A princess? He'd only known of Castor. He knew little of Castor's abilities, too; only that he had great dark wings and a terrible aura when he was close. He remembered the bone-deep wrongful thrum it sung into him. Shame that they were on the move now, and he couldn't type without melting the tablet.
He would have to delay reaching Puck. "Squiddy, get typing." He waited for the squid to burble its acquiescence.
"This is General Faustite calling for reinforcements. All available agents, please report to downtown Destiny City, near the Farnsworth building. We have visuals on an enemy princess.
"Microphone now." More bubbles of complaint, but Faustite stepped around the creature and swatted at it. His cinders started a small trash fire in the process, which reminded him, however begrudgingly, of the operation. They couldn't ignore a Princess, or the growing Order numbers, but they needn't panic about them either. Faustite strode forward as the beleaguered squid youma followed.
"Officers attending this operation, listen up. Order caught our scent and seeks us, but do not relent in draining energy. We have a plan for them. Stand by for further orders. Faustite out."
xtatterpixie
he had to lollygag
Quote:
Present agents just received a transmission!
Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 7:57 am
Eternal Sailor Megrez
"I would love to go for whoever's in charge, but I bet they're really close to whatever trap is going to be sprung," Megrez answered, realizing that was a complete non-answer. "Actually, I agree, let's go see if we can-"
A called attack with a familiar name made her just about whip her head around before she could even inquire about the Page aura that just lit up somewhere nearby. "Move!" She called out and attempted to shove Ganymede backwards out of the way. An arrow grazed her arm and left a scratch that she definitely felt. Unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as the subsequent sight of Corrupt Eternal Cybele with a starseed in her teeth.
Megrez's breath caught in her throat. Part of her wanted to say that the starseed, let alone the life and body it had once been attached to, was forfeit, but it would be a bad look if she didn't at least try to recover it. An objection bubbled out, hissing with anger. "Put that down, cretin wearing her face!"
Cybele was gone. It hurt, oh goodness it hurt, but if Megrez needed to see it, now was the time.
A princess? Well, that wasn't good. Royal senshi tended to cause an issue wherever they went and he wasn't much for letting a Royal run around and do as they please unchecked. Shaking his head he teleported himself to the front of the Fransworth building, in the hopes of being as close to the scene as possible. At the moment he wished Zinkenite was here...at least one General King on their side would be nice when they were likely to face down a Royal.
Pulling out his own communicator he spoke up into it. "General Benitoite here and ready to handle the Royal." After a moment of hesitation he called out across the communicator once more. "Corvusite, keep your eyes open." Not that he knew where the corrupt senshi was but he was going to keep him safe.
"Anyone know which Royal it is?" He knew Castor and Polaris but he knew Ganymede was one as well...but he couldn't remember ever seeing them as a Royal - he just knew it. He also remembered some rainbow senshi was a Royal as well but he was certain he hadn't seen them, or heard a whisper about them, in a very long time. It was limiting things to Ganymede or Polaris, though he hadn't seen her in a long while either, so Ganymede or someone new....he didn't like not knowing.
Pocketing his communication device, for now, he summoned his spear - he'd need it soon enough.
For once, Ganymede cursed the White Moon’s lack of organization. The distress signal brought more bodies onto the scene, but there was no way to communicate with any of them if she didn’t have their information in her phone. It wasn’t like she could send a mass text out to every Senshi phone and Knight ring in the vicinity telling them, “Hey, maybe keep the fighting outside inside of going into an enclosed space,” or put them all on speaker and suggest the same.
She didn’t have the time to do either of those things anyway, what with her mother-in-law not leaving. Clearly, Claire was where Chris got both his stubbornness and his naïveté from.
Though Momma briefly walked out of sight, Ganymede still heard her question, but the meaning of it registered a few seconds too late. “Nonononono, don’t touch any—”
But she had no hope of intervening in time. The aura of a Page popped into existence just out of sight, the aura of a Corrupt Senshi drew nearer to their location, a familiar voice called out an attack, and then Megrez was shoving her out of the way of incoming projectiles. One still nicked Ganymede’s arm, but it caught the outside of it where her collar draped off of her shoulders, and left little more than a shallow cut and a streak of blood. It could have been worse.
After righting herself, Ganymede turned to face the Corrupt Senshi responsible. Holding out a calming hand toward Megrez, Ganymede said, “Hello, Cybele.”
Naturally, Ganymede’s gaze zeroed in on the starseed. She squashed the rising hope that always flared to life. Retrieving it would be ideal, but it could not be their priority.
“Have you given my offer any thought?” Ganymede asked, slowly stepping forward, out of the side street and into broad daylight, placing herself between Cybele and Megrez, and Momma further back. “Or does this sort of thing appeal to you? Terrorizing all these people.”
“I don’t know if drawing them away is our best option this time,” Perdita said. “Where would we draw them to?”
They were downtown, practically in the middle of the city, at a time of day when the buildings and businesses all around them were usually full of people. If they didn’t deal with the youma here — not to mention the Negaverse officers in attendance — they risked exposing other areas around them to the threat.
“We should keep the youma here,” she decided. “Corral them all as close to the building as possible and dispose of them, to give people time to evacuate.”
Even as she said it, she looked to Oberon for his agreement. Perdita could assess a situation and make decisions based on what she observed, but she was rarely confident about them. No matter how many years she’d been fighting, she was still only a basic Senshi. She had experience, but lacked certainty.
After all, she’d never been the most dedicated. Oberon surpassed her long ago.
Puck leapt from the rooftops and hit the pavement in the midst of the fray outside the Farnsworth Building, inadvertently doing an almost-perfect superhero three-point landing. He knew his prey was behind this just by the amount of smoke billowing from the broken windows of the structure. Where there was smoke, there was fire; and where there was fire, there was bound to be Faustite.
Ignoring the fights going on around him, he started making his way toward the building itself. Faustite's aura blazed like a fireball amongst the other Chaos signatures, making him easy to track -- and by the feel of it, the General was coming for him directly.
Well then, Puck thought grimly, that would make things a whole hell of a lot easier, wouldn't it?
Strickenized
oh lawd he comin
tatterpixie
Tipsy Codger
Offline
SSBrosB generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
Any praise or delight that he was expecting for having upgraded to Eternal would have to wait for later. Pendour was not happy. In fact, Kami could confidently say he had never seen such a look on the Squire's face before. And she appeared to be... nervous about the confrontation to say the least.
"I will." He said to her before she walked over to the Captain, making sure to keep an eye out on her and anything that could have attacked them as well.
For a moment though they were interrupted by a... Lieutenant trying to throw a Youma at them? Even Kami felt sorry for it, but he would have had no problem with dusting it anyway. After well... whatever that was an intense standoff between the two. Kami looked at the Captain. "I'd suggest giving the woman up. You've already drained her, and trust me, if I were to use my magic on you, well, let's just say you would be giving her up anyway." He said, taking one step forward. To be honest they didn't have time to be wasting on this Captain and they should have just tried to beat him, but he knew that Pendour did not like to fight if she could help it, and he supposed that it continued even in a situation like this.
At this point Chambersite didn't care that the Senshi decided not to control his powers whatsoever it was enough for him to do something about it. He was able to grab the Senshi by their collar and steal some energy. This had the Senshi stumbling a bit and was just enough for the Captain to punch the other into the column of fire that had been sprouted by one of the perverts. Or maybe they weren't one of them. Whatever, they were collectively known as the Perverts in his head at least.
The Senshi stumbled into the fire and he looked at Cymophane who had followed the other Senshi's magic and called to him. "You either take his energy or his starseed, either way, I don't think he's going to make it out of there." He said, hearing the Senshi start to yell, still disoriented at the loss of energy.
He glared at the the Senshi and then turned back to the two Corrupts. "I'm going back to controlling the Youma. Do with him or his body whatever you want to." He said, before commanding one of the closer Youma towards some civilians, even if there wasn't much to do anymore.
Quote:
Chambersite is back to commanding Youma and can be interrupted again as well!
Eveite had been concentrating on her work that she jumped a bit at the sound of a voice addressing her and only let a sigh of relieve out when she realized who it was. "Epsilon! It's good to see you!" She said smiling and holding out a hand in case he either wanted pets or a paw-five.
"I appreciate the help. The phones are what are giving me trouble now. The cameras aren't too much trouble as the system is getting weaker and weaker. Some of them have even turned off due to the fire." Melting, fraying, smoke damage, whatever it was, they were gone. "Unfortunately had to deal with a troublesome Youma that couldn't tell the difference between Agents and Civilians. I would have thought that they would." It was another note that she had added to her own personal ones.
It was absolute chaos, and not the type of Chaos that was used to give them powers! She had been doing her best trying to get some stragglers out of the building, but it was hard to do with the smoke and the fire and the almost getting hit by a Captain while he was fighting White Moon Super, she almost couldn't tell left from right anymore!
And when she got out again, she noticed three more Order signatures and could see that there were three Order Senshi headed right in her direction. She held up her hands, trying to show that she wasn't any danger. "Hey, I had nothing to do with this! I'm just trying to help civilians get out!" She said, hoping that she sounded truthful. Because she was being truthful. Even if she let her wraith out to drain energy, it probably would have gotten crushed by either a Youma or even just some human accidentally stomping on it as they tried to get away.
Normally, Ilian didn’t have to worry about Senshi or Knights during the middle of the day. This was the time he caught up on his sleep while Lovely worked his retail job that he didn’t have to work, but worked anyway. Sometimes he got up in the middle of the day to compose music, or just take a walk and enjoy the outdoors for the first time in… ever… It was strange not having a job, but that meant more time to himself, and for the Negaverse.
Which was why Jet powered up, because he figured getting a start on some paperwork would hopefully clear his head so he could get back to writing some new music later. And also why he came to a complete stop in the hallway just outside his and Aquamarine’s office in the castle in Negaspace, the strange message coming through the communicator for reinforcements.
Jet checked the clock on the tablet, despite having seen the afternoon sun just a little while ago, wanting to make sure he wasn’t mistaken about the time. It was in the middle of the afternoon, right?
He powered down briefly so he could send a text to Lovely:
Quote:
Received SOS for reinforcements downtown.
He didn’t want to send too much information just in case someone nosey in the Loss Prevention department decided to zoom in on the cameras.
Once the text was sent, Jet powered up once more so he could teleport with weapon in hand near the location mentioned, and was immediately overwhelmed with the wave of auras, Chaos and Order alike.
Was this the operation that was supposed to follow the meeting he’d seen scribbled onto a sticky note, attached to some youma in Negaspace? He’d asked Aquamarine about it, but he was convinced it was a joke.
He’d started on the roof of a building nearby so he could take a quick assessment of the situation, but soon noticed General Benitoite standing by one of the doors of the building and teleported close enough to him to have to look down at the shorter man, but not too close. He still remembered Benitoite’s preference for helping the White Moon when they were stuck in that horrid, misty woods, and he wanted to try and give the other General the benefit of the doubt before accusing him of treason.
“I just received the call for reinforcements,” he quickly explained, keeping his eyes open for any approaching White Moon. “I don’t feel any Royal aura… they haven’t used their magic yet?”
If it was the same Princess from when Negaspace was invaded… well, they might need to call for a retreat if they weren’t careful.
Aquamarine appeared on the roof of a building across from the Farnsworth, surveying the scene below.
He didn’t often leave work in the middle of a shift to attend to Negaverse business, but then Negaverse business usually had the decency to wait for a more acceptable time of day — after hours, under cover of darkness.
Apparently, Aquamarine should be paying more attention to various meetings that occurred in Negaspace. He must have missed the one pertaining to this particular operation. If it had anything to do with the torn piece of paper he found affixed to the ceiling in his and Jet’s office some days ago, that explained his ignorance. He took one look at the paper, scoffed at the indignity of having to remove it from the ceiling, and threw it into the trash with barely a second glance.
But when his work day was interrupted by a text from Ilian claiming there was an SOS for downtown, Aquamarine first cursed the White Moon, then the Negaverse and whomever determine that today was the perfect day for whatever this was, then Ilian, who couldn’t just sleep away a lazy afternoon, but had to power up and go do paperwork, only to receive the request for reinforcements and immediately text Lovely.
At least Ilian had the decency to let him know this time.
Naturally, Aquamarine couldn’t let Jet head downtown on his own, so he claimed a family emergency at work, left the building, powered up, read the SOS, and teleported to the scene.
He scanned the surrounding area for a Princess but neither felt the powerful aura nor saw her among the various bodies that littered the scene. Some of those bodies were still in motion, as agents, youma, and forces of the White Moon engaged in battle, and some of those bodies were motionless on the ground.
“Great day for death and mayhem,” Aquamarine muttered to himself.
With no sign of this supposed Princess, he took to searching for Jet instead. This task proved much easier, as Jet appeared beside another General at the front of the Farnsworth building.
Aquamarine teleported down. His reappearance put him in the path of a Senshi struggling to catch a youma. The Senshi skidded to a halt before crashing into him, but his presence there was annoying enough that Aquamarine reached into the Senshi’s chest before a single word could be exchanged between them, and ripped out the pest’s starseed.
“Sorry. You caught me at a bad time,” he told the falling body.
Quote:
Aquamarine responding to the call for reinforcements. Feel free to interact!
As it turned out, the Captain didn’t seem to care that his control over his magic was still somewhat lacking. In Taenite’s defense, he was trying to control a freaking tornado made of fire. Magic fire that didn’t cause nearly as much damage as he would have personally liked, but still fire.
“Wait, so what does he want us to do with his body?” Taenite cringed at the thought, holding up his hands in front of him as though to pass on the offer. “He’s all yours. Probably starseed. I regret not grabbing the other senshi’s,” he lamented, wondering if he could go back and find where they left her or if someone already dragged her off.
He caught sight of the two Generals hanging out by the doors, and got Cymophane’s attention once more.
“So, uh… should they be standing around down there? I thought we were trying to get everyone in to the building.” But it was probably above his paygrade to question a General, much less two. He didn’t want to have a bad review given to Axinite about him.
Sunshine Alouette
Guine
Crew
Lonely Explorer
Offline
Guine generated a random number between
1 and 5 ...
3!
There were more White Moon approaching, and more youma that didn’t like Senshi from either side. Kamacite soon had to teleport away from the hungry gaze of one of the youma that were supposed to be commanded by one of the others, but were apparently otherwise indisposed.
A Super Senshi with some kind of water magic appeared from the alley he teleported to, spraying him with some kind of water that felt like pinpricks on his skin as it quickly soaked through his robes. Kamacite struggled to tug the cord connecting each side free, and discarded the robe completely. He was sure the magic water would disappear soon enough, but since he didn’t know the effect, he didn’t want to take the risk.
And then came the call from Faustite.
For some reason, Kamacite let out a small breath of relief knowing that the General was still doing okay. He didn’t sound like he was in distress or in trouble at least. But knowing there was a Princess nearby was… concerning. He hadn’t met any of the White Moon Royals, but he assumed they were just as annoying to deal with as the Eternals and Knights.
Kamacite didn’t wait for the Super Senshi to use another of their attacks, and instead teleported behind them to quickly reach his hand in to retrieve their starseed.
One more teleport meant he was back near General Faustite, sans his floral robe. There were blotchy red rashes where the Senshi’s water magic touched his now bare arms. He didn’t say anything to Faustite. Didn’t need to. Just nodded to let him know things were being handled as they came.
Cymophane gave Chambersite a cheerful salute and an “Aye aye, Captain!” before turning his attention to the Super Senshi, who was looking more than a little singed and having some trouble getting up.
Laughing lightly at Taenite’s discomfort, Cymophane crouched down and told their victim, “Just relax. I’ll be quick.”
Then he stuck his hand into the Senshi’s chest, grasped his starseed, and gently removed it. The Senshi collapsed completely, unconscious, and Cymophane rose with the starseed in his hand, admiring his prize.
“You get used to the death after a while,” he told Taenite, but failed to explain how he, being as new to the Negaverse as Taenite was, had already gotten used to seeing death.
There wasn’t time for that conversation anyway. Taenite quickly drew Cymophane’s attention to the front of the building, where two Generals had gathered. One was familiar because he’d been at the meeting detailing this operation, and the second was familiar because it was Cymophane’s very own General.
“Oh, hey!” Cymophane said. He made his way over to the two Generals at a half-jog half-skip, smiling brightly at both of them. “Hi, Jet! I didn’t know if I’d be seeing you here! Wait, should I be telling you these things? If another General gives me an order, do you want me clarifying with you first, or—” He cut himself off and waved a hand around as if to banish the rambling. “Sorry, I’m used to being able to edit things out. No disrespect meant, Sirs, but could you maybe go look menacing elsewhere? Or lure some Senshi into the building!” He said excitedly, eyeing both of their weapons. “The more the merrier, I’ve been told!”
Guine
Sleet Tempest Snape
Sunshine Alouette
Eternal Senshi
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Strickenized
Garbage Cat
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Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 4:38 pm
Even as the two squabbled, the Butterflub was blissfully unaware of the pair's attempts to undermine one another. While Turquoise and Cora fought, the youma floated idly in the air, staring at a cardboard cutout of a person behind a pane of glass. It was an old collector's shop that closed suddenly, and the cardboard cutout was Elvis.
Slowly, the long tube of its proboscis poked out, and thumped the glass. Nothing happened — it couldn't drain this human. It couldn't determine why. It kept thumping its proboscis against the window.
Until it heard the pair behind it get louder, and realized that there were agents around. The creature turned, and a Lieutenant was holding a cat out. Its proboscis unfurled again, content that someone found it a drink, and it sought to drain away the energy of this tiny creature.
LittleLilyKitty
The youma accepts the offering! Turq can try to ride it, but the youma cannot carry her, and will just casually flap its wings while it's stuck to the ground. If nothing else, Butterflub is a worthy distraction, and can be used to soak 1 mild damage for Turq.
Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 5:14 pm
Pavo
The coming chill in the middle of a hot day was an obvious precipitation of magic. Pavo shuddered, shivered, wrapped her arms around herself, cursed inwardly that her outit wasn't at all insulating. Worse, she wasn't sure what to do.
This senshi was a step higher than her, and there was no one around to help in this hotbed of Chaos. She glanced about for an obvious edge to the magic's influence, but couldn't find one — she only saw the edges of the building they stood upon, and the wicked collection of officers and youma beyond that. Here, there was only her. Just her.
It couldn't be helped, she consoled herself. She chose this. She ran out without Giza, and this was the natural result of her actions.
Chilled to the bone and stiff as she was, she forced herself to approach her foe. She mustered a jerky kick at him, aimed high to catch his face.
sleet tempest snape
she's too frosty to be quick about it
General Faustite
Kamacite materialized from the ether, bringing with him a measure of relief. While he tried to hide it in his countenance, the nature of his fire and its billow of smoke belied that relief. There was little for it now, though; Faustite motioned for his friend to follow.
They were coming up on Puck, he surmised, though he could not establish a visual on the street level. Then there was the Princess (Ganymede) that Cybele called out, the growing armada of Order signatures, and the growing fatigue of anyone engaged in battle. It hadn't escaped him that his friend didn't look completely hale. Despite their power, few in the Negaverse left a scrap uninjured.
"Need to get Order into the Farnsworth," he explained, breathless and pressed for time. "Surround them. Burn it from the inside. Drain, capture or kill what comes out."
He knew the risks. Considered them. Found them worth the potential cost, even if the Princess revealed herself and moved on them.
Down one alley, he turned a corner, then skidded against a wall of palettes as he rounded another corner. Down this straight shot was the blonde in question (Puck) looking ever so annoying for being in the middle of his path. After a whistle to his frantic youma, he pointed at the wildling, and leapt into a corkscrew twist.
As Faustite arced over the senshi, his squid youma took aim and fired a thick shot of clear, reeking ink. Faustite landed, not bothering to check if Perkele landed his shot on their woodlander target. "Keep up, Pest."
xguine
xtatterpixie
squiddy basically shoots gasolink, best be playing keep away
The youma squirts a clear 'ink' substance up to 6 feet away that clings to the target. It does not penetrate clothing unless the fabric is thin or the person gets thoroughly soaked. If the substance reaches the skin, it produces a mild itching and chemical burning sensation (like getting a diluted bleach mixture on one's skin). Lasting damage is defender's choice. If the ink comes in contact with Faustite's Dispersion or Cinefaction attacks, the ink will combust. This fire burns itself out after 20 seconds unless more ink is applied. Once started, only magic may ameliorate its effects. The youma can squirt ink twice per battle.
Cybele's gaze was cool, calculating. The orange one she could manage. She was sputtering angry, no different from the girl who's soul Cybele now had in her teeth. If that anger led to the same kind of blind determination that she'd seen before, it shouldn't be so difficult to lure her into Faustite's trap.
She picked the starseed from her mouth and held it, making a show of considering.
It was Ganymede that made this difficult.
Of course she'd thought about the offer. It wasn't on purpose. She shoved the thoughts down when they came. It didn't stop their conversation from repeating itself in her head occasionally on the nights she spent alone in her room.
Of course her lips twitched when she heard the kindness in the woman's voice, even now.
This time, she could not get distracted, though. She had orders. She had people waiting.
"It's not about what appeals to me," she said, voice flat. She looked up, her head tilted at an odd angle. "It's about what I was chosen for."
Her eyes flicked to the other Eternal, and then back. "Your friend is right about me, you know." she said. Few could see that she was just a corrupted soul wearing an old face, and that was something she could respect. "I can't let you go this time, Princess, but perhaps I can offer one favor."
She looked towards Megrez, lips curling into a wicked expression. "You want me to put this down? All right."
With a flick of her wrist, she sent the starseed flying, hard, in the direction where she could feel the Chaos auras beginning to gather.
