MrKrazy

Dusan performed a vain attempt to stop the Archon as he tried to chase after himself and the Colonol. He threw out his hand, which, at a glance, seemed to be doing nothing, however, upon closer inspection, ... Still seemed to be doing nothing.

Dusan had, in reality, attempted to bind the Archon's soul to his current location, thereby keeping him there for a short while. But, such a manuever requires concentration, and, although Dusan had his skills down to an art, the effectiveness of the power would be based solely on the Archon's spiritual defense. Had he the resistance of a normal human, he'd be held helplessly in place for at least a good ten seconds, more than enough time to be taken down by Dusan's comrades.

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"Afthernoon." Igor said cheerfully to Jake as he passed by him as the mastermind headed for the open door.

"Blargh." The Longbow corpse said dully as its brief encounter with Jake came and went.

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Jake gave a friendly nod in Igor's direction as he greeted, however, neglected to do the same to the zombie. After waving the abomination unto nature away from him, he did a short involuntary tremor. "Ugh, damn zombies. Give me the creeps..." He muttered under his breath, giving curt nods to those he recognized as leaned against a wall outside the door. "So am I to assume, considering you all are out here, that we aren't allowed in yet?"

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The group of Arachnos followed shortly behind with military discipline rivaled only by... well... their rivals, Longbow. Taking a cue from their temp squad leader, they deemed Igor a non-hostile, and passed by him without so much as batting an eyelash.

When they had caught up with Jake, they stood at attention long enough for Jake to notice and casually order them to go "At ease."

"Halt." Jake shouted as he and the division he currently lead came within about a hundred yards of the destination. Jake double checked his GPS, which assuredly informed him that the location he was staring at was indeed the rendezvous(sp?) point for the meeting of the minds. He looked back at the group of soldiers he had, counting three Crab Spiders, five Bane Spiders and roughly ten Wolf Spiders.

I suppose he could've given me less and gotten away with it. He thought nonchalantly, turning back to the decimated buildilng.

"Alright," He announced to the men, "I, among many others, will be in that building there." He gestured to the wrecked building, taking care to make sure everyone was positive on the location. "You are to stan outside and guard. If anyone tries to force their way in, kill them. However, be sure to inqurie whether or not they're here for the meeting or not. It will do us no good to kill one of our own. Are you clear on your orders?"

A resounding 'Yes, sir!' sounded throughout the area as Jake and the group approached the buildling.

Jake arrived at the Arachnos Base in Siren's Call roughly an hour later, casually hopping out of the flier that had transported him, along with several other rogues, to the war-torn section of coast line. Flashing his identification card to the nearest official, Jake strolled into the interior of the base, as he attempted to find the Warzone Operative of this particular outpost.

After about a half hour of asking around, Jake finally came across Warzone Operative Massey, who, after being presented with his ID card, recognized him as a respected and higher ranked field operative for Arachnos.

"What brings you here?" He simply stated, his visor seeming to pierce Jake's soul. (With some of the things Arachnos throws into their soldiers' visors, this may not be so farfetched.)

"Well, sir, I was invited out here, to a scientific convention, if you will."

"Oh?"

Jake simply nodded.

"And what business is this of mine?"

"I was going to request that you reassign a group of soldiers to defend the location. Naturally, there will be those that wish to disrupt it, and I don't think this is a matter to be taken so lightly."

"Ah..." The operative smirked as he took a sip of his unknown drink. "I see."

Silence.

"Well, technically, you are higher ranking than me."

Jake nodded, but his eyes clearly showed that he knew where this was going.

"However, you aren't technically my superior. We're assigned to two seperate divisions."

Jake simply sighed and dropped his head, muttering some uninterperatable obscenity, and, after sucking it up, slid the Operative a hundred dollar bill.

"That what you were looking for?" He asked, scowling.

Massey simply grinned, pocketing the cash as quickly as a wolf would down a rabbit. "Of course. I assure you, there will be a division of Arachnos at your command during this time period."

"You have my thanks." Jake said, afterwards muttering under his breath, "You [censored]...

He took his leave and walked out the door, leaving the comforting warmth of Operative Massey's office for the moist cool of the island fortress.

"Corrupt. Every single one of us."

((Jake's choosing not to get involved in this particular fight. Unless you want me to write something that describes his thinking at the time, I've got nothing. :3))

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((Also, Disclaimer: Jake is WAY SMARTER THAN ME. D:< If I say something stupid, it's because -I'm- dumb, not him. ))

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((Disclaimer fixed to fit my needs. ))

Jake sat atop a rocky ledge somewhere in Port Oakes, watching as the hypnotic rhythymn of the waves relaxed him and freed his mind of duty, for the moment being, that is. He sat with his legs crossed and let his elbow rest on his thigh, which, in turn, allowed his head to rest on his open palm. His cell phone lay flashing at his side, signalling a variety of different messages displaying various requests by Arachnos officials and their plots to stab each other in the back.

"Feh..." He said as he grew tired of hearing it beep every other minute, scooping it up in his hand and pressing the off button, thereby ending his problem. Jake had been doing a bit of thinking as of late, as his last mission brough his mind yet again to the topic of Arachnos. Why exactly was he serving Recluse?

Well, that's easy. I was manipulated into doing it by a band of Fortunatas.

No, I mean, why are you working for Arachnos?

Oh, well... um... becuase...

Jake sighed. He still couldn't come up with an answer to these questions. He took his head off his chin and layed on the rocky ground, putting his hands behind his head and letting his eyes wander over the various clouds in the sky. It was almost dusk now, and the sun burned a bright red as it approached the horizon, inevitably lending the sky to the moon for about twelve hours.

"It's all just a cycle, isn't it?" He thought. "I'm just going to keep doing this unt-"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP!"

"Dammit. I thought I shut that thing off..." He picked up his cell phone and looked at it curiously. It was still off, as silent as he had left it only a minute before.

"Oh..." Jake said sheepishly as he realized the true source of the noise. Pulling his goggles down over his eyes, he went through his UI until he found his inbox, after which he read the email sent by Vanessa.

Jake read the email and groaned. "Stupid urgent situations..." He muttered as he got up. He looked up to the sky as he tried to get his bearings back, shortly after remembering that he had a detailed GPS system. As he charted the shortest path to Siren's Call, his boots roared to life, giving him lift into the air and the ability to soar through the sky.

And off he went to Siren's Call. An isolated war-zone.

((>.> Reading comprehension ftl, I thought the Ascendent Archon and Salvatore were still at the fork in the passage.))

Dusan quickly snapped out of his daze and went into a form that was fully focused on the task at hand. "Right!" He shouted, taking care to boost the potential of his allies' speeds, and, after trying to 'convince' the two that they were not the taskforce they were looking for, ran like the blazes towards the passage to the cells.

((Try counting out three seconds, and ask yourself whether or not that's really how long it would take for you to react to something. ))

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If there are any gramar errors, which there will be, remember I'm from the south. We speak a whole nother language.

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((I take offense at that! My neighbor has a horse stable, there's a pasture full of steer in my backyard, and I'm within driving distance of Mexico. Do you honestly think that 'im gunna tawk lyk thsi?' Stereotypes hurt everyone, Build, and I hope you feel horrible for the fact you've insulted me.








J/K, of course. However, I really am from South Texas. >.>

Nice story, by the way.))

"Whoa!" Dusan simply shouted as he instinctively dove back, the image of the beasts opened jaws carved into his memory.

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"I could've sworn I suggested not getting too close to this thing." she huffed as she regained her footing, only releasing the reptilian once she'd steadied herself fully again...


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"Er, sorry..." He muttered, rising from the ground and sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "I have a reason for that though. That thing just picked something up, I felt it. And it wasn't the City Representative, either. The tracker picked up something else." He paused for a few moments and stared the Sword Colonol in the visor, after which he added. "Um... Don't ask how I know. Honestly I don't know myself..." He dared a look back down at the creature, shaking off the suddenness of the situation.

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Even if they did see him, human reaction time was around three seconds.

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((Whoa, three seconds? Somehow I doubt that...))

Jake turned and saw Radiator. He saw him burst suddenly into flame, and immediately his suspicions, having already been well grounded, were now stabalized, cemented, and fortified beyond all means necessary. He even saw the offensive immediately start on the flamer.

However, Jake himself did not act. Instead, he watched. He observed the conflict, with great scrutiny, in fact. He was certainly watching for something, but what?

((I find this negotiatian to be quite amusing. ))

((*Shrug* That's the way I usually do it...))

((Edit your first post, and it should be an option. ))

((Then you should probably edit the title to show your new resolve.))

Dusan seemed to immediately the Soulhound's sudden change in emotion. Indeed, it even appeared like he had noticed it at just the moment the creature did. Dusan suddenly jerked his head away from the scene involving the Archon and a very-soon-to-be-ticked Hobo Ned, in favor of the scaly thing that had become their tracker.

"What is it?" He found himself instinctively asking, despite being barely audible due to a combination of his distance from the tracker and the ensuin chaos that seemed to be happening not far from him. Almost mechanically running over, he knelt down to become closer to eye-level with the creature. "What is it?" He repeated automatically, internally asking himself why he was feeling such a bond with the thing.

Jake yawned and checked the time indicator on his UI. This was going nowhere. They needed to get down to Rikti Earth. That was the only beneficial thing for any faction involved in this to do, at that point. He adjusted his headset and scowled at the pace this operation was going.

Christ... He though. You'd think they'd have some plan of action figured out by now. I mean, how hard is it to find a workable space craf-

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"Listen up a moment, everyone." he spoke into the team's communications channel, "Just wanted to let ya know we've got a hostile down here. The dark guy's taking care of him, but I'm pretty sure he's one of the four that barged past us earlier. Might not be, my memory's never been good, but just be careful anyways..."

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... Alrighty, that figured... Jake thought, smirking as he realized the irony of things. "Mmkay, do you need us to do anything specific about it? Track down the other three, head back through the portal, anything like that?"

He put his hand to his earpiece and pushed it closer to his ear. The volume on this particular headset seemed to be permanently stuck on 'Low.'

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(A censored transcript of the article, along with a video podcast of the execution of Dr Hergevord and his family is available on the [u]Lord Recluse Speaks[u] website).


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Gold.

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You story intrigues me, and I hereby request that you continue it for the sake of the reader. I find that this particular passage leaves much to be desired, such as, why are the two fighting? What is Maelstrom doing working for the Marcone, an organization clearly not powerful enough for his particular abilities. What is the relationship between Maelstrom and Brimstone? Were they childhood friends, transformed into sworn enemies, or simply met each other in their line of work?
As previously mentioned, what I read was quite enjoyable, however, leaves much to be desired. Hence, I request the presence of an additional chapter, to fill in some of the gaps, so to speak, of this passage. [ QUOTE ]
This is, of course, what he meant.

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But 'Moar' works soo much better

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As AD would say, lrn2speekenglsh.

[ QUOTE ]
You story intrigues me, and I hereby request that you continue it for the sake of the reader. I find that this particular passage leaves much to be desired, such as, why are the two fighting? What is Maelstrom doing working for the Marcone, an organization clearly not powerful enough for his particular abilities. What is the relationship between Maelstrom and Brimstone? Were they childhood friends, transformed into sworn enemies, or simply met each other in their line of work?

As previously mentioned, what I read was quite enjoyable, however, leaves much to be desired. Hence, I request the presence of an additional chapter, to fill in some of the gaps, so to speak, of this passage.

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This is, of course, what he meant.

"Yeah... no..." Dusan attempted to calm him down via spirit manipulation, at least enough to where he was thinking rationally and willing to not blindly leap at the task force members.

Dusan listened with intrigue to the tape, nodding his head in certain parts even when he clearly struggled to understand.

From what he gathered, some being of enlightenment and good fortune came down to earth and charged some big wig to get rid of crime in the city. He took note that the creature didn't speak, and seemed to write on the walls to communicate, however, if this was signifigant or just some plot-hole written in by the author of his life, he couldn't say.

"Well, that's all well and good, but what does it-..."

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It was about then that the air duct by the cell block entrance was kicked out from the wall and an Archon leapt out from it. He turned rapidly to glare at the intruders.

"HERO SCUM! I'LL MURDER YOU ALL FOR THIS!" Bellowed Archon Auswitch. He charged at them.


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"... Mean... Alright, you wanna play rough? Fine, then I'll just-..."

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...and right into the staff of the Sword Sorcerer, resulting in the Archon clotheslined.

"Before you do anything foolish..." Auswitch heard the armored man say as he bent over the Archon's body just enough to be clearly visible, the staff's hilt coming into contact with the ground a few centimeters from his shoulder, "...well, more foolish, permit me to remind you that some of my associates may very well be qualified as pathological, bloodthirsty, homicidal maniacs. You would do well to not give them reason to incinerate and slash or decapitate you..."


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"... Oooookay..." Dusan was visibly annoyed at this. "Guess Dusan doesn't get to do anything..." He muttered, absent mindedly increasing his team's attack power to accomodate the new variable.

"Dare I ask why you're here?" Dusan asked the Archon, trying to sound intimidating. "We were having such a wonderful time before you came and ruined our picnic."

((Now wait a minute, I'm confused...))

Dusan simply blinked as he tried to gain a perception on things. "I'm... really not sure..." He replied, his voice equally as silent. "I'll tell you one thing though, that wasn't near as bad as he was making it out to be..." Dusan's voice was quickly returning as he reluctantly peeked back into the room where E-X had exploded.

"... Of course, we're now missing somebody..."