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Post by Morndakiél on Jan 7, 2010 23:15:35 GMT -5
Maul sensed the felinoid coming at him and barely reacted in time. She was fast. Her staff whipped beneath his feet as he jumped into a sideways-throwing flip that got him behind the human and farther away from the felinoid. Good, good...
The human's hand caught his wrist and tugged, but before bothering with that--a hold he could easily reverse--he kept the momentum of his attack going. His saber continued in its arc to graze the human's head. Maul landed on his feet and looked at the two out of wide eyes and a slack expression that could have been mistaken for confusion if there weren't something so intent about it.
He lifted the felinoid with the Force, about to throw her across the room.
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Post by surfersquid on Jan 8, 2010 0:08:28 GMT -5
Menefr smirked in satisfaction mixed with frustration as the demon-thing skillfully evaded her blow. He was good. He easily outclassed many of her other opponents, who were usually hulking idiots who thought that the best defense was a good offense, and that the best offense was throwing their strength wantonly around hoping to hit her. Using her momentum, she turned, bringing the staff around for another blow--
And promptly felt her feet leave the ground. She dropped her staff as every hair on her body stood on end and her pupils dilated until they were round as the moon, and all four sets of her claws extended as she thrashed wildly in the air. What sort of evil sorcery was this? She glared down angrily at the demon; he was clearly cheating. She lacked the predilections for channeling magic, and besides, this was a contest purely of their skill in combat.
But her wide eyes betrayed something else--fear. She had lost control of the situation, with no apparent way to regain it. So long as she was on her feet, she could yet turn the tide of the fight. But held up in the air by some invisible power, at the mercy of another being...that was unbearable. It reminded her far too much of painful things long past. She let out a snarling roar of rage, raking her claws through the air, hoping to catch his skin. He would pay for this disgrace.
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Post by Cy Skywalker on Jan 8, 2010 0:37:46 GMT -5
Lyn could have sworn she felt the rush of the wind as the cat-woman leaped through the air, or the whipping as the dark one dislodged it. The atmosphere seemed distorted, thickening, unbreathable to mortal men. The clash was fast and acrobatic, and Lyn slid her war hammer out from its couch, hefted it--but didn't think it would do her any good to join the fray.
She just wanted no part of this. Wanted to go home.
The humming sounds and the screams as the cat-woman was lifted up and held there are if by a wall of frozen air flooded her mind, taking over her senses and leaving her unable to process what she saw. She stepped backward, cursing herself for her frailness somewhere in the back of her mind. She would get no warrior's funeral for this, no honor guard--she was so far from clan tradition; would these people bury their dead?
As she slowly walked backward, her foot hit something hard; an upraised part of the floor.
And something burst into life; a portrait of a woman, tinted blue, floating in the middle of the room. Her hair was pulled back severely, and her skin smooth and pale. A floating head.
But something for Lyn to focus on. Had she made it happen? Was this spot on the floor magical, dredging up ghosts of the past?
She reached down to touch it, and the ghost-woman spoke, her voice booming throughout the room. "Welcome."
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Jan 8, 2010 1:03:49 GMT -5
Marcus felt the pain of saber slicing into the top of his head. A few drops of blood trickled down his face. Now he was angry. He stood crouched with a growling grimace plastered into his face, ready to attack this creature with everything he had.
He saw his oponent lift the cat woman with some sort of magic. This action puzzled him, but didn't delay his response. The devil had turned his back on him and Marcus went for the ribs. He was no where near as graceful as the cat woman, but he hoped the strength and weight behind his swing would accomplish something. His forearm swung around, aimed for an area that he hoped would hurt.
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Post by Morndakiél on Jan 8, 2010 1:23:28 GMT -5
The punch landed and hit harder than Maul had expected. Maul cursed himself for his distraction and stumbled backwards, and tossed the catwoman to the ground, noting her animalistic snarls. He wouldn't want to jump into that thicket of claws--but then, she had given him information too. A Trianii's or Cathar's face didn't move like that.
It wasn't honorable to kill the human with his lightsaber, not when he had dared to take the fight to hand-to-hand. In a moment where he recoiled, turned to face the man, and would have made his decision, he saw the hologram boil up behind the human.
And that punch felt like a droid's arm had broken over his side...
"Welcome." The voice crashed over the place. He looked at the hologram, his hands tensing into claws that itched to tear the human's heart out. He blinked. If the human turned around, could he keep himself from attacking? But it looked like they were about to find out why they were here.
But this woman was no one Sidious knew.
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Post by surfersquid on Jan 9, 2010 20:02:42 GMT -5
Menefr contorted her spine, twisting to land on all fours and thanking the Goddess that she was back in control of where her body was. The attitude of prayer only lasted a split second, though, before rage overwhelmed her again, and she bounded forward, claws outstretched, ready to rip the demon to ribbons while he was distracted, when suddenly she was distracted too, by what looked like a blue ghost bubbling up from the floor, and she changed course in mid-leap, plunging to the ground and scrabbling to retain her footing before leaping back onto her hind paws like a dignified being. She had let her anger get the better of her, she realized, and she'd started fighting unintelligently, casting aside all of her training in favor of relying on instinct and claws. Well, that was only fair, she rationalized. The demon had used his foul magic, so she had every right to drop her decorum of combat as well.
Still, he had stopped to stare at this phantom female who was apparently welcoming them to where-ever they were, and as much as she wanted to do it, striking him down while he was distracted was dishonorable. Besides, the female looked as if she had more to say--hopefully an explanation as to why Menefr had somehow fallen into a shallow stream and ended up in a completely different place. (And why was she a "human" as well? Where were all the normal-looking people?)
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Post by Cy Skywalker on Jan 10, 2010 13:34:49 GMT -5
The hologram spoke regardless of what was going on in the room. Lyn stared at it, glad that it had stopped the fighting and thrown a metaphorical stick into the works, but also slightly afraid. The head and torso floated there seemingly unsupported, like a spirit dislodged from the world.
It said, "You have all been chosen; brought from places across the universe. Undoubtedly you are confused and uncertain. Know that each of you has skills deemed necessary to the task you are about to undertake.
Each of you comes from a different world, with different customs and biology. But you will set aside these differences. The tasks ahead of you will not be easy. You will move from world to world when necessary, but in each one something has been hidden; something important to you.
In this world, it is the heartstone of Clan Blackhail."
Lyn gasped. The stone had been transported too! But without it...warriors fallen in battle would not be able to find their clan gods and rest in the afterlife. The hearth fires would not burn bright enough, not with the people too agitated to tend them. The heartstone was their religion, but more than that, it was their tradition--and she could not picture its bulk missing from the roundhouse.
"It is somewhere in the town outside this warehouse; a town one of you may find familiar, but also changed in many important ways. Find the guidestone and you will be one step closer to returning to your own worlds.
Good luck."
The hologram winked out.
"We have to find that stone," Lyn said, not even thinking any more about who the ghostly woman was. She had a mission.
But the woman had said it wouldn't be easy. And suddenly she heard a clattering in the back of the warehouse, like something large knocking a hunk of machinery over.
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Post by Morndakiél on Jan 21, 2010 0:04:18 GMT -5
Maul sensed a presence lurking behind him, as sudden as his own transition to this world. He began to prowl away from the hologram; while he understood the fact that this woman was ordering them on a quest, what authority did she have? There was no reason for him to follow her.
He headed into the small hallway behind the pods, a place spiderwebbed with thick pipes that he could barely tell were black under their coating of grey dust.
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Jan 25, 2010 22:46:02 GMT -5
Marcus heard the strange voice as he recovered from the recent altercation in a corner. He stood up, holding his head where the saber had cut. Droplets of blood were beginning to run through his fingers and he could feel the cool metal of his skeleton underneath. He'd have to find something to bandage himself with...the last thing he wanted to do was give a half hearted explanation of what he really was.
He only caught bits and pieces of what the hologram was saying. Something about a quest...different worlds...important items. His attention was mostly on the movement he heard somewhere in the distance. As much as he hated to think it, he might just have to follow this red demon. He re-adjusted his jacket as best he could with one hand and quickly scanned the room for something to bandage his head with. Marcus gave up after brief consideration of ripping up his shirt, but decided he'd rather keep it intact. Without another word to the others, he turned around and headed in the direction of the noise...the same hallway into which the demon disappeared.
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Post by Cy Skywalker on Jan 27, 2010 13:39:26 GMT -5
The creature lurking in the shadows was as confused as it had ever been, but that didn't really matter--if it knew there were warm bodies in the area it knew what to do. And that was to attack.
It emerged into the narrow hallway, its curve-plated head low and its limbs skittering along the concrete, its razor-sharp tail whipping the air in grey-green arcs. It leapt onto the wall and crawled along faster than a human could run, toward the two things in front of it.
It jumped down behind of the nearest heat source and extended its mouth to take a chunk out of the person's cloth-covered back.
***
In the main room the hologram voice spoke without any image forming. "There will be many trials ahead of you."
Lyn saw two others run off and looked to follow them. She saw a spidery beast drop down from the ceiling and go to attack the one man she thought might be most like herself, the one who had already been wounded. She wasn't going to stand for this any more, this manipulation, this inhumanity--
she balanced her hammer in her hand and threw. It hit the creature on the back and bounced off. The beast didn't seem to be hurt but turned, its eyeless, swept-back head seeming to stare at her.
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Post by surfersquid on Feb 1, 2010 22:25:12 GMT -5
Menefr glanced at the two men retreating into the darkness out of the corner of her eye. Typical male behaviour--always leaping before looking. She supposed males were the same no matter what they looked like. She was never that hasty, she thought to herself smugly.
She turned her attention back to this strange spectre of a woman to find that she had disappeared. "Yes," she said simply in reply to Lyn. She had heard the details of the quest they had been asked to partake in. She did not know the exact purpose behind it, but she was determined to the best she could, as she felt it must have been of some importance. Why else would she have been pulled into where-ever this place was? And from Lyn's reaction, this heartstone thing held meaning to the furless woman. They had to retrieve it.
She was puzzled over what the spirit-woman had said about hiding items important to them. Lyn's was obviously the stone, and she was sure the two men were at least nominally materialistic, but Menefr herself really had nothing in the world save for the clothes on her back and her staff. Her thoughts flashed briefly to Cuor, but he was not hers, no more than one could own the wind or the moonlight or an eagle's cry in the dusk. It was foolish and selfish for her to presume otherwise, or even to assume that he would let himself be considered something important to her, she was sure. At any rate, he could take care of himself more than adequately--he would never let himself be used for something like this.
Breaking out of her thoughts, she looked around and snarled in disappointment. She had let herself fall behind--no, she was going at her own pace, she justified. No reason to let these other people dictate where she should go, and how quickly.
Her ears flicked forward as she followed Lyn curiously and saw the woman throw her hammer at some sort of large spider-scorpion creature bent on attacking one of the males, and watched as the thing then turned on the woman. Letting out a roar, Menefr dropped her staff and leapt forward and onto the monster's head, attempting to dig her claws into its plating, trying to find any weak points or sutures, while being mindful of its tail, reaching up to attempt to grab and debilitate it.
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Post by Morndakiél on Feb 7, 2010 17:47:11 GMT -5
Maul darted backwards when he sensed the thing coming. It was semi-sentient, filled with half-blind bloodlust--and, admirably, three people around him ran toward it instead of away from it. Surely they had not been picked at random, if that was the case. They were warriors, of strange and varied sorts...
But they weren't as good as him.
The alien thrashed as the feline woman leap straight onto its skill and began clawing around as if she were opening a lobster, and the primitive, but rock-heavy hammer smashed into its shoulder. Maul saw the tail whipping toward him and activated his lightsaber.
He pivoted to put his back into the swing, and lopped off the tail with a strike that continued into a front leg. With the second blade flaring to life he spun against and chopped off another leg and a section of pulsating jowl. The alien crashed to its side but continued to try to crawl forward. Maul swung his lightsaber around behind him, with a perfect trajectory to where the thing's brain probably was--
except Menefr was in the way. "Move!"
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Feb 8, 2010 20:41:46 GMT -5
Marcus lurked in the shadows while the battle before him raged on. It felt like he was caught in slow motion as the creature lunged at him, but the others intercepted just in time. He watched as his three "companions" tore the strange creature apart. It reminded him a lot of the spider bots back on Earth. With that thought, another more profound thought popped into his head. Go for the brainstem...
He saw the red demon swing his sword at the beast and he was almost able to strike it down, but the cat woman was in his way. As the creature lay struggling in front of him, Marcus ran from out of the shadows, past the red man, and punched a hole right through the head of the creature. His heavy hand was met with little resistance as he grabbed what he thought to be the brainstem and yanked up. With a crack, the large creature slumped and let out a dying breath. It fell limp and bleeding on the floor.
Marcus removed his hand from the creature's head and looked at the three beings before him. His arm was covered in slick, neon slime. At this point he realized he was quite frustrated with the fact that two of the others had not yet given up their names. This frustration appeared as a slight scowl on his face.
"I believe two of you have yet to introduce yourselves", he said, as he attempted to rid himself of the uncomfortable slime.
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Post by surfersquid on Feb 8, 2010 23:32:27 GMT -5
Menefr heard the buzz of energy behind her, and a hastily barked command to move. Of course, she deplored responding to commands, but considering the fact that this was a combat situation with many factors involved, and the fact that she was seeing an ever-intensifying red glow glinting off of the creature's armor plating, common sense took precedence over independence. She jumped out of the way, launching herself from the creature's back and landing on her hind legs in time to see the furless male perform an act of astounding strength, one that his relatively small frame could not possibly attest to, and her ears flicked forward in astonishment. She had only seen ursinoids do such things, and this male's physique, with such a small muscle-to-body-mass ratio, was a far cry from their hulking frame. Even with her build's emphasis on speed and agility over strength, she had estimated herself to be stronger than him. It seemed she was mistaken, she thought as she inspected her forearm, the muscles rippling beneath her night-black velvet fur. Then again, she reminded herself with a smirk, he didn't have claws.
Once the spider thing had stopped moving, she sauntered forward, her tail lashing anxiously as she fastidiously groomed back her fur and smoothed her hair, looking around at the others with half-closed eyes to make sure no serious injuries had been sustained. She lowered her ears as the strong-armed male began another attempt at introductions. Pressing the matter was not going to make her change her mind. If Menefr had been a felinoid of more words, she would have liked to say something witty or biting, something that would make him stop talking. But too many words tended to complicate any situation more than help it. "Names are not necessary," she replied in a low growl before turning to look at Lyn. As far as Menefr was concerned, this woman, strange though she looked without any fur or a tail, and with her ears to the sides of her head, held the key to completing their mission. After all, it was Lyn's heartstone they were looking for, and it would be fruitless to attempt to locate it without the assistance of the one who knew best what it was.
Her gaze rested for a brief, puzzled moment on the demon-man with the fire-sword. He could have easily cloven her in two on his way to the spider-beast, and yet he had issued her a warning. It seemed as if even demons possessed common courtesy. Perhaps he understood the importance of them having to work as a team, as she did. Not that it meant she enjoyed it. But personal preferences would have to be sacrificed if she was to work for the greater good of all.
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Post by Morndakiél on Feb 10, 2010 23:55:10 GMT -5
Maul pushed off the creature's shoulder as it fell and the human pulled his gore-soaked forearm out of the beast's head. He took a few quick steps back away from the blood of the beast, and watched as the felinoid shifted in place, smoothing her fur. He could sense that she was terse but she also seemed so worried about appearance, always comparing herself to others.
But then, Maul was having a hard time not comparing himself to the human who had reached into the creature's thick chitin skull like a cook scooping out the seeds of a fruit.
The Force told him that the felinoid was derisive; she thought he was weak for telling her to move? His lightsaber ploughing through her muscle and bone would have weakened his momentum. If she didn't understand that, they weren't the same kind of warrior.
But he did not think that in so many words, and so he agreed with her when she said names did not matter. They didn't; she was wordlessly named to him already by her sense in the Force. But it would be useful for him to be able to communicate with them succinctly.
He deactivated his lightsaber and looked only at the human. "My name is Maul."
He paced forward, appraising Marcus' face and arm. "You are cybernetic, aren't you." That wasn't unusual in the galaxy, but usually metal parts were even weaker than organic ones, and not the sort of thing one jumped feet(or arm) -first into a battle with. But it also wasn't usually hidden, and the human seemed to want no one to notice, despite his feats.
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Post by Cy Skywalker on Feb 11, 2010 0:04:48 GMT -5
Lyn kept her head down as she walked between the man and the one called Maul. That was not an unusual name among her clan, especially for hammermen--Maul Bannang had three sons, all accomplished hunters, and was one of a long line of Blackhails. So he didn't seem quite as alien as before. But the cat-faced creature still refused to speak like something civilized, and so Lyn was a little frightened as she walked past her to retrieve her hammer from the ruin of the creature. She took a cloth from her belt and began to wipe it clean, before reconsidering and offering the slightly soiled woven square to the man who had killed the creature. "Thank you," she said to him. "That was a noble defeat. I believe I had said before, my name is Lyn. I do not want to be antagonistic toward any of you--to be honest I need your help. But to be frank, I don't understand you. What is 'cybernetic'?" She shared a confused glance with the cat-eyes, noting them turned her way.
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Feb 11, 2010 11:51:12 GMT -5
Marcus looked at this Maul with a mixture of annoyance and anger at the suggestion of "cybernetic". He replied like a dog with a growl caught in its throat.
"I'm human. Remember? Common as rats."
Lyn offered him a cloth and he took it gently. His composure melted into something much more manageable as he looked at Lyn as she asked for their help. He liked her. She reminded him of someone he used to know...but that was a long time ago. A lot was lost on Judgement day.
The cat on the other hand was still as silent as ever. She may be more humanoid than the earth animals he was used to, but her silence only reminded him of the large cats he had encountered in the Skynet concentration camps.
"What is it that you need?" He asked as he focused his attention back on Lyn.
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Post by Morndakiél on Feb 16, 2010 2:21:54 GMT -5
It wouldn't aid Maul's survival to assume that Marcus was human. Not with that kind of punch. True, it was as useless against the Force as any other martial attack. But he would have liked to have some warning...something the cosmic energy had failed to give. Maul scoffed without speaking. He folded his arms and stood back as the others talked. He would find out Marcus' secret.
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Post by surfersquid on Feb 17, 2010 17:34:21 GMT -5
Menefr's eyes darted about, looking at the other three individuals in front of her. She was just as much in the dark as Lyn about this new word the demon-thing - Maul - had used, "cybernetic". Did it mean having bones of metal, as this other male seemed to? She had certainly never heard of or seen such a thing, but considering the fact that she didn't even know where she was, she felt most surprises wouldn't really surprise her. This would make things awfully difficult if she ever needed to crush his spine, however. Ah well--perhaps not all of his bones were metal. Whatever "cybernetic" meant, Marcus didn't seem to take well to the word. Perhaps it was an insult. Maul's tone hadn't seemed insulting, however, just curious. This was all too confusing.
She looked back over at Lyn, out of the corner of her eye. The woman needed help, and Menefr intended to give it. That was her purpose, after all--to give help where it was needed. "Menefr," she said with great reluctance. "My name is Menefr." She didn't expect them to appreciate it or even understand how to pronounce it, despite its powerful meaning to her. But she supposed she could concede that small bit of information to them.
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Post by Cy Skywalker on Feb 20, 2010 0:07:11 GMT -5
Lyn bowed her head slightly to Menefr, understanding by the tone of voice and her earlier reticence how much names meant to the cat-person. If Lyn just listened to her voice and looked somewhere in the direction of over her shoulder--no, not there, the body of the creature was steaming!--she could think of Menefr as human.
"Thank you," she said, then also turned a thankful smile to Marcus. Now the only one she didn't feel at least some shred of connection to was Maul...
"That...that spirit, it said the guidestone was outside this building." She looked over the others' clothing, thinking that if they had no stone powder for their gods to find them by, they must be like the citydwellers who lives south of the tundra in her home world--followers of some other, darkly mysterious god.
Who knew what else they would encounter out there. Lyn averted her eyes from the dead fell beast again. "When my people die, we scatter their stone powder--" her hand went unconsciously to the leather pouch at her hip--and take their heart's weight from the guidestone. What do your gods want of you at death?"
It was warm in the building, like standing beside a fire. Lyn carefully moved her shawl from her shoulders, but wasn't sure where to put it down.
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