Fighting in Ruins 17

<Rho>

So you know that thing about being bored? Yeah, we're not bored anymore. Namely because someone turned a corner and just about got eaten by... a plant... thing, of some description. Large bulbous body, four huge round heads with lots of teeth. Also it can spit seeds at bullet velocities, because why not, right?

Now this sounds like it would be a recipe for an easy kill, right? Lots of Red Pikmin versus a plant, and I can generate fire of high enough intensity to turn a living being to ash in an instant. No contest. Well, it would be, if the damn thing weren't coated in metal. Specifically, some some of shiny, purplish metal that for the life of us we can't so much as dent. Seriously, we've been trying for the past... uh, fifteen minutes or so? It only lowers that metal from around its heads when its attacking us.

The most anyone's managed thus far would be Broxigar incapacitating two of its heads for a little while by doing that axe... boomerang... trick... thing while it was spitting seeds as some of the other guys and hitting the 'necks' connecting them to the main body. They weren't severed, but the heads withdrew for about two minutes before springing back out, and now the damn thing refuses to lower that metal to give Brox another shot. And frankly, after getting clobbered by one of those heads after I got too close, I can't blame the rest of the guys for wanting to keep their distance.

"You know, given the metal we could probably just have Mithril come over here and flatten it in a few seconds," Broxigar suggested.

"Screw that. We're gonna take this thing down OUR way," I shot back, getting a holler of approval from a few of the Bloodseeders. "Just as soon as someone figures out how."

I mean, we COULD probably just ignore the thing, but somehow it can move around - very slowly, mind - and it has positioned itself between us and the way forward, so yeah, we're smoking this thing. Eventually. Give it time.

I see you have been playing a lot of Hyrule Warriors, Ultramind. While Manhandla might be tough in that game, it is still nowhere as tough as the one in Oracle of Seasons.

Blackrock Descent

The mountain stronghold echoed with thunderous impacts as the Black Pikmin's drop pods slammed into the craggy cliffs. This was shortly followed by the grinding of hundreds of drills, as within the hollowed out rocks that had brought them to the mountains surface were mole machines, equipped with dozens of drills to dig through even the most hardened fortifications. Within minutes they'd be inside, bursting in from all angles. All but one, of course...

________
<Trombe>

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs as I swooped toward the mountain's front gate. They'd slammed it shut well before I got close, buuuut I think I have a way in! As I got closer, I simply unhooked the unstable jump pak and let it loose to fly straight at the door. The resultant blast actually knocked me off my feet. Good to know all of the flyboyz are wearing those things. Nothing could possibly go wrong with carrying what is effectively a tactical nuke on your back. I'm serious.

There's not an awful lot left of the gate, and I imagine whoever was on the other side isn't in much better condition. Letting loose another warcry, I charged headlong into the gatehouse, chainswords roaring along with me. Some luck-slash-unlucky survivor jumped out from behind the wreckage of the door to try to ambush me. One blood splatter later he probably wishes he hadn't done that. Another gate lies within the gatehouse, barring the way further in. Crafty, but I'm Trombe. I kicked the door with all my might, receiving a little inward budge for my effort. Oh, I can totally kick this down. Running backwards and making an abrupt about-face, I run to the door and dropkicked it clean open, s***tering the bar they'd used to keep it shut.

"Heeeere's Trombe!" I roared into a now rather panicked crowd. Can't blame them, I'm twice their height and wielding chainsaw swords. Letting loose another warcry, I charged into them swords first.

<]-Mithril-[>

You know how, sometimes, you get a laugh out of watching a bunch of morons attempt a task over and over, and fail over and over again? Initially, it was funny to watch Rho, Brox, and the rest of the Bloodseed trying and failing to kill this plant thing, but now it's just sad. Pitiful fools.

That said, I've already come up with a way that might work. Way, way back. They might be able to succeed if they just have Rho melt the ground and have the plant thing fall in the resultant quagmire. If the plant thing can't fly or get out, then they could just have Rho ferry the Bloodseeds over via flight or something. No idea if this idea would've worked, but this was of the first few ideas to come to my mind that wasn't something the Bloodseed and Rho already tried.

Or I could just kill it remotely. No need to come over there; the plant thing is within my maximum range. What is my maximum range, you ask? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. :U

But if something is a potential summon for Orvtre like that plant thing, Orvtre'll want to talk to it. My buddy told the plant thing the usual "join me, retreat, or die thing". Plant thing picked die. Although at this rate, it'll starve to death before those Red Pikmin kill it...

I offered to help, but those stubborn guys turned down my offer. Oh well. I'm not too bummed out, because Rune called and said that there was an interesting fight going on over at their end...
__________
@-Rune-@

Aggregate Earth Seraphim creature fused with a technorganic plant-tree. That is what we were fighting now. And by "we", I mean Sigma, Adaptrix, and, more-or-less, Grav. Quicksilver didn't do ****.

The first thing the Seraphim creature performed was throwing several boulders at us. I, along with Quicksilver, dodged aside. The boulders didn't bother Grav or Adaptrix. Sigma disintegrated them with his blades.

That was when the creature roared at Grav, presumably for having a Fiend. Grav responded by attempting to use his gravity powers on it, but it resisted the effort. Adaptrix used plasma, which he seems to be suspiciously fond of, to attack the Seraphim creature. This was notably more effective; it hissed more and began hurling bolts of Seraphic energy at Adaptrix, Grav, and the rest of us.

Orvtre called in and gave the creature the usual offer of joining us, retreating, or dying, and it chose to die.

Unfortunately, this thing seems significantly stronger than the other opponents we've fought; it has already succeeded in damaging Sigma and Adaptrix.

<Sigma>

Oh hey, haven't had to deal with an angry Seraphim in a while. Not since I goaded that air one on. We had a good laugh about it afterward. This one doesn't seem to be in a laughing mood though, and after that hit to the jaw, frankly neither am I. I skid to a halt at Quicksilver's feet, who was, somewhat unsurprisingly, just sitting back and sorta watching.

"Plan on helping any time today?" I snarked at him. He tapped his chin.

"Nah."

I flipped myself to my feet, flicked Quicksilver on the forehead, and ran back in. So, elemental creature, yadda yadda, I know how to fight these. A mildly more pressing concern is its fixation on Grav, for obvious reasons. Grav himself doesn't appear to appreciate the attention, a fact he's made rather clear with all the little gravity marbles he's been throwing at it. It was countering by soaking them with small rocks, then throwing larger rocks at him. Well, that's easily solved! I zipped a few times and cut through several of the larger rocks, while Adaptrix went for the more brute force method of simply blasting several with a large plasma beam, which he swept across the creature as well.

Snarling in frustration, the elemental's vines coiled around to reveal a bunch of little robotic flowers... which opened up and began firing little energy bolts. That actually got us to hop behind cover.

"Laser flowers? Really?" I growled, projecting a few blades. Might be able to deflect a bit of the barrage to get closer.

"Technically those are energy blasts. Lasers are instant!" Quicksilver helpfully supplied. I flicked him on the forehead again. Grav's holding his head and wiggling it a bit. Probably a reaction to the Seraphim. The faster we deal with this the better.

"Rune, if you could give us a shield long enough to get close to it, that'd be great. Adaptrix, try to flank it. Quicksilver, stop being a bum."

"Nah."

"Grav, hang back so it doesn't go after you. I'm gonna go jam a few blades down whatever I can find that is closest to a throat."
________
<Gamma>

Whatever that buzzing noise in my ears is, I hope it stops soon. Kind of irritating.

Anyway, with that... thing subdued, we can finally get going a bit further in. Zeta and his crew crossed back over to their path, so we're once more on the route filled with extremely hostile mutants. I briefly considered going with Zeta. Briefly.

One more turned corner, and I started reconsidering it, though.

This room was filled with tanks of some... reddish... goop, stratified lines of color - from deep red to a bright orange - running through it. Not only in tanks, but I could see a few open pits of it lining the walls. Orbin scooted up to one and stuck out a hand.

"You don't know what that stuff is, and you're going to touch it?" I hissed at him. He slowly withdrew his hand. As we walked away, unseen by anyone, a head silently rose from the liquid... and with nary a sound, withdrew once more.

<]-Mithril-[>

Guess what?

Rho, Brox, and the rest of the Bloodseed are still stuck! How much time will they waste fighting the plant thing? Taking bets now! :U

Yeah, I was watching them fail at damaging the stupid plant thing, and Zeta watched along with me since he was also bored. Orvtre handed out snacks to us while we were walking to pass the time. I don't really eat things, so I just handed my snacks over to Zeta. Both of us shared a few laughs at their failures before he went back on his separate route again.

But seriously, this is ******* boring. At least the Seraphim-thing is worth watching. Hmm... this would be about the time where, if she was here, Rune would flip out in a paranoid fit, and declare that an enemy is probably watching them. Out of boredom, I told Orvtre, Gamma, and Orbin this, and I decided to do my best Rune impression by cautiously looking over the tanks.

Not so surprisingly, I think I actually spotted some movement in the tanks! I told the others to keep their guard up, and thus we strolled along our way.

Of course, I've prepared some delightful... surprises for any enemy that tries to ambush us.
_________
@-Rune-@

"Who is this Rune person you are speaking of?" I, who was still wearing the "I am not Rune" mask, asked. I debated with myself whether or not I should help Omicron's goons here.

Meanwhile, the Seraphim creature armored up in rock, and then delivered a heavy blow into the ground, smashing the floor and sending a shockwave towards them. With reservations, I decided to help out in a limited fashion, throwing up a barrier to block the shockwave.

"Since I am not Rune, I shall probably only help out in a limited fashion," I told them. Sigma looked a bit grumpy at that, but said that it was still better than what Quicksilver was doing.

Speaking of Quicksilver, I turned to him, asking him, "You guys are doing this for Omicron, correct? So is it really okay for you to skimp out on helping your 'BFF-science-partner'?"

He gave another excuse to be lazy. I simply gave him an unimpressed stare as, not too far from me, Sigma ate a massive boulder to the face while Adaptrix was buried under layers of dirt and mud infused with Seraphic energy.

I sighed and threw up a barrier nearby. The Seraphim-creature hurled an even larger stone stalactite at it. The barrier cracked but held. There Sigma, you have your barrier now.

Adaptrix used more plasma on the creature. Since it was armored up in stone, this time it was less effective. Not taking my eyes off of Quicksilver, I sidestepped another boulder that hurtled my way.

<Trombe>

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

"Is he gonna do that every time he charges at someone?"

"Less talking, MORE SHOOTING!"

As if shooting at me more is going to slow me down any. Flicking a bit of gore off my chainswords, I rushed through the hail of gunfire at the closest unfortunate soul, who tried to scramble out of the way at the last possible second. Didn't help him any. I can hear some of the mole machines getting closer... I'm running out of time to have my own fun.

A battle shout came from behind me, and I turned to face whoever was stupid enough to actually try to attack me close up. I saw a flash of bright blue and instinctively stepped back, which turned out to be a good decision, as what turned out to be a sword cut through my chainsword like it was made of butter.

Tossing aside the wrecked weapon, I turned a glare upon the offending Pikmin. Purple, or at least underneath all that extremely shiny light blue armor.

"Say, them's some shiny bitz ya got dere," I growled, tossing my remaining chainsword between hands. The Purple remained unfazed, settling into a fighting stance instead.

"Then come and get 'em, you overgrown ape."

Bellowing a war cry, I charged at him as requested, revving my chainsword and and swinging it with both hands. He blocked it with his shield and swung his own sword around at my midsection, which I simply dodged away from. Swinging my blade back around at his neck, I hit it clean on... and did absolutely squat. The hell is that armor made of? Withdrawing my chainsword before he could wreck it as well, I grabbed for my bolt pistol and aimed at the opening in his helmet. He held his shield up before I could fire and it deflected freaking bolt rounds like they were nothing.

During the pause, he lifted his hand around his head and drew some sort of veil around his face, seemingly made of the same shiny material as his armor... only cloth now. The boys in the forge are gonna be real interested in this stuff.

Before either of us could resume whacking away at each other, the ceiling caved as a huge mass of drills busted through and straight through the floor between us. The doors opened in his direction and I heard the distinct sound of a heavy bolter. Yeah, let's see how his armor holds up to that.

Pretty well apparently, because he shouted for someone to "close the doors" and fell back through a thick double-door, shaking his shield arm - now sans shield - as the massive thing swung closed. More mole machines burst through the walls around me as I picked up the discarded shield.

Very fine craftsmanship, whoever made it even etched a scene of combat straight onto the face of it. Which, I might add, was completely unmarred by my chainsword or even the gunfire from a heavy bolter. The door the purple had retreated through similar had some kind of scene etched on it. This one looked more like a crowning ceremony. I growled a bit to myself.

"Tell me wun o' ya gits brought me good choppas," I called back to the boys.

"Right 'ere, boss!" one yelled, pointing into the mole machine he'd climbed out of. I tossed him my remaining chainsword as I went in. "Go make some trouble wif' dat," I told him, withdrawing two hefty swords from within the machine. The chainsword's nearly the Boy'z size, but he doesn't seem to mind.

Clicking the triggers on the grips on my Good Choppas yielded a soft humming from the blades. Yeah, this'll work. See if that fancy armor can handle Power Swords.

<Rho>

Had right about enough of the damned plant. Down to a single head still wriggling and the damned thing won't lower its defenses long enough for Brox to do his... whirly... flying... axe thing. A few minutes of goading later, the other three heads woke up, and that's about the point I ran out of ****s to give.

"RAARGH!" I roared incomprehensibly as I threw everything I could muster into one Burgundy-fueled punch. It didn't kill it... but it did knock out all four heads. The plant seized up, the heads flopped to the ground... and the bulbous middle split open to reveal a big red crystal thing. There was precisely two seconds of silence, and then all of us descended upon it with enough fury to shake the heavens. I'm pretty sure they heard that combined yell everywhere else in the lab.

Suffice to say, the plant is dead now. We spent an additional ten minutes dancing upon the damned thing's corpse before somebody finally became lucid enough to suggest we maybe continue forward. If there's another one of these friggin plants Imma be pissed.

Fortunately no further metallic annoying plant monsters revealed themselves, though we do appear to have made our way into some sort of... uh... underground greenhouse? I guess? Not something I'm going to complain about. We are plants in and of ourselves. The lights in here are... nice. Really nice. I propose that we take a couple and am met with no disagreement.

We'll get the lights on the way out, though. Brox found a door leading further in, so the lot of us filed in that way. More plants, but these look... uh... not so friendly. I can see some that look like smaller versions of the planet monster's heads and resist the urge to incinerate them. Fortunately they are much smaller and not a threat.

Some big glass tanks line the walls in here, filled with some striated red/orange goo. Noting this immediately got me a prompt from Mithril saying they'd found similar goo and were in fact in some hall filled with the stuff. Gamma butted in to mention that we shouldn't touch it until we had some idea of what it was.

"So if it's deadly, but we know what it is, can we touch it?" I smarmed back at him. Gamma didn't grace me with a reply.
_______________________
A town named Bustling Bazaar...

Normally quite aptly named, today the town is very quiet indeed. The streets are empty, doors are shut tight, and anyone present scarcely dares to breathe.

The cause of the panic, of course, would be the hundred and fifty-or-so foot tall silver mech currently walking through the town center, accompanied by an enormous swarm of Gearteeth and far, far smaller mechs. The mass production drones occasionally land and examine their surroundings, but not a single one of the machines ever utters a word, simply continuing forward with single-minded purpose. When the thunderous thuds of the giant mech's footfalls have faded and the sound of Gearteeth rolling is long gone, the citizens dare to peak their heads out of their homes to marvel at the fact that, aside from the tread marks and enormous footprints, there's no damage at all. The machines had not come to kill them. The town let out a collective sigh of relief, thankful that they'd been spared.

Within twelve hours they'd be wishing the machines had slaughtered them.

?-Orvtre-?

Good news! I've talked with Upsilon a lot the past three days, and we've become good friends! One of my strongest powers is the power of friendship; by forming bonds with my teammates, we can bring out even more power when fighting together via my friendship power.

I'm good at fighting with a partner by my side, or if I'm with a team. Thanks to becoming buddies with Upsilon; when we combine our power, we can unleash enhanced electricity!

I wasn't able to make as much progress making friends as I'd like; the only other person I really was able to befriend to a notable degree during this three days was Beta. She's rather pleasant to be around; I'd like to talk with her some more if I can.

Oh, and I had already befriended Chi way back, but I doubt I'd be able to fight alongside him regularly.

Anyways, I changed my costume to a more powered-armor type outfit. I was debating on whether or not to include this heroic-looking cape, but Libera talked me into it.

Speaking of Libera, Mithril told him that DB wants to fight him later on. And speaking of Mithril, she's kinda bored now. She pulled over the corpse of the plant creature, the one that gave Rho, Brox, and the Bloodseed such a hard time, and she is now examining the purple metal that coated it, seemingly out of boredom.

Up to the point before Rho, Brox, and the Bloodseed came here, I was conversing with Gamma, Orbin, and the Bloodseed to improve our friendship levels. The conversation had sorta petered out, so I decided to switch gears to the other group. To be friendly, I congratulated Rho, Brox, and the Bloodseed on their victory over the plant.

Before I could start a conversation with Rho, Brox, and the Bloodseed however, Mithril spoke up. From the looks of it, she had already finished examining the purple metal, and had warped the purple metal and the plant corpse to a secure location elsewhere.

Mithril elbowed me lightly. "Hey buddy. You know we're under attack, right?"

What? Where... OH.

I quickly alerted the rest of the group, who narrowly dodged a surprise attack launched from the shadows. Looks like the next enemy showed itself...
_______________
I am interested in seeing a log containing reactions to Orvtre's new outfit in the future. Also, finals are done, AT LAST. Over to you.

*Orbin*

Remember how Gamma told me not to touch the goo? Yeah that was probably good advice, seeing as it has apparently come alive to attack us.

Well, some of it, in the form of blob things. Rather unthreatening, to be honest. At least until Mithril popped one and it exploded in a massive burst of extremely corrosive slime. I'm guessing it was some kind of corrosive, anyway, because it was producing a hissing noise from Mithril until she just kinda shucked the outer layer of her... skin? Does a person made entirely of metal actually have skin? Things to ponder for later.

Curiously, the slime doesn't appear to have affected the floor or walls in any way. I guess the whole place is made of something resistant to it? Something to check on later. For now, though, there's more of these slime things popping up out of all the goo pools and advancing on us... kinda slowly.

"Okay so, killing them makes them explode. Any ideas besides getting out of range?" Orvtre asked, once it was pointed out that we were, in fact, under attack.

"Containment," Gamma replied shortly.

"Maybe fire?" I added, "Or some sort of counteracting agent? Though I suppose that depends on if they're basic or acidic."

"Fire it is," Orvtre announced. "Shield yourselves."

Well, that was my cue to pop barriers over myself, Gamma, and Mithril just in case. There was a loud crack of thunder, followed by the fwoosh of flame. I waited a moment before lowering the shields.

The blobs were definitely gone alright, but more were slowly making their way out of the pools. This is gonna be constant as long as we're in here, isn't it?

"Well, I think fire works. Just don't let them near us and we should be fine," Orvtre affirmed, throwing a few lava bombs at the newly rising ones. The things were constantly forming from the pools along the whole corridor, so as we advanced we occasionally had to pause and let either Orvtre or Mithril unload with a much larger attack to clear them out. This was going quite well, until the lights suddenly started flickering and a rather more malicious presence made itself known.

"Ssssoooo cooold... ssoo daaaaaark..."

Orvtre released a pressure wave to blow away most of the blobs that were currently advancing on us and looked around.

"Where's that coming from?" Gamma muttered under his breath.

"Weeee will not be forgotten, no no, nooo..."

"Damn thing must know the acoustics in here pretty well to pull this off," Mithril snarked, procuring a wave of blades all around herself, ready to fling at whatever showed its face.

"Weee are the peeeerfect one, yessss, yessss! Not a failure! No no, not a failure..."

"Someone has issues," I whispered. Gamma elbowed me lightly.

"What is thisss? What do they waaant? To puniisshh ussss? No no, nooo..."

Orvtre produced a floating ball of light to give us a steady light source... only to be surprised when it began flickering as well. And then it, as well as all the other lights, went out completely. There was a moment too long of utter silence. And then something huge tackled me across the room.

"Oooohh, your flesssh, yes yes! So peeeerfect! Give it to usss!" the thing demanded. In the utter darkness I couldn't make out much more than a lizard-like shape before Mithril's blades slammed into it... and ricocheted off it's skin harmlessly. A huge, malformed arm swung down as I produced a pearl shield to block it, and it didn't get another chance to attack before Mithril simply slammed into it bodily. The creature stumbled away, screeched indignantly, and dove back into the pools.

"Sheesh, barely scratched it. Get up, it'll be coming back."