Masks of God

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An invisible finger slowly drew the leg onto the Hangman picture. Something behind the wall loaded, cocked, and then fired. Derek's strangled cry overpowered the snarling of the demon hyena. The creature stared down Cathy, the red eyes glowing in the dim light of the tunnel. Droplets of its saliva slithered down, and mixed in with the water. Muscles tensed and then it lunged once more, but instead of biting it decided to tackle. And tackle it did, pinning Cathy onto the ground by her shoulders. Water filled her mouth and nostrils. She was under and if she didn't get back up soon she would surely drown.


The flashlight was meant to illuminate where the enemy was, not hide them from his view. But perhaps because of the wiring, Robot-Max had a hard time finding his targets. The reflection off of the water didn't help matters either, the light always reflected painfully off of his eyes. As the man, Issac dove and leaped away, Max tried to follow. But Copper was right, all of the wiring all of the heavy machinery that went into making him was slowing the robot down.

"I. Am. Max." He didn't sound human. No he sounded automated.

The thing heard a voice, the human part of his mind registered it as Copper's voice. No ounce of affectionate feelings were attached to that name however. The only thing that went through its mind was that Copper was the enemy. Like a fool it turned and turned, trying to find her. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw light that didn't from the contraption he held in his robotic hand. Well that was intriguing.

It stalked towards the two, Max grinning madly. He lifted the arm that held the flamethrower and with all of the strength his human and robotic body could muster, slammed it down upon Copper's force field.

"Where. Are. You? Cop-Copper?"



Kiera walked and walked, navigating through the sewer system with ignorance. She kept waiting for some sort of clue to be announced, but the god was now silent. Kiera crossed Chidone in the tunnel, but it was useless to make out her form against the shadows. The once fiery comet of a racer blended easily into the shadows. Kiera couldn't walk any farther however. The woman had inadvertently taken the road that Lily did not, the road most often traveled. A couple more steps and the water receded; she was on higher ground. A few more steps and there was a shocking find.

It was a dead end. And in this dead end was a pile of explosives. C4 and dynamite were definitely included in that pile. On the opposite wall was the room that Derek was in, but Kiera and Chidone wouldn't know it, all they could hear were his cries of agony.

To their left was a hole, big enough for one person to crawl though. It would take them to the trio Copper, Qeren and Issac. Were Kiera and Chidone going to warn them about the explosives or were they going to kill them off to get the Mask? Or better yet, walk around the explosive and help the soul who was clearly suffering on the other side of the wall?


The hyena growled savagely at Lily but he was instantly silenced. His growl turned into high pitched cries of agony as the electricity from Lily consumed and broke its body. It collapsed onto the street; the family was saved. However they were not happy. Oh no, from the looks of their faces they were completely and utterly terrified. They huddled close to each other, the mother hugging her children, the father hugging his entire family. It was the father who spoke and his voice was far from sounding grateful.

"You're a monster! All of you! What sort of human are you?!"

The God of Trickery calmly slid another marshmallow onto his branch, chewing on another thoughtfully. The family had run off and his eyes followed them briefly. "Yes... I get that a lot too. Monster. Demon. Devil. It's not very nice." He fixed his gaze upon Lily, then glared. "Do you think you're a monster? You have such power now."

 
"Dere-aahh!" The second the giant beast tackled her, the mask's personality went into overdrive. Her mind became a ruthless machine, and she stopped panicking instantly. Now wasn't the time for that. She had to save herself first. Energy raced through her body and burst from her fingertips in the form of lightning, the strongest bolt she could muster. On its own, it wouldn't be enough to incapacitate the hyena, but she hoped that with the water around her helping things along, it would at least cause the beast enough pain to get it off of her.

(If successful:) Cathy lept to her feet, ignoring the sewer water soaking her once-lovely sundress, and ran back to the puzzle on the wall. Her mind was already racing, trying to figure out what the word could be. It was likely that it had something to do with the current situation, or at least with the God of Trickery himself. Darkness? No, too many letters. Madness? Sure, why not? Hurriedly, but not frantically, she wrote out an A and a D on the wall. Derek's survival was already long-gone from her mind. She was only concerned with getting out alive at that point.
 
Lily looked from the family to the masked man. Then the family ran off calling her a monster before running away. "Masked man. Why do they call me a monster? I don't hide under peoples beds and scare them. That would be mean. Why would they say that? I would've given them candy. If I had any. Wait! How come there is no candy? I thought if I took that road, I would get candy. But all I got is someone calling me a monster. I should've took the other path." She said, scrunching her face, upset at not having candy. "And how come you won't share marshmallows with me? Sharing is caring. Hmmph." She finished, turning her back to the masked man. "I thought you were my friend. But I guess not. I would share with you."
 
"Shit, this isn't good." Issac looked at what he had. It was three against one and he was armed with only a plank of wood while the robotic man had some kind of killing machine. These were not good odds especially since he had not powers. He had a plank versus his crossbow and metal suit. He shook his head and looked back to him who was soon upon them, smacking the force field. This wasn't good.

"Hey! Get out of the way!" Issac jumped and took Copper with her to get her out of the way of Max's smash. Falling into the murky, dirty water was a better alternative to death. He hoped that Copper was alright, she could be useful.
 
Kiera's eyes lit up at the pile of explosives in front of her. Boy, oh boy! Her father would die in horror if the whole underground system would be blown up! She felt another presence next to her but she could see nothing so she ignored it. She noticed the hole at the side and could hear some voices. But then, another entity seemed to have occupied her thoughts. Why not just blow this shithole city up anyway? If you could get to the ultimate mask...

Kiera started moving closer to the pile of explosives. She's always had a thing for pyrotechnics hasn't she? She bent her knees to get to a dynamite. It should be enough to detonate the whole thing. But before she could go on any further, she heard cries of agony from the other side of the thick wall. Her pretty little head tilted up, wondering who could it be. The voice sounded male. Hmmm. What to do, what to do.

Well, whatever it was she was going to do, a part of it would be to light these babies up!