Eternal Rains (IC) [M] - Closed

[Tapewolf]

Cross held his ears as the terrible sound lanced through them.  It was so hard to concentrate... but he did, and the sound diminished as baffles began to form in his ear canals.

You fool, he thought frantically as the saurian attacked.  We could have negotiated with it.  Maybe given it some of the Beings... no, they haven't done anything to deserve that!  Except maybe the hedgehog.  All life is sacred except that which fucks with Clan Daryil...

The sound was obviously intended to disorientate.  Fortunately Cross had avoided the worst of it and was fully alert even before it ended.  Things had crawled out of the junk, no.. they were the junk.  One of them was making its way towards him, swift yet spiderlike, full of sharp blades and murderous intent.  It had no soul to destroy, so that option was out.  But the green glow... that was obviously a spell.

So let's dispel it, he thought and a faint puff of nothing shimmered out from his hand towards the thing.  Get rid of it, destroy it and then protect Keaton.  He had to protect Keaton...

"Call them off, and we might let you live," he yelled.

[e_voyager]

Epyon looked at  the approaching things eye wide open and nothing changed. There was no soul. there was no emotional nothing to read.  There and tell him what the thing was going to to or what it had been originally. There was only a short sporadic pulse like one might see in a when turning on toaster. It had what looked like it was part he what was that a a wheel barrel ? a car? he wasn't sure but whats ever it was it had blades and was that spikes or horns on it's head? It didn't matter he wasn't going to attack it's head anyway. There was no point in attacking the head of something you couldn't knockout.   Still the junkyard did seem bright with his upper eyes open and the rusting zombie like creature coming towards him seemed to be metal twisted into the forum of something that once lived but was no longer even a corpse of the once living. Maybe that would be key to disabling it. Epyon twirling his pole over his head to build up momentum without scrapping it he approached the monstrosity and  as he come with half a dozen the lunges and swing the pole at it's legs hoping to knocking it off balance and  so he could bash it into uselessness. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt winced at the noise, and growled. His eyes widened, his spines stood up, and he grinned, evilly. This was going to be fun.

He started off by pointing the revolver in his hand at the nearest of the various junk beasts, and letting off two shots at each, aiming at the glowing green eyes. He then put the revolver away in its holster, and leapt forward with a howl of glee, slamming his paws into the top of the nearest monster, rocking it over. He bounced over the top of it, rolled back to his feet, and grabbed the next one on the left, heaving it across the gap he'd just created at a third on the right, and rolling backwards at the adjacent fourth pile, bouncing off his paws and hammering his boots into the top of it.

He dropped his feet to the ground, and spun, grabbing the mobile junkpile as his arms went past, lifting it and spinning towards a fifth creation, slamming the lofted pile down with as much force as he could muster, shattering pieces in all directions.

He rolled to the side, out of reach, and back to his feet, pulling the revolver and emptying it with one hand, and reloading it with the other, three rounds held between each pair of digits, then fired all six rounds at the figure kneeling on the top of the nearby junk mountain, aiming at the center of mass, before reloading again and putting the gun away, looking around to see which junkpiles still need destroying.

His eyes glittered, and he shouted "BAR BRAAAAAAAAAWL!" before leaping back into the fray.

[Stygian]

It was just about all she could take. First the nauseating noise out of nowhere, and now this utter insanity! There was simply no hope for the whole situation. And to make things worse, the people around were just adding to it. Faced with the dilemma of what to do, the figure took a shocked step backwards, as her eyes darted back and forth under her hood, and she raised her arms as if to begin some movements that even she did not know what they were to be. She twitched, hesitated, opened her mouth, shifted her stance, and twitched again. And then, with a rattling growl, she bowed her head forward and put her hands to her forehead, groaning. The situation was hopeless, and the bloody noise was not helping! She had to do something...!
   Trying as hard as she could just to ignore the calamity and the sounds around her, the woman started forward and did all she thought she could do. If they wouldn't have to go into the junkyard, then they had better get out of it instead. So she tried to get the ones who displayed at least a little calmness and sanity under the circumstances with her. The first one she grabbed was the wolf from before, tugging on his shoulder and pulling him a whole step back. Then she looked to the mole mage, stamped the ground with her boot, and pointed and gestured violently back toward the front entry from where they had come. When she thought she'd gotten her point across, she finally thrust her arm out of her sleeve and started flinging around that white silk-substance wildly, aiming for anything that was metal up ahead and not caring if there were any others moving in front of it. Lastly, when she had at least a gross of meters out, soon expending all she had of her silk, she moved for the jackal.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq's scowl changed to a humourless grin as the mechanical monstrosity revealed himself and made the expected threats to life, limb and pelt of everyone in the party. What an utter incompetent, the mole thought as he metaphorically rolled up his sleeves and prepared a favourite depeditation spell. The time for such bluster is after your... test subject... has realised his helplessness, not before! Now, which leg shall I blast off first...?

His musings were cut short by the first of the party's attacks. Then the other mechanical monstrosities lumbered out of the junk piles all around them and made a hideous metallic screeching noise. Fal'taq staggered slightly, his hands tightly clamped over his ears, but he couldn't completely shut out the deafening racket. The cloaked figure grabbed Cogidubnus and waved at the mole, apparently trying to catch his attention. He couldn't concentrate through the noise, though. When it stopped abruptly, he only had a moment to recover before the ring of monsters charged, surprisingly quickly considering their ungainly appearance. The closest one, looking like a four-legged animal made from a cub's building blocks using a badly translated written description, scuttled towards Fal'taq waving mismatched arms with razor-sharp pincers on the end. The mole snarled and launched a fireball straight at it.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

The enraged and more-than-terrorized jackal snarled, for once devoid of contemptuous satisfaction, as Cogidubnus stumbled away from her. While she would never admit it, Keaton was quite definitely frightened by their predicament, to the point she couldn't garner some sense of accomplishment by victimizing Cog. After all, there were more serious matters at hand than relieving her frustration on the unfortunate gray wolf.

Although, as for other gray wolves... Cross was standing close behind Keaton and pleading as to why she persisted in continuing their possibly foolhardy trek through the junkyard. It wasn't the sort of thing Keaton appreciated hearing, not when she was so agitated. Before Keaton could even redirect her (albeit restrained) wrath towards Cross in the form of a derogatory insult, the most unlikely individual beat her to it. Cog whirled around and started shouting at Cross, basically vocalizing almost every word of the vituperation Keaton wanted to shout in the face of an ostensibly unreceptive Cross. At the end of Cog's long-winded obloquy, Keaton finally felt her shock (and ever-so-slight fulfillment) fade in favor of dread, as she knew Cross, as a Cubi, wouldn't be merciful towards Cog's transgression. That is, if he was anything like her.

At first she thought she was wrong, since he didn't say anything as harsh as what she expected. Instead, he sounded almost dismissive. Keaton warily watched Cog trudge away from Cross, vaguely overhearing his tirade about Cubi-arrogance and other things she didn't really care about, but just as she detached her gaze and was about to glance back to Cross, she was caught off-guard by the sudden shriek Cog emitted before he collapsed. The sound cut sharply across Keaton's eardrums, splitting straight into her brain for a brief but excruciating few seconds. Technically, Cog's cry of pain wasn't even as exaggerated as Keaton's mind perceived it to be, but it was still relatively unexpected - especially when Cog seemed to have no external injuries to speak of. All Keaton could assume was that Cross was somehow responsible. She wanted to turn around and start firing accusations at Cross, but at the moment she was still frozen by the rapidly-progressing events, as though she couldn't extricate her eyes from Cog's writhing form on the ground.

For a moment, Keaton wondered if she should provide some sort of assistance for Cog, but just as she speculated on this Cog managed to get back to his feet and fearfully started to hobble forward again. Keaton froze, watching the gray wolf with a dumbstruck expression on her face for the first few seconds. She saw the way Cog looked at Cross, but despite this evidence, she didn't intervene. They had to get out of here as fast as possible. She'd chew Cross out later. With a clear edge of reluctance, Keaton sighed and started to pursue Cog, her grip on Catastrophe tightening.

---

For the remainder of that part of the journey, Keaton partially devoted her attention to not only surveying her surroundings, but occasionally observing Cog's behavior as well. Aside from her apprehension, the trip was mostly uninteresting and without many important events - that is, up until the music started blaring out of nowhere. Instantly, Keaton snarled loudly and clamped her hands over her ears, repulsed by the tunelessly obstreperous noise and the pain it invoked deep within her eardrums. Around her, it seemed the others shared the same sentiments, which didn't really surprise her.

I'm going to find whatever's playing that fucking song and turn it into scrap metal, Keaton threatened to herself. Shortly after that thought registered, she started to realize that the song wasn't originating from any speakers or radios, like she had suggested. It seemed to be coming from a more direct source.

That became thoroughly illustrated as the garbage before them rustled and a tall, abnormally-proportioned silhouette loomed over the heap, then stepped into the open.

Keaton felt a profound sense of disgust seize her at the sight of the menacing stalker unveiled, a demented amalgamation of monster and machine. Almost immediately Keaton had suspects that it was he - or it - who was responsible for the screaming heard before and the corpses strewn about the junkyard, and for good reason. When he started talking about specimens, Keaton had a sinking feeling he wasn't talking about the group assisting him with an innocuous science project. Of course not. They just had to run by some sort of lunatic with a fetish for scrap heap.

Around that time, Tyrannus, who Keaton had, in a surprising lack of perception, failed to notice up until then, shouted to her. Keaton stared at the saurian Mythos in shock for a moment, not out of abhorrence, but more because she was shocked she hadn't realized he was following them. Come to think of it, Keaton wouldn't have complained if he made his intentions known before, seeing as a saurian who was large and strong enough to knock Izria over would be more than useful in many of these dire situations. At the moment, it would be downright asinine to refuse assistance when it was so generously offered.

Grip wringing around Catastrophe's pommel, Keaton forced herself to nod, then fired back in return, "Knock yourself out! We need all the help we can get -"

Apparently, that machine-monster shared the same sentiments. He was not alone, as was revealed after Dani shot him through the leg. Encouraged by his battle cry, a veritable entourage of mechanical abominations started to climb out from around the junk heaps, lurching to life. Keaton yelped and staggered backwards a few steps, nearly tripping over her own boots once or twice, her eyes leaping from each new arrival as they climbed into sight. The ringmaster of this assembly of atrocities shrieked out one, prolonged command to those beasts, and at his demand they swarmed upon the group. Instantly Keaton jerked back, Catastrophe poised to strike, and grit her teeth - those things - they were unbelievable! What were these things? What -

Oh fuck, there wasn't any time to speculate. Everyone was already reacting to the attacking menagerie of zombie-bots. One of those things was coming right at her with alarming speed. Bringing Catastrophe back, Keaton swung the heavy mace forward, aiming to slug the incoming barbarity with enough force to immobilize it. Once this was accomplished, she would further exacerbate the assault.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny winced and felt a little sick at the shrieking noises but it didn't stop her from taking careful aim at the closest rubbish monster, a rather roly-poly but sinister thing that appeared to be mostly make of a toxic waste barrel. As the explosive bolt left the bow she belatedly remembered to activate the spell in her bracelet that would shield her from any shrapnel caused by the explosion.  She considered shouting a warning to the others but didn't bother as she wouldn't be heard over the auditory bombardment. The fast-moving fisher was immediately cocking the bow, dropping in the next bolt and aiming for another monster. It was then that she noticed the cloaked figure gesturing back towards the entrance.

[techmaster-glitch]

   The two zombiebots Dani fired his remaining three shotgun slugs at got nice holes blasted in them, as well as knocking off some stray bits of metal. Their green glows dimmed slightly. However, they seemed to ignore this entirely, and continued charging.
   When Cross's dispel hit the zombiebot in front of him, it fell to the ground, glow extinguished, but still in one piece. Arcwelder, upon seeing this, was annoyed. He touched the metal in the scrap pile he was laying on, and a bolt of green lighting raced down it, then shot into the zombiebot. It came back to life glowing brighter than ever and quite literally jumped in the air as if it were a person who just got shocked in the ass. It hissed at Cross, then charged even faster than before, swinging its claws wildly.
   The spiderlike zombiebot advancing on Epyon indeed had its legs knocked out from under it as Epyon struck them, then started beating on it. However, it swept one leg in an attempt to swat Epyon away, then got up. It was a little more dented than it was, but otherwise Epyon's attacks had no discernable effect. It's glow remained constant.
   When Witt shot the 'eye' of two of the zombiebots, it blew off a nice chunk of metal out of each of them, but their glows remained, albeit dimmed slightly. Then Witt went on a melee-spree with a strength disproportionate to his size, knocking one over and throwing two into two others. Arcwelder watched as he reloaded his gun and started shooting at him. Arcwelder had realized this in the nick of time before the shots went flying, and lifted up a large plate of metal. The police-issue pistole put some nice dents in the plate, and even blew a hole through. Though Witt couldn't see it, that one had caught Arcwelder in his flesh left arm. He snarled at the new wound. Stupid weak flesh. Before anyone else could take pot-shots at him, he had crawled back over the scrap pile and out of sight. As for the zombiebots Witt had thrown around, the untangled themselves and got back up, a little battered but mostly unhindered. They continued their frenzied assault.
   The silk that Salticia sprayed everywhere did adhere to some of the metal monstrosities, and started to solidify, but she had overlooked one important detail: The were made of sharp, jagged metal. Once the stuff had become sufficiently solid instead of goop, they just had to move, and the stuff was instantly cut to ribbons. They continued mostly unhindered, though the stuff was sticky enough that id did clog their joints somewhat. But only a little.
   The fireball Fal'Taq shot at his zombiebot slammed right into it, pushing it back some as the fire raged around it. When the fire died, the front of the thing was completely blackened, and the glow not as strong as before. But it got back up, growled at him, and kept on coming, in a wild charge of swinging blades.
   When Keaton swung her mace at the zombiebot advancing on her, she nailed that bugger. What counted as its head was smashed in and ripped off, and was now dragging lifelessly along the ground by a cord. It's glow was slightly dimmed. But, even though it was now nearly headless, it kept coming, swinging it's deadly appendages crazily.
   Penny's magical exploding bolt had the most effect out of anyone's attacks so far. The bolt hit the zombiebot dead-on, and created a nice boom. When the smoke cleared, it was missing a noticeable amount of chunks of itself. It's glow was now only half as strong as it was. But, it just got up and rushed at her again, only it moved jerkier, clumsier. At least, more so than it had been before.

  Earlier, three of the zombiebots had held back. Now, they would make their purpose known. Two of them climbed on top of scrap piles. One of them had a long, many-jointed arm and a scoop. With it's arm, it started picking select pieces of scrap out from under it, ones that were sharp and/or jagged, of varying sizes, but nothing bigger than a platter. It collected as many as it could as quick as it could, depositing them in its scoop. Once it had a nice stash, it picked them out, one by one, and stated flinging at the group. Thanks to the long, jointed arm, it was flinging them at a..problematic velocity for the party. The other one had a long, hollow pole, probably a flagpost. From its higher vantage point, it pointed the pole in the center of the group. It was obvious what it was supposed to be, but it couldn't actually be a-
   BLAM...BLAM...BLAM...BLAM...BLAM...The thing was a gun! however, it wasn't shooting nice bullets, but random bits of tiny shrapnel. Not that anyone could see them, though. The thing had absolutely no accuracy, it just randomly sprayed its projectiles around, hoping to hit something.
   As for the third, it fidgeted with two hands as the brawl started. Eventually, it picked something off of itself with its left hand. It was a food can, with one end capped off, and a hole in the other. However, what was in the can was most definitely not beans. It held the can with the holed end toward itself, and started striking what passed as fingers against each other, making sparks fly. It did this repeatedly, until finally, a jet of flame shot out of the hole in the can. The can tried to jump out of the zombiebot's hand, but it held on. It angled the can upward a little, then let go. The thing shot off and traveled in a crazy random trajectory, spiraling all over the place. then, it drooped down, and started falling to the ground. Somewhere in the middle of the party. Wherever it landed, it would make a nice, dirty bang. The zombiebot pulled out another one, this time an aerosol can, before the first one even touched down.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog simply panicked.

The pressures of the day - the pressures of the last month, the near-daily fear of being hurt or beaten, the almost daily realization of those fears, and the sudden, inexplicable, and terrifying events of the near-present, and the constant and seemingly unending pain was beginning to drive the wolf to... he wasn't sure.
His breathing was ragged.

He almost dived the for the ground, the cacophonous roar of metal, and then the subsequent explosion of firearms, magic, and truly explosive arrows disorienting the wolf. He screamed, crouching, and clapped both hands over his head.
Keaton. Must stay near Keaton must stay near Keaton, oh God, oh God...
Not for the first time, he found himself absently checking the time, the sunset dipping almost beneath the piles of junk.

A strong, strong hand grabbed his collar, and he suddenly found himself pulled up by the mute woman from before. She pulled him back, towards more of the Zombiebots, and then made a gesture towards Keaton and the other, little mage - Fal'Taq, Cog thought. Cog absently wondered what the mute...whatever she was was trying to do. His eyes, passing over the hood of her cloak, widened. He pulled back hard on her, his face twisted in panic yet again.

A blinding flash split through the junkyard, as though time itself had been cut in half with a wall of light - and just a second after, thunder blasted through the junkyard, a hundred times louder than the music had been. It rattled the cans sitting on top of the junk piles, and dwarfed the sound of the explosions that pattered through the small clearing.
A single zombiebot, standing straight across from Salticia, was engulfed in a lightning bolt twice as thick as it was, crackling and jagged with power. It stood within the monstrous bolt like a silhouette, a blackened skeleton on a white background - the eerie, eldritch glow from its eyes, wether or not it was dissipated, was completely overshadowed by the sudden bolt of power, and the thing of metal visibly sagged as the lightning fused the thing into a single, solid and blackened piece.

Just as quickly as it came, the lightning bolt suddenly split in half, each piece of the thunder arcing towards another zombiebot, and another one after that - each zombie along the way blackening as the fury of the skies exploded the things into small, individual pieces, or simply sagged and melted and fused together. Bits of power flowed out into random pieces of metal as well, the thunder arcing only towards things made of metal. Every amp and speaker there seemed to spark at once, ruined, and by the end of the deafening, thunderous roar of power, only those made of flesh and bone stood left in the clearing beneath the made scientist.
Small sparks of power had hit the three zombiebots above them, and the aura of power around them had dimmed considerable, but other than light charring, they seemed to have somewhat survived. Arcwelder himself, as he had taken cover, had evaded the chain lightning.

Behind the group, and surrounding them in a semicircle on all sides, were what simply seemed to be mermaids on legs. Some armed with simple tridents and sabers, and others robed in what seemed to be loose, flowing robes of light green all remained silent, the figures rows deep. All but one in particular - dressed in a robe of dark blue, almost more of a bathrobe than a true mage's outfit, and carrying a staff of crystalline blue, she carried herself forward with the air one someone who was not used to being denied anything. Gold chains and loops adorned her neck, with multiple earrings of gold and silver adorning each lobe, and a voluminous number of shining rings on each hand. A stylized shark's tooth carved from Jet hung also hung from her neck. Striped as she was, and with long whiskers protruding from random places, she most reminded one of a lionfish.

"Which of you is the mechanic, Pandora?" she said, her voice musically fluting and high, and as cold as the depths of the sea.

[Tapewolf]

Cross bounded away to defend Keaton as his spell took out the robot.  Glancing back he saw Arcwelder reactivate it and with a curse, threw another spell at him.  Maybe we can make you stop glowing too.

Then the sky opened.  When the chaos ceased, they were surrounded by what Cross presumed were Mers, and they did not look friendly.

"Which of you is the mechanic, Pandora?"

Arcwelder was too far gone to really determine his or her gender, short of DNA analysis.  It was logical.  Cog had been lying when he spoke of Pandora.  When Cross questioned the need to enter the junkyard, he could only reply with a series of straw-man arguments.  He alone had crossed the junkyard and lived.  He had made a pact with the junk-monster, selling them out to save his own hide.

"The... The one with the metal arm and the magic," he bleated.  "They're the mechanic."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Arcwelder was circumventing one of the scrap piles when he suddenly felt something. Something bad. He stopped, stunned, and clutched himself. The feeling had hit him like a train. He wobbled around the rest of the scrap pile, and peeked his head out behind it.
   His jaw fell open.
   His friends, all his precious friends...were broken. Totally fried. Kaput. So destoyed that they were all beyond any hope of salvaging or recycling. A few that hadn't already died in the initial zap wobbled once, then collapsed, completely inert.
   A bunch of the strangest flesh-things he had ever seen had appeared, and were undoubtably the cause of the destruction.
   Arcwelder ran.
   Ignoring his wounds and whatever happened behind him, he ran. he didn't know what those things were or what they wanted, be he knew even he couldn't fight them to keep his moe, which he was undoubtably about to lose. Eventually, he came to the place he was headed for; a hollowed-out shell of part of a steel tanker. He ran inside.
   There were five large somethings n there, all folded up and motionless. Already built, already 'alive'. Just not awake. Arcwelder had hoped he would never have to use them. He held up his hand, and a bolt of green lightning arced out of all five fingers and struck the motionless figures.
   One by one, they each acuired a green glow somewhere inside them, and got up. They were mechanical monsters, but a little different from the ones before. They were more refined (but still ugly), bigger, tougher, stronger.
   One was skeletal, standing on two legs and had four arms, each ending in a chainsaw.
   One was crablike, and instead of claws, had two ungodly massive radial-arm saws.
   One looked something like a cannon on four legs.
   One had what looked like two home-made gatling guns on a three-legged platform.
   One had four short, wide tubes and little arms, with canisters attached all over it.
   Arcwelder led the five out, and ran again. He had to get out, but to where?
   ...Of course. Her. The only one who Arcwelder did not try to experiment on. He had actually exchanged parts with her from time to time. She never seemed too happy with him, though. he could stay with her until the things were gone from his home. Then he could go back. Yes. That's it.
   Arcwelder ran, knowing the Junkyard inside and out, taking all of the quickest shortcuts to the back 'entrance'.

[e_voyager]

If the dead could sweat then Epyon was doing so now. those creatures  they were glowing fiercely. their soul and magic energy was massive and there seemed to be a cold tint of rage to there collective aura. as if there were here to avenge some perceived wrong. This was not where he wanted. Epyon hastily retracted and put his pole away. he didn't want to be on the received end of one of those spells and he wanted to run as soon as he had an opening because these did not look like people he could fight.

[Cogidubnus]

The mer woman turned an imperious eye towards Cross, regarding the Cubi coldly. Her mouth twisted in a sneer.
"That's the Junkman, you fool. Her supplier. He too will feel our wrath. But... later." she said, her voice still as cold as it was musical. She made a guesture with her free hand, and the skies above her responded, thundering ominously.
Weather-witch.

She straightened herself up further, if that was possible, her eyes passing over each and every member of the party - from the large dinosaur, to the small weasel-looking thing with a crossbow, to the strange, hooded figure across from her.
"I am Jazamin Flowright." she said, her voice suddenly changed - not deeper, but yet somehow broader than it had been before. "I am the Mer, here. And I've already asked you once which one of you is Pandora once."
She narrowed black, pupiless eyes. "She's the only other person who comes in here. And taking her here would have been so much easier..." Her voice, strange as it was, took on a petulant note. Her eyes flashed out at the party. "Imagine my pleasure when a dozen of you walk in at once."

She snorted, and the skies rumbled again. "I don't suppose it matters. Just being here is damnation enough. Why else would you be here, except to deal with her? No, I think..."

Twisting out of Sal's grasp, Cog nearly stumbled to the ground and without explanation or even a glance backwards, ran. His steps squished wetly on the mudded ground beneath him.
Despite his efforts to drown everything in his mind out, he could stilll very well hear the weather-witch's cruel laugh as he ran, and the ominous rumbling in the skies.

[Tapewolf]

Cog bolted, leaving Cross next to Keaton.  Presumably the Mer thought of him as a simpleton now, which was fine by him.  He glanced back at the other wolf, unable to decide what to do.  Teleporting out was still an option except for Keaton... he wasn't sure if he'd be able to bring them both anymore and he needed her alive.

That basically left a choice between staying behind and trying to convince them that he knew nothing (which was true, but they might not believe him) or following the junkie, who had now demonstrated his guilt and would in all likelihood be shot from behind and killed.

He glanced back at Keaton.  She was the leader...

[Snuggles]

Anton smiled, this was what he was hoping for. Things that could not feel pain, things that could not be a hindrance if he started to cut them down. Will that he was a little bit slow to react because the spell he was about to do was a little stronger then he was use to and one that he hadn't used in a while. In the hand that was glowing earilier, he was able to manifest a large glowing red whip. "Well, well, well this is nice." He used his will to make it strike one of the ones closer to himself. The whip would touch the bot and split it in half if it hit. After a few cracks of the whip hopefully hit a couple of them he saw out of the corner of his eye he say the Arcwelder start to run. He wanted to solve this peacefully so he bent low and jumped helped by his wings and gave case but soon lost him. While hovering in the air he let go of his whip and it disappear as the Combat started to halt. He slowly and quitely hovered over everyone checking out the scene in front of him.

[Aisha deCabre]

Some time before the next fiasco started, Aisha had only just started to calm down.  The banter between most of the group members (including the revealing of yet another 'Cubi...oh how she would feel comfortable now with these mostly-Creatures) were ignored.  The other mutilated bodies she had already gotten used to seeing, though it was now starting to look more like they were walking into a trap.  The smell she was getting immune to, but only for the prospect of fresh air once again.  And when the music started, she stopped with the party, wondering what was to come next.

Then it did.  A horrendous melding of flesh and machine that she had never seen before arrived from somewhere amid the dump, his voice grating and arrogant while looking over the flesh-and-blood creatures in front of him...regarding them all as potential experiments.  Toys, for the most part.  And it was seen that everyone else was agreed upon not liking what they heard...especially not Aisha.

So when he called his beasts upon them, she wasn't any more hesitant than anyone to dive into a fray for their lives.  The arrow which she had been holding had flown against the crazed monster leading them...more than likely it had missed, for the demoness had weapons that could easily pierce flesh...not metal.

So while things went on, and everyone either made the effort to fight or to escape, Aisha ducked.  Instead of fumbling with her arrows, she put the bow back and brought out her favored boomerang in one hand and the chain in the other.  Madre de dios... she almost snorted exasperatedly.  If nobody's gunshots were piercing the beasts, then none of her weapons would do either.  There was only one thing to do.

She snapped the bracers from her arms and placed them on her belt.  The black, spotted leathery extrusions materialized on her back and easily fit through the holes in her armor.  And with them, Aisha could feel the fiery demonic powers returning to her senses.  She yearned to use the fire and the poisonous darkness...but others were already having an easy time driving off the machines...she hadn't had any fill of her own blood so far into the adventure.  So she ran and ducked around through the flying debris, wings shielding her body while looking for one to pick apart...

But almost all too quickly, they were driven off by the sheer force of the group, and then everything was stopped by a bolt of lightning driving into the junkyard.  The flash, much like the one that had signaled the firing of a giant gun back at the docks, threw her back and made her duck onto the ground as the chain of lightning hit one metal monstrosity after another in just milliseconds...leaving them charred.

In their place stood several of a race that few have seen unless they were by water...Mers...and the leader who had been looking for the one called "Pandora".  Aisha would have guessed that was the mechanic who had just run like a coward...

But no, now they were in the middle of something else.  Friends, or foes?  Quickly, starting to look like the latter.

Aisha stood and listened, but was either ready to run or to fight, on a hair trigger...waiting for what their leaders would do.  The boomerang and chain both started glowing red with heat, shades lighter than her eyes.  For gods' sakes, WHAT now?

[Tapewolf]

Cross glanced back from Keaton to the head Mer.  As he did so, he suddenly noticed that Aisha had sprouted demon wings.  Excellent, another Creature in the party, he thought, but now was not the time, so he turned his attention to the Mer.

"Excuse me, my Lady," he began hopefully, "We heard there was a way off the island around here.  Do you happen to know of one, by any chance?"

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt breathed heavily, recovering from the shock of battle, and muttered something under his breath about "there is no gravity, this place just bloody sucks" before shaking himself down.

He glanced over at the Mer, and commented, at a point that seemed appropriate "Half of us don't know who ourselves bloody well are, duckie, let alone each other. So far as I'm aware, we don't have a 'Pandora' in the group. Give me a fucking minute, and I'll go get you one, though."

He makes to wander off after Cog, although at a much less speedy pace.

[e_voyager]

Epyon was inclined to agree with Witt and wondered if he could some how make his escape. after all he was mealy one creature with wings. as far as they knew he might even be. movers slowly he hoped they he'd escaped notice and he  tried to put a pile of junk between himself and the Mer. he needed to sit for a bit and figure our if living was worth the possible destruction he'd just seen.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq glared at the target of his fireball. The Gods-be-damned thing kept on coming — he'd done some damage, but only slowed it down a little. He raised one hand to launch an even more devastating attack, when —

<SPLAT>

Some fast-flying object hit a puddle on the ground just in front of the mole's feet, and something else whistled past his face, close enough to ruffle his fur. The splash of unknown but highly dubious liquid went up the right side of his body as he flinched and ducked back, barely missing his face as he threw an arm up to protect it. He barely had time to think where did that come from, before...

The multiple flashes of light dazzled Fal'taq: he'd been looking directly at one of the things when a bolt of lightning reduced it to melted slag. By the time he'd blinked the tears out of his eyes, they were safe from the mechanical creatures, but it was too late. Their escape route was cut off by a group of Mer. Despite the perilous situation, the mole was hard put to hide his captivation: he knew about the Mer, of course, but he'd rarely seen one except at a distance. These were totally new to him, a type he'd never seen before — and one of them was a weather-witch? The mole could only stand there, dripping anonymous goo from the sleeve of his raincoat, as the Mer made her demands. He blinked and looked around at the others (almost missing Cogidubnus running away), then did a perfect double-take at Aisha. The black leopard stood nearby, a boomerang in one hand and a chain in the other, both glowing red-hot... and with a Demon's wings flaring out from her shoulders. Fascinating...

[Boog]

Ty was finishing off something that looked like the inner workings of a blender, scaled up and given mobile capacity, just as the Mer showed up. He nodded and put it down as lightning arced down to obliterate the other machines. Filing away what the Mer said about Pandora and Mechanics, he took up a guarding stance near the edge of the group. Best not interfere until it was more plain what was happening.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

From the rampaging metallic monstrosities menacing her and her companions, to the sudden arrival of the Mer mistress heralded in the whirling maelstrom which instantaneously eliminated the aforementioned zombie-bots, everything was quite overwhelming to Keaton's dizzied and delirious mind. Frustrated rage and exasperation bloated in the pit of her stomach and swelled to a distorted extent as the zombie-bots simply regrouped after the party's assembled assault, but she couldn't help but feel some slight satisfaction at knowing she had successfully beheaded her selected adversary. Too bad it hadn't amounted to anything. Any further disgruntlement Keaton could have expressed properly dissolved shortly after the group was besieged by gunfire, apparently dispatched by some hidden turrets, or, she imagined, robots.

Fortunately, most of that bombardment was mostly inaccurate in its mark, at least because Keaton was thoroughly active in her efforts to evade each shot. Not all of her attempts to dodge were successful, however. For her troubles a few bullets - no, shrapnel - grazed by her shoulder, one splitting the skin behind its trail, another doing the same to her hip. It was quite disarming. Yelling, Keaton nearly doubled over, but managed to gather her strength again around the time the fallen bomb detonated in the middle of the group.

Keaton leaped to the side, gasping. Her mind, once more, was moving too fast for her to register the battle's progression, and kept leaping from irrelevant thought to irrelevant thought, mostly predicting their oh-so-inevitable downfall, or sometimes dwelling on issues which had no significance to the situation at hand. Lapsing into dementia again. Keaton could feel her brain swell, as though she was keenly aware of each palpable pulse and struggle her brain emitted within her skull. She couldn't break down, though. Couldn't break down, couldn't - couldn't -

A thunderous clap and a blinding flash of light. Keaton shrieked and shielded her eyes from the unexpected glow. Her already panicked mind kicked into overdrive, rapidly flipping from thought to thought until she was clutching her head and trying to keep herself from screaming. Her eyes peeled open just in time to witness the lightning lancing through each zombie-bot, effectively obliterating the abominable antagonists. Keaton heaved, shaking a little, her pupils pinpricking. Oh God, it was the fucking apocalypse. There was no other explanation her mind could conceive, because it was too busy ruminating on the absolute worst options to produce something realistic.

One by one, the Mer appeared. Keaton wasn't sure whether to be relieved or scream. Great. They had invited the wrath of the most wretched Creatures to ever dwell underwater. Somehow. She had no idea. Her head hurt, but there wasn't any buzzing, at least. Just that Mer woman talking about Pandora. Part of Keaton wanted to scream in exasperation and shout, "Take her, for God's sake!", but for some reason Keaton refrained. Instead, her gaze darted frantically from Mer to Mer, observing their weapons and equipment, and the almost catastrophic power they possessed. They didn't - they didn't stand a chance, Keaton realized, or at least not with that leader still there. Attacking her when she was open and vulnerable wouldn't be a smart idea, but they had to do something. Negotiating with these Mer wasn't going to work. They were single-minded in their purpose.

Cross was looking at Keaton in a way which suggested he was expecting for her to do something. For once, Keaton was quite at a loss, not being in a very stable position to be a leader, or an authoritative figure in the first place. Probably a side effect of the "sickness," combined with being under someone's heel for most of her life and getting what she wanted through victimizing and brutalizing. Hand raking through her hair, Keaton shakily attempted to compose herself as she glanced toward Cross, her ears flat -

Bang.

There was a gunshot. Keaton managed to interpret the sound as such when, initially, her first impression was of a harbinger of a dreadful thunderstorm. Instantly, her gaze switched to the leader of the Mer, expecting to see her conjuring the beginnings of a new storm in her impatience.

Instead she was greeted with the sight of her eyes, wide and vacant and pearlescent-pale against the blood running down her face from the gaping hole in her forehead. A split second after Keaton saw this - saw the hole, perfectly pockmarking the center of her head - the Mer-woman collapsed to the ground, devoid of life and support to keep her upright. Her followers gaped openly, staring in abject shock at their fallen leader. There was an almost simultaneous shudder amongst them as the sound of the impact broke the silence, one which transferred directly to Keaton's body. An almost electrical pulse ran through her bones. She felt her muscles tense.

Blood pooled around the dead Mer's head like a sanguinary crown.

And then she realized this was the moment of anticipative vulnerability she was waiting for.

Seizing Catastrophe, Keaton belted out an immense warcry and charged forward, swinging her mace for the nearest, thunderstruck Mer. Dumbstruck as he was, he hadn't expected for one of the others to attempt an assault, or at least not in the moment where the world had been sealed out of his perception, and was minimally prepared for the surprise attack. Just as his trident came up as a defensive maneuver, Catastrophe plowed effortlessly through the barricade, reducing the spear to splinters and crashing into the Mer's face, spikes-first. The unfortunate Mer released a bloodcurdling cry and buckled, flailing, attempting to pry the weapon off of him, which Keaton obliged. Catastrophe was freed with a twist, then, whirling around, Keaton delivered another blow right to the Mer's side. This one crashed right on its mark, with additional results: the Mer was sent flying with a cry, leaving him crumpled to the ground.

Keaton stood there, heaving, and hefted Catastrophe again. She had her orders. "Take them all OUT!" Keaton shouted.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Tapewolf]

This was not quite what Cross had expected, but it would do.  Keaton was the Alpha, after all, and they could probably round up Cog afterwards, if he didn't run into the Family or the police and suffer the very fate he had warned Cross of.  Thy will be done, he thought and vanished into half-visibility.

Checking his gun he skirted around the confused Mers, selecting a target and aiming between the eyes, just as their unknown benefactor had done to the late Ms. Flowright.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt's eyes lit up like the house of a fifty-year-old Christmas light freak with a budget bigger than the GDP of a small country, and he promptly ran towards Ty, shouting "Hey! Big guy! Gimme a hand!", one hand outstretched, his spines lifting up, and his knives, which had leapt into his hands, sliding away again.

He hit the huge saurian's right hand with his own, and latched wrists. As he spun around the pivot point, he rolled up into a huge ball, all spikes on the outside, ready for what happened next...

[Boog]

Tyrannus turned toward the shout and grasped the spikey little man's wrist, already whirling to throw. Two spins to pick up speed and released, and Witt went flying toward a more densely packed-together bunch of mer. Ty soon followed, barreling forward with a roar to smash down anything that didn't take the brawler's hint and just lie down.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

After smashing into the pile, Witt unrolled, incidentally extracting his spines from the last of the poor unfortunate Mer who had cushioned his landing, and rolled to one side, reaching out one paw to latch solidly around the ankle of one of the fallen. Spinning around, he and his new flail hammered into the stunned Mer like a rocket-sled into a wall of jello, swinging the poor unfortunate over his head and spreading mayhem as far as he could reach.

He kept the spinning, swinging mess going as he ploughed his way through the ranks towards the end of the ranks, clobbering Mer and sending them flying away in all directions, much as a snowplough sends snow sheeting away...

[Aisha deCabre]

Right then, it didn't matter to Aisha that she had been seen for what she was.  Eyes of crimson were just kept on the Mer leader and the ranks that had surrounded them, the Demon jaguaress just ready to rush out of there or plough straight through them...anything to use the energy that was ready to be unleashed.

Suddenly, before the leader could be reasoned with, a shot rang out and cut through the almost-silent air.  In her forehead there adorned a hole, blood flowing endlessly as she stood with an almost painful, frozen expression...and then fell.

Whoever had sniped the Mer, the opportunity certainly wasn't lost on Keaton, who ordered the group in an instant to converge outward on the remainders and take them out.  The group complied.  And the demoness bared a mouth full of dagger teeth.

"Don't mind if I do, muchacha," she growled, smirking almost as if she were a child at play.  In her right hand, the boomerang turned from glowing hot to actually igniting, a magic ring of fire surrounding the magic surface.  In her left, the chain did the same thing.  Her wings flared outward and gave the impression of a size greater than what she was.

Then, she whirled quickly on her own group of the Mer, certainly whose bodies were delicate-skinned enough from living in water to burn in an instant...at least that was Aisha's thought.  Before one could charge, it found its neck wrapped in the searing, flaming chain after it flew like a grappler for it.  An inferno engulfed the robes as the Creature was pulled to meet its doom in the bladed projection of her boomerang through its stomach.

She pulled it clean out, the blood burned off of it, and let it fly for the next unfortunate one to come after her while disengaging the chain...a fiery sawblade.  Her face had a dangerous, predatory look to it as the first individual was left in a burning heap.  The proper way to dispose of corpses.

And yet, while she made for her own bit of mayhem, somewhere in the back of her mind she told herself, if they choose to run, you will LET them run.  Don't be like the others.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When the shot from the blue ended the mer's advantage and Keaton gave her battle cry Penny was ready. Turning in the opposite direction from where the hedgehog was causing mayhem she fired the bolt she had previously loaded at the nearest group of mer. Too bad none of the high ground looked stable, she had a preference for shooting from above. Cocking the crossbow and dropping the next bolt in she looked for the most advantageous spot to place an explosion.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Arcwelder and his five-monster guard got to the back entrance, which was nothing more than a large ragged hole in the fence/wall surrounding The Junkyard. Arcwelder looked down, remembering the two wounds he had, in his arm and leg. Hissing at it, he walked over to the nearest scrap pile and picked out a sheet of metal. His right mechanical arm then seemed to unfold into a multitue of machining tools. He quickly cut out two small pieces. One after the other, he fitted them over the wounds, the fused them into place with a little green electricity. Satisfied, he led his entourage through the hole in the wall.
   Within sight, there was a wooden shack next to a small hangar. Arcwelder smiled, and ran up to it, his bots lumbering behind. When he got to the door, he found it was heavily deadbolted and padlocked. He chuckled. "Oh Pandora, why must you spite me so?" He held his mechanical hand up against it, and a torch sliced all the bolts. He opened the door and walked in.
   "Fellow mechanic," he said, "where are you?" He walked around the dark shack. She was nowhere to be found. Arcwelder grinned again. Maybe this was a good thing...He walked back outside, and looked at the hanger. He knew she was building something. In the (very few) times he had actually met her in person at her home, ususally to trade parts, she would never let him see what it was. She refused all help. Well, she wasn't around now, so she wouldn't know if he decided to take a little peek...
   He walked to the door of the hangar, which was similarly secured in the same way as her front door. He cut through it just as easily. His metal hand grasped the dorrhandle, and pulled it open. He walked into utter blackness, but felt around, and sure enough, there was an electrical switch. He pushed it up, snapping it into place with a ZAP. Lights above flickered, then illuminated the hanger. Arcwelder's jaw dropped.
   "Great Scrap!"

[e_voyager]

The mer were in disarray, there leader was dead and they were being attacked by mad beast. Epyon having realized there was no place to really hide did what any coward would do. He drew his weapon, his enchanted sai's and attacked the Mer closest  to him.

With his eyes open he could see the shift in the Mer's moods and energy. It wasn't much of an edge when he was this scared but it made haggling easier when at the marked place. not that he should be thinking about that right not but it was better then thinking that any second he could be erased form existence.