Just Like You Imagined (Anyone And Everyone!)

Clown lay back on the ground, twitching. That was a hard backhand he received from the silver lady, and yet this other, white haired woman with half a face was leaning over him, looking down. He wanted to say something, something exciting, but his face felt punched all the way in, so his lips felt painful to move. But as long as he didn’t get any other blows, Manic would remain.

Eden looked at the curious man, wondering if his curious arm had anything to do with a curious curse. She heard the two before; they wanted to fight each other, so perhaps it would just be better to leave… all of them.

* * *

Her fingers ran over the small, slightly blackened dents on Isis’s blade. As she did so, Isis assured her that “it would be alright,” referring to the marks on the blade. Around her, the building she was in began to crumble, because of the pressure it took from each blow of the Quincy’s scattershot attack. As the building quaked all over, Raisha thought that she would have to end this as soon as possible; things were getting too much out of hand, now.

She’d been holding back, and even after she implemented this, she’d still be holding back a lot of her power.

A massive burst of power escaped through the windows of the building; and, forming arms, the extreme amount of spiritual power held up the top of the skyscraper. As Monroe watched in awe at the massive amount of power flowing out of the building, he didn’t notice the pure white wind that passed him in a blur.

Before the man knew it, he was tossed up into the air, and a white clad reaper with a black sword came down from above, cutting through his shoulder. Before he could make another move, it seemed as if another reaper came from the side, the sword searing through his waist. And another came down from underneath, cutting through his leg.

Before he could even begin descending, a hand had grasped his collar, and it pelted him through the rooftop and down a few floors. A fist came into contact with his chest right after he reached solid ground, causing a massive quake and crater in the earth below, causing the building to collapse on both of them.

From the wreckage, the reaper, dressed in all white—her face hooded, cloaked in it—rose out. She stood on top of slabs of broken concrete, a black rose, the ultimate shield in her left hand, and her blue-edge black sword in her right.

Emile lashed out forwards quickly. Her spear cut the air around her and moved towards Zachary. The ice mage quickly crossed his blades and blocked the spear, being pushed back slightly. The Replicator quickly pushed the spear aside and rolled to his side, quickly moving towards the lancer. The ice mage slashed his right sword, and the Silver Beauty thrust her lance again. The two weapons clashes and left a strong ringing noise as the two skid to a stop and turned to look at each other.

The sorcerer took a few shallow, exhausted breaths as he looked at the Divine Lancer. Emile smirked at him, spinning her spear in her hands and getting ready to attack again. I still haven't fully recovered from that fight with Monroe yet... and anyway... my fight with that bunny monster didn't help... if anything, it made things worse. I have to hang in here... the ice mage told himself as he readied for Emile's next attack.

The purple haired woman skated forwards quickly, thrusting her spear with great intensity at the ice mage. The Replicator quickly slashed his sword, deflecting each thrust he could and being pushed back by each new attack. Finally, the ice mage made a counterattack. After deflecting Emile's spear with his left blade, the ice mage thrust his right sword at her.

Quickly, the purple haired woman leapt back, just out of range of the sword, and then rolled on the wheels of her boots to a stop. Pressing a button, Emile's spear began to release powerful lightning from it and she smirked. "Gae Bolg!" the woman yelled, exploding forwards and thrusting her spear.

The amateur sorcerer quickly slashed his sword at her spear and used the blades of his weapons to deflect her spear a little. His weapons shattered, but the lightning charged spear tip continued, shattering the side of Zachary's armor and cutting him slightly. The Replicator stumbled back a bit after her attack and fell to the ground, grasping his numb side.

Emile spun her spear in her hand and pointed the tip at Zach's face. "Check mate," she said, smiling and ready to strike the final blow.

o=)------------ ------------(=o

There are points in a person's life where they are expected to gauge if what they're doing is worth the degree of difficulty and danger that is faced. It was one of those points where men had to decide is what they are doing really worth dying over? Well, since the grim reaper had shown herself in the flesh, what was the sense in running away now? If she really wanted his life, she'd have to take it the hard way.

A huge amount of rubble suddenly began to shake as a figured hidden by the shadows, aside from his neon green colored glowing eyes, as the large amount of former building was effortlessly thrown aside by one hand. The Quincy stood up and turned around. His jacket had large cuts in it, his mantle having similar damage, and his pants having almost no damage on them. It was one of those moments where Monroe smiled at his luck. This was fun.

The sword wounds smoked and steamed as the wounds were slowly seared to prevent infection or possible infection by the man's photon energy his body could release. The dark clad man bent down on one knee and picked up his Seele Schneider handle from the ground and spun it around nonchalantly as he looked at the Vizard. "Bankai, huh? Its an interesting thing. A power ten times greater than Shikai. Or so I've heard, anyway."

The Quincy strolled from the destroyed building, the crater, and the pain he should have been feeling. "If I had fought you in Chinatown and you had used an attack like that, I probably would have died. My body would have possibly been crushed by the weight of the building that had just been brought down on me. Still... this time, I'm different."

Monroe's muscles seemed to expand slightly before returning to their normal size as he continued to look at the shinigami. "I guess I'm against a true Reaper then. You're coming to bring death to me and everything here... maybe. Still," the dark clad man said as he took a step forwards, "I'm not done yet."

The white clad woman seemed to vanish suddenly, but the archer shifted slightly, evading her sword slash by less than an inch. "It caught me off guard at first. How fast you were." The man watched as she vanished and seemed to be standing in two spots as he quickly evaded several attacks, each just as narrow as the last.

"But now, I can see your movements clearer now that I know what to expect," the archer said as he ducked under a slash and then side jumped out of the way of a downward strike. The dark clad man spun to a stop and looked at Raisha. "Now then, its time for me to fight back," the Quincy said as he became nothing more than a black blur, intent on fighting back.

Reveling in the turmoil, Atropos Belladonna danced throughout the chaos and destruction, adding to it in any way she could think. Policemen and other people were sent flying into nearby objects, vehicles were overturned and tossed aside like toys, walls were toppled and collapsed in on themselves, windows were shattered, and debris picked itself off the ground and became deadly projectiles. All without Atropos having to touch a thing. She simply danced and spun in circles in the midst of it all, coordinating every strand of psychokinesis and conducting a deadly orchestra with it all.

It took a few moments for the remaining police officers to realize that Atropos was the one causing all this trouble. There weren't many police officers left; most of them were dead, injured, or retreated. However, there were a couple squadrons of devoted SWAT team members who just wouldn't let this go down without giving their all to stop it. They turned their weapons upon Atropos. One of the SWAT members managed to shoot her in the leg, and she suddenly stopped dancing. Objects which had suspended themselves in the air ceased moving, hanging still by invisible strings as Atropos stood in the middle of the scrap metal littered street.

She looked down at the wound in her leg, wondering what had happened. Gunfire continued around her, some of it almost hitting her. She tried to put some of her weight on the injured leg, but that caused a piercing pain to wash through her whole body. The sudden pain and limitation to one leg caused her to lose balance and fall onto her back (which really shouldn't have happened if she had been thinking straight, considering that she could have held herself up with telekinesis). Now hidden behind piles of scrap and rubble, she was safe from the continuing sprays of gunfire from the police, whose numbers were ever dropping.

In only a few seconds, the thick black blood oozing from the bullet wound knit her leg back together. The bone inside had been chipped, and that would take a little longer to heal, so the wound would still be sore for a while. That wouldn't be too much of a problem though. Atropos was pretty good at completely ignoring pain when she was suffering from fits of insanity.

As she was lying there on the ground, altogether much longer than she needed too, a few newcomers entered the scene. A strange pale light suddenly covered the area, and some man was bellowing a challenge to fight. Atropos wondered why someone would ask to be fought; the logic behind it was beyond her. She got back to her feet and brushed herself off, looking for the guy who was shouting. She noticed him nearby, wearing a massive suit of armor that looked far too big for anyone to wear, and wielding a sword longer than he was tall. Either the sword was made from Styrofoam, or he was a pretty strong individual, Atropos deduced.

With a burst of telekinesis, she flew over to the man, tackling him. The sheer weight of his armor would normally have prevented him from being knocked over by the little girl that Atropos was, but coupled with the large shock of psychokinesis she emitted on contact, it was enough to knock the man onto his back. For a couple seconds, Atropos wondered if this would leave him stranded, like a turtle overturned onto its shell. She crouched on top of his suit of armor, looking down into his face. "You wanna fight, guy!?" she chattered. "Come and get me!" she challenged, flying off the man with a telekinetically aided backflip.

She landed next to a capsized and burning SWAT van, and watched as the man hoisted himself back onto his feet. As soon as he began to approach, Nightshade nodded her head towards the van, and it ground along the asphalt, throwing up sparks, rather quickly closing the distance between it, the man, and a wall. Atropos performed a few cartwheels while she waited for the sandwiched warrior to crawl out from between the wrecked van and crumbled wall.

ooc: tag, MrRandom.

and did Fluesopp notice I tagged him in my last post?

“Cease? Now when I’m having so much fun?” Aronin said as the smoke from the melting pavement blew away. He had noticed the robot as it approached and was prepared for the attack. But that it used plasma as a weapon only made things easier. With ease, he created a powerful magnetic field around himself with the poles in the ground. And plasma, ionized as it is, was kindly forced to follow the neatly lines of the magnetic field.

“I’m not your average telekinetic!” he remarked and engulfed his hands in a blue plasma, formed by the nitrogen in the air. “Eat lead, lead box!” he shouted as he sent balls of hot plasma at the metallic humanoid, followed up by a police van thrown by telekinesis.

There was a loud noise as the burned out police van was ripped in two as the robot made its way out of it.

“Of course, that would have been too easy,” Aronin remarked to himself and ignited his hands once again. There was a small spot on robot’s forearm as it emerged. “Ooh, I’m sorry. Did it hurt? No, wait. You are a robot. Robot’s don’t feel pain! So, how about I go on about disassembly you right away?” Aronin said cheerfully and reached for the vital parts in the robot’s body. He couldn’t.

“Shielding, eh?” he remarked as he noticed the effect. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll just have to do it the hard way.” Aronin got a little bit more serious. There was actually some truth behind the robot’s claim. There was innocent people dying because of this fight. “So, how about we go somewhere where nobody can get hurt and finish off this battle?” he requested of the android. “It’s a too good opportunity to fight to let it pass.” He lifted himself of the ground with telekinesis and awaited the android. “Catch me if you can,” he snickered and shoot away and towards a industrial site.

Now, if ISAAC had truly cared about his temporary objective (ending the wanton destruction and death of innocent people by stopping the people causing it) then this would have been seen as a success and he would have moved on to the next miscreant. After all, ISAAC had just convinced the telekinetic that what he was doing was wrong, and caused him to fly off to somewhere else. So on the one hand, ISAAC could simply ignore the challenge, count it as one down several to go, and move on to the next one.

On the other hand, ISAAC didn't really care about the destruction, or even about the innocent lives. This challenge would be a chance to learn new things. The most important thing he would have to learn if he was going to fight the telekinetic is how to fight without using his plasma weapons, since he could redirect the shots by alternating the magnetic fields that controlled the plasma. ISAAC made a mental (in the sense that he saved the note somewhere on the hard drive that constituted his "mind") note to himself: the next Protos Eschatos android version would have to have laser weapons and perhaps even projectile weapons for instances like this.

ISAAC looked around before going after the telekinetic. A typical projectile weapon probably wouldn't be any more effective against someone with psychokinesis anymore than his plasma weapons were, but at least it would give him some variety. In reality, he would probably have to rely on using hand-to-hand combat when it came down to it. ISAAC snatched an assault rifle off the ground which had been dropped by a SWAT team member. It still had plenty of ammunition in it. ISAAC then activated his plasma propulsors and took to the skies.

The telekinetic had only left a second earlier, and ISAAC could still see him in the distance. He blasted after him, making sure he didn't go fast enough to pass him. The flight took only a couple of minutes, and the telekinetic landed in the midst of an abandoned industrial site. ISAAC landed nearby, far enough away that he would have a couple moments to prepare first. ISAAC wasn't currently well-suited to attacking or defending against telekinesis. This would be a good chance to learn exactly how it worked in combat, thus enabling ISAAC to be much more equipped next time.

ISAAC readied the assault rifle, prepared the blue plasma cell in his left arm, and charged up the electrocaster in his right arm. He set the blue plasma cannon to "bolt" mode, which would cause the plasma to be fired at a constant pace. It would act a lot like firing lightning out of his arm cannon. The electrocaster fired electricity too, but it was a lower charge with no plasma (other than the plasma created by the ionization of the air that the electricity would naturally create, of course) and it had a shorter range. It also wasn't directed by magnetic fields, like the plasma, so perhaps it would be more effective and harder for the man to dodge.

Now ready, ISAAC moved in to where the man was, holding down the trigger to the assault rifle and aiming it with pinpoint accuracy at his head.

OoC: Don’t use Yellow, please… It’s so hard to read with Temple skin…
Background music: Battle Ignition (Bleach)

Aronin smiled to himself as the robot followed him in the air. This could be a fun fight, he figured, and landed shortly after in an abandoned industrial site. The robot landed shortly thereafter, a little way off.

“What’s that? Afraid of me?” he remarked on the distance and started walking over to the robot. It was a powerful robot, he could tell that, and his powers had no direct influences over the body because of the energy shielding. It would be a tough fight, but it would probably be so for the robot too.

“Aronin, Telekinetic,” he said and held up a plasma filled hand in a salute. “You seem to be pretty human under all that metal,” he asked the robot. “I was sure you’d give up after I flew away. But turns out I managed to lure you out here after all.”

“I accepted your challenge. What is there to discuss,” the robot answered.

“Yes, that’s what I was pointing out. I ceased destruction, so I should no longer be a target for you, if you were a robot,” he pointed out. “Are you a robot, or are you just a strongly armored man?” he asked and smiled, as if he had figured out his secret. “Why are you hiding behind all that armor? Can’t you show me your face before we battle?”

OoC: Aronin thinks ISAAC is like Iron Man, and won’t believe that he’s a robot.

ooc: Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot how hard it is to read on Temple. It looks pretty nice on Blue though. Also, while I said in my previous post that ISAAC was shooting the assault rifle at Aronin, apparently you didn't notice it, so we'll just say he wasn't shooting it yet.

ic:

ISAAC kept the rifle aimed at the telekinetic's head, but as expected, he didn't seem fazed by it in the least. The man started talking, introducing himself and stating his doubts about ISAAC being a robot. The man, calling himself Aronin, mistook him for a human, which was a common mistake of course. ISAAC was pretty human for a robot, that was the idea behind the project. ISAAC was...superhuman, in fact.

"My name is Isaac," ISAAC said. "Now tell me, what is the difference between a strongly armored robot with the intelligence and sapience of a man and a strongly armored man? I'll tell you. One can be killed, and the other cannot. I'll let you figure out which one.

"And no, I cannot show you my face. I have none." With that, ISAAC's shiny golden ceramic visor lifted up as if on its own accord, revealing the circuitry and other computer components that hid underneath his face. Letting Aronin get a good look, ISAAC shut the visor again, and pulled the trigger.

The assault rifle rattled off, firing a stream of bullets at the telekinetic, who simply blocked them with a wall of telekinesis. ISAAC dashed around behind Aronin with greater speed and agility than any human body could muster and released a short burst of electricity right at his back, hoping to at least incapacitate him for a moment.

The electricity hit Aronin in the back with a frying sound, shutting down his internal sensors for a moment before sending him flying across the asphalted floor like a ragdoll. He woke up with a start by the robot picking him up by the neck of his cloak. Quickly regaining control of his body, he sent out a telekinetic blast to release him from the grip. It didn’t affect him, he remembered as nothing happened.


“Release me,” Aronin commanded him. “Doesn’t you have a programming that say you must never hurt another human being? Isn’t that robotic laws or something?”

“Isaac Asimov, writer of the novel I, Robot. It is a fictional book. I have no other laws than myself,” the robot answered.

“Then, the third law does not apply to you then? A robot must protect its own existence,” Aronin said and opened the robot’s hand with telekinesis, sending himself away at the same time.

“Heh… There is always a weakness, isn’t there?” he said and stretched his arms. “Turns out your shielding must turn off in order to touch something, isn’t that so?”

“It’s a insignificant weakness,” the robot said and shoot a new beam of the strange blue plasma, unlike Aronin had seen before. This time, he was ready and dodged into the air, while at the same time shooting beams of his own plasma at the robot.

“So, all I have to do is to disable the shielding, right?” he said as he landed on the rooftop of one of the lowest buildings. Loosing the bolts of multiple broken metal beam, he sent them shooting at the robot. It dodged and shoot more blue plasma at Aronin, who simply lifted another beam and let the electricity discharge through it.

“Since I can’t touch you, we’ll have to fight in a different way,” Aronin said as he held out his hand. The beams that had currently been trying to ram into the android now positioned themselves around him as swords, ready to strike.

Isaac Asimov. Creator of the Three Laws of Robotics, and ISAAC's namesake. Of course, the Three Laws are just fiction. They have no bearing on real life and actual robotics. ISAAC was not bound by any of the three laws. He was free to injure anyone he wanted to, disobey any order, and even neglect his own safety. In fact, if he had been bound by the third law, he probably wouldn't be here, fighting a stranger with unknown powers. The only laws ISAAC abided by were his own, and nothing would change that. ISAAC almost laughed at the thought that Aronin would even consider the Three Laws and think they were real.

He didn't laugh, however. He was more concerned with the fight at hand. The telekinetic had freely admitted that he couldn't touch ISAAC with his powers. This was an interesting development. ISAAC hadn't expected that his reflective energy field would be able to block telekinesis. Upon examining Aronin's telekinesis, however, it seemed to make sense. It was some form of electromagnetic energy, and his energy field was designed to block and dissipate energy. This might give ISAAC a fighting chance at defeating the telekinetic. Whether he won or lost, however, the most important thing was that he would be learning a lot about this man's strange and interesting powers. No matter how the fight turned out, it would enable him to be much more prepared for the next time he faced a telekinetic.

Aronin had discovered part of the nature of ISAAC's protective energy field: its temporality. Sustaining a field of electromagnetic energy around the android was difficult work and it wasn't without its weaknesses. While most contact wouldn't effect the field in too great a manner, any contact with an electrically conductive material could cause the field to discharge itself. Touching a human being, for instance, would cause a painful electric shock but at the same time leave ISAAC unprotected. Impact with non-conductive materials, if the impact has great enough energy, could also cause the field to discharge. In any case, it only took a minute for the energy field to charge itself up again, so it didn't usually concern ISAAC.

ISAAC took a moment to assess the situation. Aronin was now standing on the roof of a nearby building. He had thrown an iron beam at ISAAC, but it wasn't hard to dodge and counter-attack with a burst of blue plasma. He lifted another beam and the plasma harmlessly discharged the energy into it, blocking the attack. The telekinetic then held both beams in front of him with invisible force, keeping them suspended in midair and wielding them like oversized swords. One of the beams flew through the air towards ISAAC, attempting to collide with him. With carefully calculated moves, ISAAC jumped into the air and grabbed on to the mystically suspended beam. Although the iron beam was made from a pretty conductive metal, ISAAC could crawl around on it without discharging his electromagnetic field; but only because the beam was suspended in midair, and therefore not grounded.

ISAAC quickly crawled up the beam towards Aronin, using the small claws on the ends of his fingers for grip. The telekinetic immediately threw the beam away, hoping to toss ISAAC with it. As the beam flew through the air with ISAAC still clinging to it, he activated his propulsor, sending him and the beam in the other direction. Now ISAAC was wielding the heavy iron beam, and he charged through the air towards Aronin with it outstretched before him.

OoC: A thing just struck me.. How can ISAAC stand on the ground without the shield discharging?

He was a good fighter, Aronin complimented the android as it dodged and blasted away the beams he shot at him. Well, at least until it by its own will jumped onto one of the beams…

That’s too easy he thought to himself, concerned about whether his theory was wrong. If he touched the metal, wouldn’t it discharge the field? Aronin sent up a little prayer that it would work to whatever god was up there, and threw the android away, which of course didn’t work.

Quickly thinking about what to do next, Aronin made a horizontal swipe with his hand, and the pillar the robot clung to suddenly jerked, crashing into the nearby building. At least, that was what Aronin intended. Somehow, he had lost his control over the beam to Isaac, who now were propelling himself forwards, wielding the beam as an oversized weapon. The energy shield had somehow affected the beam enough to make the telekinesis useless.

It was a solid hit, which might have killed him had he not placed a barrier up first. And even though it broke, the hit was powerful enough for Aronin spit out lots of blood as he got up from the fall. But just as he got up, the android was there again, swinging the pole down upon Aronin with colossal force. Strengthening his body with telekinesis, he caught the pole in his hands just before it hit. But even then, Isaac was more than twice his strength and Aronin felt the ground underneath him beginning to crack as he was pushed into it, before it finally gave in.

Being overpowered by the mechanical engines of the android, Aronin was slammed down into the building bellow, only barely managing to blast away the ground before he would slam down. But even so, he only managed to limit his speed to a non lethal before hitting the pile of broken floor pieces at the bottom.

Aronin panted and spit more blood as he got out of the pile. He had reduced his landing even more by making a barrier just before he touched down. Was he too confident? Was he not strong enough? Aronin didn’t really have time to think of such details. However, he had more tricks up in his sleeve. Shooting up though the hole, he blasted Isaac away with a large rock he carried before him.

“You don’t have a chance,” Isaac said as it dodged the stone and looked up at Aronin, who floated in the air away from reach.

“We’ll see about that,” Aronin said and held his hand out towards the metallic being. He did not know how much that shielding could handle, but as he started to build up a great amount of hydrogen gas around it, he became more confident in that the fore coming explosion would overload it.

ooc: Well it's not something I look into too much, so I don't necessarily have an explanation on hand, but I'd say it's because the ground isn't usually very electrically conductive, and the shield is probably designed specifically not to discharge when touching the ground.

ic:

Already it seemed that ISAAC was winning the battle. He had managed to do some damage to Aronin with the iron beam, drawing the first blood in the fight. Of course, ISAAC couldn't bleed anyway, so Aronin wouldn't be drawing any blood from him no matter how hard he fought. Still, ISAAC seemed to have the upper hand, for now.

Aronin flew out of the hole in the roof of the building that ISAAC had smashed him into, throwing a large rock in his direction. Although the rock moved very quickly through the air, ISAAC's mind could move faster. His radar and echolocation senses quickly detected and calculated the exact size and velocity of the rock, as well as its distance from ISAAC and other trivial facts about it. Processes in his mind traveled at light speed to calculate the exact movements that must be made in order to avoid the rock, how long each of these movements would take, and when exactly they should be performed. In the end, ISAAC narrowly avoided the flying object by spinning through the air a few feet away.

"You don't have a chance," ISAAC said while dodging the rock. It wasn't necessarily the truth, but he said it to intimidate the telekinetic.

"We'll see about that," Aronin said, remaining confident.

He was now hovering out of distance from Aronin, or at least, what would be out of distance for someone who couldn't move things with their mind. The telekinetic held the palm his hand out towards ISAAC, and at first, ISAAC wasn't entirely sure what he was doing. It didn't seem to be affecting ISAAC or any objects nearby. Suddenly, the jets of plasma spewing from ISAAC's propulsor flared out larger than usual. At the same time, the android's internal barometer and altimeter (useful devices for any machine that can fly) started to indicate some interesting readings. Particularly, the barometer indicated a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, and respectively, the altimeter indicated an inexplicable rise in altitude.

ISAAC didn't want to risk taking the time to perform any further analysis, otherwise he would have done a chemical scan of the air around him. From the data he had already obtained, he was able to determine that the air around him had been replaced with a lighter and more flammable gas. Had he taken the time, the chemical analysis would have indicated hydrogen gas. His first course of action was to disengage the plasma propulsor, whose jets of superheated plasma risked igniting the gas and causing a serious explosion. He never got around to his second course of action, which was to simply hit the ground and duck for cover, because before he hit the ground the gas ignited on its own.

ISAAC took a brief fraction of a second to marvel at the telekinetic's skill. Somehow Aronin had obtained a large amount of hydrogen (ISAAC wasn't sure where it came from and eventually settled on assuming he had separated the water molecules floating about in the air), concentrated it all around ISAAC, avoided having the gas ignite on the plasma propulsors, and ignited it himself to create an explosion. Of course, after this split second, the only thing going through ISAAC's mechanical mind was damage assessment. Most of the heat and flames from the explosion were diffused by the reflective electromagnetic field surrounding the android, but the resulting shockwave almost immediately wrecked the field and sent ISAAC hurtling towards the ground.

He was now lying on the asphalt-paved industrial lot, taking a few seconds to analyze the damage done to the android. For the most part, everything seemed to be in order. He was mostly just shaken up a bit, but the Protos Eschatos was designed for this kind of abuse. He was able to find a few small cracks in his exoskeleton, but nothing too significant. He probably wasn't completely waterproof anymore either, but that shouldn't be a problem as there weren't any large bodies of water nearby. Aches and pains were something robots didn't need to worry about, luckily.

Something seemed to be slightly obscuring his vision, however, and in a moment he realized what it was. A hairline fracture ran vertically down his visor through his field of vision, most certainly caused when his head hit the asphalt at the high velocity it did. The fracture was thin enough to be ignored for the most part, especially when ISAAC compensated for the missing visual information via extrapolation. Although the obscurity was negligible, the crack indicated weakness. Once the visor was fractured, it was significantly weaker, and more likely to break again. Losing his sense of sight would be detrimental indeed. Hopefully the telekinetic wouldn't notice the fracture for now, lest he direct his attention on it.

ISAAC got himself up off the ground. By now, his energy shield had nearly regenerated itself. Aronin was still on the roof, planning his next attack. Charging up the violet plasma in his right arm, he set the mode of fire to cannon and blasted off an explosive beam of plasma at the brick wall of the building Aronin was standing on. The corner of the building suddenly collapsed, bringing part of the wall and roof with it, and the telekinetic disappeared under all the rubble and dust.

ISAAC held out both arms and prepared to attack the telekinetic when he came back into view.

Aronin’s head rang as he got out of the debris. It was a complete unrelated action he had not predicted, and was such taken by surprise of the sudden change in grounding. He still had a lot to learn, both about tactics and to adapt to changing sceneries. Luckily, Isaac didn’t follow up with a new attack, so Aronin had some time to collect himself and prepare himself. He had to go all out this time.

The rubble shoot clear as Aronin exited the building. His hands flamed up in a bright red plasma, made of Nitrogen, which although were more exhausting for Aronin to make, were present in a much bigger degree in the air, making a much bigger and intense plasma.

“This ends now!” Aronin said as he stepped out, still a little dizzy, and charged his plasma until it became a large bright white flaming ball. With great force, it shot straight at Isaac, scorching the ground as it passed, before it exploded, covering the whole area in flying shrapnel and dust. Aronin halted for a moment, before noticing the robot that flew out of the smoke, apparently unharmed, for now.

Aronin didn’t wait, but flung more balls of plasma straight towards the flying android, which fired back, dodging the balls in air. But down bellow, Aronin countered the plasma by rebounding them with a powerful magnetic field, doubling the projectiles trying to hit Isaac. And with a well aimed shoot, Aronin hit the robot straight in the back, probably disabling the propulsion engines, as it crashed uncontrolled into the ground a few meters away.

Aronin took a deep breath as the plasma dissolved in red sparks, leaving an almost electric feeling to his hands. He had won, hopefully, and in just the right time. The last balls of plasma had almost completely drained him. He could probably not withstand another attack.

A violet blob of plasma come flying out of the dust cloud the robot had created as it landed, hitting Aronin straight in his waist, exploding and forcing Aronin into a tumble across the pavement. He could feel the burns from the explosion on his skin, as he lay on the back, panting in pain and exhausting. Footsteps approached from behind. Aronin saw a electric wire lying on the ground, lodged into the ground.

Eden was walking past two of them, uncaring. She heard one of them say "Checkmate", but the only thing that signaled that she heard would be her tapping her cigarette, letting a spot of ash float away. Ticker was on her shoulder, and as she walked, his long, whip-like tail flowed out behind him.

Eden lifted a hand to her face, fixing her mask. It felt slightly out of place, and it was digging into her skin. Every now and then she had to do that, or her skin would cut away; and she had no interest in losing the next half of her face, even if after fixing the mask, it was still uncomfortable.

"Woooaahhh." Clown stood up a good way behind her, looking around. The street--no, the block had been turned into a battlefield.

"World War Three! World War Three!" He ran around in circles, screaming. "Bombs incoming! Notify the pointmen...!" He gasped suddenly, running into a random building nearby, "The captain is down, the captain is down!"

"MEDIC!"


* * *


He's attacking with that vibrating sword again. Raisha stood still this time, as the black blur circled around her, closer and closer. But she could easily make out the sword from the light that it emitted and it was plain to see that he was intent on attacking with it.
This man, whom she had met back in Chinatown ages ago, seemed to be trying to provoke her, just to see her full power, or just for fun, or both.

She couldn't release everything she had here, no doubt it would destroy the area more than she already had. The man didn't seem to care too much, though, and he went ahead fighting without thinking. He said that he knew what to expect; this made Raisha smirk. He had only just touched the tip of the iceberg, and the rest, from what she saw, did not need to be revealed to beat such a person.

With a swift stroke, the man brought down his weapon on her as she stood in that spot. But he was surprised when he found out that she had blocked it as if it was made of steel, deflected it with the rose in her left palm. She even cut off the power by pressing her hand down to the source of it, grabbing on to his arm as the pommel of her sword shattered his jaw. When her right hand dipped after the stab, she pulled him back like he was on a string and the blade went straight through his knee.

Raisha kicked the man back, making him stumble as a blade cut down into his shoulder from above, and at the same time, the same blade came through his other shoulder from the back and his other thigh from the front.

And this was not even her full speed. The truth was, that now, the man did not know what to expect; he assumed too much. Her full power was still untapped.

The orb of plasma hit ISAAC in the back hard, the explosion rattling through his titanium frame and cracking his plastic exoskeleton. His plasma propulsor malfunctioned, part the cracked chassis interfering with its internal workings. The propulsor being the only thing keeping ISAAC in the air, he quickly began to drop, falling for a good few yards downward and colliding with the asphalt paved ground. ISAAC lay on the ground for a couple moments, a cloud of dust rising from the crash site around him, and then lifted himself to his feet. He examined the damage that the plasma and consequent collision had caused.

His jetpack was currently inactive. Luckily, the plasma chambers hadn't been breached by the explosion, or he would be in quite a few more pieces right now. The propulsors could probably be fixed if he simply removed whatever part of his cracked shell was obstructing it, but he didn't have time to mess around with that, not with the telekinetic still around somewhere. He was officially no longer waterproof, as his exoskeleton had suffered from multiple fractures, mainly to the back. His internal structures were still in tact, but they were more vulnerable now than ever.

The thing ISAAC was most worried about was his optical visor. It had once again been cracked, and a small chip of the gold colored ceramic screen had fallen out. The area around the chip was filled with a network of spiderweb pattern hairline fractures. All in all, a good 19% of ISAAC's field of vision was obscured. The small chip was a problem all in itself, as well, due to the fact that it led directly to the internal hardware in his head. There was still a titanium shield between the visor and ISAAC's really important structures, mainly his hard disk drive, but anything that got behind his visor (particularly water, but fire and dust were both dangers as well) could completely disable his optical senses.

ISAAC couldn't risk letting the fight stretch on for much longer. He would have to finish off this telekinetic, before the telekinetic got the best of him. As soon as his reflective electric field was active again, ISAAC turned in the direction he had last seen Aronin and started firing a few shots of violet plasma at him. One of the shots hit true, exploding at the human's waist and sending him tumbling onto the ground. Apparently he hadn't been expecting ISAAC to get back up.

"You thought you'd finished me? I don't go down so easily as that, Aronin." ISAAC said, making sure his voice was amplified enough to be heard and deep enough to be menacing.

ISAAC walked towards Aronin, who was lying on his back, apparently exhausted from the fight. He pointed the long smoking barrel of his arm mounted plasma weapon down at the human, the tip of the blade attached to it not much more than a foot from his head, ready to fire another shot.

"Done yet?" ISAAC asked, giving the telekinetic a chance to surrender.

”Turns, out,” Aronin said as he breathed hard, ”my overconfidence, was my downfall?”
The wire twitched as Aronin moved a finger and guided as it curled slowly across the ground. Aronin turned slowly over and faced the plasma gun pointed straight at him. He held his breath as his wound sent jolts of pain through him. Underneath all the power, he still was a regular human, a weak one even, and so he hurt like one.

The plasma gun faded in and out of existence as Aronin tried to consider his options while at the same time trying to remain conscious. If he didn’t give up, he’d die. But if he gave up, what would the android do? Just walk away? Very unlikely. And if he fell unconscious, he’d probably die too. His only option was to win.

He looked by the plasma gun pointed at him, and saw how the visor was creaked. Inside that, the internal workings he needed to disable was located, Aronin knew, but the shield was still on and he could no more reach it than he could move the moon. The wire still waggled towards the two figures dimly lit by the moonlight. It was near, but not near enough and Aronin knew he had to stagger the robot.

“If I don’t give up,” he said and choked up some blood, “what will you do?”

“I will do what I have to,” the robot answered shortly. The wire was almost there, and Aronin saw the shadow as it slowly approached the robot from behind. But that was his mistake. The robot noticed that Aronin focused on something behind him, and with some kind sensory, the robot saw the wire and blasted it away with a blast of plasma.

“I take that as a no,” the robot said and pointed the gun at Aronin. He closed his eyes, and the sound of a plasma gun filled the air.

Slowly, and surprised, Aronin opened his eyes. A large smoking hole protruded from the head of the robot, who jerked and fell backwards. He heard shouts, shots and then an explosion, before he passed out, exhausted and tired.

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

A familiar, and hateful voice woke him up from his sleep. And then a face Aronin knew, and despised, came into focus as he opened his eyes. He was in a dark, and moving room. The sounds of helicopter blades above him drowned all the voices. He passed out again.

OoC: Final post. Here’s what happened: A.D.A.M, a company like your C.O.R.E, came to rescue him…
They want to recruit him.
Guess you didn’t see that coming? ;D

Monroe's body hit solid land and skidded. Concrete was simply uplifted as he continued to slide along. Smoke rose from where he had hit the ground, but little else. The Quincy smirked at first as he lay on the ground. Blood, warm and sticky, oozed from his wounds. Still, that was fun. So much fun. It was otherworldly how much he found himself enjoying this fight.

A simple smirk suddenly became a burst of laughter as the dark clad man stood up and smiled. "I've got to say... you move really quickly," the archer stated as he watched her. "Still... you move just like he used to. You move just like Zorlo did when he had those absurd golden wings." The dark clad man couldn't help but look back to Zorlo's Ancient Aura and scoff. This woman... she was just like him.

Still, if she was that strong... if she was in that otherworldly level that Monroe had only seen Zorlo at, that meant she would be tough to overcome. Still... the archer knew one thing that Zorlo hadn't before the green haired man had died.

Monroe gripped a stone tightly in his palm as he looked at the woman in awe at her strength, and in envy at the gap he could now feel. His grip tightened and the rock was quickly crushed into powder in his hand. "I'm stronger than Zorlo was before he died!" Monroe stated.

In fact, this was partly true. In terms of power between Zorlo's Natural Aura and Monroe's current strength, Monroe definitely had the advantage in terms of raw power. Still, the fact Zorlo's powers were both multifaceted and he had a higher level of strength to draw from had kept Monroe from being able to reach the level he needed to be to defeat the green haired man.

"Still... you're just like Zorlo. All that power, and the confidence to go along with it. Still, that means you're the closest thing to a chance I'll have to fight him!" Monroe said as he simply vanished for a few seconds.

The woman turned her head back idly and smiled at him. It was the same... that smile. That damn... infuriating... outrageously overconfident smile. In those few seconds as Monroe drew his bowstring back and gathered up a Riss-Schuss. In that moment, as he watched her, the Quincy acknowledged that he could finally understand how Johnny Bones and Kellson felt when they fought with Zorlo.

"I'll wipe that smile from your face!" he told her, releasing the arrow. The recoil from the arrow being launched caused nearby windows to shatter as the arrow rushed towards the reaper-attired woman. Her body vanished at less than an inch from her as she evaded. Even still, Monroe smirked this time as he evaded a slash she made and smiled at her.

Even that kind of speed couldn't fool his eyes.

o=)----------- -----------(=o

Zachary stared at the tip of the spear and sighed. This sucked... really badly. Movement meant being skewered and sitting there had equally unpleasant seeming consequences. Still, the Replicator acknowledged that he had to do something! But what?

A sudden photon arrow, quite large in size, struck the woman hard in the chest and shot her back into a building. "Convenient," the amateur sorcerer muttered as he stood up and rushed off. He ran into the city and headed off to where he had left Wisp. He would meet up with her and figure out what to do next. For now, he needed to recover.

Emile pulled herself out of the rubble and looked around. The powerful blast to the chest had left her winded and disoriented, but it had only left a thick burn mark on her armor. "Whoever did that is going to die," the woman muttered as she stood up and began trying to rub the burn off the metal. The purple haired woman looked around and sighed. "Lost him again," she mumbled as she recalled the white haired woman that had been there.

A few moments of silence followed and the female warrior skated off. It didn't take long to find the masked woman and her... "pet," but that didn't matter. "Hey, lady!" Emile called to the woman.

Shockingly, at least as far as Emile was concerned, the woman had stopped moving and looked at her. The female lancer stared at the woman in awe for a moment. "Uh..." the purple haired girl stated as she took a few steps forwards and looked at the woman. "Did you see the guy with red and white hair pass through here?" she asked, getting a better look at the woman's face.

The masked woman pointed in the direction opposite the way Emile had come from and made the armored woman stomp her foot like a child. "DAMMIT!" Emile sighed as she turned and looked at the masked woman and took a few steps closer, until the two women were almost face-to-face.

The lancer looked at the woman's face. "You're pretty," Emile commented awkwardly as she continued to stare. The woman blushed as she adjusted her mask before the purple haired woman spoke again. "So, why do you wear this mask?" she asked, extending her hand towards it.

The gunner stepped back and adjusted her mask. "Don't you have a boyfriend to worry about?"

Emile quirked an eyebrow behind her visor and rested her fingers against her chin as she thought. A slight blush covered her cheeks as she looked away. "No! You've got the wrong idea. I want to kill that bastard. Anyway, who would like a douche like him anyway?" she asked, raising her fist with a stern look in her eyes.

Eden lifted a finger and pointed it at Emile. The Silver Beauty looked at the gunner and looked at where her finger was pointing and her. "What?" Realization rose and Emile's face lit up in anger. "I know you're not saying I like that dirt bag!"

"I'm not saying it," Eden commented.

Emile gritted her teeth a bit as she gripped her spear tightly. "STOP IMPLYING THINGS!" she said as she spun her spear around and pointed it at the masked woman.

"You're right," Eden said as she dropped her cigarette and stepped on it. "You're obsessed."

"That's it!" the lancer said as she looked at Eden, somewhat hurt. "I'll make you pay for that!" the purple haired woman said as she readied to strike the gunner.

Aronin was defeated, this much was clear. ISAAC stood over the telekinetic, his plasma weapon ready to finish off his opponent if he turned out to be more of a threat than he appeared. ISAAC could tell that he was already finished, though. He was barely conscious, broken, defeated. The only thing left was for him to surrender. Then ISAAC could declare the battle finished. Aronin had certainly been a worthy opponent. ISAAC had taken more than his fair share of damage. As an act of kindness, perhaps ISAAC could drag the poor bleeding human to the nearest hospital. Weak human flesh. Damage it far enough, and it will finish the job itself, bleeding its way to death.

"If I don't give up," the telekinetic began, coughing up blood. "What will you do?"

ISAAC thought over the possible responses he could give, and settled on the short and vague one.

"I will do what I have to," he declared. ISAAC was watching Aronin. He seemed distracted, concentrating on something behind ISAAC. A quick glance behind him and he saw what the telekinetic was doing. He was trying to drag a wire over to ISAAC, probably in the hopes of disabling his electromagnetic field. ISAAC doubted the small wire would even be capable of such a thing, but destroyed it with a blast of plasma anyway, vaporizing it and leaving a charred mark on the asphalt.

"I take that as a no," ISAAC said, pointing the weapon back at Aronin. He had attempted further aggression. ISAAC should destroy him. Something stayed his hand, however. He had been a worthy opponent. Perhaps it would be best to see to it that Aronin recovered and lived to fight again another day. ISAAC was just about to speak when suddenly he received a warning alert--

--krzzsht--

ERROR! [&CODE:0001x]
--
LOST CONNECTION [@c-AO9x.i:SN1567134808]
lc45077865844611841540108112008
--
TRANSPONDER INACTIVE
RECEPTION: NEGATIVE
RESPONSE: NEGATIVE
--
CHRONOPORT RETURN UNIT:
ON STANDBY
DISCONNECTED
--
DATA BACKUP
SUCCESSFUL

The error report was all that was left of c-A09x.i:SN1567134808, the android that I.S.A.A.C. had been monitoring. The last pieces of data that 1567134808 had transmitted indicated that it had been destroyed via fatal plasma shot to the head. 1567134808 was dead before it hit the ground. I.S.A.A.C. was almost certain that the fatal blow had not come from Aronin, but from some other source. Perhaps he would send a small reconnaissance drone back to investigate while the chronoport unit was still connected to that location.

As for sending back another Protos Eschatos...well, that was to be decided.

ooc:

Guess you didn’t see that coming? ;D

well I can't say it was expected. =P