omegafriends | Skew Plot End Post

Entry tags:

Skew Plot End Post

Who: [open to all]
What: Closing Pandora's Box
Where: The city park
When: August 11th

The Gem of Pandora had been teleporting around the city willy nilly. Causing havoc, turning good guys evil and bad guys guys good. But no one had been able to put a handle on it.

Until now.

A small army of badniks had amassed in the park, as Eggman studied the gem... safely contained behind a, err, containment field. This way he could study it without touching it or having it warp away. Of course, he knew heroes would be around before long, so he'd invited the villain community to come and help him defend it.

In any case, even if no one came, the heroes would have a horde of badniks to contend with.

[ooc: you can try to get to the gem, or you can be a villain and help Eggman contain the gem. Either way, this is the finale of the personality skew plot and it will be destroyed by the end of this thread]

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[Cyborg contacts the hero team via the OmegaNet.]

Alright guys. After I recovered from the effects of that gem, I started scanning the city for anomalous energy signatures using the Sigma Spire's sensor array, and cross-checked that data against confirmed sightings of the gem. Based on that, I was able to isolate a unique theta-wave signature that is emitted every time it moves.

[A map of the city comes up, with a blinking red dot on it.]

If I'm correct, the you should be able to find the gem here.
Take Escudo with you. His powers can protect you from the effects of the gem.

Edited 2014-08-13 05:05 (UTC)

Escudo watches the transmission with a somewhat dumb look on his face. He seems to have understood the last two sentences at least.

"Understood, Cyborg."

As the they reach Venture Park, Escudo summons his armor and sword and turns to the assembled team.

"Are you ready, my friends?"

Edited 2014-08-14 01:43 (UTC)

Yang, who had been more or less recruited into this effort on the fly, slammed both of her knuckled gauntlets together. "I was born ready," she said with a smirk. "Now let me make you guys a distraction!"

And with that... she brazenly charged into the robot horde, swinging wildly as she punched through a literal line of badniks.

But Yang, it is not merely badniks you have to contend with!

As the hero punches her way through the wall of robots, an armored figure literally swoops down from the sky, rapier extended to run her through.

Blake's seen firsthand what the effects of the Gem can do and she knows how important it is that it be stopped and stopped fast. So, after hearing that it had been pinpointed and a plan hatched, she hadn't hesitated to make an appearance.

She sighed as Yang charged headfirst into the robot hordes, reaching over her shoulder for her weapon.

"I'll watch her back." And she followed quickly after the golden-haired brawler.

"... It seems we have a few insects buzzing around our picnic in the park," Eggman growled. "Badniks! Keep them off of me while I finish my analysis! We can't move this gem, yet!"

On Eggman's orders, the badniks moved into position, a squad of Egg Pawns wielding lances rushing to engage the enemy.

Yang, who was already engaged with a number of the badniks on the periphery, noticed the squad coming at them.

"Heads up!" Yang shouted, as she ran forward to meet them. Of course, even Yang was susceptible to numbers, and the round, awkward-looking robots quickly began to swarm her.

Hey, it was doing its job as a distraction, right?

When the lance-wielding bots first engaged the team, a confident grin had crossed Escudo's face. He had trained to fight against lances back at the monastery, and he was confident that his shield and his powers could deflect any of their attacks.

The smile vanishes when Yang charges ahead of him.

"Wait! Señorita!"

He dashes in, and manages to get his shield into position to stop one of the lances just in time.

"I can only defend us from one direction at a time!"

Edited 2014-08-18 02:53 (UTC)

With Yang facing forward and Escudo blocking one side, that leaves one whole side that they're open on for the Pawns to move in and attack. Theoretically anyway.

As the Egg Pawns move in to attack, Blake hits the line hard. Gambol Shroud goes to work with flying sparks and metallic screeches as she moves from bot to bot leaving hazy duplicates in her wake.

"Keep going!" She calls over her shoulder as the Pawns finally catch on to her attack and a swing of a lance forces her to withdraw. "I'll deal with the stragglers!"

[Another message from Cyborg comes over the Omegacom]

Watch it guys! Sensors picking up more bots inbound... scan says their weak spot is under their helmets!

"Eh? Wattaya mean, I don't see any-"

Yang, who had finally thrown the mass of Pawns off her, was suddenly silenced as a massive metal hammer slammed down on her, flattening her against the ground. The source?

Egg Hammers, which looked like larger Egg Pawns, with thick helmets protecting their weaker head areas.

Eggman, meanwhile, was back to being invested in the gem. He cackled as his readings were finished, and so, he set to try and activate the siphons and attempt to draw out some of the gem's power. If he could weaken it, he could safely transport it.

Unbeknown to the doctor, however, this caused a small hairline crack to form on the crystal...

Escudo turns to look at Yang a moment before the hammer comes down on her, and his eyes go wide with a mix of panic and fury as his fellow hero is smashed into the ground. "NO! Dragon!"

He bolts away from his previous opponent and he channels his powers into his magic sword and shield at full blast, intercepting a another blow from a second Egg Hammer before it can finish the job.

With a dramatic scream, he thrusts his empowered sword right under the bottom of the attacking robot's helm!

Blake had just enough time to hear Cyborg's warning before the shadow dropped across the three of them. She just manages to jump back but still sees Yang get smashed into the ground.

"Dragon!" No time to get to her though as a hammer comes down at her, flattening one of her illusory clones while she dashes around and jumps onto it, recalling Cyborg's message and trying to slash at the base of its helmet.

The Hammers' helmets go flying off, revealing their smaller, more Pawn-proportioned helms beneath. That doesn't stun them much...

... but what happens next does, because from the handy crater Yang just made, yellow fire now erupts...

... As does Yang herself, whose flaming aura is now raging. Her eyes are now a deep red color, as she launches herself forward, swinging a punch at their armored hides, which actually does something, sending one Hammer flying into the other.

Escudo is very visibly surprised at Yang's sudden recovery and strength, his eyes wide as he mutters to himself in Spanish. "¡Tan fuerte... qué mujer!"

He blocks another blow from a bot that tries to come up from behind her, but decides to let her handle the offensive while he guards her rear.

"The gem! It is not far!"

Edited 2014-08-24 21:23 (UTC)

Blake clears out of the way from the living fireball that is Golden Dragon. A powerful jump carries her straight up as the Hammer she'd been perched on is suddenly gone.

"I see it!" Sure enough, there's the Gem among Dr. Eggman's various devices. He's trying to move it, they're running out of time.

As she hangs in midair, Blake's own aura flares up around her, a purple light that gathers around the edge of her blades, the same energy that allowed her to project her shadow duplicates but... in a different application.

She swings twice and sends two wide, curved waves of purplish energy through the air, aimed right at Eggman's machinery.

Eggman let out a cry as the energy crashed into his equipment, throwing him backwards. The doctor scrambled to his feet, gaping in disbelief at the sight of the heroes around him.

"H-How did you get past my defenses?!" he cried.

Edited 2014-08-25 21:28 (UTC)

"How do you think?!" Yang cried, smashing a group of badniks rushing to Eggman's defense with a hammer she'd appropriated from one of the destroyed Egg Hammers.

"By the way, I'm keeping this."

"You fools! You interrupted me in the most crucial of mom-"

He blinked, as a loud crack resounded through the air. Coming from the gem.

"... That... that isn't good..."

Indeed, as he said that, the gem began to crackle with energy inside its "containment", with more and more of the surface beginning to crack.

Edited 2014-08-25 21:32 (UTC)

Escudo sees the gem cracking and runs to place himself between it and his allies. He channels his energy at full power into his shield, and it begins to glow brightly as he yells back to the girls...

"FRIENDS! GET BEHIND ME, IT IS GOING TO-"

-- explode. Escudo doesn't need to finish his sentence for Blake to see the signs of incoming disaster. She looks toward the shield and starts toward it, only to pause, and glance toward Eggman. Still in range of the explosion.

....

Snapping her weapon back into a single piece, she darts not toward the shield but toward the scientist in a flash.

"Move!" She calls out even as she reaches to grab him and pull him toward the shelter by the first handhold she can find.

Which.

There is a very good chance is his mustache.

"AHH-AAAHAHHHH!" Eggman shouted. "Watch the mustache! It's my pride and joy! I'll sue you you cat-eared cretin!"

Someone else was going to make sure Eggman and Blake got to that shield, and that someone is Yang. Using a burst from her gauntlets, she rockets forward, grabs Blake around the waist as she rockets past, taking her and dragging Eggman along behind them.

They get in range of Escudo's shield just in time, because the Gem of Pandora explodes seconds later. Thankfully, Eggman's failing containment causes the energies contained to shoot up into the sky rather than be spread throughout the city, but there's just enough good old explosive force to tear through the remainder of Eggman's badniks.

Once the dust begins to clear, it's replaced by a literal flock of adorable birds rising from their remains.

Escudo channels as much of his power as he can at the moment of the explosion so his glowing shield dissipates all of the heat and kinetic energy from the blast that it comes in contact with.

He grimaces and then smiles weakly, muttering to himself in Spanish before passing out from exhaustion. The ground is charred black, except for the parabolic-shaped safe area behind where the young man held his shield.

Blake ignores Eggman's complaining about his mustache, focusing on dragging him back to the shield and fearing that even she is too slow.

And then Yang is there, snatching her off the ground and carrying her to safety with the doctor in tow. They reach the shield just in time and Blake hunches over, releasing Eggman's stache to cover her nonhuman ears. Even so, the sound from the explosion is like a gong going off in her head and she squeezes her eyes shut in a sharp wince.

Finally, once the racket from the blast dies down she lifts her head slowly, looking out over the resulting damage to the area.

"... Ow." She shakes her head, ears still ringing. "Is everyone okay?"

Yang grunted as she picked herself up, stretching and feeling her joints pop as she did so.

"I'm fine," she said, even though she looked rather weary. A side effect of her powers catching up to her. "... so... I guess that means we did it?"

"Indeed you did," Eggman growled as he stood up... revealing half his mustache to have been yanked out. "I'm suing you all, you realize!"

That was the mad doctor's final word as he pressed a button on a previously unrevealed watch, teleporting back to the Egg Carrier in an instant.

"Good luck with that." She muttered after Eggman's disappearance.

She looked toward Yang, nodding to her and then past her to where Escudo lay on the ground and blinked.

"What about him?" She made her way over to kneel beside the downed swordsman, reaching out to check that he wasn't hurt.

((ooc: continued from this so the main thread can go on unmolested))

"WOAH!" Yang shouted, jumping to the side. That narrowly hit her.

Narrowing her eyes, yellow flames gathered around her, and she launched forward, swinging a punch at the strange figure.

The knight flipped elegantly into the air, dropping down to hover a foot off the ground behind her. "So eager to cut to the chase! Poor form for both of us."

Without touching the ground, he gave a theatrical bow. "I am Propeller Knight of the Order of No Quarter. My master has decided that the Gem is more useful to him intact and in business."

Poor form, indeed. But Blake isn't a knight and she definitely wasn't trained to believe in a fair fight.

So as Propeller Knight does his bowing thing, it ends up presenting a great target for a ninja to strike as Blake rushes in with a flash of speed to strike at him from behind.

"... Yeah, you kind of asked for that," Yang said, staring as Yang made her attack, hands on both her hips.

Propeller Knight whirls around at the last second, his blade clashing against Gambol Shroud in a spray of sparks.

"Two at once, is it? I welcome the challenge!" As they clash, the flying knight leans in towards Blake, his propeller spinning towards her like a buzzsaw.

Okay, he's good. Blake narrows her eyes as her attack is blocked, then quickly splits her weapon. The thinner blade catches the edge of the spinning propeller, holding it off just long enough for her to disengage leaving behind a Shadow for the blades to cut through harmlessly as she dodges back out of reach.

She tosses a look across to Yang and brings her weapons up, settling into a ready stance. Two on one it is.

Yang rushed up to Blake's side, assuming a defensive stance in case the knight rushed at her partner again.

"You hit 'em high, I hit 'em low?" she suggested. "Let's take this guy for a spin!"

Yang. No.

"Hah!" As a be-helmeted jester of the Order of No Quarter, Propeller Knight is no stranger to the impact of a good pun. "If you wish for me to spin, then I will be happy to oblige!"

Once again hovering a few inches off the ground, Propeller Knight literally spins, blade extended, coming at the two young heroes like a deadly top!

Yang just grinned wider. "I'll give it a whirl!"

And she charged right in... attempting to use her prodigious strength, durability, and metal gauntlets to grab the knight's proppeller blades as they spun, all the while attempting to use her leg to kick the sword out of his hand.

Well, simple rules of chance would dictate that somebody would have to like them eventually.

That spin attack sure looked dangerous though, but... maybe there's a way to exploit that. They just need to play this right and... and... and there goes Yang.

"Wait!" Too late. She's already diving in. Blake frowns slightly then dashes off to the side to move into a position to strike if this crazy idea of Yang's actually pays off.

Both of Yang's attacks connect... but you don't get into the Order of No Quarter if you go down that easily!

His propeller is stopped for the moment, but that force all has to go somewhere. Instead of the blades spinning, Propeller Knight himself spins - as the sword flies from his right hand, he catches it in his left, whirling back round for a kick to Yang's stomach, followed by a thrust of the rapier aimed at her heart!

Okay, WOAH. Yang forcefully tilts to the side, letting go. She narrowly dodges... save for a strand of yellow hair that ends up being sliced off by the rapier.

Yang's eyes turn blood red the moment she realizes, her lips curling into a sneer as her aura begins to flare up. Her snapping hasn't quite happened yet, but hopefully she's given Blake an opening...

That was more or less exactly what she was afraid would happen with Yang closing in so fast. Nonetheless, she sees an opening and she takes it.

Moving in quickly, she comes at Propeller Knight from his unarmed side striking at the ridiculous looking helmet of his and trying to disconnect his propellers from the rest of him.

That propeller is attached damn well, but a blow to the head is still a blow to the head. While he's distracted by Yang's berserk overdrive, Propeller Knight is sent tumbling away by Blake's attack!

But quickly, he rights himself. His movements a little less precise than before, he rises a few feet and adopts his fencing stance. Your move, girls.

If you thought that was "berserk overdrive", Propeller Knight, you haven't seen anything yet. Yang unloads a cartridge from both gauntlets, expelling force and literally exploding forward like a living bullet, swinging for the knight's stomach. Her speed? Much greater than before, and her punch has the benefit of being wreathed in golden flames.

That helmet is made of tough stuff, to be sure and once again it looks like this fight is shaping up into a keep up with Yang fest.

That suits Blake just fine though. As Yang barrels in for the direct attack again, she vanishes in a flash, moving around for a more indirect follow-up.

The combination of berserk strength and uncanny precision is simply too much for Propeller Knight to keep up with. Already on the defensive from Yang's onslaught, his rhythm is thrown off by the addition of Blake, and the two strike simultaneously, sending him careening through the air and into a nearby statue in a heap of limbs and armor.

After a moment's staggering, his propeller putters back to live, and he launches himself skyward unsteadily, looking much more disheveled than he was when he got here and trying to ignore the fact that his rapier's blade is now bent at a sharp angle. "My congratulations to you both for a fine battle - even two against one, to be able to best me is a fine feat. I shall disgracefully leave you to your gem."

"Tell the young man in shining armor that the Order of No Quarter send their regards." The knight flees into the sky, dropping behind a pair of roses for the victors.

Blake lands lightly on the ground after the combo attack hits home, sending their enemy careening through the air. She considers pressing the attack for a second but... no, he's done.

Her stance relaxes as Propeller Knight takes to the air again and she watches the rose drop from the sky to land at her feet. She eyes the flower for a second, an expression of... something flickering through her eyes before she turns away.

"... That spun out of control fast." She says. Totally deadpan. And then she's off again, continuing toward the Gem's location. "Come on, we're not finished yet."

"'Spun out of control'..." Yang replied, as her eyes turned to normal and her flaming aura died down. Then, she grinned. "I'm so proud of you, Blake!"

And with that, she took off to follow her.

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Skew Plot End Post

Hope my jargon is believable enough

Re: Hope my jargon is believable enough

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Sorry for delay :( work work work

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I know Escudo barely knows Yang, he's just dramatic like that in combat.

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