This is a long one, because I couldn't split it I put the second half of it in a comment.
Say hello to the Eviscerator...
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When they got there the Tower was still bustling with people. They were securing various objects, scattered around were guardians with equipment, no doubt scanning for the bomb. Darek doubted that Mala would succeed with this many people searching, but there was still a chance.
There was a crackling of static and then some of them a voice filled the Tower. It came from a singular spot in the room they were in, there were distant echoes of it through the floor.
"Keep your search parties going, the longer my surprise evades them the funnier it is when it goes off. You have five minutes, and I assure you, I fully intend to do what I'm threatening."
Darek found the source and pulled a small speaker out of a crate. He crushed it in his gauntlet and dropped it on the ground.
"Kana, where could she hide a bomb and be guaranteed for no one to find it?"
"Storage, in a crate, they can't move them so they lock them down. Even if no one is down there when it detonates it'll still cause a lot of damage."
"Then that's where we look."
They began to sprint through hallways, nearly trampling multiple people as they raced to the storage area. When they finally got there they found stacks of crates.
"Where would a psychopath that loves killing hide a bomb…"
"Where it wouldn't be noticed, a corner, probably in a crate."
Darek asked his ghost to scan for a bomb and instantly began opening crates.
"Come on, come on, come on. Where is this thing."
His ghost found seven anomalies that could be the bomb. Kana and him began tearing through the boxes, hoping to find it.
"How much time left?"
Darek's ghost answered, "one minute."
Kana backed up from her crate and looked at it for a moment. "Ghost, search for any digital signals coming from the anomalies. Maybe there's a timer on the bomb."
"Good thinking", Darek's ghost scanned and said a box in the back left corner matched the classifications.
Kana smiled, "caught by her own dramatic flair."
She opened the crate and, sure enough, there was a bomb with a timer on it.
"I can't refuse it can you?"
"No, neither my ghost nor I can defuse bombs that fast."
"Then step back, I'm gonna contain."
As Darek stepped back Kana cast a Ward of Dawn. The bomb went off seconds later, the shield held. Kana was revived by her ghost the next minute.
"Never doing that again."
"I won't expect you to."
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Three hours later, The Last City.
The bomb had failed, that was okay. There were plenty of other surprises she had planned, she only hoped that Dredgen Truth had gathered the others. Dredgen Solace and Dredgen Sin, he said.
Useful, but not as ruthless as she was, they weren't willing to risk as many civilians as she was. That was there shortcoming, a conscience, Mala decided she was lucky not to have one. All it meant was that she had no limits, no morals, no roadblocks toward her final goal.
Darek and his friend would soon see that she was willing to kill thousands to fulfill her goals. That would be a sight worth seeing. This was her job, but then again, she'd heard that it wasn't work if it was something you enjoyed.
And she enjoyed this, so very much.
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Akûn laughed to himself. A guardian named Karov had attacked him, and blown up his flagship! It didn't matter, he had called the rest of his fleet, the end was nigh. Now he needed to hunt down those guardians in London, they would die, then the City.
Warships appeared out of portals in the sky, many warships. The fleet was amassing, he cut a portal in the air and stepped into one of the newly arriving one. This one was imbued with some of his ascendant power, he had learned a few things from the Dreadnought.
It was nowhere near as powerful though, he had none of the power necessary for something of that scale. But it would be enough, he was sure. The knights on the bridge kneeled before him, they were his favorites. Handpicked for their strength and loyalty, each just as deadly as Entaur.
"Rise, you are my new flagships commanders. You have been handpicked for your strength, this is the beginning of the end. A final shape will arise, but it will not be what you think. The Darkness will turn traitor, it will suck your strength out of you. It wishes to be the final shape, the creator and the created. The question and the answer, the Final Perfect Shape. We will deny it that, we will be the Final Perfect Shape, starting with the consuming of the Traveller. Let the Eviscerator destroy them completely, use the weapon on London, destroy it!"
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Edited by ChickenPopTarts: 3/15/2020 8:54:22 PMThey saw the ships arrive, then came the one that sent shivers down their spine. It was twice the size of the other warships, the hull was decorated with the bones of millions of Hive. All of them had no doubt been killed by Akûn. Kirk shook his head, "we need to get out of here." Kryn looked surprised, "why?" "What does that ship remind you of?" Kryn's face suddenly took on a frightened appearance. The diamond-like shape, the circles in the hull had reminded her of something. She stuttered as she tried to put it into words. Kirk said it for her, "it looks like the Dreadnought." Lynn grabbed Zach's arm and wrenched him off the ground. "Let's go!" They ran through the streets until they saw a couple of guardians sitting in a square. A ship rested on the concrete twenty feet away from them. Kryn dropped from a sprint to a standstill in a second. "Who's that?" Kirk seemed surprised for the first time since she'd met him. "I told them not to come here. We need to warn them." "Who is it." "A couple guardians named Maelstrom and Karov, and they're going to die along with us if we don't leave now." "Now, now?" "Look up." Kryn looked up and, sure enough, a bluish white glow was emitting from the circle that they could see. "Oh." Kirk ran into the square with the others trailing him. "Karov, Maelstrom! We need to get out of here now!" Maelstrom shot to his feet, "Wha-?" "No time to explain, just start the ship and get us out of here or we're all dead." "Right." They scrambled aboard the ship as the circle grew steadily brighter. Just as the startup sequence got them off the ground the new ship fired it's weapon. Kirk frantically waved his hands forwards, "go, go, go!" Maelstrom made the ship accelerate as fast as it could stand, "I'm going, try not to break your head!" The weapon created a steadily growing circle of destruction, skyscrapers and other buildings collapsed. They flew as fast as they could but the circle was catching up. "We're gonna have to jump in atmosphere to outrun this, get ready!" Kirk muttered under his breath, "I always knew you were insane." Maelstrom laughed. Suddenly there were flashes of light all around them, a second later they were miles away from London. The center of the city was a smoking crater, the other Hive warships were unaffected by the blast. "He managed to shield his warships from the blast, he can destroy the City with all his ships there. No casualties on his side, and maximum on ours." Maelstrom simply nodded. Kirk knew they had to destroy it before it fired it's weapon at the City. His thought train was interrupted by a door opening to the outside of the ship. Maelstrom turned his head toward the sound and cursed. "There goes Karov! Kirk get the others away, I need to keep him from getting himself killed!" With that Maelstrom jumped out after Karov. --------------------------------------------------------------- Mala stared in disbelief at the footage she had received from her source inside the Tower. London had been reduced to a smoking crater. What kind of lunatic was capable of that! She realized how much of a hypocrite she was on this matter and found it amusing. The one thing she knew was that if that ship destroyed the City her fun was over, that could not happen. So she would destroy it, and anybody in her way. Then she could get back to her fun. But first she needed to find a way to board it, that would be no easy task. But she figured skinning an acolyte was simple enough, and she could wire up a vocal modulator to sound like one too. That would have to do then, dress up like the Hive, then kill them. Maybe she would rest after that though, all the killing made her tired sometimes, no matter how much fun it was refreshing wasn't the word she would use to describe it. She hoped the City wouldn't see this as a heroic act, she hated heroes and she hated saving people. It made her cringe every time she saw someone risk everything to save someone. She would move her plans forward then, make sure no one would think it was an act of heroism. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Scale of 1-10 how much do you hate Akûn? Same for Dredgen Mala.