The Inheritance Wars (Team Light)

[atomictaco]

He gives a shrug with his shoulders before answering. "Since you're about to die anyway, I may as well answer politely." He clears his throat. "You see, The Lord wants you dead. There's not much beyond that, I'm afraid. He did tell me that he regretted having to send an assassin against you before attempting to win you over, so there's that. But he just doesn't trust Archibald with your powers. Oh well."

"If by some miracle you survive this encounter, Archibald will know what "My Lord" means."

"Ahem. Take that!" He suddenly lunges at Erica with a sword that he pulls out his cane.

Kirov reacted, shifting his mass into a spike covered Whipfist, using them to try and attack from range and draw blood, giving him a vector to infect the assain with a bloodborn paralytic virus.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Erica steps back as Kirov intervenes. Red stains begin to form around two neat slits in her clothing, one along her raised left forearm and another just above the navel. She takes several stuttered, hissing breaths and sneers in an attempt not to cry.

"There are... a lot of, 'lords,' out there," she says, vaguely hoping that staying focused on her strengths will somehow keep her from passing out. "At least three, by my count... could you be... more specific...?"

The thing in her shadow from before starts stirring again, not sure whether it should start fighting or not. Lord Marc suggested that it was okay earlier, but it would not do to attack a fellow servant if that's what this guy is.

[Arayl]

Charlotte knowing that most of her powers were more suited for long range rather than indoor combat decided to fall back on the trusted Build Driver, inserting a purple bottle and a yellow bottle. Once again the framework that had formed last time appeared, this time there was a yellow and purple form attached to it. Once she was clad in the armor she could be seen holding what looked like a yellow and purple sword with what looked like a fountain pen nib at the tip of it, as she got into a combat stance the belt shouted out "Ninjya! Comic! Best Match! Are you ready? Shinobi no Entertainer! NinninComic! Yeahhh!"

Pressing the trigger on the blade in her right hand once and then again second later it announced, "Bunshin no Jutsu" as multiple smoke clouds appear around the room and disappear revealing multiple Charlotte's who strike at their opponent with the blades in their hands.

[totadileplayz]

Shamus does like he did in the mage fight, turn invisible, and intangible play some music. and simply set back, and wait to determine if the assassin could notice him. As he played the music from multiple areas, he prepares to release blasts to attack the assassin, as he felt confident his allies could deal with the attacks being thrown their way.

[DarthArminius]

Kirov reacted, shifting his mass into a spike covered Whipfist, using them to try and attack from range and draw blood, giving him a vector to infect the assain with a bloodborn paralytic virus.

The assassin was strangely enough, not affected by the paralytic virus. However, it's a whip fist, not a whip cotton swab. The attack managed to daze him just a little in time for the next attacks.

Erica steps back as Kirov intervenes. Red stains begin to form around two neat slits in her clothing, one along her raised left forearm and another just above the navel. She takes several stuttered, hissing breaths and sneers in an attempt not to cry.

"There are... a lot of, 'lords,' out there," she says, vaguely hoping that staying focused on her strengths will somehow keep her from passing out. "At least three, by my count... could you be... more specific...?"

The thing in her shadow from before starts stirring again, not sure whether it should start fighting or not. Lord Marc suggested that it was okay earlier, but it would not do to attack a fellow servant if that's what this guy is.

Charlotte knowing that most of her powers were more suited for long range rather than indoor combat decided to fall back on the trusted Build Driver, inserting a purple bottle and a yellow bottle. Once again the framework that had formed last time appeared, this time there was a yellow and purple form attached to it. Once she was clad in the armor she could be seen holding what looked like a yellow and purple sword with what looked like a fountain pen nib at the tip of it, as she got into a combat stance the belt shouted out "Ninjya! Comic! Best Match! Are you ready? Shinobi no Entertainer! NinninComic! Yeahhh!"

Pressing the trigger on the blade in her right hand once and then again second later it announced, "Bunshin no Jutsu" as multiple smoke clouds appear around the room and disappear revealing multiple Charlotte's who strike at their opponent with the blades in their hands.

Shamus does like he did in the mage fight, turn invisible, and intangible play some music. and simply set back, and wait to determine if the assassin could notice him. As he played the music from multiple areas, he prepares to release blasts to attack the assassin, as he felt confident his allies could deal with the attacks being thrown their way.

He finds himself covered in minor cuts all over his body , when suddenly the demi god like man was assaulted by an array of solar blasts from Shamus. It looked like the team was winning, when suddenly, all the damage and solar blast's wounds on Howard's body healed, instantly. Drawing his sword once again, he attempts to go after Shamus, who seemed to be the worst threat to him. With this sword capable of slicing through vibranium, and his strength like that of scores of men, he was sure that he could cut clean through the man with little to no effort.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

The dazzling flashes of smoke bombs and laser beams fill the air, quickly turning the disused basement room into a very crowded place. It seems that no one is in the mood to talk anymore, which is just as well. One wouldn't be able to hear over multiple Charlottes' jutsu declarations or the looping rap Shamus' stuff is blaring.

Erica slowly backs away from the din as blood continues to soak her sweater. However tough Howard's body may be, we seem to have him surrounded and he's swinging his weapon at invisible ghosts.

She turns her attention to the artifact: the so-called Sword of Heaven. Huang saw it in here, yet the villain elected to use his own cane rather than try to pick it up. Is it locked in a glass case? Sealed by a glowing enchantment? Stuck in a rock for the king of England?

[DarthArminius]

The dazzling flashes of smoke bombs and laser beams fill the air, quickly turning the disused basement room into a very crowded place. It seems that no one is in the mood to talk anymore, which is just as well. One wouldn't be able to hear over multiple Charlottes' jutsu declarations or the looping rap Shamus' stuff is blaring.

Erica slowly backs away from the din as blood continues to soak her sweater. However tough Howard's body may be, we seem to have him surrounded and he's swinging his weapon at invisible ghosts.

She turns her attention to the artifact: the so-called Sword of Heaven. Huang saw it in here, yet the villain elected to use his own cane rather than try to pick it up. Is it locked in a glass case? Sealed by a glowing enchantment? Stuck in a rock for the king of England?

((The Sword of Heaven is under a glass case, shining a brilliant opaque white glow around it'self.)) Huang looks to Erica. "Only I can touch the sword, unless I die. It's holy."

[atomictaco]

The assassin was strangely enough, not affected by the paralytic virus. However, it's a whip fist, not a whip cotton swab. The attack managed to daze him just a little in time for the next attacks.








He finds himself covered in minor cuts all over his body , when suddenly the demi god like man was assaulted by an array of solar blasts from Shamus. It looked like the team was winning, when suddenly, all the damage and solar blast's wounds on Howard's body healed, instantly. Drawing his sword once again, he attempts to go after Shamus, who seemed to be the worst threat to him. With this sword capable of slicing through vibranium, and his strength like that of scores of men, he was sure that he could cut clean through the man with little to no effort.

Only to find several blasts of webbing shot at him, hidden amungst a spray of danmaku blasts, cortasy of Kirov. "Do not think we will fall so easily."

[DarthArminius]

Only to find several blasts of webbing shot at him, hidden amungst a spray of danmaku blasts, cortasy of Kirov. "Do not think we will fall so easily."

Howard is blasted repeatedly, unluckily tripping over a ceremonial bowl before recovering his bearings. He smiles, thinking to himself that yes, this will be a challenging job.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

So what the heck happens when you die, then?

Erica doesn't ask that question of Huang right away. She'd rather hope that the answer doesn't come up. Instead, she pulls him aside with her non-bleeding arm. "Alright," she whispers, to the extent that one can successfully whisper over the clatter of swords and web shots and vaguely-religious paraphernalia. "Let's go get it while he's pinned down. I'll move the glass, you grab the sword."

[DarthArminius]

So what the heck happens when you die, then?

Erica doesn't ask that question of Huang right away. She'd rather hope that the answer doesn't come up. Instead, she pulls him aside with her non-bleeding arm. "Alright," she whispers, to the extent that one can successfully whisper over the clatter of swords and web shots and vaguely-religious paraphernalia. "Let's go get it while he's pinned down. I'll move the glass, you grab the sword."

Huang would nod, running over the sword in an instantaneous blink of the eye, opening the glass case and grabbing the sword, before the webbing wore off of Howard as he hacked away at what was holding him still.

[atomictaco]

Huang would nod, running over the sword in an instantaneous blink of the eye, opening the glass case and grabbing the sword, before the webbing wore off of Howard as he hacked away at what was holding him still.

Kirov responded with another round of whipfist attacks, usind the extended limbs to launch more blasts of webbing and danmaku, trying to attack Howard form multiple directions, intent on keeping him pinned down as long as possible.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

To Erica, the lights seem to go dim. She rubs her eyes, only to smear a blotch of red on her glasses. She's not sure whether Huang suddenly teleported to retrieve the sword or whether her brain is slowing down from blood loss. Either way, it's a good thing he didn't really need her to lift the case.

"Can you... take your students and... get to Archibald's base?" she asks Huang between unexpectedly difficult breaths.

[DarthArminius]

To Erica, the lights seem to go dim. She rubs her eyes, only to smear a blotch of red on her glasses. She's not sure whether Huang suddenly teleported to retrieve the sword or whether her brain is slowing down from blood loss. Either way, it's a good thing he didn't really need her to lift the case.

"Can you... take your students and... get to Archibald's base?" she asks Huang between unexpectedly difficult breaths.

"Alright. That sounds like an excellent idea. In the mean time, you need to get rid of that "Howard", Okay." He disappeared in a flash of magic, along with his students.

Howard suddenly snapped out of all of the webbing, managing to attack the PC closest to him at the moment with his sword cane. He was noticeably quite annoyed at what had just occurred. Before anyone could do any thing, he transformed from a man in old fashioned formal wear into a man armored from head to toe, with his sword cane transforming into a large bastard sword.

[totadileplayz]

Shamus decides to do something a bit more tame, he just continues his blasts, as he lets a couple of his nanites fly soundless, and intangibly to get inside and disable the man from the inside out. He figured it was worth a shot after all, the man was clearly more difficult on the outside than inside right?

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Erica nods, but soon the practical self-preserving part of her brain catches up with the part that just wanted to complete the mission. She reaches out and takes a couple steps toward the exit. "Wait, maybe I should-"

Alas, Huang's already gone. Given that Shamus is blasting from a distance and that most of the Charlottes in melee are clones, this accidentally places Erica as Cane Guy's next most interesting target.

A suit of armor bursts out of the web pile, slides between a pair of surrounding shadow clones, and gets up with a rising swing of its weapon. It's halfway between cane and sword when it connects, which is probably the sole reason Erica doesn't straight-up fall in half. Instead, the blade rattles her ribcage and nicks her collarbone as she's sent flying backwards into a shrine full of unlit votive candles.

The armored swordsman, who is probably not really named Howard, seamlessly turns the momentum of his attack to cut an incoming web ball as he turns to face the remaining fighters. Behind him, Erica lays on the floor in a heap of blood and candle pieces.

[DarthArminius]

Howard, seeing himself outmatched, widens his eyes, and suddenly disappears after another round of soaking damage from the protagonists, leaving behind polite words of praise before doing so.

"Very well done."

[Arayl]

"Looks like he's left, wonder if he got frustrated we wouldn't die like he wanted us to" Charlotte says as she disengages her armor and dismissing her clones as she does so. "Should we go check on Mr Huang and see how he's doing along with his students?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

A moment of tension passes. One could wonder whether Cane Guy is still here invisibly, or whether he left some sort of explosive parting gift, but no. Looks like he just got out while the getting was good.

"Uuunh..."

Erica half-opens her eyes and slowly uncurls from her uncomfortable position under the spilled contents of a broken shrine. Her clothes are pretty well slashed, revealing a tight black-and-white bustier underneath. Bloodstains spread across it in a grid pattern as though some threads are soaking it up more than others.

"...yeah. We should go, unless anyone knows how to chase him down. Can anyone teleport us back to..."

If no one else comes to help her up, she'll pull herself up using the broken shrine. Her slashed arm has a cuff on it in the same style as her bustier, and while we're on the subject her glasses have a blood-absorbing piece of lace attached to them now too. Still, we've not been questioning each others' weird new traits up to this point. Is anyone going to start now?

Erica tries to steady her breathing as she decides what to call Archibald's weird mansion-palace-portal-hub-thing. She still isn't sure whether she can trust that guy or not, either, but Huang went along with it easily enough and it's not like we have anywhere better to go.

"...back to base?"

[DarthArminius]

A moment of tension passes. One could wonder whether Cane Guy is still here invisibly, or whether he left some sort of explosive parting gift, but no. Looks like he just got out while the getting was good.

"Uuunh..."

Erica half-opens her eyes and slowly uncurls from her uncomfortable position under the spilled contents of a broken shrine. Her clothes are pretty well slashed, revealing a tight black-and-white bustier underneath. Bloodstains spread across it in a grid pattern as though some threads are soaking it up more than others.

"...yeah. We should go, unless anyone knows how to chase him down. Can anyone teleport us back to..."

If no one else comes to help her up, she'll pull herself up using the broken shrine. Her slashed arm has a cuff on it in the same style as her bustier, and while we're on the subject her glasses have a blood-absorbing piece of lace attached to them now too. Still, we've not been questioning each others' weird new traits up to this point. Is anyone going to start now?

Erica tries to steady her breathing as she decides what to call Archibald's weird mansion-palace-portal-hub-thing. She still isn't sure whether she can trust that guy or not, either, but Huang went along with it easily enough and it's not like we have anywhere better to go.

"...back to base?"

**Base**

Wei Huang turns towards the protagonists. "Thank you for protecting me and my students. I appreciate it."
Meanwhile, Archibald also nods. "Yes. I take it that the Sword Of Heaven is protected?" Wei Huang showed it to Archibald, before nodding. "Yes." Just then, Wei Huang looked towards Erica and put his hand on her shoulder, "How are you doing?'

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"That's... not an easy question," Erica replies. "I should be unconscious right now, but something I couldn't quite place told me it would be inappropriate to make someone carry me back. Which, now that I say it out loud, is an utterly nonsensical explanation."

She massages the red-patterned brace on her forearm. Her new clothes seem to have kindly cleaned and dressed her wounds for her. No doubt the work of the Other Self one very excited part of her brain mistakenly thinks it knows about.

"Howard, the would-be thief, escaped the same way you did, by vanishing suddenly. I'm not sure how we got back just now, but I imagine it was the same way. I don't know if you know this, Mr. Huang, but we were recruited just this morning to come find you. I think I've been pretending to know what was going on for the sake of getting through this, but between all the warping and fighting and blood loss, I think I've already lost track of what our roles are here."

[DarthArminius]

"That's... not an easy question," Erica replies. "I should be unconscious right now, but something I couldn't quite place told me it would be inappropriate to make someone carry me back. Which, now that I say it out loud, is an utterly nonsensical explanation."

She massages the red-patterned brace on her forearm. Her new clothes seem to have kindly cleaned and dressed her wounds for her. No doubt the work of the Other Self one very excited part of her brain mistakenly thinks it knows about.

"Howard, the would-be thief, escaped the same way you did, by vanishing suddenly. I'm not sure how we got back just now, but I imagine it was the same way. I don't know if you know this, Mr. Huang, but we were recruited just this morning to come find you. I think I've been pretending to know what was going on for the sake of getting through this, but between all the warping and fighting and blood loss, I think I've already lost track of what our roles are here."

Wei Huang furrows his eye brows and moves his hands along Erica's body, magically healing her body. He smiled.
"It is unfortunate we don't know where Howard is. I felt a weird presence of power from him that was like nothing I ever felt before. It wasn't as strong as Archibald's, but it was quite something. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of him."

[totadileplayz]

Shamus has no idea what to add, but turns tangible and visible, returning the nanites and stopping the music from playing.

[DarthArminius]

Shamus has no idea what to add, but turns tangible and visible, returning the nanites and stopping the music from playing.

Archibald looks towards the protagonists. . . "All of you stop and rest here. You can go ahead and partake of refreshments if you wish."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Erica winces as Huang deploys his homeopathic healing technique. Some invisible animal hisses, like a feral cat trying to scare scavengers away from its food. "You really should ask before touching someone like that," she says. "But thank you."

"At any rate, everyone, we should probably use this break to try and talk to each other. I know we introduced ourselves earlier, but I still feel like we're all kind of in the dark here. Are we all going home at some point, by the way? I imagine most of us have families, jobs, pets... if nothing else, I'd like to let everyone know I'll be away, if not tell them that magic is real. Not to mention that Howard's, 'lord,' is probably taking over the world soon."

[DarthArminius]

Erica winces as Huang deploys his homeopathic healing technique. Some invisible animal hisses, like a feral cat trying to scare scavengers away from its food. "You really should ask before touching someone like that," she says. "But thank you."

"At any rate, everyone, we should probably use this break to try and talk to each other. I know we introduced ourselves earlier, but I still feel like we're all kind of in the dark here. Are we all going home at some point, by the way? I imagine most of us have families, jobs, pets... if nothing else, I'd like to let everyone know I'll be away, if not tell them that magic is real. Not to mention that Howard's, 'lord,' is probably taking over the world soon."

"Oh, the "Lord". Good God. It's "The Lord". Not him again." Archibald complained loudly. "Okay, if "The Lord" bothers you we'll need to refrain from pulling our punches."

[totadileplayz]

Erica winces as Huang deploys his homeopathic healing technique. Some invisible animal hisses, like a feral cat trying to scare scavengers away from its food. "You really should ask before touching someone like that," she says. "But thank you."

"At any rate, everyone, we should probably use this break to try and talk to each other. I know we introduced ourselves earlier, but I still feel like we're all kind of in the dark here. Are we all going home at some point, by the way? I imagine most of us have families, jobs, pets... if nothing else, I'd like to let everyone know I'll be away, if not tell them that magic is real. Not to mention that Howard's, 'lord,' is probably taking over the world soon."

"Used to live on a farm, was a cop, working as a convenience store clerk. People suck. Karma sucks, it doesn't care if you're good or bad, it will bite you in the ass whatever you do. " He Said simply.

[Arayl]

"I'm just an electrical engineering student" Charlotte says in response to Erica as she sits in a nearby seat "I didn;t expect him to run off though, he did say he wanted to kill us, maybe we proved to be too much of a problem for him to deal with"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Well, I guess it's good that we're not really abandoning anyone. I could probably get away with sending a few emails myself, so I guess I stand corrected."

Shamus' nihilist editorial reminds her of something. "I think I owe you an apology, too. There were points back there where I wasn't sure what you were doing, so I just kind of... pushed everyone back to where I thought they should be? Ugh, that I don't understand it just makes it worse. I'll try to keep that power under control from now on."

"It's hard to establish someone's motivations for certain," she adds on the subject of Howard. "Maybe the fight was not worth his time since the sword was already gone, or maybe he decided it would be safer to retreat and pick us off one at a time as he almost did with me. Or maybe he's chosen to model his life after a cartoon character who toys with his rivals, or wants us to help him replace his boss, whoever that is..."

Erica's stomach growls. It's been a while since she's eaten last. "...I'm going to go get some hors d'oeuvres."

[DarthArminius]

"The Lord"? "The Lord I'm talking about is called YWHW in a dimension you may have heard of in video games before. The video game series he was recorded in was called "Shin Megami Tensei".