The Last Oddetsey

[alex_holt]

Just for conveniance (mine as much as everyone elses) the battle stands thus:

TEAM ODDESTSEY

EUDIAL, SPOD, PLAYZOOKI, MARISA, AURELIA, PHANTASMIC SLAMMER, EPSILON, TWITCH Conesnatcher, Goldenrod the Dwarf, Wentworth the Mammoth, Imogen the Leprechaun, Anjushree, Caspasian, the Night Pine, the Catalyst

KHLOE has artillery stationed on the ground beneath.

81 Other Trans-Solar Host

TEAM LORD VENGEANCE

LORD VENGEANCE
Jorges Remillard - the Infamous Platipirate
Gaston - Burly Hunter
Dave "Xenothraxus" Poots - the Boneomancer
Zizzor - The strange Crystal Entity
A Possessed Suit of Power Armour
Tiberius - The Half-Dragon
LELAND GAUNT (of your team, infiltrated ready to work on their team)
CLEO (of your team, infiltrated ready to work on their team)

UNKNOWN

PROFESSOR VENGEANCE is possibly up to something, or possibly biding his time dramatically so it at least looks like he's up to something.

[alex_holt]

BATTLE
(OOC: All characters on the players side were rolled for to see how they'd come out of this battle, it's not me playing favourites)

In the streets of Melded in the shadow of both the Great Flying Battleship and the Castle of Doomforall, Cardinal Khloe finally gives the signal. The Canon Cannons begin blasting out pulses of pure white light at the great ship, and even as the sky is filled with brilliant silver fire, the great battle for the fate of the Multiverse begins.

The upper level of the battleship is mostly flat to allow other vehicles to land on it, and the group from the Castle arrives in a haze of teleportation energy and quickly scatter to avoid any attack that would hit them all. The Trans-Solar Host summon their sunswords while Anjushree establishes a thick force bubbles and barriers to provide everyone with some cover.

* * * *

Beneath the decks, Lord Vengeance hears the sound of the bombardment and orders his guards into position. Lord Vengeance himself heads onto deck with Jorges, Gaston, Tiberius, the Power Armour and Cleo. Zizzor and Dave Poots head to the observation deck. Professor Vengeance sits at the end of a long table in the room adjacent to the newly vacated control room, his face filled with intense plotting. There are two figures left in the control room, the Spider-crab who is busy at control panels monitoring the situation, and Leland Gaunt who has stopped behind for a moment, apparently to adjust his clothing slightly. He extracts a lighter, a ballpoint pen, a cufflink and a cigarette case - all gold plated - from his pockets and fiddles with them a few moments. The Spider-crab continues monitoring the screens right up until his carapace bursts open from a single close range shot to the back of what count's for a Spider-crab's head. Leland leaves the room, and heads up the stairs onto the deck.

* * * *

From the control tower Dave Poots begins to assemble the footsoldiers of the fight - dozens of chimerical skeletons begin to form on deck - a strange army made of years of bulk purchases from the abatoir mixed in with a few more exotic specimens to add a bit of flavour. The first wave falls forward, but the Trans-solar host takes this on, their Sunswords blazing with solar-flame. This is not a fight to be wasted on lackeys like this - the Rift-Resistant and the Spanish Inquisition will be focusing on the true forces at work here.

* * * *

Even as he comes out onto the deck - the shape of Lord Vengeance is changing - his finery being enveloped in the thick inky black power of the rift - cloaks billowing and the extravagent cane turning into something with an altogether more sinister aspect. What is more surprising though, is that Eudial exhibits powers to match, and even as black armour forms over Lord Vengeance, the raging fire Eudial has wielded in the past is now very distinctly rift energy, and already hurled as a beam of fire towards the would be Tyrant... Rift flies everywhere, and the two seem to lose interest in the rest of the fight...

Even as his foe steps on deck, Twitch hurls down one of his Flash Bombs, catching himself and a few of the Trans-Solar Host in its blast. The Host as beings already very fast appear merely more perky, but Twitch moves at supersonic speeds - blasting through skeletons using his ion field to turn him into a disinegrator missle, heading straight for Tiberius.... only to bounce off him harmlessly - he notes the energy emanating around him, remeniscent of Zizzors glow on the deck above... protecting him. Compromising, he barrels into the deck beneath the dragon-man instead, disintegrating that causing the hybrid to drop down a deck onto his back with a shriek of rage. Finding the other key players similarly protected, he realises he can't do anything until that crystal is taken out.

Elsewhere in the fight, Spod and Playzooki dive towards Gaston as their first opponent, smashing their way through shambling skeleton beasts to do it and find the muscular brawler a tough opponent, and stronger than either of them, even combined, however, wrapping up the Hunter with his nostril hair while Spod begins to pound him, for now they seem to be making some progess...

Jorges Remillard finds himself drawn against Aurelia and the Spanish Inquisition but the deadly fighter proves to be more than worth of his reputation and even outnumbered 5 to 1, still manages to hold his own, although he is surrounded by an aura matching the energy signature of Zizzor in the tower above that seems to allow him to turn aside blows that should be deadly - with a sidestep he dodges a blast from the prismatic dagger of Wentworth the Mammoth and disarms Imogen the Leprachaun before delivering a powerful kick to her that sends her soaring through the air. Wentworth swoops up to catch her, but he tosses a grenade of an exotic energy which causes Wentworth's bubble to implode, knocking the pair unconcious. Jorges charges towards them, sabre drawn, ready to perform a coupe de gras...

Phantasmic Slammer - much lower to the ground than most combatants and thus surprisingly stealthy, has approached the power armour from behind, and with a powerful flip manages to hurl the suit into the air - however with surprising grace, it twists in midair to land on its feet and levels it ludicrously oversized gun towards the robot. However, even as it charges up, Cleo strikes, and reveals her true colours - psyblasting the armour apart. Almost immediatly it tries to reform, but Cleo counters and using her powers - mindblasts the parts until they stop moving...

* * * *

Leland creeps up the stairs, golden gun loaded and to hand, he rounds the corner to the upper room of the tower, and withotu hesitating - blows a hole through the edge of Dave "Xenothraxus" Poots. The Boneomancer drops dead. Unfortunatly, even as he goes in for a melee attack again the other occupant of the tower with his ocean empowered artifact, Zizzor, hovering emotionlessly in the air as he is, fires a massive energy blast in a 90 degree cone at where Leland Gaunt sands - blasting half the tower - and Leland with it - out into the air falling down onto the city of New Melded.

* * * *

Cardinal Khloe didn't have time to react - her Canon Cannons had taken out the weapons of the battleship, and she was just praising the faithful for their success when the remains of the tower dropped across the line of artillery and the people operating it, burying Khloe and her comrades under hundreds of tons of twisted metal...

* * * *

With Dave Poots dead, the skeletons no longer reform when destroyed, although there are still hundreds of them around, the fight is now winnable...

Epsilon catches Tiberius climbing back out of the pit, and spins his hand clean off with his Vortex blade, severing the taloned hand pulling himself out of the pit, but not before the second hand grabs his ankle and pulls him down, slamming his chassis against the deck. A second wild slash with the Vortex blade leaves a long deep cut across the dragoncs face.

Marisa has sighted the target protecting the crew and moves in to strike she wades through the battlefield, destroying Skeleton warriors with her sorcery and finally begins to ascend. the tower quickly with magical assistance, to where one of the key players of this battle still resides. A torrent of "beestings" slams into the side of Zizzor, splintering the odd Gemstone entity into hundreds of lifeless shards on the floor. Across the battlefield, the strange haze protecting many of the combatants fades.

In the high power battle in the air above them, Lord Vengeance is gaining the upper hand against Eudial - though their power levels are very similar, Vengeance has had much longer to refine the use of those powers over a much longer period compared to the inexperience of Eudial. Every fiery torrent is expertly deflected, and Eudial is kept very much on the defensive, forced to conjur shields of rift to protect the fight fown below at the expense of her own advantage. Lord Venegance is merciless, powerful and winning...

Breaking free of Playzooki's nostril hear with a sudden burst of strength, Gaston is suddenly upon his opponents like lightning. There is no time to react as his mighty hands grasp Spod's head and twist. There is a thick snap, and the body of Spod slumps to the floor. Suddenly recalling the voice of spectral Morgan Freeman, so long ago now, Playzooki knows what to do. With every ounce of belief in himself... Drawing the massive GNUTECH XL5 "BUFFALO" CANNON from his back while Gaston is mid gloat, he fires a single spectaular blast and MMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO echoes across the deck as Gaston and a few skeletons caught in the blast radius are sent hurtling towards the deck.

[alex_holt]

Aurelia is still engaged with the merciless Jorges, and speeds towards him with sunsword blazing and wings beating. Then. The unthinkable happens - it seems to go in slow motion and Aurelia sees it happening even as there is no time to stop it. Drawing two objects from a quiver in his back, a switch is flicked on each and they extend into long needle like harpoons, somehow pulsing with electricity. With a swift movement, he hurls both with precision accuracy, impacting straight into Aurelia's wings, sending her flying backwards and pinning her to the deck. Aurelia can already feel her wings are ruined. Jorges waddles over, slowly draws his cutlass with a beaky grin, ready to finish the Angel with...... "GOLLLDDDDD!"

Goldenrod the dwarf slams sideways into Platipirate like a freight train that loves shouting the word Gold. He repeatedly stabs the Platipirate well past the point where he is very definitly dead. Shouting "GOLD!" with every thrust. What is left does not resemble a Platipus much anymore... Aurelia wathces on, still stunned by the loss of her wings, when she feels the pain increase massively for an instant as the figure of Caspasian looms over her and draws out the harpoons. "No time for that now" he says even as suddenly he presses his sunsword to the wounds to cauterise them.

Even with the losses, it seems like the team is winning, right up until the moment when Eudial is projected downwards like a black meteor into the deck, and the broken halves of the anti-rift lance drop clattering down behind her...

[alex_holt]

The next moments are hectic, as the rest of the team endeavors to face down Lord Vengeance.... Twitch flies in at supersonic speed - ionic field active and wing blades gleaming - and is plucked from the air by a hand made of rift and held to the ground. Epsilon charges is, vortex blade ready but the horrific speed of of Lord Vengeance is too quick, and a robotic arm drops to the floor, severed before he too is pinned to the ground. Playzooki sends off another MOOOOOOOOOOOOO blast of the Buffalo gun straight at his face, but Vengeance captures the energy orb in his hand as if it was a gentley thrown tennis ball, examines it for a moment, then throws it back with another MOOOOOOOOOO knocking Zooki out cold. Aurelia and Caspasian charge in, sunswords buzzing with heathaze and fury, and even manage to sever a few rift tendrils before they too are overcover. Epsilon staggers Vengeance briefly, but is then lifted off the floor, his wheels spinning frantically. Anjushree summons an airtight bubble around his head to try and suffocate, for a moment he stops, but clasping his hands to the bubble and feeding rift into it shatters it - the feedback knocking the Griffon unconcious.

Far below, the demon form of Leland Gaunt climbs out of the wreckage, having been damaged enough to revert to this form. Looking up, it definitly doesn't look good.

Marisa, the Night Pine and the Catalyst stand as all that are left - the great tree materialised tired to materialise while no one was lookign behind Vengeance, but as simple gesture catches it in a strange limbo - it's tranlucent form trapped as if in a prison of air. The Catalyst proves again to not match the power of the rift, and even though managing to last longer than before, is eventually pinned to the ground by a torrent of inky blackness. Marisa blasts a torrent of magic into Lord Vengeance and he swears in pain and staggers backwards... A second blast sees him grimace as he raises a shield to stop it.

"You have something about your person girl. When this is over, I shall find out what it is, and that power too shall be mine"
Grimacing in pain, as more bolts of magic hit into him, with a great effort the rift shield too blasts forward and wraps around Marisa, incapacitating her hands and mouth to prevent her using any magic.

Lord Vengeance gloats. He stands fully clad in rift-black armour from head to toe, and strides up and down amongst the defeated.

"Don't you see? This was inevitable. There was no way this was going to go any other way. You had some nice surprises certainly, and I'll grant you, you got a lot further than I expected. But really? Your best weapons were some half-trained girls. I've studied this power, learnt everything I can and am prepared to use it in ways that even Doomforall could not! This universe, this multiverse? All mine. Until the end of time itself!"

He pauses.

"And do you know what?"

The rift retracts from his face, to let you see his grinning features.

"The absolute funniest thing about this is..."

He never gets to finish that sentence. In an unremarkable tower back on the castle a few miles away, in an unremarkable window on an unremarkable brown desk, overlooking the proceedings is a small brown wading bird. A very well paid small brown wading bird. With a high power sniper rifle. Who is very professional about his work. Fletcher snopes out the scene to confirm the kill, nods quietly to himself, then cleans and dismantles his rifle. He's earned his keep for the day.

* * * *

Back on the deck of the ship, the others get up and begin to come too, filled with aches and pains and injuries, and not entirely sure what is going on. However for those still not quite awake, the last few seconds of sleepiness are blown aside by the the sound of a very deep and resonating echo of wood cracking open eminating back from the castle...

The rather dead bord of Lord Vengeance lies on the deck before them, with a rather large hole in his head...

[kodster]

Eudial crawled forward, grieviously wounded, but not fatally. She knew what had happened, and made sure to pay her little bodyguard snipe in full for such a service. The entire party too, come to think of it...

She stood up and grasped the front of the dead tyrant, bringing his face in front of hers.

"Bastard..." she gasped. "Half-trained... you wish."

With the last of her strength Eudial punched the shrunken face. The body of Vengancier sailed some distance away. Eudial then fell over onto her hinder and hung her head in pain and exhaustion.

[alex_holt]

As Eudial's fist touches the corpse there is a strange noise, akin to something like a hurricane, and indeed, a vortex of wind and cloud appears to form about them all - centred in a huge miles wide arc, centred entirely upon the Courtyard back at the castle. Eudial and Marisa can feel magic in the air. Old Magic, and Marisa notes that it feels very much like the fleck of magic in the vial she herself possesses. Ancient Magic from the dawn of time.

A voice echoes through the air for miles around. Not as intimidating a voice as you might think given the context, not very forcefull and with not much in the way of notable accents beyond possibly something vaguely along the lines of BBC English.

"When you are ready, I await you all in the courtyard. It is past time that this affair was ended".

The voice them goes silent, and the winds and grey sky formed by this strange weather buffet the saviours of the Multiverse.

[NFX]

Twitch stood weakly on his own, wings hanging limp by his sides. On the outside, he seemed alright, but dear god, did he feel beaten up. He looked over towards the Vengeancier body across the room, and allowed a smile to cross his lips. He wasn't entirely sure how, but the group had defeated the evil Vengeance and his army. They had killed the final rift source, and saved the multiverse.

They had done it.

And then a voice, calm and smooth, rang through the building. Calling them to the courtyard. Along with it came an unusually strong wind that ruffled the macaw's feathers, and managed to slowly push him across the floor. Probably too strong for him to fly safely. It was just as well, Twitch really wasn't feeling up to it right now. Amidst the chaos, amongst the wreckage, the parrot slowly made his way out towards the courtyard, along with the rest of the group.

[shadowflare]

Marisa sighed a little and adjusted her hat. It's been a long time since she'd been in a fight that big, and really, then she didn't have near as much help then, just that one stupid red-white miko. She was way overclassed in this battle though....

Marisa took out and looked at her magic flake a little bit, concidering taking it before anything else popped up.
Deciding to hold off, at least until they talked to whatever the voice came from, she started to follow the others, relieved that at least they don't have to worry about some stupid evil Vengance anymore.

[kodster]

Eudial shivered. She didn't want to get up. She was exhausted, she was in such pain that she could barely do more than crawl, and this wind was chilling her to the bone. Nonetheless, after the strange voice had finished its message, she pitifully began to get back up onto her feet - she stumbled a few times - and shuffled after the others, hoping that she wouldn't trip...

[shadowflare]

Marisa watched Eudial a bit.

"Oooooy, you, Witch!" she called out to her, and walked a bit closer before continuing, "Good work back there, ze. Need a bit of help? Bet you are super tired, I imagine rift takes a lot out of somebody."

She looked at the parrot too, figuring if she caught up to him too she'd offer him a pirch on her boom. Wouldn't do to have any of the crew dying of exhaustion now trying to get back.

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt stumbled around wearily and took vague notice that he was in full demon form and also found he had no energy to recast his human illusion, but also finding he didn't much care at all by this point. It had been a long time since he'd been involved in anything that roughed him up this bad.

Being good and doing the right thing really is for suckers Gaunt thought angrily. More than anything he couldn't wait to get back to where he belonged and never had to do anything remotely nice ever again. He saw some of the others already regrouping... Eudial, the bird, someone else he couldn't immediately recognize but it didn't feel important anyway. He just focused on moving towards them.

[playzooki]

playzooki woke up
"hey look that wierd person is dead. but im also nearly dead. again."
playzooki saw the other people/creatures/whatever and slowly walked towards them.

[alex_holt]

EVERYONE WHO SURVIVED

George chimes in on your communication devices:
"Let me know when you are ready to return to the ship, and I can teleport you over to the courtyard"

AURELIA

Her wings are still not functional, and the pain of the harpoon holes is a lot, however, shaking the Spanish Inquisition awake, she decides to finish this job once and for all. Splitting up to search through the ship, after a while they come to a library, which, amoung thousands of very rare and exclusive books, has the three stolen ones on the study table there. Apparently Lord Vengeance had been reading them recently.

[kodster]

She wanted to. She really, really wanted to, but she couldn't say it. Instead, Eudial finally fell over with a weak groan.

She could only hope that the self-regeneration she had gained throughout her travels here would restore her, and soon.

(OOC: Eudial can't say it, so I'll say it for her. She's ready to return to the ship. :P)

[alex_holt]

EUDIAL

As if by thinking about it, Eudial's body appears to start repairing itself - cuts begin to close and aches begin to lessen. Pulled muscles seem to be a slightly trickier affair though, as that doesn't seem to so miraculously return to normal. However, it's certainaly a substantial improvement.