NeutralNexus

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I should have a post up within the next 24 hours. Also, I may or may not have begun work on a new villain CS...

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I sent you a Pm raptor.

The Silver Leaves; A Northern Crusade.

Man, the racial tension is so palpable after Limey's post, really setting the bar for the prejudice. I'm excited to see how it plays out!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

nitemare shape said
I wouldn't say rejected completely, except for Lyger. Lyger just doesn't like the guy, which is funny, because as Lyger's handler, I'm a pretty big fan lol

Haha! Thanks, I'm really enjoying playing him!

As for nobody accepting War-Pulse's invitation for drinks, if the guy who got a little too into killing demons asked me for drinks, I'd probably say no as well. @_@

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

”Now! Hit it with everything you’ve got!”

That was the first thing thing War-Pulse had actually heard from his comrades since they had started to hit the portal with energy. Mainly because he had spent the past five minutes finding out what demon fist takes like. It had not taken too long for the portal to have an adverse reaction to their assault and spew demons out like the drunk chick with her vodka shots after a rough night of partying. Before long, War-Pulse had been overrun by the hellish spawn, a swarm of the winged disasters spearing him and tackling him to the floor. The sheer number of them forced him off of his feet, and he could barely bring his arms up to protect his faces as they went to town with biting, kicking, scratching, punching, and all manner of violent attacks. The kinetic sheath held up against their blows, but he still found himself simply on the defensive, every punch or burst he could fire was simply met with more demon. For every haymaker he used to take a demon's head off, two more would start biting at his wrist.

"Dammit! Why you--friggin...ARGH!" He murmured, cursed, and screamed at the monsters, launching busts of energy to throw them off, making a currently futile motion to fling enough of them off to resume his attack on the portal. It seemed the creatures would come without end, flowing until they had eventually overrun the whole group of metahumans.

That is until a lone black-clad hero, whom War-Pulse had never noticed until he appeared with Icon, began to make dents in the portal's apparant "Shielding", opening it up just in time for Icon to scream out his command.

And War-Pulse would answer the call with as much vigor as he could muster, Grabbing one demon by the tail, he swung the beast in a wide arc, slamming it against its comrades in an attempt to clear his immediate vicinity. The scattering of chattering hellspawn gave War-Pulse enough room to aim at the portal with a free hand, and with a deafening crack, another beam of energy shot from his hand, pouring into the openings left in the portal by the black-clad man.

Sure enough, Pulse's energy combined with the other heroes' powers were enough, the massive portal convulsing and crackling under the overcharge. War-Pulse was barely able to get his hand in front of his eyes to avoid the bright flash, but all in an instant the crisis was solved, the light claiming all the immediate infernal denizens back to their respective homeland, their Earthly bodies' reduced to ash and cinders.

A brief pause was heard among the small crowd of metahumans at the portal, an air of final calm that punctuated the end of the incident, before War-Pulse broke that silence with a raise of his arms and a declaration of victory.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's what I'm talking about!" War-Pulse exclaimed. "Did you fucking see that?! We just sent hell packing with their scaly tails between their goddamn legs! I mean, not to pat ourselves on the back, but we just beat hell!" He laughed, twirling on his heels to get a good look at his comrades before glancing over the city, clearly still full of adrenaline based on his attitude. "God Damn! My first day here and I'm punching demons in the face...I FREAKING LOVE THIS TOWN!"

"Yes, yes, we're all excited," Crackled a voice on Pulse's in-ear communicate. Warden had got the communications working again, apparently, seeing as how he had been silent during the whole demon invasion it was safe to say that the energies had resulted in some minor interference on the communicator. Or that Warden simply had nothing to say about demons other than 'hit them really hard'. Both options were plausible. "It looks like you have a casualty, though. I can see on your radial scanner you have one man in critical condition.

"That's right! Where's the loser in black who got his finger torn by the demon?" Pulse asked the others, whirling around to try and get a better look at the man in black. "Seriously, why did he think punching the demon portal was going to work, anyway? We had that covered."

"No, you didn't, and show that man some respect. That "Loser in Black" was the only reason you were able to penetrate the portal's outer wall. His punches created some kind of vortex that created holes in the portal's defenses...something I'm still trying to analyze to a better degree." Clearly it had been the latter. "Either way, judging by the sudden disappearance of two heartbeats nearby, I can guess Icon took the Man in Black to the nearest hospital. Either way, his well-being is no longer our concern, what is our concern is trying to find a job for you. With the portal closed, I can imagine there will be quite a few opportunists trying to take advantage of the chaos, and plenty of them can be easily cashed in for us. I'll have a job for you as soon."

And before Pulse could respond, Warden shut off the communicator. Even in a crisis, the man was all business. Still, another breath of relief left Pulse, his mask covering his enthusiastic smile as he whirled around to Archangel, the Iron Knight, Lyger, and Radiance, though Lyger was the only name he knew, and the rest being nameless costumes at the moment.

"So, who's getting victory shots?" War-Pulse asked the group, draping an arm around Lyger as he motioned to the others. "Or maybe some food? Either way sounds good to me!"

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Think I will grab one last post before the arc truly ends.

The Silver Leaves; A Northern Crusade.

Pft, yer just jealous of my Shadowborne swagger!

And for your information, no, I'm not crying because my feelings are hurt...I have... a thing in my eye...maybe! And no, I don't know why I share this information over the internet, maybe it's just compulsory!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Almost as soon as War-Pulse made his comment, the group was joined by two new metahumans, or at least humans in superhuman armors. It did not take them long to survey the situation and even less time to come up with a plan. War-Pulse raised a brow at the suggestion, however, just shoot the portal with energy until it overloads? It could not be that easy, could it?

However, this momentary inkling of doubt was overridden by the much more awesome suggestion that he was about to shoot a portal to hell with energy. This whole situation just got more and more interesting for the mercenary, a real flexing of how powerful he could really be in times of crisis. Up until now it had just been no-name thugs and soldiers, scumbags and criminals that he dealt with. He could kill most people of that caliber with his pinky finger. This had been different, this was a significant challenge to his powers, for the first time in his life he felt like he was actually using his powers more intently than ever before, and right now it was just giving him an opportunity to go absolutely full-throttle.

And he would certainly give that limit a run for its money.

"Well, alright then! Let's light 'em up!" War-Pulse exclaimed, planting his feet down near Icon and extending his arms. His hands began to glow and surge with power, before long they were alight with energy before in a deafening burst came a surge of energy, rocketing into the portal with thunderous impact. Of course, like Icon, the portal just seemed to be absorbing it, barely affected by the combined efforts of the metahumans.

Undaunted, War-Pulse just angrily poured more energy into the portal, the beams from his hands expanding and increasing in mass and size, his feet actually having trouble staying planted as he fired away.

"If this doesn't work, what's plan B?" War-Pulse shouted to Icon. "Because it's starting to look like we're going to need a plan B!"

The Silver Leaves; A Northern Crusade.

There! Got a post up, a little long, but it's up!

The Silver Leaves; A Northern Crusade.

"Andras? Andras open this door!"

A loud pounding came at the door of the new recruit known as Andras Zsolstas following the perturbed bellow of the rather gruff looking human soldier. Nobody had seen the Shadowborne since he had arrived in the Silver Leaves all of a few days ago, almost disappearing from view among his cohorts within the first few hours of his coming to Egralia. It had taken them fairly long to ascertain his location, finding out from the Zali priest that Andras had 'borrowed' a small shack near the Zali shrine ouurside the compound. There was no response originally for the soldier, who angrily pounded on the door once more after a brief silence, once again hollering for Andras to show his face.

"Damn it, man, answer this door!"

"Hm? Oh, come in!" Said a voice on the other side, polite and earnest in its response, as if the man had not even been at his door for the past three minutes. "The door is open!"

The soldier did not hesitate on the suggestion, nearly bursting the door off of its hinges as he barged into the room, an annoyed scowl on his face. To his further his disappointment, he saw the Shadowborne simply at his desk, scribbling away on some parchment, with his back turned from the door. The room was barely lit by a single candle, all the windows shut tightly, leaving most of his room enshrouded by the dark.

"Andras, you were supposed to report for training three hour ago, what are you doing that is so--" The soldier began, marching towards him in a brisk stride.

"Ah, ah, ah, I would not take another step if I were you." Andras replied as he raised a hand to stop the soldier, his gaze never leaving the parchment he was working on. "Lest you scuff up the circle I worked so hard on."

Surprisingly, the soldier indeed stopped in his tracks, glancing down to indeed make out a very defined magic circle, painted on the floor in what looked like black ink. The soldier now took the time to glance around Andras' room, the light from the doorway beginning to illuminate much of what had transpired to make up Andras' absence. The wall was lined with parchment, much like the one he was scribbling on, filled with drawings, runes, glyph, notations, and all sorts of other information penned by Andras himself. The floor near the wall looked to be riddled with books, piling around the small desk Andras was continuing to work on.

"What...what exactly have you been doing in here?" The soldier asked, his ire turned to perplexion as he eyed the many drawings.

Almost immediately regarding the question, Andras whirled around in his chair, an enthusiastic grin plastered on his face. "I'm glad you asked, good sir!" He sprung from his chair, darting from his seat to plaster the parchment he was writing on to his wall. "You see, I've been making extensive use of the Silver Leaves' libraries, along with resources from the Church of Zali outside, you guys have a much larger collection of books and tomes than my own village possessed, makes my work much easier, I've made leaps and bounds since I got here in my research!"

"A...and what does your research entail, exactly?" The soldier asked, scratching his facial hair as he continued to leer at the spellwork. "Are you calling some spirit from the grave?"

Andras' brow raised, darting by the man with a loud scoff and a wave of his hand to dismiss the insinuation. "Oh good heavens, no! I work with darkness, not the dead, I'm not some Summoner after all." His speech seemed to be more in enthusiastic rambling than solid answers, as if he was simply trying to keep the man occupied while he continued to work, "Though the idea of Summoning is quite fascinating, have you seen some of the things that can be accomplished with it? Simply astounding, why I read in one book--"

"Then what is it, Andras?" The soldier proclaimed, stopping the young man's rambling before he got completely off topic. "And it better be good to skip morning drills."

"Hm? Oh! The spearwork?" Andras replied, grabbing his own spear that was leaning in the corner. "I reviewed a bit of the work in the library on the subject, I figured practicing on my own would be sufficient. That way I could continue to work on this without having to bother any of the trainers here."

"That's...that's not how things work here, Andras. You cannot just shirk duties because of personal affairs."

"Oh? My apologies then, I suppose I have things to learn about actually part of a group, don't I?." Andras made a quick shrug, his red and black eyes making a once-over of his work, making sure there were no imperfections in his incantations.

"This is...a lot of work for the few days you've been here." The soldier stood to the side of Andras, looking over his work as well. "Have you slept at all since you got here?"

"Yes! Well...sort of--no, not really." Andras scratched his chin, pulling what looked like a small satchel from his belt, he loosened the leather cord to reveal some kind of sparkling dust was contained inside, "I figured that sleep was unimportant in the face of progress."

At this point, the soldier had buried his face in his own palm, sighing in the knowledge of this recruit's complete lack of common sense. "You cannot just avoid sleep, boy, you will exhaust yourself before you ever hit another battlefield."

"Alright, alright, point taken, I understand." Andras replied in a flat tone, pardoning off the scolding as if it was a mere slap on the wrist and not a direct talking to from a superior. "Nevertheless, to answer your earlier question, this is not a summoning circle, but an invocation circle."

"And...I hate to ask, but how is that different?"

"Well, summoning takes something already alive and brings it from its home dimension and brings it here." As he spoke, Andras began lighting candles surrounding the circle, though suspiciously, each candle's light was blocked from shining on the circle, as if trying to keep just the circle in the dark. As soon as that was done, Andras took the powder he was holding and sprinkled a small bit of it into the middle. "Whereas this invocation is going to take something that already exists in this domain, the shadows, and try to create something out of them."

"And what are you trying to create."

With that question, Andras whirled around with another enthusiastic grin and gestured to the circle.

"I'm trying to create life, my friend!"

"W...what?"

"Well, alright, alright, it will not be one hundred percent real life, but its close. In the magic of my people, shadow constructs are common, I daresay easy. Some children in my home village could create a small stick out of the shadows to play with, but I'm going to trump those creations by making the first ever sentient shadow!"

"Sentient...shadow?"

"Yes! If my theory is correct, I will be able to create a shadow construct with a basic set of orders, a simple purpose, much like one would create a golem. It would be able to think on its own, fight on its own, problem solve to accomplish set goals without further instruction! Imagine the uses something like that could have! They could perform menial tasks, power unmanned suits of armor, it would be a true boon for society!" Andras dropped into a cross-legged position, holding his spear before him at the point of balance before him. "Now to see if my experiment is a success!"

"Wait a minut--"

The soldier was cut off by the beginnings of a Shadowborne chant. Andras' words came as a strange, reverberating whisper as the chant went on, a clearly ancient dialect filling the room. As he spoke the words of power, the candles in the room flickered and waned, a clear sense of powerful magic flared through the room. All of a sudden, the shadows in the room began to convulse and contract, retreating from the corners of the room, being concentrated into the center of the circle, the airless lack of light beginning to bunch into something of mass, the powder sprinkled on the floor rising into the coming darkness, seeming to fill the empty spaces. The soldier moved back to the door with hand dropping to the sword on his hip, wary of what was transpiring before him. As soon as the shadows were concentrated, Andras laid a hand on the circle, and at his touch, the circle burst with a bright, vibrant flash of light, but only for a moment. The shut windows sprang open, and the room was enveloped in a momentary fog.

The soldier lowered his hand, and what he saw was nothing more than Andras and a single, solitary shadow staring back at one another.

"Hah! It worked! It worked!" Andras screamed enthusiastically. "I've done it! I've created the sentient--"

The poor man did not even get to finish his sentence before the entity melted into the floor and dispersed back into darkness, filling the room once more with shadows.

"O...oh." His momentary shriek of glee followed up with a series of scrunched features, he stumbled back over to his notes to look them over. "The invocation circle was perfect, the candles were all aligned, the shadows were concentrated...did I do the chant wrong?" His finger ran down a bunch of words, his hand scratching his chin as he did so. "Perhaps it was...no that couldn't be...but what did..."

"Enough, Andras." The soldier, now fed up with the Shadowborne's antics, marched over and grabbed him by the back of his tunic. "If you signed up with the Silver Leaves, you did not to it to stay locked up in some shack and ignore it. You're going to the mess hall, and then you are going to perform your duties as a mercenary here!"

"Ack! Wait, hold on!" Andras began, though his protests fell on deaf ears at this point. Before he could even come up with another argument, he was being dragged back to the castle and off to the Mess Hall.

"Go on, get in there!" The soldier ordered, pushing him through the doorway. "Then you should actually look for some work, Shadowborne!"

"Now wait just a--" Again, his words had fallen on deaf ears, and the soldier had hurried off to complete whatever other task he was assigned, leaving Andras stranded on the edge of the large Mess Hall. He sighed, momentarily dejected at being dragged away from his failed experiment, but the feeling did not last once Andras realized he was standing in a room filled with races he had never seen up in the mountains. His scrunched features suddenly beamed with excitement as his eyes scanned the room, he could see Dwarves, Humans, Tindra, Wild-elves, and was there even a few Luni-Hari here? He had never even seen Luni before! With renewed vigor, he darted over to the nearest table to him, grabbing a plate of food somewhere along the way, he found himself sitting among a small group. There was a human woman with a rather hardened visage, two stout, able-bodied dwarves, an exotic and wiry Tindra with a Wild-elf, a human rogue seemingly boasting about his current achievements, and sitting right next to him was a rather stern-looking Luni-Har, and judging by her posture and features was a very refined Luni-Har at that.

Wasting no time, the Shadowborne quickly attempted to join the conversation as well, offering a. "You don't mind if I join you folks to eat, do you?"