Khellendrosiic

Just as the fight began, the insane clown thing shot a ray into one of Farfield's men. Almost instantly, the affected Crab Spider whirled around and lunged at the Captain. Used to dealing with rebellious subordinates, Farfield grabbed the man's arm as he lunged past and slapped an emergency deactivate button on the back of his armor. The Longfang collapsed, his mad laughter still echoing across the comm. link until Farfield cut him off. When the man had gotten over whatever had affected him then he would reactivate his armor. Until then, he had a jester thing to deal with.

The remaining Longfang finished firing a barrage into a clown and that minion, having been targeted since the beginning, collapsed and slowly faded away. But then a force bolt slammed into the Crab Spider and knocked him back against the wall. Righting himself, the Longfang bellowed a challenge over his suit's speakers and charged. He may not have been especially fast but once he got moving his armor gave him a lot of momentum. Another force bolt slammed into him but it only made him stumble before he slammed into one of the Mimes. Readying his wrist blades, the Longfang slashed at the demented clown minion.

While the Longfang charged, Farfield had his own problems. The Jester was a truely disturbing beast, its face nothing but endless blackness from which various attacks emerged from. A fencer and the second mime joined the attack on Farfield and put him on the defensive. Missing one third of his squad, Farfield was sorely pressed to keep himself alive. Bracing himself, five of his spider legs erupted in red light, bathing the area in front of him in disingigrator beams. The minions that were engaging him dodged and mostly escaped harm but the point was to break up their attack. Canceling his supression fire, Farfield charged the fencer while firing a machine gun burst at the jester. Taking out the fencer would be both faster and easier than going straight for one of the stronger minions.

OOC: I forgot about that. But I don't know how to change the title and I don't think I can any more, what with this edit dead line this forum has.

OOC: Blarg and Gideon are Team Red for now and Cyric and I will be Team Blue. Any one else who wants to join can hop in on either team or just watch the fight.

BIC: A trio of heavily armored figures stepped out from behind Cross Breed. Their mechanical spider legs twitched as combat programs activated and they began tracking their owner's eye movements. The Crab Spider Webmaster surveyed the competition with an experienced eye and turned to his Longfang followers.

"This should be a piece of cake, boys." He said confidently, "And you, woman; you can handle the guy in armor. My men and I can handle the doofus brigade over there, you got that?"

That last bit was directed at Cross Breed and emphasized by an armored fist smacking into a gauntleted palm. The Longfang's took up flanking positions next to their leader and readied the machine guns built into a few of their spider legs. As they prepared themselves for the fight, the announcer came back on.

"Alright ladies, gentlemen, and others, we have our fight ready to go! Who will win? Sin Reaper augmented by Blarg the Hobo and his crazy clowns? Or maybe the deadly Cross Breed and Captain Farfield's Crab Spider squad? Let's find out! Fight!"

A loud bell rang and the doors slowly began to grind shut.

All at once, the three Crab Spiders opened up with machine guns and disintegrater beams on Blarg's clowns.

OOC: Ack! Stop telling me what a great idea I have. Trust me, I know that already. If you want to join, just post your character entering through one of the gates. Red team on the left and Blue team on the right. The floor is plain sand and a special transparent metal lets you see the crowd but prevents your attacks from hitting them.

OOC: It all depends on if people join. If they don't show up, I can't start it.

BIC: The fifty yard diameter circle of the Coliseum floor provided more than enough space for most battles. With holographic technology and an entire floor that could be switched, swapped, or combined to form any type of terrain or environment it was more than enough. But all this technological marvel was wasted on this fight, a pair of trolls fighting a hulking pumacite. The fight was already a forgone conclusion; one troll's spine was broken and the other was fighting for his life against the sledgehammer fists of the rock creature. The troll slipped and fell on the plain sand that currently covered the arena and the watching crowd screamed and booed and cheered as his skull was caved in by a foot stomp. The Coliseum boasted a medi-port system on par with that of Paragon City but to use it you need either money or connections. Those two trolls had neither, which might have been the reason for their fighting. But that didn't matter, as the pumacite was being led away and the announcer was annoucing the next fight.

"And here we are ladies and gentlemen! The biggest fight of the night! A straight fight between two randomly picked teams! Let's see who wins!"

Two large doors on either end of the floor opened up to admit the opposing teams onto the arena floor.

OOC: Two teams. Red and blue. First person to post after this is on the Red team. The person after him is Blue team. And after him is Red and then Blue, etc. And about the medi-port. Villains and heroes get automatic use of it, as do team leaders. The general consensus being that those who are capable of putting up a good fight should get the chance to do so many times over.

Welcome to the Coliseum, the semi-legal brother to the well known Arena system.

Created for the sole purpose of entertaining those with power and money, the Coliseum exhibits fights much like those of its namesake from ancient times. One day’s worth of fighting could have a team of heroes hampered by power dampeners fighting for their lives against a gang of Hellions. A squad of Nemesis troops might fight alongside those of the Devouring Earth against a small army of Council while afterward a Circle of Thorns death mage reanimates those who died to fight against a small group of villains. Anything and everything goes in the Coliseum as long as it does not harm the patrons from which it gathers money and new gladiators. Any may participate for any reason. The Coliseum is also a place for those seeking to hide from the law; for as long as they fight, the influence of the Coliseum’s patrons will protect them.

OOC: This RP will be a bit different from those that are here normally. Instead of joining you with my own character, I will instead control those you will all fight. Therefore, you can’t instantly knock anything out of the fight. The most you can do is say what you try to do, such as throwing a fireball at a Skull, and maybe add a contingency plan just in case the fireball misses or otherwise fails. I am the ultimate decision on what happens when someone attacks an NPC. PC combat will operate normally.

You can be anything in this thread; a hero, a villain, the Sergeant of a squad of Longbow, or a CoT demon leading his troops into battle. Any mix of powers is acceptable. If you want to be a guy who can fling fireballs, manipulate gravity, and throws cars, that’s ok, just remember that I may point at something and say, “No. You can’t throw cars.” And that would be that.

Have patience, keep an open mind, and let us see if we can make this work as well as I’ve gotten it to work before.

Ack! And just like it was Aurak, not Arauk, it's Khell, not Khel.

Sigh...

Who kept taking control of your character, Dollhouse?


Seems that this is now an OOC thread. My fault. =)

OOC: Indeed he was. And on a completely different topic, could I have that antidote for the deadly nerve agent even now coursing through my fingers and into my bloodstream?

OOC: This thread dead then?

((Ack! And I'm Aurak! Not Arauk!))

OOC: Sorry Palanquin. It's just that we seem to be on every day at every hour. It can be a wee bit annoying. Especially for those of us that have school and still need to post in Superhero 101. @.@

BIC: After lighting the fire and looking away from Spyne digging in, Aurak turned to survey his new companions. The feline had left with the smaller human, Aurak suspected it was a child, and Dobermann had bowed out, citing other responsibilities, leaving Aurak alone with an abomination and three human females. Then the blond ((She is blond, right?)) human said something and Aurak turned to her.

"I apologissse for my ignorance of thisss plane, but what isss a paisssanosss, a tommygun, and a capiche?" He said with a short and fast bow toward the former mob boss. "And why ssshould we have to obey any rulesss from you? I wasssnot informed by Kalinda that I would be ssserving under another."

Muttering to himself, Aurak added, "And ssshe did not tell me I would have to deal with othersss either."

OOC: Well, I guess the fight has been finished then. Victory for us, yay...

BIC: Aurak blinked at the two new people that had shown up. One of them was carrying a long metal stick of some sort and the second had blue hair. Hair. Aurak was never going to get used to seeing intelligent creatures with hair. Now, since his blizzard spell basically sealed victory for his current comrades he was feeling a bit confident and decided he should be the one to interact with the newcomers.

"Greetingsss." He said as he walked over to the two. "My name isss Aurak. That isss Dobermann," Aurak pointed to each person in turn, "Brightssspot, Ssspyne, and the human whossse name I have not caught. I presssume you are here to asssissst usss?"

Stabbing a snake that had followed him behind his rock with his dagger, Aurak poked his head around the rock and saw still more snakes incoming.

"Thisss ssshould ssstop them." He hissed to himself as he clambered up on top of the rock.

The ceiling in this room was rather high so he didn't have to worry about hitting anything as he raised his arms over his head. Concentrating on one snake in the rear that seemed to be issuing orders, Aurak cast his spell. The air suddenly grew frigid and filled with snowflakes as the spell settled over the majority of the snakes. One slow moving specimen drew back its arm to throw a knife at Aurak, but the draconian, his spell completed, had ducked back behind the rock.

All the spell required now was increments of his strength. It would exhaust him much faster than usual if he continued to fight while channeling the spell. So he settled back and kept his dagger handy, he'd let his allies do the work.

At least these creatures seem more normal. Aurak thought as he prepared to attack.

"Burn in the pitsss of the Abysss!" He shouted as he hurled a fireball into the Snakes' midst. Because he willed it, the feline was unharmed but the same could not be said of the Snakes. The five that had jumped Brightspot were knocked back with terrible burns. They still lived but they were very weak now. A particulary large Snake turned toward Aurak and he lifted his hand toward it.

"Freeze in the farthessst reachesss of the sssky!" And a block of ice swallowed the Cobra up, taking it out of the fight.

Several smaller Snake's pulled out throwing knives and hurled them at Aurak, forcing him to take cover behind a convenient rock.

"Sssome help?"

Completely oblivious to Iris creeping up behind him, Aurak was feeling a bit better. He had told Spyne off and neither of the others seemed to want to kill him. Although normally this would not be a cause for celebration in the here-and-now it was. Slipping his dagger back under his robe he started dow the pit to the snake hole.

"I believe we are all here for the sssame purpossse?" He said to Brightspot. "We would do well to join forcesss for now."

The draconian looked up at the cat-woman and waved a hand toward the snake hole.

"Come, let usss cleanssse thisss pit."

That said, he hopped down through the hole. He landed about six feet down and walked past an overturned rock to find Doberrman and Spyne standing just on the other side of the rock. Tapping the android on the arm to get his attention Aurak bowed to it. After a second he straightened out.

"I did not have time to introduce myssself back there, Doberrman. My name is Aurak and I am mossst pleasssed to find sssomeone of sssome measssure of civility on thisss planet." Aurak shot a cold glare at Spyne. "I believe you never introduced yourssself, abom-"

Aurak cut himself short, not wanting to provoke the insane creature again. Instead he sufficed with some frantic tongue flicking, which happened to be quite an insult back home.

Aurak looked down at Spyne's hand and suddenly it was covered in ice. Aurak brought his dagger up and held it to Spyne's throat.

"Touch me again," Aurak warned, "And I will kill you. I am not a mere baaz to be treated as such."

Turning one eye toward Brightspot, Aurak inclined his head a milimeter in her direction.

"You may know me as Aurak." He said to her, "And I am anything but prey as this creature here might soon find out."

Aurak was surprised that the abomination could move so fast and was thus unprepared for the spike that pinned him to a wall. Pulling at the deeply lodged thorn with frantic strength, Aurak succeeded in freeing himself just as Spyne arrived in front of him.

Aurak looked up at the creature's hideous face and his teeth bared in an instinctive challenge. Then he felt an alien mind intruding upon his own and mentally recoiled from the utter insanity of sheer...sheer...alienness of its thoughts. Only the training that aided him in mastering his powers kept him from being overwhelmed.

"Get away from me!" Aurak shrilled.

Throwing his arms out in front of him he summoned a cone of fire that blasted the creature away. Scrabbling backwards, Aurak drew his dagger and held it out in front of him. The ritual that bound the dagger too him allowed the weapon to assist in organizing his thoughts and calming his fears. Soon enough, Aurak had straightened his posture and was brushing dirt off of his robe. He shot a glare at Spyne and his tail thumped the ground.

"Ssstay away from me, abomination. You may detessst Arachnosss asss I do but I at leassst do not try to dominate a potential alliesss mind. Explain yourssself or sssuffer my wrath!" Ordered Aurak.

OOC: Hello! *hops into the story* Since I can't fit this character satisfactorily into the game itself then I'll put him here. Also, Aurak looks like an actual walking lizard, not that stupid reptile build.

BIC: "Remember, lizard, you owe Arachnos for getting you out of that testing facility. The only reason you aren't locked up with the rest of the extra-dimensional freaks is because your powers make you useful. Now get out there! Talk to Kalinda, she'll tell you what to do."

Aurak hissed and his tail lashed angrily as he stalked down one of Mercy Island's ruined streets. He was grateful to Arachnos for rescuing him from those damned Portal Corp. ingrates but treating a draconian of his station like that? Simply unthinkable! Of course, his birthright meant nothing to these creatures.

As soon as I repay this debt of mine I am getting the hell away from this dimension. He thought to himself.

The golden scaled draconian hissed again and glared at a sickly looking human that was creeping toward him with some sort of device clutched in its grip. Aurak eyed it warily as he walked past and jumped backward in surprise as the device made a loud noise and something whizzed past his head. Cursing this world and the elders that had forced him to explore the portal, Aurak raised a hand and encased the human in a block of ice.

"That ssshould teach you." He hissed at the figure trapped inside the ice.

Anger handily released, Aurak finally came upon the position where the soceress named Kalinda had told him to go. In front of him was a large pit with several large holes in the bottom. Arrayed at the edge of the pit were a number of figures. A cat-like crossbreed of the dominant species of this planet, some sort of spined mutation, and a tall human that was even now pulling itself out of a wall.

Fingering his ceremonial dagger beneath his blue and red robes, Aurak edged around the figures. He was not anxious to get in a conflict despite his belief that he was immensly strong. Unforetunately, his beliefs didn't always count, as evidenced by the power of the weapon that that human has used. But as Aurak neared the pit he paid too much attention to the others and not enough to the ground. He tripped over a rock.

"Krazzz furar!" he cursed as he pulled himself to his feet.

Damn this world to the Abyss, his ankle was sprained. This was not a good day.

OOC: Aurak is an Ice/Fire Dominator btw.

Recluse: I voted for George Bush!

Name: Archlich

Real Name: Long since forgotten

Race: Undead, former Human

Hero/Villain: Villain

Archetype: Corrupter

Former Job: Mu Magus

Current Home: A small pocket dimension linked to the LMOUSVEV base

Brief Physical Description: A 5' 10" skeleton wearing archaic black plate mail covered with red runes and sigils. Wears a gold circlet and his eyes are blue pinpricks of energy.

Personality: Cold, aloof, and prideful, Archlich is consumed by his quest for power. He will not hesitate to remove any obstacles in his path. But he is honorable in his own way and will always honor a debt...unless it goes against his plans in some way. Over the ages the belief in his inherent superiority over the rest of mankind has solidified. He views all others with contempt, except for those on par with him.

Goals and Motivations: Power. He cast the ritual to transform himself into a lich so as to continue magical research and increase his strength and knowledge of the arcane.

Relation with Freedom Corps/Arachnos: Regards Freedom Corps with the same contempt he reserves for the rest of mankind. Arachnos is viewed as a necassary evil, he doesn't like it but he doesn't have enough power to destroy Lord Recluse.

Quote: "I have conquered death. You are as nothing to me."

Notority: Archlich makes sure that as few know him as possible. Recently he came to the attention of the Freedom Phalanx. Lord Recluse also knows of him but prefers to leave the venerable mage alone as long as he does not interfere in his ultimate plans.

History: Born in times so long past that the specifics have long since faded from his memory, Archlich was a powerful mage amongst the Mu. Archlich was one of the few mages that researched Necromancy and death itself. His cheif interest was to learn and control as much magic as possible. He spent the majority of his life studying and researching obscure branches of magic and often creating a few of his own.

Around the end of his natural life, the mage that would become Archlich realized that dying would prevent him from continuing his studies. Resolving to find a way to escape the bane of all living things Archlich sought the aid of his peoples' sworn enemies, the Oranbegans. With the assistance of one of their powerful Death Mages, Archlich created a ritual that would transform his body into a creature that he dubbed a 'lich'. As an undead, Archlich would be free to spend the rest of eternity studying the arcane.

Long story short, the ritual succeeded and Archlich was content for many centuries until he realized that what was the use of having so much power if he never used it? He tried to take over the world once but failed, his powers stripped almost completely away. He has spent ages buidling his power back up to what it once was and he would be trying to take over the world again if it wasn't for the unexpected precenses of Statesman and Lord Recluse.

Thus, he bides his time, knowing that even those two demi-gods must meet that which he has cheated for all time.

OOC: What can I say? Blah. That's what I can say. Anyway, short but sweet, meh?

BIC: Captain Roger Sullivan of Arachnos' Wolf Spiders stood at attention in the dimly lit sanctum of Lord Recluse himself. Sullivan had always known that there would be...difficulties, about his decision to retire but he had never imagined that he would be ordered to report directly to Lord Recluse. Despite himself, Sullivan felt sweat drip down his forehead and slowly run down his face. He might feel every agonizing centimeter of its descent but at least he was keeping his face straight.

"You are truly one of my best men." Came a deep voice from just behind Sullivan. "A lesser man would be grovelling on the floor right now, begging for my mercy."

Keeping his eyes focused on a point some where to his front, Sullivan replied, "A lesser man may be grovelling, my lord, but only a stupid one would be unafraid at all."

"And you are certainly not stupid, are you Captain Sullivan?" Said the same voice, this time from in front of him.

"I would like to think so, Lord Recluse."

A slight grinding noise came from in front of Sullivan, such as the movement of a chair across the floor might make. The flipping of paper soon followed as Lord Recluse presumably sat down and looked through his records.

"Ghost Widow tells me that you are tendering your resignation. Normally I could care less. Any one desiring to resign would be allowed to and then carefully exterminated by one of my assassins."

Sullivan stiffened even further and looked in Recluse's direction with alarm. A dark chuckle came from where his eyes rested.

"Don't fear, Captain Sullivan. You are far too valuable an asset to have killed. Why, Black Scorpion's scientists are still yammering about how useful you were gathering data with the Shivan arm."

Sullivan glanced at the older mechanical arm that had replaced the sleek perfection of the arm that he had used during the second Zig break out and then looked back at the indistinct form of Recluse.

"Things get more amusing. When the enlisted ranks caught word of your decision I received several letters from various Wolf Spider battalions stating their intent to do something drastic if your request was denied. I had some background work done and it seems that most of those units have leaders that once worked under you."

Sullivan cleared his throat and addressed Lord Recluse, "I can assure you, my lord, that they are in no way operating under my instructions. I would never try to pressure you-"

"Yes, yes." Interupted Recluse, "I know you would never do such a thing. Suffice to say you have made quite an impact on almost every facet of my organization. The assassins I mentioned before would have already killed any one else that had such favor from so many people."

"Then why, lord, have you spared me?"

"Simply put," Recluse said as he leaned forward, Sullivan's eyes had adjusted enough to the light so that he could see the smaller shadows of Recluse's spider legs above and around the archvillain. "Simply put, I am doing you a favor. This isn't something that I do frequently or without much import so don't take it lightly."

Sullivan couldn't believe his luck, he was actually going to walk out alive and free.

"I'm-I'm honored, my lord." Stammered Sullivan.

"I'm sure you are. But before you leave, remember this," A pair of spider legs moved into the light and rested themselves on Sullivan's shoulders. "I will eventually have need of you. A day will come when I will be ready to carry the fight to Statesman and Paragon City and when that day comes I expect you, along with many others, to answer the call. This will be all I ask in return for my gracious favor."

The legs withdrew and Sullivan bowed deeply.

"When you call, my lord, I shall answer and fight against the City of Heroes with all my might."

"Good. You may leave now, Wolf Spider Warrior. When next we meet, may it be over the burnt ruins of Paragon City."

Sullivan bowed once more and backed away a few steps before turning and fidning the door by the dim outline of light it made. It slid open as he stopped in front of it and then Sullivan was out; out of Recluse's den and out of Arachnos. Walking out of Arachnos' HQ, Sullivan sucked in a deep breath of the suddenly sweeter tasting air and put on the Wolf Spider helmet that they let him keep.

"Now then, too get a few jobs to pay for some upgrades for this piece of junk on my shoulder." Sullivan muttered as he snagged a paper from a stand.

The beginning of a bright new day in the City of Villains.

Archlich waved off Kairaishi's assistance and slumped down on one of the dropship's benches. The two of them were lucky that a forklift had flown out of nowhere and hit Ruggaso on the head, distracting him long enough for the two villains to escape.

"You have earned my thanks, Kairaishi. If you ever have need of me or my services talk with Kara the Scorpion, she'll know who to call." He said to the mastermind.

As for me, I believe I have made two very powerful enemies this night.

Archlich mentally pictured Iron Fist and Ruggaso and added them to the list of various heroes and villains over the ages that had seeked his downfall. None of them had ever succeeded but that never stopped them from trying.

"I shall yet out live them all..." He whispered.

The Arachnos dropships, laden with Sullivan's surviving men and the villains that had assisted them and guarded by a squadron of US aircraft, flew back to the Rogue Isles.

OOC: And that's that I guess. I'll make another finishing post for Wolf Spider Warrior and Archlich later. Hope its ok that I had Physic do that to Ruggaso but I needed Archlich and Kairaishi to get to the ships.

"Move it, hero!" roared Sullivan as he fired a radiation blast between Nightblade and Jord.

This forced Jord to halt her mad rush unless she wanted to be baked, which was what Sullivan wanted. Flipping to minigun mode again, Sullivan began belting out 300 rounds a minute ((Is that fast or slow?)), filling the sky around Jord with lead.

"She's all yours!" Shouted Sullivan to the heroes that had yet to interfere.

Kairaishi's second Ning-yo disappeared in a cloud of dust and gears and the rocks swirled around the fighters, blocking any escape. This annoyed Archlich more than usual. He wasn't much used to being this weak or fighting an opponant he couldn't easily defeat. Both at once were starting to get him pissed off. Since he had recieved the transmission from the incoming dropships along with every other person with a teleport bug, he knew that this had to end and end quickly. Spreading his legs wide for balance, Archlich opened his arms and began chanting.

"Omikant terron nescoa. Terra terron dislos." As he spoke a flickering blue aura wrapped around his body. Archlich normally doesn't like flashy effects but he had learned this spell from a long dead mage that did, so it kept the crowd pleasers.

"Duross zeroc nekas. Dar-oth!" Archlich shouted out the last syllable and the spell took effect.

A wave of blue energy spread out from the undead, passing hormlessly through Kairaishi and his last remaining puppet but disintegrating any animated rock it touched. Ruggaso braced himself as the wave hit him. He wasn't blasted backwards like with the last spell, instead the first layers of rock on his body were blasted away, dissolving into their individual molecules.

Drained, Archlich collapsed to the ground. His eyes dimmed and flickered from the intense power drain.

"Normally..." droned the lich, "Normally...that would have...flayed you down to...your bones...and left a crater ten feet...deep while...I stood and laughed...at your...demise. How how...mighty have fallen..."

Archlich chuckled inwardly as his earlier remark to Iron Fist came back to smack him in the face. He hated being powerless.