[03] Prisoners vs. Magnus!

[Kill Town]

Prisoners vs. Magnus

5-player cooperative

Summary: Magnus has challenged the prisoners (minus Yuffith and Kepler, who didn't show up) to a fight to impose his dominance. The goal is just to survive, as Magnus, with the ability to copy the prisoner's abilities by thinking it, is just too strong.

Hint: Work together, or he'll pick you apart, and that would be a boring read. =(

Players:

Sage
Xenia
Mr. Zhu
Alura
Wolfgang

[Mr. Zhu]

What the fuck....

After the most humiliating performance of his long life, he had been greeted with "you have been cut" from whatever competition this was. He was still confused, he doesn't even have an idea of why he was sent to Kill Town and now he was being transported to prison. The portal turned red as he passed through and as he blinked his eyes he found that he was in a dark dreary room, with others that suffered the same fate as him.

Looking around he recognized Wolfgang, the young boy that he met in Zombieland. "Why are we here?" he inquired.

Wolfgang shook his head, and took a seat on the solid floor. The eunuch studied the rest of the people that are stuck here as well. Two teenage girls and a purple thing. The two girls sat back to back staring into the empty walls, the purple alien scrunched up into a ball breathing lightly.

"Hey, where the hell are we?" Zhu asked in a louder voice.

"Prison," one of the girls said coldly.

Prison? There was no way that Zhu, the cat of nine lives was in prison. There was just no way, he had escaped numerous times from corrupt warlords, and East City police, never had he been caught for all his deeds but now he was controlled so easily by god knows what. And what more? This was all a god damned game.

Before anything else can be exchanged, a loud voice started over the P.A. "The third round will begin shortly."

"A third round?" Zhu thought to himself.

The purple alien looked up drearily and the two teenage girls got up to their feet simultaneously. They arrived earlier than Zhu, and they already knew the drill and how its like. Suddenly a portal opened as a voice followed with its appearance. "Prisoners, you have been selected by Magnus to the fighting room. There you will fight, for your lives."

The voice disappeared as the portal turned red, the two girls walked through the portal shoulder to shoulder as Zhu and the rest followed them. The eunuch felt a tingling, he knew there was going to be danger in the next room, and it was not going to be pleasant at all.

[Celena]

The man standing by the smoky entrance he had created, had to have either been arrogant because of his statement or knew he was stronger than all of them combined, from having measured their power levels.

“What do we do?” asked the youngest member of the group to the person he was the most familiar with, Xenia.

“I call your bluff,” replied Xenia to the intruder.

“What’s... a bluff?” asked Wolfgang softly.

“It’s best coming from you,” replied Xenia to Magnus.

“I’m going to enjoy planting my foot into that smart ass of yours.”

“You won’t get the pleasure,” she replied.

The tall, blue feminine lizard was not in the mood and thus she decided to kick start the fight, disappearing from sight and then reappeared behind him. It was evident that there were more people besides Xenia and Zasha who possessed the ability to teleport from one area to another. Seeing her move, it would not have surprised the saiyan princess if the blue creature could actually teleport from one planet to another. From observing her, it was also evident that she was exceptional in hand to hand combat, even superior to the blonde’s. As she watched the blue skinned fighter move ever so gracefully in battle, she was confident that the tall being belonged to the reptilian race. Xenia had studied their race when she was seventeen. Their most distinctive features were their blue skin and their tall height. Based on her studies, the blue fighter was short for being a reptilian as the average height for a female reptilian was six feet, two inches. There was history between the saiyans and the reptilians. The reptilians used to be enslaved by the saiyan’s, up until her parents gave what was left of their race, their independence. Although Xenia felt pity for the near extinct race, a smile reached her face as she watched the female reptilian in combat. At least there was promise in one of them.

The elegantly dressed Mr Zhu was set to join the battle as he quickly approached the enemy, the long, thin, wisps on his hands swaying from side to side simultaneously. Sage turned to her sister with an expression that read ‘do I have a choice?’, but her reluctance to fight was nothing compared to the pintsized saiyan who lunged towards Xenia and wrapped his hands around her waist, causing the young woman to gasp as she witnessed his nervous face.

“Why are bad things happening?” he asked.

Confusion reached her face upon studying his saiyan tale. The colour of the boy’s hair was black and its style was rugged, typical of a full-blooded member of their race. Naturally, she had assumed he would have been the first one to attack their enemy, but this boy lacked the thirst for combat which was supposed to be a purebred’s strongest trait.

“Aren’t you from planet Vegeta?”

“Huh?” The boy was still clutched to her.

“Planet Vegeta, home of the saiyan race.”

“I’ve never heard of that. What are saiyans?”

She smiled at nobody in particular.”I thought so,” she uttered softly. The poor boy had probably been abandoned by his biological parents and shipped to earth, discovered by good natured parents who brought him up and nurtured him as an earthling. It was no wonder he cowered, after all, it was a human’s way of showing fear. A true saiyan never showed their fear. The boy looked pathetic right now. She was embarrassed for him.

“What’s your name?” she asked, pulling him off her.

“Wolfgang.”

At least he had a tough name. That and the fact that Gamer, who was no less than a genius, had selected the boy to participate in Kill Town, had to have held significance.

It was not right that the boy knew nothing about his heritage yet there was Xenia, who knew everything about their race. He had a right to know and Xenia felt not just as a person but as a princess of his race, that she should be the one to tell him. Perhaps she could begin by telling him that the life he had been living was a lie, but regardless, this was not the time to enlighten him with the revelation.

“What’s yours?”

“Xenia.”

Sage flashed him a smile, unlike her sister she believed it was fortunate that Wolfgang knew nothing about who he really was. The earthlings were nice people. Earth was a good place despite the trouble she had landed herself into throughout the course of her stay. Full-blooded saiyans were savages, epitomized bloodlust and most of them were their own worst enemies, experiencing destruction at their own hands. It was better that he was a coward as opposed to bearing the traits that she despised.

Xenia turned to Sage who was still hesitant to fight. “There are just some things you can’t avoid.”

The reptile and the man were no match for Magnus who was knocking them around with ease. Finally, after knocking them down yet again, he turned his attention the other prisoners. “It seems the three of you do not want to play,” he said, walking towards them.

“Sometime today,” said Xenia to Sage telepathically. It was a message that only Sage could hear. Xenia had somehow managed to fence the others out of her message.

Magnus inspected the three from right to left. He turned from the hesitation in Sage’s eyes to the defiance in Xenia’s, and then to the fear in Wolfgang’s.

Magnus smiled. He had found his next target.

“Fresh meat,” he said, heading for the boy, but Xenia stepped in front of him, pushing him back with her left hand. He tumbled backwards onto the floor while her right forearm clashed against the razor sharp knuckles on his left hand. It felt as if her forearm had made contact against a fist made of steel. She gritted her teeth from the excruciating pain. It had been evident from the previous event involving the Darkspawn that Wolfgang was inept when it came to fighting. If Magnus could hurt her with an indirect punch, then Wolfgang was fucked; Gamer’s employee could easily dismantle the boy’s cranium with a fist to the face.

“Run kid!” she yelled.

“Are you death?!” He thrust his fist into the right hand side of her face. A light flashed and the next thing Xenia knew, she was on the ground. “I already told you, there is no way you can escape.”

Magnus vanished and reappeared in front of Wolfgang who had already made it a few metres past the hole in the wall the assassin had created.

“Xena!” cried Sage, rushing to her sister’s aid. She tried to touch the blonde but Xenia flicked her hand aside. “This is a fight...you stupid fool. Which do you do prefer, to continue being a lame duck and have him...uh,” she moaned. “Kick your ass, or, to fight and get your ass kicked...trying?”

With every step Wolfgang backed away, Magnus moved towards him. “Nuh uh uhhh,” said the man waving his index finger from left to right. “This is my event, and you’ll play by my rules, bitch!”

[Sage]

The fire that suddenly ignited behind Sage’s coral irises was something Xenia hadn’t been privy to before. She hadn’t seen what Sage had done in Dante’s Abyss. She hadn’t seen Sage help summon the legendary, eternal dragon, either. She hadn’t seen power like Sage’s, either. Not in a long, long time.

“Leave him alone,” she said. Her tone was even, and soft. A quiet venom lingered behind it, that convinced Magnus to half-turn toward the girl. His long, black bangs swayed over his eyes as he tilted his head, before casually raising a hand to Wolfgang. A bright blue spark erupted between his dangling fingers, and he grinned.

“And what if I don’t?”

“Leave him alone,” Sage repeated. Magnus simply laughed, and, with a flick of his wrist, propelled the deadly ki spark toward the child. The azure haired girl didn’t move, but a chunk of rock hard ice suddenly materialized between the boy and the incoming missile. The frozen projectile hurled itself at Magnus’ attack, and crashed into it, forcing the crackling sphere to detonate before it could reach Wolfgang.

“The timid girl has-” Magnus cut himself off in order to jump out of the way as a half-dozen icy spikes tore out of the ground beneath him. Just as he landed, a half-dozen more burst out from the earth, narrowly missing him again. One after another, the spears shot out of the earth, chasing him away from the little boy. “Wh-?!”

Sage wasn’t finished. A vicious, arctic chill suddenly buffeted the trenchcoat-clad hacker, forcing him to shield his eyes from the blinding flurry. When he finally lowered his arm, he found himself surrounded by dozens of levitating, razor-sharp spears. The fire in Sage’s eyes had not yet gone out, either.

In an instant, each deadly missile hurled itself forward, and Magnus could do nothing but curl up in a pitiful defensive posture as they converged upon him. At the last second, an explosion tore out, and consumed the dark clothed man in a dusty haze.

Sage watched with apprehension, while the snowstorm got worse and temperature continued to plummet. Wolfgang trembled like a leaf, and the man in Asian clothing didn’t seem to be doing any better. Xenia composed herself, though Sage knew she must have been freezing. The scaly woman seemed worse off than all of them combined, and a part of Sage wanted to relent, but she knew it was for the greater good. She could only hope that she didn’t freeze the poor lizard girl.

As the dust cleared, however, it was Sage’s turn to stare in shock. A huge sphere of ice, imbedded with dozens of the girl’s ice spears, sat where Magnus had been standing before the explosion. “H-He...” she managed. “That’s... not possible. Nobody else...”

The ice cracked, and then shattered, revealing Magnus, his arms spread wide. “‘Nobody else’ what?” he inquired, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “Nobody else can use ice?” he chuckled, forming a spike in his palm. “You idiot.”

Magnus hurled the deadly artifact at Sage, but, to her surprise, the reptile girl suddenly grasped her wrist and the both of them... well, Sage didn’t really know what happened, but she found herself standing next to Xenia, a good twenty or more feet from where she was just a second ago.

Suddenly, her head swam, and that awful, awful pain blazed through her neurons anew. And she had just started to forget about it. She half-moaned, half-gurgled something unintelligible, while the Asian man - or Asian-clothed man, at least - launched himself at Magnus. Xenia flanked him at the same time. Sage just watched in a contorted stupor.

“What’s wrong with you?” hissed the blue woman.

“N-Nothing,” Sage managed through clenched teeth. She was shaking, and sweating, despite the ludicrous cold. “I- just- need...” Sage looked up at Alura, who was shivering uncontrollably. “...You’re freezing.”

“No, I’m alright. I’ll just-”

“N-No,” the crystal haired addict interrupted. “Magnus can use ice anyway. I don’t think the cold is doing anything to help...” Sage mumbled, more to herself than to the reptile in front of her. She closed her eyes, and in moments, the raging storm quelled, and the intense cold gave way to much more tolerable conditions.

“I...” Sage shook her head, and watched as Magnus threw a backhand into Xenia’s cheek. “I’m doing this for you,” she whispered. Ice crept over her hands and shot from her fingertips, turning her delicate hands into fearsome claws. She spoke again, louder. “Let’s see what you do with this.”

A heavy fog suddenly fell upon the battlefield, and Sage raced into it, arms extended. Dazzling, sparkling lights danced all around Magnus, and behind them, shadows came and went every which way. Some seemed shaped like Xenia, some like Sage, others like Zhu and Alura. But there were too many of them. Far too many.

Magnus opened fire on the nearest shadow, hurling a blast of energy at it. Nothing happened. He loosed an attack at another. Nothing. In a panic, Magnus fired at everything that moved all around him, giving Sage enormous opportunity to charge at him from behind.

The gothic hacker was completely unprepared for the four savage claws that raked straight through his trench coat and across his back. He stumbled forward as his blood spattered on the ground, but he didn’t fall.

Instead, a sharp elbow connected with Sage’s face, shattering the thin ice that protected it, and launching the girl flat onto her back. Magnus grinned, his eyes wide and... crazy. “Not nice,” he growled.

[Mr. Zhu]

As the misty shroud began to expand in the already dark room, Zhu realized this was a perfect chance to use the sheet of mist to cover for his next attack. A killing attack. While the others held Magnus busy for the time being, the Chinese was busy channelling his ki awaiting for a game breaker. Within seconds Zhu was completely unseen from the battlefield and disappeared in the mist.

The ice woman and Xenia battled on with Magnus, accompanied by the swift lizard woman; the kid was still weak to his knees, sitting aside the battlefield watching on intently. It triggered some of his saiyan instincts, but he was still reluctant to join the battle, and since his age backed him on the argument, no one seemed to complain about his absence during the exchange.

Magnus soon jammed another right hand, this time into Alura mid-section and propelled the lizard woman straight into one of the walls of the enclosed battlefield, impacting the hard surface with a loud thud. Sage caught on to Magnus within the cloud and delivered a jab cross combo to the medi area of the hacker's nose. It did not sit well with Magnus. Grabbing on to Sages neck, he turned a full one eighty and released his grip with all his might.

By now everyone on the battlefield expected a loud boom, but it didn't happen. The young saiyan had finally summed up the courage within him, and with the saiyan blood inside of him jumped up and dragged Sage from splashing her brains all over the dark walls of the battlefield. Although his drag could not have saved Sage entirely by itself, the ice woman used the pull as a pivot, and turned to have her feet come in contact with the surface not her head. It gave her an extra push, propelling off her legs and she dived straight into combat again.

"Thanks," she managed to whisper right before she spearheaded into battle again.

A maniacal laughter rumbled in the cloud, before Xenia was spit out from the mist and landed with a crash on the floor. Falling on her rear-end, she looked up inflamed by this monster. He had stolen Sage's abilities and was using them, and using them well against Xenia. On another level, it was almost as if Xenia was being beat by her sister's ability, or worse her sister.

"That's it?" Magnus challenged the six, "That's quite disappointing, I was hoping for a better showing than this."

The purple warrior knew that staying in the cloud would be an advantage for Sage, but it proved disadvantageous in the form of a team fight in there, because the rest were afflicted by the effect. Sage realized this also, and with Magnus's powerful grasp on ability theft, it was easy for Magnus to secure the upper hand within the cloud, they had to draw him out of it now.

Before the five completed the thought, Magnus descended from the mist and crossed his arm over his chest. "Fine, I'll do it your way. You guys don't want to fight in the mist? Don't create it in the first place."

All this time, Zhu had been looking for a chance to sneak up on Magnus and fatally wound the hacker when he was off guard. As the monster descended from the shroud, he knew it was a perfect chance to inflict some big damage on their adversary. Jumping out of Hidden Dragon Stance, Zhu stealthily descended from the air, and aimed for the back of Magnus, charging his fingers up. He had to somehow plunge it into one of Magnus's limbs and disable him.

"ARGH!!!!!!!" Magnus cried in pain, as Zhu's fingers dug deep into Magnus's shoulder and plunged deep in the muscle tissue. However, Magnus tightened up his muscles and trapped his assassin within attacking range of him, so the eunuch couldn't run away. Seeing Zhu, the enraged hacker delivered a back kick and nailed Zhu in the mid-section and sent him flying headfirst into a nearby wall. Though he the kick proved to be powerful and knocked Zhu out of consciousness, the critical damage has been done. One of his arms has been temporarily paralyzed.

[Kill Town]

Magnus stood, completely unemotional, watching Zhu slam helplessly into the ground, one arm dangling limply at an awkward angle on the side of his body. He surveyed the rest in turn, a motley crew of misfit prisoners, each with entirely different personalities.

“Don’t tell me… that’s the best you can do?” Magnus asked flatly, his tired eyes glaring at them from above the puffy bags of pale skin.

Xenia launched herself at him, but he quickly utilized Alura’s teleportation ability to get behind the frontal assault and send a walloping kick to her side, downing the saiya-jin princess for the moment. The lizard woman attacked next, her typically white eyes flushing a deep red. Her talent of hand-to-hand combat displayed impressive efficiency, but her strength became her greatest weakness as Magnus simply copied it and amplified it with his knowledge of the game’s coding. Realizing it as futile, the reptilian heir prepared to teleport above him and launch a Masenko, landing safely with her Super Leaping. The green-eyed hacker didn’t even give her that chance as he beat her to the punch, his body dematerializing in the blink of an eye and reappearing to her rear, sending a brutal chop to the back of her neck, managing to penetrate even her armor-like blue scales with debilitating force. Alura crumpled, her efforts in vain.

Only Sage and Wolfgang remained, one uncertain as to her ability to combat with a man who could steal her unique powers of ice, and the other completely trembling with dreadful shaking. Sage protectively moved in front of the boy as he cowered behind her, knowing somewhat intrinsically that she was the adult in the situation, and the only people who could protect her had already been miserably disabled. Magnus walked towards them ominously, the folds of his dark trenchcoat flapping noisily. Having no other means of offense or defense at her disposal, the hybrid summoned moisture from the air around her, donning a set of icy claws on one hand and tensing her hand tightly.

Magnus almost lazily waved an arm, and a railroad of ice spikes burst from the ground, trailing towards her at an alarming rate. Before she could properly react, a thick chunk of ice coated her entire lower body from the naval down, immobilizing her legs. It was… cold. Very, very cold. Rarely had the cryomancer been privy to the sensation. The hacker walked calmly by her as she struggled to break free, and grabbed Wolfgang by his brown T-shirt, dragging him out of her reach.

“D-don’t!” the blue-haired girl cried out.

Tears of fear streamed down Wolfgang’s face as he clumsily struggled against the muscular man’s grip. Magnus lifted him up wordlessly, the boy thrashing around. He cocked his head, almost curiously, his features covered in cold sweat. With his free hand, Magnus palmed the eleven-year-old’s head and obscured his face, almost as if it were simply a basketball. Wolfgang screamed out, his cries muffled by the hacker’s hand. Remorselessly, Magnus squeezed, crushing the child’s cranium like a grape before finally jerking it to one side, eliciting an audible snapping of spinal cord. Wolfgang’s body went limp, and Magnus dropped him without a word, a broken rag doll.

“Reprehensible!” Xenia growled, drawing herself up. She leveled her chin proudly and authoritatively with her shoulders squared, a typical royal posture. “Try that on me and see how far you get!”

Magnus slighted his body to the side, holding out one arm and charging up an energy blast. Xenia wasn’t going to try the same tactic twice, and took a page out of the hacker’s book as she orbed behind him, her psychokinesis charging up completely unconsciously as she prepared to throw him as he had done to them. Somehow, though, the hacker just didn’t play fair. He reacted with supernatural speed, surprising her with the same ice attack he had used to capture Sage, and Xenia’s surprise at the ridiculously quick defensive momentarily disrupted her attack. Magnus turned around, his bolt completely charged.

“Nice trick,” he said emotionlessly.

Xenia had no means to block as the spray of ki hit her directly, blowing her backwards and taking her out of the fight for keeps. Another of the bedraggled prisoners decided to use this time to make his stand.

“First I… get to be a girl in some crazy play… and the next I get to be a prison bitch… great,” Zhu grumbled, his voice strained. He stumbled to his feet, able-bodied hand gripping his paralyzed shoulder. Magnus looked at him, deciding to take the blond’s technique for a test drive. Zhu’s body glowed, and his Foresight gave him a glimpse of the next couple of seconds… and they would not be pleasant. “Just… give me a break… for once…” the drug dealer groaned. His battered figure lifted up into the air and slammed back onto the ground a couple of times, as if controlled by invisible strings, until he lay motionlessly, unconsciousness stealing away his bold and brave resistance.

Magnus looked around, seeing his victims strewn about the floor. He casually walked his big boots over to Alura, lying on the ground. She was about an inch taller than him, so he refrained from lifting her up as he did the boy. He placed a large foot atop her unconscious head, considering grinding it into the dust or breaking her neck. What would be the best possible demise for one so stubborn? Not a trace of emotion crossed his perspiring visage as he decidedly removed his foot, sparing the reptilian woman for the moment. One life had already been taken, and that was enough. He twisted his head around, beholding Sage, the only one still conscious from the ordeal. The hacker changed course, ominously strolling towards her.

“Y-you…!” she growled, a quiet fury burning within, blinding her capabilities of comprehensive speech.

Magnus raised his right hand, drawing it diagonally over his left shoulder, poising it steady for just a moment. Sage did not miss the gesture, but she tried to defend herself anyway. The hacker caught the wrist that held her claws, and a steely coating of ice formed along his right hand, as if coating it in an armored gauntlet.

“You. Lose.”

With unrelenting force, he swung his hand, the back slapping her across the temple and knocking her out.

Wolfgang is dead.

The rest are still alive. You're not in the game, so you don't rank, or get monies.