Non-HPU: Beacon of Hope

[~\Rook/~]

The half-fox nodded and placed her hand on the rat's. "You're right, thank you. But don't worry about me, think of the people we need to save." She said, looking up at Jenny with a smile.

Rika then listened intently to the Lycan, only speaking after he had finished. "Obviously his appearance means big trouble, bigger than this undead outbreak and more.. If he's able to appear after all this time, it must mean Justus' power is either weakening or Odium is getting sronger again. We need to find the Dragon Knight and help him debilitate or destroy Odium for good. At least, that's how it would go if this was a superhero movie.. I can't believe I just said that.."

[Buster]

Kol's expression may as well be a blue screen. she's locked up again.

They want to fight an evil god...

[Deske]

Ulrich sighed sadly at the story, "Ahh, now I remember. I had heard stories of the avatar of love performing great feats of heroism. The stories spread so quickly in my building. But one day they stopped and nobody really knew why. Must have been the time when all that occurred, the revenge, the fight... I am sorry for your loss, my friend. But," he continued, a smile returning to his face, "It seems as though he may be returning,
albeit with some enemies, but if he's coming back then all will never be lost. Perhaps those stories may start spreading once again, eh?"

[CyberDragon]

"Yeah... something to hope for, right?" The Lycan gave Ulrich a smile. He then turned to Rika. "Yeah, that'd be great. Wish it were that simple though. Things like Odium can't be destroyed. It isn't a person or single being, it's more than that. It is hatred. You'd have to get rid of all hatred for all things in everyone in the universe to destroy Odium. But, he can be prevented from becoming anything more than a dark thought or bad feeling. I have a few ideas, but I need to talk with Tempest and Hivemind about how to proceed. Speaking of which..." He called out to Hivemind. "You almost done in there?"

"Need a little longer!" the droid called back, somewhat muffled by the door between them.

"Anyway, that is the story of Justus and of Odium. They..." he noticed that Kol didn't look so good. "Hey. You alright?" he waved at Kol.

[Buster]

"I'm stuck on a crazy flying land that is constantly warm, with impossible doors that go places they shouldn't, got recruited by a little metal god who can be in many places at once to fight moving dead bodies, I feel like I'm cooking in this wierd tunnel you led us to, and now I'm told your enemy is another god made out of bad thoughts, who this lot of crazy people want to go fight. No I am not alright."

[Welsh Halfwit]

Jenny chuckled bitterly. "Imagine how I feel," she told the friendly hulk. "I'm just a girl with two guns. This is no normal day for me either."

[Deske]

"I think we are all in the same boat more or less. I'm going to hit retirement age in a few years. Not exactly how I expected to spend my last working years. I suppose life has a strange way of doing things." He looked around, "I have to agree with you though, could do with a bit of airflow in here at least."

[CyberDragon]

"I'm stuck on a crazy flying land that is constantly warm, with impossible doors that go places they shouldn't, got recruited by a little metal god who can be in many places at once to fight moving dead bodies, I feel like I'm cooking in this wierd tunnel you led us to, and now I'm told your enemy is another god made out of bad thoughts, who this lot of crazy people want to go fight. No I am not alright."

The Lycan looked confused. "Little metal... you mean Hivemind?" He chuckled slightly. "He's not a god. He's... special. Different. It's a bit complicated. As for our enemy, I know it's scary, and I'm sure no one really wants to face such an opponent. But that is our job. If we don't do things like this, these villains and monsters and walking dead bodies will threaten or destroy everything we hold dear. Best case scenario, we won't even have to fight it ourselves. And..." he added "If it makes you feel better, I hate those doors too. You get used to them after a while, though. Once you learn how they work, they are the fastest way to get from place to place." He put a bulky sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "If you don't want to fight, you don't have to. I don't think Hivemind officially made you a member of our group, so if you don't want to join, you don't have to."

There was a mechanical clunk and the air in the lobby started to flow, replacing the stale stinking air with cooler cleaner air. "Oh... Uh, that did something... I think I'm almost done. Got some more of the building's systems back online. Just a few more things..." Hivemind called from the other room.

[Neon Icy Wings]

Tatiana gave a small shrug at the story, "Heard of that whole thing from a washed up merc. Always thought he was exaggerating though..." She rubbed her rifle gently as the others comforted Kol, "Well, we have a light constructing brawler, a sharp shooting rodent, a beastly warrior who plowed through the undead like nothing, a swift strong Lycan, a doctor and once the relay goes back up Hivemind will be at peak performance. Honestly starting to feel a bit inferior here. If coms go up too I might just have to do some building hopping, might be able to do some heavier stuff if pavement was cracking instead of walls and I scout ahead, though Hivemind would probably have scouting wrapped up nicely..." What began as a slightly half hearted speech devolved further, into light rambling as the smiling sniper lost her train of thought.

She shook her head to regain focus, out of habit more than anything, "Eitherway, with a ragtag group like this there's no way we can lose, especially with Justus out there already kicking ethereal negativity in the teeth. If Odium wasn't so creepy I'd love to watch."

[~\Rook/~]

Rika stretched her limbs and stood up. "You're still very useful Tatiana, don't underestimate your potential. If not for you, Jenny's guns alone wouldn't of cracked that giant's skull. Well, not as quickly, but you get the idea right? And I would love to see Justus in action.." She said positively, pulling a small bottle from the side of her backpack and taking a sip before continuing "Anyway, since storytime is over, what should we do now before Hive gets his relay up and running?"

[Buster]

Hopefully Jenny doesn't mind hugs, because she's getting a four armed one right now, Kol feeling a bit attached to the little creature that keeps trying to cheer her up.

"It's not the fighting, it's the dealing with gods... I didn't even believe the old stories before I got stuck here..." Kol commented with a sigh.

what else would I do anyway... I'm a miner...

[Welsh Halfwit]

"Neither did I, my armoured friend," Jenny replied, feeling a little crunched. She checked things over. The last moment was usually the worst... "And I still don't. Never believed in them and I'm not starting now. These things can bleed. They can be stopped."

[CyberDragon]

The Lycan was about to respond when there was another mechanical Clunk followed by the sounds of things powering up outside. "HAH! I HAVE CONTROL AGAIN!" Hivemind's voice echoed on every intercom in the city. "DO YOU HEAR ME YOU WALKING CORPSES? I. HAVE. CONTROL AGAIN! THIS IS MY CITY! AND I'M TAKING IT BACK!" Sounds of heavy machine gun fire and the furious roars of undead could be heard outside, including what sounded like... insects. Like millions of insects flying around.

"Sounds like that's our cue." The Lycan jumped to his feet and ran to the door. He opened it to reveal absolute chaos outside. Large, ten foot tall heavily armored androids were engaged in combat with the hoard of zombies. They cut the undead down with ease. One skeleton jumped at a heavy security droid only to be instantly blown away by another one. Turrets sprouted from the ground like daisies and began unloading their heavy caliber ammunition into every one of the walking dead within their sights. The buzzing insect-like sound grew louder.

"Get to the catacomb entrance. Cut off the flow of undead, and find who did this!" Hivemind spoke through one of the heavy droids. Some other droids stopped fighting and pointed directions, acting like signs indicating where to go.

[Welsh Halfwit]

"Time to run," Jenny said, heading forward but making sure she didn't get too far ahead of Kol as they made their way to the catacombs. If needed she'd lead the newcomer through by hand. It wasn't affection as such, but an understanding that the alien might freeze in confusion and there was no affording that. Besides, she did like the female a little.

[Deske]

Ulrich slipped out the door and followed the pointing androids, one after another until he had made his way to the catacombs where he would wait until everyone after him had shown up.

[Neon Icy Wings]

Tatiana gave a simple nod and followed the group through the pointing droid's directions, keeping her rifle at the ready, just in case a random zombie passed by the droid's notice. It was of slight relief to have such decent back up, almost made going up against a super spirit of hate sound doable. One thought ran through her mind though, why would Odium arrive alongside a zombie infection? Her answer would be a necromancer type filled with so much hate they summoned the presence of hate itself. She only hoped Justus would tip the scales to their side, considering the last candidate almost started a mini planetary war.

[Buster]

Kol takes one look at the machine army outside, stares at Lycan and asks "are you SURE he's not a god?" before heading along with the others. again, being far from the most mobile in the group she does tend to wind up taking up the rear, though any undead who choose to take advantage of that have clearly not noticed the whole 'hands made to split stone' thing.

[CyberDragon]

"I'm sure!" The Lycan reassured Kol as he ran alongside the group. When they reached the entrance to the catacombs, a small portal door located next to a funeral home, he screeched to a stop. Climbing from the entrance were a dozen undead giants showing varying levels of decomposition. The beasts attacked with extreme hatred, swinging their giant fists at the small group of recruits. One of the fleshier ones charged forward ahead of the others and aimed a full force punch at Jenny and Kol.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Hivemind's voice echoed over the nearest intercom. There was a loud CRACK as a turret that popped up nearby shot the colossal zombie in the head. It reeled backwards, roaring in anger and clutching it's wound. One of the other giants grabbed the turret and ripped it out of the ground. It was all for nothing though as the insect like buzzing reached it's maximum. Its source was revealed as a swarm of hundreds of thousands of large bug-like things erupted from every possible hiding space. They crawled out of the drains and burst from the alleys in a nonstop ocean of glinting beetle-things. They erupted from vents, from manholes, from everywhere. The swarm blocked out the sky. The bugs dive-bombed the group of undead giants, latching onto the giants until the beasts were completely eclipsed by them. Most of them could not be seen, but their roars could be heard as the swarm tore at them, pulling their limbs apart and drilling into their skulls. One of the giants attempted to run from the swarm, as if terrified. The hate on it's face somehow almost looked like horror. "GET OVER HERE!!!!" Thousands of creeping, crawling insects, which upon closer look would appear to be robotic in nature, planted themselves in the beast's path. It stepped in them and the beetle-bots immediately encased it's foot and locked it to the ground. The undead giant tried to pull it's foot up, but tripped and fell onto the sea of bug robots and was quickly engulfed by them. The giant seemed to scream and it clawed at the ground as it was dragged back into the swarm. Eventually all that could be heard was the robots. The dead stopped roaring. The swarm departed in all directions, vanishing back into the alleys and sewers. Once it dissipated, all that remained was a giant pile of dismembered bones and zombie parts and a clear path to the catacombs entrance.

The Lycan stood there, stunned and speechless. After a minute, he spoke up. "T... Then again... I have to wonder about him..."

[Buster]

Kol's response to the oversized punch coming her way was to dig two of her paws into the ground, while holding the other two forward, ramrod straight and all eight claws together forming a spike ready to drive between the knuckles of the incoming fist... which then never happened.

"Aw..." Kol whines, getting back up. "That one looked fun..." grabbing a femur from the pile as they cross the final distance to the catacombs entrance, one paw holding it steady while the other three quickly chip the ends mostly flat so it's more of a quarterstaff shape.

[~\Rook/~]

The Lycan was about to respond when there was another mechanical Clunk followed by the sounds of things powering up outside. "HAH! I HAVE CONTROL AGAIN!" Hivemind's voice echoed on every intercom in the city. "DO YOU HEAR ME YOU WALKING CORPSES? I. HAVE. CONTROL AGAIN! THIS IS MY CITY! AND I'M TAKING IT BACK!" Sounds of heavy machine gun fire and the furious roars of undead could be heard outside, including what sounded like... insects. Like millions of insects flying around.

"Welp, nevermind then.." Rika said simply after Hivemind's voice over the city intercoms played.

"Get to the catacomb entrance. Cut off the flow of undead, and find who did this!" Hivemind spoke through one of the heavy droids. Some other droids stopped fighting and pointed directions, acting like signs indicating where to go.

Ulrich slipped out the door and followed the pointing androids, one after another until he had made his way to the catacombs where he would wait until everyone after him had shown up.

Rika followed suit and kept up with Ulrich, wanting to get out of the warzone as soon as possible.

When they were at the catacombs, Rika leaned against a wall and caught her breath. For a big tall guy, Ulrich could move pretty fast.. "Whew.. That.. Is a.. Warzone.." She breathed, straightening up once her lungs had filled. "..When Hive brings backup, he sure puts on a show about it.."

"GET OVER HERE!!!!"

"..But this time I think he's completely lost his mind." She added in response to his booming voice echoing through the city..

[Deske]

"It does look like one." He listened to the shouting over the intercoms and gave an agreeing nod to the fox person, "I have to agree with you. As much as I want to thank him, I think he is overdoing it a little bit."

[CyberDragon]

"I think he's more angry than insane, but... no reason he can't be both." The Lycan said to Rika.

"I heard that." One of the heavy hive droids was standing behind him. The Lycan yelped. "Oh don't look at me like that. All that was the most cathartic thing I've done in years." He waves a hand at the pile of giant bits. "Not looking forward to the cleanup though. Anyway, I'm afraid I can only provide basic support when you are in the catacombs. I don't have a relay there and it's about as far away from one as it can get on this ship. I won't have a good enough signal to control these drones. I can still sense things down there and help keep you from getting lost."

"All right. Everyone, when you're ready." The Lycan walked over to the entrance and kept an eye out as he waited for the others to enter.

[Welsh Halfwit]

This time Jenny was first to enter, doing a low roll towards the left corner and coming up with guns ready. "Clear right now,"she advised.

[~\Rook/~]

Rika cautiously stepped into the entrance and stood by Jenny. "Nice Roll." She said to the rat before turning to the others. "I'm ready if you are, let's go!"

[Welsh Halfwit]

"Thanks. It sometimes helps.". She looked to the Lycan. "So how are these dead animated? Some sort of transmitted signal from this central point? If so, what happened to the SC.. Scientists that first discovered it? Because if anyone knows how to subvert it, it'll be one of them."

[CyberDragon]

"What scientists." He responded more as a statement than a question. "This isn't exactly an occurrence you can put in a lab. In my experience though? Dead are only animated by a handful of means. Through a virus or parasite, in which case they are not technically dead but should be, and are also highly contagious. Or they are animated after death. This seems to be the latter case. In that case, it is either through the Frankenstein method where they are hooked up to mechanical parts, or it is through some sort of necromantic power. Also sometimes called necrokinesis or necropathy. Sort of like telekinesis or telepathy, but restricted to dead organic matter." He kept watch as he waited for the rest to enter. "Judging by the obvious lack of machinery on those skeletons, and the possession eyes they had, I'm thinking a necromancer is behind this."

[Buster]

Kol is close behind Jenny, though she hasn't a clue what the others are talking about. "Why don't we just make them go back to being dead the regular way, rather than searching for the... thing. They're kinda squishy."

[Deske]

"If we do not find out why they are coming back, then they will probably keep coming back. We are trying to find a more permanent solution," Ulrich explained to Kol. "If it is a necromancer, then they are probably down somewhere in the catacombs behind their hordes."

[Welsh Halfwit]

"They hide behind their hoard because they don't want to become one of them." Jenny sighed. "They're cowards in part. Oh, and sir? I get the feeling we'll rarely be on the same page with regards Scientists. The Arkfield incident is in my dossier. I've seen scientists do the Frankenstein effect." She raised her weapons, ready for use. "No power cores to destroy this time," she said, her tone dripping with darkness before coming back to an emotional neutrality. Shall we go and end this threat?"

[CyberDragon]

"I've seen it too. I've been doing this since before you were born. But those aren't scientists. They weren't running experiments or studying anything in a controlled environment. They were more like engineers. They built something with a purpose in mind, and it happened to be sinister." Once everyone was inside, The Lycan closed the door. "There are some things down here that we REALLY don't want raised. Those giants aren't the biggest things we've buried." He looked around. The catacombs were lit with a solemn, dim light. The quiet was marred by muffled thumping emitting from deeper in the tunnels. "All right... Hivemind. Where to?"

There was no response. Then, suddenly, the floor lit up. Two circles of green light orbited each other, forming a kind of loading symbol. Then, the lights in the ground turned into arrows like the ones in the hanger. They moved along the tunnel and took the first left. "Thanks. All right, let's move."

[Neon Icy Wings]

Tatiana followed along, not commenting on the scientist stuff as she'd seen her fair share of both sides, "Maybe the person behind this is so nutso they turned themselves into a Lich or something. If they're crazy enough to start a zombie apocalypse anything goes I'd say..." She kept her rifle pointed ahead, tilting it down whenever someone crossed it's path, not liking the possiblity of dead Champions of the past rising up to attack the place that was once their home.

[Buster]

Kol looks at lycan funny when he says burried, as if he just mangled an expression. Still she follows along.
The further they travel through the catacombs the clearer it is that something about this place bothers her. She isn't saying anything though.

[Deske]

Ulrich followed along with the group, keeping nearer to the front. He rolled his eyes in a joking manner at what the Lycan had said, "Since before she was born, huh? Leaves about 40 years where anything could've happened. Maybe you were already old when you started this," he joked though he kept his eyes forward for any threats, "Tell me, have your children decided on a retirement home for you?"

[CyberDragon]

"I ain't that old. It's more around thirty-five years. Eira's still a teenager, as much as she tries to say otherwise. She's not sending me to a retirement home any time soon." He said, keeping his nocturnal eyes on the walls, which were covered in lockers. Each locker had a name and two dates on them, as well as some short words written in memory of the person buried within. The Lycan was cautious as the banging sound emitted from within these metal graves. Some of these graves were broken open from within. The people they contained must be out in the Necropolis. "I started all of this at about her age..." He continued, still keeping an eye out. "I went to college. I was actually studying theater. Special effects. I moved into a bad neighborhood. My neighbors were real friendly couple, but they owed money to a real scum and a sorry excuse for a human being. One day some bad guys came and grabbed the husband. Dragged him off. I chased them to some run down warehouse. Locked them in. I turned the place into a hunting ground of sorts. I never killed anyone..." He added. "But I made them wish I did. I turned their own base into a horror show. Hunted them down one by one until I got to them all, then I freed my friend. He... was in bad shape. But he lived. That was my first time."

[Welsh Halfwit]

Jenny switched her glasses to the 'low light' setting and everything turned to a cloudy grey scale in front of her eyes. The heat detection system still showed points of contact for living beings in red shades as she advanced, shifting her guns back to the prior rapid fire setting. "So, how far to the main point? I might tell of my first later."

[CyberDragon]

"Not sure..." He said. "I don't come down here often. Honestly I have no idea where Hivemind is leading us. I just know he'll lead us to where we need to be." He said as the group continued to follow the arrows down their winding path.

[Welsh Halfwit]

"Keeping sharp," Jenny muttered, recognising that, if Hivemind lost control of the 'arrows' to whatever had started this off, the group might not know until they were up to their necks in trouble. She stopped as a red spot appeared on her glasses. "Picking up a living one, boss. About sixty yards that way," she added, pointing towards a side passage in the distance.

[Buster]

This place was unnerving. Tunnels were places for the living, not the dead. This was all wrong...

Kol gives an almost predatory growl and breaks pace with the group charging off in the direction Jenny had just pointed. Unaware of the no-kill rule, and only vaguely understanding that these things were being controlled by a living thing, there was only one objective in her mind.

[CyberDragon]

"Kol! Wait!" He got on all fours and ran. He easily passed Kol and stood in front of her, blocking her path with his left hand open in a "stop" gesture and his right hand on a pocket in his utility belt. "Where do you think you are going?"

[Deske]

Ulrich slowed down slightly as Kol ran past him, then sped up as the Lycan ran past, "This can't be good," he said to no one in particular. As soon as he arrived he placed his fingers together and drew them outwards, creating a rather nicely fitting wall of hardlight behind the Lycan, just in case Kol decided to try and make a break for it.