its sensors...

When El Cuervo arrives, it will be a different matter entirely, and the scarecrowish creature should expect black flames to spew forth upon him.

[ThePhantom]

Entrance to the Cloning Vault

And indeed, when El Cuervo reaches the entrance it quickly draw back from the incoming flames. El Cuervo has no desire to burn, what with so much of its body being flammable. Hopefully the backbeats of its wings will keep the flames off it as it tries to fire a bolt of dark magic at the reprogrammed mecha-panther.


Mister E's Room

Let's see now, what to use. That's already going, that one won't work, that needed to fixed. Hmm, might need to head there directly at this rate. Mr E thinks about his opinions as he focuses the intercom to the hallways.

Hallways

"Its another case of going traitor. Our user of blackflames has decided that he wants a different career and thinks that wrecking the cloning vaults will get him that. So, try not to worry to much about the flames and take him down. Otherwise unless you got some power with water or such I doubt that putting out the fires will work well."

[Zefir]

Hallways

Zefir nods. Darkstar was his name as far as he remembered. He didn't thought he would be a traitor. he liked to burn things to much he thought. Maybe they got him something he really wanted like Enshadu's spirit or anything like that.

"We need to care for the flames as well, I guess. Even if we knock him out, the fire will still burn. Taking it out while he sees it might cause him to lower his guard." Zefir says loud as if he thinks about those options.
Directed at the cameras he says: "Get the Henchman gaver buckets of water to the cloning labs. I will need the water there. Also try to contact the Moff. Last I saw them they got a milk gun. Maybe they could use it for water as well. Try to contact other members as well. I fear something like last time may come from outside."

"Oh and after that I like to talk to you, if you can spare the time."

[5a Violista]

Cloning Room

Zane is about to destroy more cloning tanks, when Maria flies in.
The Witch...you're not afraid of fire, are you?

Of course not...I doubt you even fear anything...too mad in the oft-exploding head.
No matter, he throws a small fireball at her feet, rapidly expanding the flames to try and wrap around her after it hits the ground.

[Cloning Room]

"Anyone who doesn't fear fire is mad," Maria says, letting the fireball begins engulfing her feet. The flames lick her feet and her gray dress, as she reaches into a pocket and grabs something in each hand, as she usually does.

She continues, saying, "for April is the cruelest month," In one hand are a couple of glass balls full of explosive permanganates and liquids, and in the other is her trusty rusty pair of scissors.

As usual, before throwing anything, she begins carving words on her arm: this time, "Shanti". Her eyes don't drop to her arm or at the flame now on the ground, but she stares unblinkingly at Zane. "bleeding violence out of the dead hand."

[Aric Kale]

Cloning Vault - Entrance

The flames very nearly reach the winged creature, but they will not reach him this round. Observing the charging magic, the Panther leaps forward with slashing claws, aiming to tear a chunk out of the scarecrow's torso. I'm not sure exactly what the affect of the magic is supposed to be, but we'll just say that it strikes the left forepaw and damages some of the claws...

Cloning Vault - Inside

Zane shakes his head at Maria's mad ramblings. Then why don't you burn? All things turn to ash in the end...let me be your end. He taunts, reaching into his pocket.
He slips three thick needles in between his knuckles, preparing to throw them, while his right hand charges up more black fire...he did not know what Maria would try, but he could assume that it would not be pleasant.

)(So, is the fire burning her, or not, I can't quite tell from your post.)(

[ThePhantom]

Cloning Vault - Entrance

All of the dark magic that El Cuervo can use in combat is just damaging blasts. Its just really his long range offense. But once the mechapanther gets close, it takes the hit to the torso, clothe and straw flying out. Why take the hit? So, that it can switch its sword out of its left arm and use it to try to cut the mechapanther to pieces, a sword that's very good at doing things like that.

Hallway/E's office

Already on that, doing the best I can will the limits I have.

[Zefir]

Hallways

Not sure if Mr. E will do as zefir asks he will go on, Arriving next post at the Panther VS Scarcrow scene.

[5a Violista]

[Cloning Vault - Inside]

((Well. It logically make sense for the fire to not burn her, but that would be nowhere near as fun.)) So, as the fire caresses and licks her it does, in fact, burn her.

"Yes, yes," she responds. I ran away from the pain, but now I see..." There has got to be some logic to what she says, because what would be the point in me writing it out if it's completely random?

Now with the word carved into her arm, she lets the hand with the blade hang down, and the blood to drip into the fire below.

The heat from the fire finishes warming up the chemicals in the glass balls to the optimum temperature for a reaction. Now, all they need is to be mixed together and added a little bit of oxygen. Because of this, Maria crushes the glass balls in her left hand but leaves the hand clamped as tight as she can.

She then leaps towards the firemaster, her left hand (with the mixing chemicals) outstretched towards him. About halfway towards him, her hand opens enough for air to rush in and react.

Obviously, they react explosively and violently. There's a large blast, pressure wave, and heat wave coming from it. It's probably pretty reasonable to assume she has some sort of resistance or immunity to it; otherwise, why would she do something so mad?

[Aric Kale]

Cloning Vault - Entrance

The panther loses the rest of its front left paw. Now on three limbs, the robotic cat leaps backwards awkwardly and breathes more fire at the scarecrow, trying to keep it from entering.
I'm honestly unsure if these things roar or growl or feel the need to make sound at all, but if they do, this one is most certainly making a racket!

Cloning Vault - Inside

Your flames mean noth-boom.
It's true, the chemical flames in Maria's magic bomb do little to the pyromancer, but the concussion and force behind them send him flying backwards.

Zane rolls over and gets on one knee flinging his needles of fire at the witch, they might buy him some time. He's breathing heavy, that attack probably bruised several of his ribs.

At this point, the flames used to destroy the first quarter of cloning tanks will have spread, the heat soon becoming unbearable.
The tanks may have titanium shielding on them, but do their wires? How about the rest of the room? Anything that is flammable is in danger, and standard water sprinkler systems aren't going to do much against this onslaught.

[ThePhantom]

Cloning Vault - Entrance

I'm guessing that it can make noise. El Cuervo flies away from the flames again, too much of him is flammable. But the first bunch of henchmen have arrived, a group of five, three of them with extinguishers. The two who aren't carrying that open fire with rifles on the mechapanther, trying to disable it.

Cloning Vault

More and more of the room is on fire, but the tanks' shield was designed in case of a bunch of lava getting in here. A sensible act when you live in a volcano. Oh, the wiring is starting to heat up to dangerous levels, but the systems should be able to within this as long as things don't get too much hotter, which they will if something isn't done soon. And while the sprinklers aren't quite enough to stop the flames, they can buy some time, so now they start going off, attempting to reduce the flames.

[Zefir]

Cloning Vault - Entrance

And here Zefir passes a corner rigth at the moment the panther shoots his fire. He jumps back, even thought he is behind El Cuervo.

"The hell! How did he manage to get a panther." Zefir says. He starts searching in his bag for a propper weapon, but right now nothign in his bag suits the sittuation. At elast not with so amyn others around. He will need to leave things to the henchman and El Cuervo.

[5a Violista]

[Cloning Vault - Inside]

Maria emerged unscathed from her point-blank explosion; as soon as visibility returned, she starts to go towards Zane again. Her scissors are clearly visible in her hand.

However, unfortunately, the needles of fire hit her and go straight through her. Small and obviously burnt holes go through her. (Obviously, there's no blood.) As Zane hoped, it makes her stagger and slow, which will give him some time. Even staggered, she replies to him, "Nothing - not even gold - can stay." Probably for some reason.

[Aric Kale]

Cloning Vault - Entrance

The henchmen's guns do little to harm the titanium armored panther, aside from denting its body a bit. The panther was designed with offense in mind, despite its well defended chassis. As such, the metal cat growls and lunges for El Cuervo and the guards, it's remaining paw slashing viciously, and the fearblaze flooding out.

The affect of the fire is just as lethal as always, so the henchmen with those fire extinguishers better be careful.

Cloning Vault - Inside

Your words mean nothing! Unless they're a ritual.
That would mean something.

The darts seem to be more effective than fireballs, so Zane quickly forms and throws three more at her chest and throat area. Once that's complete, he'll run back amongst the already burning tanks...

The flames do well to conceal him, and he will be further strengthening them, spread the fire even more.
At this point, 3/5s of the cloning tanks are damaged beyond repair...

[ThirdEmperor]

[Cloning Vaults - Entrance]

"Make vay!"

Striding down the hallway is Adel, arrayed in black silk finery and crocodile-skin boots clicking on the floor, a curved blade belted to his side. His handservants skulk at his sides, one of them carrying a fire extinguisher and the other lugging an old rocket launcher. That latter would be the reason the minions will very much want to run for cover, as the butler barely gives them to the count of three before hefting it over his shoulder, flipping the safety and letting fly.

A sudden fwoosh of flame peels the paint off the walls behind them, and a tiny metal tube full of explosive potential leaves a comet trail behind as it streaks towards the mechanopanther.

[ThePhantom]

Cloning Vault-Entrance

El Curveo continues to keep its distance from the flame, but a bit of its wing catches fire, so now its focus on one thing, putting the fire out! More henchmen following after the leader of AMEN, armed with more rifles and various devices for extinguishing fires.


Mr E's Room

E watches the situation. This is not good, at this rate too much of the tanks will be destroyed. There need to be a way to stop the amount of fire from increasing. Wait, there is! The power is low there, which means the anti-teleport field is gone. Well, it does have limitations for safety, but getting Zane out so that the tanks can be saved is more important. Mr E gets up and starts running for the teleportation room.

(Just a little something so that we don't have issues with Zane being somewhere after this showdown.)

[Zefir]

Cloning Vault-Entrance

A rocket launcher, well typical Evil stuff Zefir guess. He would have tried to prevent such weapons, but Adel seems to not mind. Either way Zefir can care for other things now, for example the fire on El Curvo. Zefir knows that the black fire is a bit different from normal fire, but after all it's fire right? From his position he concentrated on the fire, using his elemental controll to just make it put out himself. Since the fire is small that should work.