The Rift

[GamerKale]

Ken tightened his grip, but not because he wanted to get Michael's attention, because he needed someone to hold onto. "Michael..." Ken took a deep breath and looked down, biting his lower lip. "One job. One. I failed one...and that was the one where I was blind with rage." Ken lowered his head into the Mike's fur, hiding tears that had fallen. "Trust me. You want to see this man dead? You want your vengeance? You have to be calm." He felt the point had been made, and if not, he wasn't going to distract himself with those memories any longer. Ken dropped off Mike's back and wiped his face, streaking the blood into stripes.

Ken couldn't help but make the following comment, while he wanted for Michael to get his head back in the game, he had forced him to dredge up upsetting memories. "And now you know why I hate you psychics, always invading a person's innermost sanctum, but I must say, Michael, you're almost palatable." The slab of concrete the two were standing on fell to the ground as everyone geared up for round two. Ken grabbed a few needles, one of which was coated in a nerve agent, although a psychic could resist the effects fairly easily, and with a man like Gregor, who could regenerate, he doubted it would keep him busy for more than a split second, but that might be all that was needed. He held them with his right hand, and began circling to the side. He'd rush in and strike when the others did.

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

(Catching up.)

Hayate jerked his arm back, subduing the blast he had been charging into his hands, and into the sword from there as Mike and Kenpachi were sent into his line of fire, and he retreated for a moment, 'porting near to them as the concrete slab fell. His eyes locking on the Prime, moving himself into an offensive stance, ready for the attack.

An immortal. High class regenerative abilities. Great.
And a psychic. Among other things. Think we got ourselves into enough trouble this time?
Oh, please. Better here than where we were headed before.
Hayate grimaced.

Fair point. Now, any idea on how to put this bastard down?
A tactical nuke?
Going into overload?
Do you WANT to die? Cause you try and trigger that again this soon, even with your direct connection, which you DO NOT HAVE, might I remind you, you will burn from the inside. Mentally and physically. Instant death.
Would it kill this thing?
Inside his head, Hayate heard the spirit let out an exasperated noise.
I don't bloody well know! Not our world, remember?

[Haseo{Terror of Death}]

((Wes calls Kiva Kiv, and I'm not gonna be online during the workweek D=))

Wes grinned, "Only a second? I thought we were through when we got here." Wes's image showed up on his monitor and he looked around, "I kinda wish we were out there too, duking it out, you have to admit it'd be awesome Kiv."

Hibiki had buried himself in a psychic barrier, protecting him until he let it down to release a heavy sonic wave, destroying the abominations internals "Don't do it..." Hibiki said in an exhausted tone looking to Hayate. "It's not worth it, not...not at all..." He was breathing heavily, and looked to Gregor. "I couldn't hear much, but I hear it's immortal...can we make it out of here okay?"

[GamerKale]

"No, no I don't have to admit that." Kiva sighed in the cabin, "I hope she wakes up soon. If she's not awake by the time Kenny gets back he'll get worried."

"Run away? Hibiki, I'm disappointed, you don't honestly think he would let us get away. This entire area, is his territory. He's the predator and we're the prey. But there's no rule that says the prey cannot kill the predator, and more importantly, he's only immortal because we haven't killed him yet. I could say I'm immortal and so long as I'm alive there's no way to disprove it, so all we have to do to shatter that belief. Is Kill Him."

It sounded simple enough, and it really was. All you had to do was damage him to the point he could not regenerate from it. His own flames were out of the picture, Gregor was just as flame retardant as he, but that didn't mean Ken was useless. If Michael and he teamed up they could definitely keep him distracted with their combined efforts, they were almost as fast as he was after all and together they could counter anything he threw at them. The two of them should be able to force an opening for Hayate to deal a grievous injury, and in that moment of distraction Hibiki might be able to strike with a resonating assault, shattering Gregor's body. Followed by an all out psychic attack they just might be able to prevent Gregor from reassembling himself long enough for all of the cells to die. It was a long shot, sure, but not impossible. Of course such a plan was made even more difficult to execute by the fact that it was impossible to inform the others without their enemy hearing of it, so they would just have to improvise and find another way of slaying this deader.

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

Hayate nodded. "Immortality isn't invincibility. Wear the bastard down enough, and he'll drop, just like any target." He began looking. "Maybe dropping the buildings on him..." He grinned. The Abomination would be a challenge. It had healed from most of what had been thrown at it... It would be interesting to see what kind of damage this thing could take, before dropping.

We still have to get close enough to hit the damn thing...

[Haseo{Terror of Death}]

Wes smiled and scratched his head. "Well I guess not...But I'd like to risk my life for our friends, it's the least I could do...." he kept smiling and nodded. "I hope so too..."
Hibiki nodded solemnly, "I'll try my best, but not one of my attacks has gotten through to him, and I can't make supersonic pitches without metal." His sword had not even made contact with Gregor and his tuning fork had been dropped a while ago. "Maybe if..." He looked to Hayate, "Let's work together!" He flew over to Hayate and patted his back, "I don't think I've had the opportunity to work with you."

[Azalan]

Jacklyn was awoken by the jarring motions of the truck. She hit her head on the car door and woke up with a yelp. " Ow! my arm hurts..Kiva; where is kenny? I feel so useless! All I can do is get hurt and cause kenny pain." Jacky said as her hands covered her face and she started crying. My heads spinning and my arm hurts! All the others are fighting...I can sense them but..why do I feel so useless sitting in this truck. Jacky thought as she continued crying. Jacklyn looked out the window of the car and watched the fight going on. She saw the prime and cold chills ran down her back; it scared her. Jacklyn had never seen something so scary and terrifying. Jacky looked down at her arm and she saw the burns on it. She ran her hand over the teeth marks on her arm and a tear ran down her face. Jacky said as tears ran d "It hurts so much..why do those monsters have to bite me so hard!"own her face.

[Dark Blade]

Gregor smiled and bowed one last time. "I suppose if you are going to get serious I should stop taking it easy on you all as well." A collective thought went through the whole group 'Taking it easy?!' Gregor struck his cane on the ground causing a massive tremor. It was practically impossible to stand let alone run. Buildings began collapsing. He moved his hands and blue-hot flames trailed from them. It was as if two giant flame throwers had been turned on them. Mike's fur was smoldering even with his best sheild in place. Sonic blades began shredding all around them. Ken felt the sonic attack cutting him deep. A crushing psychic attack left them all struggling. The twin beam pistols lifted in the air and began spinning before firing constant streams of energy on the group.

This was madness. It was like trying to fight a god. They would all die in their first real fight. Or would they?

All of the attacks stopped. It was deathly quiet. Gregor sighed heavily. "I thought she said you were trained. Even the weakest vanguard is more than a match for you, and here she sent me." Gregor tapped his can on the ground. The piece of concrete he was staning on levitated upward with him on it. He floated over to where they were all laying on the ground. Some were smoking, some bleeding from large gashes, others still twiching from the psychic attack. Gregor stepped down from his floating pedestal and inspected Mike who seemed to have taken the least damage. "Well at least one of you has some understanding of their power."As he turned to leave Mike reached up and grabbed his sleeve, ripping it off. Gregor's arm was coved in countless scars. "Still awake I see. I commend you for not passing out. But since you are awake and able to move you should see to your allies." Gregor tapped his cane on the ground one last time. The nearby tear closed. "One last thing before I depart. You are all untrained, unfocused, and undisciplined. If you ever wish to face me again I suggest you all train. HARD."

A few moments later Gregor was looking Jacklyn in the face through the front window of Ken's truck. He had levitated it off the ground and was holding it in mid air. "I appologise for this young lady but your friends are in need of your skills. You are able to control liquids. You can stop their bleeding. The worst of them has about fifteen minutes before he bleeds out. I suggest you make haste." He set the truck back down gently and sped off in to the distance.

[GamerKale]

Edit: See next post for details.

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

Hayate had been about to respond to Hibiki, when the blast hit, weakening and then dropping him.

Hayate's eyes snapped open, Ascalon routing what Aether he had left drawn from the tear into healing his wounds. He climbed to his feet, rummaging inside of the pockets inside his coat. "C'mon... Where is it?"

Ascalon covered their thoughts, projecting "static" around their minds.

Could we take this guy?

Now? No. Not a chance in hell. If you were running at full power... maybe. We've taken an Eldritch being before.

So, for now, run?

It's leaving... I think.

[GamerKale]

((Sorry, I missed a very important line in Dark Blade's post. Ignore my previous post. Will edit this one with Ken's reaction in a bit.))
Kenpachi lifted himself up out of the rubble, his vision was terribly blurred and his entire body was trembling. He was fighting his body's attempts to go into shock. Out of all of them he had the weakest defenses, he had taunted General Constantine about being the ultimate shield, but that was only against the conventional. In fights of this sort, he had to rely on his speed for protection. That and ending the fight quickly. He stumbled forward and fell back to the ground, his body felt so heavy. "Ugh..." He groaned out, he knew that feeling, he had felt it before and seen others suffer from it on countless occasions, usually directly because of him.

An abomination had somehow survived as well and it crawled towards him, attempting to follow the last order Gregor had given it. Ken knew he wouldn't be able to move to defend himself and yet, he somehow managed a smile as it drew near. His hand seemed to move up of it's own accord as the abomination lifted it's blade and suddenly the abomination slumped to the ground. Ken's hand fell back to the ground and he rolled over. Jabbing into his back, and making lying down extremely uncomfortable, was his sword. "Blossom...should I have shown him how you bloom?" I'm alive, I need to focus on keeping that true for the time being. That decision can wait until later. Ken closed his eyes and did his best to will his wounds closed, he had come back from this level of injury before, but only once and then he had been driven by vengeance. What reason do I have to hang onto life now?

"Yeah, you better run, ya basterd!!!" Shouted Kiva indignantly after Gregor. "Show yer face 'round here again and Kenny will give you something to run from." Kiva was flustered, she hated being carried, even by Kenpachi from terminal to terminal, and this...this thing just picked up her and the truck she was in like she was a child's toy or something.

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

Hayate looked around, studying the destruction with an expression that displayed disbelief, and anger. When the Abomination had sealed the tear, his only connection to the outside planes of existance had gone with it, including his stable connection to The Aether, leaving him as he had been when he had arrived, running on borrowed time and stored power.

A loud snarl welled up in his throat, the only other sure sign of the pure rage just beneath the surface. What ever had happened to this world... It was catastrophic. Unnatural. He had spent a good amount of time moving between worlds, after he had started running from the war that had taken so many of his friends and family at home, that he had seen the entire spectrum of a plane of existence's life. Whatever had happened, had been DONE to it. The world wasn't just broken, it was dying, and taking it's inhabitants to hell with it.

His eyes settled on Mike, this little group's leader. He stalked over to him, yanking Ascalon from it's place with it's blade buried half it's length in a large slab of concrete, the starsteel completely unmarked by the insertion, or removal. He stood level with Mike, Ascalon held loosely in one hand, and spoke, his voice rough, angry.

"I've been wandering for longer than I can bloody well remember, I've seen more worlds than I care to recount. This kind of damage does not happen on it's own. Things like that do not occur on Earth-like planes of existence."

The tall man dropped into a crouch in front of Mike, looking him straight in the eye, his appearance inhuman due to the Aether covering the cuts on his face, both under and on top of his skin.

"Let me make something perfectly clear. You either need to tell me what the hell happened to your little world, here, or take me to someone who can."

[Haseo{Terror of Death}]

((Since nobody's body seems to be smoking, I'll be the attention hog and take up being burned alive =D))
One of the flame blasts had hit Hibiki head on, and, quite frankly, annihilated him. Hibiki stood no better of a chance than any of the other three, and less in fact due to his lack of physical activities and actual fighting experience. His small figure added to his overall crushing defeat. He had luckily set up his strongest barrier and survived the attack. His body laid smoking, and his arms were charred black, and the rest of his body had third degree burns that scrapped through. The sonic and psychic blasts only proved to complete shut out any chance of recovery and Hibiki fell unconscious.

Wes rushed to the battle front as they were being destroyed. He left Kiva unprotected as Gregor flew past, but his main concern was Hibiki, he'd made it to the site just as Hayate grabbed Michael and shouted, "The other two, Big Red and Sharkie, are they all right?" Wes's face on his monitor looked distressed as his body continued trotting along

[Dark Blade]

((OOC: Anyone seen AZ? Kinda hoped he would post before me. But I have a few things I can put before he does. Or if the need arises in the next few days I will take control of his character to advance the story. Oh and Haseo my fur was still smoldering/smoking. Imagine if you had a fur coat on fire and couldnt take it off lol.))

Mike looked at Hayate's face. "You wish to know?" Mike placed his hand on Hayate's forearm and began flooding his mind with images. Scenes he had himself been shown. Images of an explosion of white light encompasing nearly all of asia and parts of europe and africa. Smaller explosions all over where the larger one had not touched. People falling only to rise again, transforming in to those things they had just fought. Showing still others who still looked human lashing out with powers identical to what the group had. Nukes hitting cities to destroy those things, the devestation unimaginable. Animals affected by the light mutating, changing, attacking humans. The abominations, countless in numbers, charging and sacking an entire city in moments. Humans armed with new weapons taking back some ground they had been losing for over one hundred years. New cities built with enormus walls and deadly armaments along them. Some of the smaller cities smoldering in ruin. An abomination grabbing a screaming child, blue light swirled from the child in to the abomination. The abomination dropping the child and leaving it for dead. That same child rising amid soldiers scared and crying. People having their skulls explode from the child's power. Images so fast it became a blur. No sense of time. Just images of death and destruction, of both humans and abominations.

Hayate pulled his arm away. "That is what I know of what has happened." Mike rolled over on to his back and started changing back. Some of his wounds closing as his form shifted. "That is what has happened since the begining as explained to me. The rift was created in that inital explosion. What we saw here was apparently a smaller version. There is still no answer as to what the rift really is. All that is known is that the rift and those explosions, if you can call them that, are what caused people to change. After the inital confusion of trying to determine how many were affeced and a means to detect them it was discovered that an abomination has the ability to drain what is known as SOUL energy from a body. The process causes mutation in the affected person effectivly creating another abomination. Thus there was technically no way of determining how many had been affected in the first moments. And if that wasn't as clear as mud already there is still no explaination as to why some turn in to those things while others continue looking human."I also have bits and pieces of information from some of the researchers whose minds I have looked at but it doesnt make any sense, to me at least. Anyway thats it. Questions? Comments? Rude gestures?"


Some distance away another person was dealing with what just happened.

A woman stepped in to her personal control room. Several screens lit up along with some holo projectors. Soft classical music drifted around the room from hidden speakers. She sat down in her favorite chair and relaxed a moment before turning her attention to her monitors. "Status report."

All the screens and holo projectors lit up with faces and figures. The first one to speak was an elder man, "The group has seen a portion of what this war will be like. You were right about them. They are only lightly trained but their potental is on par with our own, perhaps even greater. Hopefully they will see the truth soon and make the right decision."

She mulled over his words a moment before continuing, "Gregor please stay well beyond their maximum sensory range and continue to keep watch for any serious trouble to come their way before they are ready. I have been too preoccupied to do this myself." Gregor noded, "Understood." His screen went back to standby.

A girl's image stepped forward, "Uhmmm ..." The girl was nervous. "It is alright young one. Please speak if you wish to." The girl fidgeted, "How long must we remain silent?" The woman knew exactly what the girl was talking about, "I know it is hard. That you want to just tell them everything. But you must be strong. For their sake they must discover the truth on their own or we run the risk of them forever disbeleiving us." The woman smiled warmly at the girl, "Don't worry. You'll get your prince soon enough." The girl went beet red and her image disappeared.

A woman in her twentys laughed lightly, "That was a little direct don't you think my lady?" The woman at the monitors smiled, "Perhaps. But it is always heart warming to see young ones in love." "You just like to tease." The woman didn't respond but kept smiling. There was a knock on her door. All the monitors went dark. "Come in." A soldier came in the room, "Sorry to bother you when your trying to relax ma'am but your presence has been requested in the war room." The woman sighed as she got up, "No rest for the wicked it seems." She grabbed her clipboard and files as she went back to deal with this new distraction.

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

Hayate stumbled back as the memories came into his mind. He dropped into a heavy sitting position, slightly in shock.

"****."

He shook his head, placing his hands over his face. This was bad. Very bad. End game bad. Freaking apocolypse bad. And he had been dropped into the middle of it.

Still think this is better than where we came from?

Within his head, Ascalon made a strangled noise as he reviewed the images, the data.

Hayate, this world has been shattered. We need to get out. It's a god damned death trap. We stay and we're gonna die. There's not enough Aether for you to hold a continuous charge... If we were to help, without your abilities as an Aether Conduit, you will die.

So, what? We leave them, the entire population of their world, to die? Screw that. I took up the Sword, allowed you into my head, became a freaking Knight of the Arcana, to help people. These people need it more than anyone I've ever met. I'm not running. If I die here, I'm going to make sure I damn well take as many of these... abominations with me as possible. Are you with me?

The Spirit was quiet for a moment.

All the way. Lock and load, we've got a job to do, soldier.

Hayate stood, his hands clenching into fists, then digging a small med kit out of one of the deep pockets of his coat, dropping it on Mike's stomach.

"Alright. C'mon. Get up. We got our asses handed to us... I'm not giving up, and I may not be a hundred percent right now, and I'm not going to lie to you... this isn't my world... but I'm not letting that bastard get away with this. Something dragged me into the middle of this war, and I'm gonna make these things regret that I got here."

[GamerKale]

((I've not seen Az. Mayhaps his internet access was taken from him or what's more likely is he's become far too busy with real life. His profile indicates that he has not been on since his last post though, that's nearly two months now. Two months and we've gotten what seven eight posts? I think this is a new all time best for us Dark.))
Kiva started the engine as soon as she thought Gregor was far enough away and done tossing her around. She made her way over to the others cautiously, she didn't want to accidentally run someone over. She noted the locations of Hayate, Mike, Hibiki, and Wes and she only now realized that only partway through the fight she had lost track of Kenpachi's transmitter. She looked around as best she could from the truck when she pulled up to the others, but it's exterior cameras were fairly limited in scope. "Does anyone know where Kenpachi is? I'm not picking up his headset's transmitter."

Ken couldn't tell if it was that he had taken a severe blow to the head or not, but he thought he heard the sound of an engine. He started to turn towards it and blacked out. He dreamed of the night he had learned that Angie was murdered. Not enough blood, was all he could think as the scenes played out until he ran into The Puppeteer, Victor. In addition to other powers the man had been a powerful psychic who often used mechanical dolls to fight, but he seemed to find true delight in making people kill themselves and/or their loved ones.

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

(Dear god, he still hasn't posted. I'll start bothering him.)

[Hayate_T'Eraon]

(Got a hold of Azelan, he's moving, and the likelyhood of him posting anytime in the next while is slim to none.)

[Dark Blade]

((OOC: In leu of Hayate's info I will be sharing primary control of Az's character with Kale since the three of us have been RPing together for a long time now and we can normally act the way the other would. Like always small motions and dialog are allowed from any one other than the afformentioned people who now have temp control.))


Roughly thirty minutes had passed since Jacklyn and Kiva had come back. With some minor explanation from Mike as to what Gregor had meant when he said she could help she began halting blood loss from the most severe wounds of the group. The others hadn't said anything but all were thinking it. How did Mike know what Gregor was referring to?

Mike had been sitting listening to their surface thoughts for a few minutes now. It was an invasion of privacy but at the moment he didn't give a damn. Ken had come around about five minutes ago but was still groggy from so much blood loss. If it wasn't for the fact that his body healed rapidly Mike was certain he would be in the same state. Finally bored with sitting he got up, holding his chest in pain, and walked over to the pile of rubble he had been in when Gregor had thrown him. Mike was too tired to give much mental effort to psychicly move the rocks so he just shifted through them until he found what he was looking for, his coat. Apparently the coat managed to survive with no damage. Not too surprising considering it was ninth generation kevlar material.

Mike groaned as he put his coat back on and limped back to his bike. There was no way any of them would be able to travel for a few days at the very least. Not that continuing would have much point if this was the best they could do. "Gregor was right. We need to train."

[GamerKale]

Jacklyn bit her lower lip and patted Ken's forehead with a wet cloth. "I'm sorry I didn't do more, are you okay?" She asked, tentatively edging a bit closer. She couldn't stop herself from shaking, Ken's near death experience had scared her. He turned to face her and gave a weak smile, "I'll be fine." At Mike's comment he removed the cloth from his forehead and struggled to his feet. Strength was returning, but he could still barely move at this point. "I'll agree, I'm out of practice. And we, as a whole, need to strengthen our bonds." He nodded to Mike. "You obviously have some issues we need to work out, going ballistic like that out there is the fast track to retirement." Pointing at Hibiki, "You need practice in general. Mike should be able to help you with that."

"Um, Kenny, what about me?" Said Jacklyn fearfully, she knew she had been less than useless out there, she had been a burden and she was afraid he was angry at her for that. Ken took a deep breath, mulling over what had happened and trying to measure his response. She had gotten herself into trouble and to keep her safe he had expended a good deal of energy protecting her, but ultimately she saved his life. He spoke calmly his words measured, "Don't fight alone." He turned to face Hayate, "You handled yourself fairly well out there." He held a hand out, "As I can't use mine, may I?"