Finale: All teams

[voidtreckermods]

Inside the System

The forest seems endless as the Voidtreckers move through it, soothing the red vines that constrict the trees as they go. But eventually they will start to come together, as though they are being funnelled towards a centre.

The trees end, the forest opening out into a large clearing. Vines carpet the floor and climb up the trees, curving to create a dome of red mesh that blocks out the sky. As everyone gathers in the clearing, vines weave past them to cover the entrances, closing them in. The red light does little to light up the gloomy dome, but as their eyes adjust they will see a huge gnarled and broken tree in the centre. It pulses with the same sickly red glow.

From the gloom creatures emerge, more of the mongoose. These ones are larger, teeth and claws are sharp as they circle the clearing, hissing and snarling.

The tree begins to move, its branches and roots are huge and they swing towards the gathering Voidtreckers with a speed that seems unlikely for their size, roots rise up to try and tangle around limbs.

The vines creating the dome can be soothed, but there are so many of them it will be a lengthy job and the mongooses patrol the edges, attacking anyone who is trying to clear the roots. Often they will give chase to anyone who tries to run, trying to hound them into the path of the tree roots or into the range of the attacking branches.

All the while more vines are growing from the tree, pulsing red strands that spread towards the walls of the dome and beyond.

Outside the System

For those that did not enter the system it has been a long vigil over their unconscious teammates. The sectors still have problems but these seem to lessen: there are fewer emergency alerts in Winter, the walls stop moving in Autumn, all seems calm in Spring and the weather calms in Summer.

But as Day Eleven of the month of Jelly begins there seems to be a shift: the sky darkens, going from the usual clear blue that is has been for days to a dark, burnt red.

The Helpmates have mostly calmed the last few days, but now there are more of them and they will attack on sight. The only place they will not enter is the inner sanctuaries of the Great-Seasons, where the bodies of those who have entered the system still lie.

A few times the ground ominously rumbles and for anyone still in the Spring sector there are certainly a few frightened alpaca-type creatures to calm.

Comments

Tree Battle

[voidtreckermods]

Roots try and tangle around feet, branches whip out towards anyone who tries to approach over the thick layer of vines towards the red glowing tree.

(OOC: For this part please all reply in one single thread. Each round will be marked by an NPC tag and then each character may tag once before the next round begins. If you are late joining or miss a round don’t worry! Just tag into the most recent round and either assume your character was always there or got caught up with mongeese!)

Re: Tree Battle

[unfavorableinstigation]

In retrospect, this feels like a natural culmination of everything this 'world' has thrown at them so far.

That, and it's a tree. Even as disorienting as her arrival in the system had been, Nita knows trees.

She just hopes her sister is here; S'reee may know the waters, but Dairine knows software.

She moves forth unafraid, creeping herself from vine, to vine; inward and onward, braving the push of branch and blob alike.

Her objective? Touch that tree!

Re: Tree Battle

[blue_ice]

There's no turning back now. This always happens, every mission...the massive threat. He's usually sidelined or assessing the tech from the outside for this part, but here he's in the middle of the chaos.

That's fine. He's on equal footing with the rest for once. He hangs back at first, jumping to avoid ensnaring branches and firing icicles at mongoose.

"I'll work on making an opening!"

If he can get clear of the attacks for a moment, he'll start focusing on testing the limits of his freezing power. It's visibly straining him, but they need to get through.

shoves all three in one comment, shrugs weakly,

[luckydragonsfoot]

Katsuya has been spending much of this fight and march a little less than himself. A combination of things struck when he was brought into the more virtual system- first, the sudden cut-off of his pool of abilities (not to mention the pokemon) left a bit of a mental shock. Then, the all too familiar sensation of a sudden shift in everything brought his subconscious back to...well. When he had a sudden shift in everything. Namely the Virtual World Noa had run.

Add in the fact that the first thing he comprehended was the stick in his hand, and a lot of his being decided that the Best Him was probably the...past. Him.

Not that Katsuya's really focused on his appearance (which is why this is happening anyway)- instead he's running through and past, a wash of rainwater following the swing of his staff as familiarly as his dragon once would have. "Got it, thanks!" A pause, and he glances back. "Oh- Uh, 'f anyone needs a patch job, I got healin' too by th' way!"

He might not be aware that he's abruptly Egyptian in appearance. Or. Mostly. His hair is silvery white and tied back, with his eyes almost as grey, which isn't generally a look people from ancient Egypt had. The coat of red with white trim though, that's definitely old, not to mention the clothes under it.

It's fine don't worry about it.

In the meantime, Yuume works as a combination of offense and defense for those near her; launching leaves forward to try and slice up the vines and branches, and summoning whirlwinds as shields. The woman scowls- "This would have been far easier if I had my usual set of 'tools'," she mutters, appearing in her standard sweater and cargo pants. Her armor as tied to her power as it is, she simply can't envision herself in it.

It's all very unlike Emporio- who appears in the clothes he once wore in the past. It's a cub's baseball uniform, actually. Though if asked, he'd admit he doesn't know much about baseball at all.

He's taking this whole thing well though, and while he's not going on an all out offensive just yet, he is frustratedly using 'fireball' to hit roots that have already gone after his feet. "Ack-!" He's used to Weather just floating him...

[blitzcheer]

It's annoying that he can't move as fast as he'd like, as quick as he'd usually be capable, but at least he's still got his instincts; darting and jumping to keep the roots off him. Tidus is fine with hanging back some, using the wind power granted to him to throw out bladed air towards either mongeese or branches aiming themselves at other voidtreckers.

"Let's get this over with, yeah!"

By getting this final boss fight party started!

Vine & Mongoose Focus

[fivemilesdeep]

That tree looks like a lot to handle, doesn't it? But there are still a dome of vines to be soothed and packs of mongooses to deal with, and those seem a little more manageable, especially with some teamwork. Maybe helping with those will make it a bit easier for those fighting the tree to succeed.

(OOC: Formatted much the same as the tree battle/boss fight: tag in whenever you want/can, work with each other, and don't worry about tag order or rounds - go nuts!)

[magicurls]

Mami is opting to hang back this time, dressed in her usual purple uniform. She's figured out that she has a different ability now, but she'll never be as confident with it as she is with her muskets.

She's using her stick as a torch, a small flame lit atop it.

"I can hit the far targets! Who can hit closer?"

She's sending fireballs zooming, trying to stop mongeese before they get too close.

...except one's already too close. She lunges and swings her leg, but that throws her off balance and she'll need someone to pick up that last shot.

[controlsthedie]

Appearing in his usual garb and wielding his sword, Thanatos has been concentrating on supporting those who are better able to handle the bigger dangers. He's not used to fighting without his normal abilities. (And he's still a little out of it that he can so easily lose what makes him Death Incarnate.)

Still, that mongoose heading towards Mami is deftly sliced in two.

"I can." If Thanatos is going to fight, he'll do so as painless and instant as possible, as gentle of a death he can give. Besides, him and Mami have worked together similarly like this before. He'll draw their attention for others to pick off.

[myblueskies]

A burst of water came from nearby as Romeo hit out towards the nearest mongoose with his new found water magic.

That tree in the middle looked bad but he had gotten pretty tangled up with these mongeese and vines! There was so much to do!

"I can make water heal you too if you need it!"

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"Watching your back!" Raven called, a whirlwind shield around her as she lashed out with her stick and dagger leaves both. It wasn't the first time she'd been without her own powers, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Thankfully these didn't seem to be emotions-based in the way Starfire's were, and Raven had the training to pick it up quickly.

If anything, she's having more trouble with an actual weapon, although she's trying to imitate Robin. So hopefully not too bad, yet.

Outside the System - Summer/Red Team

[reluctantjinrou]

Someone had to stay outside and keep an eye on things, and apparently it was a good thing Natsuno did.

The ground suddenly rumbled beneath them on Jelly 11 and he braced himself for what was surely going to be a problem.

Several helpmates appeared then, all of them seemingly hostile as they closed in on the target.

Natsuno glared at them, and responded by kicking the first one a good distance away, listening to it land with a pleasant little crash.

"Wanna try me?" He threatened the rest as though they had their own agency.

[worthallthis]

Guess who else has stayed outside? Mostly out of visceral terror of letting anyone mess with their brain, but still. They're good at this sort of thing, guarding and protecting. They'd been doing short patrols around the inner space, where the bodies are safe, but they've been trying to stick close and not attract attention.

So they hear the challenge and come running to join Natsuno, both knives out: one made of bone, and one clearly borrowed from the kitchen. "Oh, great," they grumble. "Looks like they found us."

[reluctantjinrou]

"They were fine until a minute ago." Natsuno admitted, kicking one aside, but honestly at the rate they're coming he's going to have to get serious.

His eyes turned red and he would give off more of an animalistic sense, he couldn't help it, with his fangs coming out as he punched one, all to hard into two more.

"If someone needs to take a blow, it's better to be me, I heal in moments." He told them.

[worthallthis]

"I also heal quickly," Soldat says, maybe with half a smile, as they give one of the helpmates a solid kick to the gut, sending it reeling back. "And I have a bulletproof metal arm for blocking. I think we're both pretty durable."

The fangs and eyes don't phase him, they've seen vampires do the face-shift thing for feeding and fighting. They drag the bone knife through one that had been coming for his back, though, and use that slight leverage to throw it off to their left.

[reluctantjinrou]

"That's good." Natsuno said, immediately less concerned about them and more about getting the helpmates back.

They aren't terribly strong, but suddenly they are numerous.

He slammed his fist into the next one, slamming it into the ground and breaking it into pieces.

The way he spoke, he had a bit of a lisp from the fangs, he wasn't at all used to it. "It's not a problem if I break them, I hope."

Inside

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki was right at the edge of the dome, moving around it, trying to avoid mongeese.

Trying to avoid mongeese and the fight not so far away. It's very hard to ignore, he's very aware of the violence, the shouts, the battle. But he's trying to soothe the vines making up the dome that had them trapped. This is a way he can be helpful.

Whenever snarling mongeese get too close he goes still, trying to avoid their attention, though if they attack he uses the swirling wind power he had in this strange place to create a shield around him and hoping they would go away before it dropped... That wasn't always the case.

Re: Inside

[hisblueskies]

Alfredo found himself on the edge as well, and given the amount of people approaching the tree already, perhaps that was for the best.

Running to catch up with one of the more familiar faces in here, he splashed a lingering mongoose with water, wishing he'd had something more offense-keyed to bring to the fore.

"Are you all right, Taiki?"

That shield looked useful, to be sure, but it was far from the only factor in play.

[longforgottenpromise]

"Alfredo." He looked at the boy, he was awfully young to be in such a place but then again, many of the children were here, and many of them were just as competent as the adults.

"I am... Are you?"

[hisblueskies]

"I am."

As confusing as this place is - as disturbing the implications of it for the rest of this world - he's holding his ground, and his mind.

He splashed another mongoose before coming to crouch protectively by Taiki's shield.

"We have to heal these vines, though. There's so many..."

[longforgottenpromise]

"There are." He nodded and glanced at the boy, making sure he was fully behind the shield. He did not want him to be hurt.

"But they don't seem to be returning once they are healed."

So eventually they would get through them.

Rule #1: Always protect your supports.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea had been busy fighting off the mongeese... that were starting to look a lot less like mongeese as the fighting went on. Though that didn't make them any less of a threat.

And it was there along the edge that he saw Taiki, who was understandably focusing on soothing the vines/wires. Unfortunately, the not-mongeese took exception to that. Taiki was doing a decent job holding off a couple of them with a swirl of wind, but didn't seem to notice the two that were coming at him from behind. Fortunately, Lea did.

He jumped in between Taiki and the new thread, summoning two large disc of fire. But instead of throwing them, he held them up like shields. "No you don't!", he said. The two not-mongeese attempted to pounce on him and were knocked back by the fiery discs with squeaks of pain.

He glanced over his shoulder to Taiki. "You alright there?"

Re: Rule #1: Always protect your supports.

[redarrowqueen]

Thea had been floating since her weapons skills are more suited to it plus she is better off. But she spots the mongeese and decides to lend Lea a hand So cue a signal and some well placed shots at the creatures.

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki visibly flinched as Lea fought off the mongeese and flinched harder as arrows thudded into them.

They might not be real mongeese, they might not even be real living animals but... The violence was still terrible and their squeels rang in his ears.

He kept his composure, looking over at the two of them sadly. "Thank you..."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea shot Thea a grateful smile as the not-mongeese went down. "Thanks for the assist," he said.

The smile he gave Taiki was more sympathetic. He knew this was probably rough for him, but unfortunately, there was no real way around it. At least there wasn't any blood- from either them or the things they were fighting- this time around. "You focus on taking care of those vine-wire things," he said. "We'll watch your back, OK?"

Curufin | Team Orange & OTA

[so_dark_a_road]

Battle of the Vines and Mongooses:

Curufin comes to the center of the clearing, peering up at the canopy of red vines and at the great tree in the center that now glows with the same red light as the vines do. "What the hell?" he exclaims as the vines move to cover the forest tunnels that led all the Voidtreckers here. Now they are trapped.

And then the tree starts to move, attacking the Void Warriors with its branches and sending out roots to try to wrap around their ankles and jerk them off their feet. Because he was able to control his appearance earlier, Curufin still has his sword, though in fact it is a wooden club. He swings it ferociously and strikes at the oncoming branches and roots.

And then the mongooses scuttle out of the vines and the brush and jump at the Void Warriors, trying to drive them into the path of the branches and roots.

Curufin fights them all, trying to have the backs of all who are near him, whichever team. He tries to coordinate with them to fend off the tree and the animals. He has already discovered he has none of his own natural powers, but he does have two new powers, that of casting a freezing spell and that of flinging sharp ice-shards. These two work fairly well on all oncoming threats.

"Somebody should have told us that the Living Tree State Park was dangerous," he jokes, this being his style of dealing with adversity. "The vines are red snakes and the cute little animals have teeth and claws, and the tree has creepy-crawly roots and big beastly branches to whack us with, and it isn't afraid to use them!"