trans_9 | The Challenge From Beyond - The Final Confrontation

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The Challenge From Beyond - The Final Confrontation

Welcome to the Unholy Cathedral at the heart of Escherville. It is here, in this place, that the Nightmare King has made his bid for release.

And he will not be stopped by the likes of you.

More monstrosities pour out of every angle, intent on ending this adventure. These monsters are every bit as horrific as the ones you all faced to get to this point, though you will quickly notice there is something drastically different about them.

Magic does not affect these creatures. At all.

Your spells do nothing. Your prayers are meaningless. The power of your God is useless against them.

No force in heaven or hell can affect them.

Nothing at all Magical can hurt them.

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...good thing there's nothing at all magical about several of you.

((ooc: Badass norms, do your thing. You have to fight to keep the creatures of the Nightmare King from off the backs of the group going to face the Nightmare King. Team rosters are here))

And there it lies before you.

The seals are failing. The stone is cracking. The Nightmare King inches closer to his freedom.

Those of you, the chosen who have made it this far, it is up to you to stop a God who is determined to be bound no longer.

Lives hang in the balance. Sanity hangs in the balance.

And if you fail, all hope is lost.

((ooc: Binding team, time to do your thing. This is the Final Battle!))

Being a spacefaring race who were created as exploration bioroids and all atheists, Abh could be considered almost magic's complete antithesis. Lafiel was one of their elite, and she knew it. The personal transformation in her from just a few minutes ago was remarkable. Space helmet and gooheik gauntlets strapped to her back and pistols (magical on the left, klanyu laser pistol on the right) to her thighs, she was the picture of readiness.

Her hastily assembled squad reached the gates of the cathedral at a run. It sat on a slight rise, an easily defensible position. Not somewhere they wanted to be exposed. Luckily a number of disturbing (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/2364244586_ed9e7be9a9.jpg) statues (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/352956454_dee2b74485_b.jpg) provided good cover, scattered around the black grass.

From behind the largest, depicting a dead baby falling out of a giant mechanical ass, she explained what was to happen. "The gates and the area just in front of them are the kill zone. Concentrate all your fire there and keep them pinned. If one gets out, do not all refocus your fire. Puncher takes it and anything else that gets too close." She couldn't bring herself to say his full name, it was too ridiculous even for her. "And stay behind cover." A simple choke point strategy, as old as Thermopylae. "And begin firing..." Something growled and a twenty foot shape made out of human flesh in the shape of roses with fangs came kaslurmping out the door.

Lafiel snapped off several shots with her klanyu, beam itself invisible but neatly dividing the shape and leaving the chinese-pork smell of burnt flesh in the air. "...now!"

Ben was in a bit of a dilemma to say the least. Most of his aliens were close range but he did have a few better ones in his arsenal. As he hastily cycled through a lot of them, he slapped the Omnitrix on the side. "Omnitrix, what new ones do I have?"

"Well, better than nothing. How about this one!"

His body started to shrink and compress as electricity surged through his form. And in a final cry, he exclaimed "I AM MEGAWHATT!"

At the first sign of the opponent, he smirked and unleashed a bolt of electricity which fried one of the horrors. "HAH! Ain't magic when you've got alien powers to work with!"

Sokka sprinted forwards and slid into cover behind a pillar, shotgun swinging off of his back and into his hands as he came to a stop. He cocked teh weapon with the familiar, menacing 'cha-chak' noise before leveling it at the oncoming monstrosities and opening fire, the roar of the weapon filling the air. He'd be damned if he let any of them through. Not now, not when they were so close.

"We're coming Aang, just hold on a little longer..." The young man muttered, half to himself and half to his unseen friend.

_{[[ooc: not enough room for the rest of the roster (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_pilgrims/237487.html#cutid2) in the title.]]}

Danny's powers may be entirely supernatural in origin, but a supernaturally enhanced punch that hits like a ton of bricks is still a punch that hits like a ton of bricks, even if the target happens to be immune to the supernatural.

Kirk crouched alongside Sokka, lances of bright fire shooting from the phaser in his hands. Wherever it touched, creatures writhed in a nimbus ofl ight before atomizing in a single flash. There's something to be said for ray guns. "Everyone keep moving! We need to keep these creatures off of our magic users while they try to fight the Nightmare King!"

Sheeana was running from pillar to pillar. Without her lasgun, and facing enemies who presumably did not hear on the human spectrum, she could only use her crysknife.
She pressed her back to a sculpture depicting a woman whose own back was a giant cybernetic battery. Something came clattering around the bend, something shaped like a bear but made out of snapping crab claws with a mouth on its 'stomach' like a fanged pineapple ring three feet across. It lunged for her and she danced back in a blur. The crysknife flashed out, but precious few claws were severed. She was about to retreat when...

Whomp and crunch. Her worm arrived behind her, unceremoniously crushing it, rolling a few moments just to make sure, and offering good cover to anyone who would need it. She stroked its hide once and advanced behind it as it threaded its great bulk through the pillars.

No pressure.

Cargn had slammed the massive doors of the Cathedral open as his group made its way in. It had required the powerful actuators of his ancient Terminator armor just to make them budge. ~~It was all rather dramatic. You should have been there.~~

He moves to the center of the massive room, sneering at the grotesque, cthulian architecture. Why did all Daemons have such horrible and melodramatic taste in architecture?

"Time to go to work, old friend," he whispers to himself as he lifts his massive halberd up, slamming the blade straight into the ground.

There was a bright flash of psychic energy, and in an instant, a massive, glowing ritual circle was etched on the ground, centered on where the halberd pierced the ground. It was unusual in design, with a number of smaller circles surrounding it, one for each other participant.

"Take your places," he says to the group, "and steel yourselves. It begins."

Castiel was on Cargn's heels as he entered the room, pausing to get the place a once-over. He looked a little more disheveled than he usually did. His trench coat was torn and singed in places and there was a cut along his cheek which had, oddly, already begun to heal.

Across the room, resting on an altar, lay the stone which had contained the malevolent god the crew had named "Nightmare King." It was separated from the group only by the glowing sigil that had been formed on the ground by Cargn's halberd.

Without uttering a word, Castiel took his place in one of the smaller circles, the one nearest the altar and the stone, as his companions did the same.

Mai darted from statue to statue, pillar to pillar. Her knives glinted in the air as the deadly projectiles impaled ceatures, throwing them back. She was too fast, to quick. She wasn't going to be hit. Not by these things. And she's certainly not going to give up.

It was difficult for Leon to do much, not with him still carrying Roxie. She seemed to be bleeding some kind of acid, which made holding on to her all the more difficult. It had been slowly eating through his jacket (god damn it, not another one...), and he would then be next.

For the moment, he took cover behind a pillar. He glanced down at Roxie, then up towards where the Nightmare King was waiting, then back at her.

"Are you sure you can do this?"

Bullets worked just fine for the archaeologist, though when one got a bit too close for comfort the whip comes out. Despite all this, Indiana has no idea what the hell he is doing here. He's just making this all up as he goes along.

A lot of the impact provided by the architecture was lost on Blin, for obvious reasons. Instead, he just adjusted his sunglasses and tapped his cane into the room. It was when Cargn dropped the circle that he really got any kind of look at the room. And of course, he couldn't just be silent.

"Shiny." was all he said as he took a place near the stone, ready to get to work.

The addition of several years for his metagene to develop was immediately apparent as they broke through; his control over the ambient electricity was much more finite.

Admittedly, it wasn't too effective on the creatures themselves, but it was allowing him to use his chains much more effectively to tangle and slow them down. The few that did get through his chain line, well, Rose had given him the perfect gift for those up-close and personal moments. He was going to have to thank her once they got out of this.

Admittedly, there was no way he could win the battle himself, in fact he wasn't even destroying that many of them in comparison to the others, but he could at least buy everyone who was doing real damage some more time and keep them back until someone gave the word.

As Castiel had taken the closest position to the altar, Daimon took the next closest. He looked at each of his companions briefly before turning to Seer. He knew now was not the time to be suspicious, but it was in his nature.

He cleared his mind as much as his darksoul would allow and took a deep breath.

"I'll be fine," Roxie rasps, her voice weak. Her breath has been wheezing and irregular—to be expected, with those holes in her chest. "I think I can stand." Her gaze has been sliding in and out of focus, now that the darkness has bled out of her eyes enough that she can mostly see again.

"But can you run?" because if she's going to get where she needs to be, there'll have to be a lot of running involved.

Roxie slowly shuffles forward to her place, weak and unsteady on her feet. Her jacket is in tatters around her, acid-burnt, and her skin is blackened and charred. At the right angle, one can see all the way through the two holes punched through her chest. By any reasonable standard, she probably shouldn't be moving—probably shouldn't even be alive, in fact. "I'm ready," she says, in a voice that rasps like rust.

She slides into a sitting position, and in the remnants of her jacket something rustles and twists.

"...maybe." But it's questionable. She'd be wobbly even walking.

Roxie shifts against Leon slightly. Normally she's so stiff and unfriendly, but... here, despite the bizarre circumstances—or possibly because of them—the whole of her body language is much more vulnerable and, well, childish.

She blinks against the light. Her pupils focus and refocus, momentarily flicking between weird-edged shapes.

Leon looked at Roxie, at the ridiculous star-spangled shield he was still carrying, then back at the people near him. His decision was already made by then, of course.

"Cover me!"

He had to make sure she got to where she needed to be somehow.

Zelda takes her position next to Roxie, giving the girl a concerned look - she had heard, although not seen, what had taken place.

"I can heal you," she murmurs to her, "If there is time, or afterwards."

If they survive, of course.

Once they got past the power dampening, Jono had been able to pick up the pace. Not injured, just had been lacking enough power to do much of anything.

He looked around, then moved forward to join the circle. He had no idea how this was going to work, but he nodded. Ready as 'M gonna be.

For the moment, Sparhawk is not concerned with cover. He trusts in his armour long enough to make sure that the members of his party are present, as unhurt as they can be, and ready for combat.

There is no time to make a coherant plan, to take advantage of strengths and to minimise weaknesses. All that has to be done is hold the creatures back.

"Those of you with guns or ranged weapons, you're leading. The rest of us, defend them," Sparhawk instructs, hoping that they will listen.

Fueled by Matt’s regenerative magic and his newfound determination, Aeneas darted from pillar to pillar, worm to statue, taking out creatures with quick slaps of his powerful tail and kicks from his clawed front legs. He would only use his jaws and corrosive spit if he had to, as doing so would put him in an exposed position and leave him prone to further injury. He learned that the hard way during his last mission.

On the other hand, Aeneas had something here that he definitely did not have on the flat arctic tundra: vertical stone ledges. The alien latched himself upon a nearby column, sticking fast using the ridges in his ventral muscular plates, easily scaling the surface with his five working limbs. From here he had a better vantage point, and a possible means of bottlenecking the oncoming forces through the darkness.

Either that or he would attract the flying ones. It was difficult to tell at the time.

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Page 1 of 4

The Challenge From Beyond - The Final Confrontation

Through the Gates of the Silver Key

The Whisperer in Darkness

Team 3: Lafiel (team leader), Ben 10, Dark Smoke Puncher, Indiana Jones, Kate Beckett

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Team 2: Captain Kirk (team leader), et. al.

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Re: The Whisperer in Darkness

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Team 4 - Kelly (Leader), Leon, Claire, Allen Gentry, Link

Re: Team 3: Lafiel (team leader), Ben 10, Dark Smoke Puncher, Indiana Jones, Kate Beckett

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Team 1 -Leader: Sparhawk, Jo, Mat, Ronon, Terry / Batman II

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