Re: The Gosai Mountains
The Temple of Gosai, Five minutes before the invasion.
"Saint Palonis! Now that you've returned, we have some questions for the viewers at ho-"
"No comment. Now get out of my house!" Having returned to the Temple of Gosai, Palonis couldn't say that he was especially surprised to see that the news crew was still broadcasting. Over in one corner of the main atrium, kept warm by a perpetual blaze burning in the center, two members of the crew were taking photos of the markings etched into the walls.
"Get out?" demanded the crew member attempting to hold a microphone under the ninja's face, a look of theatrical shock on her face. Turning to the cameraman, she added in a tone too deliberate to be coincidental, "Out into the intense cold of Mount Iwaku, where we might all freeze and die?"
"Keep up that tone of voice, and I might just do that," Palonis replied, having already turned away from the camera to march over to the storeroom he had cleared out and refitted as a bedroom. "If you know what's good for you, you'll leave after you're finished with your business. I do not take kindly to trespassers." Without another word, he opened the door, walked in, and slammed it shut, opening it again temporarily to throw out another crewman with a camera.
Now that he was finally alone, though he could still hear that woman commenting on his actions just outside the door, Palonis sat cross-legged on the floor of his room and commenced his daily meditation, emptying his mind of the cares and worries of the day. With any luck, he'd calm himself down enough to have a good night's sleep.
As he slowed his thoughts down, the ninja began to see what he knew to be visions of the mountain. He didn't know where these visions came from, but more often than not, they were important to him somehow.
He saw Torsty, leader of the vikings. He was being ambushed by strange beings that the ninja had never seen before. He was being overwhelmed by their combined powers, but he was still alive. There was still time.
"It appears that tonight is going to be a nightmare," he mumbled to himself as he stood. Focusing his power through his katana, he closed his eyes, and vanished.
When he reappeared, he was still on the mountain, but now he was on one of the many frozen peaks. "'Old still, ya Nazi!" shouted the Troll, swinging its club down at where the viking lord's head had been, only to get a face full of snow when Torsty shifted to the side. Though restrained, burned, and disoriented, he was still making an effort to avoid the attacks of those who were swarming upon him.
As fate would have it, the Hijacker stood just a little behind of where the ninja appeared, surveying the assassins' attempts to kill one man. When Palonis popped into existence in front of him, his first reaction was to jump backwards, shouting, "What in the-?!" Turning, the ninja favored the strange apparel of the man with a dismissive humph, and carved him in two with a swift swipe of his katana.
"BASTARD!!!!!" someone shouted behind Palonis, and he began to feel a sudden increase in warmth. Spinning around, the ninja ducked under an approaching fireball, and hopped hurriedly to the side to dodge a second and a third. The Flamer, howling obscenities all the while, had taken time off from attempting to roast Torsty, and the Spammer was nowhere in sight. This was not a good sign.
Sure enough, from the corner of his eye, the ninja saw the waifish young girl poking her head out of the snow and leveling a pair of pistols at him. She had somehow worked her way around to a flanking position while the Deviant, the PimpRat, and the Troll remained occupied with attempting to put down Torsty the rest of the way.
Without warning, the Flamer shrieked another obscenity, and charged forward at a devilish pace, throwing fireballs with every step. At the same time, the Spammer fired off a volley of shots both high and low. It would have been an inescapable pincer strike, had their target not suddenly vanished. The Flamer skidded to a halt, shouting another obscenity, while the Spammer hurriedly dropped one of her pistols while she fished within her pocket for fresh clips.
Just as she slammed one of the clips into place, a hand closed around her neck, and she was hoisted violently into the air. One of the disadvantages of being so light and agile was that even a man like Palonis could lift her into the air with one hand. "whoisitletmegoi'llkillyoustopit" she gasped, fervently trying to pull out one of her knives. Noticing this, the ninja squeezed harder, just as the Flamer saw the plight of his swiftly-choking comrade.
"Who am I?" Palonis growled. "I'm Death, and I've come to say hello. Goodbye." With a fresh new curse that the ninja hadn't heard in a while, the Flamer charged forward, melting the snow at his feet as he advanced. Placing his other hand on the Spammer's lower back, the ninja raised her above his head and tossed her light body right into her ignited friend's path. The instant he tripped over her form and fell on top of her, the young girl flared up herself, although unlike her friend, she wasn't fireproof.
Not that the Flamer noticed. Singularly focused on the strange man in the dark purple garb, he stood and advanced again past the now-screaming girl, just as Palonis walked slowly forward with his sword drawn, deflecting every fireball launched in his direction without breaking stride. "Your fighting style loses a little something when you take out the surprise factor," the ninja said, knocking one fireball in such a way that it sailed right over the Flamer's head and onto the still-burning Spammer.
In less than two seconds, the men had closed the gap between each other. Wreathed in flames, the assailant raised his burning fist and cried out, "SHUT UP MOTHERF-" In the same instant, the ninja swiped out with his sword, catching the burning man right in the chest. He went over backwards, mouthing out the last part of his highly clever cuss as he fell.
Palonis would have fought with more expedience, but with the numbers he had attracted to himself, he figured that he had evened the playing field enough for Torsty to handle the remaining problems. No sense wasting valuable energy on a non-crisis, after all.
(Summary: Returning to his abode, Palonis discovers, via one of his visions, that Torsty is alone and in trouble. Teleporting over, he takes out the Hijacker, the Flamer, and the Spammer, leaving the Deviant, the Pimprat, and the Troll for Torsty to deal with.)