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The Crucible - Winner Take All

Cap'n K. Runch vs. The Bashibozuk: Round 2

"You know, I'm not going to criticize your guerrilla tactics here, but maybe we could take this outside, and not harm the ancient ruins? Seems like a real shame to me if anything got damaged in our fight." The infidel was yapping again. What was it with this mustachioed foreigner and talking? If he didn't have those insane powers, Serhan would have been able to end this so very quickly. He made use of a small hand mirror hidden in his armor to peak around the corner without exposing his head, only to see the idiot was still wandering rather aimlessly. Serhan smiled to himself as the pirate stepped a little too close to one of his invisible traps. The time to strike was now.

The Bashibozuk jumped out of cover, and hurled a small ball directly at his foe. Captain K. Runch turned just in time to see a little black ball heading his way. With a great skill, he swat at the thing with his spoonsaber to bat the weapon away. Things didn't work out as intended. The little black ball exploded in a large blast of smoke, enveloping the captain. Coughing and wheezing, Runch stumbled back several steps until he couldn't step anymore. Resistance met with sharp pain, the intense sensation of something slicing into his ankles and back. The pirate captain lost his balance entirely, flailing onto the ground, tearing razored garrote wire from the walls and getting wrapped up in it. "AAAARGH!" he cried out. Serhan, his pleasure showing in his gait, closed the distance. Only a few feet away from his target, wrapped up and being torn apart in his wire trap, the Turkish hitman lifted a single gun to shoot his thrashing prey.

Struggling, feeling the wire biting deeper, the Cereal Killer caught sight of his opponent and smiled, his thrashing movements altogether stopped. "Omnomnom! Gotcha! Bori bori eruption!" From every square inch of his skin cereal formed and poured forth all at once. The garrote strained and strained, then snapped and flew apart in several pieces just as the cereal pellets flew about every which way. Cap'n Runch jumped back up to his feet, his clothing in tatters and bleeding quite a bit, but seemingly unfazed by his ordeal. Meanwhile, Serhan sensed the danger just in the nick of time. He managed to dodge out of the way before any of the cereal pellets collided with his body, taking cover behind a pillar. A total escape it was not, for a piece of his razored wire whipped around, slashing into his left thigh. The Turkish man grit his teeth and dealt with it. He'd had worse before.

"Phew! I'm going to have to watch my step! Good show, mister... Whatever your name is. Almost peeled my bananas before they were ripe!" Runch took a moment to pick up his bicorn hat and place it upon his head. "That feller on the screen was right, I let my curiosity get the better of me for sure! Now you're at a great field advantage! Might have to do something about that..." Runch tapped the end of his saber against the very pillar that Serhan had taken refuge behind. Had the pirate noticed where his opponent hid himself during the confusion? Or was this just some sort of quirk?

Taking advantage of the spoonsaber's unique shape and curvature, the good captain swung the blade about neck level around the pillar. The assassin was not so easily caught off guard, and brought up his own blade to block the unusual weapon. The straight blade of the yatagahn caught on the serrated spoonhead, locking the weapons in place. Runch pulled backward in an attempt to force the blade into his enemy from behind, while Serhan braced the back of his sword with his spare arm. The two struggled against one another for several moments, faces turned red, sweat formed and ran down their brows. Finally, the Bashibozuk summoned a reserve of strength from within and broke the stalemate. Taking a calculated risk, he relaxed his muscles and ducked down quickly. The spoonsaber pulled back, scraping along the stone pillar, while Serhan dodged around the side and thrust at Runch.

The Cereal Killer recovered, albeit barely, sidestepping just in time to avoid a stab to the gut. He swung his sword around, but Serhan recovered his form as well and parried. Slash met slash, thrust met parry, blade struck only metal as the two performed a dance of deadly blades at great speed. In an ever spinning duel they fought, neither gaining any ground on the other. Cap'n K. Runch's childlike, joyful smile was matched blow for blow by the Bashibozuk's narrowed glare of determination. Finally, the stalemate was broken as Runch brought his sword down diagonally at Serhan's neck. The hitman blocked the neck of the blade, but with a simple sawing motion Runch sliced the large spoonhead into Serhan's left shoulder.

"Gah!" he grunted in pain.

"You can talk! Omnomnom, I thought I was fighting a mute the whole time!"

He was talking again. Good. If this infidel had any major weaknesses, it was that naive state of mind, something a trained killer was all too eager to take advantage of. His tactic would sacrifice some of his flesh and blood, but the results should be worth it. Serhan lifted up his non-dominant leg, the motion forcing the serrated spoonhead deeper into his shoulder, and kicked into his prey's solar plexus. Reacting quick as he could, Runch pulled back, tearing his sword out of his opponent in the process, and moved to block with his left arm. The good captain couldn't possibly have predicted what would happen.

BANG!

The gun hidden in the Bashibozuk's pants triggered. A bullet ripped through the air such a short distance and into the gut of Bartholomew K. Runch. The captain stumbled back, clutching his wound with his free hand, then shot a glare at Serhan. His glare was returned by a sadistic smile.

"Cheap shot. Rotten, like overripe grapes." He began breathing harder. Serhan had to give credit, this pirate;s fortitude was to be admired. Still standing after a point blank bullet to the gut? Covered in razor cuts? The sight only reaffirmed what the assassin had figured before: he could never have won in a direct fight. Not without a few cheap shots. Well, the time to muse was over. Time to finish off his target, but not before he suffers.

As Serhan slowly approached, brandishing his yataghan menacingly, K. Runch knew he had to regroup. He did some major damage, his enemy's left arm was going to be useless, but if he didn't catch a second wind then Runch knew he'd lose out on stamina soon. He grit his teeth. He had to use that technique. It'd be a real shame. This place was somethin' else, alright. Bartholomew sighed, sheathed his sword, and held his hand out. "Bori bori marble slip."

Expecting another stream of tiny iron-like balls to shoot out at him, Serhan took a defensive stance. He was surprised to find that instead the pirate captain only dribbled round cereal pellets out of his palm, which slowly rolled toward him. Was this it? Marble slip implied they were supposed to trip him up, but he could easily step over and around these obstacles. No, this enemy was more dangerous than he let on. Something else was afoot here. The assassin kept one eye on the foodstuff littering the floor, and another on his opponent's face, trying to read the pirate's expression.

Runch gave another gleeful, childlike grin. "... Hellberry Recipe. Boom."

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Like tiny grenades each little marble exploded in a violent fragmentation, leaving behind scorch marks, smoke, and flame. Each explosion fed into the next, creating one large blast. Serhan was prepared for something tricky, but nothing before had indicated his opponent could use explosives. He dodged out of the way, but was still tossed violently by the shockwave. He collided with the floor and rolled until stopped by another pillar. Runch was also thrown back by his own explosion, but in a far more controlled manner. He propelled himself backwards with a stream of cereal from his feet, a technique he called the bori bori rocketskate, and took his own cover.

Got a moment to myself. Ok, good. Need to stop the bleeding. I'll fight with a bullet in my gut if I have to. Concentrating on where it hurt most, Runch generated a large cereal pellet at the surface of his wound using a recipe designed to be extra absorbent. After a few seconds, he caught his breath and stood up tall, ready to continue the fight.

Capes of Denver: A Worm RP

Wards: Morning Training

@BCTheEntity@yoshua171@solokolos@Lugubrious

With the added motivation, the Wards caught new wind. Of course, even the most well trained of runners would have difficulties keeping ahead of a large wolf. The first ones to get caught up in Protean's added exercise was, naturally, Alessa and Ira. Even pulling the tinker along with her, Alessa couldn't match pace with the other Wards running unobstructed. Belting out a great howl, the senior Protectorate hero launched a jump clear over the girls' heads and charged them from the front. If they turned around to head the other way he'd call out, "Wrong way, ladies! That direction doesn't count!"

After harassing the team's leader and tech wizard, Protean turned his attention on the next two at the front of the pack. His body bubbled and morphed, fur becoming feather and snout becoming beak. Now some odd wolf-falcon hybrid, he took to the air and made a beeline directly to the side of the young heroes. From there he would antagonize them from above, catching some of Evelyn's hair with his claws and whipping a tail in Elliot's face. With that bit of fun done, Protean laughed himself silly, rolling over to the middle of the room. Once again his body morphed, flesh bubbling like some sort of primordial soup. He regained a human face, but kept the falcon wings while his lupine body changed to a leonine frame. He now resembled the legendary sphinx for all onlookers.

"Alright Wards, listen up!" he called out as they continued their running, now unaccosted. "Here's a series of riddles for you. First one to answer correctly gets to take a break. The last one of you that doesn't get to answer one has to fight me one on one. Sound fun? Here we go! What five letter word is pronounced the same even when you take away four of the letters? What travels anywhere in the world, but never leaves the corner? And last, you have two coins that make thirty cents, and one is not a nickel. What are they?" He maintains a smug grin, observing the teens as they rush around the room.

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The Jacks: Highway Robbery

@The Wild West@yoshua171@BCTheEntity@Eklispe

Noble stands still, and listens to Chatterbox speak. It's clear she'd rather pull the trigger on her specialized weapon, but since the villains disarmed themselves it'd be highly immoral to do so. Well, the gaudy man and the little girl disarmed, at any rate. The cyborg merely changed positions. Still, she couldn't hold these two hostage over Arsenal. That was a move that villains used. Damn, sometimes the more effective tactics weren't applicable. She grit her teeth as Chatterbox stated his case, and her trigger finger relaxed ever so slightly. "Get your cyborg to stand down. I know he's still around, hiding behind cover."

By now, the smoke that had erupted from the initial grenades signalling this fight was beginning to fade, and the Jacks could see a few holographic emitters placed strategically around the battlefield. One right where the fake Morales was, one beneath the fake Noble, and a couple others that looked like they hadn't been utilized. The small devices could easily be fit into the palm of your hand and resembled gray disks, about an inch thick.

"Marsolis! I heard live ammunition! Tell me the meaning of your actions!" Her attention remained focused on Sofia and Chatterbox, but she was clearly addressing one of the soldiers.

"Sir!" he responded, "We were attacked with lethal force by that robot arm guy! I was responding appropriately!"

"Moron!" she called back. "He's using rubber ammunition. You escalated first. When we get back, you'll have to answer to Directed Kens."

The soldier remained silent. Noble continued to stare down her targets, though her breathing had relaxed significantly. "Your move, villains. How is this going to go down?"

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The Minutemen and Others - Denver Skyline

@Banana@The Wild West@Nattook@yoshua171@solokolos

At the declaration that Jaunt had received a message concerning the bounty of a young girl, one could only imagine how big Furnace's eyes grew beneath his helmet visor. Once again he swung a baton at the mercenary, only this time with actual purpose. For his efforts he hit only air, as Jaunt vanished, only to reappear mere feet away, then vanish again. "Dammit!" he grunted, kicking the rooftop beneath him. "Listen guys, I'm glad your Minutemen are doing well, and I'm unbe-lieeeevably happy we don't have a new Endbringer crisis on our hands, but I've got to chase down any leads I can to rescue that girl. Until we meet again."

Furnace took a running jump over the rooftop, his glider unfurling from the personalized armored pack, and he was off on the air, gliding by the wind currents he made from his own heat.

G4M3R waved enthusiastically as Furnace left, then turned to address Outsider's question. "Of course! I'd be happy to give you my card. You you go!" He plucks out a professional business card and holds it out for the helmet-wearing man to grab. "As you can see from Kyoshi," he gestures to the costume-clad woman currently on the phone, "Business is already starting to boom. Even if you didn't catch Sonika, you're more than impressive enough."

Meanwhile, Celia was having an adventure of her own through cyberspace, attempting to interfere with communications of the PRT. Hacking into the initial signal proved significantly more difficult than first believed. In fact, it proved itself to be an incredibly arduous process. Once she was in, however, things went fairly smoothly. Code changed to her whim, and connections began to falter. At least at first. Looking back at the alterations she had made, the coding was repairing itself at inhuman speeds. The alterations were catching up to her own programming, until her influence was completely cut off from all PRT and Protectorate systems, save for a single open line of communication. Attempting to access anything else proved to be completely impossible, no matter how many of her processors she brought online to focus on the task. So what was this single line of communication open? It was some sort of chat system, and she was being pinged directly to her IP.

TheRe@lD3c0y: Fascinating. Nobody has cracked my coding so easily. Thank you for pinpointing the weaknesses.

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Cap'n K. Runch vs. The Bashibozuk: Round 1

The good captain lurched his head in the direction he had heard the drone suddenly speak from. The college official that was inside the screen declared that his first match was ready to begin, and he had already let the opponent get the upper hand. It did not take long for Runch to see what the college man meant, though the full depth of the situation was not yet known. As he looked up at the flying contraption, his eyes met those of another. A strange man of dark skin was perched high atop one of the columns just above Runch's head. The man glared at the flying contraption with a look of death, clearly upset that his ambush had been ruined. Something told the captain that this was the sort of man who would go out of his way to kill their referee for this transgression. However he had little opportunity to ponder his opponent's mindset, for the Bashibozuk wasted no time in striking despite phase 1 of his plan having been so thoroughly ruined.

The Turkish man leaped down from his position, wielding two exotic blades in hand. These weapons had two targets: the heart and brain of the captain. Unable to reach his spoonsaber in time, Runch reacted in the most expedient way he could. Adrenaline suddenly pumping through his veins, he extended his left hand upward toward his would-be assassin, while his right hand went for his primary weapon. "Bori bori firehose!" A stream of multi-colored orb-shaped pellets sprayed forth from his open palm with great force and quantity. The Turkish assassin took a direct hit on the chest, tumbling backward through the air, but the pirate's strategy did not leave him completely defended. Serhan's dominant weapon was able to slice into Runch's left wrist. As Runch recoiled back in slight pain, Serhan regained his footing with a fast tumble maneuver as he hit the ground.

"Omnomnom! Great moves! May the best man-" The captain was cut off by a cheap, opportunistic attack as the practical mind of the assassin wasted no time in pleasantries or conversation. Killing his opponent was the only purpose he had here. If the naive pirate was going to waste time striking up conversation, then he deserved an idiot's death. Bang! Clang! These two sounds echoed throughout the hall of this grand cathedral. Serhan dropped the blade in his off hand, and extended a hidden pistol within the sleeve, firing before the yataghan hit the floor. The captain was taken aback by such an assault, but not completely unprepared. He was able to ready the spoonsaber and blocked the bullet using the large, paddle-like end of his unique weapon. The angle and force of the strike knocked the captain off balance, just enough so that he had to take a step back. A step that hit the tripwire Serhan had originally setup for the beginning of this battle.

In an instant two crossbow bolts shot out from different directions. Runch wasn't positioned the way he was supposed to have been when the Bashibozuk setup the trap, so they did not strike him dead on as intended. This did not mean Runch got off scott free. One bolt pierced straight through the tail of his coat, causing only cosmetic damage as it collided with the floor. The second struck him in the left hip, sinking a good two inches deep. "GAH!" This was now his opportunity. Serhan unloaded another three shots upon his prey. This time, however, the pirate captain was definitely prepared. "Bori bori wall!" With a wave of his injured hand, K. Runch produced a barrier directly in front of himself made of solid cereal. One big rectangular pellet, with the density of steel. The three bullets collided harmlessly with the wall, falling limply to the floor beneath them.

Captain K. Runch rolled to the side around his wall, prepared to strike out at his opponent. The Bashibozuk was no longer there. Runch raised an eyebrow, carefully strafing around the pillars. He couldn't afford to let such an underhanded opponent get the drop on him again. Meanwhile, Serhan had tactically positioned himself behind the primary altar of the cathedral. The trained killer was loathe to allow a target to catch their breath, but he found himself needing the same. A quick touch to his chest, a small wince of pain, confirmed what he had suspected. Despite his body armor, the force of that cereal stream had hurt him, left his chest bruised. How, though? It was merely baked wheat and grain. The speed at which it had collided with him shouldn't have provided any injury whatsoever. Further, it could stop his bullets. The skilled hitman offered a small, silent prayer to Allah, when the solution dawned on him. It had to be hard. Exceedingly hard. It was only grain though, which is very soft. The only way grain could take on such a property was to be extremely compacted. So it was dense. The Bashibozuk realized then that his opponent was far more dangerous than initially suspected. He did not just create this cereal in vast quantities, but he could control its physical properties. A single false step, and Serhan knew he could be crushed beneath tons.

"You know, my first mate is a ninja. All stealth and shadows and whatnot. You'd probably get along, omnomnom!" The captain tread carefully, unsure as to the location of his opponent. The dark skinned killer could be behind any pillar, or up above them. He had to make sure he checked every corner, watched his own back, and as proven at the beginning of this fight, keep an eye above his head. Any second and the Bashibozuk could strike a fatal, decisive blow. That was unacceptable. The others were waiting back on the ship. Joanne was fighting hard in his name. He could handle losing this contest, but dying? That was not acceptable.

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Still have a ton of things going on with the new baby, people coming and going to visit, getting all kinds of things setup, etc. I should hopefully be getting my first combat post done in the next 1-2 days. Maybe. We'll see.

The Three Realms War [A DMC, Bayonetta and Darksiders RP]

@Sho Minazuki@floodtalon

Coming to a halt so he could observe the scene, Akoni drank in the carnage. Angel and demon locked in bloody warfare, the only clear victor here was death. Yet on the other side of this horrific battlefield stood some sort of structure, likely ancient. Neither side was gaining any ground as they battled tooth and nail over entry. The old mage just shook his head. Normally the fastest route to a destination was always a straight line. However, when your specialty happened to lie in bending space and tearing conventional physics asunder, well, screw that noise. The two of them needed to be as fresh and capable as possible when they located Sevrin. Defeating him with the Yamato, even untrained, would be incredibly difficult. Capturing him alive would be borderline impossible. Best not to waste any strength on the fodder between point A and point B.

"It would be unwise to engage them. The target is still out of reach, and incredibly powerful." With his succinct explanation out of the way, Akoni began to cross the battlefield. His Gatewalk range was only 60 feet, and even at the blindingly fast speed produce by his Surge technique it was still bright enough to gather attention, so getting to the doorway of the large structure was instead a question of creating gates that would propel the two high up into the air, hopefully above the attention of angel and demon alike. From there he could Surge across the sky, and ultimately Gate them back down to earth, right in front of the door. As long as all went well, they would avoid any combat.

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Notice for the people that aren't in any of my skype chats, at the hospital today as my girlfriend is currently in labor. Before the day is done we'll have a brand new son. Ergo, activity will be spotty for me as I figure out just what the hell I'm even doing. Haha.

Capes of Denver: A Worm RP

Notice for the few people that aren't in the skype chat, at the hospital today as my girlfriend is currently in labor. Before the day is done we'll have a brand new son. Ergo, activity will be spotty for me as I figure out just what the hell I'm even doing. Haha.

The Crucible - Winner Take All

@obliviousRoadie Ooooooh yeeeeeah, that's right. I knew about Hajji and Mecca, but forgot about it in this instance. I'll edit it so that it uses his proper name. As for knowing about cereal though, the first pre-cooked cereal (not porridge/oatmeal/gruel) was made in 1863, so unless I'm misunderstanding when he's from it's something he could definitely know about (even if unlikely), though mascots and marketing hadn't occurred yet. :P

The Crucible - Winner Take All

@obliviousRoadie By all means, it is your creation so nothing I do will ever be perfectly in character for him. I welcome your criticisms in whatever medium you send them by.

Capes of Denver: A Worm RP

Messed up the tag for @Nattook.