04-12-2010, 05:02 PM
“Hey, Szar, I think I found some—”
Any coherent idea forming in Piper’s mind was silenced by the thunderous, otherworldly roar that sundered the silence that the solider had grown accustomed to in the last hour or so. Turning sharply, the woman’s eyes and ears were able to easily triangulate the source of the deafening noise. After all, it wasn’t too hard to spot a hulking, reptilian monster the size of a couple office buildings just casually strolling down the center of the abandoned town.
“I think I found something better,” Szar shouted as he turned and saw that Piper shared his pale-faced expression of awe and horror. “So what do you suppose we do now?” The changeling scoffed as he gestured toward the lizard. “I don’t think this is an event we’re supposed to win.”
“What happened to that fighting spirit, Szar?” Piper asked as she diverted her eyes from the impossible creature stalking through the city. As her gaze settled on Szar, she noticed that a few of the abandoned, derelict cars parked on the nearby sidewalk were starting to melt.
That’s impossible… it’s not hot enough to melt steel. The woman thought as she furrowed her brow, prompting Szar to follow her gaze to the series of melting vehicles.
“What’s going on?” The changeling demanded as he walked over to one of the molecularly destabilized cars and touched the palm of his hand to the glossy, deformed metal. “These weren’t this way a minute ago. Plus, they’re cold as ice…it doesn’t make any sense,” the alien observed as he pulled his palm away from the vehicle and observed the faint imprint it had left on the surface of the metal.
“Do you think it has something to do with that creature?” Piper asked as the lumbering reptile let out another deafening scream and smashed a nearby building with nothing more than a casual swipe of its armored hand. “Because I’m willing to bet something fishy is going on here…”
“I’m not too sure I want to find out,” Szar commented as he pushed up onto the tips of his toes to get a better glimpse of the creature’s full frame. “Hell might be a more pleasant alternative to trying to combat that,” the changeling said with a smug grin, triggering Piper to roll her eyes.
“Never know till you try,” the soldier said as she vanished in a swirl of lights, leaving Szar to ponder his own course of action.
Piper arrived on the rooftop of one of the remaining buildings just in time to see a pair of somewhat familiar warriors leaving the scene to pursue the lizard. Originally she planned to call out to them, but the moment her eyes fell to the ground at the base of the structure, any concern she had for the other two prisoners fell to the wayside. After all, staring up at the soldier from the base of the decrepit structure she’d teleported onto was a haphazard pile of guns and other assorted weaponry.
“Jackpot,” Piper whispered as she casually hopped down from the two-story shack and landed at one end of the incoherent mess of armaments. Grinning from ear to ear for the first time in a long time, the soldier knelt down and pushed away a pile of handguns to reveal a lovely set of silver revolvers. Judging from the weight and the length of the barrel, the soldier figured they were probably forty-four or fifty caliber. Either way, the woman couldn’t help but extract a sense of comfort from clenching the heavy weapons close to her chest.
“Guns aren’t going to help you,” the moment the words fell upon Piper’s ears, she snapped to attention and had both her newfound possessions leveled with the strange man’s chest. With a faint snicker, the man in the trench coat lifted a palm up next to his head. A beat later, his entire forearm was glowing with sparkling white energy, but even still, Piper kept her weapons trained on the sinister-looking fellow. “Why don’t you join your buddies and play with the Tarrasque?”
“And why don’t you stop trying to boss me around,” Piper said with a wink before narrowing her eyes at the man. It was then that she noticed the dampness that dotted the edges of the man’s countenance. Along with the bags under his eyes, it seemed like the man was either unable to sleep or combating some type of infectious disease. Either way, his callow words and unnerving gaze revealed that it wasn’t too much of a detriment to his physical condition. “You’re not a part of this program, are you?” She asked as she began to detect the faintest traces of anxiety swirling around beneath the surface of the stranger.
“…What are you doing?” The man demanded, as if he could somehow sense the woman probing into his subconscious. “Stop that,” he growled as he leveled his shimmering hand with Piper and unleashed an erratic bolt of white energy at the crouched soldier. Smiling ever so softly, she teleported out of the way and erupted back into existence just as her hands pulled back on the triggers of her newfound weapons. The report of the magnums caught the man’s attention, and just when Piper thought she’d have an easy out, he simply popped out of existence as she had done just a few beats prior.
“Damn it,” the soldier rasped as she quickly cocked back the revolvers’ hammers. “Which one of Gamer’s lackeys are you?” Piper shouted as she surveyed her surroundings—her weapons poised and at the ready.
“Please, you underestimate me, Piper,” the man whispered from behind the woman, prompting her to pivot immediately only to find empty space. “I am Magnus, and I’m afraid if you believe I’m some sort of lackey than you’re going to be sorely mistaken. But please, I’ve never been one for this silly banter. I’d much rather just embarrass and kill you, so I can get back to watching the Tarrasque slaughter the others,” on that note, Piper felt a sharp, jarring pain in the base of her spine as Magnus’ knee found its mark.
Clenching her teeth lest she allow her opponent the pleasure of hearing her scream, Piper hit the ground hard and permitted the momentum to carry her a few yards before she scurried back up to her feet. Turning, the woman fired off two more projectiles as her opponent casually advanced toward her. Unlike the last time, Magnus negated her efforts simply by raising a palm and grinding her bullets to a dead stop a foot or so in front of his face. With mounting frustration, Piper watched as her opponent proceeded to casually spin the bullets around and send them hurtling back at the owner.
Shit shit shit! Falling back, the woman twisted her body and watched with wide-eyes as her reflected bullets whizzed passed her, missing her only by a handful of centimeters. Hitting the ground, Piper glanced back at her opponent to see that he had disappeared once again. Is this how irritating it is to fight me? She began to ponder as she felt a hand close around the top of her skull. With the most complete and utter lack of elegance, the woman reacted by throwing out a foot and drilling the tip of her boot into Magnus’ shin.
The gambit worked, and when the overpowered man’s grip waned just long enough to let Piper smash the butt of one of her guns into his chin. Rising to her feet, the blonde discarded both of the revolvers and opted instead to bury the heel of her boot as far into her opponent’s chest as feasibly possible. With an incoherent grunt, Magnus was plucked off his feet and throw unceremoniously to the ground by the force of the blow. Despite her building momentum, Piper’s offensive came to a screeching halt when the brown-haired man casually leapt off the ground and into a standing position.
Rising up to his full height, Magnus casually brushed the dirt and sand from his trench coat as Piper tried to formulate some sort of feasible offensive. Glancing over to the pile of assorted weaponry, the woman reached out a hand and teleported away just as Magnus’ fist came tearing through the air where she had been a split-second prior. Rematerializing on the other side of the armaments pile, Piper clenched her fingers as her eyes found the handle of large sword. Much to her amusement, the sword faded in a swirl of white and blue lights and reappeared in her outstretched hand.
Well that’s new… The woman mused as she tossed the sword into her left hand and aimed her gauntleted palm at Magnus, who was watching her from the other side of the weapons. Much as it had in the last few minutes, the man’s pale, seemingly weary visage was staring at her with the utmost contempt. Obviously someone needs a lesson in humility. With a dull thrum, a sphere of emerald energy formed in front of the woman’s metal-encased hand.
“Spare yourself the embarrassment, Sarge,” Magnus shouted as he extended both his hands toward the soldier. As Piper watched in horror, several of the guns and various sharp implements that comprised the heaping mass of weaponry between Magnus and herself began to levitate up off the ground. A beat later, the various pumps and hammers of the weapons all clicked as they aimed themselves at Piper. In that moment, the woman’s flight response kicked in on overdrive, and just as the floating guns unleashed their volley, she fired off her rather scant energy sphere and teleported from the line of fire.
“Ridiculous,” Piper whispered as she reappeared a few yards away from the slightly amused Magnus. When the man turned his attention to the blonde, the army of floating firearms all fell to the ground as if their invisible puppet strings had been severed. “What the hell compels people like you to do shit like this?” The woman shouted as she twirled the heavy sword in an attempt to look like she actually knew how to utilize the outdated weapon.
“Just stop talking,” Magnus replied softly as he suddenly noticed that the color scheme of a nearby building had completely shifted in the span of few seconds. “What the hell is going on?” The man added softly in the hopes that the woman wouldn’t hear him. Unfortunately she had, but at the moment, Piper wasn’t apt to do much more than note the strange disturbance and file it with the strange, partially melted cars.
“Fine,” the soldier shouted in response to Magnus’ more vocal remark. “Have it your way,” she growled as she clutched the sword and dashed toward the brown-haired man.
Any coherent idea forming in Piper’s mind was silenced by the thunderous, otherworldly roar that sundered the silence that the solider had grown accustomed to in the last hour or so. Turning sharply, the woman’s eyes and ears were able to easily triangulate the source of the deafening noise. After all, it wasn’t too hard to spot a hulking, reptilian monster the size of a couple office buildings just casually strolling down the center of the abandoned town.
“I think I found something better,” Szar shouted as he turned and saw that Piper shared his pale-faced expression of awe and horror. “So what do you suppose we do now?” The changeling scoffed as he gestured toward the lizard. “I don’t think this is an event we’re supposed to win.”
“What happened to that fighting spirit, Szar?” Piper asked as she diverted her eyes from the impossible creature stalking through the city. As her gaze settled on Szar, she noticed that a few of the abandoned, derelict cars parked on the nearby sidewalk were starting to melt.
That’s impossible… it’s not hot enough to melt steel. The woman thought as she furrowed her brow, prompting Szar to follow her gaze to the series of melting vehicles.
“What’s going on?” The changeling demanded as he walked over to one of the molecularly destabilized cars and touched the palm of his hand to the glossy, deformed metal. “These weren’t this way a minute ago. Plus, they’re cold as ice…it doesn’t make any sense,” the alien observed as he pulled his palm away from the vehicle and observed the faint imprint it had left on the surface of the metal.
“Do you think it has something to do with that creature?” Piper asked as the lumbering reptile let out another deafening scream and smashed a nearby building with nothing more than a casual swipe of its armored hand. “Because I’m willing to bet something fishy is going on here…”
“I’m not too sure I want to find out,” Szar commented as he pushed up onto the tips of his toes to get a better glimpse of the creature’s full frame. “Hell might be a more pleasant alternative to trying to combat that,” the changeling said with a smug grin, triggering Piper to roll her eyes.
“Never know till you try,” the soldier said as she vanished in a swirl of lights, leaving Szar to ponder his own course of action.
Piper arrived on the rooftop of one of the remaining buildings just in time to see a pair of somewhat familiar warriors leaving the scene to pursue the lizard. Originally she planned to call out to them, but the moment her eyes fell to the ground at the base of the structure, any concern she had for the other two prisoners fell to the wayside. After all, staring up at the soldier from the base of the decrepit structure she’d teleported onto was a haphazard pile of guns and other assorted weaponry.
“Jackpot,” Piper whispered as she casually hopped down from the two-story shack and landed at one end of the incoherent mess of armaments. Grinning from ear to ear for the first time in a long time, the soldier knelt down and pushed away a pile of handguns to reveal a lovely set of silver revolvers. Judging from the weight and the length of the barrel, the soldier figured they were probably forty-four or fifty caliber. Either way, the woman couldn’t help but extract a sense of comfort from clenching the heavy weapons close to her chest.
“Guns aren’t going to help you,” the moment the words fell upon Piper’s ears, she snapped to attention and had both her newfound possessions leveled with the strange man’s chest. With a faint snicker, the man in the trench coat lifted a palm up next to his head. A beat later, his entire forearm was glowing with sparkling white energy, but even still, Piper kept her weapons trained on the sinister-looking fellow. “Why don’t you join your buddies and play with the Tarrasque?”
“And why don’t you stop trying to boss me around,” Piper said with a wink before narrowing her eyes at the man. It was then that she noticed the dampness that dotted the edges of the man’s countenance. Along with the bags under his eyes, it seemed like the man was either unable to sleep or combating some type of infectious disease. Either way, his callow words and unnerving gaze revealed that it wasn’t too much of a detriment to his physical condition. “You’re not a part of this program, are you?” She asked as she began to detect the faintest traces of anxiety swirling around beneath the surface of the stranger.
“…What are you doing?” The man demanded, as if he could somehow sense the woman probing into his subconscious. “Stop that,” he growled as he leveled his shimmering hand with Piper and unleashed an erratic bolt of white energy at the crouched soldier. Smiling ever so softly, she teleported out of the way and erupted back into existence just as her hands pulled back on the triggers of her newfound weapons. The report of the magnums caught the man’s attention, and just when Piper thought she’d have an easy out, he simply popped out of existence as she had done just a few beats prior.
“Damn it,” the soldier rasped as she quickly cocked back the revolvers’ hammers. “Which one of Gamer’s lackeys are you?” Piper shouted as she surveyed her surroundings—her weapons poised and at the ready.
“Please, you underestimate me, Piper,” the man whispered from behind the woman, prompting her to pivot immediately only to find empty space. “I am Magnus, and I’m afraid if you believe I’m some sort of lackey than you’re going to be sorely mistaken. But please, I’ve never been one for this silly banter. I’d much rather just embarrass and kill you, so I can get back to watching the Tarrasque slaughter the others,” on that note, Piper felt a sharp, jarring pain in the base of her spine as Magnus’ knee found its mark.
Clenching her teeth lest she allow her opponent the pleasure of hearing her scream, Piper hit the ground hard and permitted the momentum to carry her a few yards before she scurried back up to her feet. Turning, the woman fired off two more projectiles as her opponent casually advanced toward her. Unlike the last time, Magnus negated her efforts simply by raising a palm and grinding her bullets to a dead stop a foot or so in front of his face. With mounting frustration, Piper watched as her opponent proceeded to casually spin the bullets around and send them hurtling back at the owner.
Shit shit shit! Falling back, the woman twisted her body and watched with wide-eyes as her reflected bullets whizzed passed her, missing her only by a handful of centimeters. Hitting the ground, Piper glanced back at her opponent to see that he had disappeared once again. Is this how irritating it is to fight me? She began to ponder as she felt a hand close around the top of her skull. With the most complete and utter lack of elegance, the woman reacted by throwing out a foot and drilling the tip of her boot into Magnus’ shin.
The gambit worked, and when the overpowered man’s grip waned just long enough to let Piper smash the butt of one of her guns into his chin. Rising to her feet, the blonde discarded both of the revolvers and opted instead to bury the heel of her boot as far into her opponent’s chest as feasibly possible. With an incoherent grunt, Magnus was plucked off his feet and throw unceremoniously to the ground by the force of the blow. Despite her building momentum, Piper’s offensive came to a screeching halt when the brown-haired man casually leapt off the ground and into a standing position.
Rising up to his full height, Magnus casually brushed the dirt and sand from his trench coat as Piper tried to formulate some sort of feasible offensive. Glancing over to the pile of assorted weaponry, the woman reached out a hand and teleported away just as Magnus’ fist came tearing through the air where she had been a split-second prior. Rematerializing on the other side of the armaments pile, Piper clenched her fingers as her eyes found the handle of large sword. Much to her amusement, the sword faded in a swirl of white and blue lights and reappeared in her outstretched hand.
Well that’s new… The woman mused as she tossed the sword into her left hand and aimed her gauntleted palm at Magnus, who was watching her from the other side of the weapons. Much as it had in the last few minutes, the man’s pale, seemingly weary visage was staring at her with the utmost contempt. Obviously someone needs a lesson in humility. With a dull thrum, a sphere of emerald energy formed in front of the woman’s metal-encased hand.
“Spare yourself the embarrassment, Sarge,” Magnus shouted as he extended both his hands toward the soldier. As Piper watched in horror, several of the guns and various sharp implements that comprised the heaping mass of weaponry between Magnus and herself began to levitate up off the ground. A beat later, the various pumps and hammers of the weapons all clicked as they aimed themselves at Piper. In that moment, the woman’s flight response kicked in on overdrive, and just as the floating guns unleashed their volley, she fired off her rather scant energy sphere and teleported from the line of fire.
“Ridiculous,” Piper whispered as she reappeared a few yards away from the slightly amused Magnus. When the man turned his attention to the blonde, the army of floating firearms all fell to the ground as if their invisible puppet strings had been severed. “What the hell compels people like you to do shit like this?” The woman shouted as she twirled the heavy sword in an attempt to look like she actually knew how to utilize the outdated weapon.
“Just stop talking,” Magnus replied softly as he suddenly noticed that the color scheme of a nearby building had completely shifted in the span of few seconds. “What the hell is going on?” The man added softly in the hopes that the woman wouldn’t hear him. Unfortunately she had, but at the moment, Piper wasn’t apt to do much more than note the strange disturbance and file it with the strange, partially melted cars.
“Fine,” the soldier shouted in response to Magnus’ more vocal remark. “Have it your way,” she growled as she clutched the sword and dashed toward the brown-haired man.
Quote:Vad's Whimsical Whimsicalisms: Men. Good stuff there.
![[Image: Viper-Mini-Sig-Piper.png]](http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/ThundercatsHO/Viper-Mini-Sig-Piper.png)
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,
but anyone can start today and make a new ending.