NationStates Jolt Archive

Seth looked at Julia. "Oh? And what do you propose?" Nadoka was looking at the angel now, strangely drawn to her. An unexplainable, but undeniable, attraction. Not sexual, not even emotional, more like a force of gravity. She leaned forward, almost as if to be closer to Julia.

"She'll want to take you into Heaven, no doubt. A Horseman trapped inside a human form, that power could be of use to any faction." She looked over at Nadoka. "Although, that would twist fate. Your hour isn't anywhere near now."

Seth snorted at Orin's words. "You have to be dead to go to Heaven, and that would defeat the entire point of taking her there, wouldn't it? I do agree, though, she could be of terrible use to anyone. Best she keeps here," he looked levely at Orin and Julia, "with me." He said, as though daring them to try and take her. Nadoka watched silently. She had always been a quiet, soft-spoken type, and the years past had done nothing to improve this.

Kash was taken to insane asylum where they locked him up. This was very ineteresting him as he understood that what his powers were might put him in the class of [I]insanity[I]. He rolled around in his jacket for a while, trying to escape it, so he decided to clone himself, when the clone appeard it looked just like him, and was in a stray jacket, his eyes opend widely that he was not able to get out of his restraints. He would have to wait till a nurse or doc showed up.

"I have no intention of removing her from you. Her fate, either way, has relatively the same effect on me. If she fulfills her ethereal agenda, I have a rather brief but busy overtime. If she chooses to simply remain as she is, I have a longer but less frantic job."

On one of the planes seat a slim, black cell phone materialised and began to ring in the steriotypical style for 2 rings before going to loud speeker "Hello? Hello? Oh this infernal technolagy. Ehem *the person on the other end of the phone clears his throght audiably*, no doubt you are contemplating the safest place for little Nadoka to hide.I have some 20 people here hanging over a pit going all the way to hell, for each hour you deny me of getting hold of her, the number will grow by 10, if after 5 hours you still have not atleast contacted me to discus your handing her over to me i will drop them into the pit. Oh and don't try to stop me Juliea, i know your there, or ill drop them any way."

Seth nodded. "If all goes well you will have a brief but busy overtime, and then, well, I guess you could call it an eternal vacation. So will we all. Except him," he grimaced and nodded downward in the direction Carnage had gone.

"I have no intention of stealing her" Julia said quietly, "I am giving you an option that you may wish to take if you want. Nadoka is a unique individual, she does not deserve to be passed about and treated like nothing more than an item"

"Ah, so the Reaper is right. You know even Heaven is not safe from-" He stopped as the cell phone appeared. He listened to the message calmly, then shrugged at it's conclusion. "Well? What do we do?"

"On the contrary, heaven offers you sanctity, a place you are guaranteed to be safe. The Lord does not believe in taking advantage of people" She gave a gentle smile.

Orin sighed. "I don't know. It's up to you, I suppose. Fate's already been locked away today."

"Indeed, the end of the world is coming, whether you want it to or not," Julia confirmed sadly, "Mankind's second salvation"

"Or second damnation. I suppose really it depends on your view..." Orin muttered. "Hell, I'm never getting in to Heaven."

"Never be so sure," The Angel replied to the Reaper, "The mind of the Lord is mysterious.He may have seen something in you that even you can't see" She chastised him.

"Whether I want it or not," Seth said with a bemused smile. "Women, my world ended six years ago one dark night. In all those six years, no one's ever lifted a finger to help us without expecting something in return. My powers have a price, you know. One human life, every month. Even the Mista are paid, prestige and honor in Heaven for their help. Even the Lord expects something from Nadoka. She's one of the Four, no? Nothing comes without attatchments. Nothing. Oh sure, we'd be safe, for a time. But then it would come time for Nadoka to do her duty on Earth and then-"
"Stop it."
Everyone turned, surprised. Nadoka had finally spoken up, and she lifted her head to stare at Seth. "Stop it. You think this has scarred me so badly that I cannot speak for myself? Shut up."
Seth gaped at her, finally closing his mouth with a snap. "Speak, then."
"I will. And what I say is that every atom of my being is drawing myself to you," she looked at Julia. "But I cannot go. Not yet. If I am to serve my purpose, I must remain here, for the end times. I don't know how I know this. I don't know why I must. But someone, somewhere, is telling me to stay."

Julia nodded,
"That is your decision. I cannot force you to come with me or do as I say. If you want to stay here for a while then I shall stay as well. There are those who will want to hurt you and I don't want you to come to harm"

"Never be so sure," The Angel replied to the Reaper, "The mind of the Lord is mysterious.He may have seen something in you that even you can't see" She chastised him.

"Ever wonder why people become Reapers? You have to have committed monstrosities so bad Hell wants you and something so good that Heaven wants you. Thats difficult. Hence the enforced neutrality." When Nadoka spoke up, Orin sighed. "Well, your decision is made. I won't be one to judge." She looked at the front of the plane for a moment then said, "One thing. How are you going to land? The Tokyo authorities are probably aware of the little escapade at the airport."

Seth shrugged at Orin's question. "We can easily escape without being seen, even while in the air. We just have to be over land, relatively low. I don't know what will become of poor Sam up there," he jerked his head to the cockpit, "but he'll get out alright."
Nadoka nodded gravely at Julia's words. "Thank you. People have been trying to hurt me and my brother for years without stop. I think we can handle it."

"Nevertheless, I will do what I can to protect you" Julia reaffirmed, "I have all the resources of the Kingdom at my disposal if I need them, I hope I won't but if I have to use them ensure your safety then I shall"

"We can also transfer to my ship," came a voice from behind them. It was the cyborg. Somehow, he had come to be standing behind them.

"That hellspawn is an annoying one, isn't he? Well, he didn't say that I shouldn't try to stop him. Could you do me a few small favors, angel? Tell me your name, give me something that I can use to defend those people against him and let me know where he is? I really don't like it when a bully picks on creatures that are weaker than he is."

He turned to Seth. "I've been down on my luck a few times, too--in fact, I think this is one of them. Perhaps, when things quiet down, we can join forces for a while. I think that, for a change, you and your sister might get as much out of it as I do."

He turned back to the angel.

There was much for him to do. He still wanted to speak with the man whom the guardsmen had detained. Even with Pete and Brain Jar hovering near enough to use the matter transmitters on him, he didn't have the means to get everyplace he wanted to in the time available. Still, the man wouldn't be harmed in police custody. This could not be said for the people in the "custody" of the hellspawn.

OOC: Apologies for my absence. I'll just skip ahead a bit to get back into the action, if that's okay with all concerned.

IC:

Hellfire was fuming as he soared through the air. Not fuming in the usual sense, though - he was quite literally fuming, puffs of smoke spiralling off him in his rage. 'Why is it that all these thrice-damned supernatural beings have to be so damn nosy? All I wanted to do was burn the flesh from the bones of those soldiers, but nooooooooo....' he thought, angrily, before whimsically lashing out at a nearby cloud, further vaporizing it and causing it to rise further into the air.

As the cloud began to reform, Hellfire spotted a nearby airport. 'Aha... nice, easy prey... no blasted supernatural beings to come along at inopportune times and screw up my well-laid apocalyptic fury... plenty of 'innocent' bystanders to send to the next world... perfect.' Hellfire put on a burst of speed, and arced around to soar toward the ground, randomly picking a passenger jet that he would begin with. Coming to a hover right next to the door, he stridently knocked. 'Time for some fun...'

Naturally, he HAD to pick the one jet that contained all manner of Earthly and unEarthly beings aboard...

A man stood inside the building Carnage had originally appeared in. Looking around the bloodstained room, he frowned slightly before muttering a few strange words and moving his hand over a symbol, changing it's shape to an eye inside a mouth. The man sat in the center of the room, arms folded, waiting for the demon to come back.

The man had red skin. It was a light red, almost dark pink. His feet ended in clawed hands, and his fingers were long and sickle shaped. He wore a black robe and hood, his face hidden from view.

In the center of the pentagram the blood began to bubble and rise up into a swirling vortex, morphing into fire. From the center of this tempest steped Carnage, unscathed by the flames, his yellow eyes blazing with fury at how he had been thwarted. It took a moment for him to notice the figure, a further 2 seconds to establish it wasn't human.
"Ah, how may be of service to you, friend?" he said, giving a short bow.

"It appears, Master Carnage, that your mission does not go well." The man didn't turn his head,but his voice changed so he spoke in the same way as Carnage, a collective of voices. "You let lesser beings stop you in your task. Shameful."

"Alas, even i can fight only so many at once, pluse that metal man truley is persistant. I can see now that you are of my deamonic brethren, i can therefore asume you have some buisness her and ,as you come here rather than moveing strait to it, that it involves me. Speak, let me here what it is" he replyed.

"Alas, even i can fight only so many at once, pluse that metal man truley is persistant. I can see now that you are of my deamonic brethren, i can therefore asume you have some buisness her and that come here that it involves me. Speak, let me here what it is" he replyed.

"I have business of my own, and it is useful to make your enemy think you are after them when you are really driving them towards their own demise. I am, for lack of a better word, her to assist. Or rather, to get you to assist me. Simply carry on with your task, and I will assist you. However, kindly leave your targets alone until they reach Tokyo. I can better attack them then."

"And who are you!! You who would presume to order one of Lucifers finest?" He paused for a moment then said in a calmer voice "No matter, only a fool would refuse help, especialy when it comes from ones kin. But tell me, how shall we seal this deal? there is naught you have that i hold to value and more than likely the same apllys with you."

"And who are you!! You who would presume to order one of Lucifers finest?" He paused for a moment then said in a calmer voice "No matter, only a fool would refuse help, especialy when it comes from ones kin. But tell me, how shall we seal this deal, there is naught you have that i hold to value and more than likely the same applies with you."

"We will seal it with trust. I possess nothing that interests you and vice versa, as you said. Therefore, we will simply have to give our words."

OOC: For the convenience of all, let us say we've jumped forward a few hours.
IC:
Seth looked the cyborg up and down. "Who are you, exactly? What do you want, here?" The cyborg obviously was no enemy, judging by the fact that he had fought Carnage and probably could have killed Seth if he wanted to. Then Seth blinked and turned his head, towards the rear of the plane. Someone knocked. In midair. Sighing, Seth opened his hand wide. The hilt of a sword appeared, growing outward, then abruptly vanished. Frowning, he tried again. Same result. His brow furrowed and he looked around somewhat sheepishly until his gaze landed on the cyborg. Realization dawned on his face in unison with a slow, broad grin. "You diminish all supernatural powers, don't you? That gives me an idea."
Seth turned and ran up to the door, down the aisles of empty seats. They were close to Japan now, and would need to make their escape before long. Reaching the door, he saw the man floating outside, apparently on fire. Without further ado, Seth kicked the door open, grabbed him by the neck, ignoring the horiffic burns, dragged him inside, and forcibly threw him down the length of the plane. If all went well, which it probably wouldn't, the burning man would be too close to the cyborg's field to use any of his powers to fight or escape, and thus could be subdued or killed.

"Very well! however do not think I shall not be cautios of you, we are after all deamons." Carnage replyed, siting oposite the deamon across the pentacle.

"If you said anything else, I wouldn't have believed you." The demon nodded and disappeared.

Julia watched as Hellfire was dragged into the plane and just gave a gentle sigh. She could easily defeat Hellfire if she so desired, but it was not in her nature. So she would watch the effort until she felt that Nadoka was in trouble, then she would act.

"I am called the Metal Man," the cyborg said, "and I want nothing more than peace and respect. Unfortunately, these are precious commodities in this world, and I often find myself enganged in--."

The door opened and a man was drawn into the cabin and tossed headlong into the Metal Man. He quickly caught the man by his clothes, slowed him and set him gently down on his feet.

"I trust you're no worse for your little sojourn," he said to the man, patting him on the shoulder, "and that you won't be...losing your cool too soon."

Snarling, Hellfire tore himself away from the strange being that had caught him. 'I just HAD to run into them again...' he thought, before he stated, in a quiet but nonetheless furious voice, 'You do realise how rude that was, do you not? I do nothing but knock on the damned door, and I'm thrown half the length of this tin can for it.'

"Rude?" Seth smiled. "I think the slaughter of dozens, if not hundreds of innocent people is rude. I think attempting to kill us is rude. I am in no mood to play, demon. Tell me why you are here, or I will make sure you are spread across this "tin can" in very small, very bloody peices."

'Ok, first of all, I am not a bloody demon. Second, thus far, I haven't tried to kill you. And third, what I do in my own time is my own buisness. If I choose to massacre a group of gun-happy psychopaths who want to kill me just because I happen to be on fire, then so be it.'

'Now, if you want to try to kill me, just say so, so we can go outside, have it out, etc.'

"I'd rather not duke it out with you, I have better things to do. You were following this plane, along with apparently every other unworldly thing, and that makes me paranoid. I did not get this far alive without being suspicious of everyone. Just because you haven't tried to kill me before dosen't mean you won't try in the future. I know you, you kill for the sake of killing," Seth shook his head. "If you are not here to kill us, then why are you here?"

"I, too, have noted the ambiguity of your intentions--and this is why I've tried to be as gentle with you as I can," the cyborg said. "For the record, I'm here because the police brought me in when the casualties started to mount. I, too, would like to know more about what's going on. What are your names?" He pointed to Hellfire, though he did not actually know the man's name. "Why are you here?" He pointed at Seth. "Why is that hellspawn after you?"

"And, angel, I beseach you, as a servant of the Lord, please give me some means by which I can thwart that hellspawn's plot against the bodies and souls of those innocent people. Please show me some means of holding him at bay. I can stand up to his attacks for longer than most, but, unless I have some means of counterattack, he'll just wear me down and kill me--and then others shall follow in droves. You can prevent this. Please help us both."

She still thinks I'm in this for a posthumous reward. It hasn't even occurred to her that the hellspawn wasn't joking--no one, least of all me, can tell whether I even have a soul, let alone its disposition when it is finally liberated from the wreck of my body. Perhaps it is a good thing, though--it means that I'm not on Heaven's radar. But it is not a good thing that the hellspawn knew what she does not.

All this talk of the futility of life. I hear it from the hellspawn and from the fire-thrower. Not even the most cynical existentialist will argue that--even they will admit that our lives have the meaning that we give them. And that is why I'm here. I just wish I could somehow explain it to them--all of them--somehow show them the amazing things that each of them is truly capable of.

Seth laughed bitterly at The Metal Man's questions. "I don't suppose you would have thought anything of it at the time, if you even heard. Gruesome double homocide, mother and father disembowled and decapitated, children, aged thirteen and fifteen, vanished, presumably kidnapped by the murderers. No. Those dead parents were ours," he nodded to Nadoka, "and we are the missing. She is a Angel of the Doomsday, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. For this the demons want to kill her, or covert her, whatever to stop Heaven's ultimite plan. I have what I have because it was offered to me, at a price: All the power of a major demon of Hell, but for one human life a month. Six years we ran across the continetal United States, fighting demons and humans every step of the way. Seventy two lives I have on my back, seventy two corpses worth of blood. Scum, you understand. Criminals and lowlifes, people no one would miss. But I digress. I am here to protect my sister, and that's all." He stared at the cyborg defiently.

"You desire a way to defeat your enemies and those of the people that inhabit this earth. At the same time, you worry about your own soul and of those around you" She gave a smile and the light in the plane seemed to get brighter when she did.

She walked over to the Metal man and leant close to him,
"Let the blessings of Heaven and the Lord flow through your soul" She whispered gently into his ear and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. As she did so, the Metal man would feel a strange new power coming through him. Like he had just been given ten times more strength and durability than he had previously,

"You try to show the beauty of mankind, a beauty that lies deep within you all. I hope you succeed in your task" She said warmly, loud enough for all to hear.

At the same time, the Metal Man would hear a voice in his head, a voice only he could hear, it was Julia's

"Heaven watches over you Knight of Metal, they watch for your success"

As strange as it seemed, he had answers.

He knew what their names were now, and he knew what they wanted.

So he addressed them.

"I've got to stop the demon Carnage from killing those hostages. If I return, I'd like to spend some time with you people.

"I heard about your parents' death, Seth, but I thought that you'd been killed along with them. I didn't think that there was anything I could do. I'm familiar with Biblical Prophesy--but my mere presence nearby you is a threat to that prophesy. The best way to describe me is that I'm a wildcard of fate. Prophesy has no meaning around me. I can thwart it without meaning to. If you're willing to take the risk that I won't stop the Rapture, I can help to protect you.

"Hellfire, you asked earlier why the human race was worth saving. When I get back, give me a chance and I'll show you why.

"My time here is at an end, though. I have lives to save. I'd prefer it if you would all come with me--I have a ship that can provide pretty reliable transportation--but I can understand if you would choose not to. What say you?"

As he spoke, small flaps of skin began to regenerate on his metal combat chassis. The Lord must not have been one to mess around.

This didn't mean that he intended to go back into battle with a demon like Carnage wearing a suit like that one, though. It was far too weak for that kind of combat.

Seth nodded. "I trust those here to protect Nadoka, and right now, Carnage is the biggest threat to us. With him out of the way, life will be much easier. I'll come with you."

"Then I shall stay and protect your Sister" Julia said in her quiet voice from the corner of the room,
"Good luck Seth," She looked slyly at Metalman, "Good luck, Knight of Metal"
Then he would hear her voice whispering in his ear again,
"I will be with you on your journey, good luck and God Speed"

He didn't have time to wait for Hellfire. He just signaled Pete and, in a moment, he and Seth found themselves aboard Brain Jar.

"Matter transmitter," was all he said.

The room was white. They had appeared in a section enclosed in what looked to be clear Plexiglas walls. There was a sliding door directly ahead of them, which opened to clear the way to a white podium--a control console--that stood in the floor directly ahead of them.

"I'm going to change clothes while we're en route," the Metal Man explained. "Should take about an hour to get where we're going."

He walked over to a doorway. There was a data terminal at its edge. He pressed a button under it.

"Pete?" he said.

"Hi, boss," came a voice from some kind of public address system.

"How's the light combat suite doing?"

"Not sure. The frame got awfully beat up in that earthquake rescue. I've done what I can to reinforce it, but--."

"Sounds like it'll do. Get it ready."

Half an hour later, Seth found himself standing in front of something that hovered using magnetic levitation devices. It had no legs, but four arms. Its body was basically cylindrical, but was pocked with small weapons. It had a missile launcher and four plasma guns that he could make out, and several other parts that he couldn't.

"Forgive me if I seem different to you," the cyborg said. "It's sometimes difficult for humanoids to get used to the way I can change."

The strategy, Seth learned, was actually rather simple: the Metal Man would try to distract Carnage while Pete and Seth used the Matter Transmitter to evacuate the hostages. When they were away, Pete would fly a safe distance off and Seth would be free to help the cyborg--if all went well, which it probably wouldn't. They touched on contingencies for what to do in case the hostages were somehow shielded from transport, and if Carnage got reinforcements. There wasn't really time to touch on other contingencies, and even the ones discussed were admittedly tenuous. This could turn messy in a hurry.

In what seemed like strangely little time, Pete reported that he was in position and Brain Jar could be felt to slow to a stop. They had arrived.

----------------------

OOC: Thanks, BTW, VT, for bringing in a second demon. The deck was starting to get rather badly stacked against Carnage. This helps to even things out. Good job.

Ih8u, you never really did say where Carnage's little roasting pit was. I had to resort to "divine inspiration" to get the location. Hope this is OK. Hope the place is somewhere on earth, 'cause these folks are up a creek if it isn't...

The demon's eyes flicked open.
"It appears my task has began." Underneath the Brain Jar, the ground shook slightly. The demon plunged his hands into the ground, and at the same time two huge tentacles erupted from the earth and headed straight for the Brain Jar.

"Shit!" Seth screamed as he felt the ship shake around him. He clung to a handhold on the ship, bringing his free right hand down in a sycthing motion. A long gray/brown blade sprouted from the hilt which appeared in his hand, slightly curved with wicked duel blades, a single peice of rock-like metal splitting into two points. He would not transform unless he absolutly had to. Like TMM had said, the plan probably wouldn't go, well, as planned. It would not be difficult for Carnage to quickly call on minions, and it would be Seth's job to prevent any such minor demons or evil incarnate from harming the hostages or distracting the cyborg from his main task. For now, however, Seth would just have to hope Pete could pilot the Brain Jar as good as Seth hoped. Specifically, good enough to not get wacked by the gigantic tentacles.

"Then let us get them. I still can't belive they fell for that hostages thing, idiot mortals" he said, spreading his wings and smashing straight thrug the roof he stoped, hovering infront of Seth.
"So, you have come. I supose you actuly belived i was holding humans hostage? FOOL! I would torture them not send them straight to hell. Is there actuly a brain in there?"

OOC: Just to save the Brain Jar from having a huge hole in the roof and an arguement about shields and armor vs. supernatural powers, can we just say Carnage dragged Seth from the ship to the floor?
IC: Seth recoiled from the demon, sword fully materalized. "We are the fools? You told us exactly where to go if we wanted to find you. Now Nadoka is out of your reach, but, unfortunatly for you, you are within my reach. Prepare to die." He launched himself at the demon, slashing his sword from the left to right level with Carnage's chest.

Carnage moved one of his hands as if to block the sword, one of his black blades materialised before the sword hit him, easily blocking the blow
"Hmmmm, and are you so certain that she is safe? Even juliea can only stop so much and as for your friend up there the bigest danger I have from him is a bruise or two." he replyed calmy as his armor formed around him "Face me if you dare but know we will fight alone!" he continued as the ground around them shook was riped up and hovered over the warehouse, a whirlwind of shrapnal swirled around the newly formed 'arena'.

"Bring it" Carnage invited, another sword materialising in his hand.

"As you wish" said a voice from behind Carnage.

The Metal Man's new suit, resplendant and shining with a light not of the mortal realm, appeared as he decloaked in midair.

Two guns, mounted above the upper pair of arms, fired, blasting away the last remnants of the demonic tentacles that had ripped through the little flying saucer's hull. Drone suits that Pete had taken control of were already acting to repair the damage as the ship flew higher.

"The lack of hostages only makes our job easier," the Metal Man said. "We can concentrate on you. I do still owe you one lesson in manners, after all."

Blades extended from the upper set of arms, held angling down, as were the other two. The gauntlets showed a shiny green around the gold of the cylinder-conical body. Then, the left one retracted.

The Metal Man's swords didn't work exactly the same as would a sword in a human hand. Because it extended through his entire arm, it lacked motion in the wrist joint. Yet, it could extend and retract completely during the course of a fight. Many a foe had fallen victim to this surprising ability--and Carnage was about to experience it firsthand.

The Metal Man moved in and swung his right-hand sword down from over the top. As he did, he moved his left hand forward and extended the blade--a thrusting motion. The two would be difficult to block--especially from behind. If the Metal Man was lucky, Carnage would make no attempt to block them--and the cyborg would find out, one way or another, the true extent of his heavenly host's aid.

"I see Juliea has been generus to you" Carnage said, dissolving out of harms way thrugh the floor, he continued to speak his voice echoing all around the two 'men' "Yet i have you in my grasp despite why you think " he said as the spiraling debre formed a perfect sphere around the 'arena'.

The demon roared as the tentacles were destroyed and his arms were now ended in stumps. Growling, he shooks his arms, growing back a pair of hands and dissappearing.

He reappeared from the ground in the 'arena.'
"Do you require assistance, Master Carnage?" He pointed at TMM, and a flurry of bats shot from his palm. Straight after this, red lightning sparked between his fingers. He clicked and the lightning shot towards TMM and Seth.

"It would be apreciated" Carnage said, rematerializing next to the Deamon and fiting an arrow to his bow, loosing it at Seth as it began to glow red.

Suddenly, all four would see a wall of light appear between the two opposing pairs and all of the demon's attacks would just ricochet off this barrier. As soon as the attacks had been defeated, the barrier fell away and Julia's voice whispered into TMM's ear,

'Heaven watches over you' It was more like a soft sigh than a whisper.

"Pathetic, Angel. Heaven has no power here."
A veil of thick, black mist descended, blocking out all noise and sight. The only break in this were small patches of blood stained wall.
"This is now my realm. My rules here." There were rumbles and suddenly the small patches of wall shot up, and more joined them out of the ground.
Welcome to the Grand Maze. Do watch your step. There were growls, coming from creatures hidden in the shadows, and occasional shrieks and screams.

"Hmmm, intersting. I like your style" carnage said, his vision barely affected by the deamonic shruod "I shall enjoy hunting them here, even if one of the mazes residants get them" he continued, grining and turning his hair to black fire he took a step forward "Shall we?"

"Hmmm, intersting. I like your style" carnage said, his vision barely affected by the deamonic shruod "I shall enjoy hunting them here, even if one of the mazes residants get them" he continued, grining and turning his hair to black fire he took a step forward "Shall we?"

"I am afraid, Master Carnage, I must not. You feel free to go ahead though." He nodded to the Demon, then sat crosslegged on the floor and closed his eyes.

In his head, he saw a live map of the locations of the Prey and the Hunters. A shoal of bloated, diseased imps (http://oz.games-workshop.com/games/40k/chaosspacemarines/catalog/images/art/nurgling.gif) were moving towards Seth.

OOC: Also, everyone in the 'arena' would have dissappeared, so Brain Jar would be like 'OMG WTF ROFLOL U HAX!!!!111ONE'

"Hmm, suit yourself. Dont think i trust you enugh to leave you here thoe" Carnage replyed, pacing in circles.

He opened one eye which stared coldly at Carnage.
"I think you may very well want to reconsider, because in about one minute something rather big and scary is going to come here and gobble you all up." there was a small smile on his face as he said this. "So, stiff upper lip old bean." He frowned. "I think thats the saying. It's been a while since I've woken up."

"Either way, I still dont trust you. Still, i shall see you later." he said and disapered into the maze, his blades glowing ominusly.

The sequence of events made Seth's head spin, and before he knew it he could no longer see the Metal Man, Carnage or the new demon. Frowing to himself as the high walls formed up, he shrugged. "I hate mazes." he muttered, and swung his sword at the nearest wall. It crumbled with an eerily human-like shriek, allowing Seth to step over the rubble. There he was confronted by a tiny, gibbering, drooling creature. Glaring at it, he quickly stabbed the thing, and it exploded, spraying green blood everywhere. Seth recoiled, nose wrinkling as a putid stench drifted over him. "Disgusting little bugger."

A voice echoed from behind Seth.
"You are... unusual. Your powers betray your appearance. Tell me, inhuman, why do you fight? I know the metal being fights out of misguided virtue, and the angel for her alignment. You, I do not know yet. Why do you struggle against the inevitable so strongly?" The voice sounded sorry, almost pitying.

"What you call the inevitable, I call merely...potential. You ask why I fight, and I suppose you are new to this game, if you do not know already. The nexus of this whole fight is my sister, and I will do anything to protect her. If you want to know why she is so important," he sneered, "read the book of Revelations. Will you come out and fight me now, or will you hide in the shadows like so many of your demon breathren?"

A bright red light flared around Seth and the demon appeared.
"I am no mere demon, boy." He held no weapons. "If you wish to fight, I shall. But really, your demise is your own fate. How would you like to die?" He cocked his head slightly. "I cater to all comers."

Standing at the site where the 'arena' once was, Orin had hefted a large grimoire seemingly from nowhere. Sitting crosslegged, she flicked through the yellowed pages until she found what she was looking for.
"Oh dear." She appeared in the Brain Jar, holding the book. "I rather think you ought to see this..."

"I cater to all comers."
"Oh yes?" Seth asked, his blade brought up in a defensive posture. "Everyone dies sometime. Even me. Just," he smiled, "not today. You want to go? Let's go, being to being. Bring it." He hefted his blade up directly vetrical to his body.

There was a quiet 'shing' as the monsters weapons emerged. The bone of his right arm had elongated and sharped, forming a type of blade.
"Very well." The thing moved his hand up the blade and it began to pulse red. Then, without warning, he stabbed towards Seth, then feinted left and sidestepped right, slicing at him.

Seth spun and caught the bone blade on his, smiling. "You know, if you do that too much, you'll go blind." He ducked and quickly stabbed at the demon's feet.

Out of nowhere, from directly above the creature, a bolt of lightning arced down at the demon. The Metal Man wasn't lost after all. He had merely recloaked and was counterattacking while invisible. It was an interesting counter to Carnage's Curtain of Darkness ploy. The cyborg, of course, had no trouble "seeing" through the fog. He had radar and infrared senses.

--------------------------------

As Brain Jar hovered over the mess going on down below, Pete the AI was in a sour mood.

"I HATE fighting, I HATE demons, I HATE tentacles and I REALLY HATE having to patch myself up!"

It was at the end of the rant that Orin appeared.

"Oh brother, lady," he said. "Have you got the wrong address or what? If you're looking for the boss, he's down in that infernal--whatever it is down there! No one up here but us robots."

It was true. Pete was a machine. He never lived, and, therefor, could never die. He didn't think there was any reason for him to be in her book.
ere on occasion--but that was no great guarantee of anything.

Just out of spite, Brain Jar fired everything it had at the walls around the "arena." Pete didn't expect it to do any damage, but the boom would be impressive enough to indicate a temper tantrum.

"Yeah, that isn't going to work. No getting in there. Anywho, I'm just here to deliver this." She tore a page out of her book. It looked older than the others, as it was written on papyrus while the rest were written on velum.
"That's the thing whats fighting them." She pointed to the picture on the page. It was of the demon-thing. There was a rip at the top of the page. Jagged, like it had been done quickly, and the papyrus around it was stained red. Only the first and last letters remained, M and D.

The demon dodged Seth's attack, but was hit in the chest by the lightning bolt.
"Oh now, then." There was a small hole in his chest where the lightning had hit. "I'll need to teach you some manners." At the click of his fingers, a chunk of wall crumbled and Tommie fell out.
"Ow, bastard! I'll gut that bloody Mista bit... Where the hell am I?"
"Excuse me, master Tommie, but your services are needed."
Tommie was confused for a moment, then nodded. "Right." He smiled, roared then changed into his true form. (http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/6/6b/300px-Violator.JPG)
"Thats about even, no?"

Seth grimaced at the disgusting thing. Apparently there's more to these walls then stone. Florishing his sword, he backed away and set a defensive posture once again. "So there's two of you, two of us. Fine, victory is much sweeter when against even odds."

"Hmmm... I can see how this will end I'm afraid." He was suddenly behind Seth. "This is my land after all." He stabbed at him with the blade, before making an odd screech. The cry was responded to somewhere near by, and a clacking noise was heard. "So my rules."

Tommie, meanwhile, slashed and bit at TMM, before leaping at him, aiming to tackle him.

At the same time, a thin wall of light, like glass appeared and deflected the Demon's attack. Maybe Heaven did have some influence after all in this world, even if it was only a weak link.

The demon roared in annoyance.
"Show yourself if you wish to intervene Angel!" He then slashed at Seth again.

Seth had already dodged the first blow, so he simply danced away from the next slash. "Hmmm, you'll need to do better then that," he said mockingly. He feinted right then leaped upward, bringing his sword down to smash into the demon.

OOC: How does Tommie know where TMM is? He's cloaked! He's invisible! How is he going to tackle the cyborg? TMM's hovering on maglevs. No legs.

------------

IC:

As Tommie leaped upward, something--all that could be seen was a whir and a blur--came up from underneath him and slashed at his throat.

-----------

OOC: Your character, you decide the damage. I've read the early "Hellspawn" comics, and know a bit about a Violator Demon. I'm treading gently here--doing my best not to directly control other players' characters, while using TMM's capabilities as best I can. I would offer that the Angel's little wall served to keep TMM's blades from reaching all the way through its throat and severing its head--that, in effect, the Heavenly Help had backfired. It is not my place to do this with another player's character, however.

-----------

IC:

Then, it seemed to vanish again. The creature's claws came in upon whatever it was to find--nothing. It hit and rolled to find itself looking for its prey and finding only what passed for air in these parts.

Seemingly from out of nowhere came a voice. "I'm here just as much as you are," it said, "and I am just as free to choose as you. Not YOUR rules, OUR rules."

The Metal Man hovered over the creature. This type of demon, he knew, could be defeated through decapitation. He also knew that it could change its form at will, and, because of some quirk of the material from which it was made, it could reattach or regrow parts that had been removed. It was tough, but it had its weaknesses. It relied on sight and hearing, and it was not fast enough to move with the Metal Man when he struck. He'd faced one of these things down in Vienna in 1874, with a much poorer suit than he had today, and won--but it was as surprised at him as he was it. This was probably not the case for either of them this time.

OOC: Well, to spare a long and complicated explanation, think of it as sonar. And we can jump pretty high around here, boyo.:p

IC: The blade sliced the skin of Tommie's throat and he fell back screeching. Meanwhile, the demon dodged the slice. "Well, this is boring. I think my take my leave. We will most certainly meet again I assure you. I'll leave Tommie here as a present." At that, he smiled and sank into the ground.

One of the walls blew apart as Carnage touched. Steping thrugh the rekage he looked at Seth and said "Everything has its time boy, even us deamons. I'd help you out but" he stops for a moment as if thinking "that would not help me in my task would it? Perhapse I should kill you now and have done? Perhapse not. It seems that i was correct and one truely can never trust a deamon for I am stuck here as much as you."

He stoped again, looking along the section of maze to see Tommie fighting TMM (he can see him because of distortions in the air and, afterall he is a deamon) and several imps come charging at him. "Oh please, pathetic" he sighed and crushed them with the rubble of the wall "You should be in hell" he yelled to Tommie "Any way, if I help you escape from here Seth, what will I get in return?"

The Metal Man blasted Tommie with two of his four plasma guns. He didn't expect it to do much damage, but he hoped that the kick would drive him back and give the cyborg a little room to operate. Speed doesn't count for much when there isn't enough room to use it.

"If you help us both escape," he said to Carnage, "I will forgo the lesson in manners that I owe you."

Heck with it. I'm not weak, even by his standards.

The Metal Man moved in--right in front of Tommie's face. Again, he used a combination of blows instead of just a single shot. First, the top two arms punched down, to move the head forward. Then, the bottom left arm punched up, the torso twisting to put some weight behind it. This, combined with the resistance to the first blow, would move the head back upward and expose the throat again. The sword extended from the bottom right arm as the top arms recoiled. If the head went up far enough, the blade would finish the demon and send it back to the underworld.

Seth sneered at Carnage. "If you are as trapped here as us, then what advantage would there be to not fighting you? We have all the time in the world, here. More then enough time for a duel. But I admit, in these forms, we are evenly matched. If we work together to get out of here, like the Man said, we'll let you go. For now." Seth could sense the little imp things getting ready for another attack, and kept his blade high in case any decided they wanted to meet death in midair.

"Alas you underestimate me" Carnage said and he was sudenly next to seth "But you are right, we must work together to get out of here but once we are thrugh then 'all bets are of' as the saying goes." he contined, ignighting the ruble with black fire.

Seth mutely nodded. He would work with the demon, fine. But later he would taste the metal of his blade. Walking forward, Seth looked at the same wall which had black fire dancing across it's surface. Swinging his sword, Seth hit the wall and it exploded apart, revealing more walls behind. A maze, Seth thought, we'll never make it out of here if we don't play by the rules. Meaning we have to find our way out, not bash our way out. And we have no GPS, no handy sattalite imagry, no Mapquest, not even a "X marks the spot." Turning to Carnage, he relayed his thoughts.

Then, suddenly, one of the walls burst open in light revealing a corridor, clear of enemies for the moment,
"I can try and help" Julia's voice whispered to them all, "but I have little power in the realm of a Demon. Good Luck" The last statement sounded like a whisper carried away in the breeze.

Tommie was unable to block TMM's blows, and the blade pierced his head. With a startled scream, he fell back. Then faded into the mist. A voice echoed throughout the maze.
There is no Death here. Everything simply fades into me. I am the master as well as the apprentice.

There was a rumble, and the walls began to shift. They moved, making new passage ways and closing old ones. Also, parts of some walls opened, revealing pipes. There was a gurgling noise emanating from them.

"Your right, anoyingly. How I hate it when this sort of thing happens" he replyed to seth "This is unuseal. You know Juliea if this keeps up i may actuly start trying to help people for the sake of it" he said, ignoring the fact the walls had shifted he began to probe the pathways with his mind "This could take a while"

I don't trust him. Fortunately, right now, I don't have to.

"Just a minute," the Metal Man said, fading into visibility. "We're not at all alone here." Somehow, in a world of fog and dankness, he gleamed like a big green and gold letter "X." For the sake of honesty, he shared his communications with those around him. "Pete, I know you can't break into this thing, but can you get sensor readings? Can you guide us through the maze?"

"Sure thing, boss--but you want to hurry. There's something going on with those pipes--I'm getting weird seismic readings all over the place."

"Oh, wonderful. What's the quickest way out of here?"

"You see that wall on your left," the voice came.

"Yes."

"Knock a hole in it and go through."

"What if there's something in there?"

"It shouldn't be much. The worst you've had to deal with so far was a Violator demon, and, against you, it was seriously overmatched."

"That doesn't mean I want to waste time and cause relatively innocent creatures to suffer."

"Well, if you want, I can reroute you--but that'll take so long that the maze will probably shift again before you make any progress."

The Metal Man sighed.

A section of the wall in front of him seemed to simply explode out of place. The dust settled slowly in the dank air.

Seth approached the wall wearly, sword up, staring into the darkness. The demon literally within him stirred at the pitch blankness, unbidden. All around him he could feel this place, the Hellish qualities, the forms of other demons and underworld creatures approaching and receding like a tide. He did not know where either of the demons had gone, but he knew they could strike at any time. If they were waiting for him there, so be it. Standing at the mouth of the hole, he went to step in.

There was nothing behind that chunk of wall. At least, not directly. There was, however, row upon row of old, weathered gravestones and mausoleums. They seemed to stretch on forever in all directions. Small creatures were sitting on the stones, staring at the group. There were also loud snuffling, dragging, cracking, moaning, screaming and chanting noises.
Not a terribly nice place really. I'd watch my step in here.

Carnage steped into the graveyard, grining to himself as the noises abruptly ceased "Good to know i still comand some respect among lesser deamons" he said, grabing one of the creatures by the throght and smasing its head against a gravestone "Just felt like doing that" he remarked and waited for TMM to give them thier next direction, thoe he knew where they should go.

The creature Carnage had smashed into the tombstone disappeared with a hiss. The other creatures, spines on their backs raised and clicked together, making a noise like a horde of angry locusts. Then, a roar silenced the clicking and all the creatures moved away. A man, dressed in a black robe and hood, appeared.
"Damn deadlings. Well, pay up so we can get this over with." He held out a skeletal hand. Meanwhile, Orin appeared inside the mausoleum.

"Please indicate the amount and currency of the payment," the Metal Man said, levitating in above and behind Carnage, "and the transaction that you wish to process."

"If your here, you should have two aureus. So hand them over or go away."
"They're not here to be ferried, Charon. They just came from the maze." Orin yelled over.
"Damn it. There hasn't any work in about 2000 years." Muttering, Charon walked away and Orin walked over to the group.
"Welcome to the Underrealms." She patted a deadling on the head. "How did you get here anyway? Test your luck against a demon too big for you?"

"no" Carnage replyed "But even greater deamons can be decived ocaisionaly, must be Julieas influince on me, I can actuly feel my aura changing, its very disturbing." he continued, siting on the now vacant grave stone.

"Ooh, thats bad. I reckon Azazil will have something to say about that." She lit a cigarette and took a puff. "Still, to each his own. Even if his own is someone else's. You know, while we're here, we're safe from that demon guy. We oughta plot on how we'll actually kill him. Also..." She pointed to a rather large castle on a cliff. "You can see my house from here." She smiled.

"Nice place, bit disheveled thoe." Carnage remarked, shruging off Orins statement.

"Nice place, bit disheveled thoe." Carnage remarked, shruging off Orins statement.

"Hey, lay off. It took a team of 500 zombies five years to build that. See, their limbs kept falling off. Nasty business." She shuddered.

"I see your point. so any way, I'm asuming that this is the reapers realm? iv never been there so i wouldn't konw."

"Realm of the dead. Think Hades, think Purgatory, think rotting in the ground. This is where you come before you go to your Afterlife."

"Hence why Iv never been here. Never was Alive so i can't die in the same sense as a human" he said standing once more.

"Ah, your missing out. The dead aren't so dead, you know. We've got some good people down here. Bojangles, Jimmy Hendrix, Ronnie Barker... plenty to choose from."

"Just a shame they were Human." he quiped, again trying to sense his way around the maze outside, again finding it inpenetrable

"Just a shame they were Human." he quiped, again trying to sense his way around the maze outside, again finding it inpenetrable

The was an echoing moan and a loud shuffling.
"Oh dear. We might want to get into the Castle until Kain gets his zombies under control. Come on." She began away towards the castle.

"Very well, even I cant fight asmany undead as one might think." he said and followed Orin.

"I'm sorry we weren't here for your services, Caron," the Metal Man said. "Perhaps someday, I'll have the pleasure of meeting your acquaintance under...more usual circumstances. Until then, best wishes."

The cyborg started to hover off with the rest of the group. "Good thing it doesn't seem Caron will be attacking us," he remarked casually. "I was hoping not to have to shoot down all the deadlings. They can morph rather rapidly into nastier apparitions. It appears that my hopes have been realized--for now."

"Indeed. It would apeare Juliea has worked her magic on you, she does that more often than she should" Carnage replyed. "That and i belive that he is the fery man, yes? that or an old reaper,realy old."

"Yes, it would seem that he is indeed the ferryman," the Metal Man replied, "but, regardless of what Julia may or may not have done to me, my mind remains unchanged."

"Does anyone else feel a strong aura of surrealism about? Or is it just me and my almost humaness?" Seth asked dryly. He trudged along with the others, looking up every time something cried out or growled among the darkness. Seth woundered idealy how the hell he had come to be here, not just here, but in his situation, in the first place. Surely there were more deserving souls God could pick on?

"In fact," the cyborg said, "I'm not sure we should completely trust our host. She did, after all, claim that she would not be forthcoming to me upon this meeting. As to the surrealism, however, I'm not one to judge that. I'm the big hunk of metal with four arms in an "X" and no legs that hovers in the air, remember?"

The cyborg brought out its blade, so fast that it came out with a "ching" instead of its usual sliding sound, stopping it only inches from Carnage's head.

"I just felt like doing that," he said. You could almost hear a smirk in his voice.

Carnage clicked his finger then opened his hand and clenched his fist. There was a resounding cruncing noise as a wall of some invisable force impacted on the blade from all sides, considerably ruining it. "Just felt like doing that" he said, opening his hand and allowing the balde to return to its normal shape with another click of his fingers.

To seth he said "Ah but you are not human, not in the normal definition of the word" as he finished a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, partialy revealing a smaller version of his true form.

"No fighting. I'm not qualififed to reap cyborgs or demons." The reached the bottom of the steps and there was a man wearing the same get up as Orin sitting on a beach deck chair and reading a Argos catolouge. He looked up and muttered, "The Boss wants to see you. Said something about an airport." Orin gulped and the man clicked his fingers and the portcullis of the castle opened. She walked in hurriedly.
"Well, make yourselves at home for a moment. Theres a pool table and a darts board over there, I've got to go talk to Bob." Nodding to the group, she ran up the inner stairs and through the double doors into the great hall.

Stoping next to one of the reapers in the castle (this one by the darts board) Carnage said "Hello Kain, I owe you a reward I belive. Azazil was most pleased with your asistance in killing Tommie."

"My pleasure, I'm sure." Kain threw the three darts with his eyes closed then checked.
"180. I may be dead but I still got it. What kind of reward?"

"What ever Hell can give that you want. Hell fire, Pennance stair, you naame it. Only one of course."

"I do believe I'll take the Penance Stare. That'd be useful in my line of work."

"Hmm, very well" Carnage said, grining as he punched Kain in the face, leaving a small mark (from his ring) on his forhead "There you go. Don't get caried away now, try it on a deamon and they'll just laugh" he said, levitating the darts out of the board and without even facing then got a bullzeye 3 times in a row.

Kain massassged his forehead. "Ow, fucker. Thanks. Levitating is cheating, you know. Winners don't use supernatural powers."

"And why would i want to to win? Besides I'm a deamon, like im gonna play fairly."

The Metal Man hovered down to the remaining darts and, using his lower arm, selected one. Underhanded, he lightly tossed it into the air. There was a soft whirring from his other three arms, then a short burst of soft pops as they fired at extremely low power. When he had finished, the dart was stuck in the bull's eye, propelled but not damaged by the marginal force of the blasts.

"Besides," he said, "what good is a game that places artificial restrictions on its players?"

"Good question" replyed Carnage, raising a a finger to emphasize the point "Any one for pool?" he said, making a snooker que of metal (the same that his swords are made of) appear in his hand.

"Not right now," the Metal Man replied. "I've got a few other details to tend to.

"Pete, what can you tell me about that mansion?"

"Hi, boss. Good to know you're alright, too."

"...and..."

"I can't get good readings on it. My best guess is that it's not really so much a mansion as an elaborate alternate reality portal--things keep phasing in and out of it. I'd be careful if I were you."

"Thanks. Metal Man out.

"Well...now we know how they defend themselves."

"I'd love to, but you'd cheat," said Seth, nodding to the metal cue. "I just know there's some kind of pool ball attracting, magical magnet in there somewhere. As soon as you shoot, they all gravitate towards the nearest pockets. On the other hand," he picked up the cue, leaned back to look down the wooden shaft, and shot, the white cue ball spinning across the green felt table to impact the triangle of balls, spinning the red striped fourteen into the back right corner pocket, "what else do I have to do?"

"Oh come now, I hadn't thaught of that. Besides i do play fair sometimes" he replyed as the ball spiraled back out of the pocket "But I wanted to break" he said as the balls resumed thier normal position and he shot, scattering the balls across the table, potting both the 3rd, 6th and 9th balls "I think I'll be spots"

"Come now, boys, play nice." A tall man (http://www.moving-picture.com/assets/tv/hogfather/hog_1.jpg) stood at the top of the stairs, again dressed in Reaper garb... only he was wearing pink bunny slippers and holding a cup of tea. Coughing embarrassedly he kicked the slippers away."Orin has informed me of some of your recent escapades. Orin popped out from behind him and waved sheepishly. "And has also told me who in particular is after you. I don't know how you made the Monad your enemy, but it wasn't terribly smart you know."

Seth squinted at the Reaper, his brow furrowed. "The who? What are you going on about?" As he spoke he shot with his pool cue, sinking two striped and nodding to Carnage.

"Oh dear. I rather think you had better come in." The hall that the stairs led into was lined with clocks and hourglasses. The hall eventually came out into a small study where there were a few chairs and a pot of tea. The man sat down.
"Right, well start at the start. You are familiar with the angels and demons of course?" Without waiting, he continued. "And the Christian theory of creation? Well, before Adam and Eve, there was one being created before them. It was generally considered a failure. That was the Monad. Hideous, too powerful and generally evil, he was exiled from the World to the Neitherrealms. It's that maze you were in I believe, a link between the different afterlives and the Human world. If you weren't careful, you could have started Ragnarok. He controls the maze and it's inhabitants, not to mention having ome degree of control over the Human world and Afterlives."

"Much like my self and the other deamons" added Carnage "Only the Monad is insanely powerful and has no true alinment. We tried to recruit it during the fall but it wiped out 3 legions before Azazil cast him back to the Neitherrealms. I had no idea we could be pulled into the Neitherrealms so easily, last time we had to summon the legions from the inside and that was with Azazils help. And you know that you needn't do anything to make it your enimy, it simply hates those whos desighn was better and Humans for some reason. Oh by the way reaper, a gift from hell" He continued, pulling a large syth from under his cloak "The master comends you and your fellow reapers on your work."

"I must confer with my demonic counterpart," the Metal Man chimed in. "I did not make the Monad my enemy, he made me his. This is also not a particularly intelligent course of action. It works both ways. And it's not as if I'm not willing to negotiate under even the most unusual of circumstances. This is not my doing."

"Nor mine," said Seth, "I'm just minding my own business. If the Monad dosen't get in my way, I won't mess with him. Mutual non-interference, see?" He looked up, towards where he supposed the sky was, and down, to where he supposed the center of the Earth was. Assuming they were even anywhere near Earth anymore. "A rule a few deities," he nodded down, then up, "should follow."

"Well, you choose to make a being that controls part of the universe, thats fine by me. I wish you the best of luck."

OOC: I'll be making yet another superhero RP after this. It'll be your basic 'omg teh supabaddeh am rob bank lololol' one, but if yall want to join in, feel free to.

"Well, since you've dealt with him before, Carnage," the Metal Man said, "perhaps you could make yourself useful for a change and explain some of his limitations, and the rules by which he is bound. Of course, reapers, you can feel free to add anything that you decide is relevant."

"Well, lets see. There are all the obvius ones that you have already seen so: he is invulnerable to all expt silver and magical attacks, as most deamons, can summon deamons, looks discusting (i dont think he can change his apearance), can use magic, will quite hapily rip you apart without a reason and will attack you for nothing exept you are there. And all thats from just before he tossed me thrugh 12 walls of his maze so superstrength is also a facter along with super speed.

I am no expert on the Monad, I can offer no advantage but i can still resist him. It would take Azazil or God to actuly kill him, maybe Gabriel or Beelzibub but even ifr they would help theyed go on a mass killing spree of savier spree first, and od just wouldn't bother."

"Yes, well, at any rate, I'm afraid you can't stay. The Monad, I feel, is approaching." There was a horn blow, and it echoed throughout the plain. A reaper toppled off the wall, a hole through his chest.
"Oh dear. I'm afraid he is already here." A bolt of fire flew over the wall and the castle walls crumbled. The Monad walked over the rubble.
"My friends, hello again. Have you realized the futility of your situation?"

"What situation is that?" asked the cyborg.

Seth looked about innocently. "The futility of..." His eyes widened. "Oh! You mean the tea! Of course, of course, it's not the best, but I wouldn't describe it in such critical terms. Really, politeness is a virtue."

Death looked slightly sad at Seth's comment, and muttered, "Well, it's difficult to find ingredients for tea in the Realm of the Dead."
"Your resistance. It's hopeless, don't you realize?" He held out a hand. "Your fates are under my control here. Why do you not simply stop?" The reapers had formed a circle around him, weapons drawn. Orin was at the front of the group.
"Leave, Monad. The Underrealm is not one of your jurisdictions."
The monad growled. "Your harbor my enemies, and that makes you mine." He slashed his hands sideways, and for a moment the reapers stood still, then dropped. All except for Orin, who stood there with a slash across her stomach.
"Yeah, that won't work." She jumped backwards, behind the group.
"I don't think he'll listen to reason."

OOC: Can I just point out that Julia is still with Seth's sister, hence why I'm not in this thread.

"I don't think he'll listen to reason."
"Then," said Seth calmly, his blade materializing in his hand, "he will have to listen to force."
Seth knew the Monad would take all his strength, an ancient, older then time being of such power he controled entire dimensions. So Seth began to change. He twisted bulged, as though something deep inside was struggling to get out, a half grimace of pain, half smile of sadistic delight on his face. At first glance it seemed he was dressed in tattered rags, but a closer inspection revealed spiked armor, which did not seem so much black-colored as an absence of illumination, seeming to suck in light, ripping it apart and devouring it and leaving only a void. He grew huge, a full ten feet tall, towering above everyone else in the room. His demon form (http://amihedgehog.deviantart.com/art/demon-for-me-28765341). Holding his sword in both hands, he spoke in a voice that seemed it could shake the stars from the sky:
"LET'S GET JIGGY WITH IT."
Plane...
Sam looked out the cockpit window, yelling back to those who still occupied the aircraft, namely Nadoka and Julia. "Lasses," he said, eyes on the island out in front of him, appearing out of the late afternoon, "we're approaching Tokyo, and they're going to force me down with armed fighters. If you're going to make your escape, now is the time. Oh, and rip out and destroy the black box, while you're at it."
Sam referred to the black box placed in almost every passenger plane nowadays, which recorded the flight to see what went wrong. In this case, everything went wrong, and, understandably, Sam did not want the authorities to hear a bunch of supernatural beings conversing and fighting.
Nadoka looked at Julia. Gone was the wide-eyed fear, replaced by grim determination. "Do you have a plan?"

"Indeed." The Monad looked at the ex-Seth up and down before raising his hand. There was a sudden flash of light, and a number of small boulders shot from the sky towards Seth.

Seth seemed to watch the boulders draw closer, then destroyed them all with a single sweep of his great sword, which had grown in proportion to him and was now longer then your average person was tall. He chuckled, which sounded like a booming belly-laugh with his deep, dark voice. "What else you got?"

When Julia smiled, the whole plane seemed to light up,
"I do have a plan. A simple plan. Land as instructed and I assure everything will be fine." She went and sat down next to Sam gave him a reassuring smile before pressing a few controls.

"Quite a lot, but I find its better to pace oneself." He pointed one hand and the ground under Seth's feet, which rose up and began winding around his feet, before the sky turned red. The Monad grinned and began to change. His jaw elongated, until it was like a beak, and then his arms unfurled, now 6 arms were attached to the body. He flicked them and staffs appeared in each hand, each one bearing a colored gem. One red, one blue, one brown, one purple, one white and one black. He thrust the red staff at Seth, and fire sprang from it's tip, like an arrow towards Seth. He then pointed the brown staff and boulders and chunks of rock hurtled towards him from nowhere.

"I do have a plan. A simple plan. Land as instructed and I assure everything will be fine."
"I hope you're right," Sam muttered as they drew closer. By now they were in radar range, and four interceptor jets streaked out from the direction of the island. A message came over the plane's radio:
Flight 268, you are to land at Tokyo airport. Any deviation from your current flight path with result in your destruction without warning. Keep a althitude of one thousand feet until otherwise instructed.
Sam paled.
Underworld...
"Oh, I see," said Seth, blocking the arrow with his sword and destroying the boulders with his other hand, kicking his huge feet to break them out of the ground trying to trap them. "Your staffs are color coded, so if you forget which one does which, you can just looked at the tip and be like, 'Oh yeah, that one shoots blazing underworld Hellfire designed to melt though anything.' Am I right?"

Sam paled.

When Sam looked around, he would see that the blonde angel and Nodoka had gone. In their place was a black haired woman wearing the Uniform of the FBI while behind them was a woman in a rich and expensive looking suit.

Julia took the microphone and spoke to the jets in a harsh voice, completely unlike her own singsong voice,

"This is Special Agent Marsh of the FBI, I am escorting Princess Monique of Serbia away from the disaster at the previous airport. I need a private runway immediately. This top secret Pilot, NO ONE is to know she is here. Understand?"

"The gems are elemental, please don't try to distract me, it is terribly rude." He held the staff with the white stone up and a beam of light shot towards Seth. Then, he held up the black-stoned staff and the world plunged into darkness.

To anyone outside the attack, the Monad, Seth, Carnage, TMM and Orin would have just disappeared. But in truth, they were simply dragged back into the maze.

"This is Special Agent Marsh of the FBI, I am escorting Princess Monique of Serbia away from the disaster at the previous airport. I need a private runway immediately. This is top secret Pilot, NO ONE is to know she is here. Understand?"
Sam almost cried out, stopping himself by biting his tounge and concentrating on flying. The four interceptors had formed up around the plane and were flying so close Sam could see the shapes of the pilot's inside. They relayed the message to their superior, who hurridly gave them orders to escort the plane to a secret landing strip before relaying the message to his superior. If the officer had thought for a moment, he would have realized that the plane was flying in the opposite direction that Serbia was in, but he did not. And because of the ranking system, only the officer's superior had received the message from the United States saying the plane had been hijacked by terrorists. But the message would take time to circulate, and by the time it had been received, two and two put together, orders given and implimented, the plane would already be on the ground.
Nadoka stared at herself in amazement. She had gone from a short nineteen-year-old Japanese to a tall, intimidating-looking women who radiated the arrogance of royalty.
Maze...
Seth was blinded by the light, but when he went to open his eyes again he only saw darkness, and realized what had happened. "Come on, now, ot's not fair to fight when we can't even see you!" he called.

When the plane touched down, the first thing out would be a dozen men in khaki armed with short submachine guns. They were followed by Julia in her FBI suit and another Agent who seemed to have appeared. Between them was Nadoka. The dozen Men had formed themselves up in two lines along the route to the commander of the airfield,
they were wearing the emblems of the Serbian Royal Guard.

"Special Agent Marsh" Julia stated again in her harsh voice, "This is Special Agent Johnston. We need a quick transport out of her by road. We think there are Balkans activists trying to assassinate the Princess"

"It's not fair to suddenly turn 10 foot tall either really. Well, at any rate, it won't be dark for much longer..." Light suddenly spilled into the light and a number of Viking warriors were suddenly stood in front of Seth.
"Welcome to Valhalla."

Nadoka's head was spinning as the soldiers appeared from nowhere, and she was hearded out with them to Japanese soil. Waiting for them were dark suited Japanese, with a ideling limousin behind them. One stepped forward. "The Princess must be taken to a safehouse. The car is armored, she will be protected. Go quickly, the driver knows the way."
The door was opened as more Japanese security men retrieved Sam and put him into the limo with them. "Your pilot could be a liability if he is captured."
The limousin sped off, leaving behind the plane and men in dark suits.
"Welcome to Valhalla."
Seth blinked in the dazzling light, squinting and shielding his eyes. He noticed that he was suddenly in human form, without his sword. All he could manage was "What the hell?"

A barrage of plasma shots struck the Vikings down.

"Fool," said a voice from somewhere in the air. "No one controls my fate, and, for every game you have, I have one that I can play, too."

And then, for a moment, the Metal Man faded back into view--right in front of the Monad, with all four blades drawn and his. A blinding flash followed, at which time a barage of missiles and a volley of plasma fire rained down on the creature, backed up by divine intervention. These had been carefully chosen to emulate the attacks that the Monad had made against Seth. A moment later, the air buzzed as three titanium-silver and one pure silver blades, with diamond edges, sang through the air, concentrating their efforts on the Monad's staves. The Metal Man realized that every time a gemstone was cut from its setting, the Monad lost its corresponding power.

Nadoka's head was spinning as the soldiers appeared from nowhere, and she was hearded out with them to Japanese soil. Waiting for them were dark suited Japanese, with a ideling limousin behind them. One stepped forward. "The Princess must be taken to a safehouse. The car is armored, she will be protected. Go quickly, the driver knows the way."
The door was opened as more Japanese security men retrieved Sam and put him into the limo with them. "Your pilot could be a liability if he is captured."
The limousin sped off, leaving behind the plane and men in dark suits.


Julia got into the back of the car with Nadoka while 'Johnson' got into the front. She gave a small smile to Nadoka then looked at the Driver,
"Thank you Marius, you're done for now."
The driver turned around to reveal a smiling man with pale skin and the same wings as Julia,

"Not a problem, Julia, a little more warning would be nice next time though" He turned to Nadoka who had reverted to her original form, "Nice to meet you, your highness" He grinned, then he was gone.

Julia slide forward into the driver's seat and smiled,
"Where do you need to get to?" She laughed.

Nadoka shook her head. "Tokyo, and Japan, was our only real destination. From there we had no plan, we just assumed we'd hide out. If you have a safehouse, or something, that you can take me to, that would be great."
Down the street...
The car slowly rolled down the street towards him, or at least it seemed slow. With him, everything was out of proportion. A pale man with black hair and little sunglasses, tinted so that all anyone saw if they tried to look into his eyes was a reflection of themselves. Ironic, really, considering he was, in a way, a reflection of them. Of all humans. He sensed them, the angels, sworn enemies. Foolish, to come in such force. Now he could track them, follow them home, and when the time was right, strike...
Master would be pleased.
OOC: Hope nobody minds me adding another villan, considering Carnage might turn to the Light side, Monad's about to get his ass kicked, and that other dude is nowhere to be found. Let's have a little consistency with our evilness, here!

"We have many safehouses" Julia smiled, "As many as you like. Where do you want to go?" She laughed at the question as she threaded through the traffic of Tokyo, not getting caught in any jams mysteriously.

Nadoka was at a loss. She didn't know anything about her ansestrial homeland, despite the fact that her grandmother had imigrated from there, after the war. "Just...somewhere senic, I think," she said, staring out the window. The streets, as they always were in the most populious city in the world, were packed with people, most of them walking and the rest on bicycles. So busy was she looking at them that she never even noticed the black motorcycle that seemed to be tailing them, the helmeted driver nodding once when Julia caught sight of him in the rearview mirror.

Julia thought for a few seconds,
"How about just outside Tokyo?" She asked, "We have a nice little house out in the mountains if you want to go." She laughed lightly, "How did you like being Princess of Serbia?" She asked.

OOC:

I'm not so sure that the Monad is in over his head. For starters, he can move between dimensions. He can desync from the universe and just let all of TMM's munitions pass him by. Mind you, TMM can chase after him, but the shots already fired simply won't hit. For seconds, TMM has a finite supply of missiles. He'll run out eventually. For thirds, with the cyborg's main ordinance neutralized, the Monad has six weapons (staffs) to his five. The only thing that TMM has that he hasn't used yet (the fifth weapon) is a shield shot. In the meantime, the Monad has heat (shields can probably stop the fire), boulders (plasma guns can probably blow 'em away, but maybe not, depending on the boulder) and two so-far unused Special Weapons. TMM's best hope is to wear the Monad down, so that his reaction time slows a little, THEN hit him with the missiles and what have you...IF the Monad wears down. Remember, the thing took on entire legions of hellspawn. It's got to have some endurance.

This could be quite a little skirmish.

Mind you, I'm assuming that the comment about the Monad getting beat up is intended to refer to its IMMEDIATE IC FUTURE, and that Seth and Carnage won't have time to come to TMM's aid. If they do, that changes things--but the Monad is SO powerful, with the weapons that it has, that it could conceivably hold the three of them at bay--though it would be far wiser if it tries to isolate them and pick each one off individually. But they should know that, too. (TMM is particularly worried about Seth right now. He's not sure that demonic warrior has the moxie to go a few rounds with the Monad alone. He won't let that happen if he can stop it.)

OOC:Carnage might turn to the Light side
I was thinking of that but decided against it. My new finishing post will be him killing Azazil and becoming ruler of hell, as a favor to VT cause he has a similar thing planed for Orin i belive.

As the vikings fell under TMMs volly Carnage vanished, reapearing behind the Monad in his true form, bringing a huge fist down on it "REMBER ME?!?!" he bellowed.

OOC: My comment was made because I am so far unimpressed by the Monad, but even it said ICly that it's full extent hadn't been touched on yet. Perhaps my character's overconfidence extends to OOCly.
IC:
"How did you like being Princess of Serbia?"
Nadoka shrugged. "It's alright, I suppose. Balkan assassins, hmm? I've been attacked by things far worse then human assassins," she laughed.
Maze...
Seth sighed to himself as TMM and Carnage attacked the Monad and changed back, confused and irritated. "Okay, now you're just pissing me off." he growled, and swung his sword in concert with Carnage's fist and TMM's vollys.

Nadoka shrugged. "It's alright, I suppose. Balkan assassins, hmm? I've been attacked by things far worse then human assassins," she laughed.

"I know," Julia laughed, "But it was all I could think off at short notice. Got their attention though didn't it? Special Agent Marsh lets me see many things" She gave a sly grin then stopped the car,
"We are here"

The journey had taken them less than five minutes and they were in the rolling hills and forests of rural Japan. In front of them was an old Japanese house in white paint and three stories tall,
""After you" She smiled and indicated to the door.

The Monad seemed to phase, the bullets and sword strokes passed straight through it, seemingly not doing any damage. Only the silver wounded him, and even then it was just a slight cut.
"You forget, I am angel and demon." He rolled, then flipped staffs around. Blades snapped out of the bottom and he quickly made a flurry of blows before sinking into the ground. With a rumble, 6 huge colored worms (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y54/ticopelp/dimfuture/frank_herbert_dune_sandworm.jpg) appeared and dove at the group.

"You had to taunt it didn't you?" Carnage groaned, doging a strike from one and swinging it into a few walls by its tail.

The white worm roared and opened it's mouth. A beam of white light shot into Carnage, shrinking him back to his normal size. After that, the blue worm dived down, it's mouth open, heading for Carnage.

"Oh, bug..." Carnage said as the worm crashed down on top of him, to his credit he sliced the indes of its mouth a few times before it 'killed' him.

"Damn it!" Orin leapt backwards, avoiding a swipe from the black worm's tail. "We'll need all the help we can get, even if he is a demon..." She took an odd hourglass out from the satchel. It was made of solid brimstone. The sand all rested at the bottom. She frowned, then flipped the hourglass upside down.

Back in the Underworld, Death sighed.
"Foolish child..."

The worm rose up, shuderd and exploded as Carnage (http://i7.ebayimg.com/02/i/06/40/ac/47_1_b.JPG) blew it apart, hovering over the mess left behind by the worm (on pure black wings). "THANKS!" he yelled to Orin "PAYBACK TIME!" he roared as he rocketed towards the white worm, his sword materialising in his hands and several black arrows and balls of black fire apeared out of nowhere and shot towards it.

OOC: i know the new pic for carnage is female but imagine it as a man with black wings.

Muttering, "I'm gonna pay for that..." repeatedly, Orin slashed down the belly of the white sandworm , Carnage's arrows and bolts of fire smashing into the gap. His sword pierced it's body and with a screech and a flash of light, the worm disappeared.

With bloody grin Carnage turned in to a huge monster (http://www.puolenkuunpelit.com/kauppa/images/gw_wh40k_necron_ctan_the_nightbringer.gif), blood dripping from its forearm/ blade in great torents as he shot towards the red worm.

"Two down," muttered Seth, swinging his sword to cut the blue colored worm lengthwise. He had little to fear from them, unless they were somehow able to force him back into his human form.
"After you"
Nadoka nodded silently and entered, gazing in wonder and delight at the beautiful interior. Largly comprised of wood and rice paper, the inside was well-lit and furnished with more modern fruniture and appliances, such as a fully stocked kichen, a computer, a gigantic entertainment center and what seemed to be a swimming pool out back. In her finery and surronded by riches, protected by angels, Nadoka felt like she was on top of the world.
Except...
Somewhere, out there, or more likely down there, Seth was battling the horrors of the underworld in her name. And however comfortable or safe she was, Nadoka could never forget her brother, her protector and friend for all those lonely years.

"What's wrong?" Julia asked, looking slightly concerned, then a look of realisation dawned over her face,
"You're worried about him. Aren't you?" She asked tenderly, taking Nadoka carefully by the shoulders, "He'll be fine" she said in a soothing tone, "He's more than capable of looking after himself. Then he'll be back"

The blue worm screeched as Seth's sword cut him in half. Tidal waves of water poured out and again it disappeared. The red worm gave a great roar and dived under the ground. After a few moments, the ground erupted, lava spewing out of the newly formed volcano. Chunks of molten rock and huge boulders flew out. Meanwhile, the black worm had appeared behind Carnage and breathed out a cloud of poisonous gas.

OOC: Did you miss my post, VT?
IC:
"He's more than capable of looking after himself. Then he'll be back"
"I hope nobody died, because of us," said Nadoka sorrowfully, realizing that untold numbers of people, security guards and SWAT and National Guards and civilians had already died at the airport because of them. Even as she thought, she suddenly turned, looking around. "Where's Sam?" she asked in alarm, looking out the door to see if he was late in coming in.
But Sam was nowhere to be found.
Hell...
The man in the dark suit kneeled, head bowed, as two minor demons dragged a prone form before him. Dropping him, they retreated into the red-tinged shadows, crimsion eyes glittering maliciously. On the altar the man with graying hair struggled against unseen bonds, not even able to groan in fear, eyes wide.
Sam was not in a good place.
The man did not look up as he spoke.
"Azazil, I have brought forth the one who knows the location of that which you seek. May he surrender his information to you, so that you may be victorious in your task and be glorified forever and ever."
OOC2: Don't really care who RPs the major demon, as long as somebody does.

OOC: Oh, sorry, edited.

"Where's Sam?"

Julia now looked around and saw, in horror, that Sam indeed, was not following them in at all.
"Wait here" She said sternly to Nadoka as she edged out towards the car, looking for some sign of the Pilot,
"Sam!" She called, "You out here?" She was looking for movement.

Carnage grinned, spining around his sword extened even further and sliced at the black worm.

In hell Azazil grined "Good. You may go, I will send you a reward shortly."
Turning to Sam he said "Now then, how much pain are you willing to endure before you tell me what I want?" he asked.

Seth stood solidly as the water washed over him, waiting for the next worm to appear. It appeared Carnage could more than hold his own.
Hell...
The man in the suit grinned back, still not looking, and bowed. "Excellent," he hissed, and dissappeared.
Sam cowered before the demon, trying to scramble away but stopped by the pikes of the laughing demons behind him. "Don't...don't hurt me, please. I'm a good man, I have a family!"
Japan...
Nadoka watched from the doorway, then gasped, pointing to the limo.
"You out here?"
Leaning casually against the limo was the man in the black suit, a cigerrate between his lips, dark sunglasses over his eyes. "I'm afraid he's not in right now. May I take a message?"

When Carnage went to stab the worm, it was no longer there. Instead, his sword sliced through shadow. The worm itself was now in front of him, biting towards him.

"OH NO YOU DONT" Carnage yelled, breathing a torrent of black fire at the worm.

In hell Azazil grined and his outline blured as he assumed a grotesq form of Sams wife "Oh I know, and I would hate for something to hapen to them "An image of Sams house apeared in mid air, several deamons (http://www.themindrobber.co.uk/doctor-who-fathers-day/dvd708-.jpg) swirled around over head, seemingly unphased by the sunlight or the army men pointing thier weapons at them. Only stoping to swoop at Sams family if they tried to go outside.

The black fire seemed to be sucked into the worm, and it grew larger as the fire hit it. It made an odd barking roar and fired a bolt of dark energy from it's mouth.

Meanwhile the brown worm spat boulders the size of high-rise apartments at Seth.

Sam screamed out loud, sobbing at the image, terrified by the broken, bloodied image of his wife. But instead of breaking, he began to pray in a halting, trembling voice:
"And as I walk though the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, like a shepherd watching over his flock..."
Underworld...
"Oh for Christ's sake..." muttered Seth as he dodged the enormous boulders, moving impossibly fast for something so large. He pulled his hand back and caught a gigantic boulder in one hand, spinning it and throwing it straight back at the brown worm.

"I'm afraid he's not in right now. May I take a message?"

"Nadoka" Julia said without turning around, "Get back in the house. Now!" She snapped the last word then just stared at the man for a few moments,
"May I ask who you are?" She said quietly, calmly.

OOC: The OOC for the follow up is up. Welcome to the Glorious Return. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=552880)

Carnage dodged nimbly to the side of the ball od dark energy, slicing down at the worms 'head' with his blade after completing a 360 degree rotation.

In hell Azazil hissed "Your prayers can't save you down here child. This is my domain!" he emphasised this last point by sending a ripling shadow around the room.

OOC: See my last post, Sam's words.
IC:
Nadoka scurried back inside, but continued to watch from a handy window.
If the man noticed her exit, he showed no sign. His skin seemed unnaturally pale even in the bright sunlight, and indeed, things seem to dim as clouds gathered overhead, suddenly rolling in from out of nowhere.
"May I ask who you are?"
A delighted, decidedly evil smile crossed the man's face. "You mean you really don't know? Matthew 8:28-34, angel." He made no movement, continuing to lean unthreateningly against the car.
In hell Azazil hissed "Your prayers can't save you down here child. This is my domain!" he emphasised this last point by sending a ripling shadow around the room.
"God can do all things," mumbled Sam, watching the shadow as it bounded around the room.

The worm dodged the boulder, and then bit into the ground and pulled up a mountain. Then, the mountain smashed out, the entire mountain flying towards Seth.

The swordstroke passed into the black worm, and the worm exploded in a boom of darkness. Then, the brown worm dragged back into the earth and the Monad reappeared.
"You may kill me now if you want. Apparently, you have some skill. A match for my own, perhaps." There was a huge, ear to ear grin on it's face.

OOC: TG Xis

"Exept protect your family it seems" hissed Azazil, holding Sam up against the wall by his thoght. He clicked his fingers and one of the deamons circling the house swooped down, went thrught the roof and re-emrged (now breaking the roof) with a child clutched in its four arms "Now tell me what I want to know or your family joins me here for all eternaty."

Carnage decended, hovering just above the ground "So be it. I shall not show mercy, beast, do not expect any." he said, his blade ignighting with hell fire and several balls of black fire erupted into existance around him "It apeares I own you more than I should, for you have hightened my strength" he said quickly to Orin with his mind.

The mountain thrown by the worm missed, and Seth regarded the Monad coolly. "There's no need to fight, now. Never mind the fact that you tried to kill us all, I really have no quarral with you. If you wish death, now," his flourished his blade, "then I will provide."
Hell...
Sam choked as he saw his child, his little boy, carried screaming from his house to hover in the air in the clutchs of the demon. The soldiers on the ground could do nothing for fear of hitting the boy, so they merely kept their weapons trained on the flying demon. Sam was crying quietly, and nodding his head, rocking back and forth. "Please, Lord..."

"You may have to pay me back on that."

The Monad smiled, bowed his head and opened his arms.
"Come, then. Put me out of my happy."

OOC: Would be easier if he'd just go online in AIM. Then he'd see my authorization request, too... :) :) :)

--------------------------

"It taunted me," the Metal Man replied.

The worms were ignoring the cyborg, concentrating on the others. This was a mistake. A number of things seemed to happen very quickly once. The Metal Man disappeared again. Then, a stream of plasma tore through the ground, quickly digging a small ditch. This diverted most of the water from the blue worm...right into the red worm's volcano. Then, the Metal Man reappeared directly in front of the Monad.

"Why is all this killing necessary?" he asked. "What are we fighting over?"

"Over? Why, over the hand of Master Seth's good sister! And her head, and her chest and all the other little bits that will be put in my scrapbook." His grin widened, if that was possible. "Pray, good fellows, which one of you shall dispatch me?"

"As you wish." Carnage said, suddenly right infront of the Monad, his sword/ arm held back. "Got ya!" he quiped as he stabbed at the creature several times, the balls of fire he had conjured impacting against it.

In hell Azazil began to glare directly into Sams face, the tears on his face evaporating "Tell me and he lives. God cares not about the lives of mortals, he knows they are all doomed" he raised his hands, ready to click his fingers again and seal the boys fait.

"You mean you really don't know? Matthew 8:28-34, angel."
Then a flicker of realisation appeared on Julia's face. She gave a small woeful smile,
"Why are you here?" She asked, frowning, "You have no business being here"

The Monad laughed at the last sword blow and dropped. The body disappeared straight away, replaced instead with the 5 gems.
"Well, it looks like he's dead." Orin picked up the five gems and looked at them. Dropping them again, she sighed. "Well, one good thing done today. It's still a shame I won't be able t-" She dropped sideways and hit the ground with a 'flmpf'. Kain appeared behind the group, holding a scythe.
"'Scuse me, gents." He swiped the scythe over Orin and then clapped, a small marble appearing in his hands afterwards. "Told her that doing good wasn't good for you."

"Ill be needing that marble if you wouldn't mind, master Kain" Carnage said in a voice not disimilar from captain Barbosas.

Kain's eyes narrowed.
"Why do you need it exactly?"

"Why exactly would you care?" Carnage replyed "If you wish i could take it from you by force, but i doubt you'd like that."

"Well... If I took her back to the boss the marble would be broken... But I'm afraid I can't." He said, as he passed the marble to Carnage. "And I tried valiantly to defend the marble but you were too strong and took it. Deal?"

Seth sniggered as the Monad vanished, to be replaced by the five gems. "He wasn't so tough," he chuckled as he reverted to his human form, blade vanishing. He nodded to Carnage and the Metal Man. "Thank you both, for the help."
Japan...
"You have no business being here"
His grin grew even wider. "Ah, but you are wrong. I am here for the angel, to bring to my Master. That is my purpose."
Hell...
"Okay," Sam gasped, "okay. I'll tell you. They're at a house, outside of Tokyo, in Japan. I don't know the exact location."

"Of course. For once i shall uphold the deal" He said, taking the marble.
"Good bye for now." he said to TMM and Seth, adding to seth "You and your sister need fear attack from me no longer. If all goes to plan you shall not need to fear it from any under the rule of the Devil." and disapered, the marble safley tooked away in his pocket.

In hell he rematerialized in a room of brimstone. In its center was a large penticle. In the center of the penticle he placed the marble trhen, steping out side the lines on the floor, he began to recite an incantation.

"Good boy" he chided, droping sam to the ground and claping his hands, the deamons vanished and Sams family apered next to to him. "And deception serves its pupose again" he said, smirking as th Imps that had impersonated Sams family resumed thier true form.

"Ah, but you are wrong. I am here for the angel, to bring to my Master. That is my purpose."

Julia gave another sad sigh and shook her head,
"You goal is to take the Angel. My goal is to stop you." She said it quietly but also with a vague hint of a thread.

The room flashed red, black and white and the the marble slowly cracked open. Smoke wisped from the cracks and it slowly before to form into a shape. A human shape.
"to go back. What?" Orin (http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z107/Kain1235/darkangel.jpg) looked around. "Where am I?" She looked at herself. "And why the hell do I look like... well, me?" She looked up at Carnage. "Oh... Well, it's nice to know you have some heart."

"That would be your coice. Just as I prefer this form, you aparently feel most comfertablke like that." He looked wounded at he heart rem,ark "Have a heaart? Me dear? No dear?" he said "If you must know it is ato repay my debt and also because i need you."

"Well," the Metal Man said, picking up the gems, one by one, "Our work appears to be done. We'd better get out of here." He placed the gems in various compartments on his suit, never allowing them to touch. "I'm going to have to scatter these as widely as I can," he finished.

"Pete, you still there?"

"Boss! You were off my screens for a while there! It's good to know that you're alright."

"Can you zap us out of here now?"

"I don't--huh! Looks like I can. The dimensional interference that kept me from getting to you just went away!"

"Figured as much. You coming, Seth?"

"That would be your coice. Just as I prefer this form, you aparently feel most comfertablke like that." He looked wounded at he heart rem,ark "Have a heaart? Me dear? No dear?" he said "If you must know it is ato repay my debt and also because i need you."

"Ah. I though there'd be an ulterior motive." Sitting crosslegged, she continued. "Well, what is it?"

Sam gasped up and Carnage and looked at the imps, staring from Carnage to Azazil. "Wha? Who?" he pointed a trembling finger at Carnage.
Underworld...
"I need to be getting back," Seth sighed. "The people at my day job will miss me."
Japan...
"You goal is to take the Angel. My goal is to stop you."
"Then I am afraid we are at odds. I take it you won't step out of the way and let me do my job?"
There was a hint of red showing though behind the glasses now, and when the man spoke sharp, jagged teeth could be seen behind his lips.

"Azazil. I am sick of doing his biding, of killing those who help me just because he wishes it. I plan to over throw him, kill him and take his place. If you help me i will provide you with great power, and ill allow you to do mostly what you want. so Whadda say?"

"Then I am afraid we are at odds. I take it you won't step out of the way and let me do my job?"

Julia gave a grim nod. There was a pale white began to appear behind her own pupils and a strange light radiated from her body,
"You are correct" She said in a menacing voice

"Azazil. I am sick of doing his biding, of killing those who help me just because he wishes it. I plan to over throw him, kill him and take his place. If you help me i will provide you with great power, and ill allow you to do mostly what you want. so Whadda say?"

Her eyebrows arched.
"Mostly?" She thought it over for a moment. "Well, I guess you did kind of give me back my original form. So that makes you at least worthy of helping. Sure. I guess that means we're friends now. So, in the good faith of friendship, I'll tag along." She clapped and a small amount of hellfire appeared in her hands. "Huh. Apparently you gave me some demon powers. I'm not a hellspawn or anything now, am I?"

"Not entirely, you'll find your fairly similasr to one, thoe not so... grotesq as most." he said, heading to an archway that had just formeed and lead into the room with azazil in it.

Orin saw Sam and looked away, before realizing he couldn't recognize her, except her voice. She wasn't sure if her voice had changed. She looked up at Azazil and coughed.
"Excuse me, scary demon king man?"

"What is it, Girl?" Azazil responded, blissfuly unaware of Carnage stood behind him. Carnage looked at sam, pressed a finger to his lips and pulled a shard from his armor, not dareing to summon his blades incase it alerted Azazil.

"I believe you gave this man your word that you'd let him go. I think you should really think about this."

Carange raised the shard and stabed. Azazil turned just in time to see the blade penatrate his kull befor he droped dead. A black shadow rose up from his body, which subsiquently vaporised, and swirled around the rooms ocupents, settling on Carnage.

After a few moments the smoke was gone, leaving Carnge (- the gun and stone fist) (http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2006/10/Hellboy-thumb.jpg) stood in the center of the room. "Well. that was easy." he said.

"Indeed it was. So that makes you a Prince of Darkness, huh? What does that make me then?"

"Well it just so happens the Azazil left a fair few greater deamon slots vacent, take your pick."

"Well, what about being your right hand girl? You've seen my abilities before, you know what I can do. What do you think?"

"Uh," Sam tentatively raised his hand. "Can I go home now?"
"You are correct"
"Then I suppose it is unavoidable," he sighed. Nadoka, from the window, muttered something that neither heard audibly, but the man seemed to somehow hear it. "Who the hell am I? That's easy, little girl," He smiled, eyes fully red behind his glasses now. Clouds gathered a lightening flashed, and his voice grew deep and corse, the sound of horrifying thousands of evils:
"WE ARE THE LEGION!"

"Nadoka! Get out of here!" Julia cried as the clouds thundered and the man's voice grew deeper and deeper, "Get out of here! Now!"
Julia hovered into the air, the light surrounding her now as bright as a star and a her skin was as pale as paper,
"I do not want to fight you" She said in a deep, thundering voice of her own.

Nadoka turned to run into the interior of the house, but there were two snarling demon imps blocking her way. Four feet high, they held daggers and approached her meancingly. Nadoka stepped back, hand feeling beside her.
I knew I saw one...
Her hand hit a rack that fell over, but she grasped the long peice of metal and tossed it to her other hand, smiling.
Ahha!
Nadoka held the sword in front of her, and the imps were a bit more catious, eyeing the blade. Memories of Mista came back to them.
Fortunatly, imps are stupid.
Outside...
"RAAAGGHHHHHHH!"
The scream was half furious anger, half mad laughter. The glasses shattered, falling to the ground and vaporizing on contact, revealing glowing red eyes. A terrible wind whipped though the area, howling and threatening to whip both the angel and demons off their feet. The limo was thrown by the sheer power crackling around the area, smashing apart and crashing into a field some distance away. Sizzling balls of red energy formed over each hand and Legion threw both at Julia.

Julia was able to evade one of the blasts and seem to catch the other in her hands. She held it for a few seconds, face screwed up with the effort, then she threw it back at Legion. Then she waited grimly for the next attack. Where the shattered glass and cars flung towards the Angel, she simply stopped them and let them drop to the ground. The light from her was more powerful than ever

"PLAYING THE DEFENSIVE?"
Legion smiled and simply absorbed the energy blast in itself. He lifted his hands as if pushing something into the air, and gigantic, hill-sized rocks rumbled out of the earth around Julia. Now caged, the Legion clenched his fist, and a spear appeared there. He hurtled it at her, then a sword appeared, black and gothic. Taking it in hand, he watched the spear arc towards her, wondering how she would react to the fact that there was an explosive on the tip.
House...
One of the imps lauched itself at Nadoka with a shrill cry, but she sidestepped and decapitated it smoothly, kicking the other it the face. Her heeled shoe stuck in it's nose, smashing the bone in, and it reeled about, crying, before finally falling over. Both bodies burst into flames, setting the wood and paper house alight. Soon it would become and inferno. Turning, Nadoka opened the door and ran out to the pool. But the pool was filled with blood, not water, and something rose out of the murky crimsion depths.

Julia watched as the spear flew towards her. She closed her eyes and seemed to mouth something silently to herself. When she was done, she opened her eyes again and stared at Legion. Suddenly a circle of light appeared in front of her, spinning directly in the way of the spear. She watched calmly as it exploded on the circle, shattering it like glass. However, she was untouched and the rocks had been shattered by the blast.
She smiled and held out her hand. As she did so, a sword handle flew from her belt. She gripped it and watched as small drops of pearl white liquid began to emerge from the handle, and form into a blade. Like raindrops in reverse and when it was finished, a white katana had been formed and she pointed the tip at Legion and smiled.

The thing (http://elenriel.deviantart.com/art/The-Dreaded-Swamp-Monster-18929754) rose from the pool, dripping blood, snarling and glaring right at Nadoka. She held her sword level with it's chest as it pulled itself fully out and advanced.
Outside...
A single, tiny ruby appeared in the pomel of the sword, the very top part still see-though crystal. "THIS, ANGEL, IS FILLED WITH THE BLOOD OF INNOCENTS. YOU WILL BE MY LAST KILL, AND ONCE THE JEWEL IS FILLED, ALL THE LEGION WILL BE UNLEASHED ONTO THE EARTH. PREPARE TO DIE."

Julia was now hovering into the air, although she was not using her wings and just seemed to be floating. She pointed her katana at it,
"The Lord cast you out and I will do the same" She growled, beckoning Legion to come to her.

The Legion launched itself at her, his sword held high for a single, immensly powerful vertical strike to smash away her defenses and cut her apart.
Pool...
At the same time Legion attacked Julia, the thing attacked Nadoka. She slashed at it and an arm fell off, dropping into the pool of blood. It screamed and slashed at her, ripping a hole in her dress and cutting her stomach. She doubled over in pain, blood seeping out, but even as the thing stepped forward to finish her off, Nadoka drove the sword though it's stomach. The thing howled and stumbled backward, tumbling into the pool and vanishing with a splash of blood.

Julia was able to dodge out of the way of the initial strike and parried another blow, both weapons clashed together relatively powerfully, blowing cars and walls away with the force of light meeting dark. Then, Julia sensed Nadoka's pain and, closing her eyes again, she focused everything she had and, with her fist glowing like the sun, she punched Legion with all the strength she could muster.

Legion was quite enjoying itself, creating destruction and ripping away puny human-made things, battling the Angel. It smiled, turned, and stuck, was blocked, stuck again, spun-
And was met by a fist of Light.
"WHAT?"
Julia's fist impacted with Legion's face, and the dark entity exploded in a fury of black energy, a howling hurricane of Hell. It ripped up grass, uprooted trees, entirely blew away the house and everything within a five mile radias. Juilia was swept off her feet and sent tumbling though the gale.
Pool...
Nadoka sank to the deck, hands over her stomach, curled in the fetal position. The dark storm screamed over her, tearing at her dress until it was nothing more than rags, but she herself was not touched.
Underworld...
Seth's eyes suddenly widened, and, without any explination, suddenly levitated upward and smashed though the roof high above in a Superman fashion. If one stood to the side and looked though the hole one saw only blackness, but if one stood directly beneath the hole one could see Seth had blasted his way though entire other dimensions, and curious, alien faces and things looked down from their heights or up from their planes, spying on the neighbors.

Julia breathed deeply for a few seconds, regaining her composure and trying to calm down. It had been millienia since she had last used her power to that extent and she was rusty. She gasped again, allowed her sword to melt into itself then tucked it into her belt. She then flew back around the ruined house to where Nadoka was curled up.
"Nadoka," She said urgently, feeling around to her wound, "Where does it hurt?" She asked gently, the fierce light that had surrounded her during the battle had vanished.

The dark storm dissapated, but unfortunatly, Legion had acheived it's primary goal, to be unleashed upon the world. It had never sworn alligence to Carnage, Azazil or even Satan himself, it's only passion destruction. Slowly but surely each of the Legion would take on demon forms.
A sign of the End Times.
In the rubble Nadoka was barely concious. She just groaned and lifted her hands from her stomach. Blood poured from the wound, it was deep. While normally an angel would be able to heal anything short of raising the dead, this was a demon inflicted wound, impervious to angel healing. Such were the rules of the fighting. Just as a demon could never undo the goodness of an angel, a angel could never undo the physical assault of a demon. Nadoka was losing blood fast, breathing shallowly.
Near them a hole opened in the ground and Seth shot out, running towards them. He fell to his knees beside Nadoka, cradeling her head in his hands.
"Nadoka," he said, a crack entering his voice, "speak to me."
But all he got was short gasps of breath.
OOC; Don't worry. I have a plan. ;)
For now, though, I'm signing off from this thread so we can give everyone else time to catch up.

OOC: Good idea.

All Julia could do was put her hands over the wound and use her powers to try and heal the wound. It rescinded slightly but the damage had been done already and no amount of power could change that, not even Julia's. It was even worse that she was exhausted from the battle, she could barely stand.

"Well, what about being your right hand girl? You've seen my abilities before, you know what I can do. What do you think?"

"I can think of noone better. But what role shall you fill?. Decite, torment? Black heart was the right hand man untill he fell victim to his own greed and became legion. Speaking of which, heres a list of the unfilled positions *a large scroll with about 20 positions listed on it apeares8, I must see what legion is up to."

Carnage vanished instantly in hell and reapered in front of the house. The fires instantly died as he steped inside and went to the pool. Once there he saw Juliea Seth and Nadoka. "Ah and what is this? Legion has been having fun I see." he said, stepping up to them "Relax Im not here to kill her" he said.

Reading through the list, Orin frowned.
"None of these names aren't terribly optimistic... Well... I guess I'll be Torment. Why not." She folded the scroll.

"Pete," the Metal Man said, "I'm going through that hole. When I'm through, seal it. Then, find me."

From above, Brain Jar rained fired down on Seth's portal, closing it off before anything unsavory could get through.

"Done," said the AI. "Now, to join the party."

The Metal Man appeared beside Seth, just as Carnage spoke. "Relax," he said, "I'm not here to kill her."

"That's good," the cyborg replied. "I would have hated to have to add you to the clean-up list. You are a pain in the neck."

Can't they leave me alone?!
Seth ignored them all, kneeling over Nadoka, softly murmuring words unheard by any except her. His hands were covered in blood, salty tears mixing with them as he held onto her weakly grasping fingers. The wound was deep, probably rupturing internal organs. No amount of human or supernatural medical help could save her now.
Nadoka smiled sadly, her eyes opening and gazing into Seth's own. There was a great rumble of thunder, sounding almost like a horn, and suddenly everyone was aware of a white horse. It was standing at the end of the road pawing at the ground, with the rider cloaked and hidden in white robes. A crown was atop the hidden head, tarnished silver gleaming. A hand, sickly and rotting, extended from beneath the robes, holding a bow with a single arrow notched inside. It drew the string back and fired, the arrow flying impossibly high over their heads into the clouds. The horse reared up and it and the rider vanished.
The first Hourseman had done his duty.
The question was, which was he?
Amercia...
"I want this area under qurantine NOW!"
Men and women in HazMat suits ran about, a huge, high dome being erected over the area, made of plastic. Outside local police and National Guard stood with their rifles pointed forward, ready to beat back any of the curious who were gathering outside. Inside the dome people were lying on the ground, covered in boils oozing blood and pus. Many were on all fours, throwing up blood and bile, their entire bodies shuddering with pain and exertion. Rashes covered much of their bodies, and those who weren't unconcious or throwing up were coughing temendously with such force that they were unable to do anything else.
Japan...
The hospitals were quickly being overloaded, doctors and nurses swamped by patients. What seemed to be standered fever, cough and sore throat was rapidly spiraling out of control, and there were rumors, whispers.
H5N1.
The Bird Flu.
Expanding rapidly to humans, infecting mysteriously fast, Japan was on the verge of an epedemic, an outbreak of epic proportions. Bird Flu in humans had a sixty percent fatality rate, and, while vaccines were being applied, the disease was mutating so quickly that the current treatment could cease to be effective in as little as a day.
Mountains...
Nadoka sighed and closed her eyes, and to the great surprise of everyone there, the wounds were gone, not even scars remaining.
OOC: VT, you have a TG.

"Hmmm. You unleashed her powers? impressive. It would apear the reapers will e busy, and we shall get many souls in these few days that follow. Ypu may well have doomed mankind, congratulations." he said, pulling out a cell phone and dialing death.

"H...how are...you feeling?"

Julia tried to ask, gasping for breath as though she had just run a marathon. She was on her knees to look over Nadoka but now she was shaking violently. With a loud gasp, she keeled over onto her side. She was coughing harshly and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"You may well have doomed mankind, congratulations."
Seth looked striken. "But I didn't DO anything! It was destined to happen, besides, does she look like she's causing the deaths of millions of people?" he pointed at Nadoka who was now sleeping peacefully. Before Carnage could answer, however, Julia seemed to become violently ill. Seth turned his attention to her. "Angel? Angel, can you hear me?" He placed his hands on her convulsing side.

"Angel? Angel, can you hear me?"

Julia gave a loud gasp as Seth placed his hands on her side, as though it was causing her intense physical pain to be touched. She thrashed to fight him off and gave a weak smile,
"I'm...f...fine" She stuttered, "I...it's noth...nothing"

In fact it was serious and she knew it. Legion had unleashed the worst kind of demons on the world as well as weakening her from the fight. Her strength would continue to be sapped as long as the four horsemen continued to reek havoc on the world. She had to withdraw to heaven, return to safety and let the world crash and burn as intended. But she didn't, she couldn't. She had to do something she had never done before. She had to betray her Superiors for one good reason.
She had seen the light and Metal Man had made his point. She had seen Humanity for what it could offer. Now she wanted to help give it a second chance.

"It is not our place angel" Carnage said, as if reading her mind. "Even I respect that and im Saten now. Go back to heaven, God would send you to Hell otherwise. You woud esentialy be doing as I did durin the fall. However seening as god gives us all free will, make your own mind up, I'm getting out of the way" he said and vanished back to hell.

Orin looked sideways from kicking imps into the fires when Carnage appeared again.
"So how'd it go? World screwed yet?" She passed Carnage the scroll. All the titles were wiped away except for Torment.

"Oh yea I rekon it'll last for a few years. Good choice" He said, examining the scroll, turning to the remaing imp he said "Prepair her rooms" and sent it rocketing from the room with fire from its ass.

"I'll be going home now, so much administration to be done, Armageton and so on. I shall see you later" he said, steping thrugh the window.

"Ouch." She muttered, then nodded to Carnage. "Can't escape the paperwork anywhere, huh?" She smiled, the followed the imp.

"I'm...f...fine" She stuttered, "I...it's noth...nothing"
"Bullshit," said Seth softly, "something's wrong with you. The destruction is causing you intense pain. But," he nodded to where Carnage had vanished from, "he's right, you know. Going against the will of God is a straight path to Hell. With the All-Knowing, there is no middle ground. You're either with him, or against him, and it you're not hot for him or cold against him, just lukewarm, he will spit you out." he finished solenmly. He had never really read the Bible before, but since it started to directly effect his life, he had begun to take it seriously.

"With the All-Knowing, there is no middle ground. You're either with him, or against him, and it you're not hot for him or cold against him, just lukewarm, he will spit you out."

"Th...then I guess...I'm goin' to...to...to hell" She spluttered with a small smile, "I'm not gonna abandon you to destruction. I'm not gonna watch this world burn" She coughed hard again but managed to stand up, "I will survive. We need to stop the other Horsemen from completing their mission" She said firmly.

A small package apered next to Julea, it was labled "To julea, a little house warming present, Carnage."

In hell Carnage was litteraly under a moutain of paper work but couldn't resist send ing the package when the newest form (from heaven no less) arived about Juliea. He allowed him self a brief smile and turned back the paper work.
Sighing he said "It's going to be a long year" and picked up another form.

OOC: TEH ENDZ?

"And it looks like I'll be going there, too," the Metal Man said. "Even God can be wrong. That's why I'm here--to remind Him, as Noah did, not to get in over His head."

A green-gauntleted hand reached out and touched Julia, returning to her the power that she had bestowed upon the cyborg. Then, he removed a ring from a container pouch on his left side and handed it to her. "Don't let them turn you. If you need me, ..." he said.

He turned back to Nadoka. "Horseman," he said, "it is not yet the time. The prophesy states that the messiah must walk among us before the plagues can be unleashed. That's not the case. My ability to change fate is something that I can't do anything about. It's struck again...but you can do something about it now. I'm going back to my ship. I've got a real disaster to mitigate! I hope I'll be able to see you all again someday."

With that, he disappeared.

----------------

END OF METAL MAN'S INVOLVEMENT IN THIS THREAD.

Nadoka listened to the cyborg and nodded, understanding. Like his strange influence, she had no control over these events, even if she had inadventedly, unintetionally set them in motion. Seth hauled her to her feet, Nadoka being too weak to stand, slunging her to hang from his shoulders. He nodded to Julia. "You're help has been greatly apprechiated. In the troubled times to come, I have a feeling I may see you again," he nodded, turned on heel, and, after walking a few feet, both brother and sister faded mysteriously from view.

Julia nodded and watched as the two Angels faded into shadow before her eyes. She gave another violent shudder. she felt cold, shivery, like Death was stalking ever closer to her. She knew her power was dwindling fast in this world of sin and contempt. She had to no way of reversing it and no way of restoring her powers unless she retreated back to Heaven.

But that was something she had no desire to do. Heaven had been her guide since the days of her youth, it had provided a safe haven from which she could learn of the world but now it seemed a million miles from what she wanted to do. She gasped as the Metal man touched her, restoring some of the power she had given to him. She felt stronger already, more stable on her feet and more determined to face the challenges of the world.

Then the Metal Man gave her a ring and disappeared. She took it gratefully and looked skyward to where he had vanished to and smiled,
"Thank you Metal Knight," She whispered, "For showing me that Humanity is worth saving"

With that, she gave another low sigh and vanished into nothingness to confront the evils that had been unleashed.