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 Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:36 pm
There was a lot on Valhalla's mind as he made his way across the roof tops on his patrol. He wanted to talk to his teammates on their opinions of the Negaverse, maybe even figure out if there was a way to work with them instead of fighting against them. If they could just figure out a way to come to an agreement. He was sure Wolframite would appreciate the effort to defend the Earth... Zinkenite, on the other hand, was a bit more difficult to read. It didn't help that he had that horrible energy seeping from him, distracting Valhalla from paying as close attention to the young man as he probably should.
But other than his responsibility as a knight, there was also school to worry about. Finals coming up sooner than he'd like, and then he'd promised Paris to cover his shifts at the store... With all that plus taking care of Annabel and making sure his GPA was kept up... well, it was no wonder that he didn't pick up on the energy of a General of the Negaverse until he'd leapt one roof too close.
He frowned, wondering if they'd picked up on his energy, before quickly looking around for a fire escape. He was having the same reaction as he'd had with the last couple times he'd run into a much more powerful Negaverse officer... Curiosity... with the same sickening feeling in his gut to turn around and run as fast as he could in the other direction.
Valhalla dropped to the floor of the alley, looking around for the source, his hands raising to show that he was unarmed. "Hello? General, right...?" he ventured probably more bravely than he should. Internally his stomach was twisting into knots, and he was surprised that he could manage to keep his voice steady. He couldn't see who it was, but he could feel the energy... pulsing and dark and making him feel sick... but the other two had been surprisingly polite and pleasant to talk to, so... hopefully he could use his apparent rarity as a knight to invoke curiosity from this General as well. "I just want to talk, if that's okay? I'm unarmed..."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:02 am
General Painite hadn't had a good Knight Hunt in some time. She had one starseed, which she kept with her, of a squire but she wanted more. She wanted all of them, in fact.
And there was only one way to get them, which suited her just fine.
She was sitting on the theatre, looking down at the street below and pondering where she might go to find one of her rivals. There were a few different areas she had heard of, where they might pop up, or had done before. She could find one of them, have a bit of good, old fashioned fun. She felt she needed, and in a way deserved, that kind of a break.
She felt the energy coming toward her, though, and realized with some joy that she was being given a gift. An unsuspecting, or just ridiculously cocky if he was getting so close to her without hesitation, gift.
Moving to the edge of the roof, she looked down and saw him in the alley. Grinning ear to ear, she teleported to appear in front of him, one of her particular favorite entrances.
"General Painite," she introduced herself. She was short, her voice accented sweetly with an English heritage, eyes bright and innocent. Except when she was grinning wickedly, like she was right now. "And I don't want to talk. I'm also not unarmed."
She called her weapon to hand to prove her point, a long spear head point to be precise.
"But boy, does it make it easier that you are."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:22 pm
Valhalla kept his hands up as the General appeared in front of him, jumping in surprise. She wasn't the tallest person he'd met, but then again... the last two Generals+ he'd met were about her height. Maybe the Negaverse just liked short people.
Golden eyes widened in horror as she summoned her weapon, and Valhalla took an uneasy step backwards, his hands still up, although his leather protected forearms quickly crossed in front of him to try and show her that he had no intention of fighting.
"Wait, wait, wait!" he tried, not liking the look on her face at all. "I'm Valhalla. I'm a page of Jupiter, but I fight for the Earth!" he attempted to explain, hoping she would take his loyalty to the Earth as a positive, similar to how Wolframite had taken it. "I don't want to fight! I'm not trying to hurt you or anyone else!" he gasped, nearly stumbling over his own feet as the heel of his boot caught on some broken pavement.
Well, crap, this wasn't good at all. He didn't want to end up on the end of her spear. That would just be... really shitty luck.
His heart was already pounding out of his chest, and id he hadn't already broken out into a sweat, he probably would in just a few moments. Still, he didn't turn his back to her, hoping that he could somehow convince her that he wasn't worth killing... Or maybe worth more not to kill? Which ever worked.
"Would you really attack someone unarmed??" he sputtered in near desperation, although he easily remembered her from the camp incident... Yeah, she probably would attack someone unarmed... Well, shoot.
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:25 am
Painite loved that look. Fear. The way she could see his eyes widening and his heart all but dropping into the pit of his stomach. She imagined she could hear his pulse pick up, and his mind churning as he tried to figure out his next move.
It wouldn't do him any good, not as far as Painite saw it anyway: she was thinking of his next move, too.
Of course, being cocky often led to problems. She did try to plan out all escape routes, take in whatever factors came into play in each moment, but when she was winning, when she was having fun, when she was wrapped up, she often failed to see the obvious. Or to care about it. Confidence was a killer, sometimes, and even her best efforts to reign herself in often resulted in her laughing like an evil overlord and monologuing with the best comic book villains.
But at least she was having fun.
"I know what you are," she said, though she hadn't known he was from Jupiter. That fact did absolutely nothing for him. "And good! I'm glad you're not trying to hurt me. I mean, you know, that just makes it easier."
Painite did not like knights. She didn't care that they had this stupid idea that somehow, because they were knights, they were as entitled to the Earth as the Negaverse were. That they were somehow fighting for the same thing, though knights constantly got in the way of their plans and acted like senshi. But mostly, she hated them because she had been crossed by them a few times. And she was not a fan.
Definitely not a fan.
At his question a wicked grin spread across her pretty features.
"Oh yes, I so would."
She charged at him, turning her spear in her grasp and leading with the javelin end, the large spear head now at the back of the weapon. It was still sharp and dangerous, but she clearly wanted to hurt him. A lot. Killing him would come when she pulled his starseed from his chest.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:01 pm
This didn't look good at all... She looked much too dangerous, too determined in what she wanted to do to see reason.
Valhalla barely saw the spear thrust towards him, and wasn't able to get completely out of the way in time. He let out a yelp of pain as the spear end caught his right shoulder above his collarbone, and a little too close to his neck for comfort. His vision blacked out for a moment from the pain, a stumbled backwards as his left hand reached out to try and grab the spear, as if that would somehow keep her from using it again, his right hand reaching up to staunch the blood already soaking into the tunic and fur that lined where sleeves would usually be.
"W-wait!" he tried again, gritting his teeth with one eye closed to what had to be the worst injury he's had to date. "Wait, I know General Wolframite!" he tried, reaching out to the first person that came to mind who would... maybe... try and prevent him from being killed. In everything they'd spoken about weeks ago, there had to have been some kind of understanding that if Valhalla wouldn't cause harm to the negaverse, then no harm would come to him, right? Or maybe that was just Wolframite's desires for less death and more understanding.
Or maybe it was just Valhalla hoping that Wolframite would want what he did. For all he knew, the General could have been lying through his teeth and let him live so he would run around trying to convince others to give the Negaverse more than just a knee jerk 'must fight!' reaction.
Of course, this General didn't seem as though she wanted to talk... Which had Valhalla trying to keep his grip on the spear to prevent her from attacking again, but being injured already... he doubted he could hold on for long, if at all. At this point, he just wanted to get her to slow down, or maybe even distract her long enough for him to escape.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:59 am
Reason?
Painite certainly had blinders on to that, most of the time. At least, what the 'good guys' considered reason. Her own perception of it never faltered, and she felt she was being perfectly reasonable at the moment. She was simply trying to kill someone she didn't like. Where was the problem in that?
It was all a matter of perspective.
She grinned as she saw a smear of blood paint the sky between him and the tip of her weapon as he jerked to the side. She had gotten him, though not as badly as she had been hoping for. Still, looking at his face, in his eyes, she saw that lovely flash of fear that always accompanied pain. No matter how brave they tried to be, these knights and senshi, she had yet to meet one that let her down. That fear was always inside them, and she just loved dragging it out.
Though this knight was making it easy, begging her to wait. She arched an eyebrow at him as she pulled her weapon back, ready to attack again. Now was not the time for talking, and much less for waiting. Her eyes narrowed at his hand as he touched her weapon.
Oh hell no. No knight got to touch Mr. Saddles. Unless they were impaled on one of the pointy ends.
"And I know a lot of you guys. Do you want a cookie? I can invite him to your funeral, if you're such good friends," she laughed, jerking the weapon as hard as she could in an effort to get it away from his grubby hands. "Let go before I remove your hand for you."
Which she might just do anyway, either way.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:13 pm
"No! The General and I have a mutual understanding between us!" Valhalla tried to explain, the effort to keep his voice steady against the pain becoming a little more difficult than he'd like, although the desperation and panic was starting to come more easily. "You don't want a Moon Princess taking over the Earth, right?? Neither do I!"
He released her spear the moment she tried pulling it away, not wanting to get his hand cut open on the blade as it was pulled back. It was true that he was afraid, but fear for his own wellbeing was a bit farther from his mind than it might seem at the moment. Right now he was more concerned with not making his mother and friends afraid for him. While he was a little more open about letting people he thought he could trust know who he was as Valhalla, or even letting those he didn't trust know who he was if they were in trouble... he hadn't taken the time to sit down with his parents to explain what he was doing in his free time, and why he hadn't been visiting them at home as often as they would like.
While Painite regained control of her weapon, Valhalla stumbled backwards doing whatever he could to put some more distance between the both of them. His compass was tucked under his belt, and he fumbled with it as he switched hands to cover the wound across his shoulder. He tried to ignore the color of his hand as he let the compass drop, unwinding the chain attached to it as he did so, but the liquid soaking into his clothes was hot and making him uncomfortable. Well... if he could take the time to worry about being uncomfortable.
"I've spoken to Zinkenite, too!" he sputtered, trying to spin the compass on the chain without moving his arm too much, lest it cause him even more pain. The difference between him knowing people and her knowing people is that he hasn't tried to kill them... much less succede in such an endeavor. The only reason he mentioned Zinkenite, though... was because he obviously outranked 'General'. "I'm not your enemy!"
The compass still spun in a decent arch in front of him. The actual object couldn't do much, but if he used it as a weight, and if she tried attacking again, he might be able to pull the spear off course if he could get his weapon to wrap around it just momentarily.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:20 am
"Here's the thing, pipsqueak. I don't care one way or the other what you believe in, who you think your friends are, or what you think we're doing. I don't care what you're doing. If you've run into a softie, then bully for you, but I'm a true General of the Negaverse."
She grinned.
"I defeat my enemies."
Well that was kinda true, but not really. She very often had people running away from her, or defeating her, and her long list of revenge targets was not getting any shorter. But it hardly mattered to her: she was doing all she could, and was having fun with it. She didn't care what confused and inconsistent members of her team were doing. If they wanted to talk, let them. But that was not her bag.
Especially not with knights.
It was simple. She wanted their starseeds, and she would have them. The negaverse could handle their own affairs, hell they were already getting more help than even Painite thought they needed, and she was more than confident in her fellow soldiers.
"I don't care," she laughed at his pathetic attempts to give himself some kind of stature just because he thought he spoke to the right people. He was speaking to the wrong one now, and that was what would matter in the end. When he was bleeding on the floor.
She charged a him again with that intent, eying his excuse for a weapon. Pathetic. But all knights were. That was why she proudly kept the starseed of a Squire she had killed with her, and wanted to add to that collection.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:57 am
Pipsqueak?? Had this been in a less serious situation it might have been funny hearing someone so small calling him 'pipsqueak', but as it was, she definitely had the advantage here.
Valhalla didn't think there was any use in trying to convince her that he really wasn't her enemy, since she seemed intent on having him skewered on the end of her spear, but he still couldn't bring himself to try and hurt her. Self-defense was one thing, but he'd never attack out of cold-blood!
As she charged forward again, he spun the compass faster, waiting until she was close enough to get the chain to wrap around the pole for the briefest moment and tugged on it to try and pull her off course, at the very least. Stepping aside at the right time was another issue and Valhalla's compass was pulled away from him as the spear caught the outside of his left thigh.
He stumbled away from her as best he could, trying to put some distance between them before the pain forced him down on one knee, and his now free hand reached to try and cover the newer wound.
Clearly, this wasn't going as he'd planned. From wanting to just talk to losing blood and becoming even more injured by the moment. And he still wasn't able to get close enough to her to throw a punch to force her back.
"I'm not... your enemy..." he tried again, his voice labored with pain and the growing fear that he really wouldn't be living past this night.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 11:59 am
"Oh, look, a new decoration," Painite laughed as she saw the compass dangling from her spear. The poor little knight was struggling, she could see that, and she delighted in it in her way. His blood was flowing and she knew there was no way he was suddenly going to get the advantage over her.
He was hers now, and she liked to play.
"No, you're not," Painite said, "you're no where close to someone I would consider an enemy. You're my toy, but I'm growing tired of you. I think this is where we say goodbye. It was a blast, I mean it."
She grinned at him, kneeling in front of him before snapping her hand forward and sinking it into his chest. She was going for his starseed. Her fingers barely touched it, though, before she was pulled away from him and sent sprawling, a surprise attack leaving her head bleeding. She looked up to find the knight's aura had doubled, grown more powerful, but realized she wasn't looking at the same knight.
Now there were two.
Camelot stood over Valhalla protectively, shield, its bottom edge splattered with a small amount of blood, raised. He felt panic in his chest, realizing that he had very nearly been too late, that Valhalla could have died if he hadn't happened to be there and hadn't happened to feel their auras. that very idea was deeply disturbing, and reiterated the fact that every night they were taking their lives in their own hands and taking profound risks.
He could lose any one of his friends, his fellow knights, at any time.
But not tonight.
"Are you alright?" he asked, but he could see the answer in the blood staining Valhalla's clothes.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 12:23 pm
He wasn't sure what Painite was going to do as she moved to kneel before him. He was expecting his energy to be taken, to be honest. It had happened before when he was still a civilian. Not by her, of course, but his first run-in with a Negaverse Officer. Then, he was left without a scratch, but completely exhausted... So he should have known her intentions wouldn't be as generous.
Valhalla couldn't say it was the best feeling in the world, realizing a moment too late that he could have tried to fend her off more, prevented her from getting so close somehow. Sure, he was injured, but he still had his fists. But instead, for some strange reason, and he realized how strange it was immediately after the fact, he had let her reach out to absorb his energy. Maybe then she'd leave him be.
But that clearly wasn't the case.
There wasn't any time for a reaction, nor would he have been able to if given the opportunity. It seemed as if all the air from his lungs had been knocked out, and even though he couldn't see where her hand was, it seemed as though his very life force was about to be removed from his body. Little did he know... that was exactly what would have happened.
He didn't even realize the General had been knocked back until he heard another's voice, and his hands unconsciously released his surface wounds to clutch at his chest, his eyes still wide with shock.
"Y-yeah..." he mumbled, staring at where Painite had been pushed back, but unable to really comprehend the situation. But even through the shock that was preventing him from doing little more than just breathe and try to regain control of himself, he was unimaginably grateful to see Camelot.
Just... it might take a few moments for him to regain his senses...
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Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:25 pm
The Negaverse General clicked her tongue behind her teeth. She knew Camelot very well, he had been the target of one of her traps before, and he had hurt Alunite and had suffered revenge for it. She did not count them as even, though, and she still hated him.
But she saw that he had powered up. He had a shield, which was raised to defend his companion, longer than the wooden circle he had before. And he had a crystal in it. Her eyes drifted to that and she remembered the Surrounding, and the dragon.
She didn't feel inclined on seeing what the crystal would do to a Negaverse soldier.
"You lucked out today, little knight, but I will have your starseed. That was just a taste." She said, to Valhalla, then she looked at Camelot. She frowned at him, then teleported away. Camelot breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He could look tough, but he hadn't thought himself a match for a General.
He turned and kneeled by Valhalla, supporting him and looking over his wounds. He could see that he was in some shock, and knew from experience what it felt like to have someone reaching for his starseed.
"Should I take you to the hospital? You're bleeding heavily..." he looked around, wondering how fast they could get back to the library, at the very least, where he kept a large stock of supplies. Medical supplies.
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 7:12 pm
His hands were still against his chest as Painite teleported away and Camelot approached him. 'Lucking out' was definitely the understatement of the year, and if he were even aware of what was going on, he would question on whether or not he should stop worrying, now that the General was gone.
Valhalla allowed his eyes to close for a few moments, before his attention was pulled away from the shock of what happened and up to his friend, not even realizing until then that Camelot had been keeping him from collapsing entirely. He felt horrible and weak and just plain pathetic.
"What the hell did she try to do?" he asked, nearly a whisper, but something was telling him that he already knew. She'd said it herself. She wanted his starseed. Was that how the Negaverse could take people's starseeds? Reaching their hands into others' chests and just... pulling them out?? They had magic powerful enough to do that?
While his immediate reaction was to avoid the hospital at all costs, Valhalla was soon nodding his head, and then powering down. "H-help me tear my clothes though, please..." he requested, imagining how suspicious it would be to be taken into the hospital with bad wounds but untouched clothing. Thankfully he was only wearing a polo and khaki pants, since he'd powered up from his apartment and hadn't needed to dress any warmer, so there was no jacket to worry about. It didn't matter if they did it right there or waited until they were closer to the hospital, though... just as long as it wasn't so obvious that he wasn't attacked.
"Thank you," he said after a few moments, quickly looking up at Camelot with guilt clear in his expression for putting him through the trouble, and for not thanking him right away. "I'm sorry..."
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:32 pm
Camelot looked at Valhalla, shaking his head. He had experienced that kind of thing as well, and it had shaken him badly. Someone reaching into ones chest, trying to pull their starseed from it, was not just painful. It was horrifying.
If he hadn't had been there, Valhalla could have been killed. Or worse. Camelot didn't know what happened to Knights if they were corrupted. If they became youma or a new Negaverse agent, or something else, but whatever the end result it was bad.
He didn't want to focus on what could have happened, though.
"She was trying to pull the starseed from your chest," he said honestly, "it would have killed you, if she took it. They use them for energy, for their plans. I've seen them take starseeds just to kill, too." He looked sad, but it didn't override his worry. He remained at Valhalla's side, offering him support while making sure the kid wasn't bleeding out on the street.
He powered down, though, and helped him make it look like an attack. He then smiled.
"Don't apologize. That woman was a general: I've met her before. Remember when I was in the hospital? She was the one that put me there. Seems we owe her a few things, but we'll think about that later. Revenge isn't going to help either of us. Right now, I'm going to get you to the hospital."
He didn't give him much choice, supporting him and helping the younger man walk. It wasn't too far, as well as Tony could guess.
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Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 9:45 pm
Chris greatly appreciated the help that Tony was giving him. He'd saved his a** a couple times by now and Chris trusted the older man more and more each time they crossed paths, for better or for worse.
The thought of being killed by essentially having his soul taken from his chest was quite horrifying, and if he hadn't already lost a good amount of blood, he was sure that his face would have paled at the information. Clearly he was still much too new in this war to really know the terrifying things that took place. To know that people liked killing just for fun...? Yeah, it wasn't impossible to imagine, but in general Chris liked to give everyone the benefit of the doubt... or at least hope they were a better person than letting on.
"We've got to do something about this... People being attacked, starseeds being taken... people getting killed," he mumbled a bit weakly as they slowly but steadily made their way to the hospital. "Get the group from before together again... maybe we can figure out a way to better protect the city..."
He knew he probably should be worrying more about getting stitched up than what to do in the morning, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't just sit around while knowing that Painite, and who knew how many others, were looking for starseeds to be ripped from people's bodies.
"They're not all bad, though..." he quietly insisted. He'd met others he wouldn't mind talking to again, or even working with as long as it lead to peace. Things were just complicated...
For now, it was off to the hospital to get patched up. But hell if he was going to stay there the night.
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