426 replies to this topic

[ForgottenBushido]

Julien's encounter with Murs had upset him but he knew there was nothing he could do about it and decided to focus on the mission.

After leaving the crystal sanctuary he noticed the others had gone..."Alone again..What the hell?" he thought.

As before he picked up a torch and delved further into the the Machine room's corridors. He followed the hallway South which lead him further away from the central hub and to an even lower level. "This place is a fortress..." he examined every bit of architecture as he went along. Shortly after he felt a breeze as he explored further and noticed he was no longer walking on stone, but now wood. He then came to a pair of heavy wooden doors, and light shone through the cracks around them. Julien looked around for a place to hang the torch and placed it in a rack on the wall. His excitement grew as he placed his hands on the doors ready to push them open. He took a deep breath and opened the doors, immediately getting hit by the light from outside. He raised his hand and squinted narrowly waiting for his eyes to adjust. Proceeding forward he walked out onto what was apparently the dock area. It was built into a cave that was open to the sea.

"Excellent." he whispered.

The Barracuda sat in the center of the dock surrounded on all sides by wooden walkways, the area was cluttered with old wooden crates and barrels. Julien approached the boat hesitantly as he was not sure how secure the flooring was, taking one step at a time. He made it a several paces forward without any trouble, and figured he was ok, and took another step.

"Stop right there Inquisitor..You've gone quite far enough!" said a voice from the other side of the dock.

Julien paused an looked for the location of the voice.

"I said Halt!" the voice shouted again.

Julilen continued to walk towards the Barracuda as things became terribly clear. Ahead of him stood the knight captain, and twenty-five of her elite guard. The knight captain stood before him dressed in ebony-plate armor, her long blonde hair spiraled over her shoulders and she starred at him with her dark green eyes.

"Good morning, Katherine. I didn't exactly hope to say that under these circumstances."

She smirked and reached out to him unbuckling Julien's sword belt and collected his weapons, frisked him and confiscated both the map and the book. "Elite Inquisitor Julien Emile Gaston, I hereby place you under arrest for conspiracy, and attempted theft of goods belonging to The Crown." Her men raised their weapons and quickly surrounded Julien.

He raised his hands in the air and smiled. "As you wish."

Edited by ForgottenBushido, 10 December 2011 - 03:43 AM.

[shadow_Uzumaki]

Balian had to suppress a laughter, he had some background in theatre before becoming a soldier, but the elf's reactions were priceless. "Elf, you could win a trophy for best drama performance of the year with how much ham you're eating up right now." He glanced at the axe jutting out from behind the elf, "And that big axe of yours means you ain't exactly helpless....And why were you here anyway, you live here?"

[Miss Soupy]

The door gave with her push, swinging inwards sluggishly. She stepped in, nearly tripping on something on the ground. Since it was still fairly dark outside, there was no extra light to aid her.

“Noctua,” she whispered, catching her balance.

Immediately, she felt his talons press firmly against her shoulder, and that same feeling rushed over her. This time she was prepared, but it didn’t prevent her from feeling that same nausea, that almost overwhelming desire to flee, from hitting her. She bit the inside of her cheek, letting the pain keep her focused as the room lit up to her vision.

Looking down, she tried to locate what had been blocking the door. She let out a gasp at the sight, a chill going down her back. A skeleton grin greeted her, empty eye sockets staring endlessly, its mouth open in what looked like a silent scream. It was dressed in some sort of uniform, a gun was gripped in its hand, and a sword stuck firmly between its ribs. Blood was smeared against the door, and she looked away with a shudder. She didn’t quite understand why this had bothered her in a way the zombies hadn’t, but seeing the skeleton, the remains of someone whose body had never been found, made her feel like running. Running and never looking back.

“It does seem to be a control room,” Noctua said, recalling her from her thoughts, and she looked to see panels of flat crystals, their surfaces as smooth as glass. They sat above a long bench that held numerous buttons and knobs, things she didn’t understand. On another wall were maps. Maps of lands she did not know, maps of the stars, maps of all of kinds of places.

On the other side of the room she found another body. This skeleton also was dressed in some sort of uniform. There was a neat round hole in the back of its skull.

“They killed each other,” she mumbled, understanding that the bullet hole came from the skeleton holding the gun.

This second skeleton was slumped against a shelf of some sort, one boney arm still hung against it.

“Look. There is a door behind it.”

She looked and saw what Noctua had noticed: the shelf had been pushed slightly, revealing half of the outline of a doorframe. Her heart fell. There would be no way to get to the door without moving the shelf further, and there was no way to move the shelf without moving the skeleton.

“Maybe there is nothing in there,” she offered. She didn’t want to touch it. It made her think of things she had decided a long time not to think of. It made her think of rotting corpses on battlefields with no one there to claim them.

“Maybe,” Noctua replied, looking up at her with a hard red-eyed stare. “But maybe there is.”

They both knew she was being foolish, so, as quickly as she could, she grabbed the legs of the skeleton and dragged it across the room. Running back to the shelf, she pushed it until the door was completely revealed.

“This had better be worth it,” she said, and turned the knob.

[TheBerserkMoogle]

"Elvaan-kind, are you enchanted by the river witch? Toughen up some, and maybe you'll make it as a warrior. In any case, if you want to be stealthy you need to try not to get caught first."

[YonderBeyonder]

Reaching up and shaking Zerva's hand with a smile, Désir struggled into a sitting position and re-attached each of the plates of his armour, buckling it clumsily with only one hand. "It's okay, I guess anyone could've made the mistake," he mumbled with a feeble half-shrug.

Eyes flickering from the belt across his chest up to Balian, Désir grinned weakly. "Just because I have an axe doesn't mean getting speared doesn't hurt," he murmured, rubbing his shoulder through his armour and chewing the bitter leaf in his mouth absentmindedly.

Struggling to his feet, he staggered a little before regaining his footing, bumping lightly into the Skadi Hume. Laughing weakly, he ducked his head in apology and scrubbed at his face some more, smiling at the Moogle. "River witch? Sounds about right!"

[Muffins?]

Murs knew that Desir was putting up a facade of innocence and his previous associations with him wouldn't help too much. Wandering off back to his previous affairs he noticed a surprising lack of Inquisitor, his eyes narrowed and he walked carefully through a hallway examining all of the complex machinery when he heard a few faint voices. He briskly walked over and swung a door open revealing...a closet.

"Surprised he's not in here" he sniggered to himself before he walked to the next door which was slightly ajar, pushing lightly it opened enough for him to slip through. Slightly off in the distance he noticed a familiar face, there was the preppy rich kid about to get arrested. Though he disliked the Inquisitor a great deal he disliked the empire who had dominion over the city even more. He quietly slipped off the dock and into the water making sure not to get noticed. He swam quietly underneath the dock only poking his head up enough to get air when he needed it. He finally made it to the guards flank and quietly crawled out of the water and back onto the dock. He pulled his dagger out and stayed low so on the off chance one of the guards surrounding Julien was looking at the background wouldn't notice him. He smirked and quickly sprung he brought his dagger into the neck of one of the guards and pushed his lifeless body into the guard next to him causing them both to fall into the water.

"Can't go having fun without me"

Edited by Muffins?, 10 December 2011 - 04:05 AM.

[Yoko]

It doesn't take long, and she peers out the opening, there weren't many doors in this area, and curses quietly. There had to be fifteen or twenty armed guards there. And she didnt' have her bow. Beyond the guards, was the Barracuda. Sticking to the shadows, she moved quietly, quickly, soundlessly.

When Mursan opportunity presented itself, she slipped the blade of her dagger inbetween one lone guard's plate armor, piercing skin easily, a hand covering his mouth to prevent him from making noise. Skadi didn't have the strength to drag him, armor and all, to somewhere the others wouldn't see. So instead, she threw a knife at one of the others. It struck him in the throat, and Skadi thinks that maybe this wasn't the best idea.

"Oh, Fuck me."

[ForgottenBushido]

One of the guards fell, and the rest were alerted. They held their spears out and took up a spear wall formation. Katherine quickly grabbed Julien, wrapping her arm around him and pulled him in close. She raised a dagger to his throat and began backing up towards the old elevator behind her. "Guards, Kill them all leave no one alive!" she ordered as her back pressed against the elevator door. She dropped her arm holding Julien to her side and flipped the switch on the wall. The doors opened quickly, and Katherine along with her hostage quickly backed into the lift. The doors shut and she released Julien to operate the elevator mechanism, and the old machine began to carry them upward.

[shadow_Uzumaki]

Hearing the commotion on the other side of the wall, Balian grinned, "Finally!" He pulled back his lance, gathering Wind into a finely pointed edge and thrusted it towards the wall, drilling through it and hitting two guards standing nearby. His explosive entrance took the attention of the other guards as he began laughing loudly. "HA HA! kittenes! Let's take these sons of kittenes down and get the hell out of these damn catacombs!" He charged towards the other guards, "Ooh! Ebony armor, I'm taking that!" He smacked the guard closest to him with his lance's shaft, knocking him down. He proceeded to remove the soldier's helmet and placed it on his head.

[TheBerserkMoogle]

Ragnarok simply stared at a guard who was about to charge at him. He looked the guard dead in the eyes, "Do you really want to do this?" he asked, tilting his head in a threatening manner. "You know what'll happen." the guard was at first frightened, but then he shook it off. "You're just a moogle! What can you do?" He charged at Ragnarok, impaling himself upon Nifl and Muspel.

"Poor fellow never had a chance. Tsk tsk tsk." Nifl said.
"Serves him right, the B*stard!" Muspel cackled.

[Miss Soupy]

She found more panels in this room and another control bench. Near the controls was a pillar like the ones seen in the machine room, only it was empty of any power source.

“There,” Noctua indicated with the point of a talon.

On the ground lay a crystal, and she picked it up and walked it to the pillar. Carefully she placed it in the holder, and then had to shield her eyes as it lit up brilliantly. Immediately, the panels above lit up, and a design appeared on the screen.

“That…is familiar…” she said, studying it, and then remembering something, pulled out the blueprint she had taken earlier. Holding it up to the screen, she saw it was the same ship etched into it as had been drawn on the paper.

“It is the ship,” Noctua confirmed.

Another panel flickered to life, and with it the image of a docking bay. But the most remarkable part was that it held a ship.

“There!” she said, “It’s there!”

“Twill!” was the only warning she had gotten before the click of a barrel echoed in the silent chamber.

She jerked her head away only just in time as the bullet grazed just above her eyebrow. Her vision was filled with red as blood gushed down her face into her right eye, but she counted that almost as a blessing, for what was revealed to her caused her to be filled with dread. She had only just caught the sight of the skeleton falling backwards just outside the door, knocked back from the recoil of its gun. With a lunge, she got to the door just as the second skeleton tried to shoot its hand inside.

“No!” she shouted, pushing with everything she had, praying it would close. The door swung into the frame, and she pushed handle-latch down, securing the door.

She could only stare in horror, wishing she couldn’t hear the incessant scraping against the door, the sound of bone on metal. She was trapped in a room no bigger than a closet with skeletons, actual human bodies, brought back to life by some hideous form of magic. Twill shrank to the floor, her hands crushing against her ears, her eyes shutting out the darkness and blood.

There was some sort of shrieking noise, something that could have been her name, but it seemed so far away.

No, people didn’t come back from war. Their bodies were never found. Left to be reanimated for other purposes.

Her father was gone, after all.

Something was poking her, shoving her shoulder. Her mother, of course, trying to wake her to tell her the news. They would not get to bury him. They would have to move on.

A sharp pain at her hand caused her to jerk, her eyes opened to find eerie red orbs peering at her.

“Get up! Twillian, get up!” Noctua shrieked at her, biting her hand that was cupped at her ear.

She was still alive. Her hand flew to her head, which burned painfully. She found blood, but the wound appeared to be shallow enough that it could wait.

A flicker in the corner caught her attention and she saw the panel she had seen the ship in was active. There were people there, in the bay. Many people. She looked closer. It was hard to tell but she was fairly sure some of the crew was there, as well as many uniformed bodies.

She needed to do something. If it was the last helpful thing she did before she died, it would have to be this. She looked down at the controls. There was a strange switch that could be pushed forward, so she tried it and found the lights in the bay had suddenly grown brighter.

There were two dials and her hand hesitated over them. “Hope this helps...” she said and turned them.

On the screen she watched as two panels lifted away from the sides of the rock face to the east and west of the ship. From them appeared two giant fans, their blades beginning to beat the air, faster and faster, sending a strong wind throughout the chamber. The sails of the ship filled themselves and the guards were momentarily distracted.

With a sigh she turned away and she fumbled clumsily with her bow. The scratching beyond the door had never stopped, and her hands were shaking as she drew an arrow to her bow.

[Fyuria'sLeo]

Watching his boss enjoy himself, Zerva put his sister's blade on his hilt. Proceeding to take his scythe off his back he looked into the room with all the fighting.

"Heh, Game on." Zerva said running in there pushing a guard over he brought the scythe down on top of the knight stabbing him in the chest.

Gray eyes turning darker by the minute Zerva threw the scythe at another guard making the scythe slam into the wall trapping the guard, pulling out his sister's blade he ran at the guard stopping in front of him.

"Bye." Zerva said quietly to the guard slicing his neck while prying his scythe from the wall.

The wind blew Zerva's grey hair flowing in the wind, "Time to have some fun!" He yelled.

Edited by Fyuria'sLeo, 10 December 2011 - 04:35 AM.

[Muffins?]

Murs nimbly dodged a swing from one of the two guards who decided to take him out. As one swung high and one low he jumped and twisted his body to avoid both of the incoming attacks. As the sword beneath him passed he planted a hand onto the ground fully prepared to take both guards out with his feet when a gust of wind sent him tumbling out of his position and spinning onto the dock. Standing up shakily with a throbbing head he noticed the two guards coming at him, one already bringing his sword down in a downward stroke. Murs sloppily brought his dagger up to block and had it knocked roughly from his hands disarming him. He panicked shortly before calming himself down, he had been in many worse situations. As the second guard thrust forward with his blade he ducked under his extended arm before coming up with a strong grip on it. He flipped the guard over him and twisted his arm at an unnatural angle. There was a sickening crack and the guard screamed in pain he dropped the arm and grabbed hold of the mans sword. As the second swung at him he ducked and thrust the sword into a crack in his armor.

"Well boy look like you're out of luck" The guard smirked as the sword got stuck halfway through the mail protecting his vitals. Murs ducked a few more wild swings of the mans weapon before he spun around full force bringing his foot onto the hilt of the sword, the burst of force was enough to make it through the armor effectively skewering the guard.

"Kick to kill" he mumbled before fetching his own weapon.

Edited by Muffins?, 10 December 2011 - 04:43 AM.

[TheBerserkMoogle]

Ragnarok quickly dispatched one of the guards by chopping his head in half. He kicked the body off the blade, and threw Nifl at another, causing that guard to fly back into another guard. During this time, he used Muspel to decapitate another guard that charged at him. When the who received the flying dead guard, he pushed the dead guard with Nifl in him at Ragnarok, who simply removed the blade from the body and readied himself for the oncoming guard.

[Fyuria'sLeo]

Dodging a sword Zerva quickly killed another guard while blocking another guy with his new sword.

"Fighting with a scythe and a sword at the same time was a bad idea...." Zerva yelled throwing his scythe to the ground.

Flicking his finger the sword was coated with a green mist, "Thank the god's her magic is still in the sword." Zerva said to himself as he quickly knocked the blade out of the knights hand.

Stabbing the sword into the knight he watched as he dissolved. Zerva's hair flung around, turning to Balian he yelled.

"Hey Boss The winds picking up, we cant stay like this forever!"

Edited by Fyuria'sLeo, 10 December 2011 - 04:58 AM.

[Miss Soupy]

“Are you ready?” Noctua asked, his voice a level of calm she wished she had.

Twill found she couldn’t speak, her mouth had gone dry from her fear, but she managed to nod and bring her bow up carefully.

Noctua lifted from her shoulder and with his talons he jerked down the lever that kept the door locked. Her green magic was already filling the arrow when the knob turned. A skeleton head had only just begun to emerge in the small room when her arrow flew through it, igniting the bones in green fire. It exploded, but the other moved to replace it. In a blink, the skeleton that had replaced the first also exploded into dust.

The room went silent beyond the thundering of her heart. Staggering out of the room, she found the entire control room was alight as other panels flickered to show other images of the docking station. There was movement in one panel, and blearily she looked up at it. It took her a moment to focus, her brain felt sluggish, but somewhere it registered that an elevator was moving upwards.

Noctua settled on the back of an abandoned chair, looking at the image. “I remember it. An elevator that leads into the palace.”

Before she understood her actions, her hand reached out to touch the moving image of the elevator. The screen flashed, and suddenly the panel showed the elevator in detail. There were two figures inside, and her eyes widened as she recognized one.

“Julien…”

Her head throbbed and her hands still shook as she tapped the screen again. Options appeared on the right side of the panel. She didn’t know what most of them meant, but one she did recognize. It was the bright red circle titled ‘Emergency Stop’. Quickly, she tapped it, and watched as the elevator came to a shuddering stop.

[ForgottenBushido]

The elevator came to a grinding halt. Katherine looked at Julien angrily..."I'm not going to let you get away!"

Julien just smiled and crossed his arms. He knew Skadi would save him. He wasn't worried at all.

[shadow_Uzumaki]

Dodging a sword Zerva quickly killed another guard while blocking another guy with his new sword.

"Fighting with a scythe and a sword at the same time was a bad idea...." Zerva yelled throwing his scythe to the ground.

Flicking his finger the sword was coated with a green mist, "Thank the god's her magic is still in the sword." Zerva said to himself as he quickly knocked the blade out of the knights hand.

Stabbing the sword into the knight he watched as he dissolved. Zerva's hair flung around, turning to Balian he yelled.

"Hey Boss The winds picking up, we cant stay like this forever!"

The Zerva kid said something right for once, feeling the wind, Balian's smile grew wider. "HAH! Best news I've had all day!" He yelled back. He drew in the wind to his Kain as he got into a stance as a few guards charged forward. Grinning, he swiped his lance towards the bay doors, causing a draft that blew the guards in front of him and sent them smacking at the bay doors.

He gathered the wind again, this time around his legs in preparation for a powerful Jump attack. Concentrating, he Jumped, leaving a crack on the ground and jumped towards the bay doors. His feet, still empowered by the wind, he kicked the doors open before sticking his lance on one of the doors, twirling before landing on top. He tied a strip of cloth from his pack around his lance's shaft before jumping off it and jerking hard to dislodge the lance and bring it back.

He landed back to where the rest of the fight was, unleashing the wind he had used in a wave.

[Fyuria'sLeo]

The wind picked up faster pulling Zerva off the ground. "kitten boss." He yelled.

Grabbing a pipe that led to he ground he descended finding guard waiting for him. "Why hello there." He said to the guard swinging his sword at the guard cutting his arm slightly.

Zerva looked up spoting his scythe in the air come straight at the guard.

As the scythe flew into the guard it cut him in half. "Well that was some horrible luck right there." Zerva said.

Edited by Fyuria'sLeo, 10 December 2011 - 05:20 AM.

[Yoko]

Skadi nimbly climbs up the side of the elevator shaft, perched on the edge, above the knight that had managed to capture Julien. She grins at him before jumping down, using all her weight to tackle the woman in armor down. Using one poisoned blade, she makes a little pinprick in the back of her neck. "Stupid idea to not wear a helmet..."

It's an instant and flurry of movements, but the Knight-Captain was slow. Not spectacularly slow, but Skadi has always been quite fast. She ducks the glass blades and the magic spells thrown at her, waiting until the woman, Katherine, if Skadi remembers correctly, wears herself out. The effects of the poison should be taking place now, dizzyness, blurred vision, nausea... Amongst other things.

Skadi watches as she collapses, clutching one shining sword, glaring at the thief. Who just smiles at Julien. "You're always getting into trouble, kid." She herself was a mess, missing her gloves, hands bloodied, hair almost completely out of its ponytail.

"Do we kill her?" She asks, gesturing to Katherine as she stands.