Action, Adventure, Excitement, Part 9
Chapter 16
Subject: AAE9: A Calm Before The Storm (Part 1)(Long!)(Sorry!)
On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 21:43:05 -0600
Martin and/or Dhyrclhanc Said As CAoL Message # 00011673
_Elsewhen_
Existing in-between the infinite number of "nows" between what has
past and what is yet to be.
This was how Dhyrclhanc had come to think of himself, sometimes,
whenever he had a chance to ponder this relatively new form of
existence his possession of the Galifreyan Time-Ring (given to him by
the enigmatic, rebel and iconoclast Time-Lord, the Doctor) had opened
up for him.
He'd quickly discovered that, even despite his somewhat inept grasp of
the how is worked and how one used it and how one might best utilize
it's abilities, the ring opened him up to a reality unrestrained by
the limitations and restrictions of linear time.
The fact that he was walking through the corridors of his
faux-Executor Imperial Super-Star Destroyer...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Executor%20--%20Imperial%20Super%20Sta
r-Destroyer%201.jpg
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Executor%20--%20Imperial%20Super%20Sta
r-Destroyer%202.jpg
Mind the possible line wrap
... while his fellow members of the "Callahanian Army of Light" were
somewhere below him...
Scratch that.
... Above him.
He'd "parked" the Dragontine in a standard geo-synchronous orbit over
Earth-9's North America, despite the fact that the length of the ship
was equivalent of the distance between New York City and Rio DeJaneiro
(which was, in turn, easily close to a third of the distance between
the two poles), and this included effectively "flipping" the ship so
that Earth-9 was "above" it -- _not_ "below" it.
His semi-psychic "Sense of Perception", which was ordinarily only
found in the Rigelian race in the "Universe of the Lens", told him at
least that.
Anyway, in all likelihood, his fellow members of the "Callahanian Army
of Light" were, at this moment somewhere _above_ him, most likely
getting their heads handed to them by the Apokaliptian High Lord
Darkseid's forces.
All while he, arguably the most powerful of the mortal -- for lack of
a better term, members of the same CAoL had almost casually teleported
up to Dragon Tine, which at the moment had his USS Charles Xavier in
one of it's Brobdignagian docking bays, boarded the Xavier, and had a
leisurely nap.
Then again, by now, there was probably a version of him there, from
his immediate future to share in the slightly different kind of shared
pain than most of the other Regular's of Callahan's Place regularly
engaged in.
Indeed, he thought to himself, segueing into his earlier train of
thought, he'd begun to wonder, recently, as to why one the Doctor's
incarnations hadn't appeared to him recently, requesting the return of
the device, as Dhyrclhanc's present incarnation had yet encountered
the Monstrous, even for a Behir, Rychezeist in what he would consider
quite some time, or at least the way he still recognized that time was
conventionally measured.
Unfortunately, even he knew that the nature of the perverse sense of
humor the Universe tended to possess would seem to imply that this
fact, alone would indicates that a confrontation of some kind, was
waiting in the wings for him and that dead white colored, serpentine
Agent of Darkness.
Quickly abandoning that line of thought, Dhyrclhanc reached out a hand
towards the two large swinging doors that lead to the Dragon Tine's
Command Bridge.
Standing and/or sitting in the control pits, and the weapon control
stations, of the Dragontine were the Triax CV-12 style androids that
made up to bulk of the Super Star-Destroyer's crew, the plans for
which Dhyrclhanc had "borrowed" from the European Human Supremacist
"New German Republic", which was in control of a majority of the Real
Estate in Central West Europe on RIFTS-Earth.
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Triax%20DV-12.jpg
The major drawback of using the DV-12's was that they weren't very
bright and had no independent initiative, and lacked any spontaneity.
Still, they were better than the DV-15's that he'd installed as the
majority of the ship's security force, backed up by other DV-12's.
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Triax%20DV-15.jpg
Which, in turn, were better than the Northern Gun W-9's he had working
labor, cargo and repair, which came from the North American Industrial
City-State of the same name, which he'd also encountered on
RIFTS-Earth.
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/NG%20W-9.jpg
As Dhyrclhanc had no living allies he could trust to crew the
Dragontine, his only other option was to create a robotic crew. That,
amongst other concerns, had led him to design and install a central
controlling computer intelligence on the Dragontine; Athena, which
he'd based on his mercifully brief encounters with the ship known as
the "Andromeda Ascendant", and her crew. Part of the role of the
Central computer was to add an additional level of control,
co-ordination and enhancement to the android crew actions and
activities.
The female "Avatar" for which, stood on the same catwalk as he
currently did, looking out the same set of windows, which offered a
magnificent view of the jewel-like planet rotating above them, that
was, in turn, only occasionally marred by the malevolent storms that
marked those territories claimed by the extradimensional usurpers
calling themselves "High Lords".
Above, a Holographic screen lit up, and a representation of Athena's
face looked down at Dhyrchlanc.
"How is it going, Captain?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Athena, and please, don't call
me 'Captain'."
"So far all systems are performing within acceptable parameters and we
have, so far, had no attempts to contact, attack or infiltrate the
ship."
"So far so good, then?"
"Yes, so far, anyway... "
It was the Avatar, who had turned around and uttered that last
statement, and had then, uncharacteristically, paused, seemingly
surprised at something behind Dhyrclhanc.
Seeing that she was staring at something behind him, and sensing that
someone, or something had entered the command bridge, Dhyrclhanc also
turned around.
Dhyrclhanc stood at a point 10 meters, equidistant from either end of
the 20 meter catwalk that spanned the length of the Dragontine's
command bridge.
Likewise, Athena's Avatar stood within 2 meters away from the command
bridge's main viewing windows.
A Vorlon, who was a spitting image of Kosh Naraneck, glided through
the same two swinging doors that Dhyrclhanc had earlier when the
Lensdragon had entered the bridge.
The Vorlon non-shalontly looked over the command bridge and seemed to
pause as well. Then , from under the skirt-like effect of the
encounter suit, a tentacle snaked out.
The tentacle was also encased in the same material as the rest of the
Vorlon's encounter suit and on what on a humanoid being might be a
wrist, the tentacle had some watch-like device on it.
The translator on the front of the Vorlon's encounter suit lit up and
an unearthly sound, like the tortured voices of all the damned souls
of hell came out.
Then, when the tentacle held the device in front of the Vorlon's
encounter suited head, it's translated voice said, "Can you hear me
now?"
The translator on the front of the Vorlon's encounter suit lit up,
again, and, again, an unearthly sound, like the tortured voices of all
the damned souls of hell came out.
Then the Vorlon's translated voice could be heard to say, "Good."
Then the tentacle retracted back under the outer skirt of the Vorlon's
encounter suit and the Vorlon spun around 360 degrees and "he" left
the way he came.
In the remaining silence, Dhyrclhanc thought to himself, [Now, how in
Hades did _he_ get in here?]
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Amazo II
On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 11:51:23 -0500
"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011675
>Roland X wrote on 1/4/2004, 3:42 PM:
> Amazo puts up an impressive fight, all the same. Still, in
>seconds, he keels over, unconscious.
> Defender falls to his knees. "Yeah," he gasps with exhausted
>satisfaction. "That's what I thought."
> Literally three seconds later...
>
>>On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:56:05 -0800
>>Morgan and Sil Said As CAoL Message # 00011651
>
>>Morgan transferred the information to Roland, who was panting in
>>exhaustion.
>>
>> ^Well, at least it's good news/bad news, instead of just being
>>more fun from Apokolips. Give me a minute, okay?^ Morgan could feel
>>how spent he was. ^I need to jump start my Quickening, almost.^
He might as well have asked for it. Directly overhead, a sudden
interdimensional eruption comes into being, ejecting a bright silver
spark into the airspace over the combat zone. The spark splits, the
larger portion shooting off at an angle in the general direction of
Cleveland, and the smaller spark performs a vertical landing at
meteroric velocities... directly where Roland is standing.
When the dust clears a moment later, Roger is standing where Roland
was, flanked by two lovely, heavily-armed young women in battle
bikinis and rearguarded by a hawk-faced man in a dark suit of vaguely
clerical cut.
/"The Feral Trump has arrived,"/ Roger announces over all the open
channels, grinning in a fashion that promises mayhem. His left hand
makes a snakelike motion, whipping out a lightning-wreathed deck of
cards and spreading them out with a snap, for all the world like a
Japanese war fan. /"Anyone up for some CAoL poker? Five-Crunchie Stud,
Rogers wild, swords or better to open."/
His right hand draws a long sword like a straightened Katana from
his jacket. The blade has no gaurd, appears to be made out of glass,
and has three-dimensional patterns of runes and vaguely electronic
circuit-looking marks scribed into the *inside* the blade. As his
hands tighten on the grip, several small needles pierce his palm, and
(with a telekinetic assist), draw blood into the blade, filling the
runic circuit engravings.
Roger's smile flattens out into something more like a predatory
slit, and his eyes begin boiling energy the way that Jack Kirby used
to draw the Silver Surfer in those Prelude To Opening The Can Of
Cosmic Whoop-Ass moments.
"/Okay, now... who needs killing?"/
There's a faint sound from underneath Roger's 7-league boots
(13EEEE, for the curious). The Angels look, do a double take, and then
blurt out in perfect chorus: "PAPA ROLAND!??"
"Huh? Who? Wha-- WHERE??" Roger responds intelligently, his eyeglow
dispersing in confusion. He follows the Angels' pointing fingers, and
looks down.
"Oh. Oops."
For no reason whatsoever, beyond the Transfinite's ongoing use of
Roger as its comedic whipping boy, a copy of the Suess book "Hop on
Pop" falls out of Roger's jacket and beans Roland on the helmet.
Roger hops *off* of Roland with alacrity, teleporting the book back
into jacketspace and hoping like heck that nobody noticed. He charges
a hand with Halo energy and extends it in Roland's direction. "Err...
Hi, Dad." With his other hand, also suddenly empty, he rubs the back
of his neck in an embarrassed fashion. "Sorry I'm late. You, ah, don't
look so good. Need a recharge? Man, you wouldn't *believe* the traffic
on the way here...."
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE9: Brick-and-mortar issues
On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 15:22:42 -0500
"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011676
>On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:39:45 -0800
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011641
>
>>On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 19:02:28 -0500
>>SkyeFire Said As CAoL Message # 00011619
>>
>> Having a mother who's part wolf teaches a boy to listen to his
>>instincts, even when they're not *saying* anything. Roger steps
>>back, gears turning noisily in his head (literally -- this being
>>P-Space, everyone can hear them). Then steps back again. And again,
>>bringing the entirety of the wall into focus by an act of
>>perception.
>> "I think," he murmurs slowly, "that I need to think about this."
>
> Omen chuckles behind the wall. [Oh, now _that_ is an epic
>tautology if ever I heard one.]
Roger feels a faint urge to "flip the bird" at someone, but the
feeling is submerged beneath the groundswell of instinct trying to
shoulder its way past his conscious thought processes.
>> "7h1nk, 5hm1nk, d00d!" cried a loud male voice from behind him.
>>"Ju57 r0xx0r 17's b0xx0rs! L37 m3 d0 17! 1 0wnzer 7h1s w@ll w17h my
>>3v1l l337 5k1llz--"
>
> OOC: Translation, please?
I would, but everyone else already handled it so well... (:)
>> With a lightning CRACK, P-Space bends about Roger in something
>>strongly reminiscent of a certain scene from TRON. Bars and blocks
>>of light assemble like Legos, streaming with conceptual
>>idealizations of binary code, pulled from the very essence of Ideas,
>>stack and assemble above Roger's upthrust hands, towering into a
>>gargantuan construct whose perception seems, to the audience, to
>>dwarf the wall.
>
> Damned souls quiver -- in fear, with hope, from sheer need to do
>_something_ in the face of, at last, a stimulus.
The Pink Floyd tune, playing again in Roger's backbrain like a
soundtrack to his actions, gets louder, stronger, and yet somehow
seems to fit with what he's doing....
>> To those with quick enough eyes, snippets of intelligible text
>>flicker deep inside the blocks of the huge weapon, gleaming
>>momentarily among the spiderweb traceries of light spreading and
>>branching through the entire structure:
>> freenet.org
>> amazon.com pgp.com loc.gov
>>bitconjurer.org kazaalite.com linux.net eff.net
>> 2600.com bbc.co.uk
>> actforchange.com truth.org stratfor.com
>> livejournal.com blogger.com
OOC: The "amazon.com" link was *supposed* to be a riff on
"bricks&mortar"... and then I forgot to footnote it. Gah...
> Omen looks on in morbid fascination (then again, does he have any
>other kind? 8^). [How interesting. He's _reality_storming_ the
>_wall._ More prosaic than I had expected, but effective.]
OOC: I just thought of it as making a conceptual end run around the
wall, by grabbing the "wall" metaphor and driving it in a direction it
would naturally be inclined to go (Berlin, natch)... and then just
pushing it off the cliff at the end of the road.
>> Thousands more, flashing, changing, evolving, always changing.
>>The energy contruct brightens, flares towrds some critical
>>threshold--
>> Eyes blazing with pure conceptual power, Roger thrusts his hands
>>forward, roaring: "21ST CENTURY... JERICHO... STRIKE!!!!"
>> --and blasts towards the Wall in a blinding coruscation of bound
>>chaotic energy, striking it head on--
>> --and flowing *around* it, as the implacable wave of the New Age
>>bypasses the symbol of opression and seperation into obsolete
>>irrelevancy, and plunges past it towards a brighter future.
>
> Omen is suddenly Not There...
Probably wouldn't have done much to him anyway -- Rog was too far
into the whole "wall" motif to even notice Omen directly.
>> Omen has just enough time to realize what's happened before the
>>next wave hits: a hailstorm of small pasteboard cards that, upon
>>striking a "brick," discorporates it into ethereal smoke which
>>vanishes to... well, wherever souls given a second chance go to.
>>Several bricks are freed in this manner before Omen manages to put a
>>stop to it.
>
> Omen frowns in bemusement. He hadn't been expecting _that._
Nor the Pink Floyd album that bonks him on the head, harmlessly but
still a surprise.
>> OOC: Who is more evil -- Evil-GM San, or the apprentices he has
>>challenged to defeat him?
>
> OOC note to everyone else: This is the same guy who said earlier:
>
>> OOC: To mangle a quote from "Blade II": "Do not KNOW who you are
>>MESSIN' WITH!"
>
> Heh heh heh...
> Earth-9.
> Omen appears a foot from the CAoL's leader, waving a "Get Out Of
>Jail Free" card casually as he lounges on nothing. "You know, you
>people would be a lot more dangerous if you had the slightest idea
>how you do what you do," he comments dryly.
OOC: Yes, we would. (:) *This* would have been where Roger would
have made his entrance, possibly railroad-spiking *Omen* rather than
Roland, but I didn't get to it in time.
....Besides, landing on Roland is funnier. And we *all* know what
that means when Roger is involved.
> And it begins to rain Monopoly cards as well.
> Except they do _not_ say "Get Out Of Jail Free." Rather, they all
>now say "Go To Jail," with the attendant text and graphics.
> OOC: Oh, sure, _wave_ a giant red flag at Evil GM-San. _Give_ me
>ideas.
OOC: Well, isn't that what we're *here* for?
> Evil GM-San
> What, you thought it stood for Evil Grin? ;^)
Hey, so it's multipurpose. Hardly surprising, among a group so
enamored of large-caliber punnery...
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Amazo II
On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 18:42:59 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011677
Dealing with this first, since this requires some "backing up"
continuity-wise...
>On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 11:51:23 -0500
>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011675
>
>>Roland X wrote on 1/4/2004, 3:42 PM:
>
>> Amazo puts up an impressive fight, all the same. Still, in
>>seconds, he keels over, unconscious.
>> Defender falls to his knees. "Yeah," he gasps with exhausted
>>satisfaction. "That's what I thought."
>> Literally three seconds later...
>>
>>>On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:56:05 -0800
>>>Morgan and Sil Said As CAoL Message # 00011651
>>> ^Well, at least it's good news/bad news, instead of just being
>>>more fun from Apokolips. Give me a minute, okay?^ Morgan could feel
>>>how spent he was. ^I need to jump start my Quickening, almost.^
As Defender is about to give marching orders, he suddenly feels a
ripple of Hypertime as something is written into the flow of history
at this point. He just has time to begin puzzling it out when...
> He might as well have asked for it. Directly overhead, a sudden
>interdimensional eruption comes into being, ejecting a bright silver
>spark into the airspace over the combat zone. The spark splits, the
>larger portion shooting off at an angle in the general direction of
>Cleveland, and the smaller spark performs a vertical landing at
>meteroric velocities... directly where Roland is standing.
Under other circumstances, the incoming "meteor" would have been
very unhappy. Earth's Mightiest Champion is angry, alert, and ready to
rock.
However, anyone who just went 12 rounds with Amazo can be forgiven
for being at a bit less than full capacity.
> When the dust clears a moment later, Roger is standing where
>Roland was, flanked by two lovely, heavily-armed young women in
>battle bikinis and rearguarded by a hawk-faced man in a dark suit of
>vaguely clerical cut.
The crater Roger is standing in has a pretty sapphire coating
lining it.
> /"The Feral Trump has arrived,"/ Roger announces over all the open
>channels, grinning in a fashion that promises mayhem. His left hand
>makes a snakelike motion, whipping out a lightning-wreathed deck of
>cards and spreading them out with a snap, for all the world like a
>Japanese war fan. /"Anyone up for some CAoL poker? Five-Crunchie
>Stud, Rogers wild, swords or better to open."/
There is a projection of considerable annoyance coming from...
somewhere. Of course, that could be explained by any number of
sources, both among the forces of Apokolips and the Anti-Life Entity's
simulacra.
> Roger's smile flattens out into something more like a predatory
>slit, and his eyes begin boiling energy the way that Jack Kirby used
>to draw the Silver Surfer in those Prelude To Opening The Can Of
>Cosmic Whoop-Ass moments.
OOC: Hey, he _is_ his father's son _after_ all. How many times has
Roland done the "blazing eyes of payback" thing? BTW, David has
captured the image perfectly, for those who know what Kirby-cracklin'
eyes look like...
> "/Okay, now... who needs killing?"/
/No. Killing./ The response almost sounds regretful...
> There's a faint sound from underneath Roger's 7-league boots
>(13EEEE, for the curious). The Angels look, do a double take, and
>then blurt out in perfect chorus: "PAPA ROLAND!??"
Roland sighs. /Good morning, Angels./
> "Huh? Who? Wha-- WHERE??" Roger responds intelligently, his
>eyeglow dispersing in confusion. He follows the Angels' pointing
>fingers, and looks down.
Roland has managed to pull his shape together enough to form a face
at the lip of the crater, with just a hint of hair at the top. It is
scowling at his hypertime-born son. /Under other circumstances,/
Defender notes dryly, /I would be very happy to see you./
> "Oh. Oops."
> For no reason whatsoever, beyond the Transfinite's ongoing use of
>Roger as its comedic whipping boy, a copy of the Suess book "Hop on
>Pop" falls out of Roger's jacket and beans Roland on the helmet.
And turns into ash before it completes its bounce.
Oboy. _Now_ he's in a _mood._
> He charges a hand with Halo energy and extends it in Roland's
>direction. "Err... Hi, Dad." With his other hand, also suddenly
>empty, he rubs the back of his neck in an embarrassed fashion. "Sorry
>I'm late. You, ah, don't look so good. Need a recharge? Man, you
>wouldn't *believe* the traffic on the way here...."
Defender almost literally pulls himself together, forcing his body
into something resembling a human shape through main force of will. He
takes the hand, accepting healing from Morgan (over their link) as
well as Roger, restoring him roughly to the point where he was before
the cavalry arrived -- _on_ him. "Hi, Roger. Can't say I'm surprised,
given the Gaunt Man's involvement. I can't imagine _why._ Yes, thank
you. And yes, I would." Questions answered, he proceeds to work out
the plan with Darkseid, transmitting to the CAoL as previously
described, with one addition.
/"Roger, I want you to duplicate as widely as you can. Half of
'you' will fight the death-shadows, while the other half harries the
Entity itself. Angels, you'll take on death-shadows if you think you
can do so without destroying large sections of my planet."/
/*Or even small sections,*/ Morgan adds with nervous humor.
/Well, the occasional uninhabited building is okay,/ Roland notes
with a wry grin. /And with these two, expecting them not to have at
least _that_ much collateral damage just isn't fair. "Okay, folx, you
know the drill. Let's use it on the Entity's teeth."/
^And Roger...try to keep a lid on that weirdness magnet of yours,
would you?^ With that, Defender takes off.
/Should we warn Cleveland? I mean, I'm not sure they've recovered from
that giant radioactive shrimp,/ Morgan asks Roger.
^Telling them might just make it worse,^ Roland replies dryly to
Morgan alone.
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Amazo II
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 00:44:24 -0500
"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011678
> Under other circumstances, the incoming "meteor" would have been
>very unhappy. Earth's Mightiest Champion is angry, alert, and ready
>to rock.
> However, anyone who just went 12 rounds with Amazo can be forgiven
>for being at a bit less than full capacity.
Besides, vaporizing Roger wouldn't have been funny.
....
Well, okay, it *would* be. But Suessing Roland is funnier.
>> When the dust clears a moment later, Roger is standing where
>>Roland was, flanked by two lovely, heavily-armed young women in
>>battle bikinis and rearguarded by a hawk-faced man in a dark suit of
>>vaguely clerical cut.
>
> The crater Roger is standing in has a pretty sapphire coating
>lining it.
OOC: Whoa. I didn't mean to hit him *that* hard. Then again, what's
a little minor splatting between immortals?
> There is a projection of considerable annoyance coming from...
>somewhere. Of course, that could be explained by any number of
>sources, both among the forces of Apokolips and the Anti-Life
>Entity's simulacra.
But not Roger. Nooo, never *Roger.* Resigned but affectionate
exasperation is the reaction Roger generates. Yep. That's all.
>> "/Okay, now... who needs killing?"/
>
> /No. Killing./ The response almost sounds regretful...
OOC: nothing to deflate a fine killing rage like realizing that
your first "kill" was a friendly. Especially a friendly whose good
opinion is rather important to you....
Which all handily kicks Roger back from "Liefeld" mode to something
closer to "Warner Bros" mode. The ironic thing is, while Roger is more
*dangerous* when he's in full-out "lethal force authorized" mode, he
more *effective* when he's riding that edge between humor and pathos.
>> There's a faint sound from underneath Roger's 7-league boots
>>(13EEEE, for the curious). The Angels look, do a double take, and
>>then blurt out in perfect chorus: "PAPA ROLAND!??"
>
> Roland sighs. /Good morning, Angels./
OOC: Charlie? Is that you?
> Roland has managed to pull his shape together enough to form a
>face at the lip of the crater, with just a hint of hair at the top.
>It is scowling at his hypertime-born son. /Under other
>circumstances,/ Defender notes dryly, /I would be very happy to see
>you./
Inside Roger's head, gears shift so quickly as to cause neural
whiplash in his mental drivetrain.
>> For no reason whatsoever, beyond the Transfinite's ongoing use of
>>Roger as its comedic whipping boy, a copy of the Suess book "Hop on
>>Pop" falls out of Roger's jacket and beans Roland on the helmet.
>
> And turns into ash before it completes its bounce.
> Oboy. _Now_ he's in a _mood._
And in Roger's head, a small Current Status dial rotates away from
"Saving the Day" and towards "Screwed Up Big Time."
> /"Roger, I want you to duplicate as widely as you can. Half of
>'you' will fight the death-shadows, while the other half harries the
>Entity itself. Angels, you'll take on death-shadows if you think you
>can do so without destroying large sections of my planet."/
Roger nods, while the Angels grin and brandish what look like
Legion flight rings and Arisian Lenses in addition to the mass of guns
that have that distinctive Roger's Armaments look to them.
/Don't worry,/ Roger sends on the QT. /I made some
reverse-engineered copies of enhanced weapons, and added some
"safeties" to mitigate the tendency for things to go wrong around the
Angels. I weighted the cosmic dice, so to speak./
[Of course, there *will* be a karmic backlash to pay off later, but
I can make sure that's just me]
>/*Or even small sections,*/ Morgan adds with nervous humor.
>
> /Well, the occasional uninhabited building is okay,/ Roland notes
>with a wry grin. /And with these two, expecting them not to have at
>least _that_ much collateral damage just isn't fair.
/"Mama Morgan, we wouldn't do that!"/ Yuri protests plaintively.
/"And even when we do, it won't be our fault!"/ Kei adds, rather
contradictorially.
"Ahem. What about me?" inquires the clerical-looking man.
"/Oh, yes. Everybody, this is John Preston, Grammaton Cleric and a
master of the Gun Kata. Think of him as someone roughly on Eric's
level pre-upgrade, but minus the ki abilities. Preston, I want you to
lurk around the edges and pick off targets of opportunity. Don't mix
it up directly -- even with the X slugs and the body armor, this is
liable to be a little hot for you."
Preston nods, and becomes very, very still. To the empaths and
telepaths, his psychic signature becomes something crystalline and
translucent, all smooth planes and angles, so contained and closed
that even an Arisian would have to work a bit to detect and/or get a
grip on him. Without a word, he turns and ghosts silently away across
the rubble, merging into the nearest shadow.
Roger watches him go with a small grin. "Boy, I love to watch that
man work." He turns back to the rest of the party. "Well, time to get
it on, I guess. This looks like a job for--" he strikes a dramatic
pose "--the LEGION OF ROGERS!"
"Please, Light, not a *thousand* of him..." someone mutters.
Grandly ignoring this kibbitzing from the peanut gallery, Roger
"clenches"... and multiple "low-level" Rogers pop up all over the
area, in tactical locations.
Roger-Prime sways a bit, then steadies. /"Okay. I'm spread a tad
thin, but by multitasking I should be able to at least tie up a few
shadows with each dupe, even if I can't frag 'em."/
>"Okay, folx, you know the drill. Let's use it on the Entity's
>teeth."/
> ^And Roger...try to keep a lid on that weirdness magnet of yours,
>would you?^ With that, Defender takes off.
[If I could, do you think my life would be like this?] Roger muses
wryly, watching his father fly off.
>/Should we warn Cleveland? I mean, I'm not sure they've recovered
>from that giant radioactive shrimp,/ Morgan asks Roger.
Roger blinks, obviously running through his list of most recent
screw-ups looking for any oversized irradiated crustaceans, and pulls
a blank. He pops a "full" dupe over to Morgan. "Errr... did I miss
something? Anyway, I wouldn't worry. I left some very competent allies
covering Cleveland."
CLEVELAND:
Standing on the outer rim of the stadium, a tall powerful figure in
green/yellow-and-black mettalic armor watches impassively as the huge
sea creature heaves itself out of Lake Erie, into the narrow stretch
between the Rock&Roll Hall Of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center.
From behind the opaquely mirrored fishbowl helmet, his expression
was unreadable, but his voice was a bit weary.
"Cortana, the next time Greywolf-Phoenix asks us for a favor--"
"--Tell him to go to Halo, right, Master Chief." interjects a
female voice from inside his armor.
"No," the Master Chief says after a moment of consideration.
"Probably a bad idea. If the Flood managed to absorb him, with *his*
abilities."
"Good point. Okay, I'll just tell him no."
"Good. Ready?"
"I never did like seafood."
"You don't eat. You're an AI."
"Do I nitpick your jokes? Let's go."
"I don't make jokes."
"Nobody's perfect. Let's *go,* already."
"Nag, nag, nag..."
=================================
Subject: OOC: Nuked shrimp (was Re: AAE 9: Against Amazo II)
On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 09:06:04 -0800
Morgan Said As CAoL Message # 00011679
>On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 00:44:24 -0500
>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011678
>
>>/Should we warn Cleveland? I mean, I'm not sure they've recovered
>>from that giant radioactive shrimp,/ Morgan asks Roger.
>
> Roger blinks, obviously running through his list of most recent
>screw-ups looking for any oversized irradiated crustaceans, and pulls
>a blank. He pops a "full" dupe over to Morgan. "Errr... did I miss
>something? Anyway, I wouldn't worry. I left some very competent
>allies covering Cleveland."
OOC: Just so people know, this was a silly side reference to an
episode of "Deep Fried Live," our favorite online cooking show hosted
by Tako the Octopus.
http://www.8legged.com/DeepFriedLive/DFL01_02.html
If trying to go straight there gives you trouble, go to
http://www.deepfriedlive.com/ and select Episode 2: King Prawn. I also
heartily recommend the food science lab, wherein even someone who's
been cooking for years learned things (like just _why_ kneading bread
more makes it "heavier").
We now return you to your regularly scheduled mayhem ;-).
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Furies
On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 20:22:03 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011680
We now return to your regularly scheduled beatdown...
>On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 00:22:07 -0800
>Harlock Said As CAoL Message # 00011671
>
>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 21:05:02 -0800
>>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011669
>>
>> *Callahan's is my religion,* he quips back. *My faith is in my
>>friends. My family. You see that massive army raining down on us?
>>That's _desperation_ you're looking at.
>> *We're winning.* He projects a confident smile through the link.
>>*Hang on. The cavalry's coming.*
>
>*Actually,* the Bard projects in a dust-dry tone, *I might have a way
>to speed things up, but 'twould require your faith to implement it.
>Your faith in something beyond that which you can see, that is.*
*Can you see love?* Roland chuckles. *Can you hear it, feel it,
touch it? Though if you actually need a _god_ or two, you may want to
take it up with my wife. I believe in the _existence_ of gods, but
having met Thor, it's rather like believing in gravity. She, on the
other hand, is the priestess in the family. You should've seen her
channel the Morrigan. Woof.*
*I love you too, dear,* Morgan sends with a smile and a kiss.
*Harlock, I'm not sure what you need. When you've actually experienced
the presence of your deities, become a living vessel for them to
manifest, it's not like you 'take their existence on faith' anymore.
But I also have faith in their immanence even when they're not making
themselves manifest.* There are brief pauses in her mental
conversation as she deals with death-shadows. *Does that help?*
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Zia
On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 20:37:45 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011681
>On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 18:15:30 -0800 (PST)
>Ziactrice Said As CAoL Message # 00011672
>
>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 20:58:24 -0800
>>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011668
>>
>> "Huh," he quips, even as he gasps at the sheer _wonder_ of what
>>he has become. "All the enlightenment of the universe, so I can
>>perform a glorified spackle job."
>>
>>Somewhere else, Rio laughs.
>
>@"Good timing,"@ Zia says/sends. Oddly, she is shifting her armor
>back to mecha-shape, and unlimbering her guns. Outside of Kanto's
>symbol she empowered, her ability to shadowshift is lessened. She can
>no longer simply apply an Limited Solution to the Expanded Series of
>the Transform that he had observed before.
Interestingly, whatever he was (had?) before 'Awakening' has
changed, but not left or been absorbed into his mage-hood.
Seeing that she's breaking out the artillery again, Eric replies,
@May I try something?@ If she agrees, he does a couple of kata-like
moves with his hands in front of his solar plexus, then releases the
effect.
If her ammunition was limited, she now has access to his "golden
bullet" effect in all her firearms. If she had limitless ammunition
from Elsewhere, it is now enhanced by his Primal erasure/"spackle"
effect.
@Well whadayaknow, it worked,@ he quips.
>It probably won't take Eric long to realize that Ziactrice isn't
>Awakened, despite her mastery of ch'i. Of course, how would Ziactrice
>Awaken? To her, _all_ shadow worlds are neither absolutely real nor
>as completely fluid as he sees his - but some shade between. She
>cannot resculpt this shadow, only shadowshift the brightness and
>contrast around the corners. As she said earlier, she can affect
>Chance, but not offer Certainty.
[Hm.] He ponders this for a few moments, still using Long Fist
attacks to obliterate as many death-shadows as he can.
[Later. We have what we have, and she's damn _good_ with what she
has.]
>@"Steppenwolf,"@ the petite Amberite's voice emerges from the ether
>near the commander, @"we've got a big gun for these little nasties.
>Will you please coordinate a Head 'Em Up movement? I think we three
>can keep him from being overcome, even against these odds."@
Steppenwolf almost jumps in his commander's chair on board his
flagship. "{Ah, yes, Su...Ziactrice, is it?}" he replies, and sends a
phalanx of ships, with parademons flying escort, to run interference
for them.
>"I hope that thing can die." Ziactrice frowns at the Anti-Life
>Entity, now under massed attack by all the Heavy Hitters. "I haven't
>a clear enough idea of the Transform, yet. The bits and pieces I've
>seen are too mangled. I can only see part of one expansion set of one
>equation..."
@"Well, as much as I'd be happier with it dead, just getting it out
of here will do,"@ Eric replies. @"I'm not even going to _try_ to wrap
my head around math that's giving _you_ a hard time, but with my
awareness of Prime -- this 'Possibility' stuff those High Lords are
after -- I can feel it. It's a hole, Zia...a living hole in existence.
Not just reality. Existence. Life. Hope. Anti-Life...that's a pretty
good name for it."@
The monstrosity seems to exude a smile.
@Don't get smug, you,@ Eric fires back with his Lens. @Just because
you eat hope doesn't mean you're a big enough Hole to devour the hope
that WE have!@
[Gaia, did _I_ just say that? I've been hanging around this lot for
too long.]
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE9: Brick-and-mortar issues
On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 20:46:56 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011682
>On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 15:22:42 -0500
>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011676
>
>>On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:39:45 -0800
>>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011641
>>
>> Omen looks on in morbid fascination (then again, does he have any
>>other kind? 8^). [How interesting. He's _reality_storming_ the
>>_wall._ More prosaic than I had expected, but effective.]
>
> OOC: I just thought of it as making a conceptual end run around
>the wall, by grabbing the "wall" metaphor and driving it in a
>direction it would naturally be inclined to go (Berlin, natch)... and
>then just pushing it off the cliff at the end of the road.
OOC: Well, yes, but isn't a clash of metaphors a battle between
realities almost by definition? Orrorshan oppression vs. Earth-9
Internet Age freedom... ;^)
>> Omen is suddenly Not There...
>
> Probably wouldn't have done much to him anyway -- Rog was too far
>into the whole "wall" motif to even notice Omen directly.
Well, yeah, but he didn't want to give himself away. Yet.
>> Omen appears a foot from the CAoL's leader, waving a "Get Out Of
>>Jail Free" card casually as he lounges on nothing. "You know, you
>>people would be a lot more dangerous if you had the slightest idea
>>how you do what you do," he comments dryly.
>
> OOC: Yes, we would. (:) *This* would have been where Roger would
>have made his entrance, possibly railroad-spiking *Omen* rather than
>Roland, but I didn't get to it in time.
OOC: Owie. Ever step on a nail? Try falling on a rusty railroad
spike...
> ....Besides, landing on Roland is funnier. And we *all* know what
>that means when Roger is involved.
"Oh. Yeah. Hi-LAR-ious."
"Well, _I_ thought it was funny. 'Hop on pop' was a nice touch.
Heh."
"_You_ weren't in the middle of leading an Epic Battle against
Darkness Incarnate."
"Er, well, I kinda sorta was, actually."
"Did _you_ have Roger's 13EEEE feet in your skull?"
"Uh, no..."
"Exactly."
(Whispered to Roger [yes, Roger]): "You might want to keep an eye
on him. He's in one of _those_ moods."
OOC-Morgan: Geez, Roger, now you've got _everyone_ doing it.
>>Evil GM-San
>>What, you thought it stood for Evil Grin? ;^)
>
> Hey, so it's multipurpose. Hardly surprising, among a group so
>enamored of large-caliber punnery...
Break out the 10-pound puns!
=================================
Subject: AAE 9: Against Anti-Life
On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 21:58:38 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011683
>On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 00:44:24 -0500
>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011678
>
>> There is a projection of considerable annoyance coming from...
>>somewhere. Of course, that could be explained by any number of
>>sources, both among the forces of Apokolips and the Anti-Life
>>Entity's simulacra.
>
> But not Roger. Nooo, never *Roger.* Resigned but affectionate
>exasperation is the reaction Roger generates. Yep. That's all.
I was referring to the _source_ of the annoyance, not its cause.
But that works. ;^)
>>> There's a faint sound from underneath Roger's 7-league boots
*burble*
>>>(13EEEE, for the curious). The Angels look, do a double take, and
>>>then blurt out in perfect chorus: "PAPA ROLAND!??"
>>
>> Roland sighs. /Good morning, Angels./
>
> OOC: Charlie? Is that you?
OOC: I was _waiting_ for a chance at that pun...
>>Questions answered, he proceeds to work out the plan with Darkseid,
>>transmitting to the CAoL as previously described, with one addition.
>> /"Roger, I want you to duplicate as widely as you can. Half of
>>'you' will fight the death-shadows, while the other half harries the
>>Entity itself. Angels, you'll take on death-shadows if you think you
>>can do so without destroying large sections of my planet."/
>
> Roger nods, while the Angels grin and brandish what look like
>Legion flight rings and Arisian Lenses in addition to the mass of
>guns that have that distinctive Roger's Armaments look to them.
Roland boggles. Briefly. [Lenses? On the DIRTY PAIR? Ye gods --
hey. Wait a minute. COMPENSATES FOR THEIR GREATEST WEAKNESS.
_Brilliant._] He smiles.
> /Don't worry,/ Roger sends on the QT. /I made some
>reverse-engineered copies of enhanced weapons, and added some
>"safeties" to mitigate the tendency for things to go wrong around the
>Angels. I weighted the cosmic dice, so to speak./
/Good thinking,/ Defender notes.
>> /*Or even small sections,*/ Morgan adds with nervous humor.
>
> /"Mama Morgan, we wouldn't do that!"/ Yuri protests plaintively.
> /"And even when we do, it won't be our fault!"/ Kei adds, rather
>contradictorially.
/Angels,/ Roland replies, kindly but sternly.
> Grandly ignoring this kibbitzing from the peanut gallery, Roger
>"clenches"... and multiple "low-level" Rogers pop up all over the
>area, in tactical locations.
> Roger-Prime sways a bit, then steadies. /"Okay. I'm spread a tad
>thin, but by multitasking I should be able to at least tie up a few
>shadows with each dupe, even if I can't frag 'em."/
Roland looks concerned for a moment. /Ah, the death-shadows are
dangerous, but fragile. Don't spread yourself _too_ thin. If each dupe
doesn't have the oomph to take out, say, an incoming modern-era
missile, maybe you should consolidate a bit.../
>> ^And Roger...try to keep a lid on that weirdness magnet of yours,
>>would you?^ With that, Defender takes off.
>
> [If I could, do you think my life would be like this?] Roger muses
>wryly, watching his father fly off.
^If he could, don't you think we'd have seen some evidence of it by
now?^ Morgan adds with a fond grin. (OOC: This is the
slightly-expanded family link, meaning Roger can hear it if his player
wants him to.)
Roland sighs. ^Point. All the same, he couldn't have chosen a worse
time to turn me into carry-out. That's the Anti-Life Equation hovering
above my world. The sprocking _Anti-Life_Equation._^
^Yes. And it's going _down,_^ Morgan sends with the tone of a she-wolf
defending her young.
Roland chuckles mentally. ^That's my wife, all right.^
A few moments later, as the more human members of the CAoL fight
off the Entity's armada of micro-duplicates...
/*Okay. The ground forces and other less-than-cosmic beings are
giving the death-shadows hell. Now it's time for the Big Guns to open
fire. First salvo, direct force, hit it with everything!*/
Solaris, enhanced by the symbiotic Defender working to boost its
strength, efficiency, and versatility, unleashes a withering barrage
of plasma bolts that tear into the Entity, then become deadly 'worms'
that weaken the monster.
Darkseid fires his Omega Beams, now without the Anti-Life Equation
powering them but instead suffused with the Source.
Kalibak and Orion cut loose with sheer, raw power -- the former's
Beta Club and the latter's Astro-Force.
Maggedon hammers the Entity with a one-two punch of vast
anti-plasma 'power' and the psychic power that could subvert even the
Old Gods.
(insert the other CAoLers' attacks here)
The triple goddess of the combined forces -- Silver Phoenix,
Solitaire, and Suli San -- unleash(es) an attack of mind, spirit, and
body, respectively.
The Anti-Life Entity reels, staggering from the sheer, unimaginable
power from the combined assault. It quickly recovers, however, turning
baleful eyes on the alliance.
/*As expected. ALL DEFENSES AT FULL! EVASIVE ACTION!*/ Defender
roars across the mental link.
Darkseid _charges_ himself with his Omega Power, letting the
Anti-Life break against him like a wave.
Maggedon, not being truly alive, simply absorbs the counterattack
into his anti-sun, though it does seem to disrupt the super-weapon's
systems somewhat.
Kalibak and Orion, shockingly, cover one another, their evasion and
overlapping point-defense fire leaving them unharmed.
The Trinity defend themselves by shielding their presence then
being Not There for the remainder of the attack.
Finally, Solaris jinks and swerves with amazing skill, using its
own vast energy powers (enhanced with Defender's peerless talent for
same) to parry the attack, also escaping unscathed.
/*Heh. It fell for it. I was hoping it would be that
arrogant...Solaris, are your observations on the attack fully
calculated?*/
*Of course,* Solaris sniffs, faintly offended.
[Gotcha,] Defender thinks with a smile.
Anyone who isn't paying close attention would be worried at this
point. The Anti-Life Equation is more powerful than even the entire
cosmic contingent now opposing it. The direct attack has shown the
full measure of both sides' strength and skill.
Or has it?
/*Aurora, Hydra, you're on,*/ Defender sends. /*Pick a 'side,' each
of you. Hydra, take one half and do what you do best -- obliterate.
Aurora, you do what _you_ do best -- sneaky and subtle, subvert the
Entity's concentration and control. But don't attack directly, just
harry and defend.*/
CAoLers, of course, tend to pay attention when worlds are on the
line...
/*Okay, I figure the rest of you are already on to what I'm doing
here, but just in case...we're going 'up the middle,' metaphorically
speaking. Once the _really_ big guns have its body and mind going in
separate directions, we're going to be the wedge in between.*/ Roland
smiles broadly as the Starspawn display their vast power and genius.
*Would you care,* Darkseid asks dryly, *to explain why you did not
do this earlier?*
/*Two reasons,*/ Defender replies. /*Partly because it would have
been trickier to restore the stolen Possibilities to my people before,
killing most of your victims. Mostly, however, it was because
attacking a Darkness Device while it's still bonded to a High Lord
means it has access to all the power of its stolen land. Even if we
could overwhelm it -- not likely -- it would mean destroying a huge
section of the earth. Now, however...now, I'm going to spike that damn
thing, and it can flee or go back to whatever Abyss spawned it!*/
Roland's eyes light up (literally) as the Entity divides its
attention as expected. /*You're going to pay for that hubris, monster.
SOLARIS! FIRE!!!*/
Solaris does. Its glee is glorious and terrible as the shocked and
furious Entity recoils, seriously wounded for the first time...ever.
/*Everyone else -- go! Find a weak point and push as hard as you
can! Go! GO!!!*/
=================================
Subject: Re: OOC: Nuked shrimp (was Re: AAE 9: Against Amazo II)
On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:14:31 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011684
>On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 09:06:04 -0800
>Morgan Said As CAoL Message # 00011679
>
>>On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 00:44:24 -0500
>>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011678
>>
>> Roger blinks, obviously running through his list of most recent
>>screw-ups looking for any oversized irradiated crustaceans, and
>>pulls a blank. He pops a "full" dupe over to Morgan. "Errr... did I
>>miss something? Anyway, I wouldn't worry. I left some very competent
>>allies covering Cleveland."
/"No, the shrimp _already_ attacked Cleveland a few months ago. A
sentient octopus took care of it with some alien technology
he...um...acquired. Long story,"/ Roland explains.
[Besides, it's those _allies_ I'm thinking of warning them about,]
Roland thinks, albeit to himself. 8^)
>OOC: Just so people know, this was a silly side reference to an
>episode of "Deep Fried Live," our favorite online cooking show hosted
>by Tako the Octopus.
>
>http://www.8legged.com/DeepFriedLive/DFL01_02.html
Oh, and one more note: to actually see the reference above, when
the cartoon asks you to pick a door ("Help Tako escape! Pick a
door:"), be a mouse instead of a man. Or woman. Or octopus.
(IOW, try the mouse hole. 8^)
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Furies
On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:58:17 -0800
Harlock - Bard Extraordinaire Said As CAoL Message # 00011685
>On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 20:22:03 -0800
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011680
>
>>*Actually,* the Bard projects in a dust-dry tone, *I might have a
>>way to speed things up, but 'twould require your faith to implement
>>it. Your faith in something beyond that which you can see, that is.*
>
>
> *Can you see love?* Roland chuckles. *Can you hear it, feel it,
>touch it? Though if you actually need a _god_ or two, you may want to
>take it up with my wife. I believe in the _existence_ of gods, but
>having met Thor, it's rather like believing in gravity. She, on the
>other hand, is the priestess in the family. You should've seen her
>channel the Morrigan. Woof.*
Harlock grins slightly. *Point taken. Still...*
>*I love you too, dear,* Morgan sends with a smile and a kiss.
>*Harlock, I'm not sure what you need. When you've actually
>experienced the presence of your deities, become a living vessel for
>them to manifest, it's not like you 'take their existence on faith'
>anymore. But I also have faith in their immanence even when they're
>not making themselves manifest.* There are brief pauses in her mental
>conversation as she deals with death-shadows. *Does that help?*
*Possibly. But I am more interested in thy husband's take on
metaphysics. Where I hail from, at least, the gods can channel what we
refer to as "positive energy" through their followers. Well, the good
ones can, anyway, but I digress. What I was considering was trying to
construct a channel for Roland to use this energy--he being the one
with the energy manipulation powers, not to mention his current
location within Solaris. As positive energy is analogous to the
Source, as near as I can tell, this would provide him a potent
addition to his arsenal.*
As if to illustrate his point, Harlock begins glowing from within.
Death-shadows that strike him thereafter simply vanish, although the
glow tends to flicker slightly whenever that happens.
*I may not, however, construct such a channel of my own accord, since
Roland is hardly one of _my_ worshippers. I needs must negotiate with
his deity of choice. Thus my query remains: Roland, be ye a man of
faith?*
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Furies
On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:30:55 -0500
"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011686
>Roland X wrote on 1/13/2004, 11:27 PM:
> *Can you see love?* Roland chuckles. *Can you hear it, feel it,
>touch it? Though if you actually need a _god_ or two, you may want to
>take it up with my wife. I believe in the _existence_ of gods, but
>having met Thor, it's rather like believing in gravity. She, on the
>other hand, is the priestess in the family. You should've seen her
>channel the Morrigan. Woof.*
/Hey, what about the time I ended up wearing the Mask of Loki for a
month? Doesn't that get any honorable mention?/ Roger pipes up.
/Granted, I don't *remember* much of the details, and everyone is
Asgard is always out to lunch when I jog up Bifrost..../
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Zia
On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:38:57 -0500
"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011687
>Roland X wrote on 1/13/2004, 11:47 PM:
> The monstrosity seems to exude a smile.
> @Don't get smug, you,@ Eric fires back with his Lens. @Just
>because you eat hope doesn't mean you're a big enough Hole to devour
>the hope that WE have!@
OOC: was this an "open" comment? If so:
@Especially considering our Unlimited Supplies of Hostess
Cream-Filled Cakes and Fruit Pies. Oh, wait, you weren't there for
that one -- remind me to send you a copy of the highlight video,
later.@
Pause.
@BTW, Eric, nice upgrade. Welcome to the club.@ The link takes up a
slightly mischevious edge. @Be interesting to see what happens
next....@
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Anti-Life
On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 17:21:24 -0800 (PST)
Ziactrice Said As CAoL Message # 00011688
>On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 21:58:38 -0800
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011683
Combining several posts...
> /*Okay, I figure the rest of you are already on to what I'm doing
>here, but just in case...we're going 'up the middle,' metaphorically
>speaking. Once the _really_ big guns have its body and mind going in
>separate directions, we're going to be the wedge in between.*/ Roland
>smiles broadly as the Starspawn display their vast power and genius.
> *Would you care,* Darkseid asks dryly, *to explain why you did not
>do this earlier?*
> /*Everyone else -- go! Find a weak point and push as hard as you
>can! Go! GO!!!*/
>On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:38:57 -0500
>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011687
>
> @Especially considering our Unlimited Supplies of Hostess
>Cream-Filled Cakes and Fruit Pies. Oh, wait, you weren't there for
>that one -- remind me to send you a copy of the highlight video,
>later.@
> Pause.
> @BTW, Eric, nice upgrade. Welcome to the club.@ The link takes up
>a slightly mischevious edge. @Be interesting to see what happens
>next....@
@That,@ Zia comments even as she blazes away with Golden Guns firing
Golden Bullets (she couldn't resist the pun), @is definitely my cue.
Eric, I know you said you didn't want to try wrapping your mind around
the mathematics, but are you willing to try a limited mind-merge? I
think you can simplify the AL entity down to fractional partial
answers - er, make the mind-body split total and permanent - if you
can meld well enough to grasp the Limited Solution Set I have thus far
worked out.@
@Are you game to try?@
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Anti-Life
On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 00:26:59 -0500
"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011689
>Roland X wrote on 1/14/2004, 1:06 AM:
>
>> But not Roger. Nooo, never *Roger.* Resigned but affectionate
>>exasperation is the reaction Roger generates. Yep. That's all.
>
> I was referring to the _source_ of the annoyance, not its cause.
>But that works. ;^)
Everbody Loves Roger. He should have his own sitcom.
Of course, Everybody Who Loves Roger also feels exasperated,
frustrated, confused, and occaisionally driven totally insane by him,
depending on how things are going.
But somehow he just keeps managing to be worth all the trouble.
Barely.
>> Roger nods, while the Angels grin and brandish what look like
>>Legion flight rings and Arisian Lenses in addition to the mass of
>>guns that have that distinctive Roger's Armaments look to them.
>
> Roland boggles. Briefly. [Lenses? On the DIRTY PAIR? Ye gods
>hey. Wait a minute. COMPENSATES FOR THEIR GREATEST WEAKNESS.
>_Brilliant._] He smiles.
OOC: Mweh heh heh.
>> Grandly ignoring this kibbitzing from the peanut gallery, Roger
>>"clenches"... and multiple "low-level" Rogers pop up all over the
>>area, in tactical locations.
>> Roger-Prime sways a bit, then steadies. /"Okay. I'm spread a tad
>>thin, but by multitasking I should be able to at least tie up a few
>>shadows with each dupe, even if I can't frag 'em."/
>
> Roland looks concerned for a moment. /Ah, the death-shadows are
>dangerous, but fragile. Don't spread yourself _too_ thin. If each
>dupe doesn't have the oomph to take out, say, an incoming modern-era
>missile, maybe you should consolidate a bit.../
Roger-Prime blinks. "/Oh, is THAT all? I was expecting someone
tougher. This should be no problem, then./" He smiles in that
predatory fashion again. /"This means I can save most of my juice...
for THAT./" He flicks a gaze at the A-LE that has little apprehension,
and no little anticipation.
>>> ^And Roger...try to keep a lid on that weirdness magnet of
>>>yours, would you?^ With that, Defender takes off.
>>
>> [If I could, do you think my life would be like this?] Roger
>>muses wryly, watching his father fly off.
>
>^If he could, don't you think we'd have seen some evidence of it by
>now?^ Morgan adds with a fond grin. (OOC: This is the
>slightly-expanded family link, meaning Roger can hear it if his
>player wants him to.)
Roger *boggles* at this unintentional echo for a moment, before
mentally whapping himself upside the head with a "Hey, stupid, it's
MOM!"
Outwardly, he grins abashedly and blushes a tad. "/Aw, Mom... I
suppose I really *could* put more work into it, though..."/
> Roland sighs. ^Point. All the same, he couldn't have chosen a
>worse time to turn me into carry-out. That's the Anti-Life Equation
>hovering above my world. The sprocking _Anti-Life_Equation._^
OOC-Roger would like to point out that Roland was only out of
comission for a minute, and Roger helped recharge his Halo, so the
whole thing came out even, or slightly on the plus side for the Good
Guys, in the end.
(Actually, what he said was "Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch, call me when
he stops complaining," but I was translating diplomatically)
>^Yes. And it's going _down,_^ Morgan sends with the tone of a
>she-wolf defending her young.
Roger suddenly feels a momentary cold chill of the "somebody's
about to get some major hurtin' and I'm just glad it's not me"
variety.
> Roland chuckles mentally. ^That's my wife, all right.^
> A few moments later, as the more human members of the CAoL fight
>off the Entity's armada of micro-duplicates...
The LoR, for one... er, or a few hundred, are having a grand ol'
time.
Roger keeps the pot stirred by shifting Prime rapidly among his
multiple selves, breaking up dangerous concentrations of shadows and
keeping tabs on developments that his lesser dupes might miss.
One of the side effects of Roger's splitting is often that each
subself takes on certain semi-individual characteristics. And this
effect is even more pronounced when he's spread out this much. Most of
him are pretty one-dimensional, exagerrating small facets of his own
personality, or copycatting other people. The Uncanny R-Men are one
set of regular players, smacking around death shadows with a
combination of superpowers and Mutant Agnst, as are the Seven
Samuraiigers and the various Coyote, Eris, and Spider-Rog avatars
bouncing about.
The Iron Chef Roger whose Surprise Ingredient is "Crunchies" is
rather unprecedented, though, and a bit disturbing, even to
Roger-Prime. But there's no time to worry about that now.
Though he *does* make a note not to eat anything he cooks today,
just to be on the safe side....
> Maggedon hammers the Entity with a one-two punch of vast
>anti-plasma 'power' and the psychic power that could subvert even the
>Old Gods.
> (insert the other CAoLers' attacks here)
A Roger who bears a strong resemblance to a ferret becomes Prime
and poings *through* the A-LE, without a care in the wo--
"Oooh, *shiny!* What does *this* variable do?"
What it does is totally evaporate Kikiger, but only after that
variable has been experimentally jammed into several places where it
does NOT belong, and *just* too late to catch Prime....
....Who is now in a Roger who resembles an old Duncan Doughnuts
commercial. "TIME TO DROP THE DECIMAL POINTS!!!!!!"
(watching this must pain the professional mathmetician in Zia
nearly as much as listening to his puns....)
> The Anti-Life Entity reels, staggering from the sheer,
>unimaginable power from the combined assault. It quickly recovers,
>however, turning baleful eyes on the alliance.
> /*As expected. ALL DEFENSES AT FULL! EVASIVE ACTION!*/ Defender
>roars
Dunkin' Roger goes to that Great Bakery In The Sky, but Prime is
already else-self, swinging a guitar and muttering something about
"going fooly-cooly on someone's ass."
> /*Heh. It fell for it. I was hoping it would be that
>arrogant...Solaris, are your observations on the attack fully
>calculated?*/
> *Of course,* Solaris sniffs, faintly offended.
> [Gotcha,] Defender thinks with a smile.
> Anyone who isn't paying close attention would be worried at this
>point.
Unless they're Ultra Rogerman, who's trying to calculate just *how*
many Hostess treats it would take to fill up the A-LE....
> /*Okay, I figure the rest of you are already on to what I'm doing
>here, but just in case...we're going 'up the middle,' metaphorically
>speaking. Once the _really_ big guns have its body and mind going in
>separate directions, we're going to be the wedge in between.*/ Roland
>smiles broadly as the Starspawn display their vast power and genius.
"I'm going to need bigger pies," Ultra Rogerman comments, checking
his supply.
Inu-Raga snorts disdainfully and sits down on some handy rubble,
scratching behind one canine ear with a clawed toe. "Feh! Too much
planning. Wake me up when something *interesting* happens."
> *Would you care,* Darkseid asks dryly, *to explain why you did not
>do this earlier?*
> /*Two reasons,*/ Defender replies. /*Partly because it would have
>been trickier to restore the stolen Possibilities to my people
>before, killing most of your victims. Mostly, however, it was because
>attacking a Darkness Device while it's still bonded to a High Lord
>means it has access to all the power of its stolen land. Even if we
>could overwhelm it -- not likely -- it would mean destroying a huge
>section of the earth. Now, however...now, I'm going to spike that
>damn thing, and it can flee or go back to whatever Abyss spawned
>it!*/
Egon Rogler pushes his glasses back up on his nose and fingers his
proton thrower absenmindedly. "A most cogent summation, Defender. And
quite astute. By iterative reduction, we have now arrived at a
juncture wherein the optimum possible result is achievable, within the
stochastic limits of constrained chaotic probability."
> Roland's eyes light up (literally) as the Entity divides its
>attention as expected. /*You're going to pay for that hubris,
>monster. SOLARIS! FIRE!!!*/
> Solaris does. Its glee is glorious and terrible as the shocked and
>furious Entity recoils, seriously wounded for the first time...ever.
> /*Everyone else -- go! Find a weak point and push as hard as you
>can! Go! GO!!!*/
The Silver Roger (or Roger Surfer, I can never keep them straight)
is doing the Jack Kirby Eyes thing again. "Hear me, foulness! With far
fewer allies then this, I defended a world like unto this against a
foe more powerful than such as yourself could ever *dream* of
becoming! Your predations upon the living Multiverse are finished
here, today! FAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!"
Meanwhile, on the ground, a very normal-looking Roger 'ports in,
bringing with him a man in a mid-grade business suit a few decades out
of date. This Roger hands his companion a sketchpad and a pencil, both
of which seem... not quite right, like optical illusions -- they look
like they should be huge, and very far away, and yet they're still
obviously held in the suited man's hands. Rather gingerly so, at that.
"Are you certain...?" he asks hesitantly.
"Merely a precaution, Mr. Kirby," Roger assures him. "In case the
worst happens."
"But I'm just an artist. I draw *comic books!* I can barely pay my
rent! What do you think *I* can do?"
Roger glances at the battle raging overhead, and Mr. Kirby's gaze
follows his... reluctantly.
"I didn't... I mean, it was all just *fiction*," Kirby whispers
brokenly. "I never thought anyone could get hurt--"
"You haven't hurt anyone, sir," Roger interrupts gently. "The
creative process isn't that straightforward. All this would have
existed, in one shape or another, even without you. But you *did* have
a hand in creating *this* shpape... and *that* gives you *leverage.*
You *can* effect these events, sir, have no doubt of it."
"But... *how*?"
Roger smiles, with no humor or mischief, just serene certainty.
"Just do what you do best, Mr. Kirby. Everything else will follow
naturally."
Kirby touches pencil to paper, glances overhead again, and
swallows. "Call... call me Jack." With his tongue protruding from one
corner of his mouth, he begins to sketch, in small, hesitant strokes,
which become less so as things progress....
OOC: Whoa. That's IT for me for tonight -- I'm up WAY past my
bedtime, and that's on top of being snowed into a hotel because
Detroit is gridlocked up the wazoo and I've been attending a training
class 50 miles on the OTHER side of Motown from home. Oy...
The Kirby riff is a throwaway, unless someone wants to do something
with it. I originally had visions, earlier, of having Darkseid "meet
his maker" (literally), but he's on our side, now...
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Anti-Life
On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 22:45:16 -0800 (PST)
Rob N Said As CAoL Message # 00011690
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011683
>
> A few moments later, as the more human members of the CAoL fight
>off the Entity's armada of micro-duplicates...
> /*Okay. The ground forces and other less-than-cosmic beings are
>giving the death-shadows hell. Now it's time for the Big Guns to open
>fire. First salvo, direct force, hit it with everything!*/
Rob, meanwhile, turns a shadow into harmless fragments with a few
quick slashes from Woundhealer. [Closer. But not yet.] If anybody
asked, he wouldn't be able to explain what he was waiting for.
Fortunately, nobody does; as it is, he is on the edge of splitting his
awareness too many ways.
> The Anti-Life Entity reels, staggering from the sheer,
>unimaginable power from the combined assault. It quickly recovers,
>however, turning baleful eyes on the alliance.
> /*As expected. ALL DEFENSES AT FULL! EVASIVE ACTION!*/ Defender
>roars across the mental link.
[Almost,] Rob muses, absently stop-thrusting another shadow.
> Roland's eyes light up (literally) as the Entity divides its
>attention as expected. /*You're going to pay for that hubris,
>monster. SOLARIS! FIRE!!!*/
> Solaris does. Its glee is glorious and terrible as the shocked and
>furious Entity recoils, seriously wounded for the first time...ever.
> /*Everyone else -- go! Find a weak point and push as hard as you
>can! Go! GO!!!*/
[Now,] Rob realizes. He's been waiting for a moment to arrive -
what a more enlightened being might call "anticipating the cusp." All
he knows is that he had something to do, some time, and that time is
now. He throws Woundhealer away, to shred two shadows before burying
itself in a telephone pole.
"GHIDRAH'S BREATH!" Three beams of gravitic energy, each equal to a
dreadnought-scale graser, lance out - one from each hand, and one from
Rob's mouth. One deflects around Mageddon, whose mass is enough to
divert such a beam, while the anti-plasma barrage masks its presence.
The second blast is caught in the wake of the Astro-Force, and follows
it in. And the third goes off into space, arcs around the far side of
the moon, and hits the Anti-Life Entity from what would be its blind
side, if it had one.
Even with the incredible demands of controlling all this, Rob has
enough presence of mind to send a small thanks to Ghidrah, for
providing the power, and the enhanced awareness necessary to use it.
[I'll send a proper "thank you" later...]
=================================
Subject: A Calm Before The Storm (comments welcome)(Part
2)(VLong)(Sorry!)
On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 01:51:19 -0600
Martin and/or Dhyrclhanc Said As CAoL Message # 00011691
Dhyrclhanc stepped out of the entrance to the dome, and onto the
"grassy noll" that made up the "backyard" of Champion's Island.
Both Quothe and Nevermore were comfortably perched on one of his
shoulders, the ioun stones were making graceful orbits around his
head. A quick flicker of his cyber-psi ability was all that was needed
to verify that his personal force field generator was on
"standby-mode" and that his personal reality stabilizer was still
activated.
It was also a relatively simple task for him to use his photokinetic
obscure the ioun stones whirring around his head.
Like Roland before him, he saw much the of the ground covered with a
multitude of tents and the vehicles of the New Navy troops who had
agreed to accompany Dhyrclhanc in his defense of Earth-9's New York,
and -- although to a lesser extent -- Earth-9 in general, from
Darkseid's invading forces.
Milling around the tents and the vehicles were the actual Sailors and
Marines who made up those self-same New Navy forces...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/New%20Navy%20Personnel.jpg
Including a few who still wore their powered combat armor...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Semper%20Fi.jpg
Scattered amongst them were the various members of the Megaversal
Legion mercenaries who had also agreed to accompany Dhyrclhanc, but
whose motivations were slightly less altruistic.
While the Megaversal Legion somewhat prided itself on being a force
for good, having originally been a slave army before being able to
fight off their Dakir Slaver oppressors, they still insisted on being
paid up front.
Dhyrclhanc had been very happy that he'd had that container full of
platinum ingots in the cargo hold of the Xavier that day.
The bulk of the troops of the Megaversal Legion that were present were
the, still predominantly, Human Megaversal Trooper Cyborgs...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Megaversal%20Trooper%20--%20Human.jpg
(watch for possible line wrap)
A slightly smaller number of these troops were the, slightly more
modified, Ohajee Megaversal Trooper Cyborgs...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Megaversal%20Trooper%20--%20Ojahee.jpg
(again, watch for possible line wrap)
... And an again smaller percentage of the Megaversal Legion's troops
were made up of the fully cybernetically converted "Destroyer
'Borgs"...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Megaversal%20Trooper%20--%20Destroyer%
20Borg.jpg
(see above)
... and almost looming above all of them were the New Navy's
vehicles...
The Striker attack helicopters...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Striker.jpg
and the Manta flying subs...
http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Manta.jpg
Almost as soon as he'd exited the tunnel that led back into the dome,
Dhyrclhanc was approached by Colonel Arthur Savage, the supreme
commander of the Megaversal Legion, Okarr, the commander of the Ohajee
forces of the Megaversal Legion and Colonel Savage's XO, and one of
the Legion's Destroyer 'Borgs.
These three were followed close behind by a New Navy Marine officer
and an Armed New Navy Sailor.
Dhyrclhanc made an educated guess that the last three were probably
COs as well.
Behind these five were the members of Dhyrclhanc's "Cadre of Light".
Synthea, Nimrod, and Dasher were the ones that those who'd previously
been members of the CAoL were familiar with. Mark Seven; the "deviant"
Ultron iteration, and Nightwraith; the "Black Dragon"/Genegineered
Chimera, were newer additions, and Lady Dharma; Dhyrclhanc's personal,
dedicated "Nemisis split", was in attendance as well.
Dhyrclhanc allowed himself to, once again, briefly reflect upon the
wise choice that he'd made when he decided to leave Max, his Pikachu
Pokemon, back at Greymalkin, his Tesseract base located on the sole
Moon of the planet Alfandra.
Granted that Max wouldn't be very happy when he got back, but
Dhyrclhanc had bigger issues to deal with at the moment.
The five military men approached Dhyrclhanc more closely while the
"Cadre of Light" hung back a few steps.
"Is there a problem, officers?" The Lensdragon quipped, while at the
same time he thought he probably knew just what it was going to be
that they were going to complain to him about.
"What was the big idea convening on this flying island, Dhyrclhanc? We
don't have any access to our vehicles, and, as I recall, you were the
one who requested that we only bring the Hover-Tanks and Hover-APCs,
not the Attack Aerodynes."
"The reason that I suggested that you only bring the Neo-Abramses and
Neo-Bradleys," replied Dhyrclhanc, and not the Neo-Apaches, was
because I'd already arranged for the New Navy personnel to provide
air-support."
See http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Neo-Abrams.jpg for one of
these vehicles, and watch out for any possible line wrap. ;^)
"I notice," added the draconian Lensman, "that you were able to get
here despite the fact that neither your Tanks nor your APCs could
fly."
"Yes, we met up with the New Navy Personnel you spoke of." added
Okarr.
"... And it's a good thing you did, too." interjected the New Navy
Officer.
"Gentlemen, I'd prefer it if we were able to postpone any remnants of
that old Army/Navy rivalry, at least for the moment." said Dhyrclhanc.
"He didn't mean it like that, err, Sir." interjected the Marine.
Then, mostly for effect, Dhyrclhanc blinked, and asked, "... And you
would be?"
"Marine Lieutenant Commander Henry Grail, err, Sir." The Marine
casually saluted Dhyrclhanc.
Dhyrclhanc, without thinking, saluted him back, then caught himself,
blinked again and then pivoted and looked directly at the New Navy
Sailor, "... And you?"
"Navy Lieutenant Leo Warfield", said the Sailor, without saluting.
The Marine didn't try to correct him, but the Sailor was out of sight
of the Marine, and, more appropriately, vice versa.
The Marine was about to say something else, but Dhyrclhanc motioned
for him to wait and then the Lensdragon turned his head so he was
looking straight at the Destroyer 'Borg, "... And just so I know
everyone's names, that would make you... ?"
The Destroyer ''Borg looked up. Dhyrclhanc would've normally said that
the 'Borg was re-focusing his eyes, but Destoryer 'Borgs don't have
any eyes, at least not as such. They have an advanced bionic sensory
system suites, including an advanced, built-in, VR Entertainment
system.
"I'm Commander Sinclair Jerrek." he said, his vocal synthesizer giving
his voice a barely noticeable, almost metallic, sound. "I'm the
Third-in-Command of the Megaversal Legion and Commander of the Platoon
of the Destroyer 'Borgs in attendance in this conflict. Sir." The
'Borg added it onto the end as if it were an after-thought.
"O.K., Now that _I_ know who everyone here is... "
Dhyrclhanc motioned for the Marine Lt. Cmndr. to continue.
"It's like this, Sir," Lt. Cmndr. Grail continued, although "We all,
that is, we in the New Navy figured that we're all from Earth, heck
even if We're not all from the same Earth. ... And, even here we'd all
be considered D-bees, I guess. But the New Navy personnel, who are
under the command of me and Lieutenant Warfield, over there, figured
that since we're all from Earth, We -- that is Us in the New navy and
those who were in the Megaversal Legion -- should all stick together.
So we, that is us in the New Navy, got most of these folks from the
Megaversal Legion into a bunch of our Striker choppers and got a few
of 'em that would fit bundled up into our Mantas, and got 'em all here
when we got the order to bug-out."
[Later, I'll have to ask Roland to thank Orchid for the "quick
thinking".] Thought Dhyrclhanc to himself. [Or maybe it was Rio.
Either way, it's something I'll have to remember to take care of.
Later.]
"Well," quipped Dhyrclhanc, "It's nice to see all of you getting along
so well."
"No, there's no rivalry, or envy, of any kind going on. Sir." said Lt.
Warfeild. "Although, like them," he motioned to Okarr, Colonel Savage
and Commander Jerrek, "They don't have their Tanks and APCs and we
don't have our Hovercraft."
Check out http://spider.nji.com/~mgerster/Iwo-Jima.jpg
and, once again, be wary of any possible line wrap
Now in a more serious tone, Dhyrclhanc answered,
"I can take care of your land vehicles, watch... " He waved a hand
towards the area currently occupied by the "soldiers" from both the
Legion and New Navy, and I single Hover-Tank, Hover-APC/Scout vehicle,
and Iwo-Jima Combat/Troop Carrier appeared, with a large "POP" noise.
Dhyrclhanc had wisely made the vehicles "exo-port" into a large empty
space roughly in the center of the larger camp. Then they vanished
again, in an equally large explosion of in-rushing air.
"They're in a safe place, for now." added the 400+ year-old hatchling
and Sentinel-Lensdragon.
We're about to move the whole operation several miles southwest of
here, so I'd suggest you keep your men where they are for now. But let
them know that the fighting is going to start-up again, soon."
"That reminds me, Boss," interjected the rough, almost gravelly, voice
of Dasher, as the cruise-missile-shaped-bodied 'Bot floated into view
around the other five that Dhyrclhanc had been talking to. "What's
going to happen next?"
The rest of Dhyrclhanc's "Cadre of Light" followed close behind him.
With a combination of his telepathy and cyber-psi abilities,
Dhyrclhanc sent an image of the Satellite (sp?) Imagery Map that he'd
seen earlier, of the location on the intersection of the
Pennsylvania/Delaware/Maryland borders where Darkseid had set-up his
Invasion Headquarters.
"It's going to be a long trip, then?" Echoed both Nightwraith and Mark
Seven, in Stereo, only Mark Seven added a "Mr. Dhyrclhanc to the end
of his.
"No, actually, it's going to be a very short one." Dhyrclhanc replied
and pointed out the, at least, two Starspawn, Aurora and Hydra, who
were convening with the rest of the bulk of the rest of the CAoL at
the "departure site" that Roland had prepared for the members of the
"Army of Light". "Thanks to them."
Okarr oathed to some unrecognizable Ojahee God. Although the meaning
wasn't lost on Dhyrclhanc, the Lens helped, but being something of an
Anthropologist by necessity, helped, too.
"I thought your kind didn't worship gods anymore." commented
Dhyrclhanc.
"We don't." The Ohajee Cyborg replied.
"Who, or rather, what are they." asked Colonel Savage.
"With all your dealings with your neighbors to the west of you,
Colonel, I have to admit that I'm rather surprised that Okarr got it
and you didn't."
"What does the Empire of the Sun have to do with any of this?" queried
back the Legion's S-I-C.
"Like I said, you had it right the first time, Okarr. Essentially
they're Gods, like in the Ancient Greek, Roman, or Norse Myths.
Although it suddenly occurs to me, I think the comparison is more apt
than I'd originally realized."
"So what are we doing, Big Brother?" That was Synthea. The dark-haired
femme fetale that Dhyrclhanc'd successfully convinced to think of him
as her older brother.
Although their relationship (if one could even call it that, was
nothing on the level of the one he had with Roland and Morgan, the
Freelance Immortals.
"I kinda lost track of you during the last 'furball'." answered the
Immortal, super-annuated, adolescent hatchling Dragon. "... And given
my sparring partner-du-jour, I'm more than likely to do so again.
You're best bet is to stick with these people." He gave a restrained
gesture indicating the five C.O.s present of both the Megaversal
Legion and the New Navy. "Help them out when you can and do your best
to harry the 'crunchies', while the rest of us do the 'heavy
lifting'."
Dhyrclhanc turned to face the Military COs. "... And you all can also
consider what I just as an addendum to the 'marching orders' I've
already provided you with, too. I've figured out a way that I should
be able to deal with those flying carriers that our enemy was using.
Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed that I didn't think of it sooner but I
suppose that's what happens when you're getting your head handed to
you. Anyway, any and all help that we can get," He motioned with his
head towards the rest of the CAoL, "with the enemy's flyers will be
welcome."
Dhyrclhanc pivoted in an 180-degree turn and addressed the massive
"flock" of Xi Char-type Droid Star-Fighters, and the "Super
Star-Fighters" that he'd altered, perched on the outside of the dome
he'd just left moments ago.
"That last part goes for you, too!" he shouted.
... And was awarded with a din and cacophony of shrill, bird-like,
squawks and chirps that were an eerie facsimile of a cheer.
Dhyrclhanc turned back to his "Cadre of Light", and said, "Sorry,
gotta go join everyone else."
At which point, Lady Dharma, the "Rune-nanomagitech" multipart colony
being, gracefully slid forwards, and reached up and put one of her
upper pair of hands onto Dhyrclhanc's shoulder where the twin Ravens
had sat, waiting patiently.
"You'll do fine." She said in a friendly voice.
Fuzzy, if and/or whenever you want to take over running "L.D."
will be fine with me. Although, it appears that much of the "Cadre of
Light's" actions are going to be off-stage, at least for the next
little while. 'Sides, I'm not drownin', just waiving.
"I'm sure you will, too." Dhyrclhanc replied, and placed a similar
hand on Lady Dharma's shoulder. Then he unfurled his wings and flew
over, and landed, on the perch that Roland had provided for the
draconian Lensman, in the midst of the aforementioned "departure
site", in the midst of the rest of the CAoL.
Please forgive me this slight transgression, "Mr. Flannigan"...
(sp?)
"Ready to go?" Roland asked, after Dhyrclhanc had finaly arrived.
"I'd say that I was born ready but... Oh... nevermind. Let's light
this candle!" The familiar lopsided grin returned to the Lensdragan's
face as he did that trick with his thumb, the one Bugs Bunny had
taught him back while they were all still in the 'Toon-iverse, and
then placed the now lit cigar in his Megalodon-like mouth...
=================================
Subject: AAE9: Eddies in the space-time continuum
On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 18:44:18 -0800
Reality Hacker AJ47 Said As CAoL Message # 00011694
>{ ... If you really want to help out, could you monitor for Amazing
>Grace's power signature and let me know when and where she pops up?
>That would let me take more of an active hand in this fight.}
{Acknowledged,} replied Avery, breaking off the comlink connection
with Harlock. After a bit of pacing back and forth, he addressed his
head-chip directly. [Can we get energy readings on the eight humanoid
aggressors? What about the animals?]
#Each of the humanoid aggressors has a unique energy signature. The
animals are more difficult to read, and to distinguish; recommend
location fixes as an alternative.#
[Implement that recommendation. Maintain tracking on both bands. Any
new aggressors show up, alert me; it could be this Amazing Grace that
they're watching for.]
#One background process remaining.#
[Hmm. 'Amazing Grace' indeed. Speaking of aliases, who *are* these
polite young women, exactly?] A nearby screen went blank, then
displayed a row of snapshot images from the Furies' battle. Underneath
it, additional rows of images began to rotate through
similarly-colored images, about ten per second per location. Several
minutes later, some of them finally locked into place, and then the
rest in rapid-fire sequence. And they began to expand into full-size
panoramas, one after another... [Oh, great. So they not only look like
comic book characters, they actually *are* comic book characters. At
least we have a visual on Amazing Grace, now; patch that into the
alert.]
Thus occupied, Avery sat down and peered closely at the amulet,
focusing on the turquoise gem and the colorless placeholder next to
it. Slowly, slowly, one side of the placeholder began to take on a
faint bluish tinge of its own. [No telling whether this will work, but
it's worth a shot. Always did want to learn more about biology...]
Time passed, battles raged on, messages went back and forth: pinging
on his conscious thought not at all. Which meant he missed out on
Darkseid switching directions. (Oops.) Until--
#Alert. New energy signature detected.#
Avery paused his conscious efforts, pushed them into the last
background slot for storage, then walked toward the screen displaying
the Furies' battle. [Where is it? I don't see--]
And his thumb accidentally pressed the dark blue gem. All at once, he
rushed forward and *through* the screen, instinctively teleporting to
the scene of battle before consciously realizing what had happened. He
found himself behind the fifth floor of a convenient skyscraper,
floating in mid-air, with a partially obscured view of the Furies and
their opponents. Erstwhile opponents, rather.
[--aww, dammit, what the hell did you do *that* for? Just because I
can move like the Concorde, you think I can *think* that fast, too?
And c'mon, that doesn't even *look* like her!] This rant would prove
to be especially ill-timed, in light of the barrage of information
rushing toward his senses:
Shadows crashing down from the sky. [Evasive maneuvers!] #Idiot. What
do you *think* I'm doing?# Indeed, he found himself jerking upward and
shifting sideways in rapid succession.
Eric's Awakening. [Who's that? Where was he hiding?] The idea that
anyone could go from zero to Master in 6.2 seconds didn't even occur
to him. [And what's that mathematical construct they're batting
around? Feels like an Etheric formula...]
>/*Everyone else -- go! Find a weak point and push as hard as you can!
>Go! GO!!!*/
The all-hands alert from Roland caught Avery off balance, as did the
dawning realization of just what was going on... sort of. [I don't
know what the hell I missed during that trance, but whatever it was,
*both* sides are starting to empty their ammo belts directly at *that*
thing, and *those* things. That's never a good sign.]
It was at that moment that one of the shadows stopped in mid-air right
behind him, then slammed into his back - stopped short by mere inches
by the yellow gems, struggling back and forth, with no clear winner in
sight. He started to fly away, but several more shadows near his
flight path converged on the moving location and began to envelop more
and more of the surface area immediately surrounding his body. One of
them abruptly stabbed inward, toward the still-half-colorless gem...
[OOC: I realize that the action has progressed somewhat past this
point, and that the ALE has been - *apparently* - knocked out of
commission, along with its shadows. On the other hand, this gives Evil
GM-San an excuse to make up one or more lingering effects and play
with them, should he wish to. Could become particularly interesting
when AAE9s gets going.]
=================================
Subject: AAE 9: Dark Reflections
On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:21:49 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011695
Moved from the Green Room to IC, since there's lots of IC info
included...
>On Wed, 7 Jan 2004 13:54:45 -0500
>"David McMillan" Said As GR.CAoL Message # 00010184
>
>>Evil GM-San wrote on 1/5/2004, 10:26 PM:
>>
>> And then there's always...
>> "Roger, is _this_ why I haven't slept in 36 hours?" (holds out an
>>empty can of Folger's)
>
> "Hey, *you* were the one who tried boosting your powers by linking
>your aura directly into the armor -- that's what you get for horning
>in on my schtick."
"I was boosting my power with my armor before you were _born,_
kiddo. Don't try crying copyright infringement with _me._"
(Uh, do you even want to _go_ there, considering how mangled
Roger's timeline is?)
[Hey, just leave this to Too Much Coffee Defender, okay?]
(I hadda ask... ;^)
>>The multi-purpose Roland/GM .sig:
>>Roland aka Evil GM-San
>>Being Fearless Leader and Evil Incarnate simultaneously can give you
>>a splitting headache...almost literally. ;^)
>
> Oh, there's SO much room for major 3V1L there... maybe in AAE10 we
>can all visit the Trek Mirror Universe and meet the evil reflections
>of ourselves?
> "Okay... so, which Roger is the good one, and which one is the
>evil one?"
> "Umm... are you sure there's much of a difference?"
> "Hey! C'mon -- I'm standing RIGHT HERE, you know!"
Earth-6.
Red Fury (See AAE V, Marvel, Ch. 3 & 4 -- yes, he's already shown
up ), Defender's evil opposite and leader of both the Champions of
Evil and the Flaggesque Army of Darkness, watched through a Storm
Window as the Anti-Life Entity rained down death on his heroic
counterpart and his teams.
OOC: Note on the Flaggesque AoD: I expect its members to be roughly
equivalent in power to the CAoL, but aside from the Champions of Evil,
I have _no_ intention of making them mirror cognates. (Well, maybe
I'll throw in an angst-ridden Roger-6 who dresses in black, has no
sense of humor, and tries desperately to redeem Red Fury. But only
because I'm a sick SOB. ;^) Anyone who _wants_ a mirror cognate can
always throw one in, but that's not where I'm going with this, never
fear.
Well, okay, fear is a good idea. But not yet.
"Going soft on me, Darkseid?" Red Fury said with genuine regret.
"Oh well."
Solitaire-6 slid up to him, red-gloved hands encircling him as she
joined him to watch. "Can you blame him?" she whispered, smiling
cruelly.
Red Fury considered this. He, too, smiled. "...Yes."
"Sadist," she retorted with a laugh.
"Anyone who messed with you would spend the last few years of their
lives screaming in agony," Red Fury admitted. "I wouldn't give
something like _that_ up, though, unless it was...going to
double-cross me..." His smile broadened. "Oh, Darkseid, you brilliant
bastard. I take it back."
"What?" Seeker-6 asked, walking in as he cleaned blood off his
sword.
"He out-maneuvered Defender _and_ the Anti-Life Entity. It was
going to betray him." Roland Dracul tapped his armrest idly as he
considered. "Maybe we should hit them now."
"NO," a harsh, rasping voice intoned, and the Storm Window's image
darkened and refocused on the Gaunt Man. "Patience, Roland," he
continued in a more placating tone.
Fury considered this again. "Why? This could be our shot."
"Our position is not sufficiently overwhelming," the Gaunt Man
replied. "There is NEMO to consider, as well as the Starspawn."
"Hah!" Dracul barked. "I'd put money on my Neron and Cthulhu over
those cosmic Care Bears of Captain Pollyanna's any day, and you've got
OMEN."
"I have no intention of affording them any chance of victory.
Remember your Sun Tzu. _Patience._ Soon enough, you will have his head
and his female." The Gaunt Man paused, staring.
Red Fury drummed his fingers agitatedly. Solitaire-6 leaned to
whisper in his ear. "You hold back with me," she hissed. "Only a
little, but imagine a me you don't have to hold back with..."
"Silence, you siren," he said, though without heat. Solitaire
preened. "Seeker?"
"Eh, what's a few more weeks? That f---ing Preserver may have
liberated Africa, but he's too busy consolidating to give us any
grief." Seeker licked the last drop of blood off his sword. "The
longer the wait, the sweeter the wine."
Red Fury nodded. "All right. All right. I've waited too long for
this rematch to screw it up for a dubious attack of opportunity." He
leaned forward. "But don't try to play _me,_ Gaunt Man. You wouldn't
be the first head I've stuck on a pike for that." He waved his hand in
a sharp cutting gesture, and the scene returned to the battle at hand.
OOC: Aren't you _so_ glad you asked?
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Furies
On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:48:06 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011696
>On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:58:17 -0800
>Harlock Said As CAoL Message # 00011685
>
>>On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 20:22:03 -0800
>>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011680
>>*Harlock, I'm not sure what you need. When you've actually
>>experienced the presence of your deities, become a living vessel for
>>them to manifest, it's not like you 'take their existence on faith'
>>anymore. But I also have faith in their immanence even when they're
>>not making themselves manifest.* There are brief pauses in her
>>mental conversation as she deals with death-shadows. *Does that
>>help?*
>
>*Possibly. But I am more interested in thy husband's take on
>metaphysics. Where I hail from, at least, the gods can channel what
>we refer to as "positive energy" through their followers. Well, the
>good ones can, anyway, but I digress. What I was considering was
>trying to construct a channel for Roland to use this energy--he being
>the one with the energy manipulation powers, not to mention his
>current location within Solaris. As positive energy is analogous to
>the Source, as near as I can tell, this would provide him a potent
>addition to his arsenal.*
/*Hm.*/ Roland considers this.
>As if to illustrate his point, Harlock begins glowing from within.
>Death-shadows that strike him thereafter simply vanish, although the
>glow tends to flicker slightly whenever that happens.
>
>*I may not, however, construct such a channel of my own accord, since
>Roland is hardly one of _my_ worshippers. I needs must negotiate with
>his deity of choice. Thus my query remains: Roland, be ye a man of
>faith?*
/*Sorry, Harlock, can't help you there. I don't really do the deity
thing. The closest I come to that is...is...*/
And Roland begins to laugh.
/*By...the...SOURCE! Literally. That's a cosmic joke worthy of
Roger.*/ Roland chuckles. /*I hope you're up to 'negotiating' with the
Source, though, Harlock. It isn't as...accessible, I guess you'd say,
as the standard pantheonic deity. It doesn't really have a
personification, but it's certainly divine.*/
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Against Anti-Life
On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 23:58:25 -0800
Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011697
>On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 17:21:24 -0800 (PST)
>Ziactrice Said As CAoL Message # 00011688
>
>>On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:38:57 -0500
>>"David McMillan" Said As CAoL Message # 00011687
>>
>> @BTW, Eric, nice upgrade. Welcome to the club.@ The link takes up
>>a slightly mischevious edge. @Be interesting to see what happens
>>next....@
@I _was_ cursed with interesting times on several occasions, during
my stay in the Orient. Not that life as a Shih can truly be
otherwise,@ Eric observes dryly.
>@That,@ Zia comments even as she blazes away with Golden Guns firing
>Golden Bullets (she couldn't resist the pun), @is definitely my cue.
>Eric, I know you said you didn't want to try wrapping your mind
>around the mathematics, but are you willing to try a limited
>mind-merge? I think you can simplify the AL entity down to fractional
>partial answers - er, make the mind-body split total and permanent -
>if you can meld well enough to grasp the Limited Solution Set I have
>thus far worked out.@
Eric pauses. @I am not certain that my power level is sufficient
for what you have in mind. Then again, it may not have to be.@
>@Are you game to try?@
A smile flickers across the connection as Eric does a "Thousand
Dragon Essence Strike" to vastly increase the speed with which he
throws out the Prime fists. @Always. Though that has to be _the_
largest demon I've ever hunted.@
--
Eric Lancer: The Hunter
Version 2.0, now with Awakened magick and -- more impressively -- a
sense of humor. Be afraid... ;^)
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: Turning of the Tide/Furies
On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 00:30:08 -0800
Harlock - Bard Extraordinaire Said As CAoL Message # 00011698
>On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:48:06 -0800
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011696
>
> /*Sorry, Harlock, can't help you there. I don't really do the
>deity thing. The closest I come to that is...is...*/
> And Roland begins to laugh.
> /*By...the...SOURCE! Literally. That's a cosmic joke worthy of
>Roger.*/ Roland chuckles. /*I hope you're up to 'negotiating' with
>the Source, though, Harlock. It isn't as...accessible, I guess you'd
>say, as the standard pantheonic deity. It doesn't really have a
>personification, but it's certainly divine.*/
Harlock shrugs. *I can but try.* He then sits down and closes his
eyes, the glow about him taking on an edge of sorts. And, to all
appearances, nothing further happens. The Bard simply sits there with
a calm expression.
Then Morgan hears a familiar voice in her head as Dian Cecht says
^Muirghen? If 'twas help ye needed, why didnae ye ask yuirsel'?^
=================================
Subject: Re: AAE 9: The Turning of the Tide
On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 11:41:01 -0800
Patrick O'Shea Said As CAoL Message # 00011699
>On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 17:11:25 -0800
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011657
OOC: Hmm. Since this al started, RL intrusions have gone from Good(8)
to Monstrous(75) frequency. Odd...
Stompa landed, considerably less than thrilled by the impromptu flight
lesson.
"Don't these Furies stay *down* for more than a minute?" Patrick asks,
exasperated.
>/Attention all heroes,/ Morgan sent on the link while Suli updated
>the Lord of Apokolips. /Rio, patch me through to anyone without a
>lens./ When Rio had rerouted Solitaire's broadcast through the
>appropriate channels, Morgan continued. /Your opponents are about to
>back off. (Or at least they should.) Keep up the _appearance_ of
>conflict until instructed otherwise. Continue to _defend_ as
>necessary./
A quick glance confirms that Stompa got the message. Not that either
of them really *liked* it. Rush of battle, adrenaline, call it what
you will. Both circled, each making the odd feint at the other.
OOC: On your mark, hordes o' death...get set...
> Defender 'nodded' mentally.
> *...GO!*
>
> The Furies' battle.
> Bernadeth (if she's still holding the knife to Rob's throat,
>rather than lying on her back from a flip) had been making a long,
>drawn out threat to the CAoLers about how they had better lay down
>their arms, or they would be one hero shorter (by one shorter hero
>8^). This had the excellent side effect of creating a plausible pause
>in the action until the order came through --
> -- and with the attacks on the Anti-Life Entity, they could all
>turn, as one, to face the incoming stream of death-shadow beasts, and
>open up with all their combined power.
Catching the Kai's expression, Bernadeth has time for a brief smirk.
"Clearly, you've never been to Apokolips. Now take that bow and start
shooting."
During the conversation, several shadows had already advanced and were
quickly put paid to. Regarding the now smouldering tip of his
quarterstaff, Patrick sighs, drops the weapon, and starts shooting.
>On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 21:05:02 -0800
>Roland X Said As CAoL Message # 00011669
>
>>On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 11:36:18 -0800
>>Harlock Said As CAoL Message # 00011665
>>
>>As if to prove his point, a death-shadow somehow slips through
>>everyone's guard and latches onto him. Or tries to, anyway.
>>Something about his very essence resists being damaged by un-life.
>>Veren snarls again, drops his bow and yanks his sword out, cleaving
>>through the creature in the process. He then pulls a potion off of
>>his belt and drinks it, rising into the sky to confront the shadows
>>more directly.
>
> The death-shadows swarm him.
> At first, those that strike him slide off his defense, becoming
>easy prey for his blade. However, they are more (or perhaps less)
>than mere un-life; they are tiny shards of Oblivion incarnate. If too
>many of them run afoul of his mystical protection, they will
>literally wear it away, like the surf pounding against the shore...
"Is he mad? Lightning Hand!" he calls, summoning up a bolt of
electricity and hurling it upwards, trying to draw some of the shadows
off of him.
=================================