Team: Round 1 - Match 1: EC v Guardian

[GBE]

Jho'Lhak was unsure of what to do now. Net had almost destroyed the sun, successfully avoided by Whiteoak, now unconscious. Shadowveil appeared to be injured, but healing. Goron is being torn apart by locust fiends.

Then there was the EC team, three of them in his vicinity. He had to move quickly if they were to survive this as a team.

Goron was a more imediate ally to help. He pulls out three Magick crystals from his pouch, and holding his staff in front of him, a slot forms. He inserts each one, whispering something in his native language as he does so. The slot closes, and he places part of the staff on his shoulder, pointing toward Goron, the shaft of it lying across his arm.

He fires a round, yelling a spell at the crystal being fired, and then as it flies through the air, he contacts Goron, "In five seconds, leap!" The crystal hits the ground, and a Magick field eminates outwards, the beginnings of a summons banish spell against the locust fiends.

If it didn't suck them back to where they came from, it would at least repell them from the area for a short while at least.

Spinning around, he spots Whiteoak lying down and Sekhmet stood over him, "Sekhmet, if your tongue has healing proprties, lick his wounds, it will speed his recovery..." He fires a second Crystal at Whiteoak, a generic consciousness spell. He was too valuable to have unconscious. If he were to heal him, he would have to have physical contact.

Then then, he had to somehow eliminate the charms as of yet unused. Shaon was directly ahead, in his view range. Him being so small, he was not sure if she could see him or not, but his attack aparently had little effect upon her. He would need Whiteoaks help with her. He decides Holloweyes is the best target.

Taking aim with his third shot, he fires at the ground around Holloweyes. When the crystal explodes on contact, it would unleash an electrical attack....

((Whoo wee, I'm trying not to do too much against the EC, as I'm not trying to powerplay. But if so many actions as a positive for the Guardians looks like a powerplay, I will happily edit this post.....

GBE))

[LordPsycho]

Suddenly the now safe sun rolls low in the sky, as clocks on businesses and lamp-posts turn to the 5:00 hour. The ground starts to shake as the distant rumble of engines is heard. Suddenly, the streets of the suburban neighborhood are filled with cars, which in spite of their density still insist on going dangerously fast. Anyone caught on the road best have their best wits about them, lest they become the latest road kill special at the Rush Hour Cafe.

[Shadowveil]

Sekhmet shook her head, sadly. "I have no ssuch power... I was designed to kill, not to heal." Nevertheless, she licked the blood from Whiteoak's face. It was a cat thing.

She remained alert to any sound. There was still an enemy in the area, she knew, and at the least she could guard her fallen ally. As the simulated sky began to darken, she grinned. Night, friend to all cats, was fast approaching.

[Netdroid9]

*Net stared at Whiteoak. He'd sacrificed himself to save the planet from utter destructrion. What an selfish ass. CRASH! Net pulls his head into the confines of his car-shelter with lightning speed, narrowly avoiding being decapitated by a car. The vehicle in question had somehow lept over the car-wall built arround the crater by the locust fiends. How this was possible escaped Net.

Then it clicked. They were under attack by... The Granny Gang. This gang of vicious grannies was hellbent on sacrificing small animals to their evil satanic god, enjoyed driving at extremely high speeds and regularly covered small children in slobber and lipstick. It was like a nightmare come true.

Net opened the door and rolled out just in time as a car crashed into what was previously considered his shelter. The heroic spirit of binary ran towards the tower, where the golems were busy trying to pull out a giant Jenga brick from the foundations. Leaping on top, Net pulled out his trusty megalaphone and started shouting his plan over the incessent chirping of startled locusts, speaking in fiendish so the grannies wouldn't understand.*

[We need to build up our defences before we're swarmed by these disgusting creatures! Someone, round up the locusts and tell them to drop... The train... Uhh... Oh. Poo-poo.]

*The locusts had stopped chirping and were looking at him. In fact, they appeared to be looking a little too intently. Net screamed and jumped into the air like a cliche'd cartoon character as a locust nipped him on the behind. He landed on Goron's shoulders, hiding behind the super-soldier's head and chanting 'If I can't see them, they can't see me!' to little effect.*

[3kul]

HollowEyes watched with a rather melancholy expression on his face as Net had assured his death and then Whiteoak saved it. It was all just part and parcel of being with the Evil Council - sometimes, these things just happened. There was little point in worrying about them, as he couldn't do anything about it. He found that he never needed to, as usually some do-gooder found the power to right the wrongs they commited, and once again this theory had been proven true. He wondered what his next best action might be with that disaster avoided. "I should probably go and finish Whiteoak off..."

Not far from where HollowEyes was, Locust Fiends who'd gotten close enough to get a taste for Goron-flesh ((tm )) suddenly found themselves being dragged into a void as their prey made a quick getaway. Sucked back into the realm from whence they came, all they could think about was the tangy taste and distinct flavour, hoping that they'd be summoned again before he was finished off, but not holding their breathe about it. Odds were he'd be dead soon enough.

The Locust Banishment Field had distressed the remainding half of the swarm, and they began to scatter frantically, not knowing that those who had been sucked in were only transported back to the spirit realm. Moments after they'd done this though, Net once again caught their attention, continuing what came across to them as a combination of unprovoked insults and Net being a huge jerk. They once again swarmed en masse towards him, outraged with his cocky and just plain rude attitude.

HollowEyes heard a sharp 'ping' sound as something hit the ground next to him, seconds before he felt the searing pain of electricity ripping through his body. Collapsing on the ground as he writhed in pain, a few charms fell out of his hands, whilst those that remained in his hands were instantly incinerated. The lava he'd previously had control over began to behave extremely erratically, splashing outwards and bending in all kinds of strange shapes. In a somewhat final 'concious' effort, the lava formed a wave and splashed out of the crater, flowing through a few downhill streets in the general direction of where Sekhmet and an unconcious Whiteoak were.

After what felt like hours of sheer agony (which was really less than a minute), the electricity stopped ravaging his body, and HollowEyes lay very still, charred and smouldering. "That... was extremely painful..." He'd manage to avoid dying by touching some of the beetle charms he'd dropped when he got shocked - the petrification process had halted the flow of electricity, and majority of the damage done was external. That didn't stop the excruciating pain of course.

Ever so slowly dragging himself to his feet, HollowEyes felt severaly drained from Jho'Lahk's attack. He pulled out some charms from the pouches under his arms - some had fared better than others, as the protective holders he kept them in were more suited to weather and wet conditions, not being the recipient of high voltage attacks. He looked around to get an idea of what was going on - Net had once more aggrivated the Locust Fiends enough to cause them to disobey his orders, although HollowEyes understood what Net wanted done. He made a mental note never to use them around Net again after this as he addressed the remaining Fiends.

[Locust Fiends. Do you wish to disgrace the Locust Spirit further?]

The Fiends all promptly stopped attacking Net, not caring to remain around this total jackass ((Net, not HollowEyes )) for a moment longer, lest HollowEyes report their actions to the Locust Spirit. They set about to moving the scrap metal like they had before, to the places Net had instructed them, although HollowEyes figured it would be better if he gave them the message from now on.

[Move the train to where Net said. Continue to use metal to build a barrier.]

In his current state, HollowEyes could not control the large amount of lava he'd brought out from charms, and he couldn't tell where it had gone anyway. For some very odd reason, cars had begun to attempt to drive through the crater. HollowEyes couldn't really understand why they'd try to do this, but from the looks of things the drivers were quite elderly and hard of seeing. Or at least very be-spectacled.

He ran over his choices. He could attack Goron, although he appeared pretty worse for wear after the Locust attacks, and Net appeared to be strangling him or something. HollowEyes really felt like avoiding Net for now, so he looked for more opponents. Sekhmet was nowhere to be seen, and he hadn't seen Whiteoak at all during this battle ((I only just realized this myself, how strange )). He knew that Jho'Lahk used crystals like the one that shocked him, and HollowEyes sorely felt the need to at least attempt to return the favour.

Not knowing where his opponent was yet, HollowEyes climbed up onto a few tool sheds to avoid being run over by some derranged old fool of a driver who was attempting to drive over the large pile of scrap metal. He couldn't really spot Jho'Lahk, but he prepared the right charm for him anyway. Pulling out a faded charm, it began to send out an energetic pulse in all directions as he prepared to use it. Suddenly, the pulsing stopped as HollowEyes thought for a second. He wanted to confirm what he was supposed to be doing before he went hunting for the midget mage, just in case he had a more important job.

~Shaon, any particular way I should be proceeding for now?~

((Note to self: Do not leave this thread for a day again Apologies for the overly long post, I just felt that I had to cover everything...))

EDIT: Fixed some spelling mistakes, as well as a bit about the Locusts, since I didn't like how I'd worded it. To summarize my post - HollowEyes got fried pretty badly, some Fiends got 'banished' back to where they came from, the lava is currently flowing towards unconcious Whiteoak and Sekhmet since HollowEyes was too busy getting electrocuted to control it, the rest of the Fiends are now making a barrier to prevent the cars from running us all over, and that's about it.

[Shine]

The Archangel Gabriel was sitting in the heavnly courts, taking a break from the ongoing fight with Satan and his minions. He was enjoying some righteous blues riffs his friend Gabriel was laying down with her trumpet, when the Archangel Raphael walked in and said:

"Your pet norn is starting to appear in the teleport altar. I didn't think you were expecting any arrivals today."

Gabriel stopped blowing tunes and quipped in:

"He is so cute, where did you find him. I've got to get me one of those"

Michael looked concerned.

"He isn't supposed to be here, he asked for sometime off for some kind of competition. I knew without Obed to look after him he would get himself into a spot of trouble. He always take things soooo seriously."

"Should I get Ariel to heal him up" asked Raphael

"No," answered Michael "If he is in a competition it wouldn't be fair. Just give him a little Divine Energy, just enough to heal up his soul and keep him alive and send him back. He's a big boy, he can take care of himself."




Whiteoak was laying on the cold cement of a suburban sidewalk. His head however was somewhere else. Each time he started to get in touch with his body, it hurt too much. Every nerve, every muscle felt burned. So his mind kept slipping to other places. The ancient desert city of Petra, the wilderness lakes of Minnesota, the Buddhist temples of burma, places of good memories. Albia, and the unfulfilled fantasy of kisspopping with Anna the Dragon Norn, the fates (and slot #8, ) had always kept them apart.

But now it seemed so real. He felt a resurgence of energy from outside of himself, and he could feel the moist wet lips of his true love softly carressing his face. He opened his eyes and...

IT WAS SEKHMET ! ! ! . (cleaning the blood off his face.)

He wasn't expecting that.

HE SCREAMED AND JUMPED UP.

"DON'T EAT ME!!!
Oh, thats right, we're in the olympics. What happened? Yes, yes, I'm starting to remember now. Raven, and a Targbeast, and a skateboard and the sun exploding."

His knees went wobbly and he had to sit down on a nearby fire hydrant.

"Just give me a minute or two to collect myself."

He put his shields up again, but they are still not fully effective. He began the process of healing up his spirit and regaining his strength and his energy.

"By the way, thank you for whatever you did. That was very kind of you."

[Shadowveil]

"Really, I did nothing." The traffic seemed to be getting worse, the racket was making it hard to think. A car shot past, horn blaring, before skidding into a power pylon and blocking half the road. This was more than just rush-hour traffic.

Sekhmet jumps back on the fence, cringing as her healing burns protest at the sudden movement. She looks up the road, and sees what the drivers are fleeing. A hundred metres away and closing fast, a red glow fills the air and flames rise around houses and trees as the river of molten rock flows down the slope.

Her ears flatten, and she snarls. The memory of the searing heat was still fresh in her mind, and she had no wish to experience it again. "What is with the *hiss, growl* lava? We need to get off this road, fast!"

The woodnorn looked in no shape for climbing fences. Hmm... we need transport. Jumping off the fence, she yanks open the door of a Hummer caught in the traffic jam. Dumping its android occupant on the pavement, she climbs into the driver's seat and tries to figure out the controls. "Where is the throttle on thiss thing?", she mutters, yanking on the gear lever. "No, that'ss... wait..." Finding the pedals, she puts one paw down on the accelerator. A loud crunch is heard as the Hummer reverses over its former driver. "Erm, sorry."

After a bit more grinding of gears, she manages to get it moving forwards. Opening the door, she yells at Whiteoak over the din. "I found an A.P.C., get in!"

[Shine]

On somewhat wobbley legs, Whiteoak rises from his fire hydrant and tries to hurry to the Hummer. On his way he sees the approaching lava flow. He casts a large solid wall of ice in front of it to stop it. Or, thats what he meant to send. What cme out was a moderate gust of wind with some snowflakes in it. It cooled the leading edge of it which turned into a dark crust. After a moment for the level to rise and the presure to build, the lava flowed over the cracking and melting edge and continued, but slower now. It had bought them some time.

Whiteoak had pulled himself into the vehicle as Sekhmet started down the road ahead of the lave flow.

Needing to renew his strength, he reached into his neverending food provisions bag hopeing for a Snickers bar. However, he felt something hard and heavy. As he pulled and pulled, out came the fore-limb on an antelope.

Whiteoak looked at Sekhmet and said,

"This must be for you. You didn't tell me you were getting hungry. The bag always knows."

He set it down in the space between the seats and reached in again. Alas, no Snickers bar. He pulled out a yellowfin tuna whole wheat pita sandwich with alfalfa sprouts and fresh basil.

"Health food, oh well..."

He ate it, as he used his other hand to operate the staff's repulse beam to clear any oncoming traffic. Sekhmet is a very talented feline at many things, but apparently driving a human vehicle isn't one of them, and keeping the road clear of these suburbanites returning home made things a whole lot safer.

[Goron40]

Goron fought a few more locust off then shot a laser straight downard into the ground, propelling him into the air. Jho'Lhak's magic did the trick. By the time Goron had come crashing to the gound, all the locust nearby had vanished.

Goron stood up quite shakily, and tried to get his bearings. It seemed that Net was just having a hell of a day with the locusts. He'd managed to insult them yet again, and this provoked Net to jump onto Goron's shoulders. Net climbing up there made his legs shake terribly, and Goron cried aloud as Net stuck his foot into an open wound.

"GET OFF OF ME YOU STUPID LITTLE SH*T!" Goron yelled with anger. He reached down to pull out a shuriken, which he promptly looped up and over his head, aiming the tip directly for Net's head.

[Shaon]

~Mmm.~

The fox snapped her head over to the toolshed HollowEyes was on, smelling a faint scent of burning flesh.

~Nice save.

No, you're free. Go ahead and enact your revenge, this'll be fun.

And don't think so hard. I can hear you fine.~

[Raven]

The being glanced around again, a loud noise attracted her attention over by the road. But she decided to continue to walk towards the others. Hearing the locusts shrill cries, she opened her wings and flew, her black, cold, lifeless eyes scanning the ground below her.

[GBE]

Jho'Lhak was feeling a little more relaxed. Whiteoak was awake, and moving, if somewhat tenatively, and Sekhmet was literally getting a crash course in humanoid vehicular movement. Goron was now having to deal with, binary?

As for Holloweyes, he watched as Holloweyes somehow grounded himself, and then slowly stood up. He was looking sightly worse for wear. He had to remove him, get him out of the way, those charms were too dangerous for his allies.

Suddenly, something seemed to pulse outwards from him as Holloweyes moved. He wasn't quite sure what Holloweyes appeared to be up to, but he moves quickly before he found out the hard way.

Zipping to another position, almost directly above Holloweyes, he readies his staff for battle. He places another three Magick Crystals inside of it, just in case the need arised to protect others, or remove opponants.

As he floated down towards Holloweyes, stopping at a position about twenty metres above Holloweyes, he whispers a communication to his team, "Status Report...?" He then yells down to Holloweyes, "Do you wish to finally fight?"

[Shadowveil]

Despite Whiteoak's assistance, Sehkmet was having a hard time finding her way through the winding suburban streets and heavy traffic. She cursed as the car hit the kerb for the umpteenth time. She was well trained in the use of military assault craft, but this thing was so primitive. "What kind of inssane idea is foot controlss?" she muttered, stamping on the pedals.

Hearing Jho'Lhak's query, she answers. "I have accquired an armoured transsport, we arre heading back to your location." Or, at least, she was trying to. The road was curving in the wrong direction. There's got to be a faster way than this. "Hold on, I'm going to take a sshortcut," she says to Whiteoak. Turning the Hummer off the road, she ploughs through a garden before ramming straight through the back fence. Much better. Leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, the suburban tank cuts a path straight towards the other combatants.

Sekhmet grins, taking a bite out of the antelope leg. She was starting to enjoy this.

[Netdroid9]

*Goron;s shiruken poked Net in the head, knocking him off Goron and onto a car bonnet. Unfortunatly, aforementioned car bonnet was springloaded, and again unfortunatly, Net still had his legs tied around Goron's neck. Our famed spirit of binary flew into the air, taking his assailant with him. As he reached the apex of his brief foray into flight, he muttered two simple words before gravity pulled him back to the hard, cold cement.*

...Aw poo-poo.

*The only gratitude Net could find in this turn of events was that, more likly than not, Goron would cushion his fall.*

((Hope you don't mind me pulling you along with me. It's a power-play, sure, but you'd probably have done the same if you were in my position .))

[3kul]

"You threw a car at me and then electocuted me.... Should I just assume that you're asking a rhetorical question?" HollowEyes shouted back up to Jho'Lahk. "However, I do have a request of you before we get started, if you'll oblige me for a moment as a fellow being who has an interest in magic..."

He didn't turn to Shaon, but heard what she said, and responded. ~Tell the rest of the team that they have about 5 minutes to get their earmuffs out, as it's about to get cold.~ This was of course, an obvious code they'd designed in case they came up against mind readers of some sort, and the code hinted at nothing which he was about to do, but he'd need to warn them about it anyway. ((Confusing, no? )) ~Also, if you could, please take over directing the Locust Fiends for me, as I'm about to be too busy for them, and I definately don't trust them around Net.~

Taking out the faded pulsating charm again, HollowEyes stuck it to his third eye, feeling the effects immediately. His third eye began to sink into his body, and he swelled up slightly as he felt it transform within himself. The Ruby Dagger was pressed against his internal walls as the new weapon began to make it's way out of his body. Stretching his mouth open, in one swift movement, HollowEyes yanked out an orb a little bigger than his head, which was attached to his tongue.

"This Lantern is a new charm item I developed, but there are some... peculiarities concerning it's powers that you might like to see." Casually extending the orb up towards Jho'Lahk, it snapped open to reveal a small darker orb smouldering within it a few feet in front of him, and a faint smoke began to billow out of it. "The dark light source within the Lantern appears to show visions of the future to a very select few, whilst to some others it does not. Stay away from it if you feel the need to, it doesn't matter how far away from it you are, just look into the orb and tell me if you see anything."

It was a trick of course, but HollowEyes was not going to let on about this. As far as he could tell, there was no way to discern the link between himself and the weapon, and even if there was one, in doing so the user would discover that HollowEyes himself was the weapon. In other words, should Jho'Lahk suspect that his Lantern did not show the future, his suspicions would be virtually impossible to prove due to how intertwined HollowEyes was with this weapon, and it was this lingering uncertainty that would make his opponent nervous. Hardly a necessary maneuvre, but one that HollowEyes would enjoy nonetheless. This was his kind of shock.

Should Jho'Lahk look inside the orb, he will see he and his team mates each being annihilated by members of the EC. It was impossible to tell how they died from each image it showed (as HollowEyes did not wish to give his game away by creating an impossible scenario), but it was undenyable that they were dead, or to the very hopeful, unconcious.