07-21-2017, 10:18 PM
Plant Man was staggered, off-balance and - at least for the moment - severely damaged. Rapidly shrinking tongues of blue fire licked at a sparking, smoking crater in the Darkloid's flank. The horrible wound was slowly filling with viscous amber sap. Now would have been an ideal time to press the attack.
Unfortunately, Kelly only had the time to fire off a single additional psychokinetic blast before he was forced to focus his attention on other things. X was in bad shape, billowing tendrils of foul green smoke rising from the acid-scored surface of the Mega Man's battered azure armor. Kelly didn't need ESP to realize that X's titanium shell would be far more vulnerable after being drenched in solvent, and the machine's rate of fire had noticeably decreased; his ally had become much less effective as a deterrent to the corrupted denizens of Nebula's forest, and the psychic was quickly surrounded.
He derailed a charging boar with a psychically-prompted eruption of earth and plant matter. His boots whispered through the carpet of increasingly-broken vegetation as he ducked inside the arc of a pair of grasping simian arms, drove his bony shoulder into their feline owner's xyphoid and hooked his staff between the creature's knees, flipping it onto its back as he straightened, stomping one of its ankle's into paste. A horrible bellow filled the world. Without missing a beat, Kelly leapt straight up, over the sharpened antlers of a charging, red-eyed moose, its sable coat steaming, its tongue lolling madly.
The traveler alighted in a crouch upon the massive creature's broad back, his hob-nailed footwear finding a firm purchase in its thick hide. He allowed himself a deep, steadying breath. For just a moment, he had the advantage of the high-ground.
The view was informative, but far from encouraging. The two liberators had thinned the ranks of the first wave of darkspawn considerably, but even so X was in danger of being over-run; his weakened armor had begun to resemble the aftermath of a major car-crash. The Mega Man fired his buster-cannon selectively and defensively, nursing his diminished energy reserves as he did his best to keep the legions of Nebula at bay.
Plant Man had healed himself again, creating another patch of dead, brittle vegetation - and no sooner had Kelly absorbed that fact than the Darkloid general was right in his face, completing the tail-end of a split-second leap, streaking through the crimson haze like a rocket. The psychic began to raise his staff, but it was already too late; The botanical menace plowed into him, a scowling emerald countenance mere inches from his own as his enemy shoulder-checked him right off the back of the back of the moose. Kelly released his weapon, grappling with his foe as they tumbled to the ground.
The two of them skidded and bounced across the overgrown earth, a rolling tangle of limbs and thorny vines dogged by the rustle of rustle of snapping stems and torn leaves, propelled by raw momentum. The psychic and the navi pushed and pulled, a contest of redirected force and instantaneous intuition, struggling moment by moment for the upper hand as they slid to a halt.
Suspicion flashed through Kelly's mind.
Why is it doing this? It's seen how strong I am, and in terms of mundane damage-resistance this thing isn't any tougher than a normal person. Even if it is more powerful than me, getting this close is a risk.
As they rolled over one final time, eliciting one last squelching thud, the strategist got his answer. He appeared to have the advantage: halfway through their tumble he'd managed to put the darkloid on the defensive with an opportunistic elbow across the face. Over the course of the struggle he had leveraged that distraction into a dominant position of control, wrapping one of Plant Man's vine-whips (which the psychic held securely in a trembling two-handed grip) around the darkloid's body and arms, binding him just above the elbows. The traveler's knee dug into the the trumpet-headed monsters stomach, and he'd planted his boot atop the remaining vine-whip, pinning it.
Kelly was about to risk releasing his grip long enough to blow Plant Man's head off when heard a faint sigh, and suddenly the air was full of yellow pollen. They were surrounded by flowering plants, and prone, motionless monsters.
"Oh," he said, comprehension dawning instantly as the numbness set in. "You brffrd. D-."
The psychic went limp, flopping face into the soil, shoulder-to-shoulder with is foe. Plant Man sat up, pushing the liberator off of him and rising imperiously as he turned to regard his helpless foe, who lay on his back, staring intently at the distant burgundy-leafed limbs of the world-tree far above. With a single gesture from the villain, vines erupted from the ground, binding Kelly's arms and legs to the earth. All around him, little yellow flowers winked and spurted pollen, bright against the darker mass of this expansive evil garden, like toxic, impudent stars.
Kelly fumed silently. He could feel his body starting to fight off the paralytic poison, but he doubted he'd be able to move in time to save himself from serious harm.
Sure enough, one of Plant Man's thorny vine-whips shrieked through the air and pierced his gut, pinning him like a butterfly in a collector's display. Purple gore bubbled for a moment around the wound, but other than that, the result was remarkably subdued. The psychic partition within the traveler's mind which handled things like pain, reducing them to a simple running tally of damage, began to complain loudly.
Plant Man frowned, evidently disappointed that his victim hadn't vomited blood, or something equally dramatic. "You," said the darkloid, grinding its heel into the liberator's wounded side with enough force to elicit merry popping noises from his exposed ribs, "Are powerful and skilled - but you're still no match for Nebula. Your mechanical ally will join our ranks and your head will adorn the gate to our stronghold as a warning to oth-"
A single tree-root burst from the ground, intercepting a solitary shot from X's buster-cannon. Out of the corner of his eye, Kelly saw his ally borne to the ground by a three-headed frog.
"to others." the botanical bastard finished.
The pause cost him dearly. Four jagged yellow thorns, the very same thorns which Plant Man had fired at the traveler earlier in the fight, burst from where they had lodged in Kelly's chest and arms with a shower of violet blood. They tore into the darkloid in a viscious buzzing ballet, whirling and darting through the ruddy air like a small swarm of rocket propelled piranhas, severing his whips and punching fist-sized holes in his torso. The arboreal android stumbled and fell. The vines binding Kelly to the earth slackened, and he tore free in a spray of sap, rising shakily to one knee, allowing the psychokineticaly-motivated thorns to tumble to the ground, where they disappeared among the green with barely a whisper.
Kelly grit his teeth and gathered his will. His body was beginning to lodge new protests with the part of his brain that kept his physical accounts, straining under the combined stresses of his injuries and the vector-sketch. He let it go, for now, the tides of power subsiding, and turned his attention once more towards his beleaguered blue ally.
It was time for a little fire-support.
Unfortunately, Kelly only had the time to fire off a single additional psychokinetic blast before he was forced to focus his attention on other things. X was in bad shape, billowing tendrils of foul green smoke rising from the acid-scored surface of the Mega Man's battered azure armor. Kelly didn't need ESP to realize that X's titanium shell would be far more vulnerable after being drenched in solvent, and the machine's rate of fire had noticeably decreased; his ally had become much less effective as a deterrent to the corrupted denizens of Nebula's forest, and the psychic was quickly surrounded.
He derailed a charging boar with a psychically-prompted eruption of earth and plant matter. His boots whispered through the carpet of increasingly-broken vegetation as he ducked inside the arc of a pair of grasping simian arms, drove his bony shoulder into their feline owner's xyphoid and hooked his staff between the creature's knees, flipping it onto its back as he straightened, stomping one of its ankle's into paste. A horrible bellow filled the world. Without missing a beat, Kelly leapt straight up, over the sharpened antlers of a charging, red-eyed moose, its sable coat steaming, its tongue lolling madly.
The traveler alighted in a crouch upon the massive creature's broad back, his hob-nailed footwear finding a firm purchase in its thick hide. He allowed himself a deep, steadying breath. For just a moment, he had the advantage of the high-ground.
The view was informative, but far from encouraging. The two liberators had thinned the ranks of the first wave of darkspawn considerably, but even so X was in danger of being over-run; his weakened armor had begun to resemble the aftermath of a major car-crash. The Mega Man fired his buster-cannon selectively and defensively, nursing his diminished energy reserves as he did his best to keep the legions of Nebula at bay.
Plant Man had healed himself again, creating another patch of dead, brittle vegetation - and no sooner had Kelly absorbed that fact than the Darkloid general was right in his face, completing the tail-end of a split-second leap, streaking through the crimson haze like a rocket. The psychic began to raise his staff, but it was already too late; The botanical menace plowed into him, a scowling emerald countenance mere inches from his own as his enemy shoulder-checked him right off the back of the back of the moose. Kelly released his weapon, grappling with his foe as they tumbled to the ground.
The two of them skidded and bounced across the overgrown earth, a rolling tangle of limbs and thorny vines dogged by the rustle of rustle of snapping stems and torn leaves, propelled by raw momentum. The psychic and the navi pushed and pulled, a contest of redirected force and instantaneous intuition, struggling moment by moment for the upper hand as they slid to a halt.
Suspicion flashed through Kelly's mind.
Why is it doing this? It's seen how strong I am, and in terms of mundane damage-resistance this thing isn't any tougher than a normal person. Even if it is more powerful than me, getting this close is a risk.
As they rolled over one final time, eliciting one last squelching thud, the strategist got his answer. He appeared to have the advantage: halfway through their tumble he'd managed to put the darkloid on the defensive with an opportunistic elbow across the face. Over the course of the struggle he had leveraged that distraction into a dominant position of control, wrapping one of Plant Man's vine-whips (which the psychic held securely in a trembling two-handed grip) around the darkloid's body and arms, binding him just above the elbows. The traveler's knee dug into the the trumpet-headed monsters stomach, and he'd planted his boot atop the remaining vine-whip, pinning it.
Kelly was about to risk releasing his grip long enough to blow Plant Man's head off when heard a faint sigh, and suddenly the air was full of yellow pollen. They were surrounded by flowering plants, and prone, motionless monsters.
"Oh," he said, comprehension dawning instantly as the numbness set in. "You brffrd. D-."
The psychic went limp, flopping face into the soil, shoulder-to-shoulder with is foe. Plant Man sat up, pushing the liberator off of him and rising imperiously as he turned to regard his helpless foe, who lay on his back, staring intently at the distant burgundy-leafed limbs of the world-tree far above. With a single gesture from the villain, vines erupted from the ground, binding Kelly's arms and legs to the earth. All around him, little yellow flowers winked and spurted pollen, bright against the darker mass of this expansive evil garden, like toxic, impudent stars.
Kelly fumed silently. He could feel his body starting to fight off the paralytic poison, but he doubted he'd be able to move in time to save himself from serious harm.
Sure enough, one of Plant Man's thorny vine-whips shrieked through the air and pierced his gut, pinning him like a butterfly in a collector's display. Purple gore bubbled for a moment around the wound, but other than that, the result was remarkably subdued. The psychic partition within the traveler's mind which handled things like pain, reducing them to a simple running tally of damage, began to complain loudly.
Plant Man frowned, evidently disappointed that his victim hadn't vomited blood, or something equally dramatic. "You," said the darkloid, grinding its heel into the liberator's wounded side with enough force to elicit merry popping noises from his exposed ribs, "Are powerful and skilled - but you're still no match for Nebula. Your mechanical ally will join our ranks and your head will adorn the gate to our stronghold as a warning to oth-"
A single tree-root burst from the ground, intercepting a solitary shot from X's buster-cannon. Out of the corner of his eye, Kelly saw his ally borne to the ground by a three-headed frog.
"to others." the botanical bastard finished.
The pause cost him dearly. Four jagged yellow thorns, the very same thorns which Plant Man had fired at the traveler earlier in the fight, burst from where they had lodged in Kelly's chest and arms with a shower of violet blood. They tore into the darkloid in a viscious buzzing ballet, whirling and darting through the ruddy air like a small swarm of rocket propelled piranhas, severing his whips and punching fist-sized holes in his torso. The arboreal android stumbled and fell. The vines binding Kelly to the earth slackened, and he tore free in a spray of sap, rising shakily to one knee, allowing the psychokineticaly-motivated thorns to tumble to the ground, where they disappeared among the green with barely a whisper.
Kelly grit his teeth and gathered his will. His body was beginning to lodge new protests with the part of his brain that kept his physical accounts, straining under the combined stresses of his injuries and the vector-sketch. He let it go, for now, the tides of power subsiding, and turned his attention once more towards his beleaguered blue ally.
It was time for a little fire-support.
Quote:1233 words.
1 order point used to maintain the powerup through this post (2/5 remaining for the group), but its deactivated now. Kelly's stats are back to 3/2/2/5.