Dark on the Waters [Dark Data]

[Cloud Strife]

Blink’s teleportation assault was most definitely helping. Bola’s attention was more on her than Cloud, but he was still able to block everything they threw at him. His strength and skill outclassed every enemy that they’d faced so far. Cloud slashed at Bola, but the android parried his attack and hold his buster sword in place with his bladed gauntlet. Blink appeared behind the android and thrust her daggers towards their opponents back, only to have him parry with his cleaver.

Cloud let go of his blade, the handle dropping into the dirt. Cloud pulled out his crowbar and whipped it at Bola. The android dropped the mercenaries blade and plucked the crowbar out of the air. Cloud took this moment to reclaim his massive weapon and bring it down on top to Bola like a guillotine, but the red-haired robot used his new weapon to block the blonde’s attack.

There was no way that cloud was going to let this robot figure out how that crowbar worked. The mercenary slid his blade down the crowbar and, with one circular motion, dislodged the crowbar from Bola’s clawed gauntlet and launched it back towards the town behind them.

‘Well, there goes the Captain.’ Cloud spoke, Bola giving him a quick, confused, look before blocking another one of Blink’s assaults.

Blink and Cloud’s efforts seemed to only match the man, rather than outmatch him. It seemed like he had an answer for everything they’d throw, sometimes literally, at him. If they were going to survive this, they needed help from their fellow liberators, but Cloud hadn’t seen them coming up behind them yet, they had probably been swarmed by the corrupted people of this island. He let out a sigh and returned his attention to Bola, who was currently engaged in hand to hand combat with his fuchsia skinned ally. He seemed distracted enough.

Cloud broke out into a sprint, holding his blade above his head with both hands. He angled his arms back and then brought them forwards, tossing his sword at his opponent. Cloud then leapt into the air. 
‘Nice try.’ Bola scoffed as he caught the blade and drove it into the ground. ‘It didn’t work last time and it wasn’t going to work with this time either.’ He boasted as he attempted to face cloud, but found only an empty space where the mercenary had been.

‘I know.’ Cloud spoke as he landed on the handle of his own sword. Bola, caught off guard for only a moment, felt Blink’s energy daggers slice into a small section of his leather armour as Cloud’s boot connected with his right cheek. The robot was sent, tumbling, into the side of the cliff. Cloud dropped to the ground and lifted his blade from the dirt, holding it out in front of him as their opponent lifted himself from the ground.

‘I’ll admit, that was a pretty good trick.’ Bola sighed, brushing clumps of dirt and dust off his person. ‘But you’ll need to do better than that.’ The android spoke as he wound up his arm and then swung his cleaver.

‘Move.’ Blink spoke before rapidly teleporting away. Cloud, however, did not have that luxury. Once again ramming his blade into the ground, the mercenary used it as a temporary brace. The powerful blast of compressed air slammed into his blade, almost lifting it from the ground. If not for Cloud and his efforts in holding his blade in place, he’d have been thrown into the air and back into the town behind them.

‘Behind you!’ Blink shouted, prompting Cloud to turn his head. Bola had appeared behind him, his large blade coming down on top of the mercenary. He couldn’t see a way out of this situation. Cloud closed his eyes as the blade drew close to his head. he didn’t know why, it was a reflex.

‘Need a little help?’ Proto Man’s voice spoke out as the sound of an energy sword forming filled his ears. Cloud opened his eyes, the preteen robot’s blade holding back Bola’s Cleaver. Cloud rolled out of the way and to the other side of his blade. 

‘Am I glad to see you.’ Cloud breathed with a sigh of relief as he retrieved his weapon. Proto threw Bola’s weapon up, causing the android to stumble backwards as they retreated. Vision and Blink joined them in staring down their enemy. 

‘This isn’t going to be easy.’ Cloud spoke, holding his blade with both hands.

‘It never is.’ The preteen robot responded.

[Koehler]

Cole watched as Jaco flew off again, as though he weren’t just paralyzed moments ago. He originally thought the little alien was averse to throwing himself headlong into combat, but apparently this “Protoman” could be an excellent motivator for him.

He couldn’t help but smile to himself.

Then he focused on the unusual controls of the Stingray he was given by the robot. Vision was his name, right? Well, this Vision clearly overestimated his driving skills, which were entirely nonexistent. The benefits of being able to move several times the speed of sound in his world was that one didn’t need to learn how to drive. Funnily enough, they “walked” their way there.

“Alright. You can do this… Probably… erm…” Cole tried to encourage himself as he stepped onto the hovering vehicle warily, and placing his hands on the controls with his thumb over the firing buttons. He inched the strange hovercraft forward and chuckled half-heartedly to himself as it slowly moved.

“Okay. Easy does it… what button did Vision say it was?” He searched the controls, looking for the button in question. Upon finding it, he pressed it and nearly fell off as the Stingray climbed to the skies with a loud fwoosh, kicking up debris and dirt as it shot upwards, hovered for a moment as its momentum died down, and then began falling back down.

Of course, not straight down, as Cole panicked, fell forward, and the hovercraft rushed towards the fight ahead with an almost hysterical Quincy on board.

The Stingray dove down as Cole tried desperately to weave around burning buildings and confused pirates, with his yelling washed out against the screaming and whirring of the engine as it powered ahead relentlessly.

“Why~?! Why did he give me this thing!” Cole protested loudly, ducking as pirates and other corrupted corsairs and fighters, merely a blur to him now, opened fire. All this while he tried to zig and zag his way around, desperately trying to slow down but finding his own reflexes fighting against him, forcing him to speed up to avoid getting hit by a lucky shot. At least he was heading in the right direction towards the others… relatively.

It wasn’t until a pair of Stingrays fell in behind Cole that things started to really spiral out of control. Rockets flared past his head as he wove through the town and circled trees, firing back at them with one pistol. It could be said that a trial by fire was one of the best ways to learn, but at that moment, Cole had several choice words for the lot of Darklings and that odd robot comrade.

Then his Stingray rocked, almost swerving out of control as volley of laser fire lanced its side and a fire erupted. Cole looked back, gritting his teeth, as he saw rockets launched out from the trailing Stingrays and were quickly gaining upon him.

“Oh, to hell with this,” he exclaimed, as he pushed hard forward and made the hovercraft leap over a building, with the trailing rockets slamming into its base with a thunderous boom.

Through the bout of fire and ash that bloomed from the impact, the two other Stingrays kept up their pursuit, smoke trailing behind them, but saw only a fiery, yet empty Stingray ahead of them.

Cole grinned and took aim from a crouched position on the rooftop, and then fired.

A thin beam lanced through the engine of one of the Stingrays, and a hail of bolts on the second, both catching aflame and spiraling out of control as one outright exploded in a shower of heated metal and sparks and the latter slammed into the ground at high speed, its pilot sent hurtling through the air.

“I think I’ll stick to walking,” Cole sighed. He took a moment to survey his surroundings; mostly destroyed and burning buildings, confused Darklings running about, but it appears his comrades had all made better progress than he did in his fiasco of a driving lesson.

He spotted them, staring down a bandaged android with an oversized cleaver. Were oversized swords in style or something, he wondered.

He slid against the rooftop shingles, hopped to the ground gently, and took off in a sprint towards his teammates, shooting and leaping over several of the Darklings along the way.

He was fortunately close by to the clifftop that was their unified objective, and as he neared, he leapt to a treetop and then forward once more off it, gaining some height as he took aim and fired twin beams of energy in succession on the Darkling as Protoman and Cloud charged. The latter blocked the Darkling’s cleaver while the former charged into within Bola’s defenses and went to strike. Bola blocked the preteen’s blade with his bladed gauntlet, spun around with the Cleaver and blocked Cole’s assault, only to continue his spin and swing out, throwing the Liberators back with a sudden surge of wind.

Cole backflipped in midair and landed nimbly beside Vision, pistols at the ready and thumb on the trigger, while Vision recovered his bearings quickly from the sudden force of wind.

“Query: Where is the vehicle you were given?” Vision asked the Quincy beside him.

Cole seemed to flinch at that before answering.

“Oh. I, uh, parked it,” he replied, as a distant crash and boom could be heard behind them, “… yeaaah.”

900 words exactly.

Cole has entered this chaotic mess of a fight against one, unfortunately outnumbered Bolas. Also, don't ever ask Cole to be your Uber driver.

[The Vision]

The Vision cocked his head slightly.
 
"Those were highly valuable vehicles that would have assisted us greatly in the coming-"
 
"I know," Cole muttered, "That's why I parked-"
 
Another explosion rocked the ground, light purple shrapnel flying through the air.
 
"Parked it," Cole finished.
 
The Vision opened his eyes, then decided not to say anything. He turned to the pirate in front of him. He couldn't help but wonder how he had never noticed the gathering of pirates and outlaws in the Vasty Deep. Alas. At least he was dealing with them now.
 
"You are outnumbered," the android announced, "Please cease and desist as to avoid further-"
 
A green puff of smoke erupted where the Darkling stood seconds ago. A second puff of smoke appeared in front of Vision's face, followed shortly by a flying foot.
 
The android's head snapped back painfully, and he fell backwards, less from actual damage and more from surprise. Cole responded by slashing at the hostile robot with his sword. The pirate was long gone, however, in yet another cloud of green dust. The Vision rolled backwards, landing on his feet and methodically scanning the area.
 
> run "teleport_prediction_algorithm3.exe'
Running...
Calculating pattern...11%
 
The calculations stuttered into gibberish code as the android suffered another blow to the face. This newcomer was vicious and quite pesky. Even against the combined forces of these Primes, the robotic pirate was flashing in and out of existence, making it difficult for anyone to catch him.
 
Calculating pattern...27%
 
The Vision grit his teeth and raised his hands.
 
> run "iceman.exe"
Running...
 
Frost rapidly crept up the back of his hand from between his fingers. In a moment's time, the Vision's hands appeared to be completely composed of ice. Excess frost jetted out from the center of his palms as he sprayed cryogenic mist wildly at the hostile.
 
After 8 seconds, the Vision paused, psychosomatically panting. His fellow Liberators blinked and glared annoyedly at the Vision.
 
"Friendly fire," Proto Man snapped.
 
"My apologies," the android said.
 
He heard a cackling from behind him. The Vision spun around to lock onto the Darkling. He was lying down nonchalantly on the roof tiles that Cole had run on moments ago.
 
Calculating...42%
 
"Nice move, tin man," the pirate chuckled, "What's your next trick?"
 
"Query: who is this man?"
 
"Calls himself Bola," Claire replied, "Super annoying."
 
"I perceived as much."
 
Bola vanished once more, appearing on the ground several feet away.
 
Calculating...67%
 
"You can't even catch little old me," the pirate taunted, "How do you think you'll-"
 
Before Bola could finish, Cloud and Proto Man were already running forward, wielding large blades of their own. Claire formed a portal at her feet, falling through and reappearing above Bola's head. In response, the pirate himself vanished. The three Liberators collided into each other. Cole winced at the sight and brandished his pistol warily.
 
Calculating...91%
 
"Hey!" the pilot from earlier shouted over the comms, "Need help?"
 
"Affirmative," the Vision said, searching rapidly for the teleporting rogue, "Maintain fire on surrounding enemies. This hostile is difficult to fight as it is."
 
"Got it," the pilot responded, soaring overhead.
 
"Get off me," Cloud snapped at Claire, shoving her off as he used his large sword to help himself up.
 
"God dammit," Claire grumbled, "How do we catch this guy?"
 
"I can't predict his movements," Proto Man confessed.
 
"I can," Vision replied, "Proto Man, here is my predictive algorithm."
 
The Vision clapped Proto Man's available hand, and wires in both android's arms lit up as data transferred to the preteen machine. The Red Bomber nodded.
 
"Received," Proto Man said, "Rest of you, keep him at a distance. Poke him with smaller attacks. Expect to miss, but force him to teleport. Vision and I will nail that bastard."
 
The Liberators nodded as they prepared to fight Bola. The teleporting pirate raised an eyebrow.
 
"What's going on? Team huddle?"
 
Vision's eyes lit up as he opened a new file.
 
> run "grootroot.exe"
Running...
 
"I..." Vision growled, his voice suddenly low and gravelly, "Am... Groot!"
 
Dry vines shot skywards from the ground, sending clumps of sand flying. They stretched and grasped at Bola's ankles. The pirate squealed and vanished once more into smoke. But when the pirate reappeared, Proto Man was ready with his blade.
 
The red android spun and slashed, his movement in the air unimpeded by Vision's roots. Bola barely caught the large blade with his gauntlet. He vanished again, this time considerably further away from Proto Man.
 
Cloud followed up, bringing down his massive sword on the pirate. Bola vanished again. This time, Vision was ready, firing his optical beams at the teleporter. Bola cried out for a split second before vanishing again, a noticeable burn on his arm.
 
"Damn you-" he started, before ducking to dodge one of Claire's glowing daggers.
 
Cole sprinted along the outer wall of the shanties, firing his guns at the pirate. Bola once more vanished, right into one of Proto Man's charged-up energy blasts. The Vision closed in quickly as Bola flinched. His arm seemed to harden as he punched Bola in the chest, sending the pirate flying.
 
"Recommendation: relinquish the Dark Chip-"
 
Bola vanished again, this time outside of the circle of entangling roots. He panted, grasping at his chest in pain.
 
"You'll pay for that," he growled.
 
WARNING
Power levels at 49.65%

The Vision scowled and noted the power levels.

897 words. Hopefully the prediction algorithm isn't too much of a cheat?

[Nebula]

The battle was interrupted by a sudden, thunderous explosion. High overhead, Jaco's ship blossomed black fire and dropped from the sky like a stone, trailing smoke and debris.

Bola's face moved under the bandages, suggesting a changing expression, quite possibly a smile. He vanished again, reappearing in a puff of mist in the very spot where he'd began the fight, at the base of the rough-hewn  stairs. The darkling freebooter's posture straightened and he raised his sword, adopting a closed, defensive stance.

"You're tougher than you look," he said, returning to his familiar, lackadaisical tone, "Shame on all of you, ganging up on an old man. I guess it's time I took you kids seriously." 


His eyes changed color in a tiny nova-burst of light, shining crimson like rubies in the sun. Faint violet-black flames burst from his skin, outlining his body in ethereal liquid fire. It licked at the paving stones beneath his boots, rolled in dark, phantom waves across his armor, and  danced along his blade.

"You're gonna wish you hadn't made me do that."

Three sturdy wooden wheels, five feet across and lined with steel blades dropped out of the sky with a crash, and began to spin horizontally, forming a line in front of Bola. Slowly, they began to move towards the Liberators, who regarded them warily - and then the bladed barrels suddenly accelerated, buzzing viciously as they slid across the road. 

Bola has activated his alternate form: Defensive Stance (3/5/0/5), as well as a T1 Powerup: Dark Burn (+2/+0/+2/+1) bringing his stat line to 5/5/2/6.

He has also summoned three barrier wheels, and activated the following Super Utility:

Barrier Spin: Bola takes five seconds to focus, and all summoned Barrier Wheels will spin much faster, giving off a blue glow while they whir up to a frantic pace and start to move around much more quickly (at about SPD 3), crashing about into everything at random, with a preference for seeking out enemy targets. These effects last for twenty seconds of chaos before they fade and the blades slow down again.

Other things: Jaco's ship has been shot down. He takes 10 damage in the crash. Speaking of damage, a tally of current totals will follow shortly. 

You all have nine days for round 2, and up to 1000 words each. You've made him take you seriously - now make him worry!

[Blink]

Blink's body was buzzing. She had summoned this much power before. It made her feel almost light-headed, as if she was floating above herself and having some kind of out of body experience. Her emerald energy swirled around her, much thicker and present then the usual transparent power she would normally summon. In front of her and her companions, Bola had moved into a defensive fighting stance and sent three small wooden wheels buzzing towards them. They seemed to move especially slow to her, as the energy she used to power her up was making her almost overly caffeinated. Everything looked slow to her right now.

"I'll go after him, you guys handle those wheels!" 

"Claire, wait-!" She could hear the Vision, but she was through the first portal much too fast for him to stop her.

She felt ready. Her power was surged as high as it had ever been before. As she ran towards those whirling spiked wheels, she stared with Bola with the full intention of going one vs one against him. She knew there was no way he'd match her speed now, teleporter or not. As she approaches the middle wheel, she began to actually transfer the teleportation energy directly onto herself, 'blinking' forward about three at a time consistently. To an onlooker, it seemed like she was actually zipping in and out of reality.

She dove over the middle wheel as the spike protruded upwards. Blink phased through the metallic part as she rolled forward onto the ground behind it and continued to move towards Bola. "I'm coming for you!" She screamed, the adrenaline rising through her body.

"You left your friends behind to fight me one on one?" Bola asked, half-impressed and half-bewildered. "You gave up a numbers advantage even though I was smashing you already? You're like a  child. A baby." He spit his words his venom. No respect.

"What the fuck did you call me?" Blink asked back. She could hear her inner monologue calling herself a potty mouth.

"A selfish, over-confident, little girl."

Even though it seemed like he might strike first, he didn't. Partially because he was deliberately coaxing her into attacking him, in a defensive stance. Also partially because she didn't give him the  chance to even decide. Blink zipped forward with as much speed and rage as you could imagine. She teleported to the left of Bola and threw a spinning kick, but intentionally ported behind him as he defended it to kick his shoulder. This time, for the first time, her foot found purchase. She staggered him forward, but he used the momentum to swing the over-sized blade backwards and slice through her. Blink teleported away.

For the first time in this fight, Blink felt like she was actually finding her targets. She would teleport several times around Bola, who would whirl the massive sword around defensively and swing it when he thought he'd catch her. She land a kick to his jaw, or an elbow against his stomach. The problem was, she was very clearly not hurting him even she did hit him. She couldn't summon her weapons when she was surging this much power around her, and her attacks were hardly the strongest in the Omniverse. Finally, she jabbed him in the nose and he backed up, seemingly shook. She went in for the kill.

Blink lept forward, her energy surge disappearing into mid-leap as she summoned two emerald, skinny, curved blades from that excess energy around her. She could feel her power coming back to normal, but she had an open shot and intended to take it. Suddenly, Bola's leg came up and Spartan-kicked her in the chest, right over her breasts but underneath her collar bone. She was sent flying backwards in a heap, off balance and onto her butt.

"You aren't a liberator," Bola growled, stepping forward. Blink looked up, whimpering from the pain in her chest. She put one hand on her chest area, the other lightly fondling a darkchip in her pocket. She considered whether or not to use it. "You are an attention-seeking whore, and you don't belong here. With me, with your friends or with Nebula. Die."

Bola suddenly brought her blade down. Blink briefly thought about whether or not someone would save her. Again. She didn't want to die, but she most certainly didn't want to be saved from her own stupid choices again. She had to survive this fight somehow, on her own merit.

Suddenly an energy blasted out from the darkchip. It was mixture of gold and ebony swirling around her and Bola like a cloud. One of her hands came up blasted some of her own green special stuff into the down-swinging sword, bouncing it backwards suddenly. In her other hand appeared a glowing black bottle. At first it seemed pixelated, but then started to almost create itself into reality. Blink stumbled to her feet, staring at Bola. "You!" He growled, as if he was suddenly very offended. "You stole the rum!"

"You are damn right I did." Blink brought the bottle to her lips, ensuring the skull-and-crossbones logo faced out towards him as if she was posing in a commercial. She felt compelled to finish it in one gulp, and so she did, until the bottle shattered above her head as she leaned back to drink it in. Her eyes now glowed a dark purple, matching the darkspawn they had been fighting.

Bola growled again, sharp and under his breath. He moved into his defensive stance again, ready to catch her off guard.

Instead, a drunken Claire Ferguson turned around and made eye contact with her four companions and the three spinning wheels. They appeared to be doing just fine, but she immediately felt regret for running off as she usually did. "Don't worry!" She shouted out, almost singing a tune as she spoke, "I'm sorry I ran off! I'll save you!" She teleported away from Bola and towards her friends, leaving him alone and confused.

Blink's energy surge has ended and she has activated the darkchip 'Where the Rum Went.'

WHERE THE RUM WENT - T2 transformation
Upon activating this Darkchip, it generates a cloud of electric gold-on-black miasma, which constructs a pixelated bottle of rum in your hand - complete with skull-and-crossbones label embossed with glowing circuitry. The bottle rapidly fades into more solid corporeality. Drinking from the bottle forces you drain the entire thing, causing the bottle to shatter, and the following transformation to occur for one full round.

+7 ATK
+5 DEF
+0 SPD
-2  TEC (Or sets the ability score straight to 0 if the user has less than 3 TEC) 

While the transformation is active, your eyes glow dark maroon, visible alcohol fumes waft from your body, and you fairly reek of fruity booze. The user may feel the urge to sing raunchily, or act on first-impulses. When the transformation ends, you will, naturally, have a darkness-fueled hangover for the following round.

Her current stat line-up is 9/7/5/0. Feel free to roleplay her as drunk as you like. I do not imagine her to be a classy drunk.

[Cloud Strife]

As quickly as Blink had raced off, Cloud found himself under attack. The bladed wheels raced towards the liberators. The blond dove to the right as the spinning death wheels flew past him. One of them broke away and, like a boomerang, came back towards him. Cloud grabbed frantically at the handle of his buster sword, bringing it between himself and the spinning blades. Sparks shot out left and right as the sound of metal grinding against metal filled his ears.

The buzz saw like weapon pushed against his blade with extreme speed and power, slowly forcing the mercenary backwards towards the rest of the group. Just fighting Bola on his own was hard enough, but summoning these crazy things just made things worse. Cloud could hear the others clashing with the other two wheels, staying out of their way. Cloud racked his brain, desperately trying to come up with a way to gain the upper hand on these damned wheels. But he was too focused on not being killed to come up with anything. Then there was a flash of purple, and the mercenary found himself falling, ten feet, towards the ground. He watched, as he fell, the bladded wheel race off towards the larger group of liberators.

‘I saved you.’ Blink slurred, slightly, as the blonde mercenary landed on his backside, his weapon landing beside him.

‘Yeah…’ he groaned before grabbing his massive weapon and standing up. He rubbed his back with his free hand and stared at Blink. She seemed off, slightly unfocused, and she had a slight sway when she stood still. Bola must have done something to her.

‘Y’know,’ she began with a hiccup, ‘you’ve got nice, blonde, hair.’ She finished, stumbling over her words as she rocked, ever so lightly, back and forth on the spot.

‘She’s drunk?’ Cloud thought to himself as he gave her a slight smile and a nod. ‘Yeah, I know.’

‘What happened to you over there?’ he asked. Claire thought for a moment, giving the mercenary a blank look as she thought.

‘Well, I was fighting the bad guy. Then I used a dark chip that gave me a bottle of this weird liquid, which I drank by the way, and then I rushed back here to save you guys.’ She explained, without taking a breath. Cloud let out a sigh as he rubbed his eyes and then the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Blink let out another hiccup.

‘But don’t worry about that now, we have to save the others!’ She breathed, as she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the rest of the liberators.

[Koehler]

Cole rolled out of the way of the wheel of blades barreling down towards him with reckless abandon. Three of them fell from the sky when the bandaged, aged robot withdrew and recomposed himself for a moment. At first, it seemed he’d been preoccupied with an enraged Blink harassing him, up until she drunk something odd and…

It was a tad difficult for Cole to wrap his head around what happened while trying to nimbly dodge out of the way of the blenders from hell.

He tried shooting the wheels, at first, but that didn’t seem to do much. His bolts, and even one of his beams, simply ricocheted off the fast-spinning blades. How did that even work? He was quickly growing frustrated, having had to dispel his guns so he could focus on leaping and acrobatic stunts to keep out of harms way. They were quick, but were nothing he couldn’t handle.

With a leap and a twirl, he arced over the blades that spun atop the wheels as the whole machine slammed into a nearby boulder with a loud crash. He looked to the others to see that the red robot and Vision were equally preoccupied trying to avoid similarly designed wheels that harassed them as they attempted to assault a rather confused Bola.

Though the momentary confusion didn’t let them score any effective hits in. But he was distracted...

That got Cole thinking, as he sidestepped and rolled out of the way of the wheel that not-so-subtly came whirring by. They weren’t quiet, these death machines, and with all the clanging and buzzing, it was a bit difficult to concentrate.

But then he noted that they tracked him, and that gave him an idea.

”That’s an atrocious idea…” Fumetsu chided, which for once brought a smile to Cole’s face as he confidently, if not with a touch of snark, replied,

“And that’s why I’m gonna do it!”

He rolled out of the way of the blades again, and then quickly sprung into a sprint, using his liberator’s aid to talk to the others.

“Keep him distracted, you two. Blondie and Blink, when you see an opportunity, hit him!” He spoke, and continued his dash. He had to measure his speed just right, keep him close enough so the wheel kept him targeted, but not so fast as to lose it…

He couldn’t be sure if Vision or Protoman heard him, but they did seem to get in closer towards Bola, despite angry death wheels harassing them. Their proximity prompted his attention, as he parried Proto’s blasters and his sword strikes while outright blocking Vision’s attempts to score a hit from the flank. Those eye beams and that hammer were great, but it seemed the man was… slower? Yet he seemed to be moving more effortlessly than before, as if anticipating their movements.

Cole focused for a moment, nearing his target. It wasn’t a great plan, but it could open him up for a moment or two. He needed to time his jump carefully. One foot slammed into the dirt and grass as Cole focused energy into his hands, thinking both of his rather reckless idea and the twin crosses tied to his wrists. The other foot met the ground as he continued propelling himself forward, hearing the blades of the wheel whirring ever so close behind him. The guns took shape, at first as blue, translucent lines, but then grew more solid in mere fractions of a moment.

Bola took notice of Cole’s charge, pushing off the preteen robot that he had locked blades with and spun to strike at the Quincy acrobat, a current of whistling wind forming around the blade as it cut cleanly through the air.

Cole chose then to leap, pushing himself high off the ground into an arc overhead of the enemy, as his cleaver collided with the spinning blades of the machine that followed closely behind its original target. The current of wind rebuffed and sent the bladed death wheel careening away in a mess of tangled, splintered wood and shattered blades. Meanwhile, Cole, nearly completing his arc, had turned to fire at Bola’s unprotected back.

He couldn’t say he was surprised when his bolts seemed to do little but irritate the old man and leave some black marks on the armor he wore.

Bola grunted and turned, seeming thoroughly unimpressed and agitated.

“That was clever, but don’t think-“ He began to seethe, but was quickly interrupted by a much larger cleaver cutting awfully close to his face. When he needed to, that blonde soldier could really move fast, Cole noted. Bola still managed parry the large weapon in a shower of sparks and grinding metal using the smaller blades attached to the gauntlet on his arm. He jumped back, seeming to try and come up with a retort, but was cut off before he could even start.

Blink materialized above Bola through a sloppily-crafted portal and began falling, trails of green energy wrapped around her like ribbons unfurling as she not-so-gracefully plummeted towards the ground. She attempted to make a dagger or weapon when she had passed through the event-horizon of her verdant rifts, but all she had managed was a ball of barely cohesive energy wrapped around her hand. It didn’t seem to bother her much, though, as her fist slammed into Bola’s cleaver and a shockwave boomed from the impact, with Bola pushed deeper into the ground from a small crater forming beneath him. He grunted under the strain as he was forced to a knee, but eventually managed to push the drunken Blink off, who maladroitly spun and fell onto the ground, laughing.

“I got youuuu~” She slurred, trying and failing to get back onto her feet.

Bola was panting for a moment, but stood straight; the cleaver in his hand was bent from where Blink’s strike from the heavens had met it.

“Tcch. Lucky hit.”

The rest of the team was speechless for a moment.

Words 999 (Tad close to the wire, huh?)

Moral of Story: Drunken Blink is best Blink. Drunken Boxer Blink would be even better.

Cole got the (bad) idea to use one of the wheels against Bola directly, essentially having one follow him in closely and crash against him. Bola countered (6 tec and not being dumb helps), but wasn't exactly prepared for a sudden Cloud, and then a more sudden Blink from the sky.

And I don't think anyone was ready for what came next.

[Nebula]

Bola took the brief lull in the tide of battle thanks to the drunken antics to make a tactical retreat. A pillar of smoke rose up around him, shrouding him as he vanished from sight. He reappeared on a higher ledge of the cliff face, hovering a few feet above it. Somewhere along the way, he had discarded his damaged cleaver, and the hand that normally wielded it was behind his back, gingerly rubbing it. "Geeze...you guys are tougher than you look..." One eye closed in a grimace of pain, making him jerk his head slightly to one side. "Tch...c'mon, now, give an old man a break, will ya? Got me outnumbered here." He went quiet, slowly tilting his head the other way, as if listening for something.

He dropped his arm back to his side, and as he did all the tension bled out of his stance. The flickering aura around him, dark violet flames burning and shrouding his body and making his eyes blaze, all at once died. Snuffed out like a candle in a gale. "But...I've done my job here." He shook his head, giving an exhausted sigh. "Look...I'm not gonna try and talk you out of this. Or go one and on about 'Nebula this' and 'We're gonna take over everything' that..." He lazily shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just gonna say this: you kids are walkin' into one hell of a meat grinder." He leaned back, as if reclining, and offered a halfhearted wave of his empty hand. "But now it's time for me to get goin'..." And in a swirling plume of off-white smoke, he was gone. His voice echoed down the path, even as he was gone from sight. "Laaater."

For a few seconds after the departure of the darkling commander, there was silence. In the distance, sounds of battle could still be heard, drawing closer. The other two robotic liberators drawing nearer to rejoin their companions. But the group of three was silent, staring between themselves in confusion.

"Did...we win?" Cole finally ventured to ask.

"Doesn't matter," Cloud spoke up. "We have to keep—" He never got to finish.

A hail of gunfire shattered the cliff side, each bullet hitting like a small bomb. A small avalanche of rock and dust came crashing down, turning the path up the cliff into a mess of blasted, craggy ledges. No secure footing was left, and what little ground there was was made now of loose gravel and shifting chunks of stone. The liberators had managed to avoid the unexpected onslaught, some more easily than others, and now sat coughing and trying to locate the new attacker, taking cover as best they could.

A deep, resonating voice growled from the distance, standing on a pile of rubble back in the town. "I knew I couldn't trust that lazy oaf with this." The speaker was...quite a literal giant of a man. Standing in at a hulking seven feet tall, and looking much more like an armored barrel than anything else. A helmet, much like a medieval knight, crowned his head, complete with a plume of vibrant red hair emerging from the top in a loose, bedraggled tail. Only his eyes could be seen, glowing from within the visor: dull, yellowed sclera, and bright red iris. Left arm ending in a huge-barreled cannon, right arm a gargantuan, blue steel mitt looking like it was designed more for crushing and battering than anything else.

"Bola's capable...but he's soft, and lazy." The arm cannon of the speaker was raised, leveled and trained on the group. "Don't count on that same luck with me." He lurched forward, taking only a single step. A crash of metal, groaning under his colossal weight, and he was gone. He reappeared high up on the cliff, leering down at the group. "Unlike him, I don't intend to fight you. I only need to keep you from getting up here long enough for the fortifications and reinforcement to be finished." He swung his cannon arm in an arc, sending a shower of bullets and bolts of energy ripping through the cliff face, sending another shower of broken earth thundering down. "If I have to bring this entire cliff down on you to do that, so be it!" His pronouncement was met with panels in his shoulders opening, and a barrage of rockets erupting. They blazed through the air, trailing smoke in their wake, before beginning to make a turn and arc back toward ground, roaring straight for the position of the liberators.

"Move!" Cloud and Cole shouted in unison, both of them leaping into action and bolting for the cliff face. The destruction caused by the new arrival had lead to the appearance of a cave in the rocky wall. Unsteadily, Blink staggered after them, managing to realize even in her inebriated state that 'explosions = bad'. The trio got to cover just in time for the ground where they had been to erupt in an explosion, blanketed in fire and gouging a crater into the stone. Fortunately, further up the cave path there was a path leading sharply, but steadily upward. The growing night outside made it hard to see, but some last vestiges of light shone through, filtering through the mouth of another cave and who knew how much dust, showing another opening higher up on the cliff.

From deeper in the cave, there came the sound of several booted feet, crashing and charging down the hall. Many pairs of eyes, glimmering red, started to show themselves in the darkness. Flashes of silvery-gray steel, gleaming metallic bright in the dimness of the cave interior, came to show themselves. Humanoid in shape, looking like...stormtroopers? More than that; also sailors and marines of the Empire's presence here in the deeps, and pirates, and all manner of other human ilk, coupled with a scattering of Nebula's own robotic soldiers. Fragile, as they had been back in the woods, but numerous.

"....we should go," Cloud said helpfully. And it was agreed to be a good idea. They moved on, for the path leading up.



Elsewhere in the town, the advance of the Vision and Proto Man was not allowed to go on completely unhindered. A new foe had emerged to join the ranks of the enemy and slow their progress. Gigantic and lumbering, a colossus of junk and body parts. Pieces of various members of Nebula's forces, and bits of the fallen pirates and lcoals scattered around, on top of piles of junk and scrap from the battle and destruction of the town. The wrecked, crashed remains of Jaco's ship could be seen merged with the rest of the debris. All merged into one giant creature. Great red eyes, glaring at the mechanical liberators, leered out of massive eye sockets. Hands composed of ruined and shattered building on one side, and masses of piratical weaponry and body parts on the other, rose up to thwart their advance. It let out a long, impossibly deep groan, showing a cavernous maw filled with splintered wooden beams and shredded bits of wrecked ship in a mockery of fangs. It was slow, but the sheer bulk of it lent it considerable power as it surged and battered at its comparatively tiny foes.

One last obstacle to stop them from reuniting with their allies, and to keep crushing them down and inflict further damage.

Alright. Bola has retreated for now, to go rest off the battle like the lazy bum he is. He's been replaced by his grumpier partner, Klaymoor. Blink, Cloud, Cole, he doesn't intend to fight you directly, and has instead opted to force you into a network of caves and precarious pathways leading up the cliff, which have already been infested with countless numbers of Nebula's Recycled troopers. They are every bit as strong as the originals, but incredibly fragile and often won't last more than one good hit. Their aim is to force you out of the caves and into the open, where Klaymoor can blast you with his absurd artillery, and try to slow down your progress. His primary aim is to keep collapsing the cliff and path, to halt your progress upward to Nebula's stronghold, but he won't hesitate to take shots at you directly if he has the opportunity. The goal should be clear: avoid the onslaught, traverse the cliffs and cave, and make it to the top.

For reference, Klaymoor's abiliities:
Stats: 6/6/0/4
Proficiencies: Physical Strength, Ranged, Area Attack, Remote Control, Homing, Debuff
Powers: Survival, Master Super Jumping, Master Teleportation, Master Enhanced Senses

He has an arsenal of several weapons, including high caliber machine guns and cannons, with both regular and explosive rounds, flamethrowers, homing rockets, electrical lances, mines of all types, and seismic generators. He's a walking heavy artillery platform, and most of his attacks can be remotely aimed and controlled, or set to track targets he can sense, to let him hit you from crazy, unpredictable angles. Feel free to get absurd with his arsenal.


Vision and Proto Man, you've been confronted by a Recycled clone of Desert Man.EXE; instead of sand, he's now composed of junk, wreckage and corpses from the town and battle. He's powerful, but slow and not particularly bright. Just as fragile as other Recycled units, but his composition lets him keep himself patched up by absorbing more wreckage and debris from the battlefield. He's just an obstacle to slow you down and keep you from the real fight, more than anything, but he's very good at that.


Everyone has 10 days from this post, and up to 2500 words, to progress onward from this predicament. There is no limit to number of posts this round, so break things up as you need/want to.

For the record: Jaco has now officially died. For everyone else: good hunting!

[The Vision]

The Vision scowled as mound of rubbish gravitated towards the already behemoth monster. He lifted lightly into the air, floating around 2 feet off the air. Proto Man stood nearby, the preteen machine gritting his teeth.
 
> WeakPoint(scan[11301])
Scanning...
(0) structural weakpoints found
 
"Alert: zero structural weak points found," the Vision warned Proto Man, "Recommended course of action unknown."
 
"Then we hit it, hard and fast. Remember, we just have to get past this thing and regroup with the others, so don't get too distracted."
 
The Vision floated backwards from the monster at an angle. Noting the flying android, the oozing creature roared, launching a column of garbage directly at the Vision. The Vision flipped backwards, increasing his weight slightly to decrease his altitude. The tentacle of trash narrowly missed Vision, crashing instead into the ground behind the Vision. The trash spun around on the dirt road, forming another, smaller version of the creature.
 
Proto Man had by now launched into action, rolling out of the way as another tentacle of garbage slammed where he stood moments before. The Proto Buster spun and clicked, panels opening to give way to a new apparatus. The android fired scattered pellets of energy, thudding into the surface of the garbage monster. The second tentacle formed its own tiny monster, lashing out with its own, smaller tentacles.
 
The Vision and Proto Man realized quickly they were fast becoming outnumbered. After only a few seconds of combat, five smaller monsters had formed. The original creature was notably smaller, but still of considerable size. There were tentacles flapping around everywhere. Vision's computers were operating rapidly to find a safe course between the coils of scrap metal.
 
> run "gazerbeam.exe"
Engaging optical heat engines...
 
The Vision's eyes glowed a bright red as beams of heat flashed from beneath his eyelids. He tightly wound around one of the larger monster's tentacles, singeing it in a corkscrew pattern. Having reached the base, the Vision launched forward, feet-first, shattering the tentacle with a flying drop-kick. He caught himself in mid-air and launched skyward before another coil could slam into him.
 
The battlefield was now a forest of garbage, its trees winding streams of scrap metal and gasoline. They were forming faster than Vision and Proto Man could take them down. Vision couldn't even see where Proto Man was, except as the occasional blurs of crimson in between the links of trash.
 
Vision never got to finish his thought, as one tentacle wrapped around his yellow cape and pulled. The red and green Avenger, light as he was to maintain aerial mobility, went flying through one of the shanties on the side of the dirt road. The android smashed through the wall, crashed into the back wall, then fell onto a cot, shattering it.
 
The android grit his teeth and lifted himself from the rubble, noting the tentacle becoming larger as the splinters and shattered planks flowed into it. Vision's right hand gripped around an invisible handle. Within the grip, airborne pixels constructed Thor's legendary hammer. Mjolnir crackled with tension as the Vision felt anxiety and doubt creep into his mind.
 
One of the smaller monsters chased Vision into the hut, lashing out with two tentacles. The Vision swatted a tentacle away, sending jolts of electricity coursing along the tentacle into one of the mini clones. The creature screeched as it sank into itself, its structural composition failing. Soon, the smaller creature turned into a bubbling puddle.
 
As the smaller creature melted, the larger creature seemed to flinch, then roar in pain and anger. The Vision tilted his head, floating out of the hut through the hole in the wall. He spotted Proto Man being crushed under two of the smaller creatures, fending off a third with rapid-fire pellets of energy. The Vision soared forward, swinging Mjolnir like an axe into a tree. The impact shattered one of the smaller creature, crumpling it as lighting coursed through the rusty metal in its body. The second garbage monster lashed out, which Vision smacked aside with the hammer. As the weapon dissipated, the garbage monster bubbled into the dirt.
 
Vision reached his hand out to Proto Man, who grabbed it. Vision lifted the other android up to his feet.
 
"The smaller creatures appear to be remotely connected to the larger creature. Furthermore, electric discharges seem to disconnect the smaller creatures from the larger creature."
 
Proto Man nodded, grimacing as he completely shredded an approaching tentacle with his Proto Buster.
 
"Then maybe it'll hurt the big one. Hit it with your lightning hammer. I'll get you some cover fire."
 
The red android sprinted forward, spraying bullets at nearby tentacles on his way towards the big monster. The Vision launched into the air, burning his way through any interfering coils of trash.
 
As the pair of robots closed in on the large monster, the smaller creatures approached, a hint of desperation in their eyes. Proto Man was sprinting in a tight circle around the large monster, hopping and rolling to avoid any attacks as he unloaded round after round of shotgun blasts into the monster's scrap metal armor. The Vision started flying in a circle in the opposite direction, his hands crystallizing rapidly as he did.
 
> run "iceman.exe"
Running...
 
Cryogenic mist billowed at the monster, coating it in a layer of frost. The monster was now even slower than before, the Proto Buster's burning rounds its only repose from freezing solid. Even the smaller monsters, even though they were not being targeted by the Iceman mist, crept slower than before, as if they were freezing themselves. Proto Man dashed up the side of the large monster, jumping off of it towards a frozen tentacle. His left hand transformed into a blade of plasma, slashing through the tip of the tentacle and chopping it clean off.
 
Proto Man gripped onto the tentacle and jumped forward, slamming the icicle-like tentacle into the monster's eye. The Vision, recognizing an opportunity, summoned Mjolnir and smashed the hammer into the tentacle, driving it deeper into the monster's eye socket. Electricity coursed through the monster. Proto Man jumped up, catching Vision's hand as he flew overhead. They landed a few feet away, watching the monster dissolve behind them.
 
"Good riddance," Proto Man grunted.
 
"Affirmative," Vision replied, "Query: where is the rest of the team?"
 
"Not sure," Proto Man admitted, raising his Liberator device to his mouth, "Come in, team, come in. What is your loca-"
 
The debris in the road ahead of them shuddered and collected into a big pile as the monster reformed, roaring furiously, its maw shaking from the sheer volume of the cry. The two androids stopped in their tracks.
 
"Actually," Proto Man continued, "I'm busy. Stand by."

1121 words. Yes, I totally stole Thor's move from the one-take in Avengers. Shame me.

[Blink]

"We should go," Cloud suggested to his comrades. Cole agreed with a nod, his head turned towards the cave path in front of them. The trio of would-be liberators had barely avoided a huge artillery strike (which seemed to be something they were doing a lot of lately) and found brief respite inside a cavern that seemingly led upwards into the mountain's cliff-side.

Blink wearily made her way over to a small rock which would serve as a temporary chair. "Wait," she insisted. She looked like she was blind, holding her arms out in front of her to guide her way as she fondled past Cloud and into the makeshift seat. She flopped down, blinking her eyes several times as they reverted from blurry to clear and back to blurry again. "Can we just take a minute?" She asked, shaking her head clear of cobwebs. "My head is pounding. I can barely focus." She brought one of her slender hands up to her forehead and starting to massage her own temple.

Cloud and Cole exchanged a glance. Blink seemed to have come out of her drunken daze from taking the liquid darkchip earlier. But now she had traded one condition for another. "Are you hungover now?" Cole asked, being the first of the two blondes to figure it out.

"Not so loud," Blink insisted, which only led Cole to look confused, since he hadn't raised his voice at all.

Right at that moment, a loud booming sound came from above them. The entire cavern began to shake, causing some of the dust from the ceiling to crackle and fall. Blink groaned even louder as the high volume of the noise caused her head to practically split open from the inside, sending a searing pain through her recovering brain. "We don't have time to rest," Cloud spoke up, sternly. He looked down at Blink and put his hand out to her. "We need to move." She nodded and took his hand, and then stood up with his assistance. "Try not to slow us down." His words were firm, but she could tell he was speaking more with a brotherly tone then condescending.

"I won't," she promised. In a brief moment of clarity, she made eye contact with the spikey-haired swordsman and nodded her head. She squeezed his hand at the same time. They had been through a lot together in a short amount of time, and it was important for Blink that Cloud could trust her. He returned the nod and released her hand.

Even though she was putting on a strong face, Blink was suffering through a bad hangover. She followed her blonde companions up the steep cave floor towards an opening out into a cliffside. Her head throbbed, but she did her best to focus on just keeping her feet moving, one in front of the other. When they made it to the top, they found themselves staring a group of darklings, all deliberately huddled together in an effort to block the path. On the other side of the path was another opening into a cave which would, presumably, lead further up the mountain.

Another loud booming sound hit their ears as an explosion above them caused the cliff wall to drop debris. "He's bombing us!" Cloud shouted, "We need to cross this cliff fast! Go!"

He led the charge as he sprinted forward. Cole pulled his pistols out from wherever he kept them and gave Blink a reassuring glance. He followed behind the swordsman at a high pace. Blink kept up the rear and began to run straight behind them. It was Cloud who made contact with the enemy first, slicing through a line of them without losing speed. He charged through the defensive line, aided by the firing shots of Cole who provided support. Blink ran along the edge of the cliff so she could hopefully get through the mob without any conflict, but one of the squashbucklers remained in her way.

Cloud and Cole continued to pound through the defensive darklings just as Blink summoned an emerald energy dagger into her hand. Unlike her male counterparts, she only had one man to deal with, but she was in a much more fragile state. The pirate put his sword up in front of himself to block her dagger swing, but she brought her momentum underneath him at just the right time to tackle him backwards. It was at this point that another loud bombing occurred, shaking the cliff wall above them and forcing more of the large debris down on top of them. The ground under them shook, causing Blink to lose footing and sending both her and her enemy off the side.

She panicked and let go of the pirate mid-fall, turning to face upwards as she fell back-first. She teleported back up to the cliff-side they were standing on. Her head pulsed as she tried to summon more energy to blink away again. The cliff above her was still giving way to a rockslide, but her pounding brain was reminding her all too well exactly how much capacity she had.

Blink looked towards the cave entrance where Cloud and Cole had just made it across the path. The enemies they sliced through were either down, injured or about to be trampled by the incoming debris. The boys were just noticing that Blink hadn't made it all the way across.

She summoned as much energy as she could into her little purple fingertips and clapped her palms together. She blinked behind them and fell into a heap onto her butt and back. "Whew!" she exclaimed, causing them to turn around in surprise. "That was close!" As she spoke, the cliffs they were crossing were covered by the boulders caused from the artillery strike. "Are we at the top yet?"

She couldn't tell which one answered, but someone said: "Nope."

[Cloud Strife]

Being inside of, what appeared to be, a mine wasn’t on the list of Cloud’s ideal battle locations. They were cramped and gave him barely any room to utilize his buster sword, if any at all. Luckily, for him, he’d had enough room so far. But his luck, today, seemed to be running out. The mercenary looked down at Blink, she was reckless, irresponsible, and hot headed. But that just reminded him of home, of a girl he used to know.

‘Tifa…’ He mumbled to himself as he unclipped his blade and drove it into the ground beside him.

‘H-Hey! What are you doing!?’ Blink painfully exclaimed as Cloud knelt down, felt around for the woman, and then hoisted her onto his back. She put up a fight, her naturally proud personality shining through her pain.

‘You need to rest, and you’ll only tire yourself out more if you try to walk the rest of the way out of this tunnel system.’ He explained as she settled on his back. ‘So just sit tight, hold on, and rest.’ He finished with stern words as he grasped the handle of his blade.

‘Yeah, Cloud and I can handle it for now.’ Cole spoke, approvingly.

The trio walked, timidly, through the darkness, feeling around for any collapsed ground or jagged rocks. Cloud dragging his blade beside him as Blink rested on his back. Every now and then she let out a displeased sigh or grunt, he just ignored her. They hadn’t come up against any darklings after the last group, but he expected a horde to be positioned at the end of wherever these tunnels led them. As long as they were going up, they were probably heading in the right direction.

Cole, who was walking at the front of the group, let out a yelp as he fell to the ground. He’d tripped over an old, and rusted, railway system. Cloud looked around, in one direction, a faint, flickering, shadow. The other direction seemed to, from what little he could see after his eyed had fully adjusted, lead up through the mountain.

‘We should go this way, we don’t have a lot of time.’ Cole stated, taking a step towards the upper path.

‘Wait,’ Cloud spoke as blink let out another one of her disgruntled sighs. ‘We should check that out.’ He spoke, pointing his sword towards the faint flickering of shadows. Cole probably couldn’t even see him pointing, but there was only one other direction. He’d figure it out.

‘But we need to get back to the fight.’ The Quincy argued. He was right, but they were no good dead, and stumbling around, almost blind, in a dark cave system is a very effective way to die.

‘We’re no good to them dead, and it looks like there’s some kind of fire that way, I’ll check it out.’ The blond mercenary contended. ‘You can keep going if you want. We’ll catch up.’ Cloud heard an irritated sigh come from Cole as he headed towards the dim light.

‘He’s right you know.’ Blink spoke.

‘I know… but so am I.’ He responded. She gave him a little kick to the gut as they walked along the tracks.

The two had followed the rusted rail system for a solid couple of minutes. The man’s blade made a soft thud each time it went over one of the wooden slats that sat beneath the iron rails. The pair came to a small room that was being lit by a small lantern. A dim, blue, flame, that looked as if it would go out at any moment, hid behind the glass casing of a lantern. It sat between two skeletons, one with a pickaxe and the other with a pistol. Had they been fighting over it? Either way, they are dead now, they have no use for it.

‘What is it?’ Blink queried softly, trying not to worsen her aching head.

‘A lantern.’ He said as he squatted down to examine it. Its blue flame swayed from side to side, shifting between brightness as if it was almost about to go out. But it would always, just, stay a lit. It was odd, but it was a light source, he didn’t see any reason not to take it. He grabbed it with his free hand and held it up. As if a light switch had been flicked, the cave lit up. It was as if he was outside. He could see everything perfectly. The walls, the skeletons, the water dripping down the walls. It was all perfectly visible to him.

‘Blink, are you seeing this?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, you’re holding the lantern out in front of you and it’s only a little brighter than before.’ She responded, wittily, flinching at every word as her head ached.

‘I can see perfectly now.’ He replied, ignoring her.

‘Oh.’ She responded as the handle of something pushed the mercenary’s blade from his hands. It made a thud on the ground as Cloud turned to look at what had forced its way into his grasp.

‘A pickaxe?’ He questioned, confused as to why the, oddly fitting, tool had suddenly appeared in his hand. He dropped the pickaxe and retrieved his blade. He still felt weird about the strange lantern and how well he could see. But he was thankful for it.

‘You alright back there?’ He asked. A nod was all he got in response.

‘Alright then, let’s head back to Cole.’ He spoke as he retraced his steps, his new-found vision allowing him to move faster than before. As he walked, he found himself compelled to hold the lantern out in front of him, even though he could see perfectly fine. But there was no need to look a gift horse in the mouth.

[Koehler]

“I can’t believe they’re going exploring in a cave at a time like this…” Cole muttered annoyedly to himself, feeling his way along the wall beside the rusty rail he walked beside. He was going at a rather slow pace, trying not to trip over it again as he kept his Quincy Bow active in his other hand. It may not have been useful as a weapon in the current situation, but with it active still, it gave off a dim aura of fire that did little more than light up his immediate surroundings. That was preferable to not even being able to see his own hand in front of his face, though. His grip tightened around the handle of the magnum in his left hand as he stuck to the right side of the tunnel, with the weapon giving him some small amount of comfort and focus in this dark, damp, claustrophobic, abandoned abyss of a mining tunnel that seemed to go on endlessly.

Despite keeping slow, but steady progress, the dim light at the end didn’t seem to get any closer, and with every passing moment, Cole found himself growing exponentially more impatient.

“Why didn’t I just climb…?” He complained with a sigh, his feet shuffling against the dirt and rock of the floor, as his hand slid across the grimy wall and - was that a bone?

Cole felt his way around the wall again, curiosity taking the better of him and yes. Yes, that was a skeleton nailed to the wall of an abandoned mine.

”Intriguing choice of decoration,” Fumetsu commented dryly, ”clearly their performance was less than satisfactory to the foreman.”

Cole sighed and continued onwards. After all, it wasn’t the first corpse of an unfortunate soul he’s ever come across, though he was certainly more thankful for the lack of light. After several agonizing minutes of this slow, painstaking pace, Cole found that his hand no longer touched the wall. In fact, the rail just ended into an empty chamber, whose exact size eluded the Quincy, but he could tell what it was through the changes in the echoes of his shuffling footsteps.

“Okay, just gotta be careful a-oohf!” Cole cut off as he bumped into a surprisingly large rock in the center of the chamber. Or was it rock? He felt the rock in front of him, and despite having the same mold and grime as the walls, the texture seemed off. It seemed oddly craggy where the rock on the walls was smoothed over time due to the dampness and water that ran along the walls at time. And it was huge!

Maybe it collapsed from the ceiling?

As he felt around, he heard a low rumble as the curious boulder suddenly shifted. The room shook violently, as the low rumble turned to a raspy roaring that echoed throughout the chamber and the many tunnels that branched off from the chamber. Chains rattled against the wall, rocks fell from the ceiling and rolled around as the dust was kicked up, mixing in the air. Dim orange flames suddenly erupted on torches in a quick, successive pattern, forming a ring around the room, barely illuminating the creature that rose from its crumpled-up form.

“… are you serious right now?” Cole exasperated, seeing the rock golem’s towering form backlit from the torches behind it. It was a broad, hulking creature, and from the dim light, Cole could see many bands of rock and minerals forming its body. Its orange eyes ignited like flames from what he assumed to be its head, stout and round as it may be and lacking anything resembling a neck. It glowered and howled at the Quincy that awoke it, as it lumbered forth.

”I think you found the foreman.” Alex concluded in a mixed joking and concerned tone.

The room shook as the golem raised its arm and swung wide, carving a wide swath through the wall as Cole nimbly ducked underneath the clumsy attack. Chunks of rock went flying away, crashing against the far-off wall and floor as the Golem howled again. It slammed onto the ground where Cole stood, with the Quincy leaping out of the way again.

“At least it’s slo-“ Cole didn’t have time to finish his statement as a boulder, launched from the golem’s fist, came hurtling at him at a blinding speed. He barely had time to twist and use energy to push himself out of its way before it slammed into the high wall.

“Okay, never mind, my luck is just terrible today.” Cole landed with a roll and began running in a wide circle around the stone giant, conjuring his second magnum and firing on the giant’s form. Glowing red bullets soared through the air and impacted against the rock, as successive hits seemed to begin melting it, but doing little else than creating small pockets of heated rock. Though, he did aim for the arms, using the dim light they projected against the darkness as an indication of the titan’s movements when it went to swing.

Though the torches were a welcome addition of light, he mostly relied on the sound of rock grinding against rock, which was telling of the giant’s movements as it twisted and turned to swing at the nimble interloper. That, alongside his own heightened reflexes, allowed him to evade the sluggish creature.

Dodging, rolling, leaping, and even riding along the titan’s arms allowed him to evade its sluggish, but powerful attacks as it pounded, crashed, and thrashed the chamber, and to Cole it felt like it was shaking the whole mountain with its rage.

”I think it’s mad you woke it up.” Alex quipped.

“You don’t say?!” Cole ran up along the arm of the titan as it attempted to swat him away with its other hand, only to instead find the Quincy crawling up that arm, firing at the golem’s head, aiming for the creature’s eyes. As bolts flew into the golem’s skull, it howled in pain and rage, shaking and thrashing about as it slammed into the wall, hands over its face.

Cole was thrown off by the sudden quick movements, colliding onto the floor as the room shook violently from the titan’s booming wailing. The Quincy quickly leapt back onto his feet, observing the titan’s riot as it regained it slowly regained its composure and brought its clenched fist down onto Cole, who rolled out of the way, but found that the ground heaved upward in a kinetic wave from where the fist impacted against it, throwing him off balance as the golem swung its other arm in a follow-up attack.

Then came the sharp sound of metal grating against rock as a large blade cleaved through what appeared to a tendon on the creature’s wrist with an upward swing, causing it to reel back, writhing and howling again. Cole could just barely make out Cloud against the dim light of the lantern he carried in front of him, with his sword in the other hand.

“You okay?” Cloud turned and asked, to which Cole nodded, regaining his balance as the ground quake subsided.

”Wait, where did he even come from?” Cole thought for a moment, remembering that he saw the blade cut before he even saw the sword, let alone Cloud. And what was with the lantern? It didn’t exactly shine very brightly… This group was weird.

“Where’s Blink?” Cole asked, as he watched the giant thrash about.

Cloud just pointed to the entrance of the room, though Cole couldn’t see anyone there, it was simply too dark.

“I see you met a friend.” Cloud noted, though Cole couldn’t be sure if that was a joke or not.

“Yeah, I was having a polite conversation with the mine foreman while you guys were exploring a cave,” Cole retorted with a half-smile, “You’re welcome to butt in though.”

[Nebula]

Only OOC update this time, due to sickness. Bear with me here, folks.

Blink, Cloud, Cole: the golem foreman you've stumbled across is more than a little sore you've woken it up. As has been seen, it's sturdy, powerful, and doesn't seem all that bothered by the dark...but it's also not terribly bright. On the plus side, if you can get past it, you can find the old foreman's access tunnel. One emotional ladder sequence later (about a two minute ladder climb) and you'll come out in a small bunker atop the cliff, where your new angry friend is waiting with all his artillery.

Vision, Proto Man: You've managed to distract and evade the recycled junk monster. It will continue pursuing and trying to accost you, but is too slow to really keep up, especially once you gain the cliff. The paths inside the caves the other party took have been collapsed by now, as have the external paths, but your mobility should allow you to make it to the top. You just have to deal with Klaymoor's constant barrage of weapons fire.

Both groups: you can meet up again atop the cliff. When you do so, Klaymoor will stick around only for a brief fight before making a retreat -- as hasty as his bulk and slow speed will allow. He will be helped by an onslaught of recycled soldiers; frankenstein-esque mashups featuring bits and pieces of all manner of creatures and other members of Nebula's forces. Thankfully, you'll be right on Nebula's doorstep, and the gate to their stronghold is right there. Pass through, and get ready for the last hurdle and to face down their commander.

Everyone has one week, and no word limit. Go nuts.

[Proto Man]

The concept of a mechanized creature that kept repairing itself was both fascinating and horrifying. After all, how much would they have to melt, burn, and blow up before the lumbering DesertMan.EXE stopped assailing them?

Fortunately, they wouldn’t have to deal with that issue, because neither of the android had opted to continue what appeared to be a fruitless confrontation with the seemingly unstopping machine-monster. Instead, a rapid succession of energy attacks blew apart one of its legs, and the twosome turned and made for the cliffs that would lead them back to their companions. Perhaps it was his shorter legs, but Proto Man made it to the destination a few paces ahead of his companion. What he saw brought a scowl to his face, and he found himself spinning back to face the approaching Vision.

While there wasn’t much emotion to read on a face half occupied by opaque shades, the other android must have caught the tense twist of his ally’s visage. “What is the issue?”

“Tunnels are gone,” Proto Man said with a jab of his thumb. “Collapsed.”

The Vision glanced around to verify the facts for himself, and once he was done with that, he paid a cursory gaze over his shoulder to the approaching monster. He nodded without saying anything before turning his eyes straight up. “The paths that loop around these cliffs have likewise been damaged. We’ll have to ascend directly.”

“Straight up?” Proto Man asked rhetorically as he shifted through apps on his dashboard. By the time the Vision had nodded to verify, the preteen machine had already activated his flight app. The pair of wings materialized after a brief swirl of lights, and a beat later, the smaller android was teen feet off the ground and ascending toward the summit.

Not wanting to be left behind to deal with the approaching monster, the Vision knelt momentarily before leaping into the sky to pursue his diminutive companion. As the pair began their ascent, they heard a distorted roar—like one issuing from a malfunctioning speaker—from down below. With some luck, the junk machine wouldn’t be able to climb or fly.

Whatever joy that the sound of the frustrated monster brought to the pair’s ears was undone when the heavy ordinance started to fall.

The first shells exploded some ways away—near still undamaged paths or at the front of tunnel entrances. Wherever the others were, Proto Man had to guess that the initial salvos were intended to bring them some very warm happiness on their own climbs up the cliff. The next bombardments exploded directly above the path of the two vertically inclined androids. Chunks of stone started to rain down from what had once been a nicely carved cliff face.

Proto Man performed a swift barrel roll to escape the path of a jagged boulder three times his size. With a lot more grace and finesse to his movements, Vision simply shifted his flight pattern and avoided any harm.

“Meet at the top!” Vision shouted before another rapid succession of artillery shells shredded into the cliffs above the pair.

With his eyes on the finish line up above, the red robot swerved hard to the left and laid onto the boosters as he tried to reach the summit before it ceased to exist. As he drew closer, the noise became defeaning, and if not for the shades, he was certain he would be going in blind due to the endless flashes of heat and white light. Clenching his fingers into tight fists, Proto Man squeezed his jaw as he emerged at the other end of a blossoming cloud of dust and vaporized stone.

A glimpse forward showed the summit to the cliff. He could spot Klaymoor quit literally bunkered behind an array of artillery weapons and an army of recycled soldiers.

The No Man’s Land between Proto Man and the entrenched bunker seemed to stretch on forever, even if his GPS told him it was under a quarter of a mile.

Even so, many of the artillery cannons had dropped their barrels to bear on the hovering machine, and more than a handful of the soldiers were shambling across the uneven terrain to intercept him.

Beyond the fortified position was the final destination of the Liberators.

Proto Man’s arm shifted into a Proto Buster.

Game time.

[Blink]

A little known fact about the mutant they called Blink was that she was tremendously good eyesight. She never knew if that was part of her mutations, or just one of the few good genes she had gotten from her parents (who were fine people, but Claire was always a little salty about being born purple). Either way, the jade pupils she were born with allowed to see at long distance very well, and kept her out of trouble when she had to accurately place a portal from one place to another.

But none of that prepared her for being in a mine shaft in total darkness with a giant golem.

"Hey, Cloud! Cloud!" She called out loudly through what she assumed was a large room. He was the only thing she could see thanks to the dim lantern he was holding. The good news was that she was feeling much better after a darkness-induced hangover and an admittedly comfortable piggy-back ride from her spikey-haired friend. As she made her way from the entrance to the shaft, over to him, she began to find out what the bad news was. "What's going on? Did you find Cole?"

"Blink, look out!" Cloud called at her. His face suggested that he could see something she couldn't, which led her to instantly panic. She couldn't teleport without being able to see where she was going, so she just ducked and rolled forward. Right on cue, a loud roaring sound hit her ears as something slammed hard into the ground behind her. She had narrowly avoided whatever it was. "Come to me! Come to the lantern!"

Blink shuffled to her feet. She looked over her shoulder to briefly catch a glimpse of the 'mine foreman' behind her, lit up only by his glowing eye sockets. His face looked pained and angry, as if he was in a constant state of stress. He swing one of his big limps at her, but this time she was way ahead of it, jumping over the thick arm as it labored underneath her. She stumbled her way over to her blonde counter-parts and slumped against the nearest pillar. 

Cloud stood in front of her and Cole, drawing his over-sized blade in one hand and holding the lantern in the other. She felt useless, unable to properly defend herself. It was frustrating on one hand, having Cloud constantly feel the need to protect her and look after her. But on the other, it was strangely welcome. She hadn't had the feeling of someone strong looking after her in quiet awhile, and the last person who did it was kind of a jerk. So having a big brother made her feel unusually nice.

"Can you teleport us out of here?" Cole asked.

She realized he was standing near her, struggling to see just as like she was. Briefly she wondered where he had been this entire time. Then when she thought about the golem, she opted not to inquire further. It was probably not a fun story. "I can't see anything. I have no idea where to teleport to."

Cloud pointed his sword-arm dramatically towards the right. "There's an opening that way. You guys head towards it, I'll follow behind."

"Cloud, don't be stup-!" Blink began to say, but it was too late. The golem had charged forward and neither Blink nor Cole could see it coming, which was why Cloud was the one who opted to stay behind. He sliced forward with the Buster Sword and matched the mine's foreman in raw power. Blink and Cole dipped out to the right, stumbling in the darkness. "Good luck!" She called back at Cloud.

Blink summoned some of her emerald energy into her hands and used that as a mini-lantern to get through the big room. She was calling out to Cole to follow, but she was also dragging him along by his wrist so she didn't give him much say in the matter. They crossed under a small opening that seemed to hold a door once-upon-a-time, into a narrow mine-shaft which barely held the both of them. Blink's glowing green hands were able to light up this small space much easier, though, so it was clear exactly what the next step was. Up.

Thanks to the tight confines of the space they were, Blink found herself face to face with Cole, right next to a ladder leading upwards. Once he realized they were nose to nose (and torso to torso), Cole quickly turned his face to the side. "Guess we got to climb," Cole finally said, doing his best to break the awkwardness.

"Oh, uh, right," Blink agreed. She looked up to try and judge how far up the ladder went. There was no telling, even with the dim light she was generating from her hands.

"Ladies first," Cole offered meakly, clearly trying to be a gentleman.

Blink thought for a moment. She knew that going up first would put her in a strange position of having her backside right in Cole's (very limited) line of sight. But just as she was about to complain about it, she realized it would be hypocritical to demand he go first just for that stupid reason. She was the faster of the two, and also could teleport them out of danger. Not to mention she had the only light source available to them in her hands. Her own awkwardness shyness aside, it was smart for her to ascend first.

With that schoolgirl dilemna in her head now solved, she began to climb the ladder. As she got further up the mine shaft, she could hear Cole shuffling up the ladder behind her. As they climbed, the main thing on their minds were how Cloud would follow them, and what they ultimately find at the top of this peak.

Cloud stayed to fight the golem, Cole/Blink are laddering together.

[Koehler]

Cole left Blink to climb a fair distance up the ladder before Cole followed up behind her, trying to shake off the awkwardness of the moment before. Instead, his mind was focused on what was ahead, confident that Cloud could make it through the golem with relative ease and catch up in time. It still stung a bit that he had to run and leave it to Cloud.

It took most of his willpower to not go back and shoot the golem in the face repeatedly until it broke. Instead, here he was, clumsily climbing with magnums in his hands to keep that dim aura of light around him so he could see the rungs of the ladder. It wasn’t long before they had managed to reach the top, out of the cramped tunnels and mines and onto the top of the cliff-face with its sparse trees, tall grass, soft ocean breeze outside. Even with the patches of Nebula’s corruption, it was still refreshing as compared to the pitch blackness of the caves.

Or at least, it would have been if the two of them didn’t come up to face with a squad of tougher-looking darklings, who were all a mix-mash of parts and people that they had faced before, than the ones they were used to facing. Past that was the towering Klaymoor with two inordinately large weapons, a cannon for one arm, and a large metal mitt for the other hand.

“Ever get the feeling we’re not welcome, Blink?” Cole commented rhetorically.

“I think he’s overcompensating,” Blink retorted with a sigh.

Klaymoor sighed, or perhaps more accurately, growled in annoyance at the two’s appearance and commentary.
“You just won’t give up, will you?”

He lowered and aimed the cannon for an arm, firing a screaming shell at the two of them, who leapt out of the way. When they looked back, they only saw a fiery maelstrom of an explosion tearing the ground apart and sending a powerful shockwave outward.

”Out of the frying pan and into hell!” Was all Cole could think as he stood back up to see the advancing, cybernetic darklings to occupy them until they could be properly blown to pieces by the undoubtedly impressive armament of that… medieval robot thing.

This day was certainly one of the strangest he’s ever had.

He leapt overtop one of the darklings to bypass the vanguard and go straight for Klaymoor, but a second one behind that swung at him with a bladed arm. The attack was faster than he anticipated, much faster in fact, as he barely shifted his momentum in time to scrape by. With only a part of his clothes getting sliced.

”Too close!” He landed adroitly again, tightening his grip on the magnums, reflexively reloading them by drawing in the surrounding energy.
“Alright…” Cole started with conviction, channeling energy through the chains and into his magnums, “let’s play.”

Two lunged forward with surprising agility, striking in unison at the quincy, but he was better prepared. They were fast, but not as fast as he was, and with a sidestep and a shift to the right, he was inside their defenses. With a quick spin around, he aimed his guns at both their heads and fired, a beam launching and hitting at nearly pointblank range and boring through the cyborgs’ metallic skulls.

He expected them to go limp, but they instead turning and struck at Cole again, with him jumping and shifting back to a safe distance, confused. They glowered at Cole, straightening and continued to slowly advance towards their target. The beams had bored straight through, and the holes were clean and evident, with one missing an eye even, but they had remained standing.

“… of course,” Cole commented, before hearing a loud whirring start up and reflexively speeding away again, as rounds began shredding grass, tree trunks, and darklings alike, trailing Cole as he sprinted around, over, and through the landscape. He was barely keeping ahead of the hailstorm of metal and shrapnel, but he hoped that solved the darklings problem.

When the hail of fire finally stopped thanks to a cheeky teleporter striking at Klaymoor directly, bouncing off the metal mitt but succeeding in diverting his attention, Cole skidded to a stop to look behind him, seeing the piles of scrap that used to be the darklings. At first, the problem seemed to solve itself, but then they began reforming, slowly at first, and then very rapidly, reshaping into cohesive forms with shorn metal and twisted flesh, advancing relentlessly once more.

Blink was thrown back with a mighty backhand, throwing the nimble, purple-skinned teleporter towards Cole and the darklings that were collecting around him. She recovered, landing, or rather crashing into a nearby tree trunk feet first, with green energy forming between her and the tree. The tree gave way but it broke her momentum, and with the hastily constructed shield, it did so without injury, leaving her in a shower of splinters and wood chunks as the trunk snapped under the sudden pressure.

“These guys are tougher than the rest!” Cole shouted, ducking underneath a blade striking out at him and rolling out of the way of machine gun fire from another, which he returned fire on. His rounds hit true, but were not enough to bring the cyborg down.

“If you have any ideas, I’d love to know!”

So I made the cyborg things really resilient and self-reconstructing, while showing off another one of Klaymoor’s guns, a really heavy and hard-hitting minigun of doom.

Let’s see how our heroes deal with that. Muahaha!

[The Vision]

The Vision looked towards the bunker.

> open daredevil.exe
Opening...
ERROR
daredevil.exe is not accessible
The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable

The android scowled. Daredevil's particular ability would have been very convenient at this time. Instead, he would have to estimate the situation inside the bunker.

The Liberators had so far encountered legions of Darklings, as well as powerful lieutenants. Since they had more or less fought past them, it was likely that this Klaymoor would have an elite but small force protecting him. In that case, the Liberators were likely to have an advantage of numbers once Vision and Proto Man arrived.

"Report: Proto Man and I are incoming, sustaining heavy fire."

Proto Man blasted at an artillery shell. He briefly shut off the rockets in his feet, flipping over debris from the collapsing cliff. The agile robot was faring much better than Vision had surmised he would. The preteen android was shredding the cannon shots before they could hit him. Perhaps he could use some of Proto Man's weapons.

> record(mark.now "Proto Man")
Recording begun

Proto Man was shooting at another tentacle when a stinger-like limb coiled up from behind him. The Vision's eyes flared as he realized that his partner had not noticed the limb.

> run "webshooters_rope.exe"
Generating webshooters...
Success!

The Vision fired two ropes of adhesive fluid at the tentacle. Upon landing the two shots, the Vision knelt while pulling at the two ropes, yanking the tentacle towards him.

> set.selfvalue density zone[11051335] 231.3415%
Shifting...

With his hardened fist, Vision shattered the limb, the impact rippling down. Desertman.exe was stuck crawling slowly up the cliff, but still throwing attacks at them. The monster roared as he finally realized the two androids were escaping. The tentacles melted and fell to the ground in useless clumps of wet shrapnel, then gathered together into several giant hands. The monster bellowed in fury as two hands launched after the pair of robots, sliding up the hill. It smashed through any boulders and shrubbery in the way, absorbing them as it barreled up the hill.

> run "mjolnir.exe"
Generating mjolnir...
Success!

The Vision felt the hammer rush into his hand. He smacked one giant hand aside, letting Proto Man fire a barrage of plasma shots into its palm. The hand dissipated almost immediately. The other hand, however, had better luck. It snatched Vision out of the air, gripping him tightly then slamming into the cliff face. It dragged him back down. Proto Man stopped in his tracks, blasting downwards.

"Vision!"

"Proto Man," Vision exclaimed, "Request: Do not stop! The others need your help more than me!"

"Don't be-"

"GO!" Vision roared. Proto Man stopped again. Vision had always used an amplified version of his calm tone of voice. This was new. But he wasn't leaving anyone behind.

> set.selfvalue density 0.31%
ERROR: Damage sustained
> run iron_man:jet_boots.exe
Running...

The soles of Vision's feet hissed and clicked open, revealing two large apertures at the base of his ankle. Two jets protruded from the openings, firing up after a few moments. The Vision promptly blasted forward, resisting against the pull of the hand. He marked the location of the bunker in his internal GPS. Only a hundred more meters to go, but he was being dragged down.

NOTIFICATION
AdaptoidFile008.zip parameters met
Artificial adrenaline levels = 83% (must be greater than 80%)

Vision roared, the glow of his blank eyes turning from red to green.

> run "hulk.exe"

Proto Man's eyebrows raised as a green light flashed across his face. He cleared his throat as shrapnel exploded below him. The shield in his hand facing up was battered by the artillery, but Proto Man didn't notice.

"Oh man."

***

Meanwhile, in the bunker, two of the Liberators fighting Klaymoor were leaping around to dodge the cyborg's attacks. They were surrounded by a swarm of writhing abominations, all assaulting the vastly outnumbered Liberators. Blink was teleporting faster than she knew she could, falling through a portal moments before one of the Darklings killed her. Cole was doing his best not to get hit, shooting less to eliminate and more to just slow down the attacks slightly.

Suddenly, an inhuman roar echoed from below the cliff. Everyone in the bunker flinched slightly, before resuming combat.

"What the hell was that?!" Cole shouted.

"Another damn Darkling, I'm guessing," Claire muttered, slashing at a pirate with crustacean claws for hands, "Just our luck."

"I will destroy you!" Klaymoor hollered, firing another cannon shot at the teleporter.

The wall behind Klaymoor abruptly exploded, concrete spraying him from behind. Blink flashed out of the way, reappearing behind her teammate. A dark green behemoth, appearing to wear nothing but blue pixelated shorts, jumped through the hole, his two gigantic fists slamming into the cyborg before throwing him aside. He grunted once, steam bursting from his nostrils.

"Hulk?" Claire squeaked.

"Vision!" Proto Man shouted, flying in after him.

"That's Vision?!" Cole nervously laughed.

"VISION STRONGEST THERE IS!" the giant roared, banging on his chest like a gorilla.

> run "gazerbeam.exe"
Engaging optical heat generators...
WARNING
recomm_heatgen :: >70%

The Vision roared as his eyes flared brighter than usual. His eye sockets were beginning to overheat, and the area around his eyes were beginning to glow red. A searing wave of heat incinerated one side of the room, burning the Darklings there. He smacked aside one minion, then chucked Mjolnir at another crowd. He roared in fury as Klaymoor fired a cannon in his face.

Vision gripped Klaymoor by the ankles and threw him against the ground, stomping him into the floor. He then picked up the cyborg and threw him through the roof.

"We should help!" Cole exclaimed.

"No, no, no," Blink and Proto Man insisted, holding him back.

"Just uh..." Claire mumbled nervously, "Just seem friendly. Don't antagonize him."

"He must know that we're-"

Proto Man interrupted him with a frightened stare.

The Vision, meanwhile, was stampeding through the minions, swatting them aside like they were dolls, but he was clearly getting tired. He suddenly collapsed, but the other minions were too scared to attack him while he was down. The android Hulk huffed as he started gently shrinking. The Darklings flinched as Klaymoor fell back through the roof, screaming the whole time.

The Hulk roared one last time before the green reformed into lines and shapes, and the cape emerged from his shoulders again. He was the Vision again, panting from the exertion of being the Hulk.

Klaymoor grunted and got to his feet. He looked at his minions.

"He's down! Get him!" the commander shouted.

"Okay," Claire said, "Now we help."

1123 words. Used hulk.exe for one post (1 SP).
3/5 SP remaining.

[Nebula]

The horrid mish-mashed scrap-soldiers of Nebula surged at the Liberators in a single-minded group. They were fragile, yes, but they had an uncanny knack for pulling themselves together again when damaged and blown apart. Grabbing pieces of their scattered bodies, and even 'borrowing' bits and bobs from their downed allies to get back in the fight. Gruesome, all the more so for the constant ghoulish cackling, howling and whooping intermingled with their screams of pain and rage, but certainly effective.

Klaymoor, meanwhile, set about slowly hauling his lumbering frame back to a proper fighting posture. His massive, barrel-shaped 'coat, forming the bulk of his stature and weight, was horribly dented and smashed by the Vision's assault in his Hulked-out state, but it still seemed mostly intact. Thick, oily black smoke belched and burst in uneven streams from small jagged tears and scars in the metal, and from the joins of his arms and collar. "Hmph...you're tougher than I gave you credit for. I can see why Bola had trouble with you, even if he didn't go all-out on you..." He hunkered down, legs flexing at the knee and hurled himself straight up just in time to avoid a vicious shot of energy from the preteen android in red. It left one of his underlings scorched and broken in a crater, but the commander soared cleared of it. Sailing in a rough arc through the air, with all the grace of a drunken gorilla, he reached the top of his jump arc, and looked down at the battlefield. "I'll need to do something to really slow you down...the preparations are almost complete."

He was rapidly running out of time to do more than plan out a rough course of action as gravity took hold and began to drag him back toward the earth again. As he did, an idea did begin to form in his head. The cannon on his right arm quickly built up energy; just a dim glow of pale blue at first, but as he descended it quickly built into a crackling, blinding electric blue glare.

Cloud had just emerged from the foreman's access tunnel, quickly surveying the scene and drawing his blade to join the fight, when the massive, metallic bulk of Klaymoor crashed down right on top of him like a boulder from heaven. It flattened the mercenary into the ground, brutally carving and smashing a perfect Cloud-shaped hole into the rocky surface, as the Darkling commander just barked out a laugh and dust plumed up around the impact, throwing up a thick, obscuring shroud. Smoke billowing from his frame, the cyborg pirate swung his charged arm cannon about, firing wildly in a crazed arc toward the stronghold. Bolt after bolt of energy ripped through the dust and smoke, leaving sizzling trails of electric energy in their wake, hanging in the air menacingly.

The mechanized menace turned and gave another quick hop, leaping off the dazed and crumpled swordsman to crash down elsewhere. This time, the impact not only threw up further clouds of thick dust, it shook the entire cliffside. Seismic waves radiated outward, buckling entire sections of ground and making others rip and jut upward in jagged spires. Panels in his shoulders opened, spewing out thick gouts of smoke and noxious vapors as he wrenched himself free of the ground, tromping off toward his base. Lazily, he turned his arm cannon this way and that, blasting out more ordnance; mines and proximity explosives. Some lay on the ground; others hovered in midair at varying heights; some even flickered out of visibility, lost from sight. A minefield, shrouded in smoke and with ruined terrain to make it even more treacherous. "This should slow you blasted pests down..."

Steam joined the smoke billowing from his damaged frame as he finally sought to make good his escape. He didn't get far. A barrage of energy bolts tore through the smokescreen, many of them going wide of their mark but several peppering the ground around the cyborg and several more cutting across his hide. The onslaught forced him to pause and shield his face with the his left arm, peering futilely through the smoke. He couldn't see any more than they could, but his scanners and sensors still worked. They were firing blindly...mostly. But still with enough of an idea of where he was to be a nuisance.

"Havin' trouble, partner?" The echoing voice was unmistakable. The swirling plume of smoke that spiraled out of the ground as Bola reappeared was almost a welcome sight, in the current situation.

"I'm not in the mood for your games, Bola," the surly tank of a pirate grumbled. "We aren't being paid to throw our lives away trying to kill these 'heroes'. We've distracted these fools long enough. Let's get out of here."

"Well, hey." Bola just shrugged lazily. "Fine by me, partner. This place was getting old, anyway...think it's time to cut and run. We got paid in advance for this job anyway."

"Exactly what I was thinking." The titanic cyborg reloaded his arm cannon, bringing the simplistic option of the high-caliber explosive gatling cannon back to bear. "Is the ship prepared?"

"What do you think I was doing?" the lackadaisical sky-mariner mused, shifting his stance to ready his oversized cleaver. "Gonna take a little time for us to get there from here...think we'll be able to get away from that bunch?"

The mangled howling of the cobbled together soldiers of Nebula had gone mostly quiet. Their regenerative abilities hadn't been enough to keep them going under a sustained onslaught from the Liberators, and they had finally fallen. Now the heroes were hurrying forward, through the smoke-shrouded minefield.

"Hmph. As if that were even a question," the surly artillery specialist grumped. "Let's get going before they get to us."

The pair of mercenaries turned and as one began their retreat. Klaymoor lumbered along on foot as fast as his bulk would allow — not all that fast, really; Bola could probably have hobbled along hopping on one hand and kept up with him —and Bola floated alongside him, facing back toward the chaotic scene at the cliff to keep an eye out. Ahead of them, Nebula's stronghold stretched out. Huge smokestacks belched out smoke and toxins into the air; huge piles of scrap littered the area, wreckage from ships and buildings and other pieces of Nebula's destroyed forces; periodically, dropships and airships would drop off more piles of junk and scrap, and cargo bots would emerge to grab huge armfulls and tote it back inside. The smell of smoke and industry was everywhere, and the sound of electrical arcs and blacksmithery echoed from within the buildings. Every now and then, one of their Recycled soldiers would lumber unsteadily from a doorway, shiny silver and metallic, eyes burning red. They were shipped off to numerous portals and vehicles waiting nearby, thrust off to go tend to the fighting elsewhere in the verse.

The center of it all was a small lake of ugly, oily black water littered with trash and detritus; the corpses and broken forms of the other Darkling Commanders and Darkloids which had lead the assault in other Verses. All of them inoperable and in pieces, just a morbid gravesite for whatever was left of them. But in the center of the lake was another factory, out of which flickered a constant glow of sparking wires and burning steel, as who knew what was forged and built within. The lair of the commander here, broadcast plain as day.

The group is reunited. Cloud managed to deal with and evade the foreman golem long enough to get to the ladder and escape. Unfortunately, he arrived just in time to play a rousing game of 'catch the Klaymoor' and had a very bad day. Took some damage, but he's fine.

In the chaos, Klaymoor devastated the clifftop area, turning it into a jagged, rocky field of trenches and spires. The entire mess is shrouded in clouds of dust and thick smoke, making it difficult to see, and has been littered with all manner of explosives to make your life difficult.

Bola has also returned, but he and his partner have had enough of you guys. They're going to be focusing on retreating now, but they will fight back if you catch up and decide to keep bothering them. Past this final obstacle, you'll be in Nebula Space proper. It's a huge recycling facility, gathering scrap and debris to rebuild more soldiers to send out to battle. The Commander for this verse is at the center. Get through the factory and its guards and confront him to end this mess.

Everyone has 10 days and up to 2000 words. Go nuts.

[Cloud Strife]

As he laid there, the hole mimicking the outline of his body perfectly, the mercenary’s mind began to wander. He hadn’t asked for this, he hadn’t asked to play a game of ‘catch the giant metal robot’. All he wanted to do was make a name for himself. So that when he opened a bar on an island in the Vasty Deeps somewhere, and his mercenary work began, he’d have a name for himself. A name that people would know and want to hire. Maybe he’d have to save a girl from an evil bastard or partake in an anti-government reactor bombing of some kind, but at least he’d be getting paid for it. This, well this mess he was doing for free. No compensation, no insurance, just some Pro bono mercenary work to get his name out there. He sighed, lamenting the fact that he’d put himself in this position, as he hoisted himself, and his blade, out of the hole.

Cloud took a deep breath, realizing his mistake all too late as he filled his lungs with a concoction of dust, steam, and toxic fumes. He fell to his hands and knees, coughing, as he emptied his lungs. The blond grabbed at the waist of his shirt and tore a strip of it off.

‘Crude, but it’ll have to do.’ He thought as he tied it around his mouth and nose. He took a deep breath, it was much better. He could still smell and taste everything but oxygen, but at least he could breathe now.

The combination of dust and fumes stung his eyes as he stood up and attempted to scan the battlefield. He couldn’t see much, and what he could see was, well, his hands. He could hear fighting, and energy blasts. Dim flashes of light illuminating shadows and silhouettes through the thig shroud that now covered the battlefield. But he didn’t care about that now. Cloud, after his game of catch with Klaymoor, was more than a little pissed. He stumbled around, slowly warming up his limbs as he followed the giant robot’s heavy footsteps.

Cloud continued to follow the android’s tracks as best he could, narrowly avoiding sharp spires and landmines, the latter of which he’d discovered the hard way. He was short of breath from being landed on, the liberator aid was helping, but this thick, toxic, dust cloud wasn’t helping.

‘Wait, where’s my lantern?’ The blond thought to himself as he squeezed his left hand into a fist. Realizing that he was no longer in possession of the strange object. ‘Well… There’s no use for it now that I’m outside.’

Klaymoor and Bola moved slowly through the battlefield, about as fast as the larger of the two could actually move due to his size. Their movement hidden from spying eyes. They bickered about the liberators and who fared better against them. Cloud, with somewhat limited movement, moved through the terrain as silently and as swiftly as possible. Maybe he was being a little crass and careless but, at this point, he didn’t care one way or the other. He just wanted to fight and now was his time to strike.

Cloud Charged at the larger of the two figures, buster sword held out to his right as he traversed the jagged terrain. He swept his blade from right to left as he reached Klaymoor, the sound of steel clashing with steel echoed as he came to a stop. Cloud, to his surprise, found himself face to face with Bola and his own oversized weapon.

‘You again.’ Bola spoke, un-enthused.

‘Look, I’ve had a bad day. Just let me fight your large friend and I’ll leave you alone.’ The blond suggested through his makeshift scarf. Bola looked at Klaymoor and then back to Cloud. The idea o not having to fight was appealing to him, but he was going to have to refuse.

‘Nah.’ Bola replied as he brought his other arm up and swiped at him with the bladed claw. Cloud caught it, continuing their deadlock.

‘Didn’t I crush you?’ Klaymoor spoke as his cannon arm rocketed towards the two combatants. The mercenary released his grip on the cleaver wielding android and leapt backwards avoiding the arm as it decimated the dirt between them. One hit from that thing and he was a goner. Cloud leapt towards the large mass, holding his blade out and transitioning into a mid-air spin, only to find himself in another blade lock with Bola.

‘You’re really bothersome.’ Bola mouthed apathetically.

Cloud didn’t respond, he just pushed away from the robot and retreated to a safe, somewhat obscured, distance. He just needed a little time to catch his breath. His mouth covering had stopped some of the toxic fumes, but not all of them, and exerting himself in this mess of a battlefield wasn’t helping the situation. Cloud focused on his breaths, the sound of his breathing to keep a clear head. He noticed that the sounds of fighting had mostly died down, his companions must have managed to take down most, if not all, of the darkling horde.

The sound of metal feet landing on soft dirt pulled the blond from whatever state of concentration his was in. He spun around, instinctively putting the flat side of his blade in front of himself to defend. As he placed his free hand on his buster sword to reinforce it, Bola’s cleaver crashed down onto it. Sparks flew as steel collided with steel. The force of bola’s strike combined with the fact that he’d caught the mercenary off guard sent Cloud stumbling backwards. Without delay, Klaymoor’s massive arm swept through the thick shroud, colliding fully with his body. Cloud let go of his blade as the force of the massive bot’s arm sent him, and his blade, flying.

Cloud rag dolled across the battlefield like nobody’s business. A trail of dust and debris following his path as he left the thick blanket of dust and fumes. He lay, sprawled out on the ground, his body refusing to move as the world around him seemed to spin. He managed to lift a hand to his mouth and remove his face covering. A deep breath of, polluted, air game him relief. Sweet, polluted, air. But at least it was breathable.

‘Well, that could have gone better.’ He coughed, as he layed there, looking up at the sky. Clouds of smoke and fumes blocking his view of the bright blue behind them. ‘But at least I’m alive.’

1121 Words

[Proto Man]

The reunion of the liberators had been relatively short-lived. In a matter of a few quick seconds, the entire clifftop area had been reduced to a jagged expanse of shattered bodies and broken earth. Twitching, half-animated corpses of darklings screeched and groaned as the two pirate mercenaries slunk off to escape through the haze and partially vaporized detritus of their soldiers. Even without the shades, the preteen machine could detect their life signatures as they dragged their own battered bodies from the warzone.

Proto Man turned from the two. Their visages were burned into his databases, and in due time, they would have to deal with the never-failing hammer of justice.

As before, there were more pressing matters. Shaded eyes spun to confront the distance shape of a factory, partially concealed behind the almost inky filth that permeated the sky around him. This wasn’t just dust and disintegrated darkling—this was something different. When the preteen machine tried to center his analytics in the direction of the facility, he found the results less than ideal. His system struggled to calibrate as he edged himself forward. Prior to his departure, Klaymoor had spewed out enough ordinance to sink an entire flotilla, and while he was a big proponent of the ‘straight line’ philosophy, Proto Man didn’t want to run face-first into an explosive.

“Need to light the way,” he whispered as he glanced around for a sign of his allies. Had the haze darkened? Had the oily air around him always been this opaque?

The barrel of the Proto Buster hummed as he turned his focus back into the direction of the factory. Before he fired, he took a moment to slid his helmet visor up, giving him the clearest view he could of his surroundings. With his eyes on his hopeful destination, he let loose a burst of energy. The concentrated beam managed six feet before vanishing through the haze, but just a few seconds later, there was a piercing screech and a wave of heat washed backwards.

Proto Man steeled himself as the tiny bits of metal peppered against his body. Thirty feet away? He found it a little difficult to do the calculations ‘in his head,’ but he was certain they were correct nevertheless. Steeling himself, the red robot activated his Proto Sword and swept it in front of him as he advanced. Once he reached thirty feet, he took a couple steps back and fired again into the haze. This time, there was nothing, but as he marched forward, he found himself recoiling after twenty feet at the site of a half-buried mine.

“All right,” he whispered as he started to edge his way around it. “Can’t be that much fu—”

From the haze, seven darklings came stumbling forward and threw themselves at the Liberator. In a fit of blind and unmitigated instinct, Proto Man lined up on the nearest one and put a beam of energy through its chest. As the dying creature lurched backwards, it crashed atop the mine.

Without a second thought, the preteen machine turned and started to run.

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