Temujin's Story

Upon the outskirts of the town, far away from the attention of J-3 and Yue, a lean, black-and-purple form perched upon a rooftop. His oversized eye saw the night as bright as the day. His vision was a green-tinted screen bordered by shifting bars and text that monitored his vitality, stamina, structural integrity, and other information he never bothered to sift through.

His name was Temujin. Cyber ninja. Vigilante. Slayer of men and beasts and anything in-between. By chance, his hunts had taken him here today, to this frontier, where what looked like a shooting star had fallen.

...Except it wasn't a shooting star, he realised, as his single eye dilated its light and magnified his vision thrice fold. A red cross gleamed like fresh blood upon silver metal. The red cross… of the Templars.

Heat rose within Temujin’s chassis. The Templars. Titan’s Fall’s premier superhero team. The overly-long dick of the law. Corrupt, shriveled, useless law. Nothing but slaves with gilded collars. Slaves to this city, and the wretched forces which drove its fate.

It was then that Temujin noticed something else. Something that whipped his gaze into attention. Roiling, bubbling, shifting. He couldn’t make out a silhouette, even with his one good eye. A shapeless thing of many legs and eyes and teeth, its horrid screams inspiring equally horrid visions of violence within the cyber ninja’s mind. It chased the Templar, and to her credit, she had evaded it well… but for how long?

The cyber ninja vaulted over the ledge, and fell. Down, far, further. The wind rushed past his body without feeling, and his feet kissed the earth without sound. His stealth field engaged, masking his form and colours into shimmering air as he ran, and ran, and ran, the barest hint of his footsteps obscured by the terrible screams of the monster, which grew louder and louder as he closed the distance.

Those screams.

He would silence them.

Temujin leaned forward, dug his foot, then leapt - above and over the creature. A sickle emerged from his invisible arm - in a searingly bright green colour - and sliced upside the creature.

Plasma seared and splattered ink as it dragged through flesh, cutting deeper than any metal blade. By the time J-3 noticed, the blade had disappeared, and the shifting air landed on his feet. Soundless, but not quite sightless, as he backed away to create some distance.

The screams.

It was so similar to the horrid screeching the spider monsters in Final Odyssey that her eyes flicked up and right to check her session status. Part of her hoped to find the faint, comforting glow of the server clock. Something struck her leg while she was checking and sent her staggering, though the death blow didn't seem to come. The creature made increasingly awful noises, which overrode the urge to look back and identify the source of the additional noises. Instead she covered her ears and ran harder.

Yue took a big gulp of air and held her breath: it was the only way to control her breathing long enough to activate her powers. Her body complained as the surge of energy rattled through her bones. It was just enough for a couple quicksteps. She covered her face and prayed her feet wouldn't get caught on the uneven terrain. Her lips flinched as her knees slammed into the suit's limiter, not quite hard enough to exceed its threshold. In two shocking bursts which sent dust and detritus flying in her wake she managed to gain about a one hundred meter lead on the creature.

The explosive rush of air left her ears ringing, and the hard edges of her surviving armor plates glowed faintly with heat. The rest of the exposed under-suit trailed tendrils of white smoke, filling the air with the acrid stench of burnt polysilicates. Her feet slid unsteadily for several meters as she fought to steady herself long enough to achieve friction and waves of lightheadedness washed over her. As she was catching her breath some kind of movement in the darkness ahead caught her attention... animals? Or they would be if they weren't bathed in concentrated spectral light.

"This is not... the time for this!" She choked between ragged breaths, deciding she would ignore the illusions like every other normal person and press on.

If she could just regain her composure for long enough to strike a decisive blow she could end this, instead of continuing to run and hoping it would leash back to its spawning point like a good monster. Yue forced herself to take a handful of shaky, but controlled breaths before planting her feet and swiveling on her heels. Her momentum carried her several yards as she reached into her utility belt for a weapon, however, her eyes met with the creature's... and though it had changed form, somehow the screaming maw of fangs and finger-like digits was somehow worse than the monstrous spider-centipede. A visceral flinch unintentionally flung a handful of Stratagem discs out of the pouch. She was able to save most of them by hurriedly slamming the pouch shut, but four bounced onto the ground, scattering and rolling for a few meters in each cardinal direction around her before falling flat and clicking to the ground. The single red LED blink on each one was the only indication that they'd armed.

"Ah fuck."

---

---

"Cru... Crua... Crui... Máire, There's... a lot of data," muttered Sairyn. He sipped his coffee a little louder than intended through the Vox, and nearly spit it back out. It was still much too hot to drink, but he needed all his faculties. "Our chief not-withstanding, there are three teleportation-class Movers residing in Templar tower. It took a little while to filter out their signatures but I have a search area for you," he explained, pausing to upload the data to her HUD. Sovereign highlighted an area along the chasm dividing the sector 1 and 2 plates with the highest concentration of signatures, as well as a few other probable areas in the other Estates.

"I probably don't need to tell you this, but there's two types of Teleportation-class Movers: the kind that need to see their landing point, and the kind that can go anywhere they've been before. We really hope it's the former... which is what the data appears to suggest, otherwise there's no telling where Fang could have ended up."

Sairyn sighed as he blew into his cup in an attempt to lower the temperature of his coffee to something less than flesh-searing. Maybe he should trust the AI to... no. He banished the thought when it elicited a sudden spike of paranoia in his core. With his free hand he tapped noisily on the array of slates orbiting lazily around him.

"I've dispatched a fleet of Tracer drones to assist and expand our search area. For now I will stay here and relay the data to your HUD in real-time but... if you run into the perp you better call for backup; don't think I missed the mountain of paperwork your scuffle with the Rippers is generating," he hissed with obvious annoyance. "And, obviously, it goes without saying that while we prefer to apprehend the suspect alive, if you feel threatened you are authorized to murder them to death. Protect yourself first, I'm not losing any more agents today."

---

March 11, 2045 - Just Outside the UnderCity, Texas, U.S.A.

---

The pain is what caught its attention first. The feeling of some sharp, impossibly hot blade carving through one leg and part of the thorax. The screams became real pained ones, and as J-3 turned their head to attempt some sort of confirmation of assault, the prey spirited away; pouring on speed that startled J-3.

A shuddering sound echoed out of the spider-esque form, like the beginning of someone chattering their teeth together if their teeth were made from the dried husks of grasshopper exoskeletons. Ink exploded over the form, and as four legs pulled back into the mass, the form shifted and grew. As the ink again settled, J-3 let out one last screech, rearing back on two legs instead of four as a pair of twisted forelimbs stretched into the air.
It looked as if someone had plucked off half the legs of a spider, and replaced the last two front legs with the blades of a praying mantis. The back legs were massive now, thick and dense. Hands rested at the ends of the forelimbs, eight digits writhing with a barely repressed frustration of losing the main prey item.

The form crouched, and as carapace grinded together with a sickening squeal and crunch, J-3 launched itself forward. Two massive eyes, pure black orbs that sat in the ‘face’ of its form, took note of faintly glowing forms further towards the … Mountain? Mountain.
And so J-3 rocketed forth, covering a fair distance with a speed that was nearly unnatural. When the glowing forms revealed themselves to be animals made from a tantalizing light, J-3 swung their arms. Chitin and keratin slashed out; aiming for whatever these creatures could have been. No killing blows meant, only aiming to maim so that they could be hunted down and consumed next.

The first prey was a beacon in the near distance now. J-3 could see them, feel them in a way. It would eat them too. It had to, too much energy was used this chase alone for it to not at the least try and consume that prey whole.

J-3 arrived in silence before Yue, no screaming, no shouting, no screeching. Not even a chitter or squeak, nary a growl or grunt. One chitinous leg landed on dirt and leaf litter, the other leg came to rest just beside a disk of metal and plastic. J-3 had exactly enough time to notice three others, to begin leaning towards Yue, and to realize it had made a grave error. There was… A sound. A sound unlike anything familiar to the ink-beast. To Yue, it was the sound of someone pulling the pin on an air compressor, and then dropping it in whipped cream.

An explosion of foam and chemical blind sided J-3, who was already halfway bent over the trap and towards Yue. Their “torso”, legs, and most of their arms and the bottom of their “head” were swiftly encapsulated. The needle point of a clawed digit came to a halt just before Yue’s nose, and as the situation settled in J-3s thoughts… They screamed yet again, rage and fear blasting out from a quartet of spider-fangs that made up their face. They began thrashing against the now hardening foam, unknowing of the other threats that were chasing them down. The foam was quickly growing rubber-like, firm enough that they couldn't simply yank away.

Ink pulsed in their core, and another belting scream leapt from them; the sound of an eagle’s screech and a hyena’s cackling chortle, with the undertone of a multitude of crickets chirping and buzzing. They were trapped.

It wasn't hard to track their way to the monster Zolya had seen in her visions, didn't even need to use the ravens she had specfically brought along for that reason. It's demented screams worked like a beacon giving the two a clear heading, though it was moving fast enough warrant to aim just a bit towards where he should be heading, at least it seemed to be moving in a fairly straight line.

It wasn't long until the monster came into sight. "That's not what it looked like in the vision... Fuck, it's a shapeshifter Raudd." Zolya realized as she watched the grotesque scene of the beings roiling inky mass moving around forming massive mantis blades in apparent retaliation to whatever it was that was attacking it. However instead of going into a melee with it's attacked it made a rush towards the two with a burst of speed.

A flurry of strikes from it's various appendages weaved their way through their ranks, the ravens had been far out of it's reach, but the same couldn't be said for the wolves a several of which had been knocked onto the ground or thrown a distance depending on the angles of the impacts. As it came for the two deer riders at the back though Raudd had managed to position his deer in front of Zolya and into the path of the monster. The deer lowered his head as to ensure only the large antler structure would be in the path of the appendages, combined with some dexterous parries and blocks from it's rider they managed to deflect all of the blows with only the deer being pushed back a minor amount from the repeated impacts. But it seemed that was all the attention the creature had for their pack, as it sped of towards it's original prey once more.

"I'm going to charge it, you keep your distance and send in the wolves when they've recovered." Raudd exclaimed as he directed his deer into the charge. Axe and shield raised anticipating the possibility of the creature turning around and going after him again. However as the creature reached it's prey it suddenly stopped, as if trying to taunt it... Or it just realized what mistake it had made as an explosion of foam engulfed it's body.

Raudd having given chase close to it now too realized he was going to end up in whatever that foam was, it was too late for the deer to stop it's charge it was going to hit it, but he managed to throw himself off it's back and rolled past the foam encasement. "Well... This is gonna suck." he said as he rolled over some kind of metallic disk with a bright red LED on it, instantly realizing that that was probably what had caught the monster as well.

Yue staggered back a step as the creature was ensnared in the sticky elastic foam compound, narrowly avoiding an intimate encounter with one of its razor sharp claws. She'd been frozen by the unnerving silence as it approached her, and now was just relieved it had been a restraining stratagem. If it had been a Flash or Belly Flop she'd probably be dealing with an injury, or worse if she was judging the slickness of the talon correctly.

Well then. All that's left to do is to finish it.

Yue reached into her pouch and slid a black disk into her hand, slightly larger than the others. She was about to press her thumb to it when the creature started shrieking again, causing an involuntary shudder down her spine.

"Nope," she said, with an accompanying noise of unease and disgust. Yue turned on her heels, deciding to leave the creature to its sticky fate. Eventually the compound would deteriorate enough for it to escape, and she intended to be long gone when that happened... or at least that was the plan before a deer came barreling at her carrying a... Viking?

"What?!" was all she managed before the deer slammed into the creature, and the Viking did an impressive backflip onto... she squinted... the disc had a simple illustration of a bucket peppered with dots before the LED on it lit up. It detonated with a crack of rapidly decompressing space, not unlike a gunshot as about fifty-six liters of compressed sand were launched up in a narrow pillar beneath him.

Yue shielded her face with a hand and sidestepped to avoid getting any in her eyes or mouth. She fought the waves of lightheaded dissociation as she struggled to reconcile what she understood to be reality with what she was experiencing. The soft crunch of her foot landing on a plastic disc stopped her retreat.

POW!

A gush of foaming water sprayed out from under her foot, sending her crashing hard into the ground and soaking her in a slick soapy solution.

"Ugh. Clearly I'm in Hell," she muttered, as she tried to gain enough purchase to get back on her feet.

---

March 11, 2045 - Just Outside the UnderCity, Texas, U.S.A.

---

J-3 went silent once again as, without much preamble or warning beyond the thud of hoof against ground, a brilliantly glowing deer of light and tangibility slammed into them. Their mind rolled in the confines of its formed skull as they quickly shifted focus to the nearest opponent; the stag.

Ink boiled and rolled across the chitin of J-3s body, and for only a brief moment, their core glimpsed the world in pure clarity, before being subsumed by meat and bone once again. Their form rapidly shifted and became subsumed by the ink that spread over it. A rapidly forming limb and claw combo slashed out within moments, spearing the deer by the throat as J-3 attempted to leap away from the trap in the same breath as they tried to yank their new prey. Ink pulsed yet again, and with a horrendous screech, J-3 expressed a show of power they hadn’t yet demonstrated.

The deer vanished under a swarm of pitch-black tendrils, small as capillaries, that sucked up the glowing light that the creature gave off. “Yes! YES! MORE!” It screamed, a voice distorted by liquid and the buzzing-crackle of insect wings and tiger roar. Their new form was humanoid, riddled with horns and spines and fur and scales, with eight arms and four legs, and a long stinger-tipped tail that dripped venom. The veins of ink vanished from the air and back into the monster, receding into an unnaturally spherical head, a maw full of teeth and writhing tongues snapping shut. A rush of energy pulsed through them, and J-3 reflexively pushed on that space within them where water churned.

Their form exploded with liquid, as a brackish flow of salt-water began pouring from the entirety of J-3s body without cessation. Gallon upon gallon began flowing out from their flesh, and they turned once again to Yue, eyeless orb of a skull locking directly on her scrabbling form in her attempt to stand. It looked towards the Viking man as well, though it knew not what a Viking was, and belted another scream at him.

They launched at the Viking first. Intending on gaining yet more fuel for their now refreshed pyre. He was off balance, and thus, an easy target.
The first prey could wait.

Temujin's systems rang with alarm. The creature shifted, twisted, screeched. Its movements were a show of pure chaos; nearly incomprehensible for the cyber ninja. His false heart pumped adrenaline throughout his false body, and he dodged - far, backwards, into a flip, the swift movement bringing more of his wiry form into light as he landed right on his feet.

"What manner of aberration are you?!" Temujin grunted under his breath. The cyber ninja kept his distance and dashed, into the shadows, to maintain his subterfuge. A head-on fight with that cacophony of appendages and teeth would be suicide for him.

It was then that Temujin saw more coming - two riders, clad in robes and charging upon deers, with what looked like a cavalry of ravens and wolves. It seemed like something straight out of a painting.

"Good. More meat shields," Temujin thought, then backed off further.

...And it was good that he kept his distance, as dust and air erupted and added to the chaos, which the abomination took advantage of to lunge towards the viking.

Temujin's vision honed in on the monster. He sprinted into a leap above Yue, then fired a wire from his palm, its end tipped with a triple-pointed claw that shot far and dug straight into the formless ink.

Stab!

Yue felt a presence land behind her.

"Take this."

A machine-toned voice spoke. A shimmering wire slipped onto her palm. From her peripherals, she saw more of the cloaked figure. Knees bent, back hunched, arms tugging as hard as it could at the same wire.

"HNKH!"

The wire straightened and tensed as Temujin yanked at J-3 back with all his might. His hands trembled, and there was a sound of grating metal. He couldn't do this alone.

While Raudd was very glad the landmine he hit wasn't another of those foam trap thingies, there was part of him that wished it had been a regular landmine instead as the jet of sand pounded into his armor finding the little gaps between it and even finding it's way into his eyes and his nose. At the same time Zolya had no other choice but to watch as the creature absorbed her poor deer and drained it until it fizzled out of existence it's form and light disappearing in the blink of an eye as if it never existed in the first place.

He barely had any time to register what had happened to him before the shapeshifter went after him once again and in another new form something akin to those Hindu gods. Instead of jumping up from his position to mount a defense Raudd allowed the creature to get close, drawing it in with a false sense of the injury helped by the bleeding wounds caused by the abrasion of the sand.

As the creature came withing range of his axe he swiveled around going from his laying position to one of combat readiness as he swung the axe at one of the outstretched arms of the shapeshifter. What followed was a flurry axe strikes aimed at the creatures body each strike flowing into the next making sure to leave as few gaps as possible on his right side for his opponent to counterattack with it's arms. All the while on his left arm he was using his shield to fend off, bash and jab at the arms that the axe swings couldn't cover though he was very much aware that he neither had enough arms to cover the disadvantage nor did his vision blurred by the grains of sand on his cornea help the matter with him being limited to reacting to the movement of the appendages rather than being able to land pinpoint strikes. Drops of sweat mixed with blood fell to the ground as Raudd assailed and carved into the creature like he was the rabid animal in the situation a smile forming on his face as the smell of the blood hit his nose.

At the same time another entity decided to enter the fray sinking a hook of sorts into the creature, attempting to contain it perhaps... Or foolishly trying to protect Raudd from it's assault not realizing it wasn't a desperate defense but rather a frenzied aggression fed by the first shot of adrenaline Raudd had felt in weeks.

Whatever the case may have been Zolya took the opportunity to to unleash the pack, the wolves making hit and run attacks on the creature's back and sides using their claws rather than their teeth trying to avoid making contact with the inky mass for long enough that it could gain traction on them and devour them just like the deer before. The crows on the other hand took it upon themselves to grab the wire with their talons and help whatever was holding the end of that wire with it's job.

Zolya herself closed the distance as well keeping her book open on a page with what she assumed would be the best defensive spell against this creature, still mounted on the deer she came up behind the group making sure to keep Raudd between her and the shapeshifter as an extra precaution. She looked down on the Templar noticing how she had been soaked by what looked to be soapy water. "Hmm, that looks rather unpleasant." She uttered as as she lifted her hand from the book.

If Yue looked in Zolya's direction she could see an ice blue shimmer form around one of the rings before moments later a gust of air was launched from it aimed at the soap stricken Templar in an attempt to at least get the worst of that liquid off her.

Alex had to take more time then he had preferred getting close to the scene. Building up too much momentum with his weight was tricky to control if he wasn't careful. Also he really didn't want to have to slow himself down by what would basically be him slamming into a bunch of his own barriers. He grumbled at the thought. Flying movers were lucky. Dean was buzzing in his ear again as he started to get a visual of the battle taking place.

"Alright, cams so far confirm that we got Cyber Ninja and the Vikings on going at it with-" Dean was obviously a bit dumbstruck at first trying to describe what he was seeing. Sure the monsters during incursions were always weird, but leaving an undercity resident at a loss for words was saying something for sure.
. . . . I really don't know what the hell it is, The creature is shifting its shape a LOT. Our guest to the underground is looking rather dazed from my angles. Might want to make it quick dude."
Alex nodded his head and grunted in agreement. Already layers of barrier field armor began to form all across his body as Alex began to launch himself through the air faster. "I'm engaging. going to go dynamic entry style. Been a while since I've done my impression of a living missile." It took not even a second for Alex's ears to be filled with nearly hysteric laughter. "Oh man I gotta get a recording of this one man. Music?" Dean was still catching his breath. "Hmm . . . give me a loud entrance."

Moments later, the sound of AC/DC's Thunderstruck began to fill the air while a bright sky blue shape continued to pick up speed towards the unsuspecting shapeshifter.

---

---

The various members of the fight heard the blasting rock music, each with various degrees of confusion, before any of them could see the blue streak of light in the shape of an armored man that rocketed right into the shapeshifting form of J-3. The sound was akin to that of a cannon blast. The rouge known as Aegis wasn't sure what speed he had been going at when he finally decided to shoulder check the poor creature, but the fact that it hadn't turned into a pile of gunk on contact told him that it has probably enough. Probably.

Still, hitting something with that much force did leave one hell of a crater, which he was currently in. . . . with the creature. And was Cyber Ninja trying to hold the thing back when he had hit it? Alex didn't really take the time to check how close everyone had been before he decided to go full on missile. Eh, it was probably fine. He quickly let out a soft shockwave that was meant to only clear out the dust cloud he had kicked up from his rather concussive entrance, revealing himself to everyone present. He simply stood up and began to crack his knuckles as he regained his Barings.

"Sup."

J-3 was a hot mess, a wreck in a situation that was by all accounts completely and totally 'FUBAR', as the scientists used to say to them. They had been in the middle of being assaulted by the strange man who once rode a deer of delicious vibrant light. He was swinging a bladed thing wildly, and while J-3 originally would have simply doubled down and swiped back without issue, they were stopped. A hook and line had formed deep within their formless mass whilst they had been changing, and now a force that was unseen as of yet YANKED on their mass.

They stumbled to one side, screaming in agony as one limb was sliced clean from their body as a whole by the ... Axe! Axe-wielder.
They then had their attention again swirled by the appearance of brilliantly glowing creatures. Wolves and birds began their harrying assault on J-3, and as they momentarily lamented the loss of one weapon-limb, they finally began to react.

Seven arms lashed out into the air, as the stinger-tipped tail darted forth to skewer the Viking. The salt-water that ever poured from their body ceased for a moment, before restarting in the air above the Viking man. Four arms came back with ravens gripped in their bladed talons, and subsequently consumed the creatures in a burst of pitch-black veins. Their focus shifted again, a frustrated screech ripping out of their maw as the viking man deflected their tail with just enough precision to avoid being run through. They turned their 'eyeless' head, shrieking as they took note of a woman who rode in and seemed to glow just as brightly as the first prey! Another target worth-

The thoughts were quite literally slammed to a stop, as the mind shattering entrance of a humanoid who was quite simply a massive beacon of decadence made his entrance. Though they didn’t have eyes, they did have to take a brief heartbeat to understand the absolutely new way they had fucked up.
This new beacon, another prey item, was larger and brighter than the others… Or maybe that was just because it was closer. It spoke above J-3, a voice that rumbled through but didn’t register. The water that had once been pouring in gallons above the Viking sputtered to a stop as J-3 lost their focus.

“Sup” boomed the new prey; and with a sudden upheaval in movement, J-3 launched themselves out of the crater. They leapt upward, their body a violent spiral of motion as their tail, legs, and arms all came into brutal contact with the new contender.

And proceeded to do exactly Jack-And-Shit.
Once again their body began pouring water, and for a while, they forgot all about the grappling hook and line sunk in their flesh. The ground around them grew soggy and muddy, quickly becoming a slush as the salt water that poured from their chitin soaked the ground.

"What...?" Yue asked numbly as she was handed a cable by... someone, shortly before a woman approached her. Some kind of glyph shone brightly through her hand, causing Yue to squint right as she was blasted with a gust of wind, sending a flurry of soap bubbles cascading into the darkness behind her. "... T-thanks," she muttered, with a constrained expression like she she was trying to process the taste of something unpleasant.

That's when it happened... Music... like the annoying sound-bytes that were so popular just a few months ago in Final Odyssey. A glowing blue streak slammed into the creature to the shredding guitar of classic rock and ripped the cable from her hand, causing her to stagger a few steps. The man shimmered through the dust, clearing it with some kind of not-quite invisible force. She just stared blankly for what felt like minutes as she felt darkness creeping in around the edges of her vision.

Cutscene?

"Rune Priest... Beatmaster... Shinobi... Warden," she muttered under her breath, her eyes darting to each of the other individuals in turn. "That's a world-boss, clearly... a public quest?" she blinked hard, staring at her hands as she tried to rationalize what was happening.

Yue took a long moment to check her face and head for obvious injuries or bleeding while the creature scrabbled uselessly at the Warden's armor. There wasn't any serious bleeding, but she did have a noticeable knot on her forehead, likely from when she struck her face against the earth in that initial tumble. Her eye was probably blackening, if the pins and needles crawling down her face had any indication. Other than a deep scrape on her cheek and neck and some mild burns she seemed otherwise intact, however.

Thank you, Tinker-Tech helmet.

"This isn't real!" She suddenly announced, giving the group an empty smile. "Thank you for playing! I'm going home nyao," she said, tilting her head and bringing her hands up under her chin like paws. Yue turned on her heels and just started walking away numbly without regard for direction.

"Initiate logout... initiate logout... Sovereign, wake up procedure: initiate logout," she muttered over and over again.

Temujin shielded his eye as dust and wind scattered from Aegis' arrival. With one fell swoop, the hulking man had knocked the wind out of the aberration… for now.

The cyber ninja sighed. The invisible air upon his body dissipated, exposing the purple metal and black muscle fibers underneath. There was no face upon his wide, oval-shaped head, only a single eye which seathed with a searing green glow.

"Hmph! Took you long enough, Aegis. What, too busy fighting off your horde of admirers?"

His voice hummed with an artificial tinge, but the mocking inflexion was unmistakably human, as was the vaguely foreign, eastern accent.

He watched from his peripherals as the Templar woman babbled. She called him 'Shinobi.' He tilted his head.

"I think she's lost it. Typical Templars. All flash, no teeth."

The cyber ninja yanked his wire. The hooks ripped out of J-3's body with a gooey, squishy sound, then retracted back into his palm. He tossed leftover ink out of his hand with a shook of the head. Wasting no more time, he approached the ink-stained aberration, and his blade unfurled with a hiss and a deep, electric hum.

"Let's get this over with."

Temujin drew his blade back.

The very moment the rock music hit the ears of the Raudd a very audible sigh left his mouth, it was also at that point that his incessant onslaught on the shapeshifter stopped anticipating something akin to a meteor strike. He barely managed to take a jump step back and get into a defensive stance before the indestructible mass impacted the creature of ink. At least he managed to avoid getting more dust into his eyes having managed to somehow close his eyes at exactly the right time as Alex cleared the impact site. Though he presumed that if his pain reception still worked to any degree that all that dust acting as a coagulating agent in his cuts, scrapes and the gash left by the creatures stinger he would probably be in a world of pain right now, that was probably worth losing the attached adrenaline response.

"Hmmm, Mr. big and hard has arrived." Zolya let slip from her mouth with a cheeky smile. "Less chatting more fighting, before I lose my rush." Raudd said to the others not wasting any more time before making a jumping charge at the creature. His shield impact it's body with a dull thud almost instantly stopping any and all forward momentum he had and leaving him landed in boot deep mud. "Of course that's exactly what we needed. Zolya, make yourself useful and get rid of this crap." He yelled at this sister. To which she answered by flipping through the pages of her book settling on a particular one and with the swift motion of her hand launched a ray of bright light at Raudd and the area around him.

The ray was quite effective at drying out the ground locally, but at the same time it was quite literally setting Raudd on fire. Not that the now burning viking let that affect him in any way shape or form, rather than that he was basking in the flames and enjoying the sound of the trailing flames trying to catch up with the burning axe as it swung around continuing the onslaught from before Alex interfered with his arrival. With this much pandemonium happening he wouldn't be out of the fight for all that long anyways, so no need to bother caring about something trivial like being on fire.

In the meantime Zolya turned her attention back to the templar who appeared to be in some sort of a daze talking some gibberish almost as if she thought she was in some sort of virtual reality game. Then again for her this world was probably about as foreign as any game world. She urged the stag she was riding to follow alongside the templar, hoping that maybe a few words could help her get to grips with the reality. "Sweety, this isn't some kind of game world. You're in what we call the undercity, the... Eh, underbelly of Titans fall that most topside like to forget exists, if they aren't blissfully unaware of it's existence." She tried to explain, though she wasn't too sure if that was a sufficient explanation for someone who had their reality turned upside down.

The music finally cut out just as Alex barely seemed to pay attention to the writhing mass of angry claws and teeth flailing against his armored form. He shook his head and chuckled a tad sheepishly at Cyber Ninja’s comment. ” I know, I know, I’m late. Though I am surprised at just how many of y’all decided to show up for just one high end beast.”

At least that’s what it would have sounded like if not for Alex having to be interrupted every two words before he could repeat himself. Big meaty claws and tail slaps kind of did that. Alex wasn’t really in the mood to be tossed around so he continued to hold himself in place even after the creature started generating water. So it has powers too? That’s both annoying and worrying. Why is it even alone then? Questions for later.

A few more smacks to the head as he tried to articulate a question finally caused the armored man to let out a loud grunt of frustration. The nordics pair quickly spring into action afterwards, evaporating the creature's water and attacking it further. How anything could stand up to a tech viking lit on fire was anyone’s guess. Alex however didn’t seem all that pleased with this turn of events, which led to him grabbing hold of the beast trying, and failing, to assault him. He turned his head to the Cyber Ninja that looked ready to attack. His glowing eyes glaring out from his helmet radiating as much annoyance as they were light. ” Will you PLEASE go help the Templar having a nervous breakdown and give me a minute with soggy here? We can argue over who gets the first cut of meat later.”

With a mental command and a soft flash of blue, Alex locked the still burning Raudd, the creature and himself in what affectionately referred to as “The Thunderdome”. Where he proceeded to unceremoniously shake the flailing beast violently without loosening his grip. ”Stop wiggling, you better taste good after all this!”

The world swirled and yanked around at dizzying angles, which was to say that the world tittered back and forth like a particularly bad video glitch. J-3's vision blurred as they were shook about, and it took a short time to readjust to the shaking.

J-3 snarled as ink pulsed in the head they had formed, their skull becoming flabby and loose as Aegis' hands continued to thrash them.
After a moment, with their head looking like that of an octopus, things began to change. Pressure built, and built, and built, and then built some more. By the time Aegis had yet any moment to glance at them, J-3's skull exploded with a fire-cracker bang. The sound was deafening in close proximity, and the spray of viscera and gore that subsequently covered Aegis' face as a horrid sight. And stench. The worst smells that J-3 could bring to bear were released with violence. The stench of dead flesh, mixed with the horrid smell of a skunk multiplied by excess, and the pustular reek of diseased blood; and it all splattered against Aegis and the wall of light behind him.

They ripped themselves free from Aegis' grasp, bodily yanking themselves in the direction of Raudd with a screech of indignation. Fist-fulls of their flesh and chitin hanging in the super's grasp as they twitched away.
Their voice popped into being as a newly formed- vaguely humanoid- head took shape on their shoulders. "I will NOT be contained! I am NOT your food!" They shrieked in return, claws and tail flailing back into motion as they slammed themselves violently into the dome surrounding them. The rage had quickly faded by now, and the fear of being contained yet again had set in.
Panic was what fueled them to scrabble across the ground and walls of light of the dome, saltwater yet still pouring from their body as it began to pool on the ground. Their head snapped around wildly, eyeless and yet taking in the nearly blinding light of the dome and of Aegis' and Raudd.
"You can't keep me here forever! You won't keep me here! I'll get free! I'll take you to oblivion if I have to!" They screeched.

At this, a wave of ink pulsed across their form. They abruptly shrank as the wave vanished, standing at only four feet or so tall, though their shape didn't change in the slightest. Water continued to pour from them by the gallon, slowly raising the level that was beginning to form within the dome.

They would drown their captors before being held here, and if the big-one couldn't be hurt in a way that mattered, then he would drown for his persistence.
Raudd found himself suddenly bearing the weight of J-3's smaller form on his back, their claws dug in some before they launched themselves at the ceiling of the dome. When that changed nothing about their situation, they returned to bouncing around like the worlds most vicious, moist, pinball. Occasionally they swiped at Raudd, and throughout it all, built up pressure in a sac that sat just under the chitin of their chest.

” Will you PLEASE go help the Templar having a nervous breakdown and give me a minute with soggy here? We can argue over who gets the first cut of meat later.”

Temujin’s flickering blade blinked into nothingness, then folded inside his arm. He leaned close to Aegis, the latter’s shadow shrouding all of the ninja save for the glow and glare of his green eye.

”Hmpf. Only because you asked nicely,” Temujin replied through the digital equivalent of gritted teeth. The cyber ninja looked over his shoulder and fired his grappler.

Fwhipp!

The magnet-tipped claws conformed to Yue’s back plate, then pulled. The templar was yanked off her feet and towards the cyber ninja. His slender black hands caught her, under her knees and by the small of her back.

He held her there and lingered, his lidless eye baring no expression.

”Hey, you. Templar." Temujin whispered. ”I thought you were supposed to be the best of the best? The cream of the crop? Saints among suckers?!"

Temujin brought one hand to her cheek and patter it rapidly. ”Get your shit together!"

The creature's defiant rant drew Temujin's attention, and he sighed. ”Noisy little fucker, isn't it?" Even so, Temujin didn't budge. Even with the ink swelling and swiping away, he had little reason to doubt his ally's abilities.

"Under... City. Says the Rune-Priest," muttered Yue. "It was changed to Nethercroft at the end of the beta," she replied, with a note of skepticism, glancing at Zolya through narrowed eyes. "Figures they'd miss an NPC in the update. Sloppy programming... but that means I need to go-" Her words were cut off by the clank of a magnetic grapple on her back, and she staggered a few steps forward as it hit her,

"Uh!"

Yue was suddenly yanked off her feet and sent hurtling through the air, sending a wave of nausea and dizziness washing over her. She felt her body impact something vaguely, and the last thing she was consciously aware of before the side of her head smacked into they cyborg's chest was taking a deep breath.

Her eyes rolled around and fluttered open, focusing on the cyborg glassily as he reached out to touch her face. She slapped his hand away and shoved his chest with preternatural speed, pushing herself off to the ground roughly. Her landing wasn't graceful, but she still managed to get a foot underneath her: enough to quickstep a few dozen meters away. Yue spun back to face him as she landed, letting the momentum carry her across the ground a short ways. She pressed her thumb down firmly onto something in her palm, allowing a long hilt to spring out into her hand, with a wide cross guard unfolding at one end. She flicked her arm out and the two meter tapered blade slid into existence from a sheath of white light.

The blade thudded heavily to the ground, shattering the ruined earth. She paused, seemingly to catch her balance, as she brought her face into her free hand for just a moment before grasping the hilt of the greatsword firmly. The blade began to hum gently in a high, almost crystalline tone. There was a tension in the air, like an invisible force coiling around her... and then she moved.

It all happened in a blink. The sword flashed as she swept it up over her head into a high guard. The air split with a thunderous CRACK, ripping a frictionless path of momentary vacuum between her and the cyborg. In that split second before air rushed in to fill the gap she was on top of him, bringing the sword bearing down towards his head. She curved the blade down to her left along his anticipated dodge trajectory, smashing roughly through the glowing barrier and biting into the earth. The savagery of the strike gouged the terrain far beyond the physical reach of her blade and sent dust and debris hurtling throughout the battlefield.

Static assailed his vision. His eye flickered, his palms splayed across ruined earth.

”Y… you..."

He grunted, a voice quaking with something deeper than pain. What once was his right arm had become a frayed mess of fibers and tubes, spitting translucent fluid from the elbow. His chestplate was sundered deep, and purple metal gave way to torn, artificial flesh. He laid there, unmoving, at the mercy of the Templar he had dismissed.

"You're… faster than I thought…," He admitted, his voice partially garbled from the onslaught of blunt force trauma his chassis endured, a pool of semi-clear lubricant forming beneath him. Stronger too, he left unsaid, catching sight of Aegis' ruptured barrier from his peripherals.

Raudd smiled as Alex dropped his dome around the three of them locking locking the two aspects of destruction in with some very unlucky prey. However that smile soon dissipated as the creature decided it was a good idea to have their head explode with a deafening sound and releasing some horrid smell strong enough to even overpower the smells of burning human that were coming from him. "God, does he smell. You better be careful trying to eat him later, or he might make you toiletbound for a week." He joked to Alex before the creature spewed his intentions to not become food and threw itself towards Raudd.

It then clawed at the dome seemingly trying to figure out if it could break it, which of course he had already experienced to be quite futile the only thing that Raudd imagined could take more damage without giving a damn than those barriers was probably their wielder itself. The panic that the creature experienced and made very clear with both actions and a vocal threat. Raudd was almost at the point of losing interest in continuing the onslaught of axe strikes on the now rather pathetic creature when it showed a rekindled fighting fervor as it seemed intent on drowning the both of them and perhaps even trying to take him earlier by way of clawing. The creatures claws had sunk deep into his flesh before he had the chance to throw the creature off leaving him with some serious bleeding wounds stacking with the various other bits of harm he had been collecting throughout the fight.

"Come on, fight me you little stinker." he said with genuine glee showing on his face, finally something that wanted to fight to the death. His axe and shield at the ready trying to keep up with the creature now going about like a bouncing ball covered in razor blades. At this point though he did not care about using that shield as any form of protection though rather he allowed whatever clawing that came at him to happen, opting to use the shield as a bludgeon to bring the creature down faster as the raising water level might actually pose a slight problem for Alex if he wasn't careful about it.

Zolya on her end found herself faced with an equally stubborn creature, a templar with an unstable mind, she seemed to still be adamant about being in a game apparently. However before she could retort to what the templar exclaimed to her the cyber ninja took it upon himself to provide his kind of metal 'support'. Something which resulted in him getting rather brutally smashed by a sword strike far beyond normal human means. "So tell me, is that sword also something that exists in that game of yours? And what about the Cybernetics you just cut through? Or maybe the name of these places will jog your memory, Titan's Fall and the United States of America?" She asked the confused templar while maintaining a certain degree of distance through understanding that if she were to be rushed distance wouldn't make a damn difference. As such she took a secondary line of defense skipping through her book to the best potential defensive spell at her disposal.

When the creatures head popped violently and caused everything to smell utterly disgusting, Alex tried to remain calm. When the thing voiced it’s desire not to be eaten, Alex realized that it was sapient and eating it was most likely out of the question now.

Then the damn thing got out of the dome from a crack that had formed on its surface and became began to do . . . . Gross things while Cyber Ninja tried to fend off the violent Templar.

A rather loud and irritated growl escaped the armored hero’s throat as everything happening reached a boiling point for him. ” You know what? After being bored out of my mind . . . Realizing I’m NOT getting a free meal, getting skunked, and having ALL of this go to hell, I think I’m done with today. And I’m DONE PLAYING AROUND!”

In a sudden motion, Alex lifted his right leg and stoned down with enough force to shatter the ground underfoot and shake the ground decently. Then the dome exploded. Telekinetic energy burst out as the dome shattered on command, sending a short but strong wave of energy outward, kicking up more dirt and debris in the process.

Aegis’s form glowed blue through the dust cloud as he layered his armored form in extra plates covered in spikes and blades, all the while simple spears and swords began to manifest and orbit around him. He slammed his fists together with a thunderous crack and slowly began stomping towards the beast. Alex snarled out his words in a tone only a few people present had the pleasure of hearing in the past. ” No. more. Games.” Alex was officially done and royally pissed off.