Nikita Mourning's Story

His reaction time was rather sudden for the amount of energy he already used and was still leaking but with still quite a bit left he lashed out with the sleeve of his robe. A spectral swarm of mosquitoes raining out by the hundreds trailing behind them almost a uv green as they flew at the tentacles. The insects landing and covering the tentacles of the beast. These bugs would act as a filter as the life force was passed to Ankou from the creatures with them dying off and dissipating once they had their fill. But more would replace them.

"Nikita grab the book! I'll attempt to siphon his life force with this." Jarad still looking at the swarm flowing out to cover the tentacles of the creature.

Nikita blinked as her poor skeleton was crushed and destroyed. Although it had not taken much power to raise him, it was still annoying to know that she was right – the damned body had been booby trapped. Yet, she listened to the other necromancer, although she was pretty sure he was a fool – and grabbed at the book, turning upon a heeled foot and began to flee.

She was starting to build up her power again, keeping it at the ready, a hum playing along her skin. She was ready for another attack, for more backlash of power coming from the twisted corpse since she had grabbed that book and held it close to her chest.

It was nearing three am, the magical hour, and Nikita crouched in freshly overturned dirt, nearly naked, her dress hang g from a bare tree limb within arms limb, but outside of her summoning circle. All the important bits were covered, of course, by her black underclothing, and her pale skin was dotted with the blood of the sacrifice – a goat. Her eyes were closed, dark red lips moving as she whispered her incantations. The air within the circle grew hazy, her magic filling the air. Her skin glowed, the blood a stark contrast to her pale flesh. The earth started to rumble.

The sky above the path would rip open flinging Merek from the void he was thrown into from another planet. Merek was thrown viciously out as his body created a fiery envelope that streamed him as a meteor headed towards the surface of this new planet. His armor no longer imbued with his magic quickly melted away into streams of steel and mithril though none of it marred his body. By the time he came closer to the surface nothing much was left on his body except for the ragged talbard that bore the symbol of his father and of it's own accord would not be destroyed and mend later on of it's own accord. The descent lasted to the unconscious Merek not long at all who didn't wake until his violent meeting with the ground which happened to split the street and engulf the dress of the woman in flames. Now Merek himself lay there partially nude of his own accounts with sword and shield together beside him.

"Well that wasn't my grandest entrance." The man groaned as he moved slightly checking his body for any costly injuries he could of taken during the fall. He didn't even eye the woman yet as he was too busy looking himself over ignoring his own lewdness. He knew that people would be attracted to his coming hopefully one of them being his brother in arms.

In the darkness of the night, two men had gone unnoticed throughout the ritual. Having set up a position to watch the proceedings, they were having a quiet debate with one another.

"That's clearly the ministrations of Chaos," one of the men said to the other. He was a grizzled sort, and his weapon of choice seemed to be a very large twin-barreled energy weapon of some kind. "See how she adorns herself in the blood of an animal, and offers herself to the ruinous powers?" His tone was almost conversational.

The other man nodded; unlike his compatriot, he was wearing full face covering armor, and generally just more covering garments. "Right," he replied softly, "But we've seen the like before in this world. It's not necessarily Chaos."

The grizzled man frowned deeply. "Tiger. When has blood sacrifice ever been anything but Chaos?"

"Well there was that fellow in the bar, that one time," 'Tiger' responded thoughtfully.

"That place doesn't count; it was warp-tainted from the start. Besides, until we link up with the rest of the unit, presuming they're alive, we have to be cautious."

"I just think it could be something else, Grapple. Perhaps this is a religious matter."

Both men paused when, rather abruptly, the sky above tore itself asunder, and another figure bathed in molten steel dropped through into their reality.

Grapple grinned. "Chaos. I told you, Chaos. She's summoning minions of Chaos from the Warp," he insisted. The other man shook his head.

"Oh come off it, that couldn't be. Since when do Chaos portals send humans, rather than Daemons? We just got flung to Warp knows where by that device Dancer found, who's to say this isn't something similar?"

Grapple scowled and waved dismissively, gripping his gun carefully. "Feth with you mate. It's Chaos, I know it. They'll show their true colors soon enough."

Magic rippled as her concentration broke. For a moment a head pushed through the dirt, skin clinging onto bleached bones, animated by her magic, but it fell as her concentration was shattered and her dress was burned. That was all it took – that sudden rush of anger - and her concentration was broken and the ground sucked the zombie back into the earth. Her spell, all the preparation, was ruined! A goat had died in vain, and she had nothing, nothing, to show for it!

“What in the world,” she screeched out, her voice sounding much like nails on a chalkboard, twin pink dots highlighting her cheekbones. She pushed herself up from her seated position and spoke a few words, breaking the spell before she stepped out of the circle that she had inscribed. A bare foot quickly dragged through the circle of blood, salt, and bone to break it. She couldn’t risk someone else breaking it, or controlling the power – that would be horrible, disastrous.

“What the hell are you doing out here?!”


Of course, the necromancer couldn't see the two men who were hiding. If she could, she'd assure them that it wasn't -chaos- that she was summoning... No, it was something much worse.

"Well isn't that a lovely voice to be greeted into this world by, I don't suppose I am in heaven now and you happen to be one of the virgins to greet me by sating my needs?" Merek chuckled at himself as he eyed the women momentarily more so looking for a threat then at her barely covered form.

Merek himself wasn't much more covered then she was, if anything he was more nude the talbard barely reaching the bottom of his rib cage though it was quickly knitting itself back together. Merek leaned over picking up his sword and shield which rested where he was laying from the rather graceful landing. For a man to take such a rough landing he was in rather good shape. His magic had helped unconsciously shielding him as he landed only giving him the minor aches and a bit of jarring headache. But now he stood this women in the middle of some wilderness expanse lacking both clothing and any idea where he may be.

If only Aeson hadn't decided it was a good idea to try and ally themselves with that impudent god and his power hunger. Hell he wouldn't even be here right now. He'd be off fighting some enemy or getting laid at some bar.

The exchange of conversation between the two strangers was confusing, to say the least.

Tiger turned his head slightly towards Grapple, and managed to convey the illusion of a shit-eating grin. Grapple just scowled.
"Just because it's not the right entity doesn't mean she's not trying to summon Daemons," he insisted. Tiger patted him on the back.

"And that man," Grapple went on, "Listen carefully to what he says. Talk of... Heaven and virgins."

"Sounds like Solid," Tiger joked. Grapple shook his head. "Why don't we go investigate? Hammer would probably want us to avoid getting killed, and attacking people of undetermined power is a good way to do the latter."

Grapple grunted, not being terribly fond of the idea. "Alright. But you stay here. That hot-shot's got a lot better range than my melta, and if they turn hostile I'd rather not have you needing to rush forward to help out."

With that, Grapple slowly and quietly brought himself to a standing position. Melta in hand, he moved through the underbrush in the opposite direction of the strangers for a moment, then to the side.

He would be approaching from a different angle than where Tiger was keeping watch. When he felt sufficiently far away, he began making his way more noisily towards the pair, to ensure they were aware of him.

Nikita was not impressed by the man, and at his mention of her being a virgin- and to serve him- she let out a harsh laugh, form shaking with the movements. “I am the furthest thing from heaven you can get on this planet,” she stated Necromancers where not usually seen as anything good, or pure She believed, very much, in the concept of an afterlife, though she did not think of it in terms of heaven and hell like this being must of. For one such as her, able to pull the dead from the ground and have them heed her call, belief was a bit different than the masses.

“You fell from the sky,” she stated, a white brow arched along her forehead, features a mask of confusion and anger. His falling from the sky had, of course, messed up her spell. Now she’d have to start all over again and, this time, she’d have to use her own blood to freshen up the circle. Who knew what effect that would have on whatever it was that she was going to summon! The necromancer tossed her hands in the air, turning her back on the male just as the sound of a twig snapping, and bushes rumbling, reached her ears.

She froze, suddenly very, very aware of the fact that she was clothed only in small strips of cotton and the male at her back hardly clothed at all. She didn’t know who was coming, but embarrassment suddenly flushed over her, turning her entire face a deep red color.

“This is –not- what it looks like.”

"So we're not skipping the foreplay then? I mean I have in the past but it always seemed rather off if there wasn't any first. Do you want me to go first or should you? Should there be any making out before hand?" Merek was already having a hard time controlling his laughter his face set in a wide grin at this point.

His talbard had also finished knitting itself back together and covered his man hood from view. Though one could speculate what was being hidden beneath it. The sound didn't startle Merek at all, they were in the woods full of various wildlife creatures. Maybe this planet would have bears and he would finally get to wrestle one of them. The man remained somewhat oblivious to the factors around him as he was focusing on embarrassing the lewd woman in front of him.

Grapple made his way through the woodland environment with ease; he had to try just a little bit to make sure they heard him, going out of his way to step on twigs or go through bushes. Survival training was a hard thing to ignore.

He began grunting, as if with effort, when he got closer to the clearing that the strangers inhabited. "Sure, sure," he replied, having heard the woman's exclamation.

"And I'm a Saint," he said as he stepped through a small cluster of trees. He lit a lho stick and puffed on it for a moment, illuminating his face; it was grizzled and worn with many years of combat, but otherwise relatively kindly in its expression.

"I reckon you've been up to something strange though, you two," he went on to say. They would both be able to see the rather large weapon in his hand, strapped to his shoulder. If he was quick he could fire it whenever he liked, but for the moment he had one hand on his lho stick and the other cradling the barrel.

Nikita would have believed it, if she couldn’t tell the heavy sarcasm that laced the male’s voice. She sighed slightly, eyes slanting closed and brows furrowing. She had no clue what to say -- and her night, along with a rather expensive dress, was simply ruined. The necromancer’s eyes popped open again, eyeing the newcomer and his gun with a healthy dose of respect. She dealt with the dead- that did not mean that she particularly wanted to join them anytime soon.

“It’s not strange – I was simply attempting to raise a perfect specimen!”

Her nose went in the air, her expression turning haughty. This close to wing city a necromancer wasn’t rare by any stretch of the imagination. At least she was human!

"Any sign of anyone?"

Crimson watched Sarik analyze, the lower the Power Scope. "Nope. No sign of anyone."

"This is bunk," Tag walked up to Crimson. "Why are we moving so slow?"

"Because this isn't normal," Crimson responded, looking around at the rest of the group. "I have no idea where we are, but it's certainly not the Isle. So I don't know who or what we're going to encounter. And if we do have to fight, I want to be ready for it. Wouldn't you all?" Sarik, Pert, and Meryl nodded their heads. Tag sighed.

"Okay, I guess so," Tag answered.

"Do you think the rest of the Guild know where we are?" Sarik asked, uncertainty filling his voice. Sarik went back to looking through the Power Scope as they trekked.

Crimson thought for a moment. "I don't know, but we did tell them where we were heading. Seema will send a rescue party, don't worry. For now, we have to focus on getting back."

"Well I hope that it's not Dooma and his group," Meryl muttered. "They'll probably brag about it."

"Wait, hold on," Sarik stopped the group. Crimson made a motion for them to stay here and went up to where Sarik was. "What's up?"

"Group of six humans, up ahead," Sarik reported, keeping his Power Scope trained up ahead. Luckily for Crimson's group, the five were out of sight. "And they look gritty."

"Hmm..." Crimson looked around at the rest of the group, then back in the direction of the humans. "What are they doing?"

"It appears they're having an altercation of some sort," Sarik responded. "The entire group is tense. They have tech that I've never seen or begun to contemplate before. And they have a LOT of it."

"What?" Crimson motioned for the Power Scope so that he could see. Sarik gave it to him. Tag, Pert, and Meryl approached, but slowly. "What's going on?" Tag called out. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Crimson called back and examined the group. Sure enough, the amount of tech he could see on them was immeasurable. He wanted to learn all of it. "So, any plan of action?"

"I say we stay out of it," Sarik immediately retorted. "It's not our fight. We shouldn't get involved."

Crimson lifted a brow. "Come on now. We've been in the same group for this long and you think that I'm gonna let this opportunity go? We could learn from that batch of tech they have there."

Sarik shook his head. "I'm as curious about it as you are, but we don't know what it does. For all we know, it could be some extremely advanced Pokeball thing. I am NOT becoming a slave, I promise you that. It's not worth the risk of the group's safety."

Crimson pondered the thought for a moment. "You're right. It's not worth losing the entire group over. So you guys stay behind and hidden. I'll give you the signal if I need your help. I'm going to at least give it a shot."

"Crimson..." Sarik started.

"Don't worry," he reassured. "I can handle it. It's not like I haven't done something like this before. It just takes a little elusiveness." He winked at Sarik and turned to the rest. "Stay hidden for a little while. I'll be back soon."

With that, he tapped into the shaded region of his mind and transformed. Suddenly, his fur was black, his fire-lit tail becoming sleek and whip-like. His eyes were a dark gray, thank goodness. He didn't want them to turn red again.

"Do any of you have a PT, just in case I need to talk to them?" Crimson asked. The group shook their heads. "Alright, then I'm off."

"Go get 'em!" Pert called as Crimson left. Crimson smiled. Never can get used to that optimism, he thought.

Tag, Sarik, Pert, and Meryl left the path and went into the trees, hidden from view. Sarik still had his Power Scope on the group. Crimson also stayed in the trees, using his fur and the shadows to keep hidden. As he approached the group, he could hear the voices.

"I don't see so what is so strange about to partially naked human adults in the middle of the woods. I mean given that she just referred to my tool as a perfect specimen that she raised of course. Also as you earlier saw I fell from the sky so I doubt I've been here too long trying to seduce this lass right here." Merek's voice stood firm hiding his would be laughter as held the most serious of faces.

His hand however did rest on the pommel of his blade at the arrival of the man. He eyed the man and his power weaponry with little disdain he had his own tricks to deal with such things.

Grapple chuckled slightly. "Raise... the perfect... specimen." He then shook his head, though he had still not gone for the trigger of his weapon. What he did do is surreptitiously toggle the setting to wide.

When it came down to it he wasn't familiar enough with non-chaos Necromancers to make the distinction. As far as Grapple was concerned, this was going to go bad before it got any worse. Directing his attention to the babbling man, he took another long drag of his lho-stick.

"No need for that, sir," he intoned, gesturing lightly to the naked man's waist. "I've no intent of bringing death here just yet."

Directing his attention back to the woman, his expression turned serious. "Does the name..." he shuddered. "Nurgle.. mean anything to you?" The word left an awful taste in his mouth, judging by his disgusted expression and tone.



Tiger was watching from the underbrush; as far as he knew, completely undetected. Grapple had left his comm-bead on, with its secure channel linked directly to Tiger's own. Once the talk of specimens and raising was initiated, Tiger realized the situation might be cause enough for him to actually prepare to fire if either of the strangers advanced on Grapple.

Although he was very much focused on the goings-on, he intended to ensure that the situation remained secure for Grapple. The two were possibly enough to take out a surprised Nurgling and... whatever the hell the man was, but if they had allies in the area it could go bad quickly.

Nikita was completely taken back at the idea that her mention of raising the dead meant this man’s…’tool’. She gagged, her face going an even brighter shade of crimson as her shoulders hunched over for a moment. Nikita could hardly keep herself from actually vomiting at the idea of laying with the male who had fallen from the sky and, as such, missed the male turning his weapon onto wide Not that it particularly mattered. IF need be she still had enough residual power left over to o a few quick spells that may help her from the worst effects of his gun – since she could see it right in front of her.

At the question, the name, her face fell into confusion, blue eyes wide, “Nurgle?” she asked, confused. She had never heard of it, of him.

“Is he a necromancer as well?”

"I don't see so what is so strange about two partially naked human adults in the middle of the woods. I mean given that she just referred to my tool as a perfect specimen that she raised of course. Also as you earlier saw I fell from the sky so I doubt I've been here too long trying to seduce this lass right here."

Crimson watched as the man with the cross on his chest talked with the man with the blinking projectile contraption, ignoring the girl wearing black for a moment. She was the only one not wearing metal. Who were these guys?

"Raise... the perfect... specimen." the Blinking Man responded, "No need for that, sir. I've no intent of bringing death here just yet."

Crimson looked down and saw that the Cross Man had his hand on his weapon, what looked like a flat, pointy version of his Power Bat. Crimson looked at his sash, making sure his own tech was still in there.

"Does the name..." he shuddered. "Nurgle.. mean anything to you?" He was speaking to the Woman in Black.

The Woman in Black looked uncomfortable, as if she was embarrased to be here right now, surrounded by all these people in metal clothes. Was it all tech? Crimson wondered. Did the metal actually have a purpose or were their clothes made like that?

"Nurgle?" the woman answered, confused. “Is he a necromancer as well?”

What was a Necromancer? A Guild, a type, an occupation? Crimson had so many questions and no real way to ask them.

It was then that he spotted another metal man from across the path, surveying the situation, like he was. He was well disguised. Crimson wouldn't have seen him had a gleam not come from the place the other metal man was hiding. The luster metal had gave him away, but from what it appeared, only he saw it. He wondered if Sarik could see this man as well. He wonder what his purpose was. He wondered if the hiding Metal Man even saw Crimson.

No, he trusted his black furred self. In this state, very few could detect him in the shadows. And this forest was dense and thick, unlike the open forests he was accustomed to seeing. It was eerie, but conventional.

He continued to watch the group from up close. Meanwhile, Sarik and the others hung back, feeding off of Sarik's reports.

"Okay, it looks like they're all focused on one man, who's eye is covered with something," Sarik reported. "It looks tense,"

"What's Crimson doing?" Pert asked.

"I don't know," Sarik replied. "I can't see him."

"I wish I could change types..." Meryl whined.

"As well," Grapple mimicked. "So you're a.. Necromancer?" He pondered the word; it sounded heretical, to be absolutely certain. Certainly, if what he knew about it was true, it was a Nurglitchian thing to do.

He had begun to circle the pair of them, knowing at this point that remaining static and at ease could potentially get him killed. He needed to ensure that Tiger had an optimal shot if either of them decided to cause problems.

"You could say... he... is the greatest Necromancer known to the Imperium," he said decisively.

He stopped his patrol, placing his foot unknowingly just within the drawn circle. "Which means we may be slightly at odds."

A few blissful moments from the torment that spewed from Merek’s mouth allowed Nikita to compose herself. Sure, she was nearly naked on a path leading into a spooky forest, with power still tingling in the air, and two armed men around her. It didn’t matter though because she was calm and in control, for the moment. Fixing Grapple with her pale blue eyes she felt a white brow arch along her forehead. The ultimate necromancer? That sounded pretty horrible, to be honest.

Nikita was still very low level – she could do zombies and skeletons, a few spells to leech energy and help to protect her, but she wasn’t able to raise armies or much more – yet. That, of course, was one of the reasons she was out here perfecting her ritual. She was trying to raise more and more of her power in a concentrated form, to make perfect specimens, store her power and grow as a necromancer to do more and more – without, she hoped, many more trade-offs, her hair had already turned white from the power that

“Well, tha—“

Nikita’s face went white, her eyes went wide and a pitiful half-whimper fell from her parted lips. She physically felt him stepping on the circle, and the stored power, still locked in the circle, flung her backwards towards Merek and an awaiting tree. The air was suddenly hot, the wind suddenly howling in their small clearing – and only in their small clearing, surrounding the three. It was magic, heavy, evil, magic – tangible in the air.
“You broke the circle!”

Nikita screamed the words at Grapple, face pale.

“Something’s coming!”

Something indeed was coming.
Something deadly and ancient that was simply awaiting a chance to break free of certain bonds; an opportunity granted by the mis-step of one ill-fated man.

The ground around the group began to rumble, trees groaning in anguish as the ground in the circle began to buckle, as if being sucked into a hole. This force radiated outwards, growing to consume a radius of, roughly, twenty-some feet, in a miniature earthquake. If the inhabitants did not move quickly, they may well have been consumed by what came next.

Roiling flames licked up from the cracks torn in the earth. A deep, rumbling laughter began to sound, as one immense, clawed hand jutted forth from the center of what used to be the circle. It extended to the edge of the mass of flame and crippled ground, one impossibly long limb, and another broke free of its earthy prison to go towards the other side.

"Freedom," murmured a deep, menacing voice; it sounded as if it came from all sides, below, and yet another place entirely, muffled and all-too clear at the same time. "At long last... FREEDOM!"

Finally the soil and stone relented, trees were toppled and the immense form began to heave itself from the detritus. And an immense creature it was, covered in black, chitinous scales. Its eyes and teeth were a bloody, deep red, burning with fury as if made of molten steel.

It fixed its gaze on Nikita, the foul visage spreading into a most unsettling grin. "Little thing," it said, its tone impossible to recognize as mocking or coddling. "You are to blame, to praise... to sacrifice."

With these words it broke free massive wings from the earth, spreading them to a truly immense span, and starting to heave itself even further from the chasm it had torn on arrival to this plane. And it laughed, deeply and darkly, echoing in the night as if walls were closing around to forsake them all.