The binoculars picked up the Void Warrior from a distance, Joley's watchful eye catching on the feminine form.
"So you're next... traitor." She spat to herself, hopping down from her perch. She stared up ahead to U1's location which is...
(( Clarify for me, Thin ))
Someone is watching us.
U1 glanced over the wall. So it seems. She turned to Beck and slapped him backhanded across the cheek.
Beck noticed The Void warrior's eyes seem to flicker towards something before she slapped him. Jerking his head back, he scanned the surroundings for any observer. He saw the glint of armor by one of the many lookouts he had used.
"Most people wouldn't, but Syber wanted the abilities." He shook his head, stepping back into the stairway. Out of view from the unknown observer.
"The thing is, I never heard from him again."
She slapped him again and stormed inside the castle, covertly beckoning him to follow.
Bonding with the Swarm certainly does grant some unusual abilities, she thought to herself as she stepped inside. Most of us have neither the time nor opportunity to contact friends or relatives.
I wonder...
...if...
Beck followed the Void Warrior, keeping one hand on his recon cloak, and the other on his Dread Venom Stryker.
"Do you have a name? Or was it erased when you bonded?"
Unit One decided that this person was worth the effort of speaking again. "I have a name." she replied curtly. Noting his uneasy stance, she touched his hand and gazed at him. "Relax. I do not seek your harm, Beck Lionel. I am called Unit One."
If I'm discovered with him as-is, this could turn into a disaster.
A disguise, perhaps?
My thought exactly.
Maybe put him in the armor of one of Verne's knights.
Or better yet, the armor of a Void Warrior.
...you ARE aware of the consequences...
My apologies. Knight armor it is.
She motioned for him to follow once more and marched to the storage room, where spare parts were kept in case things got damaged. Being unfamiliar with the contents of this room, she spent the better part of fifteen minutes pilfering the boxes for armor pieces and throwing them into a pile. When she finally found all the pieces, it occurred to her that he would probably need a bodysuit to attach them all.
That is, if he didn't have a compatible one already.
"Can you attach them?" she asked quietly.
"I can attach them."
Beck's armor was designed for many scenarios of espionage. This one was not an exception. Beck took the armor prices and switched them with his Snarbolax coat. His hand wavered at the scabbard, made for the straight sword of Verne's Guard. He clipped on the scabbard and strapped his DVS to his back. He discarded the dread Skelly shield for the shining shield adorned with the crest of Verne. The shield on his back would cover the striker, but make it hard to reach in a hurry. The Valiance was a standard weapon, no one would look twice. He unhitched the Skelly Helm and lifted it off his face. Ashen hair covered pale skin, with stormy blue eyes. He took the guard helmet and slipped it on.
"So how do you know my name?"
Joley ghosts toward the back of the castle, and when she reaches the bottom get, she waits until the sentry is not looking, and uses the rocket boost to move partway up, then catches the wall with an ice-pick she used for such occasions. She grabs the sentry by the face, and silently tosses him off the castle after slitting his throat. She leaped over the ledge after climbing the rest of the wall, and silently sprinted towards the door.
She tries to pick the lock for a minute, then simply blows the lock off with her Antigua. She barges in on U1 and Beck.
"DOWN NOW." She yells, already sighting in for a headshot on U1.
Mezizas: *grumbles* "Where the hell are the Epsilon squad? Those rascals! Forget them! I am taking down Vern's castle by myself..."
Saboteur: *wakes* "Wha-wha-what?!!"
Mezizas: "Stand up you whiner! And let me use that worthless body of yours!"
[Mezizas disassembles herself into countless obsidian shards and the shards completely cover up Saboteur's body, forming a layer of armour. Now equiped with a near indestructable shell, saboteur is forced to run back towards Vern's castle under Mezizas's influence. As he charged into the open, the guards were suprised that the saboteur returned after his first failed attempt at blowing up the wall and started to rain down bullets. Saboteur shrugs off most of the incoming bullets with the obsidian armour and as soon as he makes contact with the outter wall, the shards started grow wildly again to create spikes on the outter layer to help Saboteur to scale the wall. Once he made it to the top, Vern's men were ready to take him down, sandwiching the bomber from two sides of the wall.]
What are you doing Mezizas?!
Can't you see? Vern must die so I can become the Queen, your body is the only thing I need to retain this form...
So whether or not I die or live, it doesn't matter?
So you figured it out... too late..
Xecea swiftly facepalmed. She looked at the stranger, and scowled. "Do you have everything you need? We're assaulting Verne now." She said, as she held her hand out.
"You mean to tell me you're a part of-"
"Yes, I am! Are you getting on or what?" Xecea said impatiently.
"Oh, fine." The woman grabbed onto Xecea's hand and got on the speeder, And they started advancing on Verne's Castle.
"So... Are you going to tell me who you are? My name's Kanoka."
"Xecea. A pleasure to meet you, Kanoka."
Soon, they arrived at the wall with Kotetsunii and Ralan. Xecea started scaling the wall, Which Sabo was at the top of. With her free hand, she shot at the guards surrounding him. "You alright, Sabo?" Xecea shouted above the gunfire, as she continued to defeat each guard, who all shot at her unsuccessfully.
Before Joley could utter another word, Void Warriors swarmed into the room and trained their weapons on her. "Seems you found the intruder. Your orders, ma'am?"
"Shoot her."
The room immediately erupted into a chorus of gunfire. As Joley became locked into a death battle with the dark super soldiers, U1 took Beck by the hand and led him out of the room. "That is what will happen to you if you fail." she remarked to Beck as they stepped into the hallway. "I value my own life over anyone else's, and I am not merciful to those who compromise it."
She turned to face him, her piercing eyes boring into him with power and authority. "I am your enemy, Beck. If you fail your mission here or allow us to be caught working together, I will not hesitate to slay you. Are we clear?"
Rasfie started scaling the wall of the castle to where Saboteur went, and immediantly saw Saboteur covered in obsidian shards. He shouted down to the others, "Come quick! Something is terribly wrong with Naige!"
________________
|.........................|
|.........................|
|.........................| armory
|.........................|
|.........................| <- U1 and Beck were in here.
|.........................|
___...._______________________________
hallway inside the castle
_______________________......__________
........................................|....|
........................................|....|
........................................|....| doorway into the castle
_______________________|....|__________
outer wall
_____________________________________
"Crystal clear. We all have our missions, whether its assigned or not."
Beck pulled the Straight sword from its scabbard.
"I don't care what yours is, but I know what mine is. So I will be leaving."
He winked at U1 and promptly left the room. Heading for the Outer Wall. He passed some guards, but they paid no notice to another knight dressed as Verne's guard. He climbed up the stairway and peered over the wall. Some knights were a the bottom of the wall. Another was scaling the wall. Beck unholstered his Valiance and sent a volley towards the climber.
(Pipipipipi that's you.)
"Oh no..." Joley mutters, as gunfire tears up the floor. She rolls to the side, behind a large, ornate pillar. It swiftly begins tearing up the ground. She dashes to one Trooper, and impales him through the forehead.
"Take THAT" She laughed, pushing him off the sword.
Then, Joley heard the telltale sound of a Stun Gun powering up. She turned to see a more heavily armoured Trooper standing with the non-lethal weapon.
"Oh fu-" A blinding pain lit up her world, and she fell, unconscious. As she falls down, she hears this: "Take her to the cells, and find out everything she knows."
[Saboteur's sanity is overcomed by Mezizas's influence, he cannot hear the outside world now, he is stripped of his ability to talk as well, he is reduced to a wild beast, acting only upon instincts.]
Saboteur: *roars* "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
[Vern's guards waste no time and emptied their gun magazine at the raging mad man, the obsidian armour starts to crumble under the intense firepower. But Mezizas isn't going to give in to something like this, using Saboteur as her puppet, Mezizas tackles down the closest guard she can find and impales him with the spikes she used to sacle the outter wall. The other guards retreat to the nearby pillboxes to grab heavier machine guns but Mezizas is not going to leave them be, she discharges all the spikes and they fired towards all directions, killing many guards in the proccess, one of them made it to Beck, who was shooting even further away from the guards. The shards lands onto the ground right below his feet, if someone looked closer, they can still hear a faint whisper.]
Obsidian shard: *whispers in Mezizas's voice* "Make me a Queen... I want... I want... a kingdom, a planet, an universe... and much more... I want..."
Ralan heard Rasfie's voice above him. "Come quickly! Something's wrong with Naige!" he said. Ralan kept climbing. He stood up as he reached the top of the wall, surveying the dead bodies. His Final Flourish was ready if anyone wished to assault him. Suddenly, Ralan spotted an Obsidian-like warrior slaughtering. "Naige?!?!" He yelled in confusion.
Who, is Naige? Who the hell is Naige?
How pitiful... your friends don't even know your real name...
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, Mezizas?!
Nothing... you picked me up in the deep snow... and you paid the price...
...
Got nothing more to say?
No, I think it is time, for me to take control...
Saboteur: *jerks voilently* "ARGH, bulrgggg!! ARGHHHH!!!" *breaks out of the obsidian shell*
[For a moment, Saboteur came to his senses, his sanity has at last retaliated against Mezizas's influence. He rips off the a solid chunk of obsidian slab off his chest and begins to work on the rest. After ripping off most of the obsidian shards with his hands alone, saboteur's hands are covered in bruises and broken nails, damaged by the jagged teeth of the shards.]
Saboteur: *sanity returns* "Please, mister Ralan and Rasfie... don't call me Naige anymore, he is gone... I am saboteur, the former bomber of the omega squad..."
Mezizas: *frowns* "HOW? How did you managed to fight off my influence?!"
Saboteur: *chuckles* "Clearly, you are not as strong as you once claimed to be..."
[As soon as Ralan and the others were present in the scene, Mezizas reconstituted herself, the shards of obsidian manifested into the shape of a woman with an apocrean crown on her head. Two glowing eyes appeared on her lifeless face as she begins to judge her former host.]
Saboteur: "I think it is about time you tell me who you really are..."
Mezizas: *laughs* "Fine... I will explained it before I kill you... I am Mezizas, once the proud queen of the realm of Apocrea, I was overthrown by the four acolytes that were serving me and they established theocracy... they destroyed me, tearing me into countless pieces and destroyed them one by one, however... one piece survived and it made it to this realm... the truth is, I have been feasting on your madness since the very beginning, now all of your madness is consumed... you are no use to me, DIE!!!"
Joley awoke in a small, dark room, seated in an uncomfortable wooden chair behind a small wooden table. At the other end of the table stood a tall, pale woman with shimmering platinum hair, glowing crimson runes lining her face, and form-fitting Obsidian armor, all hallmarks of an Apocrean warrior.
The woman pulled up a stool and sat opposite Joley, leaning her chin comfortably in her arms on the table. "Do you want to talk, or shall I invade your mind?"
Beck switched his aim to the obsidian beserker and fired a couple shots at the thing. Then it tackled a guard and launched a bunch of Obsidian Shards. One rolled by his feet, a small whispering voice was coming from it. Unsheathing his sword, he scooped up the shard and flicked it off the wall. The sword then followed the shard, in case of contamination.
Someone shouted, "Naige?!?!"
Presumably that was the beserker's name. Beck shrugged the Verne's Crest around to his shield arm and pointed his Valiance at the speaker. A knight held a Final Flourish, staring at the obsidian beserker. Beck put him in his crosshairs and let loose a volleybof three bullets.
(Raigaizam you decide where the bullets hit)
Joley quietly lifts her middle finger at the Apocrean, whilst tensing herself, ready to fight. She tries to stand, when a dizzying migraine comes upon her. She sits, and it subsides.
"Fine. Ask."
Rasfie used Beck's distraction to make the final pull over the wall. He decided not attack Beck now, although he fired at Ralan, as there was a bigger threat that was against them all then Beck, and he knew they probably needed all the help to kill Mezizas. He also knew that as soon as it was over, they would all start fighting each other. He didn't care about that right now though, he switched his arm to gun mode and started strafing as he fired bullets at Mezizas.
Firsr, I need to know that my boys in Epsilon Squad are safe.
"What do you know about Epsilon Squad?" she inquired of Joley. "Are you affiliated with them at all?"
"Nothing. I roll by myself." Joley says quietly, assessing potential weapons around the room that she could use on U1.
A loner. Excellent. "What was your mission here?" she asked simply.
She kept her sword on her back, her gun in a holster, and her bombs in a pouch.
As another member of Epsilon scaled the wall, Beck decided he would leave. He ducked a projectile and ran down a flight of stairs. He past a couple of guards, as he ran past he told them,
"There is a monster up there! Tell as many people as you can to get up there! Epsilon squad is being delayed by it, I'm going to get some more people to try and capture them."
Without waiting for an answer, Beck ran off. As he went he told more and more guards about Epsilon Squad. He skidded to a stop by the armory, then entered. Inside was his original armor. Time to lose the disguise. He switched his guard armor for his old Snarbolax and Skelly. That feels much better.
"F*ck off." Joley said at length.
U1 deadpanned. That was uncalled-for. She stood up and paced around the room with her arms crossed, considering how to proceed with this...this...uncouth woman.
Should I threaten her?
Should I sympathize with her?
Maybe tell her that I mean her no harm?
No...
It is time.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Here goes. She shot a deathly glare at Joley. "You have forced my hand, Joley Malakoth." Summoning Void cells between her palms, she began an eerie chant.
"The time for talk has passed.
The Eye of the Swarm sees all.
Breathe thy breath
The last 'til death
Before at last thou fall."
"Thy mind and eyes are mine,
Thy senses art mine own;
Thy thoughts long past
Thy memories last
With palm and touch atone."
Suddenly, she planted her hands to the sides of Joley's head, where tendrils of the Void wrung their way through her skull and invaded her mind, picking through her darkest thoughts to find the truth they sought.
"It's not too late to cooperate," U1 whispered, silently pleading for her to accept.
Even as the tendrils wormed through her mind, the sharp brightness of Order training and a strong constitution denied the corruption at every turn. Her mind created a sort of wall, and the tendrils crashed against this psychological defence like the ocean crashes against the seashore. Joley couldn't resist forever... so she acted.
Joley leaps out of the chair, and launches a palm strike at the Apocrean.
[Rasfie's bullet bounce off Mezizas's rock hard skin and it almost back fired when the scattered remain missed Saboteur's face by a tiny fraction. Mezizas fires off a volley of obsidian shards at Rasfie and Ralan before tackling saboteur off the outter wall and into the deeper part of the castle, they fall into a glass window and ended up in a wine storage, all of Vern's vintage wines are here.]
Saboteur: *stands back up* "...Crap.. my ribs..." *sees Mezizas recovering* "It is about time we settle a score..."
[Saboteur takes off his bondoiler belt and sets one of the nitronomes to a ten second count down. As soon as Mezizas regains her posture, Saboteur takes a metal bar out of his sleeve and bashes her into a daze.]
Mezizas: "ARGHHH! HOW CAN A MERE MORTAL LIKE YOU-"
Saboteur: "Your dream of taking over Haven dies with you!" *wraps the bondoiler belt onto Mezizas's body* "All twelve nitronomes! This is for Naige! And everyone else you murdered!"
Mezizas: "...You won't get away with this... NEVER CROSS THE OBSIDIAN QUEEN!"
[Ten, nine, eight... saboteur counts down the number in his heart while running for cover, he ducks behind a few steel wine barrels and a few seconds later, the bombs engulfed Mezizas's body with an explosive blast wave, her stony body broken into a million pieces. The vintage bottles shattered and good wine splattered all over the place, painting the entire cellar red. After the blast dissipated, Saboteur was showed in wine himself, savouring the bitter taste in his tounge as he emerges from his cover only to see that Mezizas is no more.]
Saboteur: *sighs* "...Finally... it is over... Captain... am I still a coward? I think not..."
Vern's guards: *barges into the cellar* "FREEZE!"
[Saboteur is stunned by how fast Vern's men surrounded him, pointing several machine gun barrels into his face. Left with no more explosives, Saboteur has no choice but to surrender. Meanwhile, the obsidian shard beck flicked off the wall obsorbed the metal parts of the sword and begins to regenerate... slowly, it remanifests into the shape of a little girl while showing terrible resemblance with Mezizas.]
A little surprised by this turn of events, U1 stepped back and thought for a moment.
The Force is strong with this one.
Indeed- wait, what?
She planted her hands on the table and glared at Joley. "That...was a very unfortunate thing you've done, Joley. Very, VERY, unfortunate," she said ominously. "Believe it or not, I'm the closest thing you have to a friend in this hell-hole, and I'm not happy with you. Oh no, not happy at all. Do you know WHY I'm not happy? You provoked me, Joley. You nearly blew my cover. You killed one of my men. That makes me UNhappy."
She leaned forward, lowering her voice to almost a whisper. "I really, really want to kill you right now. What's stopping me, hmm? Why do you suppose I won't kill you?"
"Blew your cover? If you have a cover to keep I suspect you won't kill a loyalist and potential ally, especially one who is able to resist your... magicks. And I think you aren't stupid, - a moronic b*tch - but also not stupid, and you wouldn't waste an asset. Of course,"
Joley raises her hands in a mocking gesture. "you didn't think to bind my hands, so I put nothing past you. So go ahead princess."
Joley raises her head so her throat is exposed, and smirks.
Unit One smirked. "Nooooo, I don't kill allies."
She wrapped her hands around Joley's throat. "But you're no ally."
"You're an obstacle."
"And YOU'RE. A moron." Joley says with a chuckle, driving her knee into U1's abdomen, and then launching her elbow into U1's face. Dancing back, she picks up the stool and swings it at U1's head.
Abdomen is armored.
Face & head...not so much.
She staggered back, holding her head in her hands to maybe dull the pain. Crud, that didn't go well. "I NEED BACKUP, STAT!!" she shouted, and her personal hit squad came charging into the room. "Izola, guard the door. Daxen, Remi, keep her down." Two of the Apocreans nodded and reached for Joley's arms, while the remaining one (presumably Izola) took a defensive stance in the doorway.
Koutetsunii finished climbing the wall to see several machine guns pointed at Naiges imposter. She shield bashed through the gaurds, and also the Naige imposter, and then she drew her leviathan, and turned to see the several dazed people on the ground, and charged at them.
Beck came back around to see yet another Epsilon getting ready to attack some guards. He shrugged his Dread Skelly shield around to one arm and unholstered his Valiance. He raised it and fired three consecutive shots.
Joley breaks the stool over one Troopers head, then grabs the other Trooper, pulling him close. She then bites him in the jugular vein, and slams his head against the table.
Leaping back to the other Trooper, she begins laying into his exposed face with a series of punches, kicks and knees.
Unfortunately for Joley, both these troopers are fully armored, so her attacks failed. Daxen and Remi both angrily slugged her in the face (str. 10, remember) and held her to the floor by her arms.
"I have to take you to King Verne, you see," U1 said dryly, "and he's going to ask you what your mission is. I know what your mission is, and I was hoping to extract that from you myself so you wouldn't suffer. If the King ever wrings it out of you, you're going to suffer at his hands a whole lot more than I'd ever make you. Consider this a favor."
With that, she drew her blade and struck her on the head with the pommel.
However, Joley manages to tear herself loose from the Trooper's grasp, and jumps forward, causing the pommel strike to hit her in the back, which (albeit, is still unpleasant), fails to knock her unconscious. She scrambles to her feet, and steps backwards, and into the table, and pulls one of the Trooper's pistol from it's holster, and trains it on the back of the man's head.
"Drop the sword. Or he dies. Now."
Rasfie jumped out of the way of the shards, and started firing rounds of bullets at Vern's Troops
Beck ran forward and presented his shield to the incoming hail of bullets. He staggered under the volley and returned fire. Sending a small volley back at shooter.
(@Pi: That's you)
Unit 3 scoffed at Joley's demand. "Me? Die? It'll just tickle me, lady." He turned around and casually crossed his arms. "Gonna take her down, cap?" Unit 1 drew her carbine and pointed it at Joley's head, making sure to keep out of arm's reach. "Yeah, I think I will. Drop the weapon, Joley. You have nowhere to run or hide, but you're no good to me dead, either."
"All right mother of all mother f*ckers. What do you want?" Joley says sarcastically, dropping the gun.
U1 pondered the question for a moment. "I want you to confess that your mission here was to spy on us. You did not come here to kill the King. I don't care whether it's the truth or not. Just say it."
"Fine. My mission was to spy on the King. My NEW mission is to shove my leg up your @ss, and break my foot off in it!" Joley spits.
"Excellent. That'll do perfectly." Unit 1 handcuffed Joley and took her by the arm. "Now it's time to see King Verne. Behave yourself." With that, she stepped out of the interrogation room with Joley in hand, and the four of them took her to the throne room, where King Verne sat waiting. U1 tossed Joley to the floor in front of the King and declared, "Here is your spy! What shall we do with her, your Highness?"
{Raigaizam, here's your cue.}
OOC: Thin, you can start interrogate Saboteur now, if you want...
[Irony, the irony of getting lock up once again soon after regaining his sanity. Saboteur is thrown into a cell by the guards after having his bomber suit stripped off from him. Even the crowbar he managed to conceal from the entire epsilon squad is now taken away. The guards chuckled at saboteur's whimpish appearance and procceded to lock up the cell.]
Saboteur: "Stop! The obsidian queen is the real threat! She is going to try and kill King Vern and throw this place into chaos!"
Guard A: "Yeah, yeah, but thanks to you, Mezizas is no more, good job killing the enemy of your enemy!"
Saboteur: "Hey you don't understand! Mezizas won't die so easily, I can still sense her! She is out there somewhere!"
Guard B: "What are you? Psychic? Wait until Lady void get her hands on you! Then we will see who the real psychic is!"
The guards slowly advanced, though their number was decreasing. Four of them grapped Ralan harshly. He had already fallen unconscious from the earlier shock. "Everyone stop! Get on your knees now, and drop your weapons, or we kill him!" The guards shouted at the rest of Epsilon.
---Verne---
Verne chortled at seeing the spy. "Thank you, U1. However you have kept me waiting too long. One hour for you in the Unfaithful's Quarters!" he said, the guards seizing U1. Then he turned to the spy. "What do you know about the Epsilon?"
"You know, I had a friend who volunteered to be a Void Warrior," said a male voice, and U1 nearly jumped out of her skin with surprise. Vog, I wish he wouldn't scare me like that! I guess that's the cloaked fellow I met earlier. She studied him intently, and having decided that he wasn't threatening, crossed her arms and let out a relieved sigh. "Most unusual," she remarked dryly. "People don't volunteer to be slaves." Except me, perhaps.