The Last Stand

[Mitsukai]

Anything is better than touching that muppet’s ugly bunions…

Nynaeve scowled as she examined the expanse of space before her… a place that she would now have to call home, at least for the time being. Her breath left her lips as mist, it was that icily cold. Shivering, she pulled her midnight blue cloak tighter around her. Unfortunately for her though, it offered little comfort and warmth.

The fact that this place had been needed saddened her. What happened to their lovely, comforting, familiar home? With the overthrow of the original government, all hell hath broken loose- quite literally. She would have given anything for the proceeding of things to return back to normal, to just reside her room in the Citadel comfortably with a book and the fire blazing. So… here she was, ready to fight with everything she had.

This place was nothing like where she wanted to be to say the least. An enormous ice dome in the middle of the Arctic- you would have thought that the Sensei could have chosen a more… warmer location to make as a “last resort“ type place. She had been surprised when he told her quite a while ago to go here should the need arise. Still, this type of arena, so to speak, would put the EC members at a disadvantage.

To start with the list, the entrance of the dome itself had been hard to spot. A narrow corridor led the newcomer from the opening to the main area of the dome. Should there be more than one visitor… well… unless they were midgets, they would have to enter one by one in a single file. No one would be able to “drop in” either. The ceiling of the dome, like the corridor, was completely made of ice over a couple feet thick. The same description applied to the walls.

Once the visitors came in, they’d get quite a shock. The floor, for the most part, was made of completely smooth, glassy ice. It sparkled under the glare of the light fixtures that hung on the walls. The only section of the floor that was not covered by ice… was the crescent stone area at the farthest end from the opening. It was the same one she was standing on.

To reach from the opening of the dome to the safe, solid stone at her end would be no easy task. They would have to span quite a few meters of ice… and overcome a few obstacles along the way of course. An aerial attempt of crossing the ice would be no good either…

She wasn’t quite sure how the mechanisms of the whole thing worked… she just knew it did. About two meters up from head height was a dense greyish fog. Creatures of the air would find their wings crippled the moment they flew up, for ice wings are not well suited for flight. A frozen body was also not well suited for being in the air…

When her and the other slaves had fled after the declaration of the “new rules“, she had to leave almost everything behind. But, as always, her enchanted daggers were hidden inside her sleeves and her Akki Uchiwa’s were safely tucked into her belt.

She glanced over at the meagre items she had managed to bring with her once more. Various ointments and potions, rolls of cloth for bandaging, a few already sterilized needles and thread for stitching up wounds, and other healing related items were lined up neatly a couple centimetres away from the wall on a piece of cloth to keep them clean. These would likely be needed later on… if she could spare the time for the healing. If not…well, she would worry about that when the time came.

Also with her were her bow and griffon feather fletched arrows. They were, at the moment, lying casually at her feet. It’s likely that that won’t be the case for long.

Feeling somewhat ready, she let her eyes wander to each individual who had fled with her- and was ready to fight. It would not be long before they came… and they would not be allowed to leave without admitting defeat…

Let the fight begin.

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((Stipulations to this all out RP:
There will be no usage of items at all. This is purely roleplaying.
Powerplaying is greatly looked down upon. This is just like an arena challenge, and although there will not be judging at the end, you are still expected to conduct yourself as if it there will be.
The winner of this battle will be the team of the last person still physically and mentally able to fight. So… you were shot down? Don’t say that you’re still standing. Be reasonable. And of course.. have fun. ))

[Coolpikaaa]

Coolpikaaa watched on a oddly configured portible T.V as a kraken ripped apart a pikachu doll and shoved the pieces into it's mouth.It was a great idea to have some decoys ready in case of an emergency like that.Drool from the vine monster just before he had set the decoy was starting to itch now,so he ran off toward a nearby river and splashed at it until it was all gone.

As he looked up from the river he thought he saw Eve walking just ahead.He followed her for what seemed like hours,down an icy path and eventually into a frozen room.

"So this is it? Where we make our final stand?"he said to her,rubbing his sore paws.

He then punched in a few keys on the weird T.V."Senti you there?We made it to the arena."

-coolpikaaa

[Kazumaru]

The drone stood up. It looked to be rather quickly constructed, and at full height it was about twice the height of a pikachu. The TV-looking device, from which the legs, arms, and a small laser cannon sprouted, contained the brains of it- a transmitter and a receiver, essentially.

Sentinel's voice came out of it, "Sadly, Rodent, I'm reading you loud and clear. " it said. "Frigging quality parts."

The camera on top of the box swiveled around, surveying the field. "Well, this looks promising." Sentinel said, doing his best imitation of a sarcastic tone.

[Cloud]

Sitting inside the Corrupted Cave, Cloud sat there. He knew it was a bad idea to watch the enchanted TV, this particular magic refused to let whoever watched it from getting up and walking away from it. He had to sit there and become very, very lazy *ahem* lazier. He was unsure who put that mystical device there, and he couldn't even ponder upon this. The Simpsons had just come on and he had to laugh at it despite whether the jokes were funny or not. He laughed harder and louder, not caring who heard him. The only downside to this was that he had no clue what was going on outside the realm of the very room he was sitting in. He had no idea that the Rebels were in a secret place waiting for him and his Council members. Cloud looked up, away from the TV, but just as he did this his neck swirled round to face the TV again. He tried this many times, almost breaking his neck on the last attempt. What was he to do? How was he to get out of this mess and, most importantly, how the hell do the EC know where this ice dome is? Of course, not all these questions filled Cloud's mind since at least one of them was on a subject he knew nothing about. I mean, speaking as the narrator, the ice dome could be anywhere. Well, not entirely true, it's not as if it could be in the middle of the Black Forest now, is it?

[Fort]

Fort observed the dojo map with a scrutiny. They rebels flaunted themselves all too publicly, telling the world they had gathered under one banner. The question of the matter was - where?
The frozen wastelands of the north were an obvious spot, it was where the Guardians old place of hiding was, within that now crumbiling citadel. Although the outer walls were begining to crumble, it didn't mean they weren't hiding within. Or anywhere else in the Dojo, a voice of reason said within him.
Fort's left eye twiched with annoyance, this was going to be no easy task, he'd have to search every area of the Dojo with a fine tooth comb to find any HINT of the rebel scum.
Of course, he thought to himself, he'd have to start the search immediately to make any headway, and where better to start, than in the Artic Tundra? It was the best possible lead.
The Hackstar Headmaster smiled insanely, switching on the Cave intercom,
"All personel in the Search team report to the corrupted cave hall for immediate warp to the Artic Tundra."
Fort motioned to the Grunt guarding his Study door to collect his things and follow the Demon Headmaster. At last, Fort thought, a chance to use some of the stolen technolagy of the banished Psycho.

[Netdroid9]

*Net glided across the ice with surprising grace, to the place where Mits and the others presided. Unfortunately, he wasn't as good at stopping as he was at starting, so he had to swerve to doge Coolpikka an barely missed a cleverly placed pole.*

So... What's the plan? Stay here and wait for them, or should we try and get this old bird humming? I doubt our most technologically inclined Sensei would've built a dome out of ice and not bothered to at least stick a rocket on one end and a thermostat on the other.

[Aurondarklord]

*Fort had made the only logical deduction...and he was not the only one who had made the same determination. Kara Mious, the mercenary known more commonly as Black Hat (OOC: character profile inbound as soon as I spruce it up a bit, promise I won't metagame or anything), stalked the arctic tundra, bereft, for once, of her trademark black hat, which had been switched out for the whites and pale grays of an arctic camouflage version of her standard outfit. even the long braid of hair stretching down to her knees had been dyed to a silvery tone from its usual light brown for this op, and the telltale violet glow of her bionic right eye was dull and muted. Kara checked the last of the dimensional stabilizers she'd planted throughout the area to make sure they were all properly set for remote activation on her signal.

hunching down behind a snow drift, Kara carefully and miticulously activated, spot checked, and loaded her railgun rifle, waiting silently for Fort's arrival and reflecting on how she'd come to be in this situation in the first place.

just a few days prior she'd been in the much more pleasing tropics when word of the job had come to her. some psycho dictator from these parts seemed to be none too happy over his dethronement and exile at the hands of his rivals, the evil council, and word was that he would pay good yen for proof of the enemy leader's demise. with a few calls between middle men and a little haggling over the price of the hit, Kara already had a downpayment in the bank and a new assignment to keep her wandering intellect busy for a while. now, if only the b*stard would show himself and make this easy, thought the rational part of Kara's mind, even as the other half, the wild and thrill-seeking side that's perhaps what drove her to such a career in the first place, secretly hoped Fort was going to make this decidedly difficult. it had been the longest time since Kara had faced an opponent worth calling a challenge....*

[Bog]

Unfortunately, Kara wasn't the only person of such a profession to hear of this hit. A good ways away, on top of some kind of Ice structure to be exact, Bog laid down, his white gille suit blending him into the snow and ice. He sat with a sniper rifle to his side, and a set of high-powered binoculars to his eyes.

He really had to get this hit, after his embarrassing miss on one of this Evil Council's leaders head earlier that day. Luckily this world had appeared to have mastered a quick way of getting around. This was to his advantage because back at the pub he had heard of a plan to stage a fight for this realm inside the very structure he was now on top of. He knew egotists such as the ones who lead this EC couldn't resist a chance to wipe out their opponents once and for all.

So he sat and waited for his chance to make up for his earlier mistake.

[Danikat]

Outside the dome there was a quiet 'pop' of displaced air as a huge, golden dragon known to many of those resident to [B]lackstar as Alzaranth appeared and settled gently to the snow to allow her two passengers to dismount. They paused briefly to make one final adjustment to their attire before giving the dragon an affectionate pat and dropping to the ground.

Looking around cautiously the pair made their way to the Dome's entrance and slid across the floor to greet the other waiting rebels.

"I'm not so sure about these ice skates," Danikat mumbled to her friend, "but with the loss of flight they'll be a big advantage." At this point she finally seemed to register the looks her companion was getting, and with good reason. If it wasn't for the lack of wings, cat ears and a tail the other woman could be mistaken for Danikat's identical twin. "Oh, everyone I'd like you to meet Danielle, my....friend. She's agreed to join us to help defend the Dojo. She's a half-elven cleric from the realm of Faerun." ((And you'll be able to find a character profile in the last post Here as soon as I write one.))

With the introductions dealt with the two made one last check of their equipment. As per-instructions no special items had been brought. Danikat had only her katana, Kyr, and a cloth wrapped bundle tied to the shealth between her wings. Danielle had only her sword, Day Star, and her red dragon armour. Satisfied that everything was in order they turned to face the entrance and await the arrival of the EC members.

[Coolpikaaa]

Coolpikaaa jumped straight into the air as Net slid right past him.He quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed,then turned to look at the fully grown sentinel.

It felt good to know that there were so many people on his side.But then again,none of the EC had shown up yet...or maybe they had and were spying on him!

Coolpikaaa looked around the room,now feeling quite paranoid.He thought he could see a faint shadow,on top of the dome,but those "shadows" turned up everywhere,created by the strange freezing fog that was above their heads.

"What a place for a fight..."

-coolpikaaa

[Mitsukai]

"So this is it? Where we make our final stand?"

“I’m afraid so…” Eve trailed off in response to Coolpikaaa’s question before turning her attention to Net.

"So... What's the plan? Stay here and wait for them, or should we try and get this old bird humming? I doubt our most technologically inclined Sensei would've built a dome out of ice and not bothered to at least stick a rocket on one end and a thermostat on the other."

Eve tilted her head as if she was contemplating his questions, her eyes gazing at him.

"Well... the plan is that we wait for them to come here so that we at least have the advantage of fighting on grounds of our own choosing. They'll be coming shortly enough though if Maraha had played her role as "an obedient slave" and done her usual rounds of checking up on us. She'll likely have saw my message and brought it to the attention of her 'masters'."

She paused for a moment to let all of the information sink in before continuing on.

“Even if she slacks off and doesn’t do the rounds… surely they would have had enough sense to check the slave’s quarters for a lead on where we went to instead of gearing up for a blind search. Should they fail even that bit of thinking… I suppose we’ll look at other options. As for what other technology we have… he didn’t speculate much. ”

She shrugged her shoulders and fell silent once more as her mind drifted off and reviewed her last message…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last bit of the scarlet berry juice she had used as writing ink was gone. Good timing too for her message was finally completed.

“This change is not something that we will let be finalized easily.
One last gamble- all of us against all of you.
In a place a hundred kilometres away from the old Citadel.
A fight on our own terms.
A fight to the last one standing.”

She had considered simply writing a note earlier, but had decided against it for the note might’ve gone by unnoticed. On the other hand, you could hardly mistake the bold red letters on the stark wall.

T’would be easily seen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, everyone I'd like you to meet Danielle, my....friend. She's agreed to join us to help defend the Dojo. She's a half-elven cleric from the realm of Faerun."

Danikat’s introduction brought her out of her reverie, and she shook her head mentally. Now was not the time to be daydreaming!

Nodding to both Danikat and Danielle with a ghost of a smile on her lips, she went back to busying herself with thoughts of preparation.

[TheBlackSoul]

Sparks flew off a spinning wheel made of steel, with the edges covered in diamond. it was obvious what such a device was for-it was for sharpening weapons, as 4 long, triangular blades were causing the sparks.

Looking from the tips to the bases the blades, it could be seen they were attached to one hilt, arranged at right angles to each other. The hilt was quite long, making it seem like a spear. In fact, the entire weapon was more like a staff than anything. But should anyone behold the creature carring this weapon, they would most certainly freeze with fear.

The grendel-like Enigma of Time, Ravana, had no interest in the well-being of the Dojo prior to the events of the takeover. He was strong enough to fight off anybody who dared attack him, and most had enough sense not to.

Then the EC succeeded in overtaking the Dojo, displacing its resident god, and making almost everyone else their slaves. They didn't get everybody, apparently-Ravana himself was very resitant to being controlled, and with some minor difficulty, he escaped their grasp and-despite his preference for fighting-fled to this bleak Arctic wasteland, where he met other escaped slaves wanting to overthrow the new regime.

If he had trusted his instincts, he would've been against both sides. But he had always wondered what it would be like to play the hero, and the day he met the others was the day that curiousity finally got to him.

And so, he had joined the group, pledging his powers of Time to help the cause of the rebels, and to give the enemy a taste of their own medicene.

The foot-powered Weapon Sharpener that stood in front of him was his contribution to this building. Right now, he was using it to sharpen the blades of his weapon, the Shredick. As he watched the sparks fly, his eagerness to fight was easy to see, even through his black, empty eyes.

After a few more minutes, Ravana stopped sharpening his weapon and lifted it up, spinning the blades around. They looked sharp enough for his tastes, but he wanted to test out their new power.

And so, he turned to face a stuffed model of the EC member he remembered-and hated-most. Setting the blades of the Shredick aspin, the enigma swung his weapon with all the power his muscles could muster.

When the blades hit the model, they tore it apart like it was nothing but soft cheese, stuffing flying in every direction. Satsified, Ravana turned the spinning blades off and walked to the main chamber, looking for another team member to converse with.

Now that he was in the main chamber of the dome, it was quite easy to see Ravana was one of the largest members of the rebel team-he was 15 feet tall, not including his shoulder spikes and his 3 tails, which meant he had to get down on all fours to get inside the building and avoid freezing his head off because of the fog. He also was so heavy, he had to walk lightly so he didn't shake the building. However, the claws on his feet made navigating the ice easy enough, and allowing him to focus less on keeping his footing.

He spotted Eve and walked up to her, for he had several questions.

"What else needs to be done? I've an itchy spell-castin' finger, and would like to get this show on the road." he asked.

[3kul]

A distant rumbling could be heard from the rebel's hideout, and if anybody was to look for the source would have to be blind to miss it.

The Guardian Citadel was no more, a massive mushroom cloud now growing where it once stood. Not so big that it would effect those who were this far away, but big enough to let them know that there wasn't going to be much left of the Citadel, even in the way of rubble.

---------------------------------------------

"Good work Noten."

Little Sister was pleased with how this looked, though admittedly she couldn't tell much being at ground zero. The Citadel was still fine, it was merely an illusion of Noten's that had caused it to disappear, and a much flashier illusion of his that caused an explosion to come from nothing.

As it had turned out, searching the Citadel had proven to be pointless. The Guardians were long gone, having taken whatever might have been considered useful and leaving behind anything else. They would have been incredibly stupid to leave their location behind in an empty and undefended base, but Little Sister had never held them in very high regard anyway, so she'd expected to find something. Oh well, this was kind of fun too.

"... It's nothing compared to Paranesia's..."

A skinny figure curled up in the corner mumbled to himself, miserable and freezing. A woven blade suddenly slammed into the wall next to his head. "If it's nothing that's because you didn't explain it properly to us, slave." Little Sister shouted at Genkaku, the lone worshipper of Paranesia. "She's probably forgotten about you anywa- Oh, don't look so surprised, she's done it before, hasn't she?" Genkaku looked on the verge of tears - this horrible little creature and her terrifyingly blank Godfriend had dragged him out here, forced him to do their bidding. Where was Paranesia? Why didn't she help him? "You said... You said that I could have Entrails back if I helped you."

"Ha! This disgusting thing?" Little Sister waved the dead fox about in his face, toying with it as though it were a puppet. "It's dead idiot, why do you want it back?" "D-death is but an illusio-" "Keh! Typical Paranesian religious crap, you've been babbling the same garbage all the way here." Little Sister laughed cruelly. "With such an empty head you'd do well as a worshipper of Noten, maybe you should consider converting?"

Genkaku could only come to one logical conclusion now, Paranesia must be testing him. Nobody was this mean to him here, and he'd never even heard of Noten before, it was the only reason that made sense. She'd been pretty disappointed with him since he'd met her, perhaps she wanted to see how he'd coped in this sort of situation? Had she remembered his people? A ruthless race of bloodthirsty monsters, always fighting, never resting - they'd tried to apply Paranesia's brand of magic to their way of life and most had failed miserably, but he... Genkaku and his fellow worshippers had adopted a different mindset. His fellow worshippers were long dead, but Genkaku had the chance to prove himself now.

"If you're watching Paranesia, you're about to see one of my best illusions." He whispered to nobody in particular as his shell rustled.

His large third arm shot out, snatching Entrails from Little Sister as Genkaku himself leapt backwards. He quickly withdrew his larger arm back into his shell, pulling out his gun and pointing it squarely at Little Sister's head. The Parasitian snarled at him for his insolence and was about to slice his damn head off when Noten reached a spectral arm out in front of her. "He's doing something strange. Building up energy." Little Sister had no idea as to what Noten was getting at, but she suddenly noticed the shell on Genkaku's back was spinning. It was spinning quite fast actually, and she thought she could see sparks coming off of it on more than one occassion. "What are you playing at slave?"

"If death is an illusion, it is well within the realm of Paranesia's control."

"Life too is within the realm of Paranesia's control, as she is all powerful."

"By the logic of Genkaku the Gei'ei, this would mean that..."

"Ultimate Illusion! Death = Life!"

His final words were quite a bit louder than his previous ones, and echoed throughout Little Sister's head somehow, though she didn't really have time to react to his bizarre ramblings. A jolt of electricity surged through his body, jumping out of his hands and into the dead fox that he'd been wanting back a few moments ago. The creature suddenly lunged at Little Sister, biting her in the side as she side-stepped it.

"Die for your insolense slave!" Little Sister seemed unaware of what was happening to the bite mark on her body - she was now decaying as if she were dead despite the fact that she was perfectly alive. Genkaku was a little thrown off by the fact that she didn't care that large lumps of her own body were falling off, and pointed at her, trying to maintain his composure. "See what the worshipper of Paranesia is capable of! That wound is no illusion! Surely you can at least feel it?"

"My God trumps your Goddess, slave." Little Sister grinned as Noten formed himself an arm and touched Little Sister's body. The decomposing stopped the moment that he did this. "Almost as if 'nothing happened', right?" The Parasitian laughed, relishing in the terrified expression on Genkaku's face. "Have your worshippers take care of this one Noten, he's no longer necessary to us and I need to concentrate." The blank God nodded. "As you wish." Three of Noten's disciples suddenly appeared out of thin air. "Get rid of this loser for me you lot. And keep it quiet." Was all Little Sister had to say to them, and she and the God quickly left, not waiting to watch the ensuing combat.

"Make sure nobody can see that we're here." She added, looking to Noten as she focused all of her energy on the Seventh Eye. "It's already been taken care of. If it's not another God or Goddess the only thing that they'll perceive is the wounded slave, along with the explosion and the distinct lack of Guardian Citadel. May we leave him here, as bait for those who would be inclined to come and rescue him?" Little Sister did not reply, though Noten took this to mean that such a thing was okay.

[Coolpikaaa]

"Holy crap..."

Coolpikaaa had thought he saw another shadow,this time it seemed to spread upwards rapidly and he had run out of the dome to witness a massive mushroom cloud from the citadel.

He turned and ran back inside,shouting to the others what he just saw.Coolpikaaa couldn't believe that they would just...blow the thing up.But then again,they were the EC.

"Ok.."said coolpikaaa after he had calmed down.It was time to start acting like a rebel leader."Ok,listen up everyone.A blast like that is sure to leave no survivors.But just to make sure,if you wanted to go Dani,and just fly over the area,it would be awesome.I think everyone else,unless you really want to go should stay here in case any of the ec show up.If they are at the citadel,it won't take them long."

-coolpikaaa

[TheBlackSoul]

Upon hearing the letters "EC," the blades of the Shredick started spinning like crazy, and a menacing smirk crept across Ravana's face.

"I'm more than ready to kick some serious hide." he said, a touch of enthusiasm to his voice. Tails whipping, the enigma crawled to the entranceway, crouched to its right.