Nurture the fire I'm warming myself by, growing it (and any others nearby I can use) to a useful level.
for the third turn in a row, including the turn I was skipped, do the same action.
You disperse your perfectly good flames, leaving nothing but ash and slowly burning embers. You also manage to set your fur on fire.
You feel like luck is looking at you with her snake-eyes, laughing.
Thankfully, your resistance means it doesn't cause any real damage before it is extinguished. It just messed with your looks and a gave you a bad smell of burnt hair.
"Warning: Reactor control system malfunction. Switching to hardware failsafe." announces the female voice from the speakers.
Zech: <"Hold on there, champ!>"
Rush to aid Zech.
"Aaah!" Zechariah drew back in pain as Jordan's bullet went through his hand.
Dammit. At least it's not my writing hand.
Try to pull myself up or wait at least for Jordan to pick me up.
To teammates: <Great work, team. Maybe less friendly fire would have been better, but hey, can't have everything!>
Help Jordan pull Zech up. Then climb up to control room.
Zechariah struggles to hold on, but his shot hand is making it harder for him. It slips, leaving him hanging with just his right hand.
"Warning: Reactor control system malfunction. Switching to hardware failsafe."Just as he feels his strength failing, Ike arrives. And in his rush to aid him, he accidentally steps on Zechariah's hand. Despite that minor mishap, he manages to pull Zechariah up. Zechariah bends down and retrieves his staff. Jordan arrives soon after.
"You know, this would have been a lot more dramatic if Mage-guy over there didn't have wings." the entity says, annoyance clear in his tone.
Everyone looks at each other in silence for a moment. Zechariah is bleeding from his hand and abdomen. He had lost a lot of blood with his previous injury, so it might be a good idea to do something about that before he bleeds out.
Ike can hear things getting torn apart in the control room and then only silence.
John quietly listened to the report. After it was done, he sat in silence, then grunted. <<Good information. I'll certainly remember to check my equipment from now on. Thank you. Is there anything you need... no, wait, I mean... Requesting objective while waiting for mission completion?>>
Interface with entity.
"Unable to comply. No objectives available. General directive: Improve yourself."
"So, literally a place between worlds, and who knows where that is. An interesting question, with an answer that I am sure I would not understand. Freedom, at least you know what cause you stand for, a good one at that. I'm not even sure how to deal with the problems in my world. I'll help you. I suppose the only thing I could ask for is friendship, something more valuable then an ally, and something that can only be freely given. Sorry for sounding a bit philosophical there, I only meant that we could be friends if you want."
Continue following Kathryn
"Hmmm... 'Friends'... she contemplates for a second.
"Friendly yes, but not friends. Not yet anyway. I'm already trusting you with a lot and you are trusting me with a lot. I'd prefer we maintain that relationship of mutual trust before we move on to something that requires more trust. I've been let down too many times before. I can't afford to leave myself vulnerable."She points at the doors that lead to the magma pool.
"So, any more questions before I take you to see him?"
"Um...yeah, I guess. It sounds pretty lonely."
The entity may or may not respond, but this is probably followed by silence. Angel watches her teammates fight the blur.
"Why are the games so...deadly? I don't even know how many people I...how many people died while I was in there. And why do they even exist? These games?"
"The people that died there were not the fault of the Games. It would had gone badly even without your ((plural))
intervention. The raid would had happened, something would have gone wrong, your hosts or the people in their way would have been hurt. The world had a problem, a bad thing in it. The Games just changed the outcome."
Okay then! You will be called Jim Carrey Riddler Alfred Rhymerer!
Alan looks proud of himself.
Now then, off to adventure!
Zoom off into the unknown!
((Oh dear.))
((Hah! Imagining
him talking with the voice of the
Riddler sure is fun. Kind of fits in a way.))
The only response that comes from the squids is laughter. The kind of laughter the bad guy does before unleashing his doomsday device, if that bad guy was laughing with the mouths of thousands of alien creatures.
Like a jellyfish going against the current or a red queen, you move without going anywhere, as indicated by the portal to the magma pool that always remains close behind you. Instead your surroundings change, the multicolored spheres giving their place to a debris field made of garbage and discarded appliances. Or maybe the portal follows you around? Eh, it's all relative. Point is, your surroundings change. When the debris collide with each other, they melt and reform into something new and then break apart after a while.