[Nexus] Random Places and Plots 5

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

The very-not-literal door that was opened for them was in fact the hole in the clouds previously mentioned, and not a literal door they could walk through. Never-the-less, they're allowed to hover up unimpeded to the flat top of the fabled Mount Olympus.

There's no one to greet them on the mosaic tiled expanse, or the lush green lawns, but off in the center of the flat mountain peak there are a group of massive white marble buildings in classic Greek architectural style.

Heading there to get this over with might be a good idea, although which building he might find Zeus in is anyone's guess. There seems to be an arena complete with ample seating apart from the rest, massive castle-temples all arrayed around in a half-circle, and other smaller buildings that are clearly meant to provide for the other structures, such as stables, forges, and warehouses, all equally esthetically pleasing to the eye.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the show you've been waiting your entire lives to see. Tonight and tonight only, I'm going to kill the Zeus, King of the Gods on live television. I'm Lord Magtok on Channel 13 MagNews, welcoming you to Thunderstruck."

The AC/DC song of the same name booms in the background as Magtok smirks for the camera and then continues on his march, with cameras hovering around him on all sides.

"Here we are, atop scenic Mount Olympus, the capitol city of the divine! Fret not, Nexusians, both my entourage and my equipment has been properly shielded against the magical doom-explosions induced by looking directly at the gods. You can watch from the comfort of your own homes without fear of instant disintegration. Accompanying me on this crusade to take down is my lovely assistant Evangeline, armed and ready to deal with any sort of backstabbing or trickery the sky god might have in mind. Evangeline, smile and wave for the nice people back at home in the Nexus. Thank you.

Now, since it seems Zeus hasn't come right out to accept my challenge just yet, I suppose I ought to provide some background for this little event. Why Zeus, why here, and why now? What has the lightning god done to earn your ire, Maggy? Well, it's all quite simple: He made a goat tear its way out of my forehead. The physical scar's gone, but I'm still pretty peeved about it. That, and the fact that he's a known rapist...well, the way I figure it, not a whole lot of people are going to miss the drunk bastard when he's gone, are they? So I packed my bags, grabbed my guns, slipped some aces up my sleeve, and here we are. Vengeance, wrapped around the business end of a laser-spewing genetically-engineered murdergoose."

Magtok shrugs, and then starts walking towards whatever castle-temple looks the biggest.

[happyturtle]

Atop Mount Olympus

Evangeline does as bid, smiling and waving with the hand that isn't bolted to a harpoon. Her face is altered, so no one watching will recognize her as the MagSassin from the last Magtok broadcast.

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

A few curious heads peak out of the far off stables, belonging to a cadre of curious nymphs that start giggling at the odd sight Magtok and his crew present. They quickly duck back in and begin gossiping amongst themselves about what all the commotion could be about.

Other than that minor distraction, Magtok's camera crew is unimpeded as they cross the flat mountain top to the central palace, which stands a few stories above the others and is capped by statues of beautiful maidens in elegant poses.

Nothing about it screams "Zeus lives here" but as they make their final approach the King of Gods himself struts out between the columns, wearing khaki cargo shorts, an open orange hunting vest and a bright green trucker hat with a #69 crudely scrawled on it in blue highlighter. His beard and seems to have been pulled into a long scraggly braid and dyed bright purple, with its tip fluffed out slightly and hanging down between his pectorals.

He flexes one arm and a crackling bolt of energy appears in his fist, "I'm gonna ask you kids nicely because if I raise my voice the missus is going to brain me with a frying pan for that last orgy, but I don't take kindly to upstarts, accept no solicitors, and don't want to join the cult of Steve. So would you kindly reverse direction, toss yourselves off a cliff, and get the hell off my Medamned lawn."

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

"Funny, I figured the purple in your beard would've made for sufficient forewarning. You don't recognize me at all, do you, Son of Cronus? I'm sorry, I tried to keep things simple for you, keeping my costume the same minus this minor color change from purple to red, figuring you'd be too drunk off your ass to recognize me without it, but..."

Magtok shakes his head in disappointment, before reaching into his robe and removing a bright, shiny chrome laser handgun, pointing it right at the one and only person currently within its range that it'd be absolutely worthless against.

"Whatever. To make a long story short, my name is Lord Magtok. You made a goat jump out of my face. Prepare to die."

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

Evangeline aims her harpoon gun at Zeus as well, but her eyes are scanning everywhere else, looking for any threat to her Magtok.

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

Zeus' brow furls for a moment before tapping the ground with a heavily booted foot, causing his shield to fly up from the earth into his free hand, "I know plenty well who you are, and I'm telling you the same thing I told you before. The goat isn't your problem anymore, so learn to live and let live or you're going to force me to find someone willing to scrape burnt mortal off my mosaics. And I happen to like my mosaics." The Godking is treating this as a casual annoyance, as if he really could just talk Magtok into crawling off to die somewhere else so he doesn't have to deal with this nonsense while he's nursing a massive hangover.

"And whaddya mean purple beard? My son bet me a flagon of mead I wouldn't keep it dyed this way for a month." He scratches his chin with the tip of the lightning bolt, singing off a few hairs.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

"Then Dionysus is an even greater disappointment than I thought he'd be."

The lowly mortal in the red pajamas narrows his eyes even further at the hungover overlord of deities, shifting his weapon down a few degrees so it points at the lightning god's chin. Then, he abruptly looks away, turning towards one of the hovering camerabots floating about the area.

"For the folks watching at home who'd like context, I made a deal with Dionysus, Zeus's son. In exchange for some minor help with threatening a few evil cultists during all that drunken riot nonsense, he offered to help me with the destruction of his father. I'd been hoping to upset the big Z-Man a little with the beard thing. Fat lot of good that did, though."

Without even bothering to return his gaze back to Zeus, Magtok opens fire. Three bright red beams crackle with energy and scorch the air as they rush after the god's head.

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

Of course he was a disappointment. Just like this purple bearded hung-over rapist. This was the king of gods? No, it was long past time he was dethroned. And Magtok was just the God to do it.

Evangeline continues to provide cover, sticking to the plan.

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

Zeus shrugs lazily, hefting his shield a bit higher to deflect the barrage of laser fire.

As he does so, the aforementioned prodigal son shows up behind him, leaning against a column and dressed in an ankle-length toga.

"You know how it is father. He asked me to do something petty to help with this mad quest of his, so I asked him to kill a few bothersome pests for me. No hard feelings, alright?" Dionysus explains in soft tones, and the thunder god nods once to affirm that he understands. Zeus grumbles a bit as he ponders making a particularly flashy move before deciding to just jab forwards a bit with his held lightning bolt, causing a crackling web of forked lightning to spread forth from the tip towards Magtok and Evangeline. He appears to be underestimating Magtok's threat level somewhat.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

Magtok's first thought is concern for Linda/Evangeline's safety. A ridiculous notion, given that she's the one in the magical tunic of deity-goat hair, and Magtok just has that pretty crimson robe to shield his stupid idiot self from harm. Chivalry has no place here, neither does compassion, and neither should be anywhere near the wretched monster of a woman who fudging harpooned him to death last time he was broadcasting something live on TV. His second thought, once he's had a moment to bury that terribly unMaggy first thought somewhere deep in the back of his head where nobody will ever see it, is much simpler. It can be summarized in just three little words, which are as follows: LIGHTNING ****ING HURTS!

Even with a fancy lightning rod umbrella pulled out just in time to take the brunt of the blow (and then immediately tossed aside right after, bizarrely enough), Magtok still gets hit with a small fraction of the half-assed assault. His nails dig into the palm of his right hand, drawing blood. It's the only visible injury upon his form, but it's clear from his stance and pained expression that he didn't escape that attack entirely unscathed.

"You hit like a goblin."

He wastes no time in launching his own counter-attack, however. In an effort to bypass the god's shield, he floats right off the ground and reaches a hand right for that purple beard, intent on seizing it in his bloodied right hand, to hold Zeus's chin steady as he brings his left fist swinging forward to meet it. I don't know why the cyborg's still holding back his best equipment, this isn't even close to the best attack option he has left.

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

How well Evangeline handles the lightning attack depends completely on how well Magzy's wool tunic can protect her. Assuming it does protect her, she'll continue to keep her harpoon trained on Zeus.


Why is Magtok still holding back His best equipment? This isn't even close to the best attack option He has left! Evangeline wonders. But she remembers her orders. Trust. Obey. Do not doubt, no matter what He does.

It's good to have perfect Faith.

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

Magtok's bloodslicked hand closes around Zeus' braid, but when the cyborg's other fist comes up to meet the god's chin, it doesn't move one iota from the force of impact. Not even the well muscled skin gives against his chromed knuckles. The god's chin might as well have been cast from bronze.

"Aw, did mother beat you when you were a child? It must be so hard having all those memories come back like that." Zeus lets the lightning fade from his hand so he can reach up and try to grab hold of Magtok's collar. If he gets a good grip on it, his next action is going to be ducking into a spin that will end in a simple hammer throw, aiming to toss Magtok straight into his harpoon-wielding backup.

Evangeline shouldn't feel any pain where the toga covers, but if it touches her exposed flesh it will do as lightning always tries to do and ground out through her feet. If this means going past her heart or jarring her muscles, then so be it.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

"My mother was a test tube. My father, an assembly line. I am Legion and-"

Whatever dramatic line Magtok had intended gets cut off by the throw, and his back gets flung right towards the tip of that harpoon. Oh crap, not again!

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

Luckily for Evangeline (and for her player, who would find it rather anticlimactic to have her character knocked out in the first round of the fight), the lightning hits her toga, leaving her unharmed.

Luckily for Magtok, she's still watching his back, which means she gets the business end of the harpoon out of the way and tries to catch him. Or at least cushion his fall a bit. There's only so much she can do when she only has one arm to work with.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

Eeurgh, Evangeline caught him. Magtok's not entirely sure he would've been worse off getting accidentally harpooned. At least then he'd have a teensy bit more dignity to his being thrown like a rag doll. Suffering horrible harpoon-based agony would inspire cringing and wincing from his unseen audience. The way things are now, he just comes off looking ridiculous.

"-and my folks never tried to fudging eat me, either."

The cyborg floats out of her grasp. He glares contemptuously at Zeus as he reaches into his ruby red robes, and withdraws a syringe. He promptly stabs a vein in his arm with it, quickly plunging a whole needle's worth of little DNA-splicing nanobots into his bloodstream.

"Eve, remember how I gave you your shapeshifting abilities? How it was based off of the genetic talents of another? Well, it turns out that Z-Man made a big mistake when he chose me for this whole goat thing. Y'see, it wasn't just my genes swimming around in that stupid farm animal, there was also a spark of divine in there...and I think you can figure out what I've just done with that spark on your own."

His chrome hand crushes the now-empty piece of medical waste, and tosses it towards Zeus.

"Ball's in your side of the court again, Zatanna. Make your move."

[happyturtle]

Olympus

Evangeline grins. "You're amazing, Magtok."

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

Zeus stares at Magtok for all of two seconds before sighing heavily and pinching his nose, "Dude, after what you just said about your parents, I know you've had a ****ty childhood and all, but just because you stuck some goop full of my awesomenes into your arm doesn't make me your stepdad or anything. That's not how this works, and I'm not paying child support on some grown-ass half mortal automa-dude. Sorry Maggles, but if getting a bit of me in you qualified you for pantheon status, half the peeps on this continent would be gods of the Zeusplow by now."

The king of gods clearly isn't taking this new development seriously, but at the end of his speech he does finally remember he's supposed to be fighting this mortal, and raises his Aegis once again. This time, the overpowering aura of dread activates, inspiring cowardice and the urge to flee in all that look upon the mighty shield.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

Oh crap crap crap Zeus has a point, ignorant and foolish though he might be. What if it's not a genetic thing at all? What if the supposed ace up Magtok's sleeve he just withdrew has been nothing more than a joke this whole time? Oh crap, no, that syringe was almost the entirety of his battle strategy, he's got to turn around and-

"Hey. Hey MoS, listen for a minute. If you leave now, you know what will be done. You've already shamed us more than any other clone in history has. The only reason you've been allowed to live this long is in hope that you would redeem yourself, if only partially, by destroying this rapist tyrant. I know what you've done, brother. Back away from this fight and dishonor will be the least of your worries."

Or he can just do what Ant-tok says. Just stay here, fight, and die. That works too, I guess. Okay, round 2, Mag of Steel. Let's show this immortal bastard that Magtok really isn't a man to be trifled with. Let's take back our pride from the smoking crater that will soon replace the spot where his flesh once stood. Let's kill God.

"Silence! There is an entire world of power you have never thought to explore, content as you are in your stagnant debauchery. An entire realm of potential left untapped, because you sacrificed absolute knowledge for absolute control. You don't get to tell me what I can and cannot do, Zeus. I have seen the future and it is a throne of flesh carved from your bones."

Magtok raises up both arms, pressing a button on that remote as he does so. A pair of telewarp portals open, both of them connected to points much farther down the mountain, where a storm continues to rage beneath the gods. Lightning strikes twice, exactly where Magtok designated that it would strike, and two bolts flash out of the portals and towards the god who would claim authority over such forces.

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

Evangeline wavers. What am I doing here? We can't win. This is madness. She looks to Magtok, ready to grab his hand and run.

But the fear spawns a memory. The worst memory of her life. Worse than her mother's abuse or Charlie's death or Escalus's taunting. Worse than the three times she died. The moment when she was clamped to the iron cross, covered in blood and maggots.

I can't disobey. If I disobey, He'll do that to me again. And He might not let me down, even if I beg. Even if I beg Him to kill me, and He does, it will only prolong it. He could leave me there for months, not even feeding me, just leaving me there to be crawled over....

She screams in terror and fury and shoots a harpoon at Zeus.

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

One lightning strike is snagged out of the air by Zeus' free hand before it reaches him, but the other strikes him squarely in the chest, and he hisses in pain. Not the kind of "muscles locked, can't open my jaw" searing pain that a lightning strike should deliver, but something closer to being shot at close range with a paint ball gun. The harpoon follows behind a moment later, but he's already flinging the snagged bolt back at it along the same path. The mass of electricity seems to move horribly slow, but its path should lead it to intersect with that of the harpoon, melting and burning it where appropriate as they pass each other. The slow moving lightning bolt is still headed towards Linda, but should be easily dodged.

"Since when has knowledge helped me any? I've got all I can ask for even with your sorry ass coming up here and playing god. You're a momentary distraction between drinking binges bolts for brains, now quit fooling around and start putting on a show, or I'm frying your ass and sleeping off the rest of this hangover."

What Magtok is unaware of is that while divine blood isn't exactly the key to unlocking divinity itself by the logic of this world, it does play a key role. Simply put, the more people who believe in your divinity, the stronger it becomes. So with Linda being as fantastically fanatical as she is and Magtok broadcasting his self-injection to everyone watching on Channel 13 at home, there's a chance that his stunt could actually work, assuming everyone claps hard enough and believes in magic. Zeus may or may not have been trying to undermine this with his last statement. It's hard to tell how self aware the godking truly is.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

Magtok doesn't hesitate. Zeus has his hands full, even if it's only for a moment, dealing with the lightning and harpoons. If ever there was a time for a miracle, it'd be now. To turn the tide of battle, to validate Maggy's divinity, and ensure that he'd be coming down this mountainside as something other than a pile of ashes, something amazing has to happen next.

"You aren't frying anyone, tyrant."

Magtok swings through the air, not to foolishly charge after Zeus once more, but towards the lightning aimed at Evangeline. Whilst she's certainly capable of dodging such a thing, the need to do so is taken away in an instant by her lord and master. He reaches a hand out towards that harpoon, magnetically commanding the partially-melted and hideous metal spear to fly to him. The moment it does, he swings it at the slow lightning as hard as he can, hoping against hope that he isn't the Nexus's hugest idiot for daring to try such a thing.

"But I will put on a show, regardless."

It only occurs to him after trying to bat the lightning back at Zeus that physics doesn't work that way. He was too preoccupied with the idea of fooling people into thinking he had newfound object-summoning godpowers to even think that maybe slow lightning (or swinging at slow lightning with a metal club, for that matter) shouldn't be a thing.

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

With Magtok saving Evangeline from the slow lightning, she is free to reload the harpoon gun. As she does, she takes hold of her holy symbol. "Bless this weapon, Lord, and send it to its mark to strike down the rapist Zeus." she prays, making it a Holy weapon.

She won't be ready to fire just yet. Reloading a harpoon gun, especially while praying over it, isn't an instant action.

[Slii Arhem]

Mount Olympus

Magtok doesn't hesitate. Zeus has his hands full, even if it's only for a moment, dealing with the lightning and harpoons. If ever there was a time for a miracle, it'd be now. To turn the tide of battle, to validate Maggy's divinity, and ensure that he'd be coming down this mountainside as something other than a pile of ashes, something amazing has to happen next.

"You aren't frying anyone, tyrant."

Magtok swings through the air, not to foolishly charge after Zeus once more, but towards the lightning aimed at Evangeline. Whilst she's certainly capable of dodging such a thing, the need to do so is taken away in an instant by her lord and master. He reaches a hand out towards that harpoon, magnetically commanding the partially-melted and hideous metal spear to fly to him. The moment it does, he swings it at the slow lightning as hard as he can, hoping against hope that he isn't the Nexus's hugest idiot for daring to try such a thing.

"But I will put on a show, regardless."

It only occurs to him after trying to bat the lightning back at Zeus that physics doesn't work that way. He was too preoccupied with the idea of fooling people into thinking he had newfound object-summoning godpowers to even think that maybe slow lightning (or swinging at slow lightning with a metal club, for that matter) shouldn't be a thing.

Mount Olympus

Yeah, that is totally not a thing. Physics may apply selectively when gods are around, but metal is still metal, and conductive as all get out. Magtok will certainly manage to keep the lightning bolt from hitting Evangeline, but it's going to ground out through that bolt and directly into his feet unless he's got some way of stopping it. One good thing about slow lightning though is that it's got low amperage, so much so that you can practically see the bolt break up and absorb into the melted hunk of spiky metal in slow motion. There's extremely little chance of the electricity stopping his heart or anything else fancy like that, but it's going to be like the world's worst taser hit while it's coursing through his body.

Zeus just manages to look even more unimpressed as this goes on, and when he notices Evangeline's chanting, he scowls minutely. Can't have any of that going on.

The king of gods whistles once, and from the stables bursts a pure white Pegasus that gallops towards Evangeline at full speed, aiming to run her down while she chants and trample her beneath its hooves.

[Lord Magtok]

Mount Olympus

Once that bolt is dealt with, even though it wasn't in a matter to Maggy's liking, he narrows his eyes, trying to ready himself for his next assault. He's just a second away from charging at Zeus, when an idea hits him and knocks him dead in his tracks. Not just any idea either, but the idea. The idea to end all ideas. The answer to all his problems presents itself at long last, an elegant solution as bold and brilliant as it is deadly and utterly devastating.

A smile spreads across the cyborg's face, even as Linda's pitted against that awful winged horse monster. Though he's yet to actually put his scheme into action, with a plan this perfect, he might as well already have won.

"Stay alive, Eve. I'll be right back, I just figured out how to finish this guy and get bonus points for most innovative kill of the year. In fact, could you watch the victory champagne for me? I'm just going to set it on top of a camerabot, make sure Mr. Hangover there doesn't get to have any for all of the last three minutes of immortality he's got left."

Magtok does as he says, and then tries to zip right away from the fight, zooming towards whichever direction seems slightly more likely to be where Zeus's throne might be found.

"Zeus found out that Magzy, which is apparently what he's calling the thing, takes in nearly as much worship as he does, and feels he's entitled to some of it. He's not letting the blasted goat away from his throne so long as he's there, not even to bathe away its stink."

Hopefully Artemis meant throne literally, and wasn't speaking of Olympus, in a much more general sense. It'd be such a pain if the stables he flew right past are holding the goat. Magzy is, believe it or not, the lynchpin to his dastardly plot. Linda can only keep Zeus busy for so long, he has to find that filthy animal ASAP.

[happyturtle]

Mount Olympus

"... orhisscarypegasus - YES, LORD - Amen." Evangeline hurriedly amends her prayer while taking a quick glance over at Magtok. Stay alive. Protect champagne. Right.

She holds her ground as the Pegasus charges. It isn't as if she can outrun or outmanoeuvre a flying horse - particularly a divine one - but she can hold fire until her blessed harpoon shot is almost certain to hit.

Ready. Steady. Fire.

Once her shot is fired, aimed at the heart, Evangeline dives off to one side and rolls, hoping by that to get out from under hoofbeat range. Chances probably aren't good for her, but she's got to try. Stay alive.

[UncleWolf]

The Clockwork Fortress

To anyone else, the sheer chaotic movements of an entire Hive of multiple hundreds of billions entities would be an unthinkable force to control. To Pat however, each entity was nothing more than a mere cell to a greater organism. Some of her pieces had more complex tasks than others, but most served as two things.

Cannon fodder and biomass processors.

At home, in the MagCave, she would never have dreamed of having such a massive amount of creatures to make up her body, but after scouring through a large part of this Hell and several others, she had no difficulty at all knowing that the sheer size of herself was nearly that of an apocalyptic scale. Especially when it was all controlled by one mind that didn't care in the slightest if several million bits of her were destroyed.

The flying fortress above her was impressive, but it took only a thought to reach out with a section of herself to latch on and hold it in place. The fact that the mass of modified Puddin' forms provided a bridge for the rest of herself to crawl over was a side effect didn't even cross her massive mind as she sent a veritable living carpet of Lesser Sister-Daughters as a first wave. Each was only a couple inches long and incredibly fragile, but there were thousands upon thousands and it didn't bother the mind to lose even great swathes of them to the defenders.

After all, just as many of them were being hatched even as they died.

Trillions of eyes and antennae fed the Pat-Mind all the information it could ever need, and most of it told her the one thing she came to find.

He was here.

---

1

The three Hunter-Killers that remained at the initial landing point looked up from their hellfire blasting to see a pair of humanoid forms surfing over the edge of the Fortress on a small wave of Lesser Forms. The pair are both obviously female and completely nude, but their skin constantly shifts from the deepest black to blood red in diamond shaped patches. Instead of their usual antennae, the bodies have a pair of thing ridged horns that rise up from their foreheads. The Harlequins each carry a long slightly curved black blade and a oddly shaped pistol in their hands. Before they're able to land, the HKs open fire on one momentarily, blasting her backwards in pieces, but the other quickly speeds forward, pistol raised as she launches a double blast of powerful acids at the clockwork constructs. The first is hit by both, leaving it a scrap heap of slag within seconds.

While the last two get shots off, the remaining Harlequin's form seems to blur as she picks up speed, expending great reserves of energy to be able to twist her way through the hell-fire to neatly dissect the next Hunter Killer in line, leaving a dozen pieces for her Sister-Daughters to carry away with her own dead pieces. Nothing was ever left behind since the Pat-Mind recycled the dead, living, and even the inert to fuel herself for longer.

The last Hunter-Killer had the bright idea to sprout a pair of wings and even caught some air as it attempted to flee, but even it was soon brought down as another flying form tackled it from above, crashing them both to the ground before the newcomer dismembered it with claws of metal and stone. Pat's Gargoyle, what was once her Scout body, stood, revealing itself as a tall and thin waspish figure. It's hide was a combination of metal, chitin, and crystalline growths to provide it with great armor, and the double-pair of once-gossamer wings have turned black with exposure to the Hells she's been through.

The Pat-Mind observed the newly won breach of defenses through her billions of eyes and antennae, choosing to ignore the dozens of Puddin-Forms that were being wounded by the guns of the Fortress in their attempt to destroy the anchor, and came to a single conclusion that her fiancé would appreciate.

It was time to deliver a special message.

Even though she could speak normally through various forms, it wouldn't have had the same effect as what she wanted at the moment. Every single part of what made up the Hive froze and began to rub legs, chatter teeth, hum, screech, or hissed together as a whole to form a hideous simulacrum of speech. As one whole, the entire Hive spoke a single legible phrase in billions of "voices".

GIVE HIM TO ME OR BE DEVOURED

[Ashen Lilies]

Bugs, demons, devils, angels: the Clockwork Fortress has whethered countless assaults before this one. Hordes of ravening hellspawn stretching across the horizon have broken themselves against its walls. Swarms of demonic fliers descending like locusts, swooping amongst the battlements, have fallen: shot down by cannonfire and gunshot, assassinated by the millions by seething clockwork drones. Countless diabolical invasions, troops of every number and level of individual power; quelled. Hunted down and exterminated by the Fortress' legions of stalwart defenders. Hell wages war on a level scarcely comprehensible by those living in the mortal realm, handicapped by mortal minds. The Clockwork Fortress has survived centuries of it. They will survive one more day.

Around the Fortress, the devils mobilize in defense of their home. Legionairres line hallways. Cannonfire bellows, from the fortress and its defense fleet, firing bolts of hellfire directly at the heaviest concentrations of bugs. Skiffs and flying skirmishers buzz around the swarm like the very insects they combat, focusing fire to fry any stragglers. Thousands of disposible clockworks fly into the swarm itself, ringed in wreaths in flame and lightning. And in the lush depths of her throne room, Morgana whispers softly, a sultry croon that carries itself to the ear (or appropriate auditory organ) of every being involved here.

"Magtok is dead. He remains dead, and Death shall keep him. Hell does not surrender its property to insects."

[Lord Magtok]

Clockwork Fortress

"Noooo! Not Dippy!"

Tough luck, Magtok. I guess you'll just need to get a new imp scribe to do all the writing in that journal for you. This one seems to have a bit of piping stuck through his midsection. Structural damage caused by whatever chaos is going on out there. He was generous enough to not let your journal get ruined, though, so you might as well take it and leave. We need to find out what the situation is, ASAP, so you can ready your harpoon and-

GIVE HIM TO ME OR BE DEVOURED

"Magtok is dead. He remains dead, and Death shall keep him. Hell does not surrender its property to insects."

...Oh. Oh dear. So that's what's going on outside, then. Looks like you'd better hurry your way to the surface, Magtok. Get outdoors, find Pat, and leave before Morgana's death goddess fragment powers explode anything of importance to you. Or maybe you'd rather try pleading your worthlessness to Her Infernal Majesty, get her to agree that you're not worth the risk and just throw you to the swarm? I mean, it's not like you have a reputation for heroics and tactical genius around here...right?

"Oh ****."

He removes the harpoon from his chest, and sets off down the hall, the only direction he can go in with, so long as the other end is blockaded by that mess of imp-slaying piping and debris. He charges right away towards what he is almost certain is his doom, morbidly curious as to whether death here would be a bit more permanent than the one that got him here in the first place.

[UncleWolf]

Clockwork Fortress

SO BE IT

Even though Pat might be just another horde seeking to attack the fortress, she has a couple things going on her side. First, she's one mind controlling untold numbers of creatures to form a single seething mass of life and death. There weren't any individuals, so she could see all and do all. The other is that she doesn't give a damn about anything other than getting her TinmanHitman back.

Even if she died in the process of seeing him one last time.

Well back from the rest of the battle, miles away, a single massive spire of chitin crawls slowly on thousands of little legs to get closer. It stands a dozen stories tall and is covered with several heavy bio-cannon batteries. Even though it houses her Central Brain, Pat moves it forward to be better able to assist.

Slowly, several seams appear as the spire splits open near the top, resulting in a loud screech of ecstasy as a form spreads it's wings and takes flight. The Spire housed more than just the Brain.

As the form gets closer to the battle, the Clockwork forces might notice that it appears to be similar to a dragon, except quite a bit bigger and much heavier armored. The beast has four massive wings instead of legs and lacks a tail. The head appears to be that of a black dragon's, but the maw is much wider and is split on the bottom jaw down the middle. The long sinuous tail ends in a wicked looking barb, and the entire creature is covered in thick plates of metallic looking chitin scales. Oddly, the back is completely flat and appears to have large holes reaching into the body. The holes are all in a line and even repeat themselves on the sides and belly. If anyone looks close enough, they'll see movement within.

As for the Puddin'-Form Bridge, several are blasted out by the cannon, weakening it, before a mass of flying ants begins to reach up out of the carpet to wrap around the connection, providing protection to the living bridge as it begins to flex, trying to tilt the clockwork fortress with it's great strength, and maybe even begin to drag it towards the ground if the magic or tech holding it up isn't strong enough to resist hundreds of ant-proportioned creatures from doing so.

The Skiffs and Fliersl find a dozen of the buzzing and extremely quick Gargoyles in their midst within moments, attempting to use either their enhanced claws or their bio-rifles to destroy the larger threats. Thick clouds of easily expendable flying-ant forms surround each one to help protect and harass.

Where the lightning and fire clockworks are concerned, even though they're quite capable of killing off hundreds of the minor ants at a time with just their presence, they might find that the fire is having less of an effect over time as stronger ants are designed, laid, hatched, and sent out in an effort to kill.

On the Clockwork Fortress itself, tendrils of quick insects begin reaching out, ignoring the soldiers and any damage as they look for their Magtok, the remaining Harlequin leading the way as she attempts to head to where she might judge to be the heart.