DragonRage

"Jumbles are often assigned to first year initiates to help their reading comprehension and vocabulary, while crosswords are assigned in the third year," Sister Rachel shares helpfully, "So by the educational standards of the Imperium of Man, crosswords are considered more challenging."

"I see," Rachel walks over to join Arminius by Sans, "Well, present your test then. They have not been an unacceptable hindrance thus far," And privately, she's beginning to suspect that the skeleton brothers are a lot more important than they let on. Best to humor them, at least for now.

"Congradulations, Toriel," Rachel levers herself upright, fits her gauntlets back on, and starts collecting her arsenal of weapons once more, hooking her medicae and jump pack on last. "You've taken responsibility for the leadership of a self-destructive moron. Welcome to the Imperial Guard."

Rachel carefully listens to everything Toriel says. She blinks a few times, processing it. And then she flops back against the snow, heedless of her armor and the cold, staring blankly upwards. "Do you know, Toriel, that we are not from this world?" She asks, "Myself, Arminius, Ignia, and our companions elsewhere. We left our own worlds, for various reasons. Myself? I died. After sixty years of service on the front lines, the damned Tyranids finally took me down. And the God-Emperor rescued me, and sent me to join this team, for my work was not yet done. I tell you this, because it is necessary context for the conclusions I have reached. "On your world, the humans won the war. They imprisoned you here, in this place, and now the one you call Asgore has delved into foul heresies to attempt escape. But on my world? On my world... I think the MONSTERS, the daemons... I think they won the war. One human soul claimed... Into dozens... Into thousands... Into countless trillions... And still the Ruinous Powers hunger for more..."

"For such an achievement as the ability to restore a damaged soul, I would martyr myself without regret," Sister Rachel states, "But if there is a path that doesn't involve my demise, it would be exceptionally foolish to sacrifice myself needlessly. To waste a human life is heresy, and to be avoided. And I would like to think I have not yet exhausted the good I might do for humanity."

"His soul is- And he's still alive? That would explain his odd state of existence," Rachel sighs, looking back to her hands, "Psyker. You can take essences from one to another, correct? I know not how much love, hope, or compassion might still linger in my heart, but... If you can repair one soul, then... Might it be possible that..." She gazes up at Arminius with an inscrutable, unsettled expression, "No, such things are... But..." Something tugs at the edges of her mouth. "Heh. I suppose even after so many years of war and darkness, there is still a bit of hope in me yet."

"Make him whole? How could we heal a daemon? The things just recover from whatever wounds they take in the warp and then come back twice as murderous as before. And why would we want-" Rachel shakes her head, "Right. Different world, different rules. What would this healing entail? And what effects do you think it would have? It doesn't seem that the state of his physical form seems to... bother this vile creature overmuch."

Rachel heaves a sigh. "Arminius? The bizarre daemon you claimed to have contained has possessed a doll. You're certain it's not going to escape and wreak havoc? Because I am enjoying the first moment of peace I've had in... call it fifty years? Somewhere around that. And if I have to interrupt it to purge a possessed psyker I once considered a valued ally, I will be cross."

Rachel sits heavily next to her pile of weapons, staring down at her very pale hands. She runs a finger across the scar bisecting the web between her right thumb and the rest of the hand, eyes distant.

"I... I don't know if..." Rachel trails off, staring down at the ball, having allowed the child to push her over to it. Then slowly, almost as if she's practically forgotten how, she unlatches her gauntlets and medicae, and sets them aside, along with each of her weapons, one by one, and her jump pack. Carrying only her inferno pistols holstered at her waist, she picks up one of the golf clubs, and working from long ago memories, takes a somewhat uncertain stance. She raises the club, and gives the ball a careful tap towards the first hole.

"Golf? Ah, for kinder, brighter times," Rachel sighs, lost in long-ago memories. Of a time before the battlefields, before the Guard. When neophyte Hospitaller Sister Rachel served a small farming community on a peaceful agri-world, treating cuts, bruises, and the occasional broken bone. She looks down at her gauntleted hands, the ceramite still stained by the blood of thousands of guardsmen and xenos to fall under her blades and scalpels to heal or harm, and the soot of more heretics and abominations than she'd care to count. "It has been... so long... since I have seen such frivolities. I..." The rejuvinat treatments seem to fall away, and for a moment Sister Rachel feels all of her eighty-seven years.

"Yeah, no sense standing around when there's evil to vanquish," Lexiel agrees, following close behind Mitsu, "Let's get dangerous."

Once his eyes are submerged, Gozer almost immediately spots a sunken temple, rough stonework encrusted with coral, barnacles, and other marine life. This has got to be where the Toa Stone is. Off near the mouth of the bay, nowhere near the temple, a pair of strange reptiles engage in a boxing match, pounding at each other's bulky torsos and unmasked faces with great enthusiasm.

"Might I suggest selling hot products in a cold place, or cold products in a hot place?" Rachel suggests to the vendor, "I would have happily paid double price for a piping hot groxburger during that tour on that Emperor-forsaken iceball Tetris Seven, or for ice cream when we campaigned on that desert tomb world, and got stuck with a rhino APC with a busted cabin climate control."

"Nice cream..." Rachel raises an eyebrow at the concept, "You are aware that it is rather cold and snowy here, and that the name of your product sounds rather like ice cream, something people rarely want to eat when it was cold? If what you are attempting to sell is not in fact a frozen dessert, I might advise a rebranding, to make your product more inviting to customers."

"Yeah, sure, why not," Vitor nods at Lucien, "If nothing else we can get a finger on the local vibes, figure out how things are going on around here. I mean, if you can't get a latte for a reasonable price, that's usually indicator number one that civilization's on the verge of collapse, am I right?" ------------------------------------------ "Ugh. He's primping?" Mirri leans against a nearby wall and polarizes her visor, "Wake me up when he's done beautifying himself. I promise I won't bite if you poke me. Probably."

Rachel stops in surprise as Papyrus gets zapped instead of her. "The Emperor protects?" She ventures questioningly, taking the orbs from Papyrus mostly on autopilot as she goes through a brief moment of 'wtf'. She gives Sans a brief 'are you serious man' look as she examines the device... Huh. This is some outdated technology, if in reasonably good condition. Not sorcery at all. But it still has a machine-spirit, and that spirit is reasonably cooperative... "I wonder..." Rachel reaches into her pack and comes up with a plastic tongue depressor, which she slips between the battery and the contacts that allow it to complete the circuit and deliver electricity. She does her best to keep Papyrus from seeing it... but he does anyways. "Oh well, I was never great at Inquisitorial work anyways," Rachel mutters, giving up on the pretense of playing along. She strides through the 'maze' without pause, yanks the tongue depressor out of the ball once she's next to Papyrus and lightly tosses the electric orb to bounce off his chest. "Not sorcery after all. Good."

Rachel looks at Papyrus' orb with no small amount of disdain. "Your sorceries shall not avail you, creature. For I am girded with the Armor of Contempt, and the Shield of Faith! And through the greatest trials, I shall not falter!" She begins to walk slowly, implacably forward, keeping her hands loose and empty by her sides, looking the skeleton directly in the eyes. "For the light of the Master of Mankind is with me. And the Emperor. Protects."

Spider-Man annihilates a New Deadite with a single punch! "Oh no, Freya!" Danielle exclaims, screwing up her face in concentration, "I really, really, really want something to cure whatever is poisoning Freya! Now!" With a pop, an alarmingly large pill appears in her hand, and she forces it down Freya's throat. Freya is cured of Plague. Scout Skipper tries to follow Doc Ock into the arcade and clip into their barrier. But when he breaks through, Doc Ock keeps fleeing. And when he tries to follow... A man in a slightly ill-fitting Spider-Man costume and a very chunky, chrome bracer leaps down and lands before him with floaty, wire-supported movements, and strikes a series of menacing poses. "AN EMISSARY FROM HELL! SUPAIDAMAN!" Whenever Scout tries to leave, fight, or do anything else, he finds himself right back in front of this surreal figure, as he performs the exact same action. Thunderlord flickshots the Plague Marine for 34 damage! Aquila gets really angry. Stretch prepares to protect Freya! Freya sends her Bone Bats away and calls in Henry the Skag, who attracts the Plague Marine Deadite's attention. Dyno claws at the Old Deadites for 24 damage, downing one! The zombie horde brawls the New Deadites for 80 damage, downing three! Danielle slashes at the Plague Marine Deadite for 31 damage! Harry heals Freya for 19 HP, Spider-Man for 15 damage, and himself for 13 HP! Sha'Tith ANNIHILATES the remaining Basic Deadites, leaving only bone splinters behind. The Plague Marine Deadite is compelled to blast Henry twice, dealing 29 damage! That's exactly enough to disable the undead creature. Initiative: Status: ------------------------------------------------------- As Alan steps out of his van, he runs straight into the chrome bustier and massive handheld laser cannon of a rather curvy female robot, covered in shiny, chromed plates, and with blue, glowing eyes. Two younger-looking women are standing behind her, one dark-haired and wearing sunglasses, in dark purple with a bow and quiver slung over one shoulder, and the other a blonde with no visible equipment aside from an armored, yellow and blue jumpsuit. All three are wearing white belts with a red, circular symbol in them, a stylized combination of an arrow and the letter A. The archer loudly blows and pops a pink bubble of gum, looking Alan up and down. "Now, I ain't no expert," She drawls in a thick, Bronx accent, "But I think Doc Doom hits the gym a bit more often than this guy. The showers too, yeesh."

"I would not enjoy what I would have to do if you get possessed by some daemon from that," Sister Rachel tells Ignia seriously, "So please. Do be careful. Regardless, we cannot tarry here. We must press on."

Cell is able to take both items without anything unwelcome occurring. Cell obtains the Ice stone and the Kanohi Hau With the morale boost of your new acquisitions, getting back down off the mountain feels a lot faster than going up it did. The downhill incline probably helped. Once down, Hahli guides you to the lagoon where the water stone rests in an underwater temple, tantalizingly just outside the reach of even the best Ga-Matoran divers... and Hahli isn't exactly one of the best. That said, Gozer doesn't need to breathe, and you all do have the Great Mask of Water Breathing.

Cap faceplants into the snow on the other side of the icicle bridge. Nuparu claps politely. Cell makes it across without falling. Edmond doesn't think he can risk flying. The winds almost slam him into the cliff face before he can hit the ground again.

"That sounds like something a thing of chaos would say," Rachel mutters discontentedly, "I wonder how many have been corrupted by such seemingly innocuous lures..."

Putting a different mask on doesn't seem to change Tsubasa's hair at all. It seems that whatever the Kanohi Faxon did to her, it's no longer tied to the mask. ------------------------------------------------ Any further experiments will have to be done on the move; even with the wound Tsubasa dealt the Makuta, his forces are likely still on the move. If nothing else, DacklyMedusa is definitely still at full strength. And the ice stone is in a marginally less hostile environment. The air grows cold and the ground slick as you begin to ascend the icy slopes of Mount Ihu, a light snow beginning to fall. It is cold. It is very cold. As beings of Bionicle, your enhanced endurance means it's not unsurvivable, but it's very wet, chilly, and unpleasant. At least as long as a blizzard doesn't spring up. And fortunately, though it remains very windy, no such storm occurs. Instead, as you hike up the narrow path, a glint of metal attracts the eye. Moving up the path a bit reveals the source; a silver, helmet-like mask laying in the snow. Next to it sits a pedestal carved from ice, and atop that the foil-wrapped package of a Toa Stone. It's right there! It's so close! It's on the other side of a drop so steep you can't see the bottom, the only way across looks to be a very thick, very round, and undoubtedly slippery ice bridge, and the wind is picking up with a howl...

Iowa staggers from the recoil of her guns, far more than should be expected. A greenish-grey tinge slowly spreads across her face as she wavers on her feet. "I... don't feel so good."