Belch loudly at him when he prepares to attack and then tackle him.
You both charge forward at the same time, punch each other with equal force, both of your fat vibrating from the impact. You both tumble backwards. You land on your feet and your enemy does the same, after doing a backflip.
"AAAAAAARRRGGH!" The stickman prepares to charge again and drop the hammer on you. Literally.
Rune Sighed, or as well as he could, being a bird and all. He reversed directions, and started flying back the way he came. He was mostly just bored with what he was currently doing, but he wondered if the point of this puzzle was to go backwards to catch his entity?
You turn around... and fly straight into the wall of electricity following you. A few seconds of being cooked by high voltage current later, you rematerialize in the staging area in your human form. You're laying on the ground somewhere beside the stream, spasms still going through your body.
<I think you might have missed the point of that challenge.>
"Uhhh... okay, thanks."
Now... let's test that power.
Use actual power levels for this- no boost from the construction table. Try to summon that massage chair with minifridge attachment that I tried once before. Compare the time it takes- how much time boost are we talking? Use techno-sense to verify its construction.
You push the button to open the door out of your personal section and out into the staging area proper. Well, it's a nice sunny day out here, like always. What better way to enjoy it then by relaxing and having a beer? You've died a horrible death twice already. Better enjoy what little down time you have before you have to risk your life again, no?
You let yourself fall backwards as your power gets to work. Summoning feels about as hard as before, it still requires the same amount of focus and effort and it still feels kinda hard to merge the three devices into one. Yet it feels easier to focus on assembling the individual parts of the machine. It feels like it's easier for you to work on starting one part of the project at hand while another completes, summoning and assembling more parts in the same amount of time. Like you're overall better at multitasking under certain circumstances. You'd say you're at most about twice as fast compared to before.
The chair is still partially assembling when your body falls in it, the only reason it doesn't collapse being that it is held in place by your ability as it receives its finishing touches. Not that it matters much. To anyone watching, it would look like you just fell and a perfect lawn-chair materialized under you to break your fall, with a fridge following it soon after (the fridge takes a bit more to complete).
Well not completely perfect, there are some tiny flaws in it. It's not perfectly comfortable. But try as you may, you can't figure out where the problem is, even with your special talents. The flaw is probably not very obvious. You try to relax but you can't help wandering what the flaw might be. Every time you think you've forgotten about it your mind returns to it, trying to figure out what went wrong.
...
Aaaahhhrrrrggg! That's gonna drive you crazy now!
As you are twisting around in the chair, trying to get comfortable, a hole appears on the ground near the stream in front of you and spits a man out, his limbs spasming like he's just been tazed.
"I like hammers the best. And crossbows. Actually, I like most weapons."
Summon a drink (with alcohol). Summon a straw. Drink it with the straw.
<Hah, I bet you're easy to please. Then again, weapons tend to be rather pleasing. Especially big ones. Aaaahh...>
<So, you never told me what you did before I got you here. Did you work with big weapons?>You summon a mug filled with some kind of warm brown liquid you assume is alcoholic and a straw. You begin drinking it through the straw-opening in your gas mask (mmm.... doesn't taste that bad) while getting ready to welcome the new meat.
Ah, and here he comes now.
Try to open the door and look around.
You get up and press the handle, pulling the door backwards. It opens with a squeak, revealing a small tunnel beyond. It is slightly damp and you can see moss growing on its walls. There's light coming from the other end.
You follow the tunnel until you reach its end. Beyond the entrance, you can see large trees growing out of mostly rocky, mountainous ground and mostly clear blue skies. You can hear water falling somewhere nearby.
Standing there is someone wearing a long green coat, heavy boots and a gas mask with cracked mirror lenses. He's holding a mug with some sort of warm liquid in it and drinking out of it with a straw. You don't know why, but you get the feeling he's looking at you and smiling.
Zechariah felt a twinge of guilt for immediately assuming that the "Red Defender" was obviously some Soviet "Captain America-esque" hero.
His next feeling was homesickness for Earth due to his previous thought.
I really miss Earth and the television shows back home. Sometimes I really wish I could go back and continue my old life without remorse.
Of course, that'll never happen, because I shook Artemis' hand.
Dammit, I make some really bad decisions sometimes.
>Open the door a bit more and look to the left and to the right. Are there any doors (or phones) that are out of the view of that man? If so, move around the edge of the room quietly and try to sneak out one of the doors or take a phone. If not, use the Shadow to manipulate the man's vision and make yourself look and sound like this "Red Defender" person. Tell him that you need to go save the world or something and that you need a phone.
Zechariah mentally facepalmed at how stupid that sounded when he thought about it a second time, but it might just work..
Hopefully.
The room does have a phone, but it is some sort of payphone on the other side of the room, to the left of the TV. Even if your host could reach it without being seen, he'd need to find some money to operate it.
He tries to sneak towards one of the doors with all the grace and quietness of a drunken elephant dancing tarantella, but despite that, the man remains absorbed to whatever the TV is showing, only flinching when static causes the image to disappear for half a second. Perhaps he is transfixed by the Red Defender's fight with his arch-nemesis, Dr Topper, and the banter they exchange while doing so.
He stumbles through a door at random and end up in a room the size of a large closet. It's dark, the only light coming from the half open door. And what luck, there is a telephone here!... sort of. It's some kind of ancient telephone switching board. It's made of wood and is full of plastic sockets with small light-bulbs over them. There's a telephone handset hanging from one side and a rotary dial on the other side. He should be able to make a call here... assuming he can figure out how this thing works before collapsing. And assuming this thing is still connected to the network. And assuming nobody finds him until then.
Bryan
Contemplate what kind of state Faron would be in after the explosion. Keep trying to reconnect with his mind.
Well, he was tough. But an explosion happened. That's always bad, no matter how tough you are. And to make matters worse, you were in control when the explosion happened. That means that his body was probably somehow influenced by yours, which could mean any number of things, depending on how exactly this deep sync thing works.
You're not in control anymore, you can tell as much by the fact that you aren't unconscious. That must mean that his body is his own again. Whether that's for better or for worse, you don't know. And there is no way for you to learn, for you seem to be unable to get anything from him at the moment.
There are a lot of things you don't know, now that you think about it.
Irine
What happened to Boris/Victor?
evaluate the status of Zoe's mind - try to place just what, exactly, is wrong. Simultaniously, attempt to seize any flames that remain in the area - I'm nearly out of power here, and need to take what I can get.
Zoe
comon, situational awareness! work through the pain, locate your weapon, and locate your attacker! this fight is nearly over, just last a little longer. Maybe he's going for Amelia next? whatever, just wake up wake up wake up! you need to move move move move move!
become more aware of situation, and maybe take action?
It takes you a few more seconds to figure out what, exactly, is wrong with her mind, mostly because you can't feel her mind as strongly as before. It feels like the presence you felt earlier, when you entered the shell around Amelia. Only it's stronger now and in Zoe's mind. It is simply there, almost imperceptible and not doing anything as far as you can tell. But the problem with intruders is that you never know when they're going to try something. Zoe hasn't figured out something is wrong yet, probably because her pain overshadows the subtle pressure in her head and the few foreign thoughts and feelings that accompany it. Only you are alert enough to notice it.
You try to re-establish your partial influence on Zoe so that you can use your ability again. You succeed, but your ability now feels as far away and as disconnected from you as Zoe's mind. Better hope whatever is influencing her won't influence you.
You blindly try to draw all fire from the surrounding area towards you, creating streams of pyrokinetic force, but nothing happens. Maybe there are no fires around or maybe you miscalculated their position. Either way, it looks like you have no fire you can use.
Zoe slowly becomes more aware of her surroundings. The moment she remembers why she's here and what's going on she quickly tries pushing herself up. She is rewarded for her efforts by another jolt of pain from her leg, which causes her to collapse on the floor once more. Instead she simply crawls forward a bit and looks around.
You're surrounded by a fog of brightness that is quickly dissipating, revealing only darkness beyond. There are concrete debris everywhere around you, some large and some small. Everything is quiet. For a moment Zoe believes she's not even in the same room anymore.
A trail of blood begins from her leg and leads to a particularly large slab of concrete.
Bone probably crushed. Multiple fractures., she thinks, the knowledge of medicine coming to her naturally.
Moderate bleeding. Need to stop it. This is probably going to require surgery to heal properly. But some bandages could help. Awena is standing beside her, looking at Zoe with a look of relief in her face.
She can also see Amelia, barely visible through the fog and debris. She is unhurt and there are no debris around her. Whatever caused the collapse has left her unharmed, even though the machines around her have been crushed and destroyed.
Probably an explosion. I need to protect myself. And Amelia. She thinks she must have been holding her gun when the explosion happened...? Everything is a bit fuzzy from that time.
So maybe the gun was thrown- That train of thought comes to an abrupt stop as her mind becomes blank and a split second later she begins searching for alternatives. Who else had a gun? The guards, sure, but there wasn't anyone around here. Wait! Boris! Boris had a gun! He was here! If she can get to him... Wait, where was he again?
She's about to ask Awena when there's a thud and a small cloud of dust rises beside her. You can see a flash of memory in her mind, sniper attack at her medical tent, as she instinctively rolls behind a slab of concrete. More thuds and pings follow as bullets hit concrete and metal, sounding incredibly loud in the silence that surrounds you. Awena falls beside you, her shirt bloody near the left part of her abdomen. Zoe tries to drag her to cover but she is hit again, this time on her right shoulder.
Just as abruptly as they started, the bullets stop coming a few moments later.
What happened to Boris/Victor?
I have no idea. My first priority is Awena and those she cares about--and by that I mean I did not see Boris anywhere after the...explosion.
I'll check on Amelia. Is your back broken? That's why I can't move you--I'm unsure as to the extent of the damage you took.
...
Though it would be pretty obvious if the back suffered broken spinal injuries as the slab hit the lowerbody instead...
Awena, could you check on the spirits here? I..I'm sorry that I may sound like I'm using you for this --as in 'using'-- but it is my fault that I haven't the time to bond with you deeper. TO know you as who you are instead of how practical I want the situation to be for the both of us.
I will direct my energy towards you. Your choice what to do from here on out. I'll try to sense anything I can from here.
Direct energy to host; leave decision to host; Try to sense any other person or spirit in my close vicinity/proximity.
You return control of her body to your host and once again return to being an observer.
Your host looks around. Zoe seems to be getting better. Sort of. She's crawling forward and looking around, definitely more aware of her surroundings than before. Awena sighs a sigh of relief.
As for the rest of the area... You can see Amelia behind some rubble. She and the crystal beside her are completely unhurt, as far as you can tell. There's something red and white there besides her.
Still, something feels wrong to Awena. She takes another look around, just to make sure. She thinks she can see shadows moving around there, shadows of angular multilimbed and multijointed things jumping across the rubble, like someone has put their hands in front of a flashlight. Most of them are moving around Amelai. But one of the shadows is coming towards Awena.
She takes a step back and the shadow stops. Something pointy extends from the shadow and starts moving rhythmically towards somewhere. It takes Awena a second to realize that the shadow is pointing at something. She looks but all she can see is rubble and after that only darkness.
Before she has a chance to realize what that could mean, there's a very loud thud somewhere besides her. At the same time, a ring of color appears at the point of darkness she was looking at. A moment later, she feels pain on her abdomen, like someone just hit her there with a dozen needles. She falls backwards, more out of surprise than out of pain, breathless from surprise. This is followed by more pain, this time coming from her right shoulder.
Awena is still breathing and still conscious but she's in shock from the pain and surprise.
OOCJust recovering from...stuff, here. Sorry for the wait.
Sorry. As you can see from how long it took me to write this, I don't have much free time myself. But the sooner I can start writing this, the sooner I can finish.