[IC Board] All the World's a Game - Season II

Henir's Time and Space

John looked over to his teammates before returning his gaze back to Glaive, who was still facing Renamon and Nera. John still remembered what the masked man had said to them about the next challenge, how Glaive specifically told him that it would be "fun." Being singled out earlier left John feeling somewhat suspicious about what would happen next, but whatever it was, he had the feeling he would be ready. All that was left to do was wait for Glaive to start the challenge, to which John was now patiently waiting for.





Firestorm Citadel

Takoizu gave a rather confident smile underneath her helmet as she watched the Trojan grow, simply thinking about how she would strike, and boy did she have a plan.

(Just like daddy.), Takoizu jokingly thought to herself before suddenly bursting into a 100 mph sprint towards the Trojan.

As she began to approach the Trojan, Takoizu released a small volley of danmaku which seemed to fly off to the Trojan's left flank, just out of reach of the Trojan. Meanwhile, Takoizu suddenly changed her direction as she suddenly ran to the Trojan's right, then suddenly towards it, placing her within range of the Trojan's sword arm.





Santa Cruz

Meanwhile, Isaac was still desperately searching for survivors within the city, but so far he found none. Isaac was close to giving up the search when he suddenly heard a scream down below as a group of the undead tried to break their way into a barricaded building. Seeing this caused a fire within Isaac's eye as he pulled out both his Planet Cracker and his usual Plasma Cutter and rained a volley down upon the undead below.

"Dante! The door!!!", Isaac shouted to Dante down below, alerting him that there were survivors inside.





Mess Hall - Prometheus Labs - London

As Dr. Neuman and Chung ate, Dr. Neuman decided to bring up the topic from earlier before. After all, it was not everyday you would hear that a member of Prometheus Labs would have a kid.

"Sooo...", Dr. Neuman said to Chung in a rather curious tone, "should we go pay Six a visit after breakfast? Maybe get his side of the story?"




(Battle music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vPI-K_k_Fs)
Streets of London | Jack and Mag's current Location

Jack gritted his teeth as his shields flared then vanished and as red warning lights began to flash inside of his helmet. It took very little time to see what was happening, due to the fact that all the magnetic materials in the vicinity were bending and warping around him. He could also see the bullets as they approached, but as he saw them fly through the air, he could see there was not much to fear. Although he would be hit by all of the bullets the Warframe fired, they were still a very low caliber and did not have the velocity to pierce his armor. At worst, they would scratch the topmost layer of his armor. With that in mind, Jack simply began to charge after the Mag as every bullet collided with his armor, chipping off the black, red, and white paint off his armor as they hit.





Testing Chamber - Armor Technologies Lab - Sector 4 - Prometheus Labs - London

As Lily hid behind the next pillar, four more brutes began to close in on her position, each one more than willing to rip her limb from limb. Lily held their ground as they closed in, and right as the closest one ran in for the attack, Lily suddenly activated her thrusters and slid beneath the brute, firing at it's inner thigh as she slid beneath. The bullet impacted flesh and violently exploded, separating the Brute's leg from the rest of its body, but before it could even fall to the ground, Lily was already engaging the next Brute, dodging a horizontal swipe of its Spiker by ducking beneath and firing a round into its arm as it passed above, relieving the second Brute of its weapon and arm. As the gun flew from the Brute's grasp, Lily reached up with her free hand and grabbed the spiker from the air and lunged forth as she jammed the blade into the Brute's gut, then spun to the right, ripping straight through its stomach and disemboweling it as the first Brute finally fell to the ground. As she did so, the third Brute swung a spiker of its own at her, but Lily was quick, unnaturally so as she jumped into the air and rolled just above the swing, slamming her armored boot against the Brute's cheek. The third Brute stumbled, and Lily landed with her left foot before quickly turning and unleashing a barrage of high explosive, armor piercing lead and heavy metal spikes into its chest. The onslaught tore through the Brute and it fell onto its back with a bloody splat.

Upon seeing its comrades killed so easily at close range, the fourth Brute jumped back and threw a spiker grenade at Lily in an attempt to impale her with it, but it appeared she was much faster than it had anticipated. As the spiker grenade spun through the air, Lily's enhanced reflexes allowed her to grab the grenade out from the air and she snapped her arm forward, throwing the grenade back to its sender before she jumped out from cover and sprinted after the sniper's tower near the town square. An inhuman scream could be heard before the grenade detonated, sending spikes across the undersection of the building, obliterating the fourth Brute and impaling any survivors Lily may have left behind.

From what was already seen, the armor had made Lily a nigh unstoppable force.





En route to Prometheus Labs - London

"Of course. We're almost there too, but I have to at least give you a warning before we reach The Labs, because I just know this could be a possible problem. If you see a large SPARTAN with a skull on his helmet, try and avoid him. He tends to have the personality of an industrial sander, and he's just bound to be all over the thought of a SPARTAN-II. Either he will ask you to spar, or he will get suspicious over an undocumented SPARTAN.", Mike said to Vala.





Training Room - Sector 4, Prometheus Labs - London

"Yea, well you're definitely something yourself. I've never felt this tired since the time I was human.", Alice chuckled to Flandre as she quickly began to catch her breath.

It had seemed that even though Alice was a supersoldier, even she had a hard time keeping up with the energetic vampire, much like a grown human would to a human child. It took a half minute before Lily was fully recovered, and once she was, Alice hunched slightly over Flandre before extending a large armored hand to the girl for a handshake.

"You definitely put up a good fight. It truly was a pleasure to play with you.", Alice said to Flandre.

En route to Prometheus Labs - London

Hearing the word "spar" nrightened Vala's mood "If your pal wants to spar, I'll give it to him, it has been a while since I enjoyed a fight, unless he wants to do sonething stupid that would ruin my parade" the smirk on her face was enougg to prove that the blonde wanted something to happen

"As for paperwork, it will be hard for him to get something further than "I'm augmented to keep living". If he or anyone wants answers, I'll need mine from our dear Cathy" the spartan spoke with some seriousness on her tone

En route to labs, East of London

The bike's humming was soothing her mind as she was resisting the urge to speed up and bonk the blonde airhead of hers. The things she was hearing were both good and bad for Nicole, the good one was the fact that the soldier who picked up Vala was a spartan who barely showed his true emotions, yet what she heard of his tone when thins the brawler revealed was what made her day better (Got to congratulate Melissa and her recordings).

So far, the veteran spartan had the idea that this Mike wasn't a spartan II, and it gave her the chance that there weren't othe IIs in the labs, it would have been logical to send one to Vala, or at least a squad of IIIs or IVs. (They haven't seen what we experienced, most are probably volunteers). In Nicole's opinion the new spartans were good people, but they were still human, the older ones were demons of war and destruction (Although John always had Catherine's eyes on him)

In tge end, Nicole knew that something was bound to occur, and those two in the warthog would be in the middle of the storm (You better let me something, I also need some punching bags). And with that, the woman sped uo towards the location of the labs.

Henir's Time and Space

Glaive chuckled a bit as he lifted his hand, ready to snap his fingers. He didn't say much about the challenge except one thing.

"For one of you this challenge will be a blast from the past... or rather... a repeated set of explosions from the past. It will challenge everything you all have. Test of will, test of courage, test of mind, and test of body. That is all I shall say, but one of you will definitely be able to recognize it." Glaive spoke as he focused his gaze at John as he snapped his fingers.

Almost immediately Glaive disappeared as Nera, John, and the others found themselves on... some sort of ship. At first this was a bit hard to recognize, but the Spartan could recognize it as plain as day. The layout, the design... even the voices coming from the room next to him... voices of a certain commander and AI, and... himself...? Could be heard coming from the doorway next to them. Before they could do anything though the whole ship shook as the sound of alarms going off, armed soldiers running past the group, and the sounds of heavy gunfire could be heard.


This was the Pillar of Autumn. The place where John's journey started with Cortana.


Washington D.C. | Palutena's Apartment

After a few minutes of sitting and staring at Toriel, Sans, and the pie. Julius finally turned around to look at Palutena who was now in the living room standing there watching Julius and seeing the two strangers at the door. Though after seeing Julius's expression and sensing no evil... and only some sort of... weird vibe coming from the skeleton. Palutena spoke. "Hmm... Well why don't you come in and we all share the pie? It would be nice to get to know our new neighbors." Palutena spoke with a calm, peaceful voice as Julius then stepped out of the way for Sans and Toriel.

Sans then waited for Toriel to go in first for... reasons.


Mess Hall - Prometheus Labs - London

It didn't take long for Chung to finish eating, but when he did he looked up at Neuman and shrugged. "Yeah let's just do that. I would like to meet the father of this baby." Chung spoke as he stood up after having finished his meal.



Streets of London | Jack and Mag's current Location

The Mag's strategy was showing results. Rather... weak results, but some results nonetheless as she continued to pelt him with bullets. Eventually though the magnetic field around Jack could not keep itself stable, and in turn it released a very powerful burst of electromagnetic energy that dislodged the shotgun on his magnetic holster. When this happened it quickly fell and the Mag saw this as she quickly put away her pistols before holding out her hand. At that very instant Mag did a sort of yanking motion with her hands as Jack's shotgun came flying right at her, of which the Mag grabbed it and held it straight at Jack. It was then she started opening fire with her new weapon while drawing closer rather quickly.

Now with a decent weapon in hand, this fight is a lot more fair.


Testing Chamber - Armor Technologies Lab - Sector 4 - Prometheus Labs - London

Raven was watching Lily's style and strategy closely. The way she was fighting was definitely that of a Spartan. A true soldier. It really impressed Raven, and deep down he felt a growing urge to want to fight her more and more. To test out not just his arm, but Lily's armor in a more... realistic scenario. Either way what he was seeing so far was quite impressive.

"Heh... seeing her. Kinda makes me want to become a Spartan myself." He spoke rather dryly as he watched on.

Training Room - Sector 4, Prometheus Labs - London

---

"Same to you, Alicey!" Flandre merrily replied, taking Alice's hand and shaking it. "We should do this again some time. Maybe with some of your friends too!"

Meanwhile, laid to rest in another part of the training area, someone was stirring. As their motor functions returned to them and their vision cleared, the young man Cole slowly but surely regained consciousness. Shakily glancing around the room, Cole began to realise just where exactly he was and what exactly had happened.
"Sh*t..." Cole mumbled in disappointment, "That wasn't a dream..."
Much to the despair of the electricity-manipulating conduit, it seemed that the nightmare that was his reality had yet to fade away. And just as he was getting used to captivity too...
Cole knew that as soon as he would bump into any SPARTAN or into Flandre, there'd be hell to pay. One doesn't simply walk away from attempting to blow up a section of a highly-guarded military base. And Cole knew the consequences of messing with authorities and organisations all too well...

Palutena's apartment

Seeing that Sans waited for her move, Toriel walked into the apartment, tilting her head to be able to pass the door "Please excuse my clumsiness in advance, my feet are rather large and they might move some furniture by accident" she gave an apologetic smile as she evaded a chair.

The goat monster's gentle face hid very well what her senses wete gathering (An aged human with so much weight in his shoulders, a celestial woman that radiates happiness and a young boy with raw power within himself) she thought and spoke "I've got to say that this building is rather comfortable and prepared for a varied kind of inhabitants"

Meanwhile, Midna appeared from Palutena's room while making sure her cloak was in place. The twili felt two strong pressences as she noticed the almost Dwarf sized skeleton and inhumamly tall goat humanoid. "Well hello there, seems thi building is becoming more interesting by the minute" she spoke and looked at them with a smirk that somehow was both mischievous and welcoming.

Firestorm Citadel

---

The trojan didn't care about some petty energy burst, following Takoizu, predicting, and swinging the sword in a 360 degree arc all around it, teetering slightly as it finished.

---

Santa Cruz

---

The undead pressed against both the door and the walls, the entire barricade, doors, windows, anything like that threatening to collapse, the survivors inside in a dangerous position, amongt them, toward the back, wa a larger creature, mostly an upper torso with large bulky pale arms, and a tatter of robe around it. As undead fell from Isaac's plasma cutter, lightning flickered between it's fingertips, before sending a blast of electricity through the crowd.

Hoever, it did not fry them. No, it invigroated them, as they smacked at the walls with renewed vigor, barely noticing Isaac or Dante.

((quick post for Dante because I forgot to.))
Santa Cruz

As Isaac and Dante were searching for any signs of survivors, Isaac called out about a door. Confused Dante looked at where Isaac was pointing and firing at. Upon looking he saw a group of undead pounding against a door and barricades. Dante was about to attack, but seeing Isaac's attacks not do much Dante stopped. Though what he also saw was the large creature in some kind of old robe that seemed to invigorate the undead. Dante had a feeling that they would need to stop that large... THING first if they wanted to save the people inside. As such Dante called out.


"You handle the door! I'll handle Mr. Tall, Pale, and Ugly!" Dante yelled as he took his demonic claymore the Rebellion, and holding it behind him as he jumped through the air. The blade crackled with red demonic energy before Dante performed a heavy underhanded slash aimed at the large Robed being. Upon doing this a strong blast of demonic energy was released towards the monster. If it strikes the Robed Creature, it would cause some sort of damage and gather it's attention.



Palutena's apartment

As Toriel entered, Palutena smiled as she walked up to the Goat Monster. "Oh it's fine. I'll be able to easily move any accidentally moved furniture." Palutena spoke as she began to make her way to the kitche, gesturing Toriel to follow. All the while hearing Toriel's comment about the building. "Ah yes. This apartment was rennovated if I recall to suit some... other worldly inhabitants. Quite thoughtful actually. Anyways I should introduce you to my the others. The tall, and rather gruff man in the coat is Julius Belmont. Where he came from he's the last of his bloodline, a family of Vampire Hunters. He lives next door. The young angel boy in there is the head of my royal guards, Pit. He may not look like it, but he's quite a talented yet... energetic young one. The other woman is Midna. We... do not know all too much about her though since we just met her." Palutena spoke as she sat at the kitchen table.

"Then there's me! Palutena. Goddess of the land I came from. I moved her with Pit since we wanted to try our hands at a more... peaceful and quiet life. Also feel free to set that delicious pie of yours on the table." Palutena spoke...


Meanwhile in the Living room, Julius had watched Toriel and Palutena walk into the kitchen as he was about to tell the short skeleton to just make himself at home. However when he looked at the doorway, he found it empty. Confused both Pit and himself started looking around but saw Sans sitting back in a rather comfortable position on the couch, just minding his own business.


"I uh... what...? Midna, Pit. Did you see him move?" Julius asked both Midna and Pit. However Pit just shrugged as he wasn't entirely paying attention.

Palutena's apartment


Midna´s attention changed from the original spot that th skeleton was standing to where he was now (Teleportation magic.. there was next to no action made to do that, a mind ability?) she thought but then shrugged (We all have our own stuff).

Toriel on the other just waved her free paw "Don´t mind him, Sans is prone to bend time and space, in the long run, you will be used to it" she spoke remembering the blue robbed skeleton´s ability to just appear and disappear when no one watched him. At first she was confused and nervous about it, but as time went on, she just ignored it. When the goat monster looked at the oddest being of the group, (red hair, bluish pale body, she looks undressed yet dressed at the same time?)

Ignoring what her mind asked, Toriel put the pie on the table and spoke "I hope you are hungry, because this pie tastes wonderful fresh from the oven" her smile was so heartwarming as of a mother dealing with her kids.

Santa Cruz

---

The creature, more formerly known as an Exorcist, sensed the incoming blade, and its energy blast. A simple swift movement left let it escape from the blade's wrath. More lightning crawled up it's fingertips, flinging it out like a lashing whip, crackling towards Dante all around him.

Near Command Bridge - Pillar of Autumn - Henir's Time and Space

As the group was transported to the start of their challenge, John already had his M6D ready for combat, but what he wasn't ready for was the fight taking place in a place from his past. Upon seeing the familiar metal halls and the lights of the ship, John's focus went from searching for a target, to looking about the area they were in, partially stunned at the sight before him, yet still keeping an eye out to make sure the group was not ambushed. It was clear that this place had an effect on John, but the question was, why?