How many times did Ranma ever feel like that? Right now he was drawing a blank. Not that he was thinking exactly or even remotely along these lines. Faithful to the Saotome creed he was going to milk this situation for all its worth.
And suddenly everything disappeared leaving the Saotome heir lost with a burning feeling on the cheek. Then came the headache, it wasn't as skull splitting as a meeting with mallet sama but there was a rythmic throbbing that made the shape in front of his eyes harder to focus. It didn't help that he felt a strain in his eyes. Like he had cried for hours.
Then the picture became clearer. There was this guy who was too much cured looking at him with a bit of panic in his eyes. What was his name again... Something not too generic but not too exotic either. Tarou or something like that. Also now that he couod see him up close this guy had like wonky double eyes.
-I dunno. I was in the big thingy ahem training then there was this massive evil ki, like the old fart time I dunno. Then I found myself here. Also where the hell are we!.
Now that he could see, there was nothing he could identify as even remotely familiar. Underground city with big structures it was like inserting Tokyo in Jusendo but a darker gloomier cave. Also the evil ki was permeating everything making it damn near impossible to feel any other ki.
There was also the matter of the green burning flame. Magic, definitely magic. And you never trust magic. He could also see plant girl and another guy. Wait did plant girl get younger?
"You didn't eat any mushroom didja?"
"..... What?!" Like Alec understood a word he said. "Mushrooms, why the hell-- Never mind, we gotta get back to the TARDIS and fast, there's shit down here you do not wanna run intAH!" Alec shouted out, nearly falling over onto Ramna as his right eye felt like it just popped like a balloon. Using his hands, he lightly touched his eyelid to make sure it was there, and thankfully it was, just sensitive to even the smallest poke from his index finger. Although, alarmingly, he feel something dribble down his chin from his eye. Blood. he wiped it up with his hand to see. "Ooooh, that's not good." He muttered aloud.
Zhen stood up his body raked in ashen and red smoldering lines after finally putting Reegan out. There was a faint gibbering surrounding his mind but not from the creatures. He stopped to listen and focus the flakes of armor sprouting from edges of the hole in his back as he did so. Rory's question was a pertinent one. Simple. Thus so a simple answer came to him to answer it as the moment of calm shut out the world but not the endless banter. The noise was coming from Reegan.
In confirmation of the thought when Rory picked Reegan from the floor, something Zhen could not himself do, noises ceased their echo. Broadcast up from the new depths of his formless mind. A passage through the earth by his new source entity now closed.
The skull floating in inky black says in a placid tone from moving bone even as he evacuates with the rest of them, "You are the soul your impermanent flesh can hear. What is flesh that hungers but has no soul to speak noble truths?"
Reegan's head lolled as she regained her composure in Rory's arms the yellow of her eyes flickering then remaining steady, "Gghh eeeh hah.. oh.. it hurts. I... who're you? You... I don't know your name? Maybe. Eyes of sovengarde. centurion of the end? No... no... wrong. close. It's so hard to hear the dreamsleeve. they're so loud. so loud. The Blessed are all tired. I can't feel my arm."
Simple thoughts lead to complex ones as Zhen added while Alec woke Ranma, "The creatures Reegan's legs became are corrupt I think. I expect the hundreds of noises I can hear coming from her mind are those creatures aching for the reaper's spark they were cleaved from. They are a disease of reapers without a conscience spreading with every new cleave. Whatever the other Doctor did, Xog is not the only problem."
The deafening noise from the priest interrupted and trained reflexes slid one foot backward as Zhen took a defensive stance. A biotic barrier shot up from the ground with the sway of one hand. Though it did have holes in it much like Zhen still did. With his patron spirit damaged, he could not heal himself with strength she did not have. A laser pistol flared into his other hand. Though he disliked pistols for much the same reason the doctor did his inner spirit told him the present had changed. The weapon flared with something other than warp energy boiling up from within Reegan.
"Centurion of the end?" Rory asked aloud. Was that something else, or did she actually know something about his past as a Centurion? The question would have to be answered later, right now, she seemed dazed and confused, and needed some help.
"Rory, my name's Rory, and we will get you help once we're back in the TARDIS. What I want you to do right now is focus on me, and do your best to, because whatever is going through your thoughts, it's only trying to hurt you more. Okay?" He told Reegan. He hadn't a clue how to help her in reality, but no matter what species, he was still a nurse, and would do his best to help her under any circumstances.
"S-Sorry, not the only problem?" Rory quickly asked Zhen. He had completely forgotten about Reegan's unfortunate offspring. Where were they, actually, they kinda just wondered off once they entered the city.
"I think we.... should probably just keep moving." Alec tried saying, but the headache had become unbearable, like spikes were trying to stab their way through his skull from his brain.
"Oh my god!" Rory quickly ran over to see to Alec as well.
"What happened?!"
"This." Alec pointed to the double irises. "You have it too. So does he." He pointed back to Ramna. "I think the city's doing this..... and it's gettin' worse." The Scotsman started getting wobbly on his feet, and Rory quickly grabbed his arm to keep him steady.
"Alec, can you see out of that eye?" Rory asked carefully.
"Um.... No..... Bit blurry in the other one too." Alec answered.
"Okay, focus on this." Rory put up his first finger a foot away from Alec's face and slowly moved it side to side. Alec was just about able to make it out as he watched it.
"Alright, you still have enough vision left to see clearly, just stay close to me, and whatever.... happens..." Rory stopped speaking once he realized the alleys started glowing green with flames. Not from above like before. Torches. There was a mob approaching them from behind Alec. Turning around, more were coming, chanting like when the city began to shake. Every alleyway was glowing green and covered with disfigured shadows, except for one, leading down. They didn't have much choice.
"C'mon!" Rory shouted to everyone, make a run for the empty alley.
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"Brilliant!" Thirteen exclaims and smiles at Eleventh's rescue. "Now let's jump on over-Owwww!" She tenses up as they are suddenly assaulted by a sonic attack. From those priests that had been in the chamber? Was hard to tell as her eyes were even vibrating. She presses her face into Tsunade's body to try and stifle the debilitating effects; it doesn't, but the softness is a little comforting enough to get her mind a little more clear enough to formulate a plan.
Her hand juts upward holding her sonic screwdriver. The gem lights up and it emits two signals; the first is a counter-frequency to try and nullify the priests; the second is a signal to Eleventh's screwdriver to do the same as it was unlikely one was sufficient for the first task.
The Eleventh Doctor is saved from the fall easily, but the trio's escape is blocked on all sides. Her first reflex is to drop both Doctors to cover her ears against the ear-numbing sound; Tsunade bypasses it to uphold her personal mandate to protect them. She holds them close to her body to try and shield them from the soundwaves while she tries to formulate what to do before their attackers resort to more physical violence. As-is she is frozen in place by the sonic force feeling her body vibrate and experiencing a pain like what she had endured at the prison.
@Epiphany. @Wade Von Doom
The 11th Doctor
@Amber Franklin
Tsunade's rescue is timely indeed! The 11th Doctor gives 13 a cheery wave while clinging precariously to the broken stairway with his other hand. And then the charming young woman with his future self happens to pick him up as if he were a child's toy left lying on the ground somewhere. The Time Lord gives a surprised whoop as he's hauled right up onto the landing.
"
Right! Well done. I-"
@Wade Von Doom
The 11th Doctor pauses as he's torn between commenting on his other self's remarks (the very words he might have said next)...and then being just as stunned as she is by the sudden sonic attack from the censer-bearing priests. Or perhaps he's just struck with admiration at the notion of a species that's appropriated an antique piece of technology intended to deliver an olfactory payload and repurpose it instead to deliver an audible payload instead.
Admiration's much easier once Thirteen's attempt at counter-frequency modulation. With his head clearing, Eleven raises his own sonic screwdriver...before grinning with a certain fey delight. "
Oh, you lot. Marvelous idea, amplifying and weaponizing prayer. Very nearly the exact opposite of what prayer's allegedly for. Funny thing about sound, though."
His screwdriver pulses as its signal joins with Thirteens, muffling the sonic screams...or perhaps setting up a sonic barrier that absorbs them. "
Yes, you can send out a counter-signal, a wave that undercuts another wave and diminishes it to nothing. But waves can also be-" And suddenly his sonic screwdriver changes modulation, creating a unique interaction with Thirteen's sonic effect. A nigh-visible sonic field thrums into existence and-
"
Reflected, ha ha!" Like a magician who has unveiled his latest trick, the Time Lord takes another step forward and waves his sonic like a teacher's laser pointer as if illustrating the point he's making on a nonexistent whiteboard. "
It's physics. Create a flat or plane surface and you can reflect sound waves in such a way that the angle at which the wave approaches the surface equals the angle at which the wave leaves the surface. Flat's boring, though. Let's see what happens when you make the reflecting walls...parabolic."
And just as that nine foot tall monstrosity steps up to join the priests in their nefarious plot, a final modulation of the screwdriver reshapes the sonic reflectors put out by both screwdrivers...and all of the incoming sonic screams are channeled, funneled and focused onto a single point; the newest creature come to make trouble.
The doctor's managed to focus the sonic sounds just in time, as the creature was just about to chomp off Tsunade's head with its large mouth. Due to the sonic screwdrivers, the sounds would become violent to the creature and deafen it, as it shouted out in pain from its senses being shouted at from all sides, both blinding it, and making it stumble backwards slightly. Tsunade now had a chance to counter-attack. But, small problem. Like the others, her irises had changed. Not doubled, but tripled like a triangle. Her hands, now oozing with some sort of slime lightly, had morphed. They were fins now between each finger, and they felt flexible. Like there were no longer any bones, or rather, they turned to jelly, as she could naturally move each one backwards further than any human could. Her tongue as well, she couldn't feel it, like it was numb. If she stuck it out, she'd noticed it grown a few inches, and looked like a tentacle.
The priests chant was to increase her mutations. The priests did not take kindly to the doctor's interference, as two charged at them with knives drawn, while the third tried to continue with Tsunade; the sonic sound now so much weaker.
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Dusk
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Dusk's experience was somewhat more confusing than Trigger's, as it involved entering a new plane that was unlike the rest of the city. It seemed to be some sort of factory room that would be inside a large complex. Large fluorescent lights lit up the environment, but it still felt dim due to the size of the room absorbing most of the light like a black hole. Dusk had entered the room with Wick and Amy, both companions he had barely interacted with since joining the group. With that, it was probably impossible to guess who Dusk was in his new form. Dusk didn't take this into account however. Once Amy entered the room she seemed to have a visceral reaction to it. Some instinctual fear brought up from past trauma. While Wick handled Amy in her panic, Dusk went about investigating the room. He looked at one of the main boiler-looking containers in the center of the room. The material it was made of reflected a great amount of the light in the room, and mirrored Dusk's own face. Something seemed off about it, other than it being different than his previous one, the eyes looked to be elongated in some way. The pupils resembled that of a frog, stretched out horizontally. Every once in a while they pulsated, trying to morph back into their original shape but failing in the attempt.
His thoughts were soon interrupted by Amy falling over a box, followed by a strange creaking sound, like a snake hissing and rattling its tail. Dusk, who had sheath his sword at this point on his hip, gripped the handle and prepared for another monster. "An exit would be most useful once you two are done," Dusk commented as he put his back to the two in a defensive stance. He sounded very particular about his words, like they were foreign to him and he had not learned the slang part of the language.
Shirou and Samuel ran for their lives with the rest of the group as the Doctors rejoined them from wherever they had disappeared to, quickly leading them back to the landing site for the TARDIS. They ended up having to take another route due to hostile creatures cutting off their original path.
Before they could proceed any further however, an explosion of searing, bright green fire erupted between the Doctors and the rest of their group, cutting them off as it rapidly began to spread all over the area. The group was forced to split up and take cover in the stone buildings hewn into the rock columns and cliff faces of this subterranean city.
Shirou found himself in the same building as John Wick, Amy, and Dusk. The all-consuming green flames began to consume the very bedrock that made up the supporting structure of the building, a crumbling tremor shaking the walls and ceiling as it began to collapse. John kicked down a door leading into another section of the stone complex, quickly ushering them through as they narrowly avoided being crushed.
For a moment they were stuck in pitch black darkness, but then the lights came on...revealing some sort of modern-looking industrial facility. It looked like it could have been from anywhere on Earth, but Amy seemed to recognize it, to her horror. As John tried to calm her down, a sudden, deep headache overcame Shirou, causing him to double over in pain, crying out as he gripped his head. It felt like his skull might explode.
The pain then began to recede, but when the young man opened his eyes again...everything was distorted, out of focus, split up into warped, overlapping fields of view. If anyone looked at his eyes, they would see that his pupils appeared to have distorted into a 'figure 8' shape, even moreso than the others.
"I...I can't see clearly anymore. Everything looks wrong," Shirou spoke up, trying to keep a level voice as he heard movement and creaking nearby, instinctively summoning his twin blades into his hands, his heart hammering in his chest. "I won't be able to fire my swords like this, too much risk of hitting one of you. I'll have to fight at melee range."
He tried his best to control his breathing and draw on more of his magic senses, trying to perceive any disturbances that could give away an approaching foe. He was nowhere near as good at it as mages with formal training and talent for it, but it had saved his life before. He desperately hoped it would work here too.
Nomad
As Nomad climbed the steps with the others, The Last Word clutched in his hand, firing at any creature that dared to get close. But soon a building came crashing down, forcing everyone to jump off the stairs onto intact buildings' roofs or to slip into adjacent buildings in hopes of not only dodging the debris from the fallen building, but to avoid the green flames that threatened to take them any moment.
Not wanting to be alone, he took after John, Amy, Shirou and someone that looked awfully similar to Dusk if he was human but with horns, their surroundings changing to that of a facility that looked to be in use even now without a single living soul beyond the three of them.
But something was off about their new surroundings, though neither Nomad nor his Ghost could see it. He certainly felt it. His eyes began to feel as if though someone had taken a needle and was stirring his eyes like a paint jar. Wasn't painful much, but just really weird feeling. John and Amy's eyes looked as if though they had gained two irises for each eyeball.
Eye Dee Kay voiced through Nomad's speakers. "Nomad's Ghost here, I'm detecting a rapid change to physiological status in most of you. I cannot possibly know to what extent this can reach, but I'd advice for everyone to get back to that TARDIS. Or these changes will only get worse, or more permanent."
@Wade Von Doom @Wiggin
John and Amy both listened to what Nomad's ghost would say about their changing biology. Add to it, Shirou was now blinded, and they just had their best player against these creatures crippled.
"Amy," John said, looking back to her.
"Whatever this place means to you, it's not real. You're not here, we're still in the city, and we can't stay still. We need to leave." He told her as calmly as he could, yet still had some urgency to it.
°°°°°° °°°°°°° °°°°°°OOOOO
The noises around them had changed. It was like singing all of a sudden, but the voices were synthesized. From around the corner, hooded figures appeared. They all had swords held in both hands; held to their chests with the blade resting against their heads. Red electricity formed around the blades as well, as the strange chant continued.
"Oh no...." Amy said, quickly standing up to see an old foe she wished was forgotten easily.
"Amy..." John quickly moved around in front of her, pistol drawn.
"What are they?" He could see she knew them.
"Headless monks. They worked for The Silence here." Amy answered.
"This is Devil's Run... This is where my child was taken from me."
The monks marched in single file in two straight lines, one from the left, the other to the right, and once they connected into a larger line, they turned to face the group.
"Anyone see an exit behind us?" John asked, but there was nothing. Not even the doorway they led them here, it disappeared.
With little choice, John did what he always did. Hunt. He fired three shots, taking out two of the monks, before they suddenly shot bolts of red lightning at them all. John managed to duck as a bolt nearly struck him across the face.
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Trigger
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Well things just kept getting worse as time went on. Trigger successfully got Alista into a nearby building thinking that it was safe shelter. It was definitely not safe shelter, as soon after the two began hiding from the flames the walls began to crumble. Stone cracked and fell, and Trigger knew that it was time to leave. "Well fuck," Trigger said, turning to the nearest door and kicking it down. What lied beyond the opening was more of the stone city. Trigger looked to his right, seeing that the entire ground was beginning to collapse into something deep below. Trigger want to neither know what was under the ground nor why it was happening, he only knew that it was an indication that he and Alista should be running. "You wouldn't happen to know any ways to make us run faster w- Ah shit!" Trigger went to ask Alista if she had any useful spells, but panic overtook him as the cracks approached and he turned and ran up the stairs.
Meanwhile, Samuel ended up with Trigger and Alistia, stumbling as the very earth shook violently, with fissures beginning to rip open thunderously all around them. Trigger cursed as the they began to flee up the giant stairwell, and Samuel quickly followed suit, swearing violently as he leapt up the stairs in bounding strides, desperately tried to avoid getting swallowed up by the collapsing ground.
As if that wasn't bad enough, some sort of flying, winged horrors had begun to swoop down from the earth roof of the massive cavern, spewing more of that terrifying green fire at their companions. And they could do nothing about it, as they were fully occupied trying to avoid falling to their deaths.
Samuel had never felt more weak and mortal without his mech as he did in this moment. He would have given anything to be back in the cockpit right now.
Jacket
The man known as Jacket continued his rampage while following the group. Bashing skulls and unleashing hot lead into the creatures around the group and himself. His anger still burning hot inside of him. He didn't care how many he killed, nothing would quell the rage for the blight the denizens had done unto him.
It'd be one thing to lie to him, but to so blatantly pretend to be his dead best friend to get him to let his guard down. He'd drown the whole damned city in blood. The odd stirring in his eyes was thought little of, for he assumed that his rage caused his body to spasm and shake with the bubbling anger in his very being.
But as he followed the group, they were separated by a falling building and green flames, and while the others split off. Jacket ran after Trigger, Alista and Samuel through a building that soon collapsed after Jacket dived through the door, barely avoiding being crushed. Their path found them another way up. Far below them, the hellish city was falling apart. And looking at it caused Jacket's head to swim and hurt that only his rage caused him to look away as it dissipated into cold fear.
They needed to get to that blue police box now.
@Snowtwo @Wiggin
As the ground collapsed, a very large tentacle suddenly popped out one of the larger holes and slammed itself down towards Trigger, Sam and Jacket. If they ducked, they would still be in danger, as the ground would crack away into pieces. The only thing below them was the abyss itself, and the rather large creature that tentacle was attached to.
It was, needless to say, very large. It's lower tentacles clung onto the sides of the casum to not fall into the darkness below. The heroes best hope was to try and land on one of its body parts. Its hands already would try to swipe at Alistia and Trigger, while more of the dragon creatures that breathed the green fire flew around Sam and Jacket. One tried charging at Sam head on, while two flew around Jacket to try and fry him alive with green flames.
A Monster
The dragonkin-monster mindlessly followed the scent of life energy carried by the Doctors and their friends through the warped landscape. However, the twisted nature of the spaces within and the eldritch being's followers kept getting in its way. So it simply smashed and tore and bit and clawed its way through anything that got in the way of the prize its base instincts so very keenly yearned for.
Any wounds made on the monster's body healed as it continued its bloodshed and consumed those vile followers that got in its way. Such was the nature of Ayana's "Blessing", to consume foreign energies and magics and use them to grow in power- to try and create an unstoppable monster out of a lowly mortal frame.
It roared as it stumbled and clawed its way up the stairs that the others had fled up...
- - - - - - - - -
Ayana
Following the stairs in this weird place, Ayana came across another platform with an image in stained glass.
This time the image was of her second "family", the band of thieves and lowlives that she was lucky enough to somehow fall in with. The ones within the eventually rose within the ranks by the simple virtue of sticking around long enough (not getting thrown in jail or dying) and having more common sense than the average slum-dweller.
Once again the hooded figure appeared, standing there for a moment before vanishing again- just as an angrily thrown dagger passed through where it was.
"Face me damnit!" she screeched.
As if in response, she heard that whispering voice again, "To the one... who would follow the path of kings... you must be brave and your heart strong and true..."
As the voice died down, there was a bright flash of light-
- - - - -
-and Ayana found herself standing among the burning wreckage of her home city, undead corpses and soldiers shambling about mindlessly.
"...I deliver unto you... this trial..." the voice whispered as the undead milling about one by one began to take notice of Ayana and screeched their ghastly wails as they charged at her.
What's worse, as the undead drew closer she could somewhat recognize their faces- or rather, what their faces used to be. As well, all their eyes glowed with a baleful yellow light...
Anger boiled up in her heart, driving to meet the undead's charge with one of her own. She drove her sword clean through the undead bodies again and again, cleaving them from limb to limb in her rage.
Minutes later, she stood upon a pile of fallen undead- panting heavily from the exertion.
In the distance, she heard clanking armored footsteps.
She knew, deep down- that here and now in the middle of this spell that had brought her back to this hated part of her memories... it could only be one thing- the Dread Knight. And the other undead she had fought, its eyes too glowed with a baleful yellow light.
The bastard, the monster that had killed her before. That had killed most of her new family. The bastard that she had finally gotten revenge on nearly a year later and she had no qualms about putting that thing back in the dirt once more- even if it probably wasn't the real thing.
With a heave and without a second thought, she raised her blade and clashed against the phantasmal copy of it that the Dread Knight's. After all, that is where she had originally looted it from.
But there was a problem...
...This time... This time she was alone in this fight.
Nevertheless, she stood her ground and fought. It didn't matter that she was alone this time, that the thing was much more skilled with its blade than she was. She gave it her all, defending against blow after blow that hammered against her sword and pushed her back. When her body started giving out under the brute force behind the blows, when she could barely stand- she got up aways.
With the rage filling her body, she didn't think to run away and hide- to find a better way of beating this foe. (Last time, she had only beaten the thing thanks to cooperation from some friends and some underhanded trickery.)
When she was pushed to her limits, to her last few undying breaths- she got up once more and on some sort of impulse swung her blade to meet the blade of her foe.
Unexpectedly, there was an explosion of force at the point where their blades met and her foe was sent flying backward from the blow. Rising properly to her feet, Ayana looked down at the sword in her hand to find that instead of what she was expecting- she was holding that damn Keyblade from earlier.
Is that... is that what all this had been about? This damned Keyblade thing?
Nevertheless, she felt her strength return to her limbs and stood strong once more- ready to put this ghost from her past back to rest.
When Ayana would return to he regular body... or however regular it would be from this intense mutation of her body, she would find herself along some stairs that were quite precarious.
Half of it was gone, and what remained didn't exactly look stable to stand on. And down below was nothing but darkness in his cavern of insanity. The city again shook, and a wall of the chasm nearby had a small section break off; debris falling to the depths below. The stairs connected to a little pathway along a building that looked to enter back into the city if she went up, while below, the pathway going off to the side connected to another building that only went deeper down. The building up the stairs also had fighting going on, as she would hear the clanking of metal. A figure appeared along the edge, being stabbed through the chest, then kicked off to fall into the abyss. It was another one of the those priests that worshipped the god here, and it's killer was a friendly face... or, more appropriately, a friendly Templar knight's helmet.
"Ayana!" Callintus waved from above, shouting to her, as the distance between them was great. "It is good to see you again! I worried you would become trapped in the city as that dragon!"
