DM vs Addman

[Swix]

DM, or Blue as she'd now grown accustomed to being called, walked through the Arena. Today the environment was made up mostly of a thick green forest, and the trees seemed rather other old and tall. Light filtered through the tree branches, dappling the ground with gold. She didn't know it just yet, but there was a small lake hidden within the thick forest, and clearing's frequently pervaded and broke up the monotony of trees.

Blue did not have her cloak on today, her wings were free, although she kept them half-furled behind her. That way, she could jump out of the way quickly. The draconic mutant had the claws on the ends of her hands unsheathed, and her tail flicked about uneasily behind her. If the light fell on the black scales of her tail right, it was possible to just make out a round scar on it. She remembered it had hurt like nothing she'd ever felt before when she'd sustained that injury.

Blue was wearing black trousers and boots, as well as a black t-shirt so her pale arms were bare. Her long black hair moved in the slight breeze as her bright yellow, slitted eyes scanned the environment. Her eyes had changed a little too, now there was a glow just below the surface. The primal, angry energy she housed within herself bubbled just underneath.

Blue swallowed, she'd faced this opponent once before and had come out only after getting quite a battering, and had barely survived one of the attacks from sheer luck and another's interference... Then there'd been that brief truce to try to subdue the one who'd attacked them both.

Steeling herself, Blue opened her mouth revealing her ever present fangs to be longer than before, as she called out:

"Addman! I know you're in here!"

[addman]

If Addman had ears, they'd have surely pricked up at the sound of his name. In fact, how exactly Addman could even hear anything was mystery even to the muppet himself, but then again, many things about Addman's existence remained a mystery. He wasn't very concerned about these things as he always had more important matters at hand anyway, such as where his next cookie fix was coming from.

Hidden away amongst a dense amount of undergrowth, Addman waited, listening for any trace of his opponent. Reaching over his back, he grabbed the handle of his new weapon, a semi-automatic plasma rifle. This suited Addman's style a little better as it caused more collateral damage than his old Scimitar. He glided the silver plasma rifle over his shoulder and held it in both hands near his chest.

As he did this, he accidentally caused a rustle in the bushes he was hiding amongst. Freezing almost instantly, he stayed perfectly still, hoping that DM hadn't heard his slight mistake.

[Swix]

DM stopped, tilting her head slightly as she heard a quiet rustle. If she hadn't been on high alert already, she'd probably have dismissed it as an animal or her imagination. She listened intently, but heard no other sounds.

Blue decided she'd probably be a bit safer with some cover rather than walking about on the ground like she'd been doing, so she completely unfurled her wings and powerfully thrust them down. She jumped at the same time, ending up in one of the high trees branches.

Just in case, Blue created an illusion of herself while she was in the trees and made it 'jump' and 'land' on the ground. It wasn't perfect, anyone who saw it face-to-face so to speak would notice imperfections, especially those who'd met the real Blue in person. It wasn't solid either, so she didn't have to use too much of her concentration.

She sent it walking along in the direction she'd been heading, following in the treetops just behind, watching it and everything around it.

They were unknowingly heading straight for Addmans hiding place.

[addman]

Peering from between the branches, Addman saw a familiar figure land on the earthy clearing ahead of his position. If he'd been listening closely, he would have noticed that there was a slight sound delay between the figure landing, and the actual noise it made. Still, Addman was fooled, and decided to attack the DM clone, which had begun advancing on his position.

The muppet popped his head out and took a moment's aim, before pulling trigger. His plasma rifle rumbled for a split second, before spitting out three balls of highly concentrated purple plasma, which flew through the air towards his target.

~Man, I love this gun!~ He thought to himself.

[Swix]

The illusion of DM on the ground shimmered and disappeared as the plasma balls went through it, hitting the thick trees behind it and causing several gaping and charred wounds.

Blue quickly jumped out of one tree and into another, as it teetered dangerously before toppling over and landing with an almighty crash. The sound reverberated around the forest, echoing in the Arena.

~I don't remember that ever happening before, he's got a new toy~. She thought, focussing her attention on where the balls of energy had come from.

~But then again, I've got a few new skills myself~

Blue concentrated again. This time, three long sharp needles appeared in the air in front of her. They were just normal illusions until she poured a little more energy into them, making them solid.

Blue made sure they were just right, before she sent them hurtling into the place she believed Addman to be hiding. She hoped he might think the clone he'd fired at had disintegrated, so this would catch him off guard.

[addman]

Moving through the dense bushes, Addman silenty cursed his own assumptions. The clone was obviously a fake, and he'd inadvertently given away his position in the process. As he moved, he kept his head low so as to stay in cover, and began to try and find a better vantage point, and hopefully find DM.

Behind him, he heard a few slight thunks behind him. This must have been an attack, he figured, so thankfully he'd moved out of the way. Still, he had no idea what was attacking him, and where from.

He kept moving, hoping the rustling sound as he brushed away the leaves and branches would not attract any unwanted attention.

Spotting a low branch nearby, Addman decided height would help him get a decent view of the arena. As quickly as possible, he leaped up and grabbed onto the branch, then began to scale to the side of a nearby redwood.

[Swix]

Blue 'felt' rather than heard the needles hitting the ground, as she couldn't see them but was still in control of their movements. Not hearing a thing, which meant she'd missed her target, the draconic mutant let the needles dissipate with a slight sigh. Even inanimate objects took a fair amount of energy to make solid and then send whizzing off.

Blue stood up straight on the high tree branch, her bright yellow eyes scanning the area again. She'd been so sure he was around there somewhere, yet her attack had completely missed. Maybe it was just a trick after all.

Blue cut a stark outline in the sky, her half-furled wings and tail moving slightly in the breeze while her eyes glowed a little brighter in the shadows cast over them.

She blinked as something fast moving and blue caught her eye, looking as though it was trying to scale a redwood on the opposite side of the clearing. But just as quickly as she'd spotted it, it was gone. It was either him or her imagination playing up yet again. The question was, had he seen her?

Blue waited, for the moment.

[addman]

This whole sneaky, stealthy situation did not suit Addman one bit. Frankly, he had always preferred a more confrontational approach to fighting, so hiding in trees wasn't really his thing. Still, he knew that DM preferred this kind of combat, and that it was going to be difficult to draw her out of hiding.

He reached one of the taller branches of the tree, where he intended to use the height to get a good view of the whole arena, and try to spot any signs of his opponent. As he pulled his form up onto one of the higher branches, he inadvertently disturbed a sparrow's nest. Before he could do anything about it, two sparrows began chriping and flying around in a state of surprise, completely giving away his position.

~Goddamn nature!~ He thought to himself, before whipping out his Plasma Rifle once again. If DM had figured out where he was from these noisy birds, he was determined not to be an easy target, and began firing randomly into trees ahead of his position. He hoped to either distract her, flush her out into the open, or even score a lucky hit. A few rounds of burning plasma shot off into the foliage with no distinct pattern or direction.

[Swix]

Blue's eyes and ears caught the sound and sight of two small, panicked birds flying about the redwood where she'd seen the blue flash.

Before she could do anything about it though, more burning plasma erupted from the trees. This time though, they were aimed wildly, hitting the foliage and trees around her in a random pattern.

Blues eyes widened as three burning balls of fire headed directly for her position, she folded her wings and then jumped off the branch as quickly as she could.

"Argh!"

Blue screamed, she hadn't been quick enough. One of the plasma shots had burned the side of her left arm as it passed by, her skin blackened and cracking from the intense heat. Another grazed the side of her black tail simultaneously, causing the scales to bend and peel off.

The smell of burnt flesh arose as Blue landed hard on a branch nearer the middle of the tree she was in, trickles of blood ran down her bare arms where smaller branches had cut them on the way down.

She would have breathed a sigh of relief had she not felt the plant judder violently from her landing. Looking down, she could easily make out the smoke curling up from the main trunk, only partially concealing several gaping wounds from the wild attack.

"Oh great"

Blue muttered to herself out loud as the tree began to topple, and she jumped completely off this time. She hit the ground, crouching with her wings out to break the descent, then began running, acrid smoke rising off her body. Behind her, the top of the tree fell in the redwoods direction.

It soon became apparent why Blue was running. Three other trees fell in succession after the first.

[addman]

The puppet couldn't believe his luck, he'd managed to land a fluke hit on an enemy without any knowledge of where she was. The sound of her screaming bought a disbeliving smile to his face, as he swung around slightly to adjust his position and prepared to fire another volley at the area where he thought he heard her voice coming from.

Taking aim, his finger twitched away from the trigger as he suddenly realised he was in danger. The trees ahead of his position began to tumble towards him in a domino effect. Before he got the chance, another large branch from the falling tree collided with the one he was using for support, snapping it in two and sending Addman spiralling towards the floor.

Landing heavily on the forest floor, Addman thanked his lucky stars that muppets don't have bones or anything breakable inside them, although his squeaker appeared to have gone up into his body. Despite his throbbing back, he knew he had to roll out of the way as the tree which had previously knocked him off was still descending as it bounced down off another tree, branch by branch. Reacting on pure adrenaline, he managed to scramble his way to safety as the giant redwood smashed into the floor behind him, sending leaves and branches flying through the air.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Addman stood up and began to dust himself off. The pain from the fall was already beginning to subside, soon he would be back to normal, so he began to shake it off as he moved through the freshly made clearing to try and find DM.

[Swix]

((Addman wrote:

[addman]

((Apologies, I always have an overwhelming urge to call all your characters Fade for some reason. I don't think this is the first time...))

Spotting Blue up ahead, Addman whipped out his rifle once again and took aim, but continued striding towards her position. It appeared as though she had seen him too, so he quickly released another burst of energy towards her position. Little did he know that Blue had already sent a few needles towards him, which flew straight into the plasma ball heading for Blue.

((Short post this time, as I'm not sure what effect the plasma would have on your needles, so I'll let you decide.))

[Swix]

((Hmmm... ))

Of all the things Blue could have expected as her needles collided with plasma energy, them beginning to melt and start coming back at her was not one of them.

She dived to the side to avoid the burning ball of flame, the needles dissipated and disappeared as she completely lost her concentration on them. The plasma ball hit the bubble she'd made about herself before it too disappeared and deflected off away into the foliage, starting a small fire in the grass.

Blue winced as her injured arm hit the ground, she folded her wings tightly and then rolled with her momentum, quickly standing back up to face the muppet.

Blue pulled her lips back and bared her teeth at him, something that she'd very rarely done since Father Mac had taken her in and she'd joined the Flock.

"Nice toy. Where'd you get that from?"

She asked as she began to circle, holding her tail still so as not to aggaravate the burnt scales.

[addman]

Resting his rifle on his right shoulder, Addman smiled as Blue asked him a question about his new weapon. She was obviously stalling, but Addman didn't mind, because in his mind it meant she was weakened. If there was one thing the muppet enjoyed, it was gloating before an inevitable victory.

"Mars. Can you believe these kind of things are readily available up there?"

At which he motioned with the barrel of his gun towards the sky, as though the planet were directly above his head.

"You wouldn't believe what other tricks this thing can do."

He said, grinning like a child who had just entered Disneyland.

He flipped the gun over onto it's back and touched a release catch on the underside. The handle began to open to reveal a plasma cartridge, which was still pretty full. Lifting this out of the gun, he waved it at Blue, before stashing it in his fur somewhere, and pulling out a new cartridge. This new one was a pale yellowish colour, and crackled as he inserted it into the rifle.

"Check this out"

A quick scout around, Addman spied a tree stump from one of the fallen bunch earlier. Pointing his gun, he fired a quick burst of lightning at it, which zig zagged towards his target at lightning speed, and impacted, splintering the wood and leaving a smoking hole in it.

"Cool huh? Still, I've never tested it on a live target before..."

He said as he swung the rifle round in some sort of victory dance.

((I don't know if the interchangable cartridges are going to make it into my final idea for the gun, as I said earlier, I want to test out a few ideas for it before implementing them. I'm wondering if the concept is a little powerplayish, because it may make him a little overpowered. Let me know your opinions))

[Swix]

((No problems from me. The lightning is an interesting idea, let's see how it plays out))

Blue couldn't help it this time, her tail twitched and she winced as the lightning bolt hit the tree stump. It was entirely possible to believe her wince meant that she was imagining just what kind of damage this weapon might do to her, rather than her feeling any actual pain.

She watched with a slightly confused and worried expression at the strange movements the muppet made after mentioning a live target, it was some weird sort of dance that made her want to run as far as possible away from him. But not knowing where he was had proved dangerous earlier, so this time she wanted to keep him in her sights.

"Very cool. I have a little something new as well. Watch"

She concentrated again, holding her hand out as if she was grasping something. It turned out to be the hilt of a scimitar as the weapon came into view, then shimmered and became solid.

"I'm sure you know what this is"

She said, waving it slightly around. It was a copy of the Scimitar of Corruption, similar to the one she'd made when she'd first met him.

"But this one's different from the last"

She said again, and used the blade to chop through a few branches with it, their edges sliced cleanly.

"I'd say that's neat too"