[RP] Death of a god.

[Embri]

"Ah, Blackfoot, well met." Nodding politely in greeting, she continued.
"I feared I was too late. A second voice you say? I heard only one, and it spoke but a single time. I hope... "

She turned her head skyward, pausing. "I hope it was the one I sought. Indeed, we must work under that assumption. In the unlikely event someone or something else took the anchor, all is lost anyways."

"Have you seen my foal?" She asked, with some urgency. "I cannot speak to him mind-to-mind, and it worries me. A golden dragon?" A stray dust devil swirled past and the mare shook her head.

"I'm afraid I've never heard of such a creature.... if there is one on Blackstar, it would have to be somewhere remote. It's not impossible for even a very large dragon to have remained hidden; most of the continent is unexplored. Why do you ask?"

[Coolpikaaa]

Coolpikaaa had been wandering the streets for some time, thinking where and what exactly he should do next.

He could go back to the station and try to contact the other members in the ragtag group, but then he might miss more important things here in Psychotopia.

With a sickening crunch, his mind was made for him.

He whirled at the noise to notice one of the larger buildings had tumbled over, hitting it's neighbor before folding in half and being swallowed by the endless pits that had formed everywhere.This now crumbling building teetered for a second before collapsing right before his eyes into a cloud of smoke and dust.

Coolpikaaa was speechless.
Was this the way everyone was going to go? A massive cloud of flame and dust before being eaten by their dying planet?

Apperently he wasn't the only one with that thought.


A group of over 20 people raced down the dusty street with fear in their eyes.A few broke off from the main group to shatter the glass windows of the shops, looting everything they could hold.Others, figuring the law had collaped with the city decided to smash just for the heck of it.Some of the looters pulled out of the broken glass with many various types of weapons: Arrows were now being lodged into the sides of buildings while others waved grenades through the air.

"Look!" One of the crazed civilians cried,jabbing a dirty finger at the electric mouse who had moved off to the side."Watch me get him right through the tail!"

With a stolen bow drawn at him, coolpikaaa decided it was time to go.He bolted around the corner, only to meet a street swallowed long ago by the black pits.

Two arrows whizzed over his head into the darkness.

'Hey guys...maybe we can talk about this...."

-coolpikaaa

[Swix]

Redwing lowered his serpentine neck and narrowed head whilst his front forelegs bent, giving the impression he was making an exaggerated bow. Which he was, in a gesture which had only ever been used by one of his kind towards an outsider once. Whilst the Dark Fire Dragons had developed their own language after going underground, it was still based upon the universal draconic so her words weren't hard for him to understand.

~Well met~ the young one sent to the mare via telepathy, suddenly abandoning the coarse behaviour that so characterized his species ~Lady Embri, I am Redwing of the Dark Fire Dragons, though I am considered barely a child by our standards I was sent to be any help I can. I haven't seen your child, and I doubt any others of my kind have. We live beneath the surface where the lava flows freely, but even that is disappearing~

The young dragon paused to take in the conversation before saying his piece.

"The voice that spoke, it said something about a golden dragon" Redwing shook his small horned head as though he could make himself hear it clearer by doing so "I think... it's called Shalim?"

[Embri]

Embri returned Redwing's bow with unfurled wings, stretching out a foreleg. She collected herself and nodded in acknowledgment.

~May your flames burn ever hot, Redwing of Dark Fire. I apologize for limited vocabulary, but I knew not if you were gifted with speech of the mind. It is never wise to assume. ~ The mare was relieved to be dealing with a young draconic; some elder Wyrms were known to be long on ceremony and quite capable of debating decisions for years before taking action, not to mention they were easily offended.

She widened her mental focus so all nearby could hear before continuing. ~The situation is dire. To say that Blackstar is unraveling at the seams would be an apt analogy; the binding force on this dimension was Au'Marui's power, that connection is severed. I sought for his... what would you call it? Soul? Katra? Essence? Being? Self? Out there.~

The mare raised one wing skyward. ~Beyond.~

~Something seized the anchor I took with me. I hope it was Blackstar's patron God, but I have no way of being sure. I only know *something* came back along the anchor.~

She turned to face Redwing again. ~I'm sure it has already been asked of thee, but does thou knowest of any golden dragon by that name?~

[HisLordship]

(((Now I know why I cut out so many other characters with Occam's razor - too much complexity boggles the brain and consumes the time!


Danikat, care to remind me where we left off, via PM if you will?)))




Ensichrys’ submission to common sense, predictable though it was, nevertheless stirred the thin broth of pride in the Owl`s bosom.

The benefit of a well trained soldier is their capacity to yield to figures of superior authority. I do love this ornithid so for this very reason.

" I take it, then, you've got a plan that doesn't require such grim measures as my own. If so, I'd love to do my part."



“You part remains that you remain whole, lest all other hope part. If my calculations are correct, my plan is a probability value nearing 0.015 more units of likelihood than your own. Either that or the thought of you committing bloody suicide blotted out all significant digits.”

The Owl’s cheekily smirk stung of the tart, mathematic humour of found lurking in those who knew the linear regress function on their calculators better than their spouses, but the Bird didn’t care. He wasn’t married, at least not yet.

“My plans, for there are a plurality of them, involve either evacuating Blackstar’s population into the Corrupted Cave bowels and destabilizing the Cave mouth’s Einstein-Rosen bridge (Plan Aleph), or would see us recover the Prince Regent of Blackstar, Ajaxon the Unisis foal, from whatever pocket dimension his mother secreted him in and place him on the throne of the Psychotopia (plan Beth).”

The owl renewed leafing through papers on his desk, sorting through different complexities and approaches reserved for his eyes only..

“Danikat has opted to take us to what I believe the Holy Prince Ajaxon’s current location, but more information is necessary. Coolpika the electric rodent and Kazumarua the electricity spirit have both provided me with access to their lairs in the hopes of ascertaining more information as to this place, and Lilic has been sent off to look into the Ministery of Temporal Effects’ pet project regarding planar containment.”

The Owl couldn’t help but smirk at the thought of the catgirl matching wits with quantum philosophers and metanulcear physicists. Should all of Blackstar survive this, it would be payback sweeter than Andronicus’ pies, with half the cholesterol and none of the morbidity.

“While they’re working on plan Beth - recovering the Holy Prince and such - I’ll need you and your posse to focus my Aleph plan instead. Certain members of my science teams require assistance with certain components not wholly originating from this realm. Knowing your extraplanar history (if my sources are to be trusted) then you might have more familiarity with the materials than some of my more mundane aides. Please provide your advice and talents as project administrator Wallace would have you see fit. Mortracta and Guivre, you will faclitate Ensichrys in these tasks and will carry out any further instructions my teams have. They are in loco bubo and are to be treated as such.”


The Owl made a cautionary gesture to the Guivre and Mortacta. Some of them may be human, he seemed to say. but they are all mine

“Is this acceptable to you all? My associates are in sector B-SC1 , under the lambda complex. Maryse has directions should you need them.”


He waited for his comrades to reply and comply.





*********
Maryse regarded Lilic with the polite kind of vague interest receptionists tend to show when filling out a standard piece of documentation for a neophyte customer. Maryse wasn’t really aiming for this look, but she’d never had the nerve to tamper with the pre-rendered facial expression's package after that disastrous dinner engagement with the Finnegan’s.

“So you’re the latest kid Lord Featherface sends on his Save The World missions, huh?” Maryse polished a lacquered red fingernail against her immaculate blouse. Not that it needed polishing, really. Her warranty from last month’s hardware upgrade guaranteed a lustrous candy-apple red shine for at least two years, but she wasn’t one to let old habits die so easily.

“Seems like you’re gonna be busy for the next little while, hun.” The brunette (had her hair colour changed since the last time Lilic looked?) might as well have been talking about planning an early lunch rather than stopping a dimension from being torn apart.

Gotta love that hormonal inhibitor Maryse mused. When faced with the dread of ceasing to exist in all possible ways, it holds out strong. Come the middle of the month, though, and it may as well be a made-in-China knockoffs.

She reached into a file folder, and produced a folding map, laminated and easy-to-read.

“They hand these out in tourist centers all over the place. We’re here, hun. You’ll want to take the express train, here, and get off at Fountainhead station. The other way’s faster, but you never know the types lurking down around Whiteforest Way at this hour. Tell ‘em you’re visiting from Galt’s Gulch, and you’ll get a free ride with in a complementary semi-germ-free car. It ain’t fancy, but it’ll do. Once you get off, just head left after the Atlas Statue aveue and you’ll be in the ministry faster than you can say Uncle Sam. Got that, kiddo?”


*****


They were six. Chosen by the Owl himself. They had the skill-sets and the willingness to provide their services, he had a desirable quantity of capital and a need for their services. It was a match made in free-market heaven.

An empathic coordinator, two communication’s specialists, a transfinite physicist, an aerospace engineer and a mnemonic savant - the perfect tactical team for achieving this mission’s goals. They were instructed by the Owl himself to establish the arrays necessary to help this Coolpika track down the required target and relay the information back to HQ, unadulterated. The teleporter had brought them safely to the station. Now all they needed was the rodent’s approval.

“Permission to come aboard, sir?” The empathy asked Coolpika briskly.


Coolpika winked out of his chair as the teleporter transposed him yet again from his place.

“I suggest we take that as a yes.” The savant grinned, his plump childish face grinning ear to ear.

*****

“I dunno about this electricity-ghost, Gary. That thing ain’t exactly tinkerbell and gods know what kinda crap he keeps in his lab.”

The speaker’s Brooklyn accent clipped uncomfortably against the van’s thrumming air conditioning. He sounded like an insect trapped in an airless jar.

“Don’t be such a wuss, Guy.” The second voice was slicker, a well-oiled Texan tongue smoothed by years of confident living and smooth burbon. She could have been at a barbecue out in her backyard for all she cared.

“Owl himself strong-armed that creep to sign onto this deal and rent out this property, and if I know one thing about the Owl it’s that he’s signed a bargain with a guy, that guy’d better keep up his end of the bargain if he wants to keep his head above water. That Owl don’t screw around with folk if they cross him.”

“But with all they’re sayin’ over eastways…. Y’know, about the world coming apart and stuff. I just don’t trust no spirit that ain’t got no god kickin it’s patootie to act in a sensical way.”


“Don’t listen to dat rumor, man. Too many keke people don’t know when good insanity begin and bad insanity end. All o dis wold-endin’ talk is boudrat. We just gotta job to do. Go in, set up shop, hook up with base. Tain’t ny skin offa my nose.”


“Gustav, if you weren’t my superior officer and weren’t pilotin’ this hunk-o-junk at tow-hun’red over the limit, I’d offerz yer Jamaican backside a pint o’ beer for such fine work o reason. Take a look at this man, Guy. If you wanna get promoted up from meatbag duty, you’d take a note from outta this man’s book.”

“We worry about dat later. For now we focus on getting da job done.”

The Trinity team drove onto Kazumaru’s lab, to fulfil the Owl’s plan. When they arrived, however, the current pandemonium was hardly hat had been banked upon. Of course, they knew better than to second guess their location. This was Psychtopia, after all.



***********
Along the ground where Blackfoot stood with his company, a grey shape skittered along the ground.


“Squeak?” The mouse asked, eager to help.

[Kazumaru]

((Hmm. I've missed more than I thought... what's going on in front of Kaz's lab, again? oo))

[Cirrial]

((As far as I know? Well, there's still small but scattered bloodstains everywhere, the odd claw-mark on the wall from 501 trying to escape from Sentinel's... "aural attack", but mostly it's just 501 knocking on the door.

However, in Psychotopia proper, where CP and the Trinity team are there's riots. Lots of them. And I'm assuming the Trinity team is en route to Kaz's lab through Psychotopia, whereas Kaz's lab is much further out and in the middle of nowhere, essentially.))

Sentinel's voice rings out. "Identify!"

501 sighs. "You won't know who I am if I told you. Might as well go for the long introduction. My name is CAM-501, representative and cofounder of the technological alliance and corporation of Maratix. I'm here on official diplomat business and I wish to talk with... um... what's his name who lives here. Is he back yet?"

Suddenly, 501 feels a slight, lingering unease, and slowly turns around.

He spies a metal creature, a strange oddity, watching him intently.

...The metal! Those tendrils! The general design! ...No, they can't be here yet! They can't be here at all!!

501 moves as slowly as he possibly can. He mutters as quietly as he can. "Neomeme, this world is OURS."

He grabs his ion pistol and fires as soon as he grips it. A beam of electrical energy zigs and zags towards the recon drone, which has since vanished from 501's field of vision.

"Damn it! No, they can't be here. This place won't stand up to a Neomeme full assault. ...Then again, it's stood up to everything else, so..."

What if we could distract them and send them to here to buy more time for ourselves? No, that'd be unethical. Plus, they'd have no interested in subjugating a world that's dying. ...Maybe some drones followed us through our bluespace tunnels...

He angrily kicks the door in front of him, denting the frame slightly, and shouts to the world. "Neomeme! Do you hear me?! Show yourselves! I know and you know that you aren't prone to cowardice! Leave this world! Leave it now! This world is dying! It's falling into pieces! Only a madman would invade a dying world!"

[Swix]

"No, the name is unfamiliar to me" Redwing answered with a jerk of his head "I have never heard of this golden dragon until now"

The hundred year old youngling looked uncomfortable, feeling that perhaps he should know. The only dragons he knew personally were all red and black, maybe the Elders would know? Or... maybe... Coro would? That thought in itself was enough to increase his uncomfortableness.

"If I can reestablish my link and contact Coro then he might be able to help us" Redwing said, though the idea was rather distasteful to him as he did not not like the other dragon at all "He is a Blind Seer, but he's also completely lost his mind so I can't guarantee what he tells me will make any sense. Would it be worth my trying?"

The young reptilian looked down his long snout at the tiny creature that had wandered into their midst, and bared his long fangs at it, but did little else. It wasn't worth a snack and didn't seem to be able to talk at all.

[Angel]

Angel! slow dow- ANGEL!

*Zed tugs the armour strap he's tightening hard and brings the elder vampire to a dead halt*
Hurry up! There's no time for this pedantry! It's her, for the sake of the Bond hurry UP!
*She stands still for him nonetheless, as he finishes cinching her armour on.*
You never would have forgiven me if I'd let you out without this...especially with those...
*they both shudder subtly, the black holes marring the side of the mountain seem to eat more of this world by the minute. As far as eagle-eye can see over the planes and onwards to the swamps, ground, tree and river disappear into nowhere.

Zed has never seen the like, and Angel refuses to speak of what she recognises of the Between. Having had dominion of the tiniest portion of it, she never wishes to return.

The fledgling finishes and hurriedly shrugs into his own gear, taking significantly less time about it that Angels full armour. They take off from the platform at the front, red- and blue-edged wings beating fast and heavy. Heading south and east they aim for the centre of Au'Mauri's reign, his principle city.

As they near, Angel's excitement rises, feeling the long stagnated bond with her sister opening up and loosening.

~Ash'ke? do you hear me?~ Her mental voice is weak and atrophied but audable as they come over the outskirts of Pshycotopia.

[LordPsycho]

Blackfoot thought for a minute, then spoke.

"Lady Embri....I..uh, I think I know where Au'Marui has Ajaxon for safekeeping...or at least about where. He told me to bring Ajax though a portal he had set up - to some sort of Pocket dimension. I'm not entirely sure where, but it was only a couple of acres big - just big enough for Ajax to run around."

He then turned to Redwing.

"I don't know anything about the Gold dragon...but that voice. I can't help feeling that it's more trustworthy than any of the other's I've been hearing today. See if you can contact the Seer - let's hear what he has to say, then we can judge what to do."

[Embri]

Embri nodded in relief at Blackfoot's explanation. "Au'Marui would never have taken Jax from Blackstar, it would be detrimental to his welfare. A pocket dimension... connected to this one, yet separate. Yes, that makes perfect sense. "

"For the moment, information is indeed essential. We do not even know if this "Shalim" lives on Blackstar, or some other world, nor what aid it could give us. The advice of your Elders could be invaluable, Redwing." She shot a look at Blackfoot, shaking her head slightly. It was rather apparent that he was used to being in charge, and that he didn't seem to realize that dragons didn't take well to being ordered around. "It would be most beneficial if your kin could provide any clue or legend about this dragon we seek."

A mental touch, familiar and warm, settled comfortably in the back of Embri's mind. ~Always, beloved heart-sister.~ She answered, before opening her eyes and smiling slightly. "We are about to have some... interesting company."

The crash and tinkle of glass hitting the ground was startling, breaking the unnatural calm that had settled over the once busy City. Embri laid back her ears in alarm. Faint shouts followed, then running footsteps, thankfully not heading in their direction.

[Angel]

*Angle lets out a deep breath and feels a tension that hasn't left her for over a year ease, though she wont be completely happy until she sees he sister again. She has no words suitable to reply and settles for picking up speed as they bank towards the city.

The streets are worse for wear, holes opening up in the foundations of buildings and sending them topping into once busy market places. Water mains spew actual water (for once) into the chasms and no sound or splashing echoes back up. The two of them navigate carefully now, the air in those empty places doesn't support weight like it should.

They swoop low around a corner and come into view of the small gathering. Angel lands running and throws her arms around the mares neck, burying her face in that flaming mane like no other dares.
~Sister... you came back.~ Her tone is gentle, confidant statement. And so glad that she trembles ever so faintly.
She pays no attention to the others there, but Zed can feel the tension and feels dreadfully uninformed.

He stays alert, unsure of the situation, but doesn't speak. The air feels like a decisive moment is near.

[Chronos]

Ensichrys lightened up inside just slightly. The Owl's concern for him seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. At the end of the conversation, the Guivre got the message loud and clear. This was hardly the time to be snacking anyway.

Sector B-SC1... why does that not sound familiar at all? Ensichrys thought to himself.

Ensichrys nodded and stood stiffly high. He seemed to regain a bit of his knightly composure at that point. "I will do my very best and more to follow these instructions and save the inhabitants of this realm... even if it means..." Ensichrys couldn't quite bring himself to say the next few words.

Suddenly, the Guivre spoke softly. "Sic transit gloria mundi," he said- quoting Ensichrys at just the right moment. It was almost too perfect.

Ensichrys covertly wiped a tear from his eye. "Well said, friend. Well said. I'll go and hit up Maryse for directions then, Lordship. May the best of luck be kind to us all. Mortracta, Guivre, sequi!"

And with that, Ensichrys swept away, arriving at Maryse's small 'department' just as Lilic appeared ready to leave. He wasn't sure if their conversation was over, and even in this most trying of times, he found it just too rude to interrupt.

[Embri]

~I wish better fortune had been the reason for my return, ash'ke.~ She returns Angel's affectionate embrace, wrapping a cream coloured wing over her shoulders. Curious, she glances back at the other figure that had accompanied Angel. ~Mhurreee? That one looks familiar...~

Embri picks up his name from her heart-sister's mind. ~Ah.. yes, I remember now. Zed, your fledgling. He looks a fair bit better than last time.~ She sends Angel her memory of Zed, pale and shivering on snow white sheets.

[Angel]

*She nuzzles Embri's warm neck and worry fuzzes over the bond.*
~Dire times, indeed. Is he really just... gone? he was so-~
*she runs out of words, knowing her sister will understand.

~Well now that's not so difficult now is it?~ *he spirits cheer a little, knowing her adopted family are still here and relatively safe.*
~he's a strong one, for all his weaknesses. Oh... and he can hear you.~

*Zed can't help but smile slightly as Angel disappears behind feathers. However the image of his Changing makes him blush and he hopes dearly that no one else can see that,*