thewizardguy

Epic City: Starburst

@Old Amsterdam@Bluetommy

Moments before the pillar would have finished the job, another Epic appeared on the scene. A girl, with reddish blonde hair and light blue eyes. Despite their cold colouration, however, there wasn't a hint of hardness in them. Determination, perhaps, but not the icey cold born from a lifetime of death and destruction. Another Epic with a powerful ability, and no real experience in the world. It seemed that this city had been isolated for so long the inhabitants had forgotten what it meant to suffer. Despite this the girl immediately took on a hostile stance, drawing her weapon.

Sighing, Guilt addressed the newcomer. "Within that hole is a figure known as Comet. He possesses the Gift of super-speed, and he was looking into my actions here. Attempting to find me. When I told him to stop, he threatened to kill me, showing off his super speed in an obvious attempt to intimidate." Her voice was guttural, almost whispered, but carried an air of cold certainty. There was no emotion in these words, other than perhaps mild irritation. "This is not your fight. Leave. I will finish him off before he can do any more harm, and then I will continue my business here. If you get involved, it will not end well for you." A second Epic might make this battle inconvenient, especially as this new Epic seemed to have abilities similar to Guilt's own. Teleportation was a powerful and versatile Gift, much harder to predict than simple superhuman speed.

It was at this point that the Speedster appeared on the scene once more, albeit not from the expected direction. He had not emerged from the pit, which was now open, but had instead appeared from the city. Had he somehow managed to escape the pit before this Traveller freed him? And if so, how? Certainly he could not have..... there were layers of solid stone down there, to escape the pit into the open air would require an immense amount of force. But... was that blood on his knuckles? He looked a bit different from before, strained. Was that heavy breathing? Clearly he had exerted himself.

"I see. So you escaped the pit by burrowing your way out of the side. You survived, but only because you pushed your limits. And yet you decided to return here?" Sighing, Guilt turned towards him. When would fools learn to accept their fate? Had he stayed away he could have lived for quite some time more. Even Guilt's abilities would not allow her to catch a speedster on the run. "Your escape cost you, and yet I remain untaxed. Perhaps I will simply bury you again, deeper this time. What made you think that your return would cause things to go any differently? Arrogance seals your fate." As she spoke, Guilt once more entered a combat-ready stance.

Purple lightning arced out from where Guilt stood, devouring all it touched. Walls, furniture, windows, cars... all of them began vanishing with alarming rapidity. Random objects were drawn into Void either partially or whole, leaving behind nothing but empty craters. Unknown to the two who faced her these objects would reappear high in the air, beginning a long fall towards the battlefield. Projectiles. "I am done holding back, 'Comet'. If you persist, I will have to tear you to shreds."

Epic City: Starburst

@Old Amsterdam
yay.

And it'll be interesting seeing their similar yet dissimilar powers contrasting.

The Blood Compact

Johnathan Mayes

Name: Johnathan Mayes

Age: 25

Height: 1.8m (6ft)

Weight: 78kg

Race: Vampire (newblood)

Gender: Male

Appearance:


Sexuality: why is this a question?

Personality:
This world is a boring place, filled with boring little people. Vampires, humans, they're all just pawns in the game of life. Johnathan isn't content just being a cog in the machine, he want to run the place. He'll kill, cheat, lie and steal just to prove that he can, and he'll do it all over again just to prove it's easy to him. Everything in life is a game, nothing to be taken all too seriously, but it's a game that Johnathan intends to win. Malicious thoughts are hidden behind his smiling and calm façade as he laughs at the suffering of the world. He'll be polite to the end, smiling to your face even as he slides in the knife. Not because he hates you, and certainly not because of some silly ideology, but simply because he felt like it.

Biography:
Growing up in a world that moved too slow for him, Johnathan's youth was a boring one, especially for him. He skipped several classes and majored at a very young age. Everything seemed to come easy to him, so he decided to look for a challenge. Interested in strategy, as well as science, he joined the military. He rose through the ranks fairly quickly, demonstrating to be a good soldier and an excellent commander. It was his skills in handling strange and complicated situations that drew the attention of the Covenant, and initially caused them to accept him into their fold. While not a full member he became one of their military contacts, responsible for providing them with equipment, backup, and occasionally covering up their activities. He relished these duties, greatly enjoying the challenge of balancing his covert actions with his duties as military officer. Rising through the ranks he became an important tactician and advisor both in the standard military and to the Covenant, occasionally even directly assisting in planning missions. At one point he was even put on a government-funded team dedicated to taking care of vampire actions called Soldier. Unfortunately the initiative failed for political reasons, and the makeshift organization swiftly fell apart.

Of course, this couldn't last. On one of the missions he was involved with Johnathan's men managed to capture a live vampire, who was dragged back to his personal little 'bunker'. His behaviour got stranger and stranger as he began commissioning researchers for his own little projects. While he'd previously helped design specialist gear for the Covenant he was now doing other and stranger things, culminating in a stunning act of betrayal. One day he just vanished, taking with him all of his men and all of his equipment. Even when exerting it's not inconsiderable resources it took the Covenant a while to figure out exactly what had happened. His men were intensely loyal, and the Covenant's moles had either defected or disappeared.

About a week later a caravan of trucks with Johnathan in the lead arrived at Magnus' proverbial front gate. Unloading a large amount of military-grade hardware and several captives he demanded to be given command of Magnus' army. While nobody knows exactly how Magnus responded to this, later Covenant reports indicate that Johnathan does perform some form of command function within Magnus' forces. In addition these reports would indicate that Johnathan apparently went through Magnus' entire army finding a suitable sire to vamp him, and then had that sire killed to prevent himself from being influenced. Stories also indicate that he's working on combining vampiric bloodlines, experimenting with werewolf DNA, and designing technology to abuse the more unusual properties of vampires. At one point Johnathan sent a captured Covenant agent back to the Covenant with a letter of apology for his defection, declaring that it was getting boring, and that he intended to live forever. It was signed with ' - your future ruler, Johnathan Mayes'.

Faction/Side: Magnus' Vampires

Abilities:
When examining the different vampiric bloodlines and their abilities, Johnathan opted to become a Gabriellan vampire. His body is still 'alive' and he can be killed by severe damage to his vital organs, although he has a superhuman healing factor. While both his speed and strength are superhuman they aren't nearly as impressive as some of the older vampires. Rather the Gabriellan vampires specialize in mental abilities, and Johnathan uses this in order to psychically influence those who look into his eyes. The ancient vampire power of mesmerising their prey. Using this he can make people speak the truth, cause people to become more loyal to him, paralyze his enemies and even mind control people if they're willpower is weak.

Skills:
Highly knowledgeable in a variety of fields, usually in the natural sciences. He possesses some of the greatest knowledge of vampire and werewolf biology in the world, and has extensively studied vampire abilities. In addition to this he possesses a great strategic mind, being a dangerous opponent on the battlefield for his ability to trick and outmanoeuvre opponents. Physically speaking he has military training and is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant/marksman. Lastly but perhaps most importantly is his social aptitude, the ability to read and manipulate people with ease. It's this ability that grants him his followers.

Strengths:
Didn't I kind of go over this up there?

Weaknesses:
- Arrogant to the max
- can't use his abilities in sunlight
- Dies instantly if a wooden or cold iron stake is plunged in his heart
- Unwavering faith, especially of the religious kind, negates his influencing powers.

Likes:
- Willing Pawns
- Interesting People
- Drama
- Winning

Dislikes:
- Incompetence
- Predictable People
- People who don't know their place
- Losing

Other: Meet Stein + Johnathan, remade as a sort of Evil Sherlock. Enjoy.

Epic City: Starburst

My latest post is a tad... murderous.

Sorry if it's a bit harsh, but this is legitimately how I imagine Guilt fighting, and the reason I warned that she was dangerous. As such I would hope some other character, perhaps one who requires either an intro or something to do, might appear to assist Comet in surviving this little encounter...

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Epic City: Starburst

@Bluetommy

Comet slammed into the floor but did not give, getting to his feet in a blur of motion. Apparently this wasn't enough to harm him. That didn't matter, it wasn't her true attack anyway. Just the setup. And it appeared this Comet knew she intended to bury him, and was confident in his own ability to survive such an event. An interesting conclusion. Certainly he was confident in his abilities. She would have to see whether he indeed survived the following attack. Although perhaps his confidence was born from misinformation. It seemed he believed that the floor had been composed solely of dirt... a most unfortunate conclusion to draw.

With an impressive bound he set himself up for a counterattack. A high-speed rush, intended to end this in a single blow. Predictable. It was not a bad strategy, and against a less capable opponent it might have worked. But Guilt had fought this sort of opponent before, and such a predictable attack wouldn't be enough to defeat her. All the Comet would hit was the wall behind her, stone cracking under the force of impact, as Guilt herself reappeared 20 meters away at the other side of the pit. Her teleportation did not require her to move, just to think. Any attack she could predict was doomed to fail, as she moved instantly from one spot to another. "Lack of experience dooms you. Am I the first Epic who you've fought? Granted such a useful ability, you think that power is enough to save you here. Power is useless in the hands of those who do not know how to use it. You are a child with a hammer, dangerous only to ants."

Allowing herself a smirk beneath the mask, Guilt once more vanished, to reappear at the top of the pit. Staring down, she could not even see the Comet way down there. Purple lightning briefly flashed, the air above the pit shimmered. A massive pillar appeared out of nowhere, dwarfing the surrounding buildings. Precisely 50 meters of stone, cement, asphalt, densely packed dirt and gravel. With another flash the air within the pit vanished, leaving only a tiny bubble around Comet. Within moments this tiny bubble dissipated across the vast inside of the pit, even as the vacuum pulled in the giant pillar. Sliding down it screeched and roared against the sides of the pit, making an unholy amount of noise. The sheer displacement of air created buffeting winds that threatened to knock Guilt over as she beheld the spectacle. Already accelerating this pillar of materials slid down like a thundering train of destruction hurtling through the darkness. A suitably immense boot for a suitably large ant.

Of course this wasn't the first time that Guilt had done this. In her head she did the calculations. A hole 20m in diameter, 50m deep, and a pillar composed mostly of stone, cement, bricks, and densely packed dirt.... it would take about 3 seconds for this pillar to strike the floor, squashing whatever remained there. About 12 metric tons of material, which would accelerate to a speed of about 30 m/s before it hit the bottom of the pit. Were Comet to remain below and try and survive this force he would be exposed to a force of approximately 300 tons, enough force to flatten a heavily armoured tank. And with how deep they went, the bottom of this pillar would consist of at least five or so meters of solid rock, coupled with highly dense earth above. Even punches at Mach 200 could not push this pillar back up, and even breaking through this solid stone layer would simply leave him buried alive. And all this while he was completely unable to breathe.

This was the difference between experience, and arrogance. Every possibility was accounted for, every chance taken into account. Guilt did not engage in 'fights' against other Epics. She engaged in executions. And this one had already taken too much time. Vanishing, Guilt would appear on a nearby rooftop, from which she was ready to once more begin her patrol.

Without outside assistance, Edward would almost certainly perish in this hole.

Epic City: Starburst

@Bluetommy

Hmph. And just like that, the Epic had lost his cool. He was showing off his abilities, displaying the extent of what he could do. His speed was indeed astounding, and had he immediately gone on the offensive then that speed might have allowed him to get her off balance. Although she had been prepared for it, even with her own state of hyperawareness, he simply moved too fast to be easily reacted to. If her powers relied on physical movement from her, then there would have been no way to defend against such an attack. Fortunately he was of the arrogant and foolish sort, those that believed their abilities made them invincible. By showing off he wasted his only chance to get in the first hit, as well as giving Guilt time to analyze him further.

"This will not take long."

Moving at supernatural speed was an astounding ability indeed. Defensively it allowed one to dodge almost all attacks directed at them, while offensively it allowed one to easily bypass the enemies' attempts to block. In addition this one appeared to be supernaturally durable, capable of withstanding stone-shattering impacts without harm to himself. But the more Guilt watched the more it became clear that this person possesses an obvious weakness. Even moving at multiple times the speed of sound, flailing your arms would not allow you to fly. The human body was too heavy, not enough air was displaced. As such the only way for Comet to propel himself was by interacting with something solid, usually the ground, and then launch himself in whatever direction he pleased. The answer was obvious.

Without a sight or a sound, the ground beneath Edward's feet simply vanished. Amusingly a small layer was allowed to remain, right next to his feet, but the object's low mass would not allow Edward to push off properly. Just to make sure he could not escape this pitfall Guilt removed all the ground in a 10-meter radius around him. Even significant portion of the houses around them would vanish. Looking down Guilt would continue to remove layers of the ground before Edward reached them in his fall, refusing to give him any chance to gain back his footing, to actually activate his supernatural speed. Now moving down with this constantly sinking pit, Guilt made it deeper and deeper, as Comet began to fall faster and faster. Ten meters deep, twenty meters deep, thirty meters deep..... as long as there was no ground for Edward to stand on, his speed was irrelevant. His powers neutralised. And throughout the entire fall Guilt seemed to be constantly in front of Edward, staring him down as they fell ever deeper towards the core of the Earth.

The fall would probably not kill the Comet. At terminal velocity it might hurt him, but his durability was high enough that Guilt didn't hope to slay him through gravity alone. But if she collapsed this little tunnel into the earth on top of him, he'd be buried alone under hundreds of tons of rock and dirt. Over 50 meters below the Earth, under enough pressure to crush his lungs and squeeze out his favourite internal organs. Should he survive the pressure, the lack of oxygen would kill him. Should he be able to survive the lack of oxygen, he would die of dehydration down here. Once more, his power would do little to help him.

"This is the difference between us..... 'Comet'. You live a life of arrogance and ease. Have you ever truly had to fight for your life? For the lives of those you cared about? You know nothing of pain." They were beginning to reach the appropriate depth, and Comet was certainly hitting terminal velocity. "Consider this the end, your end. But know that this city is left in good hands. Goodbye, Comet."

Having said her last farewells, and rubbed some salt into the wound, Guilt was ready to teleport out of the hole she had made. The surface was a pinprick of light far above, but it was enough for her to exit this place instantly. And Edward was still falling, about to hit a layer of solid stone at rather unfortunate speeds. If he had any bright plans for escaping this, he would need to put them into effect quite immediately. Because if he did not, he would soon be buried alive, with little to no hope for survival.

Epic City: Starburst

@Bluetommy

Speaking to various of the locals, especially the less savoury sorts, Edward might come across talk of this figure. Apparently she identified herself as Guilt, and was known in these parts for ruthlessly hunting down those who broke the law. A number had already been slain for crimes that varied from assault and murder to petty theft. Bodies were found on street corners or in dark allies, often sliced into pieces or brutalized, looking as if they'd been through a woodchipper. Already people had become wary of her, both the true criminals and the halfway decent folks, sometimes forced to bend the law to make a living. Another interesting little facet he might pick up on is that nobody could agree as to what her actual ability was. Most agreed that she could teleport, but some claimed that she had telekinesis, or pyrokinesis, or the ability to kill with a touch. This transformed into more outlandish claims, such as the ability to devour souls or kill with a look. It would be next to impossible to separate truth from fiction.

But his little investigation would not long go unnoticed.

Preferring rooftops and other high places to the twisting corridors of the city, Guilt moved silently and precisely from location to location to survey the less savoury elements of the city. While patrolling for crimes, she came across the sight of the costumed man she had encountered before. The one who went by the name of Comet. Without a sound, a small recording device appeared on a nearby wall, allowing Guilt to listen in to his little conversations without getting too close. It appeared he was gathering information on her, most likely in response to her earlier death threat. Perhaps he intended to kill her, to prevent her from acting on her earlier statements. Or perhaps he sought her for other reasons, although she couldn't imagine many other options. Had she been certain she would have simply killed him from the rooftop, before he had a chance to see her. Supernatural Speed became useless if you couldn't see the attack, or the attacker. But she remembered his possible connection to the High Venom, and decided to err on the side of caution. If it turned out he was after her head, she could always deal with him later.

Vanishing, Guilt reappeared in the street where Comet was talking to a group of rough-looking individuals. Her sudden appearance scared them off, as they scurried off back to whatever manner of home they possessed. This left only Guilt and Comet alone in the alley way, and although she had left a decent distance between them, she was all too aware of his speed. While she had her own countermeasures to speedsters, she couldn't underestimate this man. After all, she had never fought a Mach 200 foe, and if he could reach even half of that speed in combat that would make him a significant threat.

"I don't like it when people talk about me behind my back. Perhaps you didn't hear me when last we spoke. Your life depends purely on the truth of your word. Our business, such as it was, is concluded." While speaking she maintained in a combat-ready stance, already prepared for anything he might try. Often speedsters would attempt to end a fight before it even began, and she couldn't allow something like that to happen. If he even flinched at superhuman speed she'd enact her own measures to keep him subdued. "If you persist in this I'll be forced to take it as a threat, and kill you. Based on your supposed connections, that would be most unfortunate for the both of us." Part of Guilt really did want him to turn around and leave. Another part wanted him to challenge her, to try and fight her. Give her an excuse to rip him to shreds. To get back at him for making her feel weak.

If he did give her a chance, she wouldn't hesitate to take it.

The War of the Three

@The 42nd Gecko
The sword can't really retroactively revert causality like that. If it did, then Artoria would never have been in that fight, Eos would never have had to use that attack, and therefore Artoria would still exist. But then, because Artoria exists, it would also not exist. Which then logically means that they do exist, etc.

Effectively time and space would be caught in a broken code loop.

Also, I imagine it would be a pain making all the tiny retroactive adjustments necessary to indicate what would have happened if Artoria had never existed.

The War of the Three

@KoL
Considering the vast technology that the Machina have shown (including wipe-people-out-of-time-and-space) wouldn't it make sense for FTL travel to be old news for them? I mean, they've somehow managed to completely ignore traditional physics to construct giant mecha suits with laser guns, they should be able to reach at least close to lightspeed with advanced vessels.

The Blood Compact

@BlackPanther
Nah, that's fine, it was just a comment. Older weaknesses are fine.