Critical Faliure

[Shalltear Bloodfallen]

The newcomer, Lazaruz, raised is right hand and in one solid motion, made a swiping motion in front of him and drew his sword with his left hand. This thing was unfamiliar to him but the appearance and tone was enough to him to prove that it belonged to the Collective or something even worse, and was therefore an enemy.

As his right hand moved, a trail of red letters appeared behind it.
The letters were in an ancient language that Lazaruz did not understand, yet it somehow felt like he should, and swirled around him for a split second after connecting with each other and making a complete circle, casting an eerie light in the now dark room.
The letters exploded, seemingly completely on their own, and sent of a burst of energy, colored similarly to the letters, towards the unknown figurine, whatever it actually was.

[color="#8B0000"][i]"If this hits, the surprisement alone should provide me with a nice opening"[/i][/color] He thought to himself with a sly smile already sneaking up on his face.
[color="#8B0000"][i]"If not, things could actually get tricky"[/i][/color]
His grip around the sword handle tightened at that thought.
That was just how he liked things.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

[color=#800080]"Not all of us are delectable."[/color] A soft but firm feminine voice with a British accent replied. The scraps in the scrap pile suddenly rose up, turned so their points were pointing at the creature, and launched at him with the speed of a bullet. The scrap pieces-turned-kinetic projectiles sped towards the virus, but what was interesting was the girl who was firing them. She had black clothing with purple, orange, and yellow lines, as well as some gold jewelry attached to it. Her body, unlike Itsu's buxom, round figure, was slender and petite. She had a hood that obscured the upper half of her face, but unruly jet-black hair spilled from the hood. She has in some sort of stance that had one hand pushing the scraps at her foe, and the other ready to so something else. Interestingly, her scrap attack would hit at the same time as Lazaruz's energy attack, meaning if the creature tried to dodge one attack, he would most likely be hit by the other.

[The Warden]

Satisfied with the chains, he returned his greaves onto their rightful position. It seemed they were a lot more clever than he gave them credit for. This was interupted by the terminal exploding, that's annoying. He turned to see something appearing from the broken terminal. If he had been reading the message, he would have known it was a virus, sadly, Grey went and broke the terminal, so he didn't know. He held his hands up defensively, but it seemed the newcomer already had things sorted, as did a being who miraculously appeared from the scrap. [i]'How interesting'[/i] he thought.

He regarded the chains on the door. It was a firewall, they're used to keep viruses out.

[GreyCat]

Wraith didn't dodge or move other than to raise a hand. There was the sound like a rushing wind and both attacks were drawn into a hole in his palm, a hole lined with red lights that somehow hinted at data. The hole closed once the attacks vanished within. [font='matisse ITC']"Quite the contrary,"[/font] he said with maddening calm. [font='matisse ITC']"You are only proving to be more to my tastes."[/font] Two of the tattered tendrils of his robe extended into black tentacles that shot out to crush both Lazaruz and Vicky against the wall. More of the same followed; multiple tentacles, though not as thick as the first two, darted out, aiming for the other avatars int he room.

"Crud!" Grey cursed. With the warning he had from the first attack, he was able to leap out of the way of the tentacles with his name on it. He landed near Vicky, still cursing. "Combat tentacles? Seriously? And vacuum in his hand? Which idiot came up with that one?"

[Spartan919]

Spartan had been watching the "conversation" on the computer quietly. Now the figure had appeared, and was in no way acting friendly. He noted with angst that tentacles had sprouted from the figure's body, and were rushing for the others. He saw that one was heading for himself, and Itsu too. For some reason, he grabbed her hand, still pressed against his chest, and pulled her behind him. Hoping she was protected, he raised his hands in a (he hoped) offensive stance. He knew that something inside him made him different than most people, but he didn't know what. Suddenly, the tentacle was upon him. It flailed at him, but Spartan grabbed it, and held it tight. He felt he could hold it with one hand, and did so, simultaneously reaching out to grab the tentacles reaching for Itsu. "Watch out!" he cried to her, when suddenly the tentacles lifted into the air, and brought him with them. "Whoa!" he cried out, his legs pinwheeling uselessly. "A little help?!"

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

The hooded girl spun on her heel and did a sweeping motion, deflecting the first tow tentacles and sending them flying back at their owner. She continued to spin, executing a second reflection and repelling the next wave, though, for some reason, the tentacles heading for Itsu seemed to just barely miss her. [color=#800080]"Vacuum, huh?"[/color] The girl asked the virus. [color=#800080]"Well, my gravity powers may be not have the best aim, but in such a confined space, I would say it's rather hard for me to miss, isn't it?"[/color] She then pulled her arms back, and then pushed forward hard, sending a wave of pure force at Wraith. The oncoming wall of sheer force hit the virus with the speed of a 747 in flight, sending the virus, now most likely pulverized, back down the corridor he came from at just below Mach 1.

[Magnet Soldier]

"Y'know, that was what's called a nice greeting! Not an Invitation to nearly chop my limbs off with that over grown butter knife!" Kris shouted, dodging backwards from the sword, the Magic and the wood, barely missing the wood. He sighed and leaned himself against the wall on the other side of the room, staring at the Virus. Something about this guy seemed odd. As in, different from what you'd expect from a virus. At any rate, Kris was content with just sitting against the wall, watching the fight for now. What use was fighting a guy when you didn't know what he was capable of, right? Kris was intrigued when the Virus absorbed the attacks, noting the Data like rings around the Virus's palm. And at that moment, it seemed that they needed some help. This Virus guy wasn't going to go down easily, so Kris was going to have to help.
He flicked the journal out of it's pouch, flicking to the final page, and drew a pen out of a small holster of pens on the back of his belt. "Guess I'll join." He stated, quietly, as he wrote in the Journal. "Something to kill a Virus." Kris muttered as the words appeared on the page. It was in very scruffy and rushed handwritin, but the book could generally read his scrawl. As he dotted the full stop, the page started to glow, along with the entire book. Kris started to smile, until....
"Cough Medicine!? Why the Hell would I need Cough medicine?!" He cried out, startling the people next to him. He grabbed the cough Medicine bottle and tossed it, ironically towards the Virus, before waiting for another thing to pop out of the book.

[The Warden]

[i]'Sighe'[/i] Broken thought as he idly sidestepped the attack. The virus was being a bit silly, to balance so many attacks he sacrificed a good deal of accuracy, something that is a critical mistake as Broken grabbed one of the tentacles after it snaked a decent distance. Running with it, he ran towards the door, and of course, the firewall. Against his own safety, he smashed the tentacle into the firewall, hoping that it's power would go through and destroy its source. He released the tentacle after it got caught on a spike, hopefully he had enough time.

[Reinforce]

While watching the Virus, Asmodeus didn't even bother to dodge the attack like most of the others, all he did was raise one hand to his Eternity Key and hold the other forward, channeling it's power to stop the tentacle. Walking forward, he suddenly flapped his wings, raised up off the ground and flew towards the Virus at a high speed, using the power of his Eternity Key to stop any other tentacles from hitting him and trying to get a hand onto the Virus, so as to utilise his Eternity Key to full use to maybe break down or destroy this Virus.

"Damn, I forgot to add a firewall to the programming of the computer." Judas remarked to himself out loud, before signing to Kai, "the idea of breaking an entrance elsewhere in the room would probably work but we would still have to find a way to block off the entrance in case something tried to get in to this place." Walking up to the computer again, he grabbed out his chalk once again and sketched a single symbol inside a circle on the screen of the terminal, before stepping back and using his alchemy once more to ad a firewall to the terminal.

[GreyCat]

Vicky's attack pushed back the majority of the tentacles, but it dissipated before it could touch the main body. With a wave of his hand, both Asmodeus and Judas were tossed back by some unseen force. Broken had more luck with his attempt to use the chains, as the tentacle began to disintegrate, but Wraith simply deactivated them with an idle thought. Remembering Spartan, who he held suspended off the ground, he tossed him at Broken. Raised his hand once more, he spoke. "[font=matisse ITC]Valiant effort. Futile, but valiant. It is a shame your existence will end here.[/font]" The hole opened slowly and started to draw data from the room when the cough medicine bonked him on the head. He caught it and looked curiously at it.

"[font=matisse ITC]What? This is... Cough syrup?[/font]" He chuckled softly and it burst into loss data. His chuckle grew into a full fledged laugh. "What an interesting group Messenger has managed to gather this time. So much talent. So much potential. You will prove to be valuable entertainment. And if I give you time to age... The taste will be all the sweeter." The tentacles withdrew and he floated a bit above the ground. Behind him, the tunnel reformed. "[font=matisse ITC]My task was to gather information. Not kill Messenger's latest pawn. Time enough for that later.[/font]" He stepped inside the tunnel.

He paused and swept his arm around the room. The floor shifted as if an earthquake struck and the walls and roof cracked, dust raining down. "[font=matisse ITC]A parting gift,[/font]" he said as his tunnel closed. Brick, wall fragments ranging to the size of minivans and larger plummeted down on them. The Terminal was crushed instantly. When the rock fall finished, a large hole opened from where the room was all the way to the surface, three levels up. At the base, where the avatars were, only a pile of rock remained.

[The Warden]

Broken cursed his luck at the virus' trick, but it didn't matter that much, as SPartan was flying straight for him. Okay, here were the options, grab Spartan and taste the wrath of the firewall, or duck and let him take the force of the firewall instead...was there any real option? Broken ducked a little, mounting one of his legs on a wall. The symbols on his palms lit up as a charge built up in them. As soon as Spartan was in range, he struck. 'Heart Shock' he cried.

The pulse hit Spartan hard and launched him backwards like a ragdoll. No one should be forced to tackle that firewall. This was cut immediataly short by a sudden rock fall.

[Spartan919]

Spartan flew through the air; he couldn't really see, as everything was gyrating crazily. He thought he was going to be sick, when there was a sudden impact. He fell to the ground, and saw that Broken had managed to keep Spartan from hitting him, and the firewall. He stood shakily, and was about to reply, when the place came down around them. As the walls fell, Spartan dashed over and covered Itsu with his body, hoping to shield her from the worst of it. [i]I just hope that I can find some way to get out of this alive, too.[/i]

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Itsu clung to Spartan as he protected her. She was starting to like this guy, because he was kind to her.

Meanwhile, the other girl tried to redirect the full brunt of the weight. However, while using your gravity powers is useful when you are working with normal gravity, it isn't as powerful when working against the normal gravity. She just managed to move the largest fragments aside, and into the firewall, while the smaller pieces continued to rain down. Eventually, the fragments stopped falling, and the girl turned to the others. [color=#800080]"Hello. My name is Victoria, but you may call me Vicky. I apparently can control gravitational forces, to an extent."[/color]

[GreyCat]

There was a low rumble and several rocks floated up from the pile. Eight little balls drifted up and arranged themselves in a ring, roman numerals for two through nine on them, small human-shaped forms curled in a fetal position with them. From within the pile, a ninth ball floated up, this one marked as one, it's light much darker than the others. It paused, then switched places with ball two before dropping back. The other eight faded away as Grey pushed the remaining rocks aside. He had been unfortunate to be positioned under several large, heavy pieces of roof.

He rubbed his head o ease a minor head ache. He was pretty sure the rocks did more damage than that, but all he had were some aches and pains. Apparently switching lives eased the worst of his injuries. At least he didn't die. That would have been... Unfortunate. He yelped and darted aside as the rocks, which had been held up by the weird life-switching forces, fell back to the pile. He looked around and winced at the sharp pain the motion caused. "Ow... Rocks... hurt. Why didn't I get something flashy, like a wave motion gun or something?" He spotted Vicky. Damn her gravity powers. Didn't have a scratch on her. "Hey, is anyone else alive? Or are you dead under the rocks? I'm not digging until I'm sure someone's living."

He thought about it. The whole collapse the ground trick Wraith pulled was noisy. Curious people might come to see what happened. People they were better off avoiding. The Collective people. He cursed again and started tossing rocks over his shoulder. His Nine-Lives wasn't the best combative weapon (though the 'run like hell' tactic worked well with it) so he needed more power on his side. Like Vicky's gravity trick. And Judas' alchemy. Even Kris' cough syrup might be handy. "You people better be alive under there," he muttered. "If I stick my hand into a red pulp, so help me..."

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Vicky went over to Grey, helping to lift the rocks off of him and picking up other rocks as she walked, which were then placed over at the piles in front of the firewall. [color=#800080]"I apologize. My abilities are mainly offensive, not defensive. Fortunately, I think I managed to deflect any that would outright crush someone, and I tried to slow down the others. At best, we should just have bruises and minor injuries. Now, if I can get this properly..."[/color] She stood below the hole, and jumped up. Once her feet touched back down, she bounced up and out of the hole, landing at the top. After a few seconds, she poked her head back down, and cried out. [color=#800080]"All clear!"[/color]

[Shalltear Bloodfallen]

As if it was responding to Grey´s words, parts of the rubble began moving.
A few of the more major rocks moved aside and Lazaruz stood up, brushed of some of the remaining dust from his shoulders and stretched his back.

From his initial attempt at an attack, things seemed to pass by rather quickly.
His own attack, allong with the one that an unknown girl sent, were easily sucked up by the virus.
The tentacles it sent to attack afterwards had grabbed him with ease and only loosened when the others made them dissapeared.
And only seconds later, the thing just left while burrying most of them in rubble.
He felt insulted that the thing didn´t deem it necessary to finnish them of, let alone properly fight them.
But when you realy got down to it, He would probably have done the same.

[color="#8B0000"][i]"I may have lived through that"[/i][/color] He rubbed his head, trying to ease the pain that still shot through his body, and sheated his still drawn sword.
[color="#8B0000"][i]"But it shure was painfull"[/i][/color]
He noticed Gray.
[color="#8B0000"]"Are you ok?"[/color]

[Dwarven King]

DK open his eyes and tried to look around. Everything was black. He tried moving and realized he was pinned.

"Pinned?" he asked himself. "But I was walking around when all of a sudden the floor fell." he though. Suddenly, a thought hit him. "Argh! I'm trapped under rubble!" He started squirming even more trying to loosen the rocks, but to no avail. Then he heard voices and got a brilliant idea!

"Oi! How about someone out there help me out! I may be able to take a hit, but this still hurts!" DK yelled.

[GreyCat]

"No broken bones," Grey reported as he was helped to his feet. He winced a little and tugged his tail from a crack. "At least, not anymore. Thank good for nine lives," he muttered under his breath. Considering his lack of offensive powers, and his insufficient claws (not much he could do with them) he stuffed a couple rocks in his pocket. That don't, he looked around. It was a long way up. "Okay, we are in the bottom of a hole about thirty or forty feet deep. Give or take. Any idea's for getting out? Cause I don't you guys can clim... You hear that?"

He thought he heard a voice. Yup, there it was again. Wait a tick... There was another new fellow. Maybe that was him down there. He scouted about for were the voice was the strongest and crouched there. He rapped several times on the stones. "Hey, you down there. You're, um, DK, right?" That was the only name he had that he hadn't met a face for yet. "If I dig you out, what's in it for me?" He paused. "Well, us?"

[Spartan919]

Spartan shifted; he was still under a pile of stones, and the strain on his back wasn't pleasant, though it would surely be worse without his bioaugmentations. Itsu was still under him, and, as far as he could tell, she was completely unscathed. He grunted, and, with a great heave, pushed at the rocks with his back. They scattered, and Spartan was able to stand up straight. He reached down, clasped Itsu's hand gently, and lifted her into the air. He wrapped a hand around her back, and held her to him like she was a babe. He blushed suddenly, and was glad his visor was polarized, pure solid amber. He set her down, and cleared his throat. "Are you...alright?" He winced as pain shot up his back. [i]Guess those rocks were heavier than I thought.[/i]

[The Warden]

Thankfully, being near the firewall shielded Broken a little, but he was still pinned underneath a rather large slab. However, his legs were hanging out from underneath the block, wriggling slightly, but not much. 'Ummm, not to be bothersome, but this large rock is attempting to cripple me for life. I would gladly appreciate it if you got it off me' he announced from underneath the rubble. Sure, he could have pushed it off, if his arms weren't pinned underneath the thick slab of rock.

[Justice Master]

[font="Courier New"]SYSTEM ACTION>>
routing..._
please wait..._
downloading avatars:_
{\\Users/Xel>} [0%... 13%... 26%... 47%... 61%... 78%... 89%... 99%... 100%... verifying..._]
[download complete. assembling..._][/font]

The rubble fell around a room inaccessible until now. A capsule lie in the center, holding something, no, someone inside it. The capsule slowly opened revealing Xel, masked, of course. His eyes flung open, his body raised, taking many notes of the area that surrounded him. He lifted both of his legs and swung them over the side of his resting place. He stood, stretching. It had been a long time since he had walked so he needed a little practice. After getting adjusted to movement, he decided to see what the admins had done with the place since his ban. To Xel, it was a real downgrade from previous versions, in fact, it seemed like the site had been abandoned. Nevertheless, he went down a path until seeing an... interesting sight. It seems that some of those people down there had gotten stuck into the fallen debris. Although he didn't want to join them, he had to find out what was going on. He leaped down to the area the others were at before asking, [color="#4169E1"]"May I be of any assistance?"[/color]

[Magnet Soldier]

And all of a sudden.....BOOOOOOOM!!!! A large section of the rubble exploded, throwing debris everywhere, although nothing seemed to hit the Players. The power of the explosion forced all Debris into a rather large pile on the opposite side of the room, freeing all trapped Players. From the crater of the explosion arose Kris, his right hand burnt, although every other part of his body was miraculously unharmed, including the journal in his left hand. "Sorry guys." Kris said, lifting his burnt hand to scratch the back of his neck, before flinching at it being burnt. "My book finally decided to give me something else. This time something that could kill a Virus, and us at the same time. Everyone okay?" Kris asked, realising the grenade the book had offered had nearly blown up his own hand. "Also, anyone got any healing powers?"

[The Warden]

Broken was free for a moment, until the rubble crushing him hit the firewall rebounded off, hit the top part of his body and crushed him again. There was a lot of angry shouting from underneath the rubble as he twitched his legs wildly. 'MOTHERF**KER!' he finished on. That had been the only noticeable angry shouting so far, the rest was just an angry slur. His legs stopped flailing after how futile it was to do swhen your upper body was being crushed. 'I'll give you a healing' he shouted at Kris. 'I'll give you a healing into next century with my foot!'

[GreyCat]

((Wraith Broke the fire wall, remember that))

Grey hissed with displease. Kris' bomb freed the strange man, making bargaining futile. He brushed the loss pebbles from his hoodie and rolled the stone off broken. His injuries were clearing up nicely and his strength was coming back as his lives did their work. He nodded over at Xel. "Hey, um... Xel, right?" Okay, this database thing was really convenient. Made introductions that much easier. "Welcome to the party. And if you have any healing abilities, fell free to treat the careless one." He waved absently at Kris. But his bomb did uncover the others and even knocked the door open. Now, all they had to do was pass the strange dude in the doorway. Wait a tick...

A man stood in the opening. A boy really. Deep black hair slick back, pale skin and heavy bags under his eyes. Plain white clothes, trousers and long sleeved shirt, clung to him. His eyes were... empty, void of live, but he looked at Grey and tilted his head questioningly. "Hello. Who are you? You are not part of me. I do not know you." His voice was as flat and empty as his eyes. A soft shuffle caused Grey to look up. Several other people in the same dress stood on the rim of the broken levels. Men, women, they all looked down at them with the same curious expression. "We do not know you," they all said.

"Ah, crud," Grey muttered. "We have company."

[Magnet Soldier]

"That's not very nice, calling people careless." Kris said, pulling out his Journal. "I cant control the Book. [i]It writes it's own story.[/i]" Kris explained, his voice seemingly amplified as he said the last statement. "At anyrate, we need to deal with these people....the collective. And the only way to do that...." Kris smiled and opened his Journal to the last page, watching as the words vanished. ".....Is some FirePower. My Books refreshed, so I have power. Lets go." Kris said, writing a single word in the last page of the book. [i]Guns[/i]. Kris grinned and waited for the glowing. Which happened. But, as usual, not like he'd imagine. Instead of the Pistols and such, nothing came out of the book. But something happened. "Cool! I have muscles!" Kris cried, looking at the now extremely buff body he had. "Lets go kick some ass!" He cried, running towards the little boy at the door. However, as he started to leap at him, he stopped. He could hurt a boy. He was about nine. "Move aside. Please, let us go. I dont want to hurt you."