Maelstrom of Darkness

Minare noticed the darts but didn't bother looking for the source of them. At the moment she was more concerned about Mort. She wanted him to teach her that power but at this rate he would end up fighting the whole city, and she would have to find someone else again! Which is a pain she did not wish to endure again. "Master, do you think this wise? They merely attacked you because they were scared you will get out of hand. Plus when you get mad you tend to lose focus of your surroundings and let details slip. Such as the fact of how many people are actually attacking you. If you want to keep fighting that is fine too though, I'm just curious am I to just watch or assist you?" She asked Mort calmly and not seeming really all that concerned about him only shouting noises rather than words. Now was not the time for fighting but if he asked she would follow his lead.

"Look out!" Light shouted as she quickly dashed over to the pipes that were going to end up hitting someone. She stopped them just in time. "Maybe you should just drop that stuff for a while... Oh, my name! Right!" After flew over back to Kira. "You can call me Light! The strongest, fastest Storm Sprite ever! Here to help save Negav!" She excitedly exclaimed presenting herself.

"Master, do you think this wise?"

Mort flinched at Minare's voice, and turned towards her. The flames that covered his body died down and eventually extinguished all together. He fell to his knees and gasped for air. He wasn't prepared to use so much power so fast.

"You..." *Gasp* "You're right." He said to her, as he slowly calmed down.

He shakily got to his feet and turned towards the mage.

"Cease fire! ..." *gasp* "Will ya?"

After nearly a minute of ragged breathing he started to restabilise. He looked at Minare, Steel Blood and Persephone in turn.

"I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen..."

Minare called him master? But why? Did she really intend to attempt to learn how to conjure dark magic? He wasn't sure that he could teach her anything, or rather, that she would be able to replicate the results. Any any case, he was glad she did or else he may never have regained his composure.

"Why should I?" retorted the mage, still holding his staff at the ready. A couple more people dressed similarly to him and also holding unique magic staffs, though both women, ran up to the street corner where their ally was.

"You're just another one of those people! Ones that were corrupted by the darkness, aren't you?" His question sounded more like an accusation, the mistrust in his voice palpable. "I-- WE-- cannot let you endanger the people of this city! If you still have a sense of decency then you should leave while we let you!"

Ever since Déméchrelle had risen, people had had to adjust their sleep schedules, become nocturnal. Waking as the sun set and sleeping during the day was a strain enough on the natural way of things, and add to it that just about everyone now had a job to do from the moment they woke to the moment their head hit the pillow, and it would come as no surprise that sleep disturbances were a growing issue.

Kira hadn’t escaped that. How long had it been since she’d gotten a full day’s rest? Armelle was experiencing the same thing, of course, but the Neko’s tendency to push herself with physical activity in addition to coming up with means of defending Negav made one wonder how the girl had not yet succumbed the Dark One’s influence. This is what the Commander of the Isolon Fist tried to remind herself of as a number of heavy steel pipes slammed into her shoulder and arm, knocking her down and to the side.

“Ow.” A tired, exasperated exclamation of pain.

---

“Ow.” An exclamation of pain from one who couldn’t feel it.

Steel Blood had taken mostly external, nonthreatening damage in the pyre, but she still felt the need to vocalize her displeasure at the situation. A good amount of her artificial flesh had simply evaporated away, leaving circuitry and synthetic muscle exposed across her upper body and face: she would need to run a full diagnostic back at headquarters and use up her last can of replacement skin to protect her vitals from actual damage.

Still, one situation had been resolved, albeit with the start of another.

“Just put the staff down, man.” She called to the mage, “I’ve never encountered black fire like that, so unless he’s some kind of new trick by the big bitch, I say let the guy help.” She stood, picking away bits of skin too heavily damaged to be repaired.

Pillars of black fire in the middle of the city are a bit of an uncommon sight, so when one suddenly emerged, Narcisse had opted to investigate. The giant Dridder arrived on the scene as quietly as is possible for a being his size, standing atop two buildings and leaning down to take a look.

“Shit, is that you, robo-girl?”

He quickly found himself faced with a gesture known to be rude across numerous worlds. Evidently even androids designed for assassination can be cross.

“Just shut up and carry me… us to headquarters, alright?” She looked around to the group, “Is that cool with all of you?”

Minare had gotten ready to fight this mage trying to attack Mort or incite the scuffle to go further. She was impressed Mort could stop himself but its seemed his technique drained him after use, she would have to watch out for him lest she lose valueable knowledge. The Shakala stood next to Mort offering support if he needed it. "I know you didn't" She replied to Mort. "My name is Minare if you wish to call me by my proper name. Any other name will do as well though."

The Shakala eyed the dridder and android with suspicion. "If master wishes it, I will come with you." She didn't like the people of this city much at all. Far too jumpy.

Zephyr102 wrote:

. This is what the Commander of the Isolon Fist tried to remind herself of as a number of heavy steel pipes slammed into her shoulder and arm, knocking her down and to the side.

“Ow.” A tired, exasperated exclamation of pain.

Umm... I don't know if I'm misreading everything but I think my character stopped the pipes and presented herself.

The mages, displeased but accepting of the Fist member's explanation and order, dissipated their weapons and moved on down the street parallel, returning to their patrol. It had been like that for them every single night since the monsters began attacking their city. It was their civic duty - they didn't need to be ordered to defend the lives of people as others seemed to.

---

Kira felt the force of her superior's body colliding with her luggage and quickly turned back around, dropping the steel pipes on the ground, which gave way to a 4 cm deep indentation under their unbridled weight. Kira growled aloud, mostly at herself and her stupid apparent shitheadedness.

"Reeeally sorry about that," Kira said, mustering the most aloof but sincere apology she could...muster.

Bale didn't relax, and kept the gun trained on mort. He narrowed his eyes and was seriously considering firing a second time, and shooting to kill no less. Put a dart into his temple and it would all be over...just letting him go after that was a mistake. Even is he wasn't corrupted, he wasn't safe. He sat completely still for a moment before sighing and returning the gun to his side. People seemed to be running low on common sense.

"Yeah whatever. Lets just go eh?"

(Sorry for short post. I've been busy lately.)

[And as for me, sorry for being absent for a whole page. There didn't seem to be a pressing need to do anything xD]

"Sure, sounds like a great idea," answered Persephone. "And you really don't mind people riding you?" she asked the dridder. [It is a dridder, right? I'm afraid I keep losing track of things.]

(sorry for disappearing like that. I sort of got distracted by some things. Mainly Halo 4 and a new Kindle.)

Leila was about to enter the headquarters when a pillar of black flames sprung up out of no-where. The Fairy quickly took to the air, flying to the area and cursing the luck of there being a threat in the city. When she finally reached where Mort, Bale, and the others were everything had calmed down. The dridder from before was there and had just been ordered to carry everyone to the head quarters. Deciding that she was tired of not being noticed she flew down and floated in front of the dridder and android. "Excuse me, but how might one go about joining the fight to protect Negav?"

“Follow me if you want to help the Fist.” The android stated to the fairy and everyone present, as she scampered up onto the Dridder’s backside. “Otherwise, stay and let things keep getting worse.”

Narcisse, not wanting his robes to get torn up or dirtied by the likely large number about to board, lowered himself down to the ground so people could climb on easily. “Honestly, I’m not the Felarya Express here.”

“Save it, spider. We have work to do and a limited amount of time to prepare.” They could waste no time, not with Déméchrelle always sending wave after wave of her minions to darken the world further.

---

"I'll make you properly sorry, later." Armelle had to keep up a stern image, even if she didn't have the heart to inflict any real punishment on the already ailing and valuable Kira.

“Steel Blood should be returning soon. Hopefully she found some help tonight.”

Leila grinned. "Will do." She grew to about 105 feet. "And I'll happily carry some of those people for you Dridder." She held out her hand to take a pair.

Minare stopped suddenly now face with two rides to thier destinations. She trusted neither really and each had a down side to riding with. At she decided to ride in the fairy's hand as opposed to the dridder. The shakala figured most people would ride the dridder, so that meant travel with people she was already growing to dislike. "I'll go with you fairy." She didn't warn the fairy about her needles however.

"Yes sir...or, ma'am....wait, what did you wanna' be called again? Whatever, nevermind," Kira chittered, fumbling over her words. "So yeah, Light was it?" She turned to the storm sprite she had verbally kidnapped. "This is Armelle, the head of the Isolon Fist, our glorious leader. Hurrah or whatever." Her tone was as unenthusiastic as ever it had been. Her memory suddenly kicked in, and her then free right hand retreated to the pocket of her labcoat, only to return a second later and produce a small rain of sparkling confetti she had stowed in there as a joke for just such an occasion. She kept a straight face as the colourful paper bits scattered and floated down to the ground around Armelle. It did not dawn on her how inappropriate this action was considering Armelle's current state of health.

"She'll fill you in on the details of why you're here. As for me..." Kira turned her attention to the heavy pipes she had dropped. She leaned over and put her arm around them, thrusting her steel-covered hand into the ground around them before lifting them back up under her arm. Then it happened.

"Uh....what the hell were these for again?" she asked nobody in particular, hoping she'd remembered to tell someone just in case this very fucking thing happened.

Bale clambered from the shadows, slowly striding towards Leila. His eyes mostly stayed locked on her wings, gleaming with what was almost a hunger.
"....mind if i ride with you fairy?"

Mortis chose to ride the dridder. Why? Because clearly someone had the dridder on a leash. It wasn't often a large predator would take orders from someone so small. Because of that, he decided that riding the dridder was the more sensible option. He climbed 'on board' and knelt down so as to more easily keep his balance.

"Alright dridder guy" He said. "Ready whenever you are. Try anything and I swear I'll make you regret it."

That threat, although it sounded genuine, was rather empty. Mort was too drained from what happened a moment ago to be able to do any real damage to the dridder.

"I don't care if you come with me. I made the offer didn't I?" Leila lifted her two passenger and looked at the Dridder. "You lead and I'll follow. Sooner we get to where ever we're going, the sooner I can help."

Light looked at Armelle, wondering on what she was going to be asked to do. Was she gonna be helping out with repairing stuff? Was she gonna be able to kick someone's ass? She started to daydream instead of focusing on Armelle, she was daydreaming of herself saving Negav and becoming a big hero that would be known across the world, maybe in other worlds too!

( Zeph. Y U NO POST? D: )

[I apologize for my lateness. I have been dealing with some emotional disturbances recently.]

---

To Persephone, Narcisse responded, “I don’t really have much choice at this point… If you can help us out, I’ll bear with the indignity.”
With two modes of transportation, progress to the Isolon Fist Headquarters was suitably quick.

“I hope Lydia’s available… she’s the only one I trust to repair me.” Steel Blood spoke her thoughts aloud as she idly examined her damaged body. Normally, her face was nearly featureless, with no visible mouth and only matte black material where humans’ eyes would be but, with the fire damage, it was apparent she actually had the facial features and musculature for imitating human expression, but chose simply to project her voice without doing these things.

“I’ll probably have to switch to my ‘human’ head as well… Spider, Fairy! Let’s step it up!” She was an android, but often had issues with social interaction, especially since things had gone to hell. Her internal batteries allowed her to run for 20 years at a stretch, and the woman often forgot just about everyone else was having issues with sleep loss.

Narcisse grumbled, but did as he was told, quickening his pace as much as he could without endangering anyone underfoot. He still kind of wanted to eat the android, if only to shut her up.

---

“The pipes are for repairing the plumbing, Kira, but honestly, wouldn’t it be best to leave that to one of the less-vital engineers?” Armelle rubbed the side of her head. In fact, only one pipe had failed to be stopped by the Storm Sprite, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. “You can’t do everything, you know.”

A familiar rumble began to sound as the Dridder once more returned to the courtyard in front of Headquarters, carrying a group of several people and with a Fairy following, carrying a few as well.

“It’s about time.” The Commander of the Fist turned and walked out to meet the volunteers.

"I know that," Kira replied to Armelle before Narcisse returned. "I have my assistant working on it." It was after that that she heard the sounds of the dridder approaching as well. She turned to Light.

"So yeah, she'll fill you in on everything. Seeya."

Kira turned away, the pipes under her arm swinging in Light's direction, and walked back towards the half-doorless doorway she'd entered the courtyard from.

Minare sighed being held by the fairy and decided to introduce herself. "I'm Minare, I am the apprentice of his." She says gesturing Mort. "If you wish me to do anything for you it would save time if you just asked him first. That or prove to me I should be learning from you instead."

Light didn't see that was coming and was hit with then, flying across the room but her feet hit the wall and she bounced off it, dusting herself off. "Are pipes your style of fighting or something..." She muttered while turning her attention to Armelle. "Uh, hi! So, umm, what do I need to do then and what's happening?" She asked, thinking that it was finally time to help.