Paradigm_Shift

Masquerade, for that was his name, reeled and smashed into the wall once again, which cracked under the strain. The energy in David's punch had blown away the lower half of his opponent's jaw, leaving nothing but a gory mass of black ooze and tar. Which was when Masquerade revealed HIS secondary abilities, and he turned out to be quite empathetic.

An aura of healing radiance bathed the area around him with strange energies, and David saw the ripped portions of his face weaving back together. There was a flash of light as the sinister man teleported, reappearing over the fallen Odette and slashing at her with his arm for an attempted easy kill.

***

"Should have known what you were getting into." Grey Masque said casually, approaching slowly while seeking an opening in Silk's posture. "I may only be a distraction, but the main event didn't see fit to show itself to the likes of you. What you see is what you get..."

The decoy charged suddenly, trying to deliver a surprise uppercut to Silk's jaw.

Mr. Erik was knocked into the wall by the punch, hitting it with a solid thumping noise. His accountant's suit and pale face with its greasy hair flickered and faded away. The man had been nothing more than one elaborate...Masquerade.

'Not in cruelty, not in wrath...Die.' David heard an icy voice echo in his head before the wraith-like man slashed his arm at David. A clear miss-Or a clean hit, as it was an attack that sliced through matter like a cleaver at a distance. A normal stone wall, as an example, would have a huge gash in it *or several such gashes* after being assaulted in this way.

***

The decoy charged right through the pink mist of Silk's attack, shredding its disguise but taking no damage itself. Its disguise began to reform the moment Grey Masque was through, and he-it-was preparing for another attack.

The spectre continued its work, oblivious to the assault of Jake's drones. And it wasn't specifically trying to get Jake to run away, although that could be an unitended side-effect. It was trying to make him a senseless gibbering mass on the floor. So for a third time, it stabbed at him and its cloak of fear followed suit.

***

Grey Masque walked right into Silk's attack, and his apparent apathy towards her attacks was revealed. His entire suit and face shimmered and flickered away briefly to reveal his entire body was just a semi-translucent, humanoid shaped purple layer of filmy liquid. Looking at him with anything else other than the normal naked eye would reveal nothing-literally. Higher forms of vision would reveal that there was nothing there at all. Heat? None. Mass? None. Light passed right through the area Grey Masque or whatever he was occupied.

The only thing that this guy registered as was REAL, only visible to the naked eye and perfectly solid, with no other forms of physical evidence to support his existence. Realer than real. An illusion? No. A decoy? Yes.

And mere moments after the decoy's disguise was disrupted, it flickered and reformed. Grey Masque approached with a curiously forgettable smile on his face and his hands raised into the air to deliver a killing strike.

***

Mr. Erik made a slashing motion with his hand, and the velvet cloth covering the mask beneath was shredded into bits, the mysterious man seeking to do the same to the mask itself with that same strike.

OOC:

What about te spectral terror?

The shadow man stood completely motionless. Jake might have experienced this form of fear inducement before, but he had forgotten that even the most mediocure illusionists made sure that their conjured spectral horrors couldn't be dispelled. Different people used different methods. This spectral terror, for example, was just an absolute and perfect absence of light. Plasma blasts would not rectify that.

When encountering spectral terrors, the common course of action was to get out of range if it was stationary or outrun the thing if it was mobile. Because while some people could resist the initial effects of being attacked by a terror, said terrors also had a small area of control that magnified their sole ability when it was being used on anybody within that area. A cloak of fear, one could say.

And Jake was still inside it. The shadow man stabbed at his instincts again, while another more subtle attack came from everywhere around Jake, pressing upon every inch of his body giving the impression of drowning or being buried alive amongst a sea of horror that preyed on the mind.

***

Mr. Erik cast a glance across Odette's room in a tired way.

'It's exactly the same as my own quarters. They call this luxery? I see nought except for monotony. It looks like the tragically conflicted manequin is out right now, so why do I sense...?

Ah. Now that is a lovely sight. I must remind Ether to not murder the designer of these rooms after all.

He has done me a great favor for which I am thankful. A mirror with a scope that covers the entire room. I can use this.'

Mr. Erik drift-walked over to the Vanity and was just about to place a hand on the surface of the mirror itself when he froze. He looked down at the surface and frowned. Then he snarled. He reached down and began pulling open each drawer of the vanity, one at a time. Looking for something.

'I sleep, perchance to dream. How vaguely poetic this condition is. Needing no form of sustanance other than sleep, of which I require almost triple that of Humans. Silly creatures with their organized calender built around their pathetically short life-spans. 24-hour days are barely enough to fufill the needs of my weary form.

I will have to change that. Things would be much more convenient if days were 72 hours long. At the very least, I have the comfort of knowing that all of my creations have at this point be unleashed. Running about and stirring up trouble in my stead. And so, while they toil I slumber.

...

How funny memory can be. I just now remember that the illusionist's quarters are right next to my own. How dreadful. I must rectify this situation before I may rest easy.'

***

A very disgruntled and tired looking Mr. Erik, the very generic rich accountant, stumbled out of his room. He was the very definition of weariness-Sagging eyes, hunched back, heavy and forced footsteps. But there was something just a little odd about him. Something about the way he moved-it wasn't proportionate to his steps. The distance he moved his legs sometimes didn't even equal half of what he covered. It was like he had an invisible glider on his back. Even more disturbing was that his feet weren't actually touching the ground. Only a sharp-eyed person would have noticed this, only to be even more perplexed when they realized Mr. Erik's feet still made noise whenever they 'touched' or not so much down on the ground.

So it was very fortunate for him that most of the casual passengers were all vain dolts. Mr. Erik looked down either end of the hall with a slightly puzzled and immensely tired expression on his face, as if he was having trouble even remembering where he was. After a moments deliberation, he turned to the room that happened to be right next to his own.

Room No. 5256.

Odette's room...

And then Mr. Erik vanished, reappearing on the other side of the door.

***

Jake saw a shadow of a man standing before him. It could have accurately been compared to a dark servant minus the somber glowing eyes. The moment Jake was looking completely at it, he felt the world slow down so he could feel a second ticking by as if it were a million years. Metaphorically of course.

The thing before him was a terror-inducing fiend, a spectral one at that. It was trying to reduce him to a gibbering heap on the floor. Rather than using frightening images, it as taking the more unconventional but more practical route of attempting to flip Jake's internal 'fear switch' that controlled his flight or fight instinct.

Jake couldn't detect anything unusual with his goggles. His thrown web grenade spilled out everywhere into the small private cargo room, but illusionists and the like could usually fly these days.

And then, Jake's goggles caught something! Somebody was standing right at the corner of his vision, just enough to be rendered featureless in Jake's current view-point. His goggles also picked it up. The thermal setting detected no heat. It detected a LACK of it. Whoever was standing there was a super-chilly zero degrees kelvin, but that couldn't be right because then Jake would have felt and, and well...Absolute zero tends to spread, but this didn't.

The light sensors of his bots informed him that a patch of light had been replaced by a sudden ABSENCE of light, and that no light was passing through said space. It was bouncing off of it.

More simply put, somebody was standing in the corner of Jake's vision.

***

"Ahahaha-Wait, my brother attacked you?" White Masque said in response to John's declaration of innocense. "He didn't even leave a mark! I'll have to have a talk with him."

The Masque's arm was already out of the elevator, the door having automatically opened a few moments after being blocked.

"But anyways...You're a funny guy, John. ^.^" White Masque said hapily. "Would you like to come to the Masquerade Ball in hall 18 happening tommorow night? You'd be a hit there. They'd love you metaphorically, not literally. Also, have you seen my teddy bear?"

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((Hey Paradigm sorry to bug you but did you ever respond to silk's second attempt at shorting Grey's camo or am i being dumb and just not seeing it again? i wrote it after aknowleging david a few pages back. sorry, don't mean to be pushy just wondering))

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OOC:

I JUST said I was waiting for Soviet.

OOC:

Funny that, I'm also waiting on Famine. Where is Sovs?

"AHAHAHAHAHA-Pain." White Masque groaned loudly as he rubbed his hand. "Sorry for the huge dash, but my friend John Ballard says he knows you. And he's my friend, so I helps him and stuff."

He suddenly pulled a cheap paper poster out of hammerspace with a picture of a tan teddy bear on it.

"Have you seen this snuggly wonder? If he is found, everyone will have a hell of a time! ^.^" The white suited man chuckled. "Oh and hay, I'm loving the exotic look there Mr. John's friend sir. You'd be a hit at the Masquerade Ball tomorrow night. ^.^ ^.^ ^.^"

He talked incredibly fast in a very high pitched tone that could only be summed up in one word: Ditz.

***

The imposter Odette just snarled at Jake's army, lashing her hands out yet again to create another energy torrent that spread in a cone that targetting all the drones, who had been nice enough to clump up in one big space.

And then Odette got shot through the middle with a plasma stream. She emitted a short gasp before her entire form shattered to reveal a humanoid figure made of rainbow and sunshine. A Phantasm of colors and light. Such creatures were often very resistant to energy attacks, but this one apparently didn't know that. It slowly faded away, its copy following suit. The wall that had mysteriously appeared flickered and vanished.

'I'll be back, shortly.' The voice of Odette cackled from nowhere. The summoner was still around here somewhere. If Jake didn't deal with it now, he would probably be fighting phantasms and walking through illusionary mazes of corridors for ages before getting to a safe zone where his attacker wouldn't try to kill him without attracting attention. So where could said summoner be hiding in the immediate vicinity?

[ QUOTE ]
John closed his eyes, almost bursting out laughing, but in a remarkable, unusual use of self-control, he held it in.

"Nemesis plot? Seriously? You believe that stuff? Pfft," he waved his hand, stepping on to one of the levels he 'felt' was the right one, "I have yet to see proof that Nemesis even lives any more except for his organization and a bunch of psychopathic followers. Personally, I think 'Nemesis' is just something used to explain away things people don't want to think about."

There was something about this floor- Oh. Of course. An elevator.

[/ QUOTE ]

"Oh, he got to you too? Awesome, we have something in common! Did he bribe you or threaten you?" White Masque asked playfully.

[ QUOTE ]
There was something about this floor- Oh. Of course. An elevator.

He pointed at it, not really even noticing the people by it just yet, to rant slightly. "Did you know that the ship had an elevator? I wouldn't be using the stairs if I knew there was- Wait... DID I know there was one?"

He stopped, sighing. "Oh lord. I think I KNEW there was an elevator, then I FORGOT. Great. I'm super-smarty genius of technology who can't remember not to walk up and down the Endless Staircase of Doo-- THERE!"

He pointed again, this time at the pair he had seen on the stairwell earlier. "THOSE guys! Remember, I was talking about a Tall Guy and a Short Guy? The cliche? It's them! And now they have Average Joe and Humanoid Lizard in their group! They're-- Humanoid lizard?"

Having yet to finish a thought, John scratched his head. "Wait... What? That's not a cliche... Is it? Is Humanoid Lizard a cliche? I don't THINK-- Wait, humanoid lizard? I know someone who's a humanoid lizard!"

He then spastically began waving at the group. "Hey! I know one of you! Hey!"

He turned to White, grinning. "I know a lizard-guy. That might be him. So I'm waving at them. Logical, right?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"I love making new friends. ^.^" White Masque said jubiantly. He charged down the hall and rammed his hand between the elevator door and the wall before it could fully close.

"Geapit...Rrrrrup.........GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR GH!" White Masque howled in pain. "Is weak limbs. In public. Losing self-esteem. Must...prove...manliness...John, get over here and help everybody re-assess the likely degrading and demeaning opinion they have most likely have of me now. Or I'll cry."

***

Thus, Silk ran into a small problem-Her arrows were also intangible at the time of their firing. This had to be the overall conclusion since they would not be cabable of going through the notably SOLID GROUND if they weren't. Furthermore, if Silk had decided to try the trick while outside of phase, she would have been crushed and melded with whatever the ship happened to be made of. More interesting was the idea that there might be another layer of rooms below the current one.

So her intangible arrows flew right through Grey Masque to zero effect, and in the offchance they hadn't been fired while intangible, they bounced or got stuck harmlessly the moment they left Silk's bow.

However, putting her head above the floor-line was a viable option. Especially if there was another room below this one. Unfortunately for Silk, it also presented Grey Masque with a unique opprotunity.

"Whack a mole." He said, right before bringing down his fist in a hammering motion on Silk's head.

"Two can play your little game, you...[censored]." *It rhymes with swat* imposter Odette snarled as she clapped both hands together.

Her body flickered like a bad television screen before splitting into two perfectly identical copies. Both imposters raised their hands, curled into fists, and fired off several energy bolts composed of concentrated light at Jake and his modified assault bot.

Jake would soon realize *thankfully* that the attacks of the Odette on his right didn't do any damage. They were just colorful light manipulations. Completely harmless. Which meant that she had summoned a Decoy Phantasm. Not much of a threat, but if she had any sort of 'shuffle self' power then the confusion could give her a huge tactical advantage.

***

Grey Masque slammed right into the webbing, which tugged at his suit and ripped small sections of it off as he moved to reveal the purple filmy stuff beneath. It didn't slow him down one bit, however, and before the fire could ignite Grey Masque or the webbing, he had already performed another super leap and was bounding off the ceiling once again to try and blow Silk's head off with one insanely powerful punch.

What was strange was that he could still jump at all. Usually, even if a person wasn't slowed down by webbing like the kind Silk used, they wouldn't be able to jump or fly or the like at all for a while. It was like the webbing hadn't affected Grey Masque at all in any way.

And Jake was more right than he knew. The imposter Odette lashed her hand in his direction, and a wave of light poured out-Which pointed to her being an illusionist. A manipulator of light.

And currently, she was manipulating the light to create a wave-form high intensity laser. The torrent of energy rushed forward, spreading out in a cone on its way to Jake. If he wasn't careful where he threw those disks of his, they could very well be fried, the same going for anything they happened to teleport in.

[ QUOTE ]
"So," John said, ascending the steps he had managed to track down due to the excessive use of arrow-signs and doors that were labelled 'stairway,' "I'm guessing, from all the noise up above, we're missing something big."

He jumped over some trash, probably left from a drunk passenger, and continued. "Which could make this MUCH easier, or MUCH harder- Does this mean NOBODY is guarding the cargo because everything is so hectic up above... Or are a BUNCH of people guarding the cargo because of all the ruckus?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"I'ma gonna go with door C: There is no box. It's a Nemesis Plot. Which also means there's a possibility of there being a door D: There is a box and there is a Nemesis Plot to make us think the box doesn't exist if we think it doesn't." White Masque said in a serious voice.

***

The moment Jake turned around, he officially entered wierdland. The passage leading to the room he had just exited no longer contained a connecting corridor. Instead, there was just a solid wall.

And Odette was there. Or at least someone who looked like her. She was furious, by the look on her face.

"This is a restricted area. Nobody is allowed down here except me and certain select individuals. The cargo here is extremely sensitive. Put what you stole down on the ground and then back away from it so I may kill you."

OOC:

My characters could get on the ship and come and go as they please within certain extent. My first entree is a master of disguise and deception. My second is Prodigy, the very polite robot with no criminal record and a registered citizen of the Rogue Isles, thank you very much now let me the hell on board.

That, and I'm guessing there IS a security team...but so far, the only ones who have caused trouble is Odette, who seems to have a licence to commit arson without consequence, and Shioh which turned out to be a genuine accident.

I would expect the arena cage to have guards out the wazoo posted around the place to lynch anybody who pops a few too many veigns and decides to go on a rampage.

"Holycrapisbeingshotteamguymatekillhimpleasegowith plan!" Grey Masque spat out right as the first bullets began to hit him. As they hit his surface in various locations of his body, a ripple effect began-his suited distorted and fluctuated where the bullets hit, some shivering so violently that they became translucent and revealed what was beneath-

And there was no expected human flesh beneath. There was just pale translucent purple film-like something that wasn't real. Or in this case, MORE real than everything else around it. Grey Masque did not stay still to let his entire suit fall apart though, and shot into the air with one almost perfectly vertical super leap. Anyone paying close attention would have seen his suit slowly waver and weave new segments to replace he lost patches where too many shots had landed.

Now Grey Masque could not 'super jump' as it was normally referred to. He could 'super leap.' An action that covered an extreme amount of distance, provided that the direction was UP. He could only move about a foot horizontally while jumping this way. The only place he could go was down-Back to more bullets.

Except he didn't go down-he performed a flip mid-air and landed on the ceiling as if it were the floor. And like a deflecting round, he bounced off the ceiling with ninja-like grace-Straight at Silk, with an arm drawn back to deliver a punch right at her face mid-air. And she would find that Grey Masque's strength was monstrous-he had super strength.

***

Jake saw nobody else in the room. Which was actually quite small for a cargo room-Probably built for special requests or sensitive singular items. Rooms like these usually only contained one or two items, and usually came with a bonus truckload of security and extra armor.

There was none of that here. There was just the blasted open door *which, for some reason, was missing* zero presence of anybody, and no blaring alarms.

Or cameras. That was odd. There should have been cameras, and a quick glance at the corners of the room would reveal that indeed, there were no cameras-

Because somebody else had obviously already been here and smashed all of them. The tell-tale wires still extending from the walls gave it away. If that wasn't enough, the would-be operator had also removed the wrecked cameras from the room. But he had apparently forgotten to do the same for the smashed glass they had left behind.

And one had to wonder how someone could have pulled all of that off without alerting any form of security.

Unless they had, which probably meant there was no security left.

Or it was a trap, which meant any number of armed guards could have been heading for the room-and Jake-at that very moment.

Whatever Jake thought or noticed, it was not hard to tell at all. Something was afoot, and it wasn't fungus.

[ QUOTE ]
((But that isn't her style. Besides, there was an underlying tactic involved in separating those involved. To counter the whole 'whoa, why'd you do that?' I say: why not?))

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OOC:

To which I reply: Because it's ridiculous and also because you are trying to bake, make, have, and eat your cake all at once...twice. As well as being COMPLETELY PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE, even when using time travel. You are biting off more than you can chew, and that means you are going to CHOKE on it.

Now hence, if you can come up with a proper response to that, I will perform a heel face turn and side with you in your goal for randomness and tasty cusine.

[ QUOTE ]
((Wait, what? Here's what happened:

a. Ports Danny into cage with the others but she's still outside
b. Tries to port Gunner and Silk out, trying to leave 2 others, 3 including Danny, inside
c. throws ice at Gunner and Silk

You can vote on it if you want but I don't see a reason for it. If Silk and Gunner don't want to be ported out, then just escape it somehow or *gasp* open the cage and walk back in. It's not like she's porting them to a far off island you know.))

[/ QUOTE ]

OOC: And now, ya see...That's why I felt the urge to tell you that Miranda could have JUST WALKED INTO THE CAGE.

[ QUOTE ]
((Essentially, yeah, except she was only trying to draw out 2 of the fighters inside the cage.

As for just asking to join, I never try going about something the easy way when a possibly more fun option is available.))

[/ QUOTE ]

OOC:

Well, I dunno. The page and a half of nothing but OOC talk doesn't seem to be much fun to me.

Besides, how is being completely random, unprovoked and deviating from both the main activity and common sense fun? Don't get me wrong-I'm all for chaos. But even the madness has a pattern to it.

OOC:

So lemme get this straight-

Miranda decides to go down to the cages with Danny wrapped around her fing-I mean clutched in her hand or something.

She conjures a portal that draws in the people from inside the cage to her location by the bar right outside the cage in order to force them to fight her.

She's doing this admist however many spectators, metas, and guards.

She gave Danny a huge lecture on being subtle before deciding to throw rocks at a Bullet Ant hive.

And, of course, you are doing this realizing that everybody is going to want to toss your character overboard after restraining and gagging her along with attaching a lead weight to her?

Really, Methinks it would have been heaps easier to just ASK TO JOIN IN THE FIGHT. It hadn't even started yet.

OOC:

The pantomine goose is confuzzled by the whole ordeal and wishes very much to chew on Jimmy Fargo's bones.

[ QUOTE ]
((Chaos time...))

“Great,” Miranda said as she rose from her chair. She turned to Danny, with a serious expression, “Now remember, charm and charisma are great tools to use, especially on your enemies. No matter how much you want to banish your foe to a lifeless void of a dimension for all eternity, respect offered is respect gained. Use it and a shot at what you want might…” Her words froze when she looked at Danny only to assume her words fell on deaf ears. “Bah, whatever…” she huffed then stretched her left palm toward Danny’s face.

A symbol of light began to outline itself on the palm of her hand. When it was complete, a wind began to blow, coming from behind Danny. No, it wasn’t a wind, it was a vacuum of air being pulled into her palm. It was only a split second more before Danny felt himself forcibly sucked into her hand where she quickly balled the hand into a fist, as if holding him in her clasped hand. With her other hand, she traced in the air the same symbol that was just in her palm. The light from the symbol spread, forming a circle of magical energy which she walked through and disappeared.

Another circle of energy appeared by the cage-side bar, Miranda emerging from it. The fight had already started, it appeared, so Miranda wasted no time. “Time to…work some magic,” the last part she said with fiercely glowing eyes and a sadistic smile. A faint blue glow enveloped her entire form and she breathed in then exhaled to prepare herself for the level of power she was about to summon. She thrust her right palm toward the cage, and a swirling vortex of energy appeared inside the cage and spat Danny out. “Gate Glyph!” she called, thrusting her right hand toward the cage this time. Another vortex, underneath Gunner and Silk, appeared drawing them in like quicksand. She didn’t wait for them to be drawn in and simply increased the size of the portal to swallow them up instead.

Miranda turned and thrust her left hand across her right which created the exit portal outside the cage that would spew out whatever was drawn in. Now with her hands held behind her and a casual smile, Miranda spoke to the intended targets of her spell. “My apologies for the intrusion. You may call me Miranda and you’ll be my opponents now. You don’t have a problem with a friendly battle with no intents of causing death, right? Just a friendly spar.” She didn’t wait for an answer and quickly condensed the air in front of her, creating a thick boulder of ice at least twice her height then swung her arm at it. A single and simple symbol shot from the hand and into the ice and so the boulder shattered into sharp shards of ice and became speeding spears hurdling toward her two targets.

[/ QUOTE ]

OOC:

Lol, wut?

Grey Masque stepped calmly into the cage. He sidled up to Famine and spoke quietly.

"The girl looks like one of those support types that impede empower or weaken. I'll go ahead and get her if you take the katana jocky."

He turned to the team at the other side of the cage, and uttered two words.

"LET'S RUMBLE."

***

The footsteps Jake was following suddenly stopped, and rather conveniently since they had led Jake through a tiny maze of corridors to a hallway with only the one door leading into a darkened room. The doorway had obviously been closed and locked tighter than a drum a few hours ago, but the edges of the doorway looked like somebody had gone to town on it with a welding torch and the door itself was no longer connected to the frame. It was gone. Whoever he was chasing couldn't be anywhere else except inside that room, that at least, was certain.

"So." Grey, not gray, Masque said. "When do we start?"

***

'A strange place this vessel is. Strange echoing voices from below in the deep. Celestial cries from the howling aether as it whips above meadows of shifting crystal. Deep, booming commands of the fearsome ones in the limitless space of the sky.

And then there is this place, like a blight. An infection...a scar. A wound in this otherwise beautiful place.

I like it.

And what would this place be without the minds that inhabit it? Zealots. Heretics. Fools. Lords. Oh, how I do love this place and everything in it. Especially the people. How fair they are, with their fighting, their threatening and schemes, their backstabbing and deception...And their ignorance.

How sad that it all must-wait. What is that?'

***

[ QUOTE ]
"Don't think I can't see where this is going." he murmured, taking a look about, "Well, everyone else seems to be heading off downstairs, so let's see what's so interesting down there."

Acid and Henteko nodded at this, and the three proceeded to follow Miranda and Danny as well...

[/ QUOTE ]

As the odd trio followed Miranda and Danny, a waiter walked past them. He gave them-especially Acid-an extremely odd look. One of confusion. He kept on walking, not stopping or bothering them otherwise. Just another crew member, not used to the exotic nature of the cruise.

***

Jake heard light footsteps running AWAY from his location. Possibly a guard or just somebody he'd scared witless, thanks to the huge racket he'd made with his boots.

OOC:

Nope. Got the part. You still tried to spike him with four talsorian arrows.

BIC:

Prodigy had run away while Danny was dazed, screaming in his odd monotone about misleading graphical effects. He was gone, leaving Danny to threaten the air.

***

"Well give him credit normal regular joe." Grey Masque chuckled to Famine. "He's probably one of those willpower heroes-or a martial artist. Swordsman. Ninja. It isn't really fair to call any of those metas now, is it? I myself, am not a meta, as an example."