Avatar RP VIII: Chapter III: Why we don't mess with time.

[Steel Shadow]

“~Gspt~”

Steel wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up lying facedown in a field. He did, however, find it worrying how normal he found his position. He really did get thrown around too much.

Rolling over, he took a moment to appreciate the sky. It was a nice, rich blue sky. You didn't get to see sky's like this often in the city. Too much in the way. If it wasn't the smog cast by the industrial districts, it was smoke from the recently deceased discussion district.

...

Right, moment of appreciating nature over. Where the hell was he? He sat up, looking around. Ah, there was the city. He wasn't too far out, considering the backlash of the dimensional transfer could have moved him into another part of the universe. Still, that was a fairly long walk away. Maybe he could get a lift from some-

And that was when he saw the Pilot.

“Ack!” He scrambled to his feet, sword already in hand. The Pilot didn't move, but what did that prove? He'd seen how much killing these guys could take. They could probably keep going even after they'd lost their heads... And this was the perfect time to test that theory!

And so the Pilot's cooling corpse became riddled with stab holes, and became short one head. Eventually it became clear, thanks to extensive testing, that the Pilot was, in fact, quite dead, and would not be getting up to trouble Steel any further. At least, until the next zombie outbreak, at minimum (which was still at least a few months off). With this confirmed, Steel could rest easier.

This period of rest lasted approximately one .37 of a second before four more dropships... dropped into view, sailing into NPF city.

“Oh. That is great. Just great.” He stabbed Pilot's corpse absently. “I don't really have to go back there y'know. I could go off, find myself a quiet little village where I could live in peace, while the backwards natives worship me like a god for my mighty powers. It'd be a nice break.”

He paused. “...Actually, I think I left my credit card in my desk this morning... and I don't wanna lose my save file on Persona 4, sooo close to finishing...” Sighing he gave the corpse one final kick. “I guess I'd better start heading back.”

It was at this point the forces of reality managed to catch up on current events. The Pilot was dead. Steel was the only party member around. Therefore, Steel had beaten the Pilot.

This, factored in with the Pilots rating of Boss level foe, could only result in one thing.

STEEL SHADOW HAS LEVELED UP!!!

STEEL SHADOW REACHED LEVEL 30!!

STEEL SHADOW LEARNED: CHRONO BEAM!!!

“Eh?” Steel glanced around for a source for that booming voice, but the only thing around him was empty fields and an ex-boss fight. “Why does that keep happening? And what's a Chrono beam?” he muttered, bending down to examine the body, finally. “Hm, lets see what he's got on him... ah ha! Loot! Score!”

He stood up, holding a small box. Opening it eagerly, Steel blinked at the red pill that fell out into his hand.

“Huh. Is this what I think it is?” Apparently so. It even had directions for use. “Wait, does this mean that guy did all of that without using any fury? ...” The Pilot earned another few cautious stabs. He was beginning to share many qualities with a sieve. Steel slipped the pill away into a pocket. It'd probably lead to bad things, but now seemed like a good time to have an ace in the hole.

“Right. Now to get back before to much stuff gets blown up.” He looked around once more, hovering slightly in the air to get a better view. It shouldn't be far to the nearest... there!

There were many benefits to living in the age of information. One of them was the hyper-link, the great web that connected the towns and cities of the globe, looking very much like a series of tubes. NPF had only recently managed to rebuild their port after the great zombie invasion not long ago, but now it was buzzing with light speed energy. And, as it happened, it ran through a field not far from the one Steel found himself in now.

“Excellent.” Steel flew for it, only pausing to grab a sheet of scrap metal lying around in the dirt (Here's to you, polluters!). He hovered over the glowing rails for a moment, watching the information spirits fly past underneath at breakneck speeds. “This is one of my stupider ideas,” he muttered, putting the sheet under his feet and beginning to accelerate forwards.

“Get the speed... time it right, annnd... Drop!” He cut off his powers. For a moment he flew forwards in the air with no support, before the iron sheet caught the top of a passing data stream and rocketed forwards.

“Cowabunga!!!”

Steel began surfing the web back to NPF city.

[Mauve Mage]

(Because I have nothing better to do right now: A random post!)

Mauve didn't speak Dinosaur, but she was fairly certain the T. Rex was making a request for some personal space. She raised her hands slightly in a gesture of submission and backed away. Now was definitely not the time to ask it if it was cold- or warm-blooded; an interview would have to wait.

She absently reached into her pocket, searching for something to restore what little MP she had lost. Whether the dinosaur or the robot came out of this alive, she'd still need to be ready for a fight. She found a bag of Skittles, and a possibly-evil necklace that she had almost forgotten about.

The Sundered Heart of Chaos. It broght to mind images of terrible destruction, of mysterious power, and... of TheBlindMime channeling David Bowie? Yes, it was truly terrifying.

Mauve put on the necklace, moving slowly to avoid distracting the T. Rex from its dining experience. With an artifact of pure chaos energy around her neck, a gun of questionable science at her belt, and an arsenal of spells at her disposal, Mauve was feeling content. Sure, there was a dinosaur and a killer robot here, along with a boss from Avvies Past who they never actually figured out how to defeat, but Mauve had a gun, dammit! It was cool!

[Arhra]

Darkness.

What had gone wrong? She had smashed through everything in her way with maximum power. Time had been lost and then suddenly gained by the mysterious intervention of new outfits. A pilot encountered, as predicted, and he had not been especially troublesome. The device had been modified and activated. But at the last moment, disaster. Her universe had torn apart at the seams.

Darkness.

She floated. It was an ocean without end, currents tugging gently at her in the complex darkness. No fish swam in it, no people sailed it. It was curiously welcoming. Her chest slowly rose and fell, taking in the dark water and releasing it again.

Darkness.

She woke up.

The sky was an empty night devoid of stars. She lay on a black beach washed by black waves. After a short stretch of sand a thick jungle began, strange shapes of vivid darkness. Roars and growls came from it, seeming to enter her skull without bothering to be filtered by her ears.

Arhra V rose carefully to her feet, running a personal diagnostic. She was alone and back in her normal outfit. All systems were functional. Life or death situations out of the way, the cyborg spotted the notification that her virus had returned from the Valker mothership, bearing the spoils of war. Shrugging, Arhra decided she might as well take a look.

The little virus was badly traumatised, rocking back and forth muttering to herself about firewalls and teeth. Arhra V gently pulled out the looted files.

The first was a document on the Fury. Conveniently discovered by a Dr. Furian, it caused wrath of anger, and the power boost increased exponentially with the dosage given. No surprises so far. No sprouting of strange new abilities it seemed. The research base had 10,000 Fury Units to play around with but seemed to generally restrict to 30 or so in a single subject. Her eye brows rose slightly: dosage higher than that got... messy.

Useful stuff to know, but not really any surprises here. It seemed her hopes of a 'Make Fury Explode' ray would go unfulfilled.

A little disappointed, Arhra V looked at the second document. Being without a homeworld and having to make every resource count, the Valker had a finely developed science of minimalist engineering. Entitled "Recent Technical Developments", the document described this.

In detail.

Arhra V started making strangled noises. Schematics for their guns. Schematics for their armour. Schematics for advanced alloys, biological interfaces, communication arrays, power draw systems and self assembling repair modules.

She'd never even heard of some of the materials or construction techniques they were using. It could take years to replicate the majority of the stuff described here.

Arhra V hugged herself, both arms wrapped tightly around her chest. "I'm... I'm so happy!" she cried, weeping tears of joy.

After calming down a little, Arhra V took stock of her situation. She was alone in a dark, colourless world. Behind her, a strangely welcoming sea, black waves meeting a black sky at infinity. A vague longing to return struck her, even as her sensors reported it most definitely was not water.

Ahead, a menacing forest. Arhra V elected to turn these strange woodens into some sort of convenient giant robot. No sooner than she had tied a vine to a stick, a tentacle whipped out and snatched it off her, hurling it into the sky to be lost forever.

Arhra V frowned. "Screw you tentacle-forest! I'm going back to the sea!"

Swimming out from the shore, she dived and the currents took her. It was then a strange realisation overtook her, the temporal anchor forming part of her Ouroboros Drive giving strange readings. Times before human civilisation, to an abrupt terminus she place at roughly the beginning of the thirty-ninth century.

She realised with care she might be able to drop right back where she had left and immediately dismissed the notion for being boring and unimaginative. And possibly filled with an exploding forum. It was a chance for time travel, something not to be missed! Grinning, Arhra V kicked forwards with no idea of where she might end up.

* * *

Arhra I received cake for her efforts. Today was going well!

Asheth emerged to boss people around and then more dropships fell from the sky before she'd had any lunch. Arhra I refused to let them dent her happiness.

Arhra II had offered her apology and her Heart to Mauve and both had been accepted. Then Asheth or 'Dr. Ashley Ethington' showed up.

"What, you want some dirty organ that may or may not grant wishes and has already been proven to be twice as a bad omen as a monkey's paw?" Asheth said to Mauve. "Here, take something USEFUL. My Sample device. If you knock something out, or steal something from someone, you can use this to make it disappear seemingly forever! Use! Non-vague purpose! And it's such a pleasant colour of red! Totally better."

"I seem to recall it was quite effective on you." Arhra II said, a playful smile on her face. Asheth had once faired badly against Phoenixbot armed with the power of Heart.

About this point, the dropships turned up, Asheth suggested hitting every point simultaneously, and ran off in the direction of the closest enemies. Various other people also ran off.

Arhra II sighed. "Have they never heard of divide and conquer?"

Mauve, one of her precious remaining listeners, then suddenly vanished into a portal of nothingness.

The sorceress sighed again.

"It seems we'll have to hold General." she observed to Arhra I gloomily. No-one else seemed to be headed there.

* * *

In Gaming, a large motorbike roared down the street Hawk had just emerged onto.

It skidded to a halt, Arhra III straddling the bike. A collar-like device was strapped to her wrist, the leash attached to it wrapped about her forearm like a bandage. A bulky, advanced looking weapon was strapped to her back, coloured in grey, gunmetal blue and proud gold. It was almost as big as she was, the stabiliser vanes protruding from its body part of the anti-gravity system to absorb recoil and lighten the load. The KSR 9000.

"Hey Hawk, mine's bigger!" she shouted at him.

Arhra III grinned ferally. It was an unexpected and disturbing expression on the terminally foul tempered succubus' face. "Hop on; we've got people to kill!"

[Hawk]

Hawk was quite surprised to find himself on street level outside the building he'd just infiltrated; he was pretty sure he'd intended to exit via the window through the miracle of animorphic flight. But, continuity errors aside, he was even more surprised to find Arhra, on a motorcycle, with a massive gun that looked strangely familiar, waiting for him there. Even stranger she was offering him a lift into battle. He was immediately suspicious.

"Hey Hawk, mine's bigger!"

"Yeah, but mine's cooler!" He retorted, hefting his stolen alien rifle. And it's not the only ace I have up my sleeve, he thought to himself with a sly smile. The other device in question was now hidden out of sight beneath his jacket, a slight hum of energy the only sign that it was active.

"Hop on; we've got people to kill!"

"For once Arhra, we agree on something," he replied with a grin as he swung himself onto the back of the bike, "We have a score to settle, and I have some serious arse to kick. Hit the gas!"

[Inbred Chocobo]

Things started happening.

Go here to find out more.