OPEN MISSION The Evrensel Conflict: Act I, Chapter 1 -- Quando a Roma

[Wade Von Doom]

~~GM~~

Upon Erin vanishing, she would notice the cloth covering her chest was gone. The rest of her clothing remained, but the part that was actually inside the monolith was now taken captive.

But never fear, breast-cloth, Erin is on the rescue!

With a big goddamn hammer!

Yet, once more, the monolith watched her with interest. As Ruby ran off with the crystal, the swirling hole that opened up vanished, instead bracing for the impact of the hammer. It believed it could withstand it.

..... It did not.

Erin, with the strength of a god-killer, and the tenfold strength needed to wield such a weapon, smashed the obelisk. Its outer layer was smashed to pieces like shards of a mirror, but its insides began to combust into pure black flames that spewed out from the cracks. For a few seconds, the monolith shook violently, like it tried to hold itself together as it broke apart, but the damage had been done.

The light of the room dimmed, the bricks of the floors and walls faded from sight, and the monolith began to 'howl.' If it could be called that. It was as if they were underwater in an endless ocean, and something far, far down below them, where the light of the sun couldn't reach, began to roar like it was awakening from a long sleep. It was deafening. The station turned to darkness, and the tomb that had been built around the obelisk faded into absolute nothingness.

Finally, it exploded outwards, and the flames engulfed them all and whatever light remained. The world vanished, and the howling stopped. For a few minutes, they could not even see their own hands in front of their faces, let alone tell how far apart they were to each other if they tried speaking up. But then a light finally reappeared.

It was small, but it was approaching them. A hand was holding a flickering flame, and the subtle sounds of heavy footsteps grew more noticeable with each patter against the ground.

"Well well," a low, gravely voice called out to them calmly, "The one soul among you who lacks any curiosity manages to open you a pathway to this place." When the light is close enough to illuminate their bodies once more, the man holding it was also visible. "Usually those who stumble upon my lord are quick to study or worship him. But you," he looked at Erin, "you could sense him watching back.... Hmph," the flame in his hand rose above them and formed into an orb.

Yet, even as it got brighter, their surroundings remained pitch black. "Tarnished," he realized about Erin, "that's why. And not just any ordinary one either... You're different from your kind. No one should be able to pierce through my lord's bier, and yet you struck it with an incredible blow... Well done to you." He complimented Erin.

He then looked to the others, pointing to each as he tried to remember their names. "Huntress," he started with Ruby, "Avatar," he pointed to the still unconscious Moon Knight, "Terminator... Series 800. Interesting group."

 

[Camleen]

Ruby leans down in her crouched as Erin slams her weapon into the obelisk. The hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she squints when the light of the world around her dims to nothing. An awful howling rings in the air around her. She hugs the wrapped crystal is hugged to her chest, as if she were afraid letting it go could make this bad thing worse. The sound dulls down, and her eyes flutter open when she detects light through her eyelids.
A flame… a tiny flame. Slowly growing in size… no getting closer! And then those heavy footfalls… Ruby reaches back under her cape and once more grasps her folded up weapon. Using her other hand, she tucks the small cloth and crystal into the pouch at her hip. And the right hand wraps about the handle of Crescent Rose and she draws it from her cloak. Her arm whips to her side and her weapon unfolds with subtle clanking sounds emanating from it. She moves into a defensive stance, the long curved blade now shimmering in the increasing light. The blade of her scythe is over her shoulder and above her. Compared to her relatively small stature, the scythe she holds seems like it would be to bulky and awkward for her. Despite that, she wields it with incredible ease. She stands at a 3/4 profile towards the new being and her knees bent. She can still feel her Aura pulsing, though the fluttering rose petals have decreased now in frequency. And this fact makes it a bit more difficult to keep herself centered and calmed in the face of what appears to be, to her, a knight with old rusted armor.
He addresses Erin as Ruby stands still near one of the walls behind the group. The young girl scans the situation, and she is in sudden motion. Leaping up, she lands with a soft thud in front of where Moon Knight lays. Still in her defensive stance, those silver eyes watching the knight as it calls to each of them. "How do you know that? Who… what are you?" She says in an almost eerily calmed tone.

 

[Noble Scion]

Erin, the tarnished

She was almost surprised at how effective it was as she'd feel the thing shatter through the hilt of her weapon, hefting the thing back onto her shoulder and holding it there as she'd watch the obelisk 'shriek' in pain with a morbid satisfaction, unphased by the spouting black flames. She was apparently very used to things not dying the first time she killed them as she'd wait for its little transformation to complete.

Though to her surprise, it wasn't a transformation. Instead, everything seemed to be consumed by the void, her hair billowing from the sudden burst of howling as she'd stare blindly with a silent, fierce determination as she'd hear a voice, and see a flickering light.

Listening to the monster's 'compliments', she'd keep an eye on him, before her attention would be brought to the only thing in the void that seemed to be brightened by the man's light, her unpleasant chest-piece.

Placing her hammer on the ground, she'd crouch down and retrieve the thing, re-wrapping it to cover up her battle-scarred chest with the same enthusiasm she held for everything, which was to say, none. Though as she'd retrieve her hammer again, the others would notice her having a little more difficulty with the thing as she'd find herself in a different weight-class, her brows furrowing at the inconvenience as she'd watch her supposed next opponent.

 

[Amber Franklin]

T-851-Character Sheet

The friendly words of Ruby are lost on the cybernetic woman. As the chipper young woman speaks, the advanced computer behind her dark brown eyes processes all data she is able to compute from the two objects she holds and scans. She detects the spike in energy and temperature in time to drop the transporter before it can do more than singe her palm. Thea's eyes glow bright red for a moment, then flicker and she is again standing stock still as many things happen around her. Her processor struggles with the surge of data that had been transmitted with the explosion of the teleporter; it is treated as a virus as it alters the lines of code that constitute her mind. Blocks of programming are fractured and rewritten from intact memory files.

When everything is stitched together, and the rest of her processors resume function, Thea is aware they have been transported to another location, and someone has approached them. Thea stares at the knight, and something different happens to her upon hearing the mysterious man address Thea by her model and series: she smiles to register amusement.

"You are aware of us. They only know me as Thea, an alphanumeric acronym of my model and series." She says in her usual monotone despite the smile on her lips that also falls.

"Explain your name and intentions. Or else Erin, the one you called Tarnished, will become frustrated again and use all means at her disposal to compel you. " She says to him further not as a threat but as a matter of fact.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

~~GM~~

The knight chuckled at Thea's threat, taking amusement from her smile. Most would see it as sadistic enjoyment of the threat, but the knight understood it was something else. "I am Nux. Translator and servant of the Slumbering Elder Lords," He answers, placing the tip of his sword against the ground to lean his hands against the hilt. "Normally, such violence against any of my lords would not go unpunished. But, seeing as there is a much greater threat in the machines, and an interest in all those aboard your floating castle in the sky, we shall merely call this a 'miscommunication.'"

He then raised his hand up, "If I may?..." He gestured towards the black crystal, wishing to have it.

 

[Camleen]

As she stands in front of Moon Knight, she lowers her center of gravity to better allow her to move quickly if she needed to. The deadly scythe she holds remains in a ready position, those sharp silver eyes watching the 'knight' intensely. So briefly does she glance in the direction of those others around her, those still on their feet. They are getting themselves back together, regrouping. She barely allows herself a brief glance over her shoulder to visually check on Moon Knight. Come on man… please get up… she thinks as her stern gaze moves back towards Nux.

Slumbering Elder Lords… ohhhhh what has she stumbled into?

But it's Ruby that Nux now focuses his attention. No, the crystal in her possession. Her sharp eyes narrow as the rusted knight asks her for it. At least she assumes so. What else could he be talking about? Her fingers reposition slightly against the handle and shaft of the scythe as she speaks in a short, succinct tone.

"No."

A pause, looking briefly to the others as she continues then.
"This thing… it has a lot of power, we all can feel it. This is something I know. But you… I don't know you. So until I do, this little crystal is going nowhere." Gone is her annoyingly persistent chipper tone, replaced by a stern tone of warning and expression of truth. But when she glanced to the others, that was kind of her silently asking what she should do. Even if all of them know nothing about this thing… they know more than she does.