The below is only the recovered section. Unfortunately not all of it could be recovered.
This will continue promptly upon my return to home this spring break.
Fearless Leader
From Panda:
Mercury attempted to scan through the wall.
Mercury found...
Rock, hard rock, volcanic rock, odd crushed bone rock, more volcanic rock and...
you guessed it...
VOLCANIC ROCK!
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Alita moved cautiously back towards the bend in the corridor. Once there, she tapped around on the inside of the wall, listening for differences and looking for any odd breaks or cracks in the wall.
From Figment:
Jerkily turning back towards the opening behind him, Huitzil takes a half-step before slumping a bit and halting all motion.
WARNING - INTERNAL LOGIC FAULT
WARNING - I/O SUBPROCESSOR FAILURE
ATTEMPTING TO REROUTE THROUGH AUXILIARY SUBPROCESSORS...
...
...
REROUTE UNSUCCESSFUL
ATTEMPTING TO INITIATE SUPERVISORY OVERRIDE...
...
...
SUPERVISORY OVERRIDE INACTIVE
INITIATING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN/RESTART...
...
...
~fzzzz~
...
...
~fzzzz~
INITIALIZING...
OlmecOS v0.3 (copyright 535AD / 4 Tecaptl, Olmec Systems) online...
Running boot sequence... Boot sequence complete. Unit P4X-MM5 "Huitzil"
Online. Clockspeed 28 kHz, available RAM 132 bytes.
RUNNING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC...
Liquid-Argon Weapon Cooling System... OPERATIONAL
Izpapalotl Argon Laser... OPERATIONAL
Ehectal Repulsor Flight System... PARTIAL DAMAGE
Tezcatlipoca Magnetic Ensnare System... OPERATIONAL
Xolotl .04 Cubit Dual Autocannon... CRITICAL DAMAGE
Ometoeotl Geometric Transformation System... MINIMAL DAMAGE
Xipe-Totec Optic/UV/X-ray/IR scanner... OPERATIONAL
Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli Blade Extensions... OPERATIONAL
Chimalman Reflection Field Generator... MINIMAL DAMAGE
System diagnostic complete. Estimated combat capability is 83%.
Warning! Current system year is 1998 AD / 45 Tochtli. This unit is 1,397
years overdue for scheduled system maintenance. Please return "Huitzil"
unit to an authorized Olmec Systems repair and maintenance facility
(located in Chichen Itza, Chapultepec, Teotihuacan, and many other
locations) for maximum operational facility. If left unmaintained, the
argon cooling system may cause damage to multiple combat systems, including
autocannons, repulsors, force field generators, and the transformational
engine. In addition, though the copper/tin alloy "Bronze" armor is nearly
impenetrable, prolonged exposure to corrosive and humid environments may
reduce its protective capability.
LOADING USER DATA...
...
...
ERROR - USER DATA NOT FOUND
PLEASE INPUT NEW USER DATA
...
...
NEW USER DATA ACCEPTED
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
PROTECT THE LIFE OF MECHA-UNIT ALITA
PROTECT THE LIFE OF BIO-UNIT MERCURY
PROTECT THE LIFE OF BIO-UNIT RECCA
FIND A WAY TO BECOME HUMAN AGAIN
ERROR - PRIME DIRECTIVE 004 INVALID...
...
...
PRIME DIRECTIVE 004 REMOVED
AWAITING INPUT OF ORDERS...
...
...
ORDERS RECEIVED
After a brief period of inactivity, Huitzil straightens up and walks to the room with the bed/altars, where he proceeds to scan for Alita, Mercury, and Recca.
From Mercury:
Mercury made her way back to the hole they had originally come down.
"I think the bot might have been right," she said to the others loud enough to be heard. "We may have to choose another way in."
Alita finds that...
It too is solid rock!
Fearless Leader
Huitzil detects the voice patterns of biounit Mercury.
Fearless leader
From Alita:
Alita walked down the hallway into the room that Recca's flame friend had helped destroyed.
She looked around, thinking this would be the last place to find something other than SOLID ROCK!
Careful to avoid any barrels that where still burning, she took a careful look at the room and it's contents. Trying to note any changes in wall or floor patterns, hatches, levers, etc.
"Bio-unit Mercury. Please state your location."
Alita found a smouldering corpse burned beyond recognition but still somewhat intact on the floor...but no new hatches, latches, or anything else that might indicate an exit.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Moving on to the hard way, Alita moved around the room, banging her blade against the wall in a last ditch attempt to find something more here to kill.
From mercury:
"Down here," she shouted back from the passage.
Mercury flew back into the room with the altars. After landing she studied Huitzil for a moment.
"Feeling better?"
From Recca:
Recca wandered towards where Mercury had come from as she passed by him and went back above to where the robot Huitzil had called from. Stopping when he finds Alita, he asks if she and Mercury had found anything yet.
From Huitzil:
"I am functioning within recommended parameters. Please state the locations of Mecha-unit Alita and Bio-unit Recca."
As he says this, Huitzil does an in-depth scan of Mercury to determine her state of health.
From Mercury:
"They are searching the passages that the attackers had used in the ambush. Zel and Terry are dead." The last she mentioned in case the robot had missed those facts while he had been disabled.
"It seems as though we will have to choose another way into the tomb."
Well, besides time pasing, Alita's thorough search of the walls didn't find anything.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Grumbling to herself, she walked up the stairs. She stopped outside the sacrificial chamber and peered in.
"I'm done with this place. I couldn't find another entrance, so I'm moving on."
She walked outside and examined the area.
From Huitzil:
Turning, Huitzil followed Alita outside.
From Alita:
Alita walks down to the open huge door where the statues attacked them earlier. She cautiously walks through the doorway, and exams the chamber from the middle of it.
The chamber is an empty corridor approximately ten feet wide by ten feet long. On the floors by the wall there are little marble stands where the knight 'statues' had been standing. A wood door stands at the other end.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Walking slowly, Alita moved to the door, she stopped to examine it and it's opening mechanism closely while listening for any sounds.
From Huitzil:
Following Alita into the chamber, Huitzil scans the door, locking/opening mechanism, and the floor/walls/ceiling adjacent to the door in IR, UV, and X-ray.
From Recca:
As Alita walks away, Recca shrugs and takes her comment as she leaves for her answer to his prior question. He goes after her, stopping at the entrance to the hall where the statue fighters had been.
Seeing Alita inspecting the door, with Huitzil nearby, Recca decides to likewise do some inspections.
Instead of heading towards the door however, he goes towards the nearest marble stand and examines it, looking either for some trapdoor (not wanting to have to deal with monsters attacking, like the ones from under the beds, without being able to strike first) or something useful possibly hidden. If he finds nothing, he'll go and check the other stands.
Recca meticulously checked the stands to the best of his ability but discovered nothing hidden about them. In fact he found they could be shifted and moved, revealing nothing under them either. They were simply marble stands.
Fearless Leader
The door felt pleasantly cool to the touch, a wood handle appearing to be the way to open it.
Huitzil detected some sort of mechanism in the walls attached to the door.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
"There is an unidentified mechanism in the walls attached to the door."
Huitzil focuses his scanners on the mechanism, trying to determine the function of it.
Turning to Recca,
"Please retrieve Bio-unit Mercury."
Hutzil analyzed it...
The data returned indicated it was a trap of some sort, involving some nasty looking spikes under the floor.
Fearless Leader
From Recca:
Finding nothing from the marble stands, Recca nods to Huitzil's request, and goes to look for Mercury, saying "Hey Mercury, we're back at that first room since there were no further paths around here. Huitzil and Alita are checking for more traps there right now, before we continue on, and Huitzil asked to 'retrieve' you. Coming?"
From Alita:
Alita looked at Huitzil and said, "Let's ask Recca to burn the door down while we stand outside the small cavern." She walked outside without waiting for an answer. "I don't think this campaign has had enough fire," she mumbled while feeling her side.
From Huitzil:
Walking back to the entrance of the chamber, Huitzil continues to scan the trap, attempting to refine his data and determing exactly how the trap is sprung, whether it resets once sprung, the average density and length of the spikes once sprung, etc...
From mercury:
At Recca's shout Mercury made her way back toward the rest of the group.
"I'm here. What did I miss?"
Huitzil was able to determine that the trap was triggered by movement of the door and that the spikes seemed to be quite long, but he was unable to tell whether the trap would reset or not.
Fearless Leader
From Recca:
Recca walks back to the room's entrance with Mercury as he speaks, "Like I said, Alita and Huitzil are here checking for traps around the door. I've already checked the marble stands, and as far as I could see, there wasn't anything there, although I wouldn't know about their findings from the door."
From Alita:
Alita stops outside the cavern and shouts to Recca, "Hey, Recca. You think we can get your friend to torch the door?"
From Mercury:
Mercury moved away from Recca to give him room to do whatever he planned.
From Huitzil:
Huitzil stepped aside to allow Recca a free line of sight to the door.
From Alita:
With a small sigh, Alita pulled out her gun. She made sure she was outside the cavern and took careful aim before firing once at the handle.
A loud guncrack filled the air as Alita shot off the handle of the wood door, the metal spikes triggering as they shot through the floor and then stayed there.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
"Done," she stated emphatically.
Alita stared at the spikes, looking to see if there was a way she could walk through the room around them.
Well it would be tight but yes, Alita could manuever past the deadly spikes.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Alita makes her way through the spikes, careful to avoid getting cuts on any every once in a while looking over in case something came from within with all the noise.
From Mercury:
Mercury frowned at the trap.
"That would have been painful." She moved toward the door. She scanned the mechanism to see if it was fully sprung.
If it is, she carefully moves past the the trap and looks into the new room.
Looks pretty damn sprung to her scanners and her eyes.
Fearless Leader
Alita couldn't see anything with the still closed door. Nothing came from behind her either save...
Oh wait, Sailor Mercury!
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
When Alita made it to the door, she took her blade out and tried to simply push the door open.
Alita found, much to her despair, that the door did not open outward, and therefore could not be pushed.
Fearless Leader
Farside Tomb: "School for the Gifted" Gary Larson Dracos!
From Huitzil:
Examining the spikes, Huitzil attempted to determine the length and width of the spikes as well as the amount of force he estimated would be required to bend or break the spikes. Once he had that estimate, he compared it to the amount of force he was capable of exerting with his arms.
Indeed, Huitzil's powerful magnetic abilities were more than up to the task of breaking these thin, but deadly, spikes.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Alita attempted to open the door by pulling it, using the place the hand used to be as a gripping point.
And the door creaked open... As Alita got to see a rather large cavernous tunnel...with about thirty large and ugly green skinned monsters standing in the way. Fifteen of them with crossbows at the ready, the others bearing some sort of large poleax.
A chubby one with a red cap and yellow eyes grunted, "FIRE!"
And they let lose, fifteen arrows flying at her into the doorway.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Alita quickly released the door and spun away from the door entrance keeping her body as close to the wall.
A single arrow embeded itself annoyingly into Alita's metal framework....
As the other fourteen traveled towards Mercury with deadly speed while she was still traversing the steal spikes.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
Reacting to the imminent danger to Mercury, Huitzil immediately placed his reflection field around Mercury.
From Recca:
Recca summoned Nadare as soon as he saw the arrows. Though originally planning to fire at the arrows and burn them to a crisp before they hit Mercury, he saw a field brought up around her by the robot at the very second the five fireballs he'd summoned came out.
Deciding that Mercury was safe for the moment, Recca commanded the fireballs to navigate towards the group of monsters before they could fire another waves of arrows, and instead find themselves under fire from them.
From Mercury:
Mercury throws up a magical shield in front of herself on reflex.
Five of the arrows impacted against the dual fold shield before mercury, the others slamming into the ground just behind her save for one that dinged off of Huitzil's highly protective exterior.
Recca's fireballs soared out in response... Four of the orc's screaming in pain as they fell to the ground, rolling about to try and put the fire out.
The other eleven quickly reloaded their crossbows, Their melee support ready to charge.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Alita slides over to the corner of the two walls, ripping the arrow out as she strifes, while keeping an eye on the door. Once the arrow is free she trains her gun on the door, waiting for the first instant of green.
From Huitzil:
Dropping the shield, Huitzil moved over to the spikes and activated his flight systems, folding his legs up into his body. Flying over the spikes, Huitzil gently grabbed Mercury around the waist and picked her up, rotating his torso 180 degrees to shield her, and continuing towards the door with the intent to deposit her to the right of the door once they had passed the spikes.
Mercury finds herself being crushed in the 'gentle' grip of the well meaning giant.
Fearless Leader
Mercury lets out a strangled gasp as the robot grabs her.
From Huitzil;
Hearing the sound of distress emanating from Mercury, Huitzil reduced the pressure being applied by thirty-five percent and completed his action.
Huitzil stood with Mercury, his back facing the doorway as the crossbow orc's aimed, shooting over his back at the only visible target...
Recca.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil;
Rotating his torso to the left, Huitzil set Mercury down out of the view of the orcs before continuing the rotation so he was facing the greenskins.
The arrows flew over Huitzil's head as he rotated, swiftly flying towards Recca.
Fearless Leader
From Recca:
Realizing that not all the monsters were taken care of, and had reloaded, Recca summoned Nadare again, this time summoning double the number of fireballs. As arrows are fired in his direction, he aims the fireballs in their directions instead, as he runs to the side, trying to get behind the wall.
Recca barely dodged as the arrows blasted through his former position...his fireballs heading towards the orcs...killing three more of them...the others swiftly dodging away from the deadly fireballs. The orcs raged as they drew swords, moving to the sides of the large cavern as they waited for their foes to come to them first.
Fearless Leader
From huitzil:
Activating his argon laser, Huitzil opened the aperture to it's widest setting and fired, traversing the beam across the aggressors from left to right.
From Alita:
Seeing Huitzil taking the door, Alita moves towards him near the wall. She stopped 2 feet from him, keeping her gun ready and making sure she wasn't in view from inside the room.
The beam blasted, catching fifteen of them in it's freezing blast, stunning them and chilling them.
The others roared, a group of ten axe wielders charging Huitzil.
Fearless Leader
From Recca:
Giving a quick breath of relief at escaping the arrows, Recca turns around from the wall and looks to the door. Deciding to take a page from the orc's books, he summons Nadare once more, giving a short apology for the amount of action she's seeing, then fires three fireballs in an arc over Huitzil's head.
From Huitzil:
Stepping through the door, Huitzil waited for the axe wielders to get closer.
Once they reached a distance of approximately six feet away he activated his Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli Blade Extensions, flinging one out to either side, spinning horizontally, and swinging them in opposing arcs, the one on his left arm passing six inches below the one on his right arm. After each blade has traversed an arc of 120 degrees he will retract them.
From Alita:
Seeing Huitzil step through the door, Alita was about to follow until she saw the fireballs from Recca, and decided to hold her ground.
Recca's fireballs missed as he couldn't see to target the orcs, the flame blasts slaming uselessly into walls.
The orcs screamed as they were torn apart, the blades cutting through their leather hide armor and leaving bloody death behind. The few archers remaining promptly fired into Huitzil, fear guiding their actions. THe five axe wielders that remained huddled around thier leader, frightened.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
Turning to the remaining archers, Huitzil charged at them, prepared to use his blade extentions on them once he was in range.
The orcs broke ranks, fleeing full speed down the corridor as the fearsome bloodstained visage of huitzil charged at them. Quickly outpacing the large robot, they swung down a corridor to the left.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Seeing as her comrades had stopped firing past the great Huitzil, Alita creeped into the doorway, gun ready and looked inside.
From Recca:
The threat of arrows apparently ended, Recca starts making his way carefully around the spikes and towards the door, watching carefully for the reappearance of the archer monsters.
Recca didn't see any monsters, only Huitzil standing victorious in his bloody glory.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
Alita stepped into the corridor, and examined her surroundings.
The corridor was a large corridor, about twenty feet wide and fifteen high. It continued on to a smaller tunnel further on. A few other tunnels were alongside it's paths, two heading left and one heading right.
Fearless Leader
Waiting for his companions, Huitzil moved over to the tunnel that the Orcs fled down and scanned it.
From Alita:
Alita cautiously walked to Huitzil.
From Mercury:
Mercury followed the others into the room and surveyed the suroundings.
"Which path should we choose? If we don't close up the others then something is bound to try to attack us from behind."
To Huitzil:
The path lead to a sort of pulsating entrance of putrid purple, yellow mist flowing out of it.
Fearless Leader
From Alita:
"Any Ideas, Big Guy," Alita asked Huitzil.
OOC 250!!! Woot.
From Huitzil:
"Bio-unit Mercury, you will scan this hallway and entrance."
Huitzil turned his scanners on the doorway, intensively scanning it and the mist.
From Mercury:
Mercury scanned the hallway and entrance, also keeping a shield in front of her to block any arrows, darts, or projectiles that might e hurled from the passageways.
Mercury found some slight magical fluctuations caused by something, she couldn't tell exactly what, just beyond the entrance. No life forms between her and the entrance were detected.
Fearless Leader
From Mercury:
"Bio-unit Mercury, what have your sensors detected?"
From Mercury:
"I'm not detecting any lifeforms, but I'm getting some strange magical fluctuations originating just beyond the entrance. It could be some sort of magical trap."
From Huitzil:
Huitzil moved over to the entrance of the other tunnel that opened to the left and scanned the tunnel.
The path was empty save for a towering stone doorway at the end.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
Doing a slow and thorough scan, Huitzil examined the hallway foot by foot, looking for any anomalies that might indicate traps or the like.
There were some slight indentations in the floor about every four feet running along the hallway lengthwise
Fearless Leader
| |
| |
|0000|<-like this
| |
From Huitzil:
"Bio-unit Mercury, scan this hallway."
Huitzil focused his scanners on the closest set of depressions.
They appeared to be some sort of spike trap, the machines attached to the stone floors around the indentations.
Fearless Leader
From Recca:
Recca moved ahead a bit, trying to get a better view of the path that continued forward while the others looked at the branching paths.
From Alita:
Alita continued to scan the area they were in, looking and listening for the return of the orcs, or another party.
From Huitzil:
Focusing his scan on the mechanism itself, Huitzil attempted to locate the trigger.
From mercury:
Mercury did as she was asked, scanning the area indicated for both structural weaknesses and magic.
When/if she discovers the spike trap she scans for the mechanism that triggers it.
Between the two of them, and long talks and plenty of consideration they eventually figured out...
"Wait, it's a pressure plate trap!"
Yes, it was activated by placing pressure on the nearby earth.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
Turning and walking over to the orc corpses, Huitzil picked up two of them and walked back to the second hallway, throwing one of them to land on the closest pressure plate.
From Huitzil:
When Huitzil is walking, Alita moves away from the robot, closer to the entrance.
From Mercury:
Mercury does likewise, splitting her atention between the robot and the passages. She did not want the orcs surprising them.
Tossing one of them onto the pressure plates caused sharp black spikes that looked greasy to spear through the floor right where the indentations were, extending a full five feet from the ground.
Fearless Leader
Examining the spikes, Huitzil attempted to determine whether he could bend or break them.
Huitzil could not tell without examining them tactilely, but his computer processed good initial odds of being able to break them.
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
Walking up to the nearest spike, Huitzil grabbed it with both hands and attempted to bend and or break it off near the bottom.
Slowly and with a hideous groan the spike began to bend...
Fearless Leader
From Huitzil:
Huitzil continued to apply pressure until the spike was bent fully down to the ground or until it broke.
At the far end of the hallway, Recca saw a door that seemed made of the same volcanic rock as the walls save for the fact it was outlined in a red sort of glowing magma.
Fearless Leader
From Recca:
Deciding that he didn't like the look of the door ahead, Recca waited for Huitzil to clear the path he'd apparently chosen rather than suggest going forward.
From Alita:
Alita watched and waited as Huitzil made a pretzle out of the spike.
The spike eventually shattered under the pressure, leaving Huitzil with about two feet of metal in his mitten hands.
Fearless Leader
Mercury scanned the door, but did not detect any traps, magical or otherwise on it.
Fearless Leader
"I don't detect anything amise. You can proceed."
Huitzil examined the doorway for a latch or handle.
Alita waited paitently for the duo to call the doorway safe.
The stone door had only an indentation in which a hand might fit.
Fearless Leader
Huitzil turned his x-ray scanners on the stone surrounding the door, attempting to determine the path the door took when opened.
Door seemed to be designed to slide up into the ceiling.
Fearless Leader
Placing his right hand in the indentation, Huitzil attempted to lift the door open.
Except Huitzil belatedly realized his hands were too big to fit in the hole.
Fearless Leader
Seeing Huitzil's problem, Alita decides to try and be useful again by walking in front of the mechanical and looks to see if her lithe but deadly hand would fit in the hole.
They easily would.
Fearless Leader
Alita bent over and looked into the depression; she used one of the glowstones to help her see into it and held her other hand next to the eye that was looking into the depression, ready to cover it if something comes out at her.
The glowstone illuminated the empty hollow, which didn't seem to have anything in it.
Fearless Leader
Alita shruged, and put the stone away. She extended her hand into the hollow, feeling around for a switch or handhold that could be used to open the door.
When she pushed against the top of the handle, the door slowly began moving up with a frightful groaning sound of stone against stone.
Fearless Leader
Mercury raised her shield in prparation for a surprise attack from something behind the door. She began scanning the moment the shield was up.
Keeping her hand on the switch, she moved as close to the wall as she could, trying to minimize her exposed surface area.
She stayed alert for anything that might come through the door. Unless she hears or sees something other than the door or her companions, she'll keep her hand on the door until it's open enough for Huitzil to pass through.
Alita found herself being dragged up with the door, her arm painfully having the weight of her body being put on it as she held on tightly to the switch.
Because of this, she couldn't actually see through the door.
Mercury scanned the room as it opened, finding a remarkably gothic structure in the medium sized (20 cubic feet, circular) room. She could spy with her eyes statues coming out of every wall, depicting gargoyles. usually just the claws and head. On the roof she detected some large stone statue with her computer.
Fearless Leader
"Alita, let go of door!" Mercury called from her position.
Hearing Mercury's scream, Alita let go of the door. Assuming she lands okay, she readies her gun and looks into the room.
Falling from the door, Alita landed on the hard ground, feet first. The door continued to rise, going into the ceiling as it revealed before her the large circular room, surrounded by gothic gargoyle claws and heads, all looking inwards.
Fearless Leader
Since mercury could scan the room from her present position she scanned the gargles for lifesigns.
"Alita, what's that on the ceiling?" she called out, not able to quite make it out from where she was.
Alita looked upon the ceiling, trying to discern what Mercury was refering to.
Mercury did not detect signs of life from them.
Fearless Leader
Alita looked up to see a towering gargoyle hanging from the ceiling as some sort of ornament. It had four powerful arms and it's face was vicious and hatefully demonic. It's eyes seemed designed to give the impression of it looking around the room.
Fearless Leader
Responding to Mercury, Alita said, "That appears to be a statue of a gargoyle."
Mercury moved to get a better look at the room by Alita.
Recca approached from behind as Alita spoke to Mercury, and stopped just close enough to get a decent view of the next room.
"Statues again? Wonder if these will react the same as the ones from earlier," he added to the conversation, wondering how they could avoid triggering whatever trap these gargoyles might hold.
While not horribly lacking, they still wouldn't have as much maneuvering room as they did outside if the statues came to life and attacked.
Both Recca and Mercury saw the same room that Alita had seen. The walls covered with gargoyles all around.
Fearless Leader
Noting the grim featured gargoyle on the roof, or more importantly its staring eyes, Mercury frowned.
"Does anyone have something loose I can throw? I have a feeling..."
"Several orc corpses remain in the previous room."
"One of those would do just fine. If you don't mind, could you get one?"
"I think I know what you're thinking of. Once had to face against a statue that fired lasers upon sensing our motion," Recca said, remembering Kurei's mansion from just a few weeks back. "These gargoyles might be motion activated as well."
"Just remember the last set of statues though. While I somewhat doubt it, they might also be activated upon being hit with something rather than sensing motion in their path."
"True on both accounts Recca-Kun," Mercury smiled slightly at the fire wielding boy.
"You see that gargoyles on the ceiling? I believe that to be the trigger for the trap, so to speak. However, I could be wrong."
Huitzil moved to retrieve another of the orc corpses and return with it.
Mercury, caution still prevailing, raised her shield acrodd the entrance into the gargoyle room. She'll hold it in place until the bot returns.
Grabbing one of the remaining half-an-orc corpses, Huitzil walked back to the doorway where the party was gathered.
Mercury tried to spot the exit to the gargoyle room from her vantage. She also looked to see if there would be anything obstructing movment if something where slid across the floor.
No, Mercury doesn't see anything that would obstruct movement across the rough stone floor. The exit was clear, directly across from her field of vision, a door just like the one she stood in front of currently.
Fearless Leader
"Ok. Recca and Alita, you stand back. Huitzil, you send the body across the floor to the exit. I'll stand near the entrance and erect a barrier in case something is triggered and sent this way. Keep an eye out behind us. We don't want more of these things," she indicated the orc, "more of these things creeping up on us. We'll plan what to do next once we've accessed the situation with the room, ok? Everybody agree?"
Recca nodded as he started to move a bit backwards. "Sure, that plan works for me."
"Your plan is acceptable."
Alita takes a few steps back, to ensure she's behind Mercury and readies her gun.
"Everybody in your places? We begin on the count of three. One, two..."
She waited until everyone was situated. "THREE!"
Stepping up to the door, Huitzil drew back the arm holding the corpse, and with a mighty heave, slid the bloody hunk of flesh across the floor towards the far door.
The moment the body was through the door Mercury erected her shield across the portal.
The bloody corpse slid across the floor...slowing down to a stop about midway...
Right before it was crushed... the towering gargoyle dropping down from the ceiling with a mighty roar, it's four arms extended in challenge as it looked around the room.
Fearless Leader
Mercury calmly tried to assess the dimensions of the larger opponent. Specifically, she tries to gage whether or not it would be able to fit into the passageway.
It looked like it might. The doorway was pretty darn large. Though it'd prolly be a tight fit with the size of that gargoyle.
Fearless Leader
Mercury took in the opponent's dimensions and hastily formulated a plan.
"Everybody back! We'll hit it when it tries to come through the doorway. It doesn't have any room to dodge that way!"
Mercury maintained her shield so that the others could get into position to attack.
Alita moved back about twenty feet and took a kneeling position.
"Anytime," she said.
She then turned her head, looking at the corridor behind them for any movement. Assuming there's no movement behind her, she'll keep facing that way until she hear Mercury cry out or she hears firing.
Moving back six feet, Huiztil positioned himself on the right side of the corridor, and placed a forcefield over the door.
"I will hold the door while you move into position Bio-unit Mercury."
The Gargoyle roars and stalks across the room.
Fearless Leader
Mercury dropped the shield and activated her flight ability, moving toward the ceiling and away from the door. She scanned with the mercury computer to try to find a weak point to strike at the monstrosity while preparing a freezing Shine Aqua Illusion.
The Mercury computer did not detect any noticable weakpoints in the creature.
Fearless leader
Recca rushed backwards, as he summoned Nadare, stopping once his back was almost against the sidewall in the main corridor. As the fireballs came into being, he merged them into one large fireball, ready to launch it across the side corridor he'd just exit from once everyone was clear.
Seeing Recca's fireball, Alita moved out of the side corridor and out from inbetween her and fire and into the first room again. She had already experienced enough fire in this campaign.
Mercury almost cursed. There didn't appear to be any easily exploitable weakness to the creature.
"I'll try to freeze it in place," She called out to the others. "Recca should follow that up with a concentrated fire ball. Try to immobilize it. Take out the legs or head. Huitzil and Alita should be able to finish it off from there."
Mercury will wait until the gargoyle tries to enter and release her freezing Shine Aqua Illusion. She'll try to freeze it in the doorway.
Stalks up to the doorway before leaping up, disappearing from view.
Fearless Leader
"Huitzil, can you see the gargoyle from where you are? Has it returned to its starting position?" Mercury called out.
Huitzil used his x-ray scanners, looking to see if he could detect where the creature was.
The x-ray scanners returned that the gargoyle was moving up along the wall back towards the roof.
Fearless Leader
"It is moving up the wall towards the ceiling."
Recca blinked at the robot's commentary. As he let the giant fireball dissipate into nothingness, he scratched his head and said. "Well, that was kinda... anticlimatic. Now what?"
"The trap appears to be a limited to the room," Mercury said, floating gently to the ground. "I'm not sure what the mechanism for activation is, however. Probably motion activated. We also don't know whether it just moves along its programmed path, though I seriously doubt that to be the case. Huitzil, we'll need another body. Oh, and tell Alita to come back while you're at it."
Huitzil deactivated his forcefield, and waited for a moment while he monitored the creature's movement.
"I just realized, but it might not be motion activated," Recca said after Mercury spoke. He was surprised he hadn't thought of it earlier, what with his abilities, but it couldn't be helped.
"The body Huitzil threw in was dead, but it should still be warm right? The gargoyle might be activated by heat sensors, not motion sensors. Actually, it might be both in the end."
The creature came to a stop in the position he'd formerly scanned it in.
Fearless Leader
"The creature has returned to it's previous position."
"Just as I surmised," Mercury commented. "Where there any other bodies left Huitzil?"
"Yes."
Huitzil walked back into the larger room and picked up on the few remaining bodies before returning to where Mercury waited.
Alita, seeing Huitzil return and pick up bodies, followed him until she sat along stride Recca.
Turnig to him, she asked, "What happened to BIG FIRE?"
Set it down over there Huitzil," Mercury indicated a relatively vacant spot in the room.
Huitzil dropped the corpse in the place indicated.
Mercury summoned chill water around the form. She concentrated and cause it swirl around the fallen figure, draining the lingering heat from its body without adding ice. Once that is done she returns to the same position she was in the first time they threw a body through the door.
"Everyone, get in position. We'll try this again."
Huitzil picked up the corpse, before moving back over to the open door.
Deciding to stay in the vicinity this time, Alita only moved a few steps away from Recca, towards the first room, and away from his potential line of sight. She wouldn't see what was happening, but she had compelte confidence that they would succeed without her.
Recca wondered if that gargoyle would attack the corpse one thrown in or not. Deciding to be prepared, he readied to pull backwards again, if necessary, and waited for the move from Huitzil.
Huitzil stepped up to the doorway once more and slid the corpse across the floor exactly as he had the first one, placing a forcefield across the door as soon as the corpse was away.
As before, the gargoyle slammed down from the ceiling, crushing the corpse, and tearing it to shreds with a brutal blow before looking around the room, it's four arms raised in challenge.
Fearless Leader
"Damn, would have been nice if it didn't attack..." Recca muttered.
With that, he backed away again, for when the gargoyle began its movement towards them. No need to assume it would be predictable and go up again when it reached the wall.
Though not summoning Nadare this time, he was ready to do so if the gargoyle chose to not follow it's prior pattern and stood waiting for the gargoyle to go up again or his companions to do something different from the last time.
"Motion sensors it would seem," Mercury observed aloud. "Huitzil, lower your shield."
She prepares a Freezing Shine Illusion.
Alita speaks loudly down the tunnel, "Why do we care what triggers the trap. Where is it sprung from?"
Huitzil stepped to the right and lowered his shield, ready to intercept the gargoyle should it decide to charge through the doorway.
The Gargoyle roared as it charged forward...then leaped out of view.
Fearless Leader
Huitzil stepped up to the doorway to observe the gargoyle's movement.
The gargoyle could be seen climbing over the claws and heads as it went back to it's perch on the roof.
Fearless Leader
Alita yells, since no one responds to her question before.
"Where is the trigger? Also, why not set a trap for the stupid gargoyle. Throw some spikes or explosives into the room, so when it lands, it goes boom!!!!"
Immediately after her question. She walks up to the edge of the room, next to Huitzil and looks up at the gargoyle.
When it's at it's perch, she bends her head into the room looking up.
If she sees the gargoyle move, she runs behind Huuitzil again. If not, she'll think of something else to do.
The gargoyle doesn't move.
Fearless Leader
She turns her head, looking for the closest gargooyle body part sticking out. She wants to see if anything is within reach.
Turning, right as soon as the wall started there were gargoyle parts. An ugly gargoyle face turned towards her, almost seeming to watch her.
Fearless Leader
She reached out and grasped one of the more grabbable parts. She waits a second, and if nothing happens to the wall, she looks at the gargoyle on the ceiling again.
ooc: Grabbable means preferable an extended arm or somehting she can wrap a fist around.
Grabbing one of the arms it remained still to her touch.
Fearless Leader
Releasing her grasp, she places her foot into the room. She does this as precisely as she can, leaving 1 inch between the doorway and the basee of her foot. She looks up at the gargoyle to see if it moves. If it does, she jumps back behind Huitzil.
The gargoyle doesn't move.
Fearless Leader
She places her other foot, right next to her current foot, and looks up at the Gargoyle. If it still fails to move she'll looks down and sidestep to the right, keeping her feet as close to the wall as possible while keeping her balance. After each set of steps she'll look up, and continue this way until she's a foot past the doorway.
Nothing happens, the gargoyle sits there unmoving.
Fearless Leader
Alita decides to press her luck and continues around the room in the same manner - Trying to keep her heels within an inch of the wall, and looking up after every step.
She'll move until either the gargoyle is triggered or she gets to the other door.
Roughly halfway across the room, the gargolye suddenly slammed down, the various gargoyle claws nearby suddenly latching onto Alita as the gargoyle roared and turned towards her.
Fearless Leader
Seeing the gargoyles grab Alita, and the large gargoyle in the center drop down, Huitzil charged at the big one, firing his argon laser before he attempted to body-check the large creature.
And lo the gargoyle turned, it's fearsome limbs not slowed in the least as coating of frost covered it, it's arms reaching out to ensnare Huitzil as it matched the iron golem, muscle for muscle, pushing against him with it's four limbs. It's stone face roaring at him.
Fearless Leader
Alita pulled herself away from the wall using all the force she could muster. She tried to gather herself to leap to the left, eyeing the big gargoyle.
Assuming she breaks her bindings, she keeps an eye on the gargoyle, ready to slash at any part of it that gets within range of her blade.
It strained Alita, but she managed to tear free of the restraining stone claws. Getting a bit away from the wall and leaping to the left, she watches the gargoyle apparently swing a free limb at Huitzil.
Fearless Leader
Alita attempted to cut at the limb with her blade.
Drawing his legs up into his torso to evade the kick, Huitzil rotated his entire body, using his arms as the point of rotation, until the bottom of his torso was facing the gargoyle's chest, at which point he extended his legs full-force in a powerful attack.
There was little time to think as the events happened so quickly. Mercury sprung into action, trying to circumvent the twin titans battling in the center room. There was little point in trying to fly over them as the gargoyle had already demonstrated incredible leaping abilities. Reaching the other doorway or destroying the creature; those were the only choices. And as here normal attack had been less than effective...
She holds a Mercury planet attack ready should the stone monster turn its attention her way while making for the door..
The Gargoyle was pushed back, roaring as Huitzil's 'legs' were thrust into it's torso. Alita's blade coming down on it's upper arm, digging in but not doing much more damage than that.
Fearless Leader
Recca headed back towards the room at the gargoyle's roaring, and watched as everyone else joined the fight against the stone beast from the entrance.
Unsure that he could take a hit from the beast like his metallic companions, he summoned Nadare and looked for spots in the gargoyle's body to snipe at without hitting his companions.
"Get behind him and attack from there!" he shouted. "I can attack from this direction, so give me some clear shots!"
Alita pulls out her blade, and runs back into the hallway they came in from.
"Huitzil" fall back!
Though not what he expected, so long as they gave him a clear shot, Recca supposed it didn't matter which way they moved. As balls of fire began to swirl into existance above his hand, he waited for the bronze giant to move out of his line of sight.
"I am unable to comply."
Drawing his legs back into his torso, Huiztil proceeded to slam them repeatedly into gargoyle's torso like an oversized jackhammer.
The gargoyle's grasp loosened as it was slammed into, two arms letting go to start hammering on Huitzil's head with devestating force.
Fearless Leader
With the robot apparently unable to either pull back or maneuver the gargoyle into a clear line of fire, Recca pondered on risking throwing the fireballs anyway.
The fireballs flickered as the flame dragon felt her master's indecision, until Recca smiled, having seen the stone creature released its hold on Huitzil, at least partly.
Moving alongside the wall towards the left, he stopped once he had a decent attack line towards the creature's right arm. At that point, Recca let loose the fireballs at the arm still holding onto his bronze ally.
Only to find his aim knocked high as gargoyle arms from the wall he had been moving alongside reached out and grabbed him, tightly yanking him back against the wall to await the attention of the larger gargoyle.
Fearless Leader
'Fuck!' Recca mentally swore as he was grabbed. He looked at Mercury trying to cross the room and shouted, "Hey, Mercury! A little help here!"
Not wanting to rely on help from Mercury (or Alita if she came back into the room) though, Recca spelled Saiha's kanji out with his right hand, letting the fire blade sizzle into existance. With whatever possible mobility he could muster from his held arm, and the fire blade, he'll try and strike at any arms he could and free himself.
Unfortunately, while he could summon the blade with relative ease, he could not very well wield it against the arms holding him without being able to move his forearms.
Fearless Leader
Recca sighed. Guess he was stuck here until someone rescued him or the gargoyle somehow managed to finish off Huitzil and then decided to come over and dine on his intestines.
To Mercury:
The two battling warriors ignored her as she made her way across the room towards the large stone doorway that closed the other end.
Fearless Leader
Mercury paused at the doorway for a moment before turning to watch the fight from her new angle.
She's looking to see if she can get a clear shot at the gargoyle from there.
Well, given the gargoyle is currently paying attention to smashing Huitzil's metal head in and has his back turned towards Mercury, yes, she could get a clear shot at the gargoyle.
Off to the side she could also see Recca ensnared among the gargoyle arms.
Fearless Leader
Mercury focused mind on the power dwelling within herself, a flooding torrent where her other attacks where meer trickles. It blazed through her system, an all consuming flood threatening to overflow its banks. It needed release and Mercury was more than happy to oblige it.
"Mercury," the torrent swelled.
Planet," the levy broke.
Attack!" And with the final word the deluge of power flooded hungrily toward the gargoyle's undefended back.
The gargoyle roared as it was blasted forward, not losing it's grip on Huitzil as it rolled on top of the mech, briefly stopping it's assault as it reached out with it's other arms to get a grasp on the floor and resteady itself, it's weight pressing down on Huitzil. A large chunk of it's back was blasted inward, the stone cracked and damaged.
Fearless Leader
It's two tons. You are not a happy huitzil at the moment, even with your fairly resisliant armor.
Alita drew her gun and looked back into the room after the explosion. Seeing Huitzil on his back with the gargole above him,a bit of primal rage went through her.
She raced into the room, attempt to hack at the arms holding the big robot.
Alita charged forward, slashing hard at one of the arms holding Huitzil, her blade digging in as the gargoyle looked up and roared, getting it's footing again and swinging one of it's free arms at the pest.
Fearless Leader
Alita attempted to use her skills to dodge the blow and then get out of range of the arm.
Alita skillfully and swiftly flipped high, moving over the arc of the arm and landing a few paces back, out of the reach of the monster.
Fearless Leader
What are you doing huitzil? Pause until you post.
Routing power from the actuators in his arms to the actuators in his legs, Huitzil heaved his legs out and up, trying to flip the gargoyle over his head.
The gargoyle roared as Huitzil pushed it along with it's motion, sending it bowling over Huitzil towards Alita off balance.
Fearless Leader
Alita tries to move quickly out of the way. Escape is her first thought, then staying away from the wall, and then moving to the open doorway.
Running towards the door, she barely missed getting crushed by the gargoyle, which landed on it's arms, swiftly flipping about to face Huitzil.
Fearless Leader
Turning Alita looks to see if she can see anything out of place about the gargoyle.
ooc: She's looking to see structurally if it's uniform in make-up, or are their holes, an off button, a glowing stone that powers it?
Using the momentum gained by throwing the gargoyle over his head, Huitzil braced his hands on the ground while drawing in his legs, and rotating his torso to be perpendicular to the stone floor, at which point he extended his legs again and spun around to face the gargoyle.
Alita doesn't notice anything that appears to be an off switch, a power source, or anything of that nature. Save for the damage dealt it, the gargoyle appears to be pretty uniform throughout.
Fearless Leader
The Gargoyle charged foward at the mechanized warrior, it's four arms swinging from all directions at him.
Fearless Leader
Bracing himself, Huitzil waited until the gargoyle was six feet away from him before slamming both blade extentions into it at full power.
Wondering what happened to Recca, Alita looked into the room for him. Seeing him incapacitated and waiting patiently to become Gargoyle food, she goes over to him, careful to keep her distance from the two titans and the wall.
Once there she'll hack at whatever part is holding his closest arm.
Alita quickly got to Recca, slashing at one of the claws and swiftly cutting through the thinner limb with her blade. Recca though was quite throughly held, so it would take quite a bit of hacking to free him.
Fearless Leader
Continued her hacking.
"If they come near us and you don't tell me, I'll kill you myself," Alita hissed at the boy.
"Not a problem, I don't exactly want to die either, either at their arms or yours," Recca replied drolly, as Alita tried to free him. "Go for the claws holding my right arm, if I can use my fire blade we can get me loose faster."
Alita complied, concentrating on his right arm first.
The limbs began to fall apart under her assault, freeing his right arm.
Fearless leader
The Gargoyle almost stopped as the blades impacted against it, slicing deeply into it's stone waist. It moved back for a moment before leaping high into the air towards Huitzil.
Fearless Leader
Very quickly taking a couple of steps to the right, Huitzil deployed his argon laser and used it to create a layer of ice where the gargoyle was going to land.
Recca grinned as he felt the pressure on his arm loosen. "Okay, you work on my left side, I'll work on my right side while keeping an eye on the big guys."
Careful not to hit Alita with his fire blade, he began to move his arm slowly, then aimed towards where the claws held him down on his right and above, so that he could free himself to the point he could lean down and work on his legs next. Occassionally, he looked towards the battling giants of stone and metal duking it out, watching for their distance from them.
The gargoyle landed, it's clawed feet digging into the slight layer of ice, and going through it as it propelled itself at Huitzil.
Fearless Leader
Alita complied and started working to free the left side of Recca's body.
Deploying his blades again, but keeping them attached to the ends of his arms instead of throwing them on their short chains, Huitzil attempted to slam both blades into the cuts he had made earlier, bracing himself for the impact.
The gargoyle shifted, attempting to protect itself from the blades as it spun about, swinging two of it's arms to strike towards Huitzil's side, while it shielded itself with it's other arms.
Fearless Leader
Breaking off his attack on the gargoyle's midsection, Huitzil swung his left blade up at the limb that Alita had previously attacked, while using his right blade to deflect the other limb out and to the side.
The blade nearly severed the limb as he struck out, only to have his other blade barely manage to deflect the limb off as it was dented by the force of the blow, the gargoyle plowing into him, sending him back as it began swinging towards him with all four limbs.
Fearless Leader
Mercury propelled herself into the air, her hands closing around the Mercury Harp. She prepares an Aqua Rhapsody in case the gargoyle presents an opening or tries to go airborn again.
Attacking the damaged limb with his left blade again, Huitzil retracted the blade on his right arm and attempted to block the attacks coming from that side.
The gargoyle's blow smashed into Huitzil's block, nearly sending the golem spinning off balance ruining his aim as he again left a vicious cut in the weakened arm.
The gargoyle didn't seem to pause, striking again as it sought to bypass the blades.
Fearless Leader
"Wait here," Alita said to Recca, "or get yourself out."
She took a step away from the wall, and looked at the combatants. If she had a line of fire at the gargoyles eyes, she would fire twice at whichever one was visible, if neither eye were visible she'd move around the room until one was.
By this time, Recca was mostly free. While it wouldn't be as quick as if Alita had helped, Recca could see that he could free himself in a few more minutes of hacking.
Fearless Leader
While she could see the Gargoyle's eyes, it would be a difficult shot with the Gargoyle continually moving about and attacking Huitzil.
Fearless Leader
Taking her chances, Alita shot at his eyes. She believed that even if the eyes stayed intact, the distraction should help her mechanical companion.
The gargoyle roared, briefly pausing in it's assault of Huitzil as it's head snapped back, the bullets both easily blasting into it's right eye, shattering a portion of it's upper face.
Fearless Leader
Taking advantage of the brief pause, Huitzil slammed his left blade into the weakened arm, while shoving forward with his right arm, in the hopes of further unbalancing the ambulatory statue.
The Gargoyle stumbled back, moving away from Huitzil swiftly as it's arm tore off from the blow.
The enraged Gargoyle turned swiftly, roaring as it charged at Alita, it's other three arms raised in attack positions, ready to slam out at her.
Fearless Leader
Evasion was the foremost thought in Alita's head as she moved towards the doorway, intent on getting out of the room and avoding the arms of the creature.
Charging after the mobile bit of masonry, Huitzil struck out with both of his blade extentions, aiming for the large crater in it's back.
Recca decided to continue with getting himself free, he didn't like being a sitting duck, and continued to hack at the gargoyles' claws as Alita moved away.
He kept his eyes on the larger gargoyle as Alita attacked it, making sure that it didn't get close enough to reach him.
Should it get close enough to grab or claw him, Recca will call Nadare and blast the gargoyle, otherwise he'll continue to hack at the claws holding onto him until free.
The Gargoyle was clearly moving away from Recca as it charged towards the fleeing Alita, it's claws swipping mere handbreadths away from her as she barely dodged out of the room in time. Huitzil meanwhile, took gleeful advantage of the opening provided by his comrade, sending his blades flying into the gargoyle's already heavily damaged back, sending more stone chunks flying out.
The Gargoyle turned, refocusing on Huitzil, looking now more like some jigsaw puzzle, with a hell of a lot of pieces missing.
Fearless Leader
Alita turned, a cruel smile on her face. "Huitzil, try and force it out of the room!"
She moved back, trying to leave at least ten feet between her and the doorway as she watched, waiting for another chance to fire at its face.
"Acknowledged."
Charging at the Gargoyle, Huiztil struck out with his blades at the Gargoyle's torso before retracting them and twisting a bit to ram his shoulder into it.
The Gargoyle roared, trapping Huitzil against it as it took his shoulder slam, smashing all of it's fists into Huitzil's back.
Fearless Leader
Using his limited shape-shifting capabilities, Huitzil retracted his left arm back into his torso, before extruding it straight out to the side, with the blade on the end. Wrapping his left arm as far around the gargoyle as possible, Huitzil clamped the spinning blade against it's back, cutting into it.
The Gargoyle continued squeezing, bending the metal around Huitzil with awesome force even as it's back was steadily ripped to shreds by Huitzil's blade.
Fearless Leader
Feeling the Gargoyle's impressive strength, Huitzil ceased his assault on the statue's back, instead attacking the Gargoyle's remaining right arm, cutting into it near the shoulder and applying steady pressure.
Seeing that Huitzil wouldn't easily be able to push the gargoyle out of the room, Alita dashed in. Taking her blade, she struck at the creatures exposed neck.
ooc: I'm assuming the creatures back is to me.
Mercury scans for the controlling/activation mechanism for the gargoyle starting at the center of the room while keeping an eye out for the battle taking place below.
Mercury doesn't find one.
The Gargoyle looked to be falling apart anyways though as Alita's blade dug deep into it's neck. Huitzil slowly cut through the stone, but at great cost as his armor began reaching it's breaking point, looking battered all over despite his shifting and molding of it.
Fearless leader
Mercury flew to a point perpendicular of the battling titans and took careful aim at the gargoyle's legs. Making sure the bot isn't in her line of fire Mercury lets off another plant attack at the stone adversary.
Alita hacks again at the gargoyles neck, aiming as closely as possible to her prior strike.
Mercury nearly swooned with exhastion as she let off another powerful blast, knocking off one of the Gargoyle's legs and sending him, Alita, and Huitzil spinning as it crashed towards the ground, it's head flying off from Alita's strike. The creature while dangerous, seemed to be in it's death throes as it thrashed around with it's remaining three limbs.
Fearless Leader
Alita did her best to regain her balance and move away from the gargoyle and the wall.
Mercury lowered herself to the ground, not wanting to exhaust what energy she had left. She moved away from the fallen gargoyle while trying to get her breath back. Two planet attacks might not have been the greatest of ideas, but at least it worked.
Moving back away from the gargoyle, Mercury found stone arms grabbing her and digging into her flesh as they yanked her against the wall she'd gotten to close to.
Fearless Leader
Alita's luck was with her as she barely dodged under a swinging limb, managing to get out of reach of the monstrousity.
Fearless Leader
Alita called out to Huitzil, "You okay?"
She was going to ignore her other comrades, since they had now both blown her up, and failed to neutrilize any threats. She began wonderering if she would be safer with the enemies from now on, as she waited for the big guy to answer her.
Huitzil attempted to roll away from the gyrating bit of gravel.
Huitzil rolled away, but not before a vicious strike left a dangerous tear in his armor.
The stone creature continued to strike out but with nothing in range could do nothing.
Fearless Leader
Seeing Huitzil move out of range of the creature. Alita turned to the girl.
"Bitch, did it ever occur to you to warn people when you set off exposion in the middle of a melee fight, or does the welfare of your comrades not concern you?"
Mercury didn't bother replying to the slander, instead opting to plea for assistance.
"A little help here, someone?"
After all, she could grill little miss high and mighty on starting an engagement that could have been avoided altogether had she not acted so rashly to begin with. Heck, she might have even thrown in the fact that she was the only one to seriously harm the damned thing. That would certainly get her goat. After she was free, of course.
Alita could see Mercury looking exasperatedly at her as she was held painfully to the wall by the stone arms.
Fearless Leader
Standing up, the battered bronze boomer walked over to where Mercury was held and started to free her, using his hands where he could, and *very carefully* using his blades when necessary.
It was slow work, but Huitzil found he could remove the stone restraints without harming Mercury as long as he was careful.
Fearless Leader
"A little help?! Now you want help? Where was the help when Recca was caught!? The poor guy is still caught and you did nothing!? Why don't you just blow up the wall?!" Alita said acidicly.
Recca yelled, "Yeah! Where's the help been? It feels like I've been stuck here for days!" in response to Alita's comment as he finally freed himself from the last stone claw and stepped away from the wall.
"My armor has suffered extensive damage, reducing my mobile defensive capabilities by 59.6382%."
Huitzil finally answered Alita's earlier question.
"Priorities. Huitzil needed help more than Recca at the moment. The difference between our situations was that that thing," she motioned toward the gargoyle, "was still a viable threat." Mercury pointedly did not smirk as she commented, "And you yourself bore witness to just how imprecise that attack is.
"I've only used two blasts and I already feel spent."
Mercury used the much forgotten staff to maintain her upright position.
"And before you start pointing fingers let me remind you that it was your impatience that caused this mess. We had the trap partially figured out already. If you waited we could have passed this obstacle in far better condition than... aah forget it! Arguing isn't getting us any closer to our objective. Let's just get out of here." The annoyed senshi made her way away from both the downed gargoyle and the walls toward the next doorway, stopping well ahead of it.
Finishing her tremendous response, Ami prepared to stalk dramatically to the door...forgetting that she was still being tightly gripped to the walls as the claws dug painfully into her arms and legs, tearing the outer layers of her skin.
Fearless Leader
Alita frowned at the woman she was now sure was delusional.
"Waited! For you to ignore a sensible request to figure out where the trap was sprung from? Oh wait, let's through another corpse into the room and then shield. That's gives us a wealth of information! And as much as I respect Huitzil's action, I would have made it out of the room fine." She took an exasperated breath and glanced at the gargoyle.
"And if you are so smart, and this fight could have been avoided, why are saying something now, and not before *I* did something. I would have welcomed you letting us know where the path through this room was!" She takes another pause before continuing disgusted, "But yet... you do nothing helpful. If you could actually be counted on to give helpful information, maybe you better start giving it. So come on, once Huitzil frees you from the increadible stupid situation you find yourself in, open the next door and solve the next puzzle, or destroy the next monstor. Something to show that this super inflated sense of importance you carry around is called for. Cause all I see is some no nothing, do nothing, calling out from the cheap seats."
Alita keeps her distance the whole time, careful not to get to close to the wall, and occasionally looking at the gargoyle still alive on the other side of the room.
"Do not try to move until I have finished freeing you."
Huitzil admonished Mercury as he continued to carefully free her from the grasping claws.
After about ten minutes, Huitzil had cut away all of the restraints holding Mercury.
Fearless leader
Finished with his task, Huitzil turned his attention back to the gargoyle, looking to see if it was still thrashing about.
The gargoyle was indeed still thrashing about.
Fearless Leader
Making sure not to move within range of the walls the senshi made her way away from both the downed gargoyle and the walls toward the next doorway, stopping well ahead of it.
The solid wall of stone was closed with no apparent way to open it.
Fearless Leader
After moving his body a bit to make sure circulation was working fine, Recca looked over at the trashing headless beast, and pondered on releasing some stress.
Of course, it was pretty much disposed of now, so he looked over to Huitzil and Alita, in case they felt like releasing some frustration of their own. "You going to finish that kill or can I?"
Alita would probably want it, she seemed to have enough pent up frustration with their skirt wearing companion.
Alita muttered to herself and looked fully at the gargoyle.
"Anyone have a worthwhile way of destroying that thing? And has anyone thought to scan this thing and find out its life source. Is it from a jewel in the room, something inside it that if we remove, it will die, anything?!" She asked while considering ways to quickly do the job herself.
After a moment, she realized only Huitzil would probably do anything. So with a sigh, she readied her blade and moved in. She started hacking at the closests limbs she could reach without getting to far into the creatures range and staying away from the walls.
"Feel free to come help, Recca. Though if you use a fireball, warn me!" Alita called.
"No, I think I'll use Saiha. It'll be more...satisfying that way," Recca said, bringing his arm up, looking at the gargoyle through the flame blade. A feral grin decorate his face, much like when he killed the thing under his bed. "Being stuck to the wall pissed me off enough to forego some caution."
With that, he moved with the intent of carving the gargoyle's arms off, and then the beast itself into slices, much like he had those boulders when training with Saiha.
"Step away from the gargoyle, I will destroy it."
Huitzil waited for Alita and Recca to comply, when/if they do he will use his blade extensions to cut the gargoyle to pieces from outside of it's reach.
Listening to the big man, Alita moved away form the gargoyle and away from the walls.
OOC: Notably, the gm gets annoyed when you guys launch a dozen attacks at the same creature without waiting for a response. Do it again and I throw lightning.
IC:
Huitizil finished the creature off, it's parts stilling as it was torn to shreds from a distance.
With a rumbling tremor the stone doorway lifted, revealing a darkened path, leading both to the right and left.
Fearless Leader
Mercury moved so that she wouldn't be standing in the way of anything fired straight out of the passage. She used the Mercury computer to first scan for the telltale signs of more mundane traps like spikes and poisoned barbs. Once that is completed she scans for signs of magic.
OOC: Tell me if that's too much scanning at once. I recall something about too many actions at once earlier in the game so...
Mercury didn't detect any traps in the nearby corridor.
Fearless Leader
"For those of you who care, my scans aren't picking up signs of traps or magic at the moment," Mercury spoke.
Huitzil walked through the doorway Mercury had just scanned, and swept the area with his sensors.
Huitzil detected a moderately cool stone cavern in both directions.
Fearless Leader
Pointing to the right, Huitzil turned to the others.
"We will travel in this direction."
Alita nodded and readied herself to follow the big man.
Recca likewise nodded at their giant companion's decision. Moving towards the opened path, he dispelled the fire blade, and summoned a small fireball to use as a source of light once he noticed the darkness in both directions.
Mercury stood at the intersection and concentrated, trying to divine which path would lead to evil magics faster.
Thanks to Recca's light they could all see the pathways easily.... as Mercury felt herself all but YANKED to the right as she detected fell evil magics.
Fearless Leader
Mercury called back to her companions, "There are Great Evil Magics that way!" One could practically hear the capitals.
Huitzil proceeded down the hallway to the right, scanning the path as he walked.
Alita sighed, and pulled out her glowstone. She followed the big guy at a respectful distance, staying alert for any disturbances.
The cavern narrowed before they eventually could see a strange room in front of them. The walls and floors were covered with magazines. At the far end visible, the light reflecting off of the gold metal, was a huge golden statue of a young woman with nothing on in a seductive pose.
Fearless Leader
"Well," Recca said as he came up from behind Alita and Huitzil, keeping in mind the senshi's warning even as he followed. "It's a safe bet that Domon would be in heaven the moment he saw this room. The dope would probably trigger the trap and still survive, too."
Still keeping the small fireball around, he looked over at his companions. "So, anybody feel like reading, or can I set the magazines on fire? There's probably stuff behind and under them."
Alita takes a step back, to let Recca the pyro get through. "Well.. the magazines might have value, but otherwise, I don't care."
"You may proceed."
"Burn, baby, burn!" is what Recca felt like saying, but he resisted the temptation. Having a healthy obsession with fire didn't make him a pyromaniac. Really.
Instead, he simply remained silent, and summoned more fireballs. Throwing them all into the room at various points where they could spread fire quickly, he quickly pedalled backwards a healthy distance, in case there was another explosive reaction like with the lizard thing.
Huitzil raised his force-field across the opening to the room.
Before their eyes several of the magazines caught on fire....as more and more of them lifted off the ground unharmed, floating around the room, pictures of scantily clad woman visible from all directions.
Fearless Leader
"...the fuck kind of trap is that?" was all that Recca had to say as he stared, wondering if this room's trap was supposed to give them papercuts or something.
"Wait until the fires go out and keep watching," Alita said.
The fire seemed to be almost being resisted as it vanished quickly.
Fearless Leader
Alita patiently waits for someone with scanning ability to scan something.
"Bio-unit Mercury, you will scan this room."
Huitzil scanned the room.
Huitzil found it to be just like it appeared, including the unexplicably floating magazines which seemed to be twirling about now.
Fearless Leader
Mercury scanned the room with her visor, looking for the source powering the floating periodicals.
And was the blessed receiver of quite a sight as seven of the magazines suddenly unfurled revealing a naked centerfold of Lina inverse winking at her with a hand pointing her way....
As seven lightning bolts blasted out slamming into her.
Fearless Leader
Pulling out her gun, Alita knelt and strifed sideways to get a clear shot, before firing at the centermost centerfold.
As the trap was sprung, Recca moved into action. However, while Alita aimed and fired at the offending mags, Recca aimed for the golden statue, mindful of any of the magazines opening up in his direction and ready to dodge if any did.
The magazines closed and flapped about as Alita's shot blasted a hole right through the center one.
More lifted up around the room as a picture of a naked Naga was formed by a dozen single sheets of paper as suddenly the room was filled with painfully loud mocking laughter...
Recca's shot had already gone past though, with searing firy power his blast went right through the head of the golden statue, melting a whole right through it.
Fearless Leader
Huitzil fired his argon laser at the mockingly laughing magazine construct.
The magizines were briefly covered in frost as the painfully loud noise stopped... they slowed for a second before the frost shattered...
Fearless Leader
Deciding the rest of the statue could wait, Recca began launching fireballs towards the laughing magazines.
Most of them flew out of the way as a couple were promptly heated.
On either side of the room, another large poster was lowered from four magazines, revealing seductive pictures of the tanned beauty Urd kissing towards Recca... causing something to stir within him as he felt drawn to the porn... he had to have her.... to touch her....
Fearless Leader
Alita makes her check. Recca fails. Huitzil is oblivious. Mercury is sleeping with the fishes.
Seeing how ineffectual his argon laser was, Huitzil strode commandingly into the room and unleashed his twinning buzz-saws of death upon the hapless paper figures.
Several of the magazines were shreded by the razor blades, but more rose from the floor in answer...
Fearless Leader
Recca's move next
He knew deep down she was an image, a trap, something not to get involved with. It didn't matter.
With a cry of "Hime-sama!" he swept into the room, changing dragons and onto his fire blade, ready to defend himself from the obstacles keeping him from the vision of loveliness waiting ahead.
"Paper. Fire," Alita thought, but wondered if there was an easier way... Not having one she readied her flare gun, taking aim into the room, ready to fire at any set of magazines that appeared to coalease into a figure.... at least till she thought of something better.
Striding towards the pair of posters on the left, Huitzil used his over-sized paper shredders on them.