[Log] The End of Time - Part Two
WHO: Agatha Heterodyne, Ami Mizuno, Christoph Schmidt, Detritus, Doctor Doom, Emperor Time, Johan Bryant, Kevin Graham, The Master, Mercade Alexander, Sephi Graham, Urdnot Wrex, X-23
WHERE: The Fortress of Time
WHAT: The call goes out: Emperor Time's shenanigans must be ended, once and for all!
WATCH FOR: Baby wrangling, Space jelly babies, Giant Robots, CANNONBALL, SOS Brigade Cameos, The Master getting all of the good one-liners,
"Almost..." And then, he's jumped by a demon baby.
"This..." The Master's eyes gleam with some unholy energy, "I am treated as a SIDE NOTE?!" The mad Time Lord thunders, grabbing the demon child by its empty eyesockets, lifting it into the air and, as the drum beat hit its twisted crescendo, he...
...he...
...a minute later, the Master, hands bloody, emerges from the shadows, panting with the effort of it all. The fluxuations of energy attract the Master's attention, and the sinister man looks up to confirm that, yes, Doom's gotten the entrance ready. The Master procedes to step into a shadow...
...and just happened to be standing behind Doom's cloak the whole time. "If you want a motto, you can just form your own evil team." The Master suguests, before turning to see Haruhi, even now, protected by her denial. She's...
"You make me /sick/." The Master snaps, suddenly, stomping forward the girl in the machine. "I studied your past. I read your little boyfriend's mind. He TOLD YOU. He did for you what..." The Master's eyes close as he remembers the gunshot, the simpering little voice, the kind, loving eyes, "...someone would not do for me. How dare you. How DARE you let yourself be manipulated like this?! Let those you claim to care about be in danger like this?! Deny the truth of your nature, embrace the mundanity you waste so much of your time rejecting!"
"This." The Master intones, grimly, holding a small, beeping device about the size of an MP3 player. "Is what happens when you lie to yourself, young woman. Even if you survive this, after all...who's to say I'll give him back?" He attaches the memory recorder to the side of the girl's temple, his grin twisted into something sadistic, cruel...'evil', simpler, more honest souls might say. "And who's to say he'll be the same, loveable goon you seem to need so badly if you do manage it? Because, little girl, you're not the only one allowed to look at the deck. Welcome to the multiverse."
The Master gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with his Off Screen For Reasons Of Taste jab.
"NO!" Agatha shrieks again at X-23. "Now we can't shut it down!" But, she has to do something. "Maxim, Dimo, keep Oggie and the monsters at bay as well as you can. I don't want to be killed by my own bodyguard, and I've got to try to rewire the device before we're all killed by these monsters! Some of them may not be warped yet and we can save them!" To X-23, she says, "Get away from the console NOW," in her commanding madvoice. "Leave it to me!" With that, she sets to work, humming for all she's worth as if that will make her think faster and better. Lives are at stake.
Maxim and Dimo are trying their very best to keep Ognian away from the Mistress--not to mention X-23, whom he seems just as happily eager to try to take on with that halberd of his. But Ognian is no pansy, and he's fighting back against both of them while making headway toward Agatha. "Hyu iz goink to stop de fightink and ruin our fon, iz hyu? Hy von't /keel/ hyu. Jost put hyu to sleep for vhile." And he advances with a nasty grin. But before he can attack Agatha as well as the other Jägers, he's forced into defensive mode by the attacking DEMON BABIES. Not that they stop him for long, because then he lunges at Maxim and Dimo again while they're still distracted.
All this time, Agatha keeps working away, trying to reattach wires here, rearrange them there, just to stop the monsters coming. Not once has she put that death ray into use; in fact, now she's taking it apart to use its parts to do whatever it is she's trying to do to stop the machine. Better hope there aren't any explosions.
Agatha Heterodyne misses Emperor Time with her Vell Normally Ve Don't Hit Babiez, But Ve'll Make Dis An Exception attack.
Agatha Heterodyne gets a glancing blow on Agatha Heterodyne with her Vy For Iz Oggie Attackink De Jägerkin?! attack.
Just when he was defusing one of them, Mercade suddenly gets a Bad Feeling 'Bout 'Dis. A single question flashes through his mind:
What is unexpected?
Reacting in a blur, Mercade turns and snaps up the Demon Baby, looping a hand around to hold it by the diaper. The other is held similarly, one in each hand. Man, now he's got two? "How am I going to deal with this?" Mercade mutters. "I can't hurt them. They're babies. Horrible mutant babies, but that's because some idiot pushed buttons they shouldn't have." He turns, looking around, and spots a pendulum clock. Mercade's eyes light up, and he quickly runs over to it, fiddling with it.
Mercade then walks away, whistling and dusting his hands off. The two babies are rocked back and forth, their diapers tied to the pendulum on the clock. "Now... let's go!" Mercade takes a running start, and launches himself off of the platform, catching onto a cable and swinging down towards the massive machine in the center of the room.
Mercade Alexander gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with his Dexterity+Baby-Wrangling? Is That Even A Skill? attack.
The chemical's working against Ami, everyone's angry, but Mercury has a different way of doing things. She doesn't ever let herself spread about.. but inside, she's angry at herself. She doesn't need to be outwardly angry to be angry. She helped him, that is, MagiRed. But she's not even nearly able to take care of herself, and as MagiRed throws himself in the way.. at first it's fine. He was helping..
But now she's angry that he's putting herself on the line for her. That she's causing him some problems, and perhaps then some. But she doesn't act outwards towards it. She's got to help stop a wild Jager, even if she at the moment doesn't believe she can. And as she goes?
DEMON BABIES. Running through them, she kicks them off as they lunge, some beginning to bite and slash.. it's painful, but she pulls through. There are more marks against her. Not pleasant at all..and having to leap out of the pile of babies, Mercury ducks and rolls to her feet. She just can't hurt those babies.. or perhaps she's taking a more supportive role for the moment.
With Ognian out of control, it's easy to pick him out. "I'm sorry... But you need a time out! Shabon Spray, FREEZING!" Bubbles suddenly flood towards Ognian.. but will he freeze solid.. or will his thick Jager coat prove to Mercury that indeed, she is incapable of such things!?
Ami Mizuno successfully targets Agatha Heterodyne with her STOP, hammer time action.
As for MagiRed himself, most of the battlefield's chaos goes unnoticed, wrapped as he is in his own clash. And although he's far from calm, the protection covering his body seems to have protected him from the strange, berzerker effect starting to take other members of the battlefield. However, he has his own set of problems to deal with. -He- doesn't have any particular problem with slashing at these deformed things -- but there's a lot of them, and only so many he can take in those long, arcing leaps, sword flashing and slashing left and right. Mercury's bubble, along with his own protective transformation, keeps him from taking the worst of the damage --
-- but his next glance down to said bubbler spies those long red slashes, the Sailor Senshi still kicking but visibly wounded. "Mercury! K'so.... this isn't getting me anywhere! Then I'll just attack them all at once!" Dropping down into a lower crouch on his next leap and crossing his arms over his chest, gripping his sword in one hand as the first and last fingers of his free hand extend outwards in a magical sign. "Flame, cover my body!" he intones. "Magi Magika... " Mercury's protective bubble suddenly vaporizing in the wake of his own power, a brilliant red-gold flame roaring into life over his form as he sweeps his arms outwards. " ....Red Fire!!"
The flaming form launching into the air once more, taking the appearance of nothing so much as a flaming bird of prey. Looking to sweep wings and talons in a wide, soaring arc that circles overhead, seeking to strike as many of those deformed Cupids as possible before swooping back down.
"Mercury! You okay?!" MagiRed's voice as the flames die out as he touches down, quickly moving to her side -- and then back-to-back, bringing his sword up to guard in both hands, looking for the opening to key point they'd discussed moments ago. Protecting her back now, and by default, with her protecting his.
Kai Ozu hits Emperor Time with his Reddo Faia! attack.
The mayhem continues. Demon babies what come from Hell are sliced, shaken, wrangled, and mauled. They fall to the ground, falling to pieces, and spectral images of the creatures they once were shine on briefly, before the monsters simply...reform, time literally rewinding. Those who miss strike in this time - their attacks literally passing through space that isn't occupied, yet is.
...but wait, that means--
"FOOLS!" thunders Emperor Time, emerging from an adjacent corridor with a group of clockwork his mecha-clocks. "An assault on the very center of my power!? Your audacity truly is superb! And I shall CRUSH YOU FOR IT! KILL THEM ALL!"
The Emperor of Time gestures to the whole attacking force with his staff, and the clocks behind him chime, "It's time...TO DIE!" in cheerful voices.
The hands on their clockfaces change to reflect dieing-o'clock, and then it's lasers for everyone, death descending upon all - even Emperor Time's own minions!
For a time, it seems as though that will be it for danger this round, until...
...until The Master hooks Haruhi Suzumiya up to mental horror.
This is a very good plan. The Suzumiya girl may no longer be Time's only power source, but her power is still not a trifling portion of what he is using. And her energies have always been highly susceptible to fluctuations of mood. Except...
A monstrous figure emerges slowly from the very air, twenty feet tall, vaguely humanoid, looking like nothing so much as a textbook cell that grew arms and legs. Its face nothing more than red splotches dashed on a shimmering blue frame.
It stares at The Master and Doctor Doom silently.
Then it punches them hard enough that the shockwave knocks the roof off, revealing the insane non-space sky that writhes above the castle.
And below, Emperor Time, witnessing this, shrieks in horror. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU FOOL! YOU INGRATE! YOU...DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?"
Emperor Time hits Urdnot Wrex with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Ami Mizuno with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Kai Ozu with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Agatha Heterodyne with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Johan Bryant with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Mercade Alexander with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Kevin Graham with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time hits Detritus with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on X-23 with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Christoph Schmidt with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time hits Sephi Graham with his TIME TO DIE attack.
You take 14 damage.
Emperor Time misses The Master with his This Was A Good Plan super.
Emperor Time hits Doctor Doom with his Except For The Part Where You Upset The Demigod Who Summons Horror Monsters When She's Upset super.
Lasers? This is good. Wrex knows lasers. His shields will actually have an effect on this, as he takes significantly less damage then when he was fighting the old man from hell. And his biotics are all up and running again, as he utilises his biotics to grab a hold of some of the clocks from afar. And throw them into whatever makes a good target. The other clocks, horrible monstrosities, mayeb even emperor time. Though, as he's diving for cover at the same time, accuracy isn't guaranteed.
Urdnot Wrex critically strikes Emperor Time with his See, Sci-Fi Deals Better With Lasers Than With Punching attack.
Little clock bots. THESE X-23 remembers. And she does NOT like them. Nope. Not one little bit. Espeically when they start attacking. These things sting like hell, even for someone with a healing factor. The injuries may heal, but it doesn't really help with the pain. So she decides to make them into even LITTLER bits. Clock cutlets! The claw in each foot extends, and then, she launches into the fray, all six claws flashing and slashing.
X-23 misses Emperor Time with her Clockwork Cutlets! Paragon's newest Delicacy! attack.
Sephi completely misses the Baby New Year on her arm as her knife passes right through it. She pauses a moment to consider this, then tries again to similar effect. Two attempts are hardly a good sample, however, and one last attempt to stab the demon baby in the head results.
"How bothersome," the Helspawn says. Looks like she'll just have to live with it biting off her arm for now-- she's reasonably sure that, once 2008 is restored, it will revert their more grievous injuries in thanks. She stoops back down to pick up the Spinner, only to notice that the thread is no longer merely glowing but PRACTICALLY ON FIRE.
That can't possibly be a good sign.
Before the Scion has a chance to call out to the others, Emperor Time makes his appearance, and the air is suddenly filled with lasers. This is actually well-timed, as she is able to use the demon babies chewing on her as some manner of living armor, hopefully searing off several of them in an act which would send her morality plummeting into Chaotic Evil territory if they were regular babies.
Unfortunately, it's still an AWFUL lot of lasers, and several manage to streak across the girl's body, living sizzling burn marks across her. Unfortunately, she's really not equipped to deal with clockwork soldiers-- all she can injure is biologicals, or at least abstract concepts masquerading as biological creatures. So what does Sephi do?
She keeps hiking up the tower, letting all of the real warriors deal with Time and the clockbots. She's curious what Doom rocketed up here to see, and is sure there's a reason that the smiling old man entrusted her with the Spinner that's not going to be found in the midst of combat.
You hit Emperor Time with your Burn, Baby, Burn! jab.
The chaos below gets barely a glance from Christoph. He's just going to have to assume they'll be able to handle it--there's little time to waste. He needs to ascend and...take care of whatever the hell is going on upstairs. More magic, more leaping, more bouncing around--forget about the stairs at this point, he's just jumping from platform to platform, slicing up arrows and babies along the way.
But even he has to stumble in alarm as a certain girl's fears manifests. Again, a moment of hesitation means he takes a good hit from one of the clocks. He snarls in pain--at least it jolts him out of his momentary hesitation. He braces against the shockwave, crouching low against the platform...then stares at the sky. "Was zum Teufel...that can't be right! The spectrum is--" It's probably at a time like this that he really wishes he didn't know so much about theoretical physics and the breaking of such.
He finally tears his eyes away from the wretched sight, to see Emperor Time screaming below.
Dilemma!
"Continuing upward!" he bellows into his radio link. And suddenly, he dissolves into a spray of lights...and reappears behind the blue giant. He darts forward, trying to spear the thing with Balmung and drive a gout of electrical energy into it.
Christoph Schmidt hits Emperor Time with his Blitzdorn attack.
Monsters are gone? Good. Rewinded? Odd. Then the Emperor shows up.
The lasers are activated, which pretty much blasts him right on the spot. As the clock bots release the lasers to pierce Johan, the young man gurgles hard, then he loads up on the hand-guns. Johan is not too pleased now.
He grits his teeth looks up the stairs. "Great." Johan loads a new Photon Art into the bullets. As the art is channeled up, Johan starts shooting the mini-guys, then his eyes narrow as he takes aim for none other than Emperor Time.
Sneer. While Johan continues to run up. Then he would jump from platform to platform. Both triggers are pulled, two rounds of the photons upward at the Emperor. ...Right below the belt.
Johan is a spiteful bastard.
Oh yeah, did we mention that the current photon art for the bullets penetrates?
Johan Bryant critically strikes Emperor Time with his Photon Art: Double P--... Wait. Sorry. It's called 'TWIN Penetration' attack.
Mecade lands next to Agatha, and the investigator tips his hat. "Hello, everyone. Did you miss me?" He chuckles.
And then Time shows up. "Finally." Mercade mutters. "Let's rock." He pulls his guns. He has no problem with shooting robots. He begins to dualie the robots, rapidfiring all over the place at the robots. They fire back, lasers burning into his clothing, but he grimaces, biting down the pain as he keeps going! "Hurry up and fix it!" Mercade says. "It's our only chance!"
Mercade Alexander hits Emperor Time with his Bangarang attack.
Kevin turns around to start towards the back, when the Emperor himself shows. He twists around to face forward, to find himself struck by a laser directly in the chest. This sends the priest staggering back, bringing a hand to where it was burned before he lifts his head up to look towards the weapon. He quickly steps back, and grabs hold of the small, mechanical device on his belt. It takes simply a mental command to boot it into action. It begins to draw large amounts of the Water element into the priest at this point. He quickly grabs hold of the rod with his other hand, and holds it upwards. The Artifact begins to glow brightly, shining with a golden color, before it quickly sends out another flicker of light- but not like before.
Kevin thrusts his other hand into the air, releasing the water-spell. And suddenly, there's a reaction from the Artifact. It seems to catch the effects of the spell, and he twists it through the air to release it outwards towards a specific group down below.
Water shimmers in the air above each of the individuals, and it suddenly shines with a gold light that increases the cold, but soothing power racing through each person. The Orbal Art seems to have been enhanced by the Artifact that Kevin's carrying.
Kevin Graham heals Ami Mizuno with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Urdnot Wrex with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Detritus with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Agatha Heterodyne with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Mercade Alexander with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
"... AB-SO-LUTELY NUH-FFIN'--!!" Detritus stops yelling at the top of his lungs (and/or their silicon-based equivalent) long enough to stare at the new combatants- the clockwork men from before!- that have started firing on the demon babies.
... not that it really matters much to him. For one thing, they're all enemies as far as Detritus can tell, and for another, his eyes are actually /glowing red/. The troll is about to rush down when the radio transmissions filter in-- people are moving upstairs, must deal with the giant, wait, giant? What giant?-- and he looks... up.
Aaah. Now THERE'S a nice, big target. And then the healing spell hits, showering Detritus with a magical power that knits up his wounds-- and cold-freezes his brain. Suddenly, training filters back into Detritus's brain- there's a big target upstairs. They're going to need the Piecemaker, which is basically a mobile siege engine, and they're DEFINITELY going to need a troll--
Shocked out of his unnatural rage, Detritus starts dashing towards the stairs, the large troll chugging along slowly for now as he builds up steam. Granted, the troll's inertia is almost legendary- once he gets rolling, he'll be thundering up the stairs and woe be whoever gets in his way. As he hits the stairs running, the troll swings the Piecemaker around at Emperor Time's clockwork minions, and pulls the trigger, sending another hail of shrapnel flying, before continuing to dash like mad. He's coming for you, Big Blue Giant...!!
Detritus hits Emperor Time with his Covering My Tracks! Maybe attack.
The pain is, as they say, exquisite.
<> intones Doom's armour as he is sent crashing through that which was once the roof of a castle. Blood seeps out the Latverian's left side - no Doombot this - and he places his left hand over the hole, waiting for his automated systems to seal the wound. He shakes his head softly at The Master - that's not quite what either of them had in mind, now was it? - and leaves the Time Lord to deal with the unstoppable raging force of nature for the time being.
He has another task for himself.
(Victor von Doom calls upon thee in the name of our covenant,) intones Doom in Latin, his left hand rising up, dripping dark and wet. He begins tracing arcane symbols in the air with his own blood, fire flaring as he trails his fingers in well-practiced movements, sketching out the design of a spell created for one purpose only: to slay the pretender beneath him. Twin arcs of red-black energy shoot out from the top and bottom of Doom's clenched left fist, symbols feeding power into what appears to be a sorcerous longbow made of pure baleful energy.
Doom's right hand touches the base of his left wrist and slowly draws back as he takes aim downward. (On and on through the oceans of history, only one measure may grant us direction in the endless seas, connecting past, present and future in an unbroken line. Upon this power do I call, that from which memory lingers and action springs.) A blazing crimson shaft forms as Doom channels sorcery into his right hand, pulling back to a locked position as he aims toward Emperor Time.
"I name thee Thought," he hisses in English as he releases the shaft. "The Arrow of Time."
Doctor Doom hits Emperor Time with his Killing Time super.
"Yes, as a matter of fact. Everything is basicly going according to plan." The Master replies languidly, as he simply is not when the spirit giant's fist strikes that particular point in space-time, casually brushing his hands off and looking down at the mad emperor. "I actually rather know what I'm doing, l'Emperur. You see, that is only the first part of the program..."
The music begins to change, now. The scenes of horror, of pain, of /guilt/, of the girl's own weaknesses leading to the first group of people she's ever been able to called "friends" collective doom...slowly, subtly, stops starring the Master, and begins starring someone entierly different.
Three guesses who.
"The way I see it." The Master continues, "Either she will learn a valuable lesson about how dangerous it is to pretend you are not what you are, or go so far into denial she shall forget this whole ordeal: either works into my plans, as either ends with...well, gosh."
The Master ticks off with his fingers, "You tied your ascension into this girl's diety-level reality alteration powers, you then reinforced it with back up temporal artifacts, but ultimately this still ties what you were able to do: survive past your appointed time, with the unconscious will of this little girl. So tell me, Emperor Time..." The Master smiles, an utterly...alien expression of satisfaction on his face, "...what happens when the godling you've made your lifeline forgets you exist?"
"Hey! Little girl!" The madman waves at Sephi, "Want a hand getting up?" The Master pulls out a paper sack. "Or a jellybaby?" Yes: He has candy in his pocket. He even drops a jellybaby down at Sephi. A /space/ jellybaby.
The Master heals Sephi Graham with his The Master Doesn't Get How This Might Be Creepy action.
You have 42 health restored.
"Don't worry Ryokai.." That's his name, right? He said so. "I'm alright!" With him moving to her side, Sailor Mercury moves back to back to MagiRed. Ready for anything.
Except DIE O CLOCK. Her visor shows a heavy amount of energy coming towards them, and mainly from her side. "Ryokai... don't move." She asks of him. Her hands coming up, gloves and all.. and well, lasers are coming down from all sides. But Mercury was able to do some calculations. Where she's standing is going to be where one of those blasts of lasers is coming down. But she's not moving either.
And then comes the scream, the lasers rampaging the senshi.. well, senshi were always the worst at tanking energy weapons! On a knee, Kai might notice that Mercury protected most of the lasers from her side.. with her body. Not the best choice. "We'll take care of them..."
Time to actually participate in this melee.. "Shining.. Aqua Illusion!" Smaller funnels of water spin around the senshi, before they're sent rocketing at some of the clock bots.. aiming to break the glass covers with high pressure water! Water shimmers over the Senshi as well.. and she seems much better after it, wounds healing up, power found anew. WHICH ALLOWS HER TO DO THIS.
AND THEN.
Posing, Sailor Mercury points towards Emperor Time. "Emperor Time... your use of holiday cheer and the happy thoughts for evil will be put to an end!" Small break. "In the name of the moon... We'll punish you!" ... ALTHOUGH.. Doom is doing a much better job.
Ami Mizuno juggles Emperor Time with her Shining Aqua Illusion combo.
Emperor Time breaks Ami Mizuno's combo.
Agatha has just begun to realize that there's not a whole lot she's going to be able to do to fix the device at this point. Her opinion on the matter is only confirmed by the fact that she's suddenly attacked by scores of little clocks that remind her a lot of her own dingbot army. Too bad she doesn't have them with her. So her call for help on the radio is quickly punctuated by a lot of "Ow!"s. What really stinks is that she's already disassembled her death ray, and thus must rely on the two Jägers who are not frozen or entirely mad--Maxim may have been hit by one of those arrows, but he keeps fighting the right enemies, not making enemies of his allies. It's just that he's evidently really, really angry now. And why not? He and Dimo can't seem to *hit* those crazy evil baby things, Agatha's been hurt, and they did something to Oggie that made him lose it.
Speaking of Ognian, he is even now struggling against Sailor Mercury's freeze attack. Cracks are forming in the ice, and he still looks nothing short of murderous, albeit gleeful.
Agatha realizes that she needs to do something, quickly. The Jägers are injured, and so is she. "Dimo! Maxim! The clock-clanks!" she directs. Oggie should be safely restrained, for now, and that magical healing spell did something that seems to have calmed him--not to mention Maxim--to their normal state during battle. Still disturbing, but tolerable.
She gives a quick grin to Mercade as he arrives, and then gives a nod. "Okay, I'll keep trying, but I don't know if I can!" With backup here--and a healing from Kevin, to whom she shouts a quick thanks--she resumes working all the harder, humming loudly over the sounds of battle, hands flying over wires and circuits as she tries to use the rest of her death ray to make the necessary repairs. She's GOT to do something.
Maxim and Dimo, in the heat of battle, start making their way through the clocks and toward Emperor Time, using both weapons and claws to drive their way forward. And Ognian? Well, he's starting to break free of the ice. With luck he really has calmed down.
Agatha Heterodyne hits Emperor Time with her VE FIGHT! attack.
The problem with the Master's plan is simply this:
There are others than Emperor Time who need Haruhi Suzumiya to not be in a universe-smashing humor.
The memory augmentation device, or at least the wires connecting it to Haruhi, in a sudden, unexpected turn of events...turns to dust.
... ...and then there's a duo of young women standing there, dressed in all-concealing black. One is staring at the Master like she wants his head to explode, or perhaps merely like his head is unusually British. The other, much taller, merely speaks with an almost eery kindness: "Thank you for helping us. Until his grip loosened some, we could not take action to free her ourselves. However...at this juncture, the damage you're doing is slightly superfluous, and correcting it beyond this point would be inefficient. So, we've taken the liberty of ending the operation prematurely."
The taller girl tilts her head, slightly. "I hope you don't mind."
The younger girl continues to stare. Like if she did it long enough, the Master would simply fall over.
Hell rains down, below. Johan's bolts smash - just as before - into a teleported minion, a clock shattering into a million pieces but failing to hit the Emperor. Mercade and Wrex go after the goons, smashing them with bullets and death; Detritus and Christoph quite wisely go hacking at the shins of the univese-smashing cosmic horror The Master just conjured through Haruhi - though with something happening above, it seems to have turned somehat docile, only making tentative swings. Sailor Mercury soaks Emperor Time's clock bots with water, the mystical assault literally causing their gears to rust to uselessness in an instant.
Jagers smash clocks. They're good at it.
And as it all happens...below, the Emperor of Time quivers, quakes....and then, is murdered by the power of Doctor Doom, his sorcerous energy destroying the Emperor utterly--
"THAT. IS. IT!! I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL! YOUR MORTAL BODIES WILL BE LESS THAN NOTHING! /TIME ITSELF/ WILL FORGET YOU EVER LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVED!!"
And with that, the Emperor of Time appears again, bleeding massively, his eyes wild, his body materializing upon the hourglass.
In Agatha's hands, the machine sparks to life, doing SOMETHING, winding rapidly out of control. The Spark will have just enough time to do some good, tweak SOME wire, before --
The demon babies shatter. The fat men disappear, the cupids melt...and that Blue Giant explodes, all of that holiday magic seeps down into the hour glass, and then siphons in around Emperor Time.
The world melts away in a sea of light...
...and as sight returns, there he stands.
Burning with radiant light, a perfect figure sculpted of clockwork and brass, a thirty feet tall robot with a perfect, smaller replica visible, standing in an alcove in its chest, all eyes blazing with malevolent light.
"... ... ... ..."
The figures hold one hand high.
"tick. burn."
And time rewinds, fast forwards, or jumps sideways, to make it so.
Emperor Time critically strikes Urdnot Wrex with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Ami Mizuno with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Kai Ozu with his burn attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Agatha Heterodyne with his burn attack.
Emperor Time misses Johan Bryant with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Mercade Alexander with his burn attack.
Emperor Time hits Kevin Graham with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Detritus with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes X-23 with his burn attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Christoph Schmidt with his burn attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Sephi Graham with his burn attack.
You take 15 damage.
Emperor Time critically strikes Doctor Doom with his burn attack.
Emperor Time misses The Master with his I Think You Made Yuki Slightly Less Neutral Than Usual action.
Emperor Time buffs his STA to +5.
Emperor Time buffs his AGI to -5.
Emperor Time buffs his POW to -3.
Doctor Doom resets his buff status to neutral.
X is burned. But she quickly drops and rolls to smother the flames, before getting some distance, letting her healing factor help her to recover from the damage. "These things are beyond annoying. Can't someone just kill the guy who made these things already?! she snaps.
X-23 heals X-23 with her Healing Factor in action action.
Holy crap ow! Is what Wrex would be saying if he could have gotten his jaw realigned. At the moment, however, the Krogan burns like almost everyone else. Oh for the evasion thing he'd heard so much about. But now, he raises his shotgun at the massive clockwork death creature, with a growl. And the end of the barrel starts glowing, holding briefly, and then firing.
As such, a giant ball of explosive death fires from the end of the shotgun, aimin to take down a leg of the monstrosity, and giving everyone else more points to fire at.
Urdnot Wrex hits Emperor Time with his Mastar Carnage super.
Doctor Doom's left hand coninues to drip blood as the bow and arrow fade away, his scarred flesh split by the power he struggled to command. The runes on Doom's armour flare red, defensive shielding coming online to counteract the effects of Emperor Time's manipulation - but the assault gets through, flames seeping into the forcefield and over the armour. Ever so slowly, the green clothing begins to burn away, Doom's armour absorbing the heat. A sickeningly sweet acrid smoke seeps out from the king of Latveria as his armour begins to cook him alive.
Doom laughs.
"Fool..." he chortles. "You IMPOTENT MAN-CHILD!" Doom screams, both hands shaking as he fights against the pain. "You think...this can stop me? I, who on midsummer's eve take the fight into the heart of a demon's realm? I, who battle Mephisto himself with souls as the currency?" The hands clench into squealing fists as Doom straightens. "I am Victor von Doom, and I have strode through the fires of Hell itself! I am Doom!" he roars. "AND DOOM SAYS YOU FALL!"
"DOOMBOTS!"
Doom's shock troops have borne the worst of his assault, but some dozen remain, leaping over the allied forces and swarming the thirty-foot mecha. Chestplates burst open to reveal hooklike protrusions that attempt to bite into the mecha's metal skin as Doom slowly folds his arms over his chest, tears pooling in his eyes at the smell of his own burnt flesh.
"My final creation," he intones gravely. "Each Doombot containing a Schrodinger black box, each primed with sufficient explosives to detonate the quantum field within and drive you who should have died two years ago outside of the timeline entirely. Behold," he says, his eyes narrowing in satisfaction. "Behold....the Time Bomb."
The faint sounds of cats screeching in mortal agony can be heard before time itself explodes.
Doctor Doom critically strikes Emperor Time with his SCIENCE! attack.
"Please." The Master snorts at Yuki, calmly matching her gaze with, well...
For a brief second, Yuki can see exactly what sort of monster the Master really is: burning worlds, twisted civilizations, wars that shatter whole galaxies, twisted mathematics swirling around a guardian of what Should Be being perverted into a madman after what he Wills It To Be, the pulsing, agonizing drum beat, the same basic call inside the mind and heart of every sentient race, the call to war, the thirst for conquest, the blood-soaked rainbow of glory, the horrible possibility that, in his own way, something like the Master is as needed as something like the Doctor...
"Don't play a player, girl." The Master snorts, gently pushing her aside. "Even if I couldn't just melt your damn tounge before you could finish one of your equation-incantations, the fact remains that the whole reason you're angry is because, deep down, you're starting to realize that you're not all that much better than Emperor Time."
"At least I'm /honest/ about being a heartless, manipulative user with no interest in anyone's well being but my own." The Master continues, calmly working to pick the girl up while the Emperor's distracted. "I mean, really. Pretending to be a lonley little girl's friend? Feeding her dellusions while ensuring that she never finds her heart's desire? Damn! I wish I had thought of that first, you know?"
"I'll be leaving now." The Master smiles, again. "I'm pretty sure Doom's bomb'll kill her, too. I'll give them back unharmed, unless you are foolish enough to come after me. Good evening."
Now, while Johan had been ascending up the platforms, his eyes lift up to stare forth at the sight of what is going on above. So, it looks like that things up the stairs is going alright. That is a good thing in a way.
What is not a good thing, however, is the fact that Emperor Time is finally noticed and he finally creates a beautiful light show. This.... is not good.
"Great." Johan's eyes narrow, then he extends his right hand forward to activate the barrier of his line shield. Once that shield glows and resonates, the raw power of the light flourishes over the man as the burning sensation -halts- right before him.
Soon, Johan is deftly activating his goggles once more, utilizing it to pinpoint a weakpoint to fire at.
Scanning...
Scanning...
(X) (Emperor Time)
(Emperor Time) (X)
(Emperor(X)Time)
[+]
Johan, fortunately, takes careful aim of the mechanical monstrosity before he switches the element of Earth.
"I said this before. Follow the advice: Cease to exist---" As the time ripples itself, Johan's eyes widen and he hisses as the explosion nearly causes him to lose focus. Now! Johan! Now! This may screw up his shot, but Johan attempts to aim for that spot that is a good point.
He pulls the trigger, releasing three rounds from his rifle.
You paged Emperor Time with 'I think I'm trying to play up the fact that my character is an intelligence build. I have a mysterious device and am trying to BS a use for it in a scene that I otherwise have no place being in. :('
You paged Emperor Time with 'Since we skipped straight to the main room instead of having a chance to let Sephi be the compass through the fortress that was implied would be her role yesterday. :('
Johan Bryant misses Emperor Time with his Weak Point Shot super.
Fire. A lot of fire. Christoph is arrested in mid-hack when the giant explodes. Instinctively, as the shock lashes out at him, he vanishes from his spot, reappearing a moment later on the underside of the platform, using it as a shield against the wash of energy.
Of course, it also means that he starts to fall, since he is hanging in midair. Hurriedly, he kicks off the wall, starting to plummet downward toward the ground. But then he poofs again, reappearing on the opposite side, and uses his sideways momentum to ram Balmung into the wall there as deeply as he can manage, hanging from the handle with both hands, trying to slow his fall. He is wincing just slightly at the bright light. And when his vision clears.... "Running out of swear words," he mutters, and teleports yet again. Time and space are inextricably linked: Christoph cannot affect time, as such, but he can bend space. He manages to dodge the worst of the burn, and reappears on another platform, much lower down, with a slightly singed Barrier Jacket.
He straightens up, eyeing the giant creature flatly. "Well, then. How do they say...suck on this." He raises Balmung in both hands, concentrates. The blade becomes limned in flames, electricity, pulsing waves of sound...just about everything. The tine of the crossguard begins to hum like a plucked string. He coils like a spring, leaps, and comes down like a rusty Teutonic railroad spike lit on fire. Who's just been informed that the keg has run dry.
Christoph Schmidt hits Emperor Time with his RachsEhtig Zorn super.
As time begins to rip and tear around the priest, he suddenly collapses to his knees, his voice letting out an almost inhuman scream. He sets both arms in front of him, and he's actually shaking a bit- but not so much from pain, rather the sheer reaction of the energy to his body. There's even flickers of that terrible mark threatening to show itself again- however, this time, Kevin's fully mentally aware of just /what/ is happening within his own psyche. He's struggling to keep it under control. ...however, that same black and violet aura continues to surround him. Eventually collapses to the ground, breathing heavily- but having surprisingly handled the attack. He lifts his head, looking towards the Emperor.
He had considered assistance. He had considered boosting others... however, that hurt- more than just physically, but his senses are all skewed- his mind is reeling and he's not doing all too well after having such a thing thrown at him. As such, when the priest stands, he's not engulfed in the power from the Stigma... But he is still surrounded by that deep, malevolent aura.
Taking a step back and slipping the rod into his belt, Kevin braces himself before he takes a flying leap from the railing he had been standing on, pitching himself over the battlefield with the Emperor. The priest twists in the air so that he's diving towards the ground, removing the Bowgun from his belt. He levels it out with his other hand out ahead of him.
Narrowing his eyes, Kevin says quietly, his voice barely a whisper, "....fall into Gehenna and burn, you monstrosity." Squeezing the trigger of the bowgun and sending all the force charged into him and back towards the Emperor.
Kevin Graham gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with his Sometimes- there are those little moments when someone can break through and deal damage with that same element. Is this one of them? attack.
Kevin Graham successfully targets Kevin Graham with his Is this also a moment when Kevin can somehow miraculously land on his feet? action.
Detritus's brief burst of cooled-down intelligence dissipates as he chugs up the stairs, the heat causing him to go back to normal. Of course, that doesn't particularly matter, because the giant disappears, causing Detritus to pause, less than halfway up the tower... and Emperor Time himself reappears, looking somewhat worse for wear.
As Emperor Time suits up in his giant-robot-within-a-giant-robot, The troll scratches his head before reaching up to flick the switch on his cooling helmet; the fan starts whirring immediately, cooling his head by one or two degrees. "Is dis der part where we read him his rights?" Detritus asks to no one in particular.
Turning on the cooling helmet just might have saved Detritus's life, because the blazing fire that time-skips around him-- desert heat at its worse and volcanic firestorm rolled into one-- is almost enough to shut down his silicon-based brain and send him spiraling into a coma. Almost. The troll is slammed down to one knee, but that's as far as he goes-- head spinning, "feelin' kinda fick," and way too hot all over, Detritus knuckles his way back into a standing position, squints in semi-incomprehension at the Piecemaker (which is a bit too complicated for Detritus to reload right now), and puts it aside. The troll stumbles a step back, woozily gauges the distance...
... gets a running start...
... and LEAPS straight at Emperor Time's robot, aiming to hit the miniature guy inside with a flying tacklel.
Detritus misses Emperor Time with his CANNONBAAAAAAAAAALL super.
It's over... it seems at least.. the bleeding, pained body of Emperor Time. It's horrible, but it's what needed to happen. The babies are gone, so are the fat men.. and it looks like he's been punished before anything else happened. Mercury lets her guard down.
And that's when the perfect figure of clockwork, a thirty foot tall robot stands .. and.. is this what is left of him? Time rewinds, as it were, to when that laser blast struck her.. perhaps standing in the way wasn't a good idea anymore. The pain again causes her to fall to a knee, but she gets back up, and while she's mostly out of it.. aims to help out.
Even if it's a re-use! "Shabon Spray... FREEZING!" Aiming to freeze some of the gears in the Time Giant's legs, in an attempt to weaken his structure.. the bubbles of ice aim to coat the legs. It's not going to be the strongest... but at the same time... it'll potentially help out!
"To use such good things for your evil whims.." The senshi starts. "But love justice will always be there to oppose them!" Apparently Mako-chan might've been helping her just a bit!
Ami Mizuno hits Emperor Time with her Re-using Filters for the extra drawn out battle attack.
Detritus hmmms calmly to himself as he hurtles down past the robot. "... on hindsight, dis are not der best idea."
"Stop missing the stationary target!" The Master shouts, "Gah! Do-gooders. Can't even finish an evil emperor off properly."
"Feelin' fick, dat are not too helpful to seein' distan--" /TWHUD/. "Ow."
Yellow eyes dart at The Master as Johan mutters a few words of disgust.
"I don't think I did that," Agatha says, when suddenly the machine goes out of control. She manages to tweak the wiring just a little, but it isn't much. And then there's a huge flare of light, causing her to cover her eyes and stumble backward, feeling as if she's on fire. She is shoved right back into Oggie, whom the fire has melted mostly free. The impact loosens the ice the rest of the way, and the blonde Jäger bursts loose with a "RAAAAAAGH!"
The other two Jägers ahead are still crashing and crushing their way toward Emperor Time when he suddenly reappears elsewhere, as a giant clank. "It's a giant klenk!" Maxim observes. "Ve gotta protect de Mistress!" And the two change directions, rushing at Emperor Time yet again.
Vision returning, Agatha sees the huge form of Emperor Time. "I /know/ I didn't do that! He turned himself into a giant clank! That's no fair!"
"Hy'm so sorry, Miztrezz! Don't vorry, hyu Jägerkin vill protect hyu now!" Ognian assures Agatha. So he IS sane again. "Ve gots a klenk to smash! RRAAAAAAAAR!" With that, he rushes at the huge Emperor Time robot with the other three Jägers, halberd swinging.
Unlike the Jägerkin, Agatha isn't adapting too well to the rapid fluctuations in time. She's not sure who she is or where she is or what she's supposed to be doing now. It doesn't seem as if messing with the machinery is going to be much help anymore, unless there's some kind of control device for the giant clank. That doesn't look likely. So she tries to run for cover with her allies. "Don't shoot at the Jägers!" she calls, grabbing the remainder of her death ray and her tools as she goes. She might just have something up her sleeves after all. "I'll try and figure out where the main control unit is on the big clank so you can aim at that!" And she proceeds to try to take a circuitous route around the huge Emperor Time machine, checking for anything that looks like it might be important enough to target.
Agatha Heterodyne gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with her Ve Gots A Klenk To Smash! attack.
Mercade sighs as he is healed, the burns vanishing from him. "Tingly." He comments, and then turns to look up in shock. "OH CRAP!" Mercade yells. "HE'S REVEALED HIS TRUE FORM!" He glances about in panic, and mutters, raising his guns... And then shakes his head, holstering them. "This isn't going to work..."
Time passes...
"OH ZEUS, I'M ON FIRE!" Mercade screams, immolating abruptly. He stops, drops, and rolls, however, putting himself out. "I HATE it when people do that." Mercade grimaces, looking around for something, ANYTHING, that might help...
And he smiles. He leaps up, climbing up the hourglass machine, before scurrying around, grabbing onto a cable and swinging around back behind the Emperor Time Mech. "You know what they say..." Mercade says, as he leaps off and onto the back of the mecha. Carefully, he pulls out a bag, and loosens the ties, before dumping it into the gearworks. Swirling, sparkly sand!?
"Nothing wrecks a clockwork like grit in the gears."
Mercade Alexander juggles Emperor Time with his GRIND GRIND GRIND combo.
Mercade Alexander juggles Emperor Time with his GRIND GRIND GRIND combo.
Mercade Alexander juggles Emperor Time with his GRIND GRIND GRIND combo.
Emperor Time breaks Mercade Alexander's combo.
Sephi looks up as she's called down to by a mysterious man who is suddenly throwing candy at her. She sticks out her hand to catch it, and misses, the candy landing on the ground at her feet. Not one to be bothered by such petty concerns as uncleanliness or food poisoning, she picks up the candy off of the ground and pops it into her mouth without a second thought.
It tastes okay to her.
"I am afraid all I can do is walk up," she responds to the Master, glancing up at him as she continues to pick her way through Wrex-induced rubble. "I lack the ability to travel through air, space, or time, and are thus limited to more mundane methods of transportation."
SUDDENLY! The world melts into brilliant nothingness, and then returns. Sephi is not sure what has just happened, looking over the edge and finding out in very short order that Emperor Time is now a mechanical construct riding inside of a much larger mechanical construct. "Oh, that's different," she observes cooly before--
tick.
--abruptly being ON FIRE. Well, not literally. Or maybe literally, just for a moment. Time magic is hard to quantify in such three-dimensional ways. Sephi is certainly feeling a little crispy, though, but she's experienced much worse. Really, the only apparent effect is that her normally pale-blue skin is starting to turn an angry red as her blood rushes to the surface to repair the cellular damage.
Sadly, there is absolutely nothing Sephi can do to Emperor Time at this point. Now that he has turned to brass, her Health Boons matter little, and she doesn't have the strenght to engage in melee combat even if she WAS in range. All she has is this stupid Spinner from the smiling old man, that reacts on one end to Time's presense...
...
Wait a tick. The old man, he said that Spinners usally move time. The red end of this one glows when Emperor Time is near, which probably means that it's related to him somehow. Move Time's time...?
"...there's nothing better to do," the Helspawn says aloud. She looks over the edge of the platform again, judging the distance from here to Time. She's reasonably far up, but not so far that the fall would kill her, not with her superhuman endurance. And if she gets her velocity right, she thinks she's got the proper arc of descent from here.
Tucking the Spinner underneath of her arm, Sephi takes a few steps back and a deep breath. She then runs forward and LEAPS off of the edge, freefalling for a few seconds and landing RIGHT ON TOP of Emperor Time and his giant Time Machine... thing.
Here's hoping she's got this thing figured out right! Quickly tying the brilliantly glowing red string around a portruding pipe, Sephi holds onto the blue string, whose true purpose is unknown to her, and prays for the best as the Spinner begins to glow a brilliant white.
You buff your POW to +5.
"I think," says the taller intruder to the Master, not even bothering to stop him as he hefts God like a sack of potatoes, "that you think too highly of yourself."
But she doesn't intervene. Instead she says, "We'll be waiting. If you don't bring her back soon..."
A smile, visible even beneath black cloth. "Well. You should."
The girls simply vanish, dissipating like wraiths.
And below, the people of the world show Emperor Time just what they think of how big a tool he is. Wrex's blast doesn't actually take the leg OFF, but it does tear it OPEN, allowing all sorts of horror to be unloaded upon the clockwork inside. Christoph's attack sinks into the gears, sheering long strips of brass off. Kevin's attempt to use sorcerous bowgun shots don't take much, but they do work a little...at the least, they work better than poor Detritus' attempt to cannonball, which ends hilariously poorly as he flies right on past and possibly lands in a wall.
Ami bombards it with ice and frost, freezing up gears and armor just enough for Agatha's Jagers to go smash things, which is good because Jagers are good at smashing things.
Mercade does something horrible and Timegodbot actually emits a sound of pain as its gears grind, grind, grind... ...
...the sand is ground to nothing.
Johan's blast attack hits the Timebot right in the chest, and does nothing whatsoever, Time itself bending the shot back around to nail Johan right in the face.
And then time rewinds, and the blast swings back around to shoot at EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ROOM.
Emperor Time hits Urdnot Wrex with his BLAME JOHAN attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Ami Mizuno with his deathrays from someone else warped through time attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Agatha Heterodyne with his BLAME JOHAN attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Johan Bryant with his BLAME CANADA attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Mercade Alexander with his or...something like that attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Kevin Graham with his MAGICAL TIME ATTACKS R US attack.
Emperor Time hits X-23 with his I'm telling you this makes perfect sense attack.
Emperor Time hits Christoph Schmidt with his No seriously it does attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Sephi Graham with his Close-Ranged Snipe attack.
You take 9 damage.
Emperor Time successfully targets The Master with his Smiley Interface Implying Kneecap Breaking action.
Emperor Time hits Detritus with his FALLING DAMAGE super.
Christoph Schmidt, Doctor Doom, and Urdnot Wrex need tags.
WHERE: The Fortress of Time
WHAT: The call goes out: Emperor Time's shenanigans must be ended, once and for all!
WATCH FOR: Baby wrangling, Space jelly babies, Giant Robots, CANNONBALL, SOS Brigade Cameos, The Master getting all of the good one-liners,
"Almost..." And then, he's jumped by a demon baby.
"This..." The Master's eyes gleam with some unholy energy, "I am treated as a SIDE NOTE?!" The mad Time Lord thunders, grabbing the demon child by its empty eyesockets, lifting it into the air and, as the drum beat hit its twisted crescendo, he...
...he...
...a minute later, the Master, hands bloody, emerges from the shadows, panting with the effort of it all. The fluxuations of energy attract the Master's attention, and the sinister man looks up to confirm that, yes, Doom's gotten the entrance ready. The Master procedes to step into a shadow...
...and just happened to be standing behind Doom's cloak the whole time. "If you want a motto, you can just form your own evil team." The Master suguests, before turning to see Haruhi, even now, protected by her denial. She's...
"You make me /sick/." The Master snaps, suddenly, stomping forward the girl in the machine. "I studied your past. I read your little boyfriend's mind. He TOLD YOU. He did for you what..." The Master's eyes close as he remembers the gunshot, the simpering little voice, the kind, loving eyes, "...someone would not do for me. How dare you. How DARE you let yourself be manipulated like this?! Let those you claim to care about be in danger like this?! Deny the truth of your nature, embrace the mundanity you waste so much of your time rejecting!"
"This." The Master intones, grimly, holding a small, beeping device about the size of an MP3 player. "Is what happens when you lie to yourself, young woman. Even if you survive this, after all...who's to say I'll give him back?" He attaches the memory recorder to the side of the girl's temple, his grin twisted into something sadistic, cruel...'evil', simpler, more honest souls might say. "And who's to say he'll be the same, loveable goon you seem to need so badly if you do manage it? Because, little girl, you're not the only one allowed to look at the deck. Welcome to the multiverse."
The Master gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with his Off Screen For Reasons Of Taste jab.
"NO!" Agatha shrieks again at X-23. "Now we can't shut it down!" But, she has to do something. "Maxim, Dimo, keep Oggie and the monsters at bay as well as you can. I don't want to be killed by my own bodyguard, and I've got to try to rewire the device before we're all killed by these monsters! Some of them may not be warped yet and we can save them!" To X-23, she says, "Get away from the console NOW," in her commanding madvoice. "Leave it to me!" With that, she sets to work, humming for all she's worth as if that will make her think faster and better. Lives are at stake.
Maxim and Dimo are trying their very best to keep Ognian away from the Mistress--not to mention X-23, whom he seems just as happily eager to try to take on with that halberd of his. But Ognian is no pansy, and he's fighting back against both of them while making headway toward Agatha. "Hyu iz goink to stop de fightink and ruin our fon, iz hyu? Hy von't /keel/ hyu. Jost put hyu to sleep for vhile." And he advances with a nasty grin. But before he can attack Agatha as well as the other Jägers, he's forced into defensive mode by the attacking DEMON BABIES. Not that they stop him for long, because then he lunges at Maxim and Dimo again while they're still distracted.
All this time, Agatha keeps working away, trying to reattach wires here, rearrange them there, just to stop the monsters coming. Not once has she put that death ray into use; in fact, now she's taking it apart to use its parts to do whatever it is she's trying to do to stop the machine. Better hope there aren't any explosions.
Agatha Heterodyne misses Emperor Time with her Vell Normally Ve Don't Hit Babiez, But Ve'll Make Dis An Exception attack.
Agatha Heterodyne gets a glancing blow on Agatha Heterodyne with her Vy For Iz Oggie Attackink De Jägerkin?! attack.
Just when he was defusing one of them, Mercade suddenly gets a Bad Feeling 'Bout 'Dis. A single question flashes through his mind:
What is unexpected?
Reacting in a blur, Mercade turns and snaps up the Demon Baby, looping a hand around to hold it by the diaper. The other is held similarly, one in each hand. Man, now he's got two? "How am I going to deal with this?" Mercade mutters. "I can't hurt them. They're babies. Horrible mutant babies, but that's because some idiot pushed buttons they shouldn't have." He turns, looking around, and spots a pendulum clock. Mercade's eyes light up, and he quickly runs over to it, fiddling with it.
Mercade then walks away, whistling and dusting his hands off. The two babies are rocked back and forth, their diapers tied to the pendulum on the clock. "Now... let's go!" Mercade takes a running start, and launches himself off of the platform, catching onto a cable and swinging down towards the massive machine in the center of the room.
Mercade Alexander gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with his Dexterity+Baby-Wrangling? Is That Even A Skill? attack.
The chemical's working against Ami, everyone's angry, but Mercury has a different way of doing things. She doesn't ever let herself spread about.. but inside, she's angry at herself. She doesn't need to be outwardly angry to be angry. She helped him, that is, MagiRed. But she's not even nearly able to take care of herself, and as MagiRed throws himself in the way.. at first it's fine. He was helping..
But now she's angry that he's putting herself on the line for her. That she's causing him some problems, and perhaps then some. But she doesn't act outwards towards it. She's got to help stop a wild Jager, even if she at the moment doesn't believe she can. And as she goes?
DEMON BABIES. Running through them, she kicks them off as they lunge, some beginning to bite and slash.. it's painful, but she pulls through. There are more marks against her. Not pleasant at all..and having to leap out of the pile of babies, Mercury ducks and rolls to her feet. She just can't hurt those babies.. or perhaps she's taking a more supportive role for the moment.
With Ognian out of control, it's easy to pick him out. "I'm sorry... But you need a time out! Shabon Spray, FREEZING!" Bubbles suddenly flood towards Ognian.. but will he freeze solid.. or will his thick Jager coat prove to Mercury that indeed, she is incapable of such things!?
Ami Mizuno successfully targets Agatha Heterodyne with her STOP, hammer time action.
As for MagiRed himself, most of the battlefield's chaos goes unnoticed, wrapped as he is in his own clash. And although he's far from calm, the protection covering his body seems to have protected him from the strange, berzerker effect starting to take other members of the battlefield. However, he has his own set of problems to deal with. -He- doesn't have any particular problem with slashing at these deformed things -- but there's a lot of them, and only so many he can take in those long, arcing leaps, sword flashing and slashing left and right. Mercury's bubble, along with his own protective transformation, keeps him from taking the worst of the damage --
-- but his next glance down to said bubbler spies those long red slashes, the Sailor Senshi still kicking but visibly wounded. "Mercury! K'so.... this isn't getting me anywhere! Then I'll just attack them all at once!" Dropping down into a lower crouch on his next leap and crossing his arms over his chest, gripping his sword in one hand as the first and last fingers of his free hand extend outwards in a magical sign. "Flame, cover my body!" he intones. "Magi Magika... " Mercury's protective bubble suddenly vaporizing in the wake of his own power, a brilliant red-gold flame roaring into life over his form as he sweeps his arms outwards. " ....Red Fire!!"
The flaming form launching into the air once more, taking the appearance of nothing so much as a flaming bird of prey. Looking to sweep wings and talons in a wide, soaring arc that circles overhead, seeking to strike as many of those deformed Cupids as possible before swooping back down.
"Mercury! You okay?!" MagiRed's voice as the flames die out as he touches down, quickly moving to her side -- and then back-to-back, bringing his sword up to guard in both hands, looking for the opening to key point they'd discussed moments ago. Protecting her back now, and by default, with her protecting his.
Kai Ozu hits Emperor Time with his Reddo Faia! attack.
The mayhem continues. Demon babies what come from Hell are sliced, shaken, wrangled, and mauled. They fall to the ground, falling to pieces, and spectral images of the creatures they once were shine on briefly, before the monsters simply...reform, time literally rewinding. Those who miss strike in this time - their attacks literally passing through space that isn't occupied, yet is.
...but wait, that means--
"FOOLS!" thunders Emperor Time, emerging from an adjacent corridor with a group of clockwork his mecha-clocks. "An assault on the very center of my power!? Your audacity truly is superb! And I shall CRUSH YOU FOR IT! KILL THEM ALL!"
The Emperor of Time gestures to the whole attacking force with his staff, and the clocks behind him chime, "It's time...TO DIE!" in cheerful voices.
The hands on their clockfaces change to reflect dieing-o'clock, and then it's lasers for everyone, death descending upon all - even Emperor Time's own minions!
For a time, it seems as though that will be it for danger this round, until...
...until The Master hooks Haruhi Suzumiya up to mental horror.
This is a very good plan. The Suzumiya girl may no longer be Time's only power source, but her power is still not a trifling portion of what he is using. And her energies have always been highly susceptible to fluctuations of mood. Except...
A monstrous figure emerges slowly from the very air, twenty feet tall, vaguely humanoid, looking like nothing so much as a textbook cell that grew arms and legs. Its face nothing more than red splotches dashed on a shimmering blue frame.
It stares at The Master and Doctor Doom silently.
Then it punches them hard enough that the shockwave knocks the roof off, revealing the insane non-space sky that writhes above the castle.
And below, Emperor Time, witnessing this, shrieks in horror. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU FOOL! YOU INGRATE! YOU...DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?"
Emperor Time hits Urdnot Wrex with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Ami Mizuno with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Kai Ozu with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Agatha Heterodyne with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Johan Bryant with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Mercade Alexander with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Kevin Graham with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time hits Detritus with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on X-23 with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Christoph Schmidt with his TIME TO DIE attack.
Emperor Time hits Sephi Graham with his TIME TO DIE attack.
You take 14 damage.
Emperor Time misses The Master with his This Was A Good Plan super.
Emperor Time hits Doctor Doom with his Except For The Part Where You Upset The Demigod Who Summons Horror Monsters When She's Upset super.
Lasers? This is good. Wrex knows lasers. His shields will actually have an effect on this, as he takes significantly less damage then when he was fighting the old man from hell. And his biotics are all up and running again, as he utilises his biotics to grab a hold of some of the clocks from afar. And throw them into whatever makes a good target. The other clocks, horrible monstrosities, mayeb even emperor time. Though, as he's diving for cover at the same time, accuracy isn't guaranteed.
Urdnot Wrex critically strikes Emperor Time with his See, Sci-Fi Deals Better With Lasers Than With Punching attack.
Little clock bots. THESE X-23 remembers. And she does NOT like them. Nope. Not one little bit. Espeically when they start attacking. These things sting like hell, even for someone with a healing factor. The injuries may heal, but it doesn't really help with the pain. So she decides to make them into even LITTLER bits. Clock cutlets! The claw in each foot extends, and then, she launches into the fray, all six claws flashing and slashing.
X-23 misses Emperor Time with her Clockwork Cutlets! Paragon's newest Delicacy! attack.
Sephi completely misses the Baby New Year on her arm as her knife passes right through it. She pauses a moment to consider this, then tries again to similar effect. Two attempts are hardly a good sample, however, and one last attempt to stab the demon baby in the head results.
"How bothersome," the Helspawn says. Looks like she'll just have to live with it biting off her arm for now-- she's reasonably sure that, once 2008 is restored, it will revert their more grievous injuries in thanks. She stoops back down to pick up the Spinner, only to notice that the thread is no longer merely glowing but PRACTICALLY ON FIRE.
That can't possibly be a good sign.
Before the Scion has a chance to call out to the others, Emperor Time makes his appearance, and the air is suddenly filled with lasers. This is actually well-timed, as she is able to use the demon babies chewing on her as some manner of living armor, hopefully searing off several of them in an act which would send her morality plummeting into Chaotic Evil territory if they were regular babies.
Unfortunately, it's still an AWFUL lot of lasers, and several manage to streak across the girl's body, living sizzling burn marks across her. Unfortunately, she's really not equipped to deal with clockwork soldiers-- all she can injure is biologicals, or at least abstract concepts masquerading as biological creatures. So what does Sephi do?
She keeps hiking up the tower, letting all of the real warriors deal with Time and the clockbots. She's curious what Doom rocketed up here to see, and is sure there's a reason that the smiling old man entrusted her with the Spinner that's not going to be found in the midst of combat.
You hit Emperor Time with your Burn, Baby, Burn! jab.
The chaos below gets barely a glance from Christoph. He's just going to have to assume they'll be able to handle it--there's little time to waste. He needs to ascend and...take care of whatever the hell is going on upstairs. More magic, more leaping, more bouncing around--forget about the stairs at this point, he's just jumping from platform to platform, slicing up arrows and babies along the way.
But even he has to stumble in alarm as a certain girl's fears manifests. Again, a moment of hesitation means he takes a good hit from one of the clocks. He snarls in pain--at least it jolts him out of his momentary hesitation. He braces against the shockwave, crouching low against the platform...then stares at the sky. "Was zum Teufel...that can't be right! The spectrum is--" It's probably at a time like this that he really wishes he didn't know so much about theoretical physics and the breaking of such.
He finally tears his eyes away from the wretched sight, to see Emperor Time screaming below.
Dilemma!
"Continuing upward!" he bellows into his radio link. And suddenly, he dissolves into a spray of lights...and reappears behind the blue giant. He darts forward, trying to spear the thing with Balmung and drive a gout of electrical energy into it.
Christoph Schmidt hits Emperor Time with his Blitzdorn attack.
Monsters are gone? Good. Rewinded? Odd. Then the Emperor shows up.
The lasers are activated, which pretty much blasts him right on the spot. As the clock bots release the lasers to pierce Johan, the young man gurgles hard, then he loads up on the hand-guns. Johan is not too pleased now.
He grits his teeth looks up the stairs. "Great." Johan loads a new Photon Art into the bullets. As the art is channeled up, Johan starts shooting the mini-guys, then his eyes narrow as he takes aim for none other than Emperor Time.
Sneer. While Johan continues to run up. Then he would jump from platform to platform. Both triggers are pulled, two rounds of the photons upward at the Emperor. ...Right below the belt.
Johan is a spiteful bastard.
Oh yeah, did we mention that the current photon art for the bullets penetrates?
Johan Bryant critically strikes Emperor Time with his Photon Art: Double P--... Wait. Sorry. It's called 'TWIN Penetration' attack.
Mecade lands next to Agatha, and the investigator tips his hat. "Hello, everyone. Did you miss me?" He chuckles.
And then Time shows up. "Finally." Mercade mutters. "Let's rock." He pulls his guns. He has no problem with shooting robots. He begins to dualie the robots, rapidfiring all over the place at the robots. They fire back, lasers burning into his clothing, but he grimaces, biting down the pain as he keeps going! "Hurry up and fix it!" Mercade says. "It's our only chance!"
Mercade Alexander hits Emperor Time with his Bangarang attack.
Kevin turns around to start towards the back, when the Emperor himself shows. He twists around to face forward, to find himself struck by a laser directly in the chest. This sends the priest staggering back, bringing a hand to where it was burned before he lifts his head up to look towards the weapon. He quickly steps back, and grabs hold of the small, mechanical device on his belt. It takes simply a mental command to boot it into action. It begins to draw large amounts of the Water element into the priest at this point. He quickly grabs hold of the rod with his other hand, and holds it upwards. The Artifact begins to glow brightly, shining with a golden color, before it quickly sends out another flicker of light- but not like before.
Kevin thrusts his other hand into the air, releasing the water-spell. And suddenly, there's a reaction from the Artifact. It seems to catch the effects of the spell, and he twists it through the air to release it outwards towards a specific group down below.
Water shimmers in the air above each of the individuals, and it suddenly shines with a gold light that increases the cold, but soothing power racing through each person. The Orbal Art seems to have been enhanced by the Artifact that Kevin's carrying.
Kevin Graham heals Ami Mizuno with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Urdnot Wrex with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Detritus with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Agatha Heterodyne with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
Kevin Graham heals Mercade Alexander with his Orbal Arts - Water - La-Tearal - Enhanced action.
"... AB-SO-LUTELY NUH-FFIN'--!!" Detritus stops yelling at the top of his lungs (and/or their silicon-based equivalent) long enough to stare at the new combatants- the clockwork men from before!- that have started firing on the demon babies.
... not that it really matters much to him. For one thing, they're all enemies as far as Detritus can tell, and for another, his eyes are actually /glowing red/. The troll is about to rush down when the radio transmissions filter in-- people are moving upstairs, must deal with the giant, wait, giant? What giant?-- and he looks... up.
Aaah. Now THERE'S a nice, big target. And then the healing spell hits, showering Detritus with a magical power that knits up his wounds-- and cold-freezes his brain. Suddenly, training filters back into Detritus's brain- there's a big target upstairs. They're going to need the Piecemaker, which is basically a mobile siege engine, and they're DEFINITELY going to need a troll--
Shocked out of his unnatural rage, Detritus starts dashing towards the stairs, the large troll chugging along slowly for now as he builds up steam. Granted, the troll's inertia is almost legendary- once he gets rolling, he'll be thundering up the stairs and woe be whoever gets in his way. As he hits the stairs running, the troll swings the Piecemaker around at Emperor Time's clockwork minions, and pulls the trigger, sending another hail of shrapnel flying, before continuing to dash like mad. He's coming for you, Big Blue Giant...!!
Detritus hits Emperor Time with his Covering My Tracks! Maybe attack.
The pain is, as they say, exquisite.
<> intones Doom's armour as he is sent crashing through that which was once the roof of a castle. Blood seeps out the Latverian's left side - no Doombot this - and he places his left hand over the hole, waiting for his automated systems to seal the wound. He shakes his head softly at The Master - that's not quite what either of them had in mind, now was it? - and leaves the Time Lord to deal with the unstoppable raging force of nature for the time being.
He has another task for himself.
(Victor von Doom calls upon thee in the name of our covenant,) intones Doom in Latin, his left hand rising up, dripping dark and wet. He begins tracing arcane symbols in the air with his own blood, fire flaring as he trails his fingers in well-practiced movements, sketching out the design of a spell created for one purpose only: to slay the pretender beneath him. Twin arcs of red-black energy shoot out from the top and bottom of Doom's clenched left fist, symbols feeding power into what appears to be a sorcerous longbow made of pure baleful energy.
Doom's right hand touches the base of his left wrist and slowly draws back as he takes aim downward. (On and on through the oceans of history, only one measure may grant us direction in the endless seas, connecting past, present and future in an unbroken line. Upon this power do I call, that from which memory lingers and action springs.) A blazing crimson shaft forms as Doom channels sorcery into his right hand, pulling back to a locked position as he aims toward Emperor Time.
"I name thee Thought," he hisses in English as he releases the shaft. "The Arrow of Time."
Doctor Doom hits Emperor Time with his Killing Time super.
"Yes, as a matter of fact. Everything is basicly going according to plan." The Master replies languidly, as he simply is not when the spirit giant's fist strikes that particular point in space-time, casually brushing his hands off and looking down at the mad emperor. "I actually rather know what I'm doing, l'Emperur. You see, that is only the first part of the program..."
The music begins to change, now. The scenes of horror, of pain, of /guilt/, of the girl's own weaknesses leading to the first group of people she's ever been able to called "friends" collective doom...slowly, subtly, stops starring the Master, and begins starring someone entierly different.
Three guesses who.
"The way I see it." The Master continues, "Either she will learn a valuable lesson about how dangerous it is to pretend you are not what you are, or go so far into denial she shall forget this whole ordeal: either works into my plans, as either ends with...well, gosh."
The Master ticks off with his fingers, "You tied your ascension into this girl's diety-level reality alteration powers, you then reinforced it with back up temporal artifacts, but ultimately this still ties what you were able to do: survive past your appointed time, with the unconscious will of this little girl. So tell me, Emperor Time..." The Master smiles, an utterly...alien expression of satisfaction on his face, "...what happens when the godling you've made your lifeline forgets you exist?"
"Hey! Little girl!" The madman waves at Sephi, "Want a hand getting up?" The Master pulls out a paper sack. "Or a jellybaby?" Yes: He has candy in his pocket. He even drops a jellybaby down at Sephi. A /space/ jellybaby.
The Master heals Sephi Graham with his The Master Doesn't Get How This Might Be Creepy action.
You have 42 health restored.
"Don't worry Ryokai.." That's his name, right? He said so. "I'm alright!" With him moving to her side, Sailor Mercury moves back to back to MagiRed. Ready for anything.
Except DIE O CLOCK. Her visor shows a heavy amount of energy coming towards them, and mainly from her side. "Ryokai... don't move." She asks of him. Her hands coming up, gloves and all.. and well, lasers are coming down from all sides. But Mercury was able to do some calculations. Where she's standing is going to be where one of those blasts of lasers is coming down. But she's not moving either.
And then comes the scream, the lasers rampaging the senshi.. well, senshi were always the worst at tanking energy weapons! On a knee, Kai might notice that Mercury protected most of the lasers from her side.. with her body. Not the best choice. "We'll take care of them..."
Time to actually participate in this melee.. "Shining.. Aqua Illusion!" Smaller funnels of water spin around the senshi, before they're sent rocketing at some of the clock bots.. aiming to break the glass covers with high pressure water! Water shimmers over the Senshi as well.. and she seems much better after it, wounds healing up, power found anew. WHICH ALLOWS HER TO DO THIS.
AND THEN.
Posing, Sailor Mercury points towards Emperor Time. "Emperor Time... your use of holiday cheer and the happy thoughts for evil will be put to an end!" Small break. "In the name of the moon... We'll punish you!" ... ALTHOUGH.. Doom is doing a much better job.
Ami Mizuno juggles Emperor Time with her Shining Aqua Illusion combo.
Emperor Time breaks Ami Mizuno's combo.
Agatha has just begun to realize that there's not a whole lot she's going to be able to do to fix the device at this point. Her opinion on the matter is only confirmed by the fact that she's suddenly attacked by scores of little clocks that remind her a lot of her own dingbot army. Too bad she doesn't have them with her. So her call for help on the radio is quickly punctuated by a lot of "Ow!"s. What really stinks is that she's already disassembled her death ray, and thus must rely on the two Jägers who are not frozen or entirely mad--Maxim may have been hit by one of those arrows, but he keeps fighting the right enemies, not making enemies of his allies. It's just that he's evidently really, really angry now. And why not? He and Dimo can't seem to *hit* those crazy evil baby things, Agatha's been hurt, and they did something to Oggie that made him lose it.
Speaking of Ognian, he is even now struggling against Sailor Mercury's freeze attack. Cracks are forming in the ice, and he still looks nothing short of murderous, albeit gleeful.
Agatha realizes that she needs to do something, quickly. The Jägers are injured, and so is she. "Dimo! Maxim! The clock-clanks!" she directs. Oggie should be safely restrained, for now, and that magical healing spell did something that seems to have calmed him--not to mention Maxim--to their normal state during battle. Still disturbing, but tolerable.
She gives a quick grin to Mercade as he arrives, and then gives a nod. "Okay, I'll keep trying, but I don't know if I can!" With backup here--and a healing from Kevin, to whom she shouts a quick thanks--she resumes working all the harder, humming loudly over the sounds of battle, hands flying over wires and circuits as she tries to use the rest of her death ray to make the necessary repairs. She's GOT to do something.
Maxim and Dimo, in the heat of battle, start making their way through the clocks and toward Emperor Time, using both weapons and claws to drive their way forward. And Ognian? Well, he's starting to break free of the ice. With luck he really has calmed down.
Agatha Heterodyne hits Emperor Time with her VE FIGHT! attack.
The problem with the Master's plan is simply this:
There are others than Emperor Time who need Haruhi Suzumiya to not be in a universe-smashing humor.
The memory augmentation device, or at least the wires connecting it to Haruhi, in a sudden, unexpected turn of events...turns to dust.
... ...and then there's a duo of young women standing there, dressed in all-concealing black. One is staring at the Master like she wants his head to explode, or perhaps merely like his head is unusually British. The other, much taller, merely speaks with an almost eery kindness: "Thank you for helping us. Until his grip loosened some, we could not take action to free her ourselves. However...at this juncture, the damage you're doing is slightly superfluous, and correcting it beyond this point would be inefficient. So, we've taken the liberty of ending the operation prematurely."
The taller girl tilts her head, slightly. "I hope you don't mind."
The younger girl continues to stare. Like if she did it long enough, the Master would simply fall over.
Hell rains down, below. Johan's bolts smash - just as before - into a teleported minion, a clock shattering into a million pieces but failing to hit the Emperor. Mercade and Wrex go after the goons, smashing them with bullets and death; Detritus and Christoph quite wisely go hacking at the shins of the univese-smashing cosmic horror The Master just conjured through Haruhi - though with something happening above, it seems to have turned somehat docile, only making tentative swings. Sailor Mercury soaks Emperor Time's clock bots with water, the mystical assault literally causing their gears to rust to uselessness in an instant.
Jagers smash clocks. They're good at it.
And as it all happens...below, the Emperor of Time quivers, quakes....and then, is murdered by the power of Doctor Doom, his sorcerous energy destroying the Emperor utterly--
"THAT. IS. IT!! I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL! YOUR MORTAL BODIES WILL BE LESS THAN NOTHING! /TIME ITSELF/ WILL FORGET YOU EVER LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVED!!"
And with that, the Emperor of Time appears again, bleeding massively, his eyes wild, his body materializing upon the hourglass.
In Agatha's hands, the machine sparks to life, doing SOMETHING, winding rapidly out of control. The Spark will have just enough time to do some good, tweak SOME wire, before --
The demon babies shatter. The fat men disappear, the cupids melt...and that Blue Giant explodes, all of that holiday magic seeps down into the hour glass, and then siphons in around Emperor Time.
The world melts away in a sea of light...
...and as sight returns, there he stands.
Burning with radiant light, a perfect figure sculpted of clockwork and brass, a thirty feet tall robot with a perfect, smaller replica visible, standing in an alcove in its chest, all eyes blazing with malevolent light.
"... ... ... ..."
The figures hold one hand high.
"tick. burn."
And time rewinds, fast forwards, or jumps sideways, to make it so.
Emperor Time critically strikes Urdnot Wrex with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Ami Mizuno with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Kai Ozu with his burn attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Agatha Heterodyne with his burn attack.
Emperor Time misses Johan Bryant with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Mercade Alexander with his burn attack.
Emperor Time hits Kevin Graham with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Detritus with his burn attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes X-23 with his burn attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Christoph Schmidt with his burn attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Sephi Graham with his burn attack.
You take 15 damage.
Emperor Time critically strikes Doctor Doom with his burn attack.
Emperor Time misses The Master with his I Think You Made Yuki Slightly Less Neutral Than Usual action.
Emperor Time buffs his STA to +5.
Emperor Time buffs his AGI to -5.
Emperor Time buffs his POW to -3.
Doctor Doom resets his buff status to neutral.
X is burned. But she quickly drops and rolls to smother the flames, before getting some distance, letting her healing factor help her to recover from the damage. "These things are beyond annoying. Can't someone just kill the guy who made these things already?! she snaps.
X-23 heals X-23 with her Healing Factor in action action.
Holy crap ow! Is what Wrex would be saying if he could have gotten his jaw realigned. At the moment, however, the Krogan burns like almost everyone else. Oh for the evasion thing he'd heard so much about. But now, he raises his shotgun at the massive clockwork death creature, with a growl. And the end of the barrel starts glowing, holding briefly, and then firing.
As such, a giant ball of explosive death fires from the end of the shotgun, aimin to take down a leg of the monstrosity, and giving everyone else more points to fire at.
Urdnot Wrex hits Emperor Time with his Mastar Carnage super.
Doctor Doom's left hand coninues to drip blood as the bow and arrow fade away, his scarred flesh split by the power he struggled to command. The runes on Doom's armour flare red, defensive shielding coming online to counteract the effects of Emperor Time's manipulation - but the assault gets through, flames seeping into the forcefield and over the armour. Ever so slowly, the green clothing begins to burn away, Doom's armour absorbing the heat. A sickeningly sweet acrid smoke seeps out from the king of Latveria as his armour begins to cook him alive.
Doom laughs.
"Fool..." he chortles. "You IMPOTENT MAN-CHILD!" Doom screams, both hands shaking as he fights against the pain. "You think...this can stop me? I, who on midsummer's eve take the fight into the heart of a demon's realm? I, who battle Mephisto himself with souls as the currency?" The hands clench into squealing fists as Doom straightens. "I am Victor von Doom, and I have strode through the fires of Hell itself! I am Doom!" he roars. "AND DOOM SAYS YOU FALL!"
"DOOMBOTS!"
Doom's shock troops have borne the worst of his assault, but some dozen remain, leaping over the allied forces and swarming the thirty-foot mecha. Chestplates burst open to reveal hooklike protrusions that attempt to bite into the mecha's metal skin as Doom slowly folds his arms over his chest, tears pooling in his eyes at the smell of his own burnt flesh.
"My final creation," he intones gravely. "Each Doombot containing a Schrodinger black box, each primed with sufficient explosives to detonate the quantum field within and drive you who should have died two years ago outside of the timeline entirely. Behold," he says, his eyes narrowing in satisfaction. "Behold....the Time Bomb."
The faint sounds of cats screeching in mortal agony can be heard before time itself explodes.
Doctor Doom critically strikes Emperor Time with his SCIENCE! attack.
"Please." The Master snorts at Yuki, calmly matching her gaze with, well...
For a brief second, Yuki can see exactly what sort of monster the Master really is: burning worlds, twisted civilizations, wars that shatter whole galaxies, twisted mathematics swirling around a guardian of what Should Be being perverted into a madman after what he Wills It To Be, the pulsing, agonizing drum beat, the same basic call inside the mind and heart of every sentient race, the call to war, the thirst for conquest, the blood-soaked rainbow of glory, the horrible possibility that, in his own way, something like the Master is as needed as something like the Doctor...
"Don't play a player, girl." The Master snorts, gently pushing her aside. "Even if I couldn't just melt your damn tounge before you could finish one of your equation-incantations, the fact remains that the whole reason you're angry is because, deep down, you're starting to realize that you're not all that much better than Emperor Time."
"At least I'm /honest/ about being a heartless, manipulative user with no interest in anyone's well being but my own." The Master continues, calmly working to pick the girl up while the Emperor's distracted. "I mean, really. Pretending to be a lonley little girl's friend? Feeding her dellusions while ensuring that she never finds her heart's desire? Damn! I wish I had thought of that first, you know?"
"I'll be leaving now." The Master smiles, again. "I'm pretty sure Doom's bomb'll kill her, too. I'll give them back unharmed, unless you are foolish enough to come after me. Good evening."
Now, while Johan had been ascending up the platforms, his eyes lift up to stare forth at the sight of what is going on above. So, it looks like that things up the stairs is going alright. That is a good thing in a way.
What is not a good thing, however, is the fact that Emperor Time is finally noticed and he finally creates a beautiful light show. This.... is not good.
"Great." Johan's eyes narrow, then he extends his right hand forward to activate the barrier of his line shield. Once that shield glows and resonates, the raw power of the light flourishes over the man as the burning sensation -halts- right before him.
Soon, Johan is deftly activating his goggles once more, utilizing it to pinpoint a weakpoint to fire at.
Scanning...
Scanning...
(X) (Emperor Time)
(Emperor Time) (X)
(Emperor(X)Time)
[+]
Johan, fortunately, takes careful aim of the mechanical monstrosity before he switches the element of Earth.
"I said this before. Follow the advice: Cease to exist---" As the time ripples itself, Johan's eyes widen and he hisses as the explosion nearly causes him to lose focus. Now! Johan! Now! This may screw up his shot, but Johan attempts to aim for that spot that is a good point.
He pulls the trigger, releasing three rounds from his rifle.
You paged Emperor Time with 'I think I'm trying to play up the fact that my character is an intelligence build. I have a mysterious device and am trying to BS a use for it in a scene that I otherwise have no place being in. :('
You paged Emperor Time with 'Since we skipped straight to the main room instead of having a chance to let Sephi be the compass through the fortress that was implied would be her role yesterday. :('
Johan Bryant misses Emperor Time with his Weak Point Shot super.
Fire. A lot of fire. Christoph is arrested in mid-hack when the giant explodes. Instinctively, as the shock lashes out at him, he vanishes from his spot, reappearing a moment later on the underside of the platform, using it as a shield against the wash of energy.
Of course, it also means that he starts to fall, since he is hanging in midair. Hurriedly, he kicks off the wall, starting to plummet downward toward the ground. But then he poofs again, reappearing on the opposite side, and uses his sideways momentum to ram Balmung into the wall there as deeply as he can manage, hanging from the handle with both hands, trying to slow his fall. He is wincing just slightly at the bright light. And when his vision clears.... "Running out of swear words," he mutters, and teleports yet again. Time and space are inextricably linked: Christoph cannot affect time, as such, but he can bend space. He manages to dodge the worst of the burn, and reappears on another platform, much lower down, with a slightly singed Barrier Jacket.
He straightens up, eyeing the giant creature flatly. "Well, then. How do they say...suck on this." He raises Balmung in both hands, concentrates. The blade becomes limned in flames, electricity, pulsing waves of sound...just about everything. The tine of the crossguard begins to hum like a plucked string. He coils like a spring, leaps, and comes down like a rusty Teutonic railroad spike lit on fire. Who's just been informed that the keg has run dry.
Christoph Schmidt hits Emperor Time with his RachsEhtig Zorn super.
As time begins to rip and tear around the priest, he suddenly collapses to his knees, his voice letting out an almost inhuman scream. He sets both arms in front of him, and he's actually shaking a bit- but not so much from pain, rather the sheer reaction of the energy to his body. There's even flickers of that terrible mark threatening to show itself again- however, this time, Kevin's fully mentally aware of just /what/ is happening within his own psyche. He's struggling to keep it under control. ...however, that same black and violet aura continues to surround him. Eventually collapses to the ground, breathing heavily- but having surprisingly handled the attack. He lifts his head, looking towards the Emperor.
He had considered assistance. He had considered boosting others... however, that hurt- more than just physically, but his senses are all skewed- his mind is reeling and he's not doing all too well after having such a thing thrown at him. As such, when the priest stands, he's not engulfed in the power from the Stigma... But he is still surrounded by that deep, malevolent aura.
Taking a step back and slipping the rod into his belt, Kevin braces himself before he takes a flying leap from the railing he had been standing on, pitching himself over the battlefield with the Emperor. The priest twists in the air so that he's diving towards the ground, removing the Bowgun from his belt. He levels it out with his other hand out ahead of him.
Narrowing his eyes, Kevin says quietly, his voice barely a whisper, "....fall into Gehenna and burn, you monstrosity." Squeezing the trigger of the bowgun and sending all the force charged into him and back towards the Emperor.
Kevin Graham gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with his Sometimes- there are those little moments when someone can break through and deal damage with that same element. Is this one of them? attack.
Kevin Graham successfully targets Kevin Graham with his Is this also a moment when Kevin can somehow miraculously land on his feet? action.
Detritus's brief burst of cooled-down intelligence dissipates as he chugs up the stairs, the heat causing him to go back to normal. Of course, that doesn't particularly matter, because the giant disappears, causing Detritus to pause, less than halfway up the tower... and Emperor Time himself reappears, looking somewhat worse for wear.
As Emperor Time suits up in his giant-robot-within-a-giant-robot, The troll scratches his head before reaching up to flick the switch on his cooling helmet; the fan starts whirring immediately, cooling his head by one or two degrees. "Is dis der part where we read him his rights?" Detritus asks to no one in particular.
Turning on the cooling helmet just might have saved Detritus's life, because the blazing fire that time-skips around him-- desert heat at its worse and volcanic firestorm rolled into one-- is almost enough to shut down his silicon-based brain and send him spiraling into a coma. Almost. The troll is slammed down to one knee, but that's as far as he goes-- head spinning, "feelin' kinda fick," and way too hot all over, Detritus knuckles his way back into a standing position, squints in semi-incomprehension at the Piecemaker (which is a bit too complicated for Detritus to reload right now), and puts it aside. The troll stumbles a step back, woozily gauges the distance...
... gets a running start...
... and LEAPS straight at Emperor Time's robot, aiming to hit the miniature guy inside with a flying tacklel.
Detritus misses Emperor Time with his CANNONBAAAAAAAAAALL super.
It's over... it seems at least.. the bleeding, pained body of Emperor Time. It's horrible, but it's what needed to happen. The babies are gone, so are the fat men.. and it looks like he's been punished before anything else happened. Mercury lets her guard down.
And that's when the perfect figure of clockwork, a thirty foot tall robot stands .. and.. is this what is left of him? Time rewinds, as it were, to when that laser blast struck her.. perhaps standing in the way wasn't a good idea anymore. The pain again causes her to fall to a knee, but she gets back up, and while she's mostly out of it.. aims to help out.
Even if it's a re-use! "Shabon Spray... FREEZING!" Aiming to freeze some of the gears in the Time Giant's legs, in an attempt to weaken his structure.. the bubbles of ice aim to coat the legs. It's not going to be the strongest... but at the same time... it'll potentially help out!
"To use such good things for your evil whims.." The senshi starts. "But love justice will always be there to oppose them!" Apparently Mako-chan might've been helping her just a bit!
Ami Mizuno hits Emperor Time with her Re-using Filters for the extra drawn out battle attack.
Detritus hmmms calmly to himself as he hurtles down past the robot. "... on hindsight, dis are not der best idea."
"Stop missing the stationary target!" The Master shouts, "Gah! Do-gooders. Can't even finish an evil emperor off properly."
"Feelin' fick, dat are not too helpful to seein' distan--" /TWHUD/. "Ow."
Yellow eyes dart at The Master as Johan mutters a few words of disgust.
"I don't think I did that," Agatha says, when suddenly the machine goes out of control. She manages to tweak the wiring just a little, but it isn't much. And then there's a huge flare of light, causing her to cover her eyes and stumble backward, feeling as if she's on fire. She is shoved right back into Oggie, whom the fire has melted mostly free. The impact loosens the ice the rest of the way, and the blonde Jäger bursts loose with a "RAAAAAAGH!"
The other two Jägers ahead are still crashing and crushing their way toward Emperor Time when he suddenly reappears elsewhere, as a giant clank. "It's a giant klenk!" Maxim observes. "Ve gotta protect de Mistress!" And the two change directions, rushing at Emperor Time yet again.
Vision returning, Agatha sees the huge form of Emperor Time. "I /know/ I didn't do that! He turned himself into a giant clank! That's no fair!"
"Hy'm so sorry, Miztrezz! Don't vorry, hyu Jägerkin vill protect hyu now!" Ognian assures Agatha. So he IS sane again. "Ve gots a klenk to smash! RRAAAAAAAAR!" With that, he rushes at the huge Emperor Time robot with the other three Jägers, halberd swinging.
Unlike the Jägerkin, Agatha isn't adapting too well to the rapid fluctuations in time. She's not sure who she is or where she is or what she's supposed to be doing now. It doesn't seem as if messing with the machinery is going to be much help anymore, unless there's some kind of control device for the giant clank. That doesn't look likely. So she tries to run for cover with her allies. "Don't shoot at the Jägers!" she calls, grabbing the remainder of her death ray and her tools as she goes. She might just have something up her sleeves after all. "I'll try and figure out where the main control unit is on the big clank so you can aim at that!" And she proceeds to try to take a circuitous route around the huge Emperor Time machine, checking for anything that looks like it might be important enough to target.
Agatha Heterodyne gets a glancing blow on Emperor Time with her Ve Gots A Klenk To Smash! attack.
Mercade sighs as he is healed, the burns vanishing from him. "Tingly." He comments, and then turns to look up in shock. "OH CRAP!" Mercade yells. "HE'S REVEALED HIS TRUE FORM!" He glances about in panic, and mutters, raising his guns... And then shakes his head, holstering them. "This isn't going to work..."
Time passes...
"OH ZEUS, I'M ON FIRE!" Mercade screams, immolating abruptly. He stops, drops, and rolls, however, putting himself out. "I HATE it when people do that." Mercade grimaces, looking around for something, ANYTHING, that might help...
And he smiles. He leaps up, climbing up the hourglass machine, before scurrying around, grabbing onto a cable and swinging around back behind the Emperor Time Mech. "You know what they say..." Mercade says, as he leaps off and onto the back of the mecha. Carefully, he pulls out a bag, and loosens the ties, before dumping it into the gearworks. Swirling, sparkly sand!?
"Nothing wrecks a clockwork like grit in the gears."
Mercade Alexander juggles Emperor Time with his GRIND GRIND GRIND combo.
Mercade Alexander juggles Emperor Time with his GRIND GRIND GRIND combo.
Mercade Alexander juggles Emperor Time with his GRIND GRIND GRIND combo.
Emperor Time breaks Mercade Alexander's combo.
Sephi looks up as she's called down to by a mysterious man who is suddenly throwing candy at her. She sticks out her hand to catch it, and misses, the candy landing on the ground at her feet. Not one to be bothered by such petty concerns as uncleanliness or food poisoning, she picks up the candy off of the ground and pops it into her mouth without a second thought.
It tastes okay to her.
"I am afraid all I can do is walk up," she responds to the Master, glancing up at him as she continues to pick her way through Wrex-induced rubble. "I lack the ability to travel through air, space, or time, and are thus limited to more mundane methods of transportation."
SUDDENLY! The world melts into brilliant nothingness, and then returns. Sephi is not sure what has just happened, looking over the edge and finding out in very short order that Emperor Time is now a mechanical construct riding inside of a much larger mechanical construct. "Oh, that's different," she observes cooly before--
tick.
--abruptly being ON FIRE. Well, not literally. Or maybe literally, just for a moment. Time magic is hard to quantify in such three-dimensional ways. Sephi is certainly feeling a little crispy, though, but she's experienced much worse. Really, the only apparent effect is that her normally pale-blue skin is starting to turn an angry red as her blood rushes to the surface to repair the cellular damage.
Sadly, there is absolutely nothing Sephi can do to Emperor Time at this point. Now that he has turned to brass, her Health Boons matter little, and she doesn't have the strenght to engage in melee combat even if she WAS in range. All she has is this stupid Spinner from the smiling old man, that reacts on one end to Time's presense...
...
Wait a tick. The old man, he said that Spinners usally move time. The red end of this one glows when Emperor Time is near, which probably means that it's related to him somehow. Move Time's time...?
"...there's nothing better to do," the Helspawn says aloud. She looks over the edge of the platform again, judging the distance from here to Time. She's reasonably far up, but not so far that the fall would kill her, not with her superhuman endurance. And if she gets her velocity right, she thinks she's got the proper arc of descent from here.
Tucking the Spinner underneath of her arm, Sephi takes a few steps back and a deep breath. She then runs forward and LEAPS off of the edge, freefalling for a few seconds and landing RIGHT ON TOP of Emperor Time and his giant Time Machine... thing.
Here's hoping she's got this thing figured out right! Quickly tying the brilliantly glowing red string around a portruding pipe, Sephi holds onto the blue string, whose true purpose is unknown to her, and prays for the best as the Spinner begins to glow a brilliant white.
You buff your POW to +5.
"I think," says the taller intruder to the Master, not even bothering to stop him as he hefts God like a sack of potatoes, "that you think too highly of yourself."
But she doesn't intervene. Instead she says, "We'll be waiting. If you don't bring her back soon..."
A smile, visible even beneath black cloth. "Well. You should."
The girls simply vanish, dissipating like wraiths.
And below, the people of the world show Emperor Time just what they think of how big a tool he is. Wrex's blast doesn't actually take the leg OFF, but it does tear it OPEN, allowing all sorts of horror to be unloaded upon the clockwork inside. Christoph's attack sinks into the gears, sheering long strips of brass off. Kevin's attempt to use sorcerous bowgun shots don't take much, but they do work a little...at the least, they work better than poor Detritus' attempt to cannonball, which ends hilariously poorly as he flies right on past and possibly lands in a wall.
Ami bombards it with ice and frost, freezing up gears and armor just enough for Agatha's Jagers to go smash things, which is good because Jagers are good at smashing things.
Mercade does something horrible and Timegodbot actually emits a sound of pain as its gears grind, grind, grind... ...
...the sand is ground to nothing.
Johan's blast attack hits the Timebot right in the chest, and does nothing whatsoever, Time itself bending the shot back around to nail Johan right in the face.
And then time rewinds, and the blast swings back around to shoot at EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ROOM.
Emperor Time hits Urdnot Wrex with his BLAME JOHAN attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Ami Mizuno with his deathrays from someone else warped through time attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Agatha Heterodyne with his BLAME JOHAN attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Johan Bryant with his BLAME CANADA attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Mercade Alexander with his or...something like that attack.
Emperor Time critically strikes Kevin Graham with his MAGICAL TIME ATTACKS R US attack.
Emperor Time hits X-23 with his I'm telling you this makes perfect sense attack.
Emperor Time hits Christoph Schmidt with his No seriously it does attack.
Emperor Time gets a glancing blow on Sephi Graham with his Close-Ranged Snipe attack.
You take 9 damage.
Emperor Time successfully targets The Master with his Smiley Interface Implying Kneecap Breaking action.
Emperor Time hits Detritus with his FALLING DAMAGE super.
Christoph Schmidt, Doctor Doom, and Urdnot Wrex need tags.