The situation seemed to be moving out of the frying pan and into the fire. Helia barely had the time to notice someone had joined them from the world above, when some big, ugly... Bugs? Emerged from the ship.
"There's something in here, and it ain't us!" She warned as the strange creatures approached.
Both Sa'cha and Heath tried the reasonable first contact approach, and she saw both of those fail. It gave her precious little time to decide what to do before her assailant came for her.
That's right. They were attacked. Without warning, although after Sa'Cha's display, Helia could not claim it was absolutely without provocation. But the thing going after Sa'Cha took no timw going for the kill. Had he not moved, there went his neck. They were in danger.
So Helia did what Helia trained to do.
Her hand reached into her pocket to find her multitool and draw the knife, as she jumped in front of Bruce whom she knew for sure was not trained to fight. That left her to fend off two of those things. She angled her body to present a smaller target. Left hand high in fron to grapple. Right hand behind her, ready to stab. Her heart was beating like crazy. She could barely stop her lwgs from shaking. And the pit of fear in her chest almost made her turn tail and run.
But she held. As one of the creatures lunged for her, she swatted the offending appendage away. The body of the creature was now wide open for her to see. She was still reluctant to kill it, so instead her leg kicked forward to it's bony chest - it's build seemed easy to topple.
Indeed, the bugman stumbled back, winded. The other one ceased it's charge. Smart. They would have easier time if they both attacked her. She could not let them, or it was over.
But she could not attack either and leave Bruce to fend for himself. Thus she chose to do wat they did, safety in numbers. "Get together! Whoever can fight to front, others behind them!" She shouted, ponting towards the group of three nearby and backing away as fast as she dared to them.
As the half elf's spell went down, the dragoness in disguise was surrounded by an ominous black and red glow. As her shape expanded, her shadow loomed over the elves. "Enough!" her voice resonated through the air, the volume making her words being felt rather than heard. A slam of her tail into the ground caused it to shake beneath everyone's feet as well.
With a wave of her front paw, a wall of black flames surrounded the group, separating them from the elves and their arrows. The plants that were grasping at the group found themselves seared in half, now limply slacking off on their bodies. She walked out from behind the cart, towards the wall of flame and looked the elven leader in the eyes. "I am doing my very best not to resort to violence, child of the forest. We are merely travellers passing through these parts. Beforehand, I might have even purchased some of your wares on my way out. Now however, I am thoroughly nettled."
She blown some smoke out of her nostrils into the elf's face: "Now, we are going that way," she pointed, and the flames formed a corridor in the direction, "If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Oh, and if you find a pirate looking guy... For every drop of his blood, I will drop one of you. So run along little elf, and tell your king to behave." she threatened, before turning to the group, "We are leaving!"
A couple of things happened in quick succession that caused Helia to break her jaw on the floor. The first one was good, everyone by some ungodly deal with the King of the Devils survived the fall. Helia would never forgive herself if someone got hurt, despite the voices of reason in her head and coming from Bruce telling her that she could not have predicted an earthquake. That was only the immediate problem though.
When they all crawled onto a piece of solid land and squeezed the water out of their clothes (Some going shirtless to the joy of others), they took inventory and realized they saw no way out. Just fucking great. There was only one source of what was hopefully daylight, but it was too narrow even for her skinny self to get through.
That was when Sa'Cha went and did... something. Words Helia could muster failed to describe to her mind just what happened. “With this wall turned to dust, its utter destruction is an absolute must...” she repeated dumbly, "But, if the wall is already turned to dust, why is the destruction a must? And it didn't turn into dust, chunks of it went everywhere... What?" She had to shake the stupid out of her head and looked at the result.
There appeared to be an alien (presumably, she was too cold for intelligence service conspiracy theories) spaceship buried in the earth, with strange flora covering it. Even the plants looked alien, the colors having entirely too much blue and purple to have come from anywhere on Earth. "Okay..." She told Sa'Cha when she gathered her wits again, "I am not sure what is cooler. The fact we survived that drop with nary a scratch, you, or that." Then, the urge to explore surfaced again, "No other way out but through there. Shall we take a peek?" she grinned.
She was feeling rather well for the first time since morning. Not only did her drunk of a mother let her off the leash, but she convinced the lot to go and do something together again for once. Helia even allowed herself a smile as they did indeed find the mouth of a cave, and curiously they peeked in. Producing a flashlight out of one of her many pockets, she shone the light on the floor and walls, checking if there was anything worth an extra credit from Dr. O to be had.
Something about the cave started rubbing her wrong though. Not only was it barren of any sign of being inhabited, that would not bother her. What did bother her was the shape of the cave. It was odd. Unnaturral even, like it was formed by something plowing into the ground rather than a fault in the rock, or water coming out. "Oh, I'm not sure I like this one, maybe we should-"
Before she even could finish, a series of tremors hit the area, dislodging a bunch of rocks that fell dangerously close to them. Before she knew it, the group was free falling as the ground gave way. There, she did it. All of them were dead and it was the fault of her and her curiosity. If only Tommy was here to keep her on the damn leash! I'm so sorry! She thought as she thought they were about to hit the ground.
A relief came as she splashed into water, deep one at that. The adrenaline gave her what felt like a strength of a thousand men as with a couple of paces worth an olympian, she swam towards the surface. Taking a deep breath, she yelled on top of her lungs: "Next time that bitch wants to go explore, kick her ass! Is everyone in one piece?"
The reception for her idea was far from what Helia would call excited. She could swear their social group has lost their drive since Tommy moved out at the end of last school year. The ginger has tried to keep some of the energy going, but in the last few weeks it seemed to be more and more obvious that their group were 'Tommy's posse', and once their kingpin was removed, they started drifting apart. If only she could find some glue to hold the party together!
"Oi come on! I'm not saying we should go cave diving or anything crazy," she rolled her eyes at the worries about safety, "Take a casual stroll, walk off a bowl of fries, poke our head into a hole in the ground if we see any to check if someone lived there a very very long time ago." she explained her idea a little better. Fortunately Andrew arrived to the rescue and seemed to have talked everyone into going, not taking no for an answer.
It would have to do.
"Right-o. I'll go clear up with the teachers that we'll be staying after we finish here then!" she said, forcing a bit of a cheer into her tone and a ghost of a smile on her face. She managed to keep it that way until she turned the corner. She was now faced with a difficult choice which teacher to approach. She could go to OhPleaseDon'tHurtYourselves Kendall, or she could go to DinosaurBonesRule Oliver - and promptly Helia walked in the direction of the jacked up science teacher.
"Dr. Oliver?" she made her presence known.
"Helia." he nodded to her, "What can I do for you?"
"Well, me and a group of others would like to stay when we're done at the museum to look around a bit and then hike home. Do you think that would be possible?" She proposed, "We want to go look around to see if we can perhaps find any artefacts still lying here somewhere. Bits of pottery, cave paintings and the like."
She could see Dr. O was happy with the intention having to do with exploring history and not a poorly veiled attempt at smoking weed or some such thing - he's already had to confiscate a bag from Skull today. Good thing principal Randall was not accompanying them here, or he would have been expelled on the spot. "Well, I would be happy to let you go, but there is the thing that the school is responsible for your well being until we return. You'll have to get on phone with your parents, if they confirm you can stay, I have no objections. Heck, I'll give you extra credits if you do find something prehistoric." he smiled, and have Helia the phone number to call.
She returned to the group in actually good mood. "We're a-okay to go, provided your parents call Doc Oh and give him a head nod. You guys need the number?" She asked, texting her mother to do so as she spoke, praying that the woman was not too drunk to forgot how to read. Last time she checked there was only wine around the house, and it was still early. Sighing, she hit the send button. A weight lifted off of her shoulders when a minute later, a text saying 'done' came back.
The special day started sleepily. Helia was tired from having to unclog a particularly nasty toilet and taking a cleansing swim afterwards. She tried to sleep on the bus ride, but the regular annoyances Bulk and Skull woke her up. They regretted it shortly after when Helia put them to work and took nothing but silent obedience for an answer, fairly certain that she ruined Bulk's back for a week. That's what they get for being obnoxious bunch of insufferable waste of calories. A LOT of calories in Bulk's case.
Thus it was that when it came to labouring at the fair, Helia did most of it on autopilot and barely able to remember what she did until she took a bet to eat a bowl of fries, which she demolished in record time. Finally getting a kick of energy from the meal, she wandered around the fair grounds, now having nothing to do until the museum tour took place. Finding none of the shopping stalls too interesting, she instead took a look at the scenery. The museum was located in a rather pretty location, she had to admit. She heard that there were other caves in the area she wanted to check out since forever, but never found enough time to haul her ass all the way here.
But, since she was here now... She returned to the stalls where Finn and Sa'Cha were chatting. "You guys want to go explore a bit when we're done here? I heard there are caves with prehistoric paintings here, and a bunch of them probably still undiscovered. Want your name in the history books anyone?" She fished. Bad enough she did not have gear to go caving properly, but going alone was just asking for trouble. If noone bit, she supposed she would have to find something other to do in the town for the rest of the day.
Helia is a relatively average girl appearing a bit on the heavier side due to her hobbies, standing 168 cm tall and weighing just shy of 70 kilos. She however has a bit lower body fat percentage than is usual for her size and age, as she spends a lot of her time either training martial arts or hiking in nature. Her skin is on the paler side, and she has a bunch of smaller scars from falling a bit too often for her linking.
The girl's face is a bit angular, with prominent cheekbones and pointy chin. Her eyes seem to always have a glitter of mischievousness in them, as if she intended to pull the rug from under you or put a whoopie cushion on your seat at any moment. Whenever it is the least bit sunny, her freckles come out and cover her face. She cuts her hair short and styles it into a perfect mess.
Her wardrobe is a bit boyish, preferring garments with utility such as cargo pants, hiking boots and a vest full of pockets. There is always at least one swiss knife on her, and usually a couple of snacks and a first aid kit. Despite being fit, she usually slouches in her seat or leans against the wall.
History:
Helia's mother is a first generation greek immigrant. Her father was an american with irish roots reaching all the way back to the potato famine. She did not live in Angel Grove for most of her life, only relocating there for high school. This was caused by an unhappy situation in her family. Her father was killed in a gang shooting, being in a wrong place at a bad time. Her mother took this hard, succumbing to alcoholism, which lead to Helia being neglected at first, abused later, and money always being tight.
As such, Helia decided to spend as much time as she could away from the house. Her situation is better now that she makes a bit of her own money serving juice and cleaning at Ernie's, as well as being more than able to stand up to her eternally drunk mother, and on weekends she spends her time outdoors either practicing martial arts to ensure no one hurts her ever again, or just enjoying nature, hiking and camping outside, or going swimming on the public beach. Sometimes she can be found loitering around the city if there is nothing better to do, anything to stay away form home.
+ Fresh food - Something she greatly enjoys, as usually she gets her food in a nonperishable form bought in advance on discount. + Attention - She appreciates the company of her few friends greatly, as her parents never spared her much thought. + Swimming - Most fun you can have for just the price of a swimsuit, even better if you can get some snorkeling gear.
- Bullies - While Helia was never really bullied at school, she suffered enough at home, and as such tolerates none of it. - Schadenfreude - Helia can't help but giggle when she sees a relatively harmful misfortune happen to someone, such as missing the elevator. She hates this about herself, but cannot help pulling pranks at times. - The day before paycheck - Money has always been tight, and eating leftovers and scraps gets old quick.
Skills:
Combat: Grappling, kickbox, short blades Common: Survival, cooking, mending broken things
Relationships:
Tommy: Arguably Helia's closest friend. They share a major psychotic hatred for bullies and have similar ideas how to go about it, resulting in them having quite similar hobbies, and being a good fill in others. While she never went as dark as Tommy on the bullies, after his self improvement, Helia is objectively the more violent one. Finn: First running into each other at freshman year, Helia chased away some guys who were bullying Finn. While they do not have many hobbies in common, they have a remarkably similar collection of miserable experiences others call childhood. Helia enjoys talking to the guy, as with the exception of fashion choices, the two of th can relate to each other's woes the most, and if not offer helpful insight, at least be an understanding listener to vent at. Sa'Cha: Helia pretty much only has protecting others in common with Sa'Cha, which makes him okay in her book. She didn't talk to the man too much yet though, mostly meeting by proxy through some of their other friends. "Pretty boy" and "Rich kid" would be words Helia would describe him with. Bruce: The two met in some of the practical skill classes, sharing a bit of a knack for fixing things. Where Bruce's skill is more focused on automobiles and generally learned in advance, Helia's abilities are broader and often a result of learning by doing, oftentimes in an emergency. She's always happy to talk shop. Oswald: The two hardly ever talked, seeing as Helia doesn't have access to the web outside of a library or couple classes. Shelby: Helia feels utterly intimidated by Shelby's intellect, which sucks as she is the only other girl in their social circle. Whenever in the same conversation though, Helia feels like she has nothing to add that would not make her look like a retarded baboon in comparison. She does admire her though for taking her nerdiness and making it her castle. Karone: Helia hates the youtuber culture, seeing it as something without a shred of value added, stupidly catering to consumer mouthbreather masses. She does not know Karone personally at all, but her prejudice prevents her from seeking any contact. She does not wish her harm, but doesn't particularly like her.
Equipment:
The copper ranger's technology is a next generation prototype, not entirely mastered even by Eltarian Technomage standards. As such, it offers some key advantages, which however come packaged with a set of pretty crippling downsides.
Solar flare gauntlets - The copper dragon ranger's primary weapons are armored gauntlets. They are capable of manipulating light, from flash-blinding enemies to absorbing incoming laser fire. The gauntlets can shapeshift to some degree, growing spikes and claws if needed for combat or scaling walls. Copper dragon nanosuit - The copper dragon ranger's armor has increased maximum energy output compared to the others, sacrificing raw armor thickness in favor of generating an invisible, form fitting energy shield layer. This makes the copper ranger physically weaker than the other rangers, but the shield can regenerate while not taking damage, maximizing the copper ranger's durability in combat and restricting movement a little less. Booster zord: Sentinel mode - Like the copper ranger's armor, the booster zord works on a different principle than that of the other rangers. Composed of a mass of nanites much like the suit, it can reconfigure based on which of the scanned creatures is currently being utilized. For the Copper dragon, it configures to turn their tactics around, giving the ranger heavy armor and decent firepower, at the expense of low mobility and lasting only a short time before it has to be recalled for a recharge.
Solar prominence gauntlets - Upgraded gauntlets that gain the ability to project plasma blades and launch jets of plasma as a ranged attack. Phoenix down - A dagger that can focus the power of the Sun, causing searing cuts and being able to launch waves of hard light. Phoenix nanosuit - Upgraded armor with improved power distribution, allowing it to reflect an energy attack with 25% chance, and to use the shield in an offensive area of effect burst that stuns and flash blinds anyone within three meter radius. Booster zord: Hyper mode - This configuration of the booster zord is so barebones it may look like it is coming apart. While it provides next to no increase of armor, it is the fastest and most agile piece of tech on the field. It has a secret ability to combine with other booster zords in a booster megazord, transforming into a flight, weapons, armor package or a combination thereof. The downside is, that one of the rangers is left demorphed while another is using the ability.
Eclipse gauntlets - The gauntlets with their absorption potential maximized. The Bakunawa ranger can suck energy from incoming attacks, energetic or kinetic, to fuel themselves. Void shard - A short sword that seems to absorb light. It is controlled by the Bakunawa ranger psionically, as it is extremely heavy, to the point of being immovable by anyone else. It's ultimate attack is summoning a microsingularity that consumes a weakened enemy. Bakunawa nanosuit - Armor with ultimate defensive capabilities. Maximized power output and user organism integration, allowing the wearer to temporarily boost their strength, agility, stamina, perception and healing. Booster zord: Flux mode - A piece of black magic even by Eltarian standards. This booster zord configuration exists in a state of continuous flux, constantly appearing and disappearing on the spot, and sometimes creating short-lived, translucent after-images of itself beside it. It can teleport across the battlefield within its' line of sight, and it strikes with extended blades or electrical arcs. As half of the time it does not exists in this reality, it has a 50% chance of an attack phasing straight through it. It provides medium armor and mobility. However, due to its' function, a living user has a hard time coping with using it, causing tremendous psychological wear. This can result in a range of detrimental effects, from the inability to speak to going on a senseless rampage.
Lily Chilman
"I shall drown you in the depths of crimson purgatory!" - Red dragon emperor
Lily was born to Helia in an undisclosed future, but still while Helia was an active ranger. As such she had to take a break from the team, being replaced for six years by Ernie's son Bert. Once Lily came of age, she expressed interest in joining the Pai Zhua academy, and as such Helia left Lily in the care of her friend Mao and returned to active ranger duty.
That was the last Lily saw of her. She knew that with her childhood, Helia would never willingly leave her, so she grown up coming to terms that her mother has fallen in battle, despite her team actually suceeding. Unfortunately, she didn't know anyone of her mother's team to ask, and the strict isolation regime in the Pai Zhua Academy did not allow for much respite to search for the answers. Eventually, the thought that she was gone started hurting less than the thought of finding her alive after all that time.
She was selected as one of the three guardians of Dai Shi, failing miserably when in the same hour, a disgraced student, Jarrod, released the evil from its' prison, leading to Mao's death. She, Theo Martin and Casey Rhodes were sent to Jungle Karma Pizza in Ocean Bluff, where they met their new master, Robert James, becoming the Jungle Fury rangers, with Lily becoming their leader.
They have had the upper hand, with RJ and Dominic joining the team, until now. The Phantom beasts were revived, and created the Spirit rangers to fight Lily's team. The team was on the brink of defeat, and that was without Dai Shi ever fighting itself. Hence Lily sought out Cameron Watanabe and used the Scroll of Time to travel to the past and meet her mother in an attempt to gain greater power to defeat Dai Shi.
+ Dancing - Her favorite pasttime is booming some music and dancing her heart out. + Pizza - The only thing about pizza not great is having to make it every day of the week. + Children - They are the future, and Lily fights the monsters for them.
- Work - She is supposed to save the world, but she has to flip pies and get flour in her hair on regular basis instead. - Riddles - RJ's weird training methods, delivered without any explanation, can drive her up the walls. - Jarrod - The vengeful coward who released Dai Shi. Too pathetic even for Dai Shi to take as a host.
Skills:
Combat: Bo, Mace, Claw booster, kung-fu Common: Pathetic little. Learned to make pizza recently.
Relationships:
Helia: Lily doesn't remember much of her mother, but what she does remember is that she was one of the more epic rangers, and she was one from the start, part of the first team ever. Theo: Her brother form another mother. They went through the entire academy together, and Lily leans on Theo to help her in areas where she is not certain. Casey: A young cheetah cub that stood up to Jarrod, leading to his ousting and Dai Shi being released. He has great potential though, and Lily is trying her best to help him realize it. RJ: The most infuriating master one could ask for, and yet somehow he is able to take her skills so far beyond what Mao was able to she can nothing but admire the guy. Mao: The man who was the fatherly figure in her life since she was six. Lily was crushed when his body was destroyed, but is happy knowing his spirit lasts and is watching over them. She has a suspicion this is not the last she has seen of him, anyway.
Equipment:
"Strength of the tiger, Jungle Fury red ranger!" Suit - Tiger spirit
"Strength of the tiger, full fury! Jungle master red ranger!!" Suit - Gorilla spirit
my experiences with discord are that it will inevitably draw attention away from posting and may spawn my longest 1x1 with the person I like the most when it causes the RP to fail, but I'll submit to the popular vote xD
Idea: In one older RP I did at different board, I opened up 'chapters' of it, each with a different subplot the individual players could run, and I kept tabs on yhe overarching plot and modified it according to what happened in the player run chapters. It worked well because for example when christmas rolled around, we plugged in a filler chapter that was impervious to someone not being able to post suddenly, and got back to serious story once everyone was somewhat available. The ability for a player to run their own subplot alao gave them greater ability to develop their character in a unique way if they so desired (for example If our rangers lose their powers, I am not too keen on the extraplanetary agventure and would rather Helia found the pai zhua school and got new powers through it. It is a thousandfold more fitting for her). Last but not least, it gave me as a GM some downtime to breathe when another player took over for a bit.
Does that sound like something you lit would be interested in?
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