Army Vs. Mistress Anima

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Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 5, 2007, 12:27pm

Army makes his way to Mistress Anima's Room.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 12:02am

Nice room evil Paige has here. Think I'll fuck it up. Just for kicks.

Been a long time since I really had the chance to go crazy like this, so I figure I'll make the most of it. I start by ripping one of the pews from the floor and using it to smash the others into pieces, even working a little domino effect with some of them. You know, I smash one, it goes flying and smashing into another, so forth and so on.

I let Linda go a little crazy, too; she shoots tendrils out of my body and snakes into the carpet, tearing away at the floor and leaving it in tatters. She's learns quick, too, really gets into the mood of it, and whips down a few of the rather expensive ceiling chandelier…things, having them make the nicest crash when the hit the floor.

We top it off by coming together and slashing the organ straight down the middle. And, since every artist must put a name on his work, I bring out the claws and slash 'ARMY WAS HERE' in big letters on the nearest wall.

"Ah." I stand on the pulpit, looking over the destruction. "Almost brings a tear to my eye. So damn beautiful. Don't you think, Linda?"

"Indeed."

I decide to take a break, sitting atop the pulpit and reading this 'Book of Anima' BitchPaige was working on. Found it in her bedroom. Might trash that next, if I have to wait too long.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 6, 2007, 12:19am

"I hope you found that cathartic." I say, beaming into the room. "It will take about thirty seconds to undo it all after I've ripped you apart."

The Book springs to life, growing rows of razor sharp teeth in mid air as it jumps from Army's hands and snaps at his throat.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 12:25am

If this thing didn't look like it could really rip my throat in half, I'd make a joke about the Necronomicon.

"You know, you'd think this sort of thing would really do me, wouldn't you?" I flip off the pulpit and form a razor down my index finger, slicing the book in half with a quick slash before I land. "But nah, I'm still antsy. So what I'm going to try is beating you so damn black and blue you don't even resemble Paige anymore. I think that'll work."

I run towards her and leap, stretching out my hand towards and firing off a few tendrils from the wrist, trying to get a good wrap around her neck and yank her up here with me.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 6, 2007, 12:45am

"Really? Because I don't."

I look over to my shattered organ. I was fond of that. No matter, like I said, fixing all of this should not be too difficult a job. Minutes of focus, tops. Here and now, though. I focus upon the brass pipes, not bothering to shift them into a new shape beyond straightening back out the ones that Army bent out of shape. I tend send the wave of pipes soaring towards Army in mid air like javelins.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 12:52am

Linda spots the pipes coming at me from behind and gives the heads up just in time to avoid the first one. And the second one. And the third one. Hell, all of them.

Tendrils stretch out all over my suit, sticking to the walls and pulling me every direction I need to go, letting me dodge easily in mid-air as the pipes go flying. But I realize too late that getting by what I can see isn't the problem. It's what I can't see that's a real pain.

A few of the pipes hit a wall. Out comes the sound, in comes the pain.

Me and Linda both screams as we lose our concentration, plummeting to the ground, crashing into the one pew I didn't completely smash, the one I left in two pieces. And, lucky me, I'm only a few feet away from Anima. Wanted close range.

"Get up, Army." I start to stand, fighting past our pain.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 6, 2007, 1:07am

"Staying down would have probably been the better decision."

I crack the whip, with it sprouting loose barbs that ought to detach on contact. More for humiliation's sake than anything else. "I mean, I may have slit your throat and called it a day." I begin to pummel him with nearby pew fragments. "Now we have to drag this whole debacle out."


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 1:14am

"Sorry to disappoint you." I speak in between grunts, as the fragments slam into me; with Linda in such pain, it's difficult for her to block. "But, ask Paige: I'm just not a one-minute sort of man. And speaking of drag…"

Even weak like this, Linda has enough power to send a couple of tendrils out from my sleeve, shooting over to Anima's ankles and whipping around them. She pulls hard and fast, bringing Anima over my way, and I leap as she comes - if I can get on top of her and land a few solid blows, this is over.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 6, 2007, 1:44am

"Oh, for the love of… puns?" I say as I'm taken off of my feet and dragged his way. "Must be the same in every universe. Spider-Man decides that he likes to crack jokes as he tears people apart and it becomes trendy, with half the super criminal population starting up the same stupid shit. I ought to hunt down and slaughter this universe's version on principal."

Direct combat simply isn't the way to go here. It's where he's at the advantage. I warp a sinkhole beneath me and seal it up after I've fell in, blocking him off from me before he lands. What to work with… I suppose by breaking everything up, he's made the recombining process easier. They're wood, lot's of it, brass from the pipes, ivory from the keys of the organ, assorted metals and glass, marble from shattered statues. Yeah, there's enough for a nice little, maybe not so little, hodge podge man.

And a hodge podge man I make, bringing many of the aformentioned substances together in a large humanoid shape. It's craggy and chaotic looking, I've done enough warping to bring together the seams, give it hands and feet with opposable thumbs and toes and a semblance of a head. Largely though, it looks exactly like what it is - a large man made out of a bunch of assorted materials.

I come out of the floor again inbetween the hodge podge man's legs, taking flight and landing on it's shoulders.

"K… k… kill me…"

"When your work is done. Hodgepodge Man Smash."

Lowering a fist towards Army, Hodgepodge Man, indeed, smashes.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 1:59am

"Hey, lady, don't judge my material - I read some of that slop you call a book in there. Oh, and on that note, I had to use your bathroom, but I noticed you were low on TP, so I took a few pages out of you book and put them to better use. Hope you don't mind."

I'm trying my best material out here, but it's not easy with my current problem - namely this huge metal monster before me.

My first thought is to flip back and get some space, but screw that - I've got one chance here and one chance, and that's focusing on BitchPaige. Just close the space. Close it.

I leap back as the fist comes down and the leap on top of it, running up the arm, past the chest around the Adam's Apple - real detailed - and leaping straight for her.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 6, 2007, 2:30am

The behemoth starts bucking around. Namely, it has begun reaching around itself in an attempt at laying its hands on and crushing Army. Makes it a real chore to keep standing on him. Though the fact that Army is making his way towards me means that I probably shouldn't be standing in this spot much longer any way. The wings beat and I fly around the back of the Hodgpodge Man's head towards the other shoulder. I could fly farther away, into more open air, but that would only lure Army after me and away from my giant creation. Better chance of him getting swatted if I stay close to it.

After landing upon the opposite shoulder I dip a hand into the pouch hanging at my side and wait but a moment for Army to come at me again. When he does I pull out and open a small case which let's fly a small battalion of razor sharp, metal crescent moons. On a wave of fleeing flatscans I have little interest in, this is generally all that's needed to sever a few throats, slash an artery or two and call it a day. Being familiar with the symbiote, I don't expect this to deal with him that easily - or at all. But as they take flight and buzz around Army, stopping to swoop in for a strike every now and then, I hope only to distract him long enough for the Hodgepodge Man to find him.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 11:13am

I'm starting to hate this woman. Of course, I hated her to start with, no doubt, but as she unleashes these annoying little razor things all over, that hate just gets hotter and hotter.

Irritating.

They don't hurt all that much, but they do sting like crazy, and they come so fast and so random that Linda has trouble keeping them off my skin. I bring out my full costume for a little added protection, but it only makes the swarm a little better, and as I jump away and try to get some space I realize Anima's tactic in the worst possible way: the giant hits me.

I sail across the room, slamming into the wall and falling into one of the many trash piles I was making a few minutes ago. Groggy. A bit dazed. He got me pretty solid in the chest, so that feels like it's on fire now as Linda does her best to repair.

But there's a plus side - the distance between us give me a moment to think. Remember how long it's been since I've really had a chance to get mad over something. Remember how screwed I'm going to be if I don't start turning this around. Remember that she's planning to do some really, really messed up things to me, and she probably still wants Paige to have a look. Remember the look on Paige's face when she was brought into the cell, all beaten up and scarred.

Need to get angry. Need to get a little smarter, too.

I take a deep breath and leap running up the Hodgepodge Man's body and shooting out a tendril from my wrist, trying to strike her chest with it - or, at least, that's what it'll look like I'm doing. She's probably fast enough to fly out of the way, so, instead, I'm going to try and snag a piece of the wall behind her and yank it out, hitting her in the back.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 6, 2007, 5:14pm

I watch him get swatted across the room with an even expression upon my face. Still, buried beneath it is a degree of elation. I try to distance myself from combat, emotionally. Stay above it all. To not take too much pleasure in pain - to look at the situation pragmatically. But I'm only human. The low rent, alternate Coyote has annoyed me. I really only originally intended to cause him pain specifically to teach my alternate, who I hope isn't dead just yet, a lesson. Since then, he has managed to annoy me. Quite a bit, really. So I've found a place that can be amused by watching him hurt.

Like the little, determined hero that he is though, he gets right back up and runs towards and then scampers up my titan once again. "You just don't learn." I give a repeat performance of my last dodge and fly around the back of the Hodgepodge Man's head to the opposite shoulder again. This time though I hear a silent buzzing in the back of my head.

Incoming.

I half turn in time to see a chunk of wall being carried my way but not with enough time remaining to pull off a clean dodge. Wings make it harder to maneuver when on my feet, too, which doesn't help. I get out of the way, partly, but the wall chunk still clips me in the shoulder. The force of it is more than enough to unbalance me and knock me off of the Hodgepodge Man's shoulder. I tumble through the air, spinning and rolling as I descend, for three quarters of the fall. At about that point however, I take control of my descent, straightening out, and soaring upwards sharply with less than ten feet of space between myself and the ground.

That was far too close for comfort. Far too close.

"Weeks." I say as I fly back upwards and circle around the Hodgepodge Man, with Army perched upon him. "I'm going to spend weeks on you. Doing whatever strikes my fancy, really. I think I'll play it by ear. There the activities I described to you previously, yes. But I'll find so much more to do. Little Paigey will be there too, of course. From beginning to end. The three of us… we're going to get to know each other inside out."

"Of course," I say making a hand gesture, "don't take that to mean that I'll go lightly to preserve you. The opposite. I want my meat tenderized."

The Hodepodge Man explodes with Army still on him, in all directions. The myriad items I used to compose him burst outwards toward every corner of the cathedral, missing me only thanks to some quick commands that send the objects swerving around me.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 6, 2007, 11:17pm

[Here now. Shall reply after bath.]


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 12:08am

"You know, if you weren't such a vial, disgusting, psychotic slimy bitch, that would almost be ero-"

The 'tic' gets left out as Mr. Hodgepodge pulls an Iron Giant and explodes into a hundred plus pieces, sending me flying. It's all I can do to spin around in mid-air and stick to the wall I go flying towards with my back to the explosion, going for a little protection - but not nearly enough. Dozens of pieces slam into my back, too fast and too hard and too numerous for Linda to completely protect. Hurts a little, stings some, got a few bruises. Nothing serious, though; nothing I can't come back from.

Except, maybe, that sharp pieces of metal that just lodged into my thigh.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't really have a healing factor, not the normal way - when I get injured, Linda just mends whatever got broken, puts it back in place. More like fast, convenient surgery. But I lose something, that's a whole different story. For that, the best she can do is give it a symbiote-made band-aid and keep infection out. And that's the case here.

The shard sticks into the side of my thigh and I jerk back from the pain, tearing off a nice chunk of flesh and probably getting a little muscle, too, with my luck. It's a searing pain, and I lose concentration for a second, forget where I am. That second's all it takes for me to forget where I am, and down I go, crashing into the one pew that wasn't totally demolished.

I'm already starting to get back to my feet, but it's a serious pain all the way; don't think I've lost any mobility, but goddamn it hurts to move this leg now. To make matters worse, I've barely even hurt her yet, and I know she's looking down on me with that smug little hoity-toity death stare of hers. Pisses me off like crazy, stupid, stuck-up, skank. Cocky as hell and not ashamed.

But, hey, I can use that.
I never asked Paige how her powers work, but I got the basic gist from hanging around her: Anima can animate things that are inanimate. Kind of like that lame movie with the dancing teacups that I can't think of right now on account of a mild concussion. But she can't control things that are alive, that's obvious - if she could, I'd be dead by now, easy. And the only reason she hasn't chocked me with my own clothes is because my clothes are alive, too. That, and she's a vindictive and smug bitch who probably thinks using such an easy tactic is below her. But also the clothes thing.

So, as I rise out of the debris, I form what, to Anima should look a plain, ordinary, fist-sized chunk of metal - a piece of the wall that fell out, whatever.

"The Black Diamond, Jose' Mendez, sizes up the batter." I hold the chunk behind me like a pitcher - been a while since I played, but I still got it. "He nods." I nod. "Nods again." I nod again. "Winds ups the pitch." I reel back. "Throws!" I throw it.

The chunk of Linda goes sailing towards Anima, no doubt looking like just another one of my 'pathetic' attacks - but she won't see the little string attaching it back to me, keeping it alive. Knowing her, she'll try to control, make it fly back towards me. But by the time she realizes that she can't, it'll be too late. As soon as the chunk is close enough, I'm going to have it thin out, turn into one of my tendrils, wrap around her neck and drag her skanky ass down to Earth.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 7, 2007, 12:40am

"Scraps." I say, flapping two feet over to the right and not bothering to watch the little metal chunck sail past me. "Are you retarded, or have you quite honestly just run… out of… ideas…"

Thoughtless. That is, without thought. No mind, it didn't speak to me. I turn about and curse inwardly. Caught by the same retarded trick twice. The chunk doubles back on me, breaking apart into a cluster of thin tendrils, wrapping around my appendages and pulling me downwards not a moment later. I resist it, beating my wings to pull back upwards but a tendril around me neck makes that a poor idea. I cut it out a bit, leaving it at something of a glide, just making sure that I don't collide with the ground painfully. Still, I land, which is not the preferable situation.

A whistling cuts through the air as the same cerimonial blade used to induct a new pair into the church a few days back flies towards us. Not traditionally for my use, no, but if it's an up close fight that Army desires, than I shall give it to him. I catch it out of the air and with a quick swing I sever the tendrils connecting me to him.

"Baseball bit." I say, slashing at his chest. "Wasn't funny."


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 12:59am

"Wasn't trying to be." I catch the sword in the palm of my hand. "Distraction."

I won't lie - this sword is sharp as hell, and this gash in my hand cuts down to the bone. Hurts like a bitch. But it's been way too much of a pain getting her this close to me, and I have far, far too many reasons to lay into her. I am not retreating one more damn step.

I hold the blade tight as Linda does her thing, wrapping around the sword and moving quickly to her arm. She gains a solid hold and keeps going from there; tendrils constrict around her neck, her chest, her shoulders, everything thing down to her knees, and she rips off that damn cloak of hers, for good measure.

I've got her close. Vulnerable. I could knock her head off in one punch, I could snap her neck, I could hit her just hard enough to knock her into unconsciousness. But this bitch's team hurt my friends. They tortured us. Humiliated us. Were going to kill us, most likely. And she ticked off my girlfriend. She hurt Paige.

I think about Paige, sitting in her cell, curled up, bloodied, her clothes in tatters, and it makes this so much easier.

I place my spare hand on the side of her face. Stick to it. And pull. "That's for Paige."


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 7, 2007, 1:23am

I scream a high pitched, pained, banshee like scream. The term banshee is completely and utterly appropriate, as this is the sort of scream that you will only hear when somebody is about to die. And it will not be me. As he rips the skin of half of my face off I decide at that moment that I suddenly don't care about punishment and acting in a pragmatic fashion. I don't really care about this universe's Paige watching his agony. Now. Armando Rosewell will die now.

And then a thousand times more.

"For Paige?!" I let go of my grip on the bejeweled blade - it is a more powerful weapon without me. A dark scowl crosses over my bloody, torn face and the blade juts forwards towards Army of it's own accord. "She will not be able to appreciate it. The next time we see eachother I will be dropping your mutilated carcass at her feet - I believe that she will have other concerns."

The doors burst open and a cloud of darkness that upon closer inspection is made up of a multitude of men and women in black robes burst into the room and encircle the two of us.

"As do you."


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 1:43am

Methinks I touched a nerve. A lot of nerves, actually, but I'm trying speak figurative.

I leap back as the blade comes at me, releasing the hold on Anima - well, release is to easy a word; it's more like I hurl her into the wall - and I form my hand into an ax and strike at her ridiculously shiny blade of cliche doom, slicing it in half before it slices me in half.

But before I can fully appreciate Anima's new look - don't have to worry about anyone confusing her with Paige, that's a relief - her little legion of lackey's storm in surround us, kind of reminds me of that scene in Kill Bill where the Bride takes on the Crazy 88 and that hot, creepy chick in the schoolgirl outfit comes out. Only this isn't Japan. And I don't think there's 88 guys here (but, then, there weren't 88 in the Crazy 88, either) And they're much worse dressed.

A little mental nudge from Linda drives me back to reality. Got to stop spacing like that.

"All right, here's the deal." I look through the crowd, taking in a familiar face - my sister, or at least the nicer, alternate reality version. Didn't get to know her, but I'd be lying if I didn't say there's a small part of me that's real pissed to see any version of my sister turned into Anima's corpse-slave. "Since nobody in their right or wrong mind would actually believe Anima's a goddess, I'm going to assume that you're all a bunch of corpses. If anybody here isn't dead, now's the time to run, because in about five seconds I'm not going to give a damn, either way.

I crouch a bit and hold out my arms, daggers forming on each fingers. Never killed anyone before, but that's the great thing about zombies - guilt-free slaughterfest.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 7, 2007, 1:58am

"Cry havoc and so on and so forth." I thud into a wall, leaning up against it to stand afterwards. I walk forward after that and come to a stop standing behing the small undead contingent. "Kill him."

The entire crowd jumps Army at once, all but a redheaded teenage girl who I stop with a hand placed upon her shoulder. One of my most recent inductees in fact. "Not you. Wait at my side."

And she does. The other dozen plus zombie soldiers lunge for Army, hate in each and every one of their eyes as it bleeds off from my mind into theirs.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 2:43am

“Let’s make donuts.”

They come at me from every side, looking just as pissed off as Paige does - guess bitchiness is contagious. Seen enough zombie movies to get the basic gist of how this works, so I dig in. Literally.

I leap over the crowd, jumping from shoulder to and shooting out a few tendrils to drag some of the masses along with me. I whip about five of them hard into the wall, denting the steel and shattering bones - they don’t get back up. Oh, they keep moving, squiggle around a bit on the floor. But it’s hard to move when your bones are pulverized.

It’s a start.

I drop back to the ground, ramming my claws into the nearest zombie as I go down and hurling him into the crowd, broken spines all around. One comes at me from behind, I move to the side and grab her around the neck, give it a good snap. Grab her by the head, and slam her into the next contender, full force. Toss her body over my head, move on to the next one and kick him in the stomach - kind of a fat guy, but I send him flying, and he crushes a few more when he lands. Nice.

I slash, I cut, I kick, I punch, I body slam, I powerbomb, I suplex, and I slash some more - but I’m not making any real headway. Need something to speed up the process, but…ah. Carmen.

I spot my sister charging through the crowd, accidentally helping me as she knocks away a few robes in her way - figure it’s best to keep her going with that. It’s dangerous, yeah, but when she swings at me, coming fast with a right cross that would snap me in half - but, instead, I duck, and she snaps the guy behind me in half. She uppercuts, I leap over her head at the right moment, and her fist rams straight through some poor Albino-looking girl. She reaches out for me, tries to catch me in a bear hug; I just jump straight up and she crushes two in one squeeze.

Effective.

After about three minutes of that, the entire crowd’s reduced to a pile of lifeless…okay, more lifeless bunch of scraps limbs. Just me and Carmen left.

“Sorry.” She lashes out, still as enraged as when we started this, and I duck under the punch and get her in a headlock from behind - not that I’m trying to choke her out. “Would’ve been nice to know a version of my sister that’s not, you know crazy.” Linda shoots out a few tendrils, digging into Carmen’s mouth as she tries to pluck me off. “But I’ve got work to do.”

Carmen’s bones may be hard as hell, but the stuff holding them together isn’t; Linda slices through that, ripping up a few choice tendons and separating her spine into four parts. Carmen goes down struggling, but she does go down, helplessly wriggling on the floor.

“Well now.” I crack my neck, taking a moment to catch my breath and turning back to Anima and…oh, I missed a robe. Damn. “That was a fun appetizer, but I think I’m ready for the main course.” I start walking towards them. “Just let me beat that redheaded stepchild you’ve got there, and I’ll get right back to finishing your makeover.”


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 7, 2007, 3:08am

"All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again…" I mutter as he takes the legion apart. "Of course the king's horses and the king's men didn't have the power to manipulate the foundations of reality as we know it." The broken and torn zombies shuffle about on the ground pretty uselessly, bless their hearts, still trying to get near Army. I put a gentle hand on the redheaded girl's shoulder, squeeze, and then take a step back. I forget her name. It's possible I never caught it in the first place. Odd, I'm usually so good with that.

Nameless though she may be for the moment she ought to be all that I need to bring this farce to a close and end this little maggot for scarring my face.

"That said, I don't really think it's going to be particularly necessary to put the little Humpty Dumpties back together. Yet, anyway. It can wait until we're through with you." I touch my wound. It stings at my touch. Flayed. He fucking flayed half of my face. I was going to torture him for weeks, months maybe, for so much less. But this changes… everything. Rage is about the only thing that I can tap into right now. That's it. Rage. And what that rage is calling for, what that rage is pressing for me to do is to seek instantaneous gratification. To stomp this little chicano shit until there's nothing left but his ashes.

"And believe me when I say this." the little redhead I acquired in Mimic's room earlier in the week lights up, her hair and forearms ablaze, which spreads and burns her robes to ash. "It won't take long at all. A crisp. Burn him to a crisp. I want a charred corpse and I want it five minutes ago!"

She extends her arms and a jet of flame bursts out towards Army.

"Gravita was right about just slaughtering you all. Would have saved us a headache. Just because you've pissed me off I'm using you to kill little Paigey when we're through."


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 3:23am

"Christ, and you complain about my banter."

I'm trying keep my cool, but I can't help but be stressed by the naked burning chick that seems hellbent on frying me to crispy critters. Damned annoying thing about being bonded to a symbiote; don't know how, but everyone seems to know my weaknesses. At least, with Superman, kryptonite is hard to find, but who doesn't own a lighter or a boom box?

That's about all the time I have to muse, though, as she shoots out a hot jet of flame my way; I leap to the ceiling and she demolishing some wreckage and bodies instead, but it's not all that comforting - we're in an enclosed room, she has long-range abilities, and I can't even begin to get near her.

But, then, I don't have to, do I? Anima is still the target.

I move fast, flipping on the ceiling and making my way to the shadowiest corner of the room and going invisible. Can't move too fast like this, so I try and play a little Solid Snake. Creep down the wall, foot by foot, coming round to Anima's back and sneaking down….


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 7, 2007, 3:43am

Gone out of sight. Camouflaged, most likely. In fact, I am positive that's what he's doing. I've had my own version of the little whelp in my service for a couple years now, I know his abilities, his behaviour patterns. This version is the same, only far less capable. So he's still here - just invisible. Waiting, perhaps just in hiding, perhaps picking his spot, waiting for a chance to land a noteworthy attack.

I look around the room, but not for him. I can not see him, after all. I'm just looking at the room itself. In every important sense of the word, it has been destroyed. Everything has been smashed to pieces, torn, rended… my cathedral has been left a mess to put it lightly. I was thinking earlier that I would repair it all, have everything come together, seal the seams, warp it all back to restoration. My attitude has changed now. Everything has been destroyed. Good. That means that there is nothing left to preserve.

"Everything." I say to her. "Burn everything."

She raises her hands over her head and a fireball rapidly expands above her and begins firing tongues of flame towards every corner of the room in an apparently random pattern.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 4:05am

And with that, the bitch lost her mind. Sometimes, I think my talent for pissing people off is a curse.

But, whatever; very real problem at hand. Can't get close to her, but she seems damn serious about torching the whole place. Got about one minute before I'm sitting in the middle of a raging inferno and it's game over, so think. Need a distraction. Something. Come on, this crap is your specialty…okay.

The only thing I have to work with are a bunch of dead, twitching bodies, so I give it a shot; I drop down next to one of the few that's still in one piece and Linda goes to work, forming a shell over the body while Paige has her back turned…pretty much the same trick I used to screw over Carmen. The guys wearing my suit; not exactly my body type, but it'll be hard to notice a difference.

I pick him up and toss his limp body towards her. Don't know if she'll see it coming or not, but that's not the point - I need Anima's atttention focused elsewhere, just for a moment. As the body goes flying, I run behind it, using it as cover as I head straight towards. If I can just get close enough…one punch. One punch is all I need, one punch is all I'll go for.

And, just to be mean, I'll hit her in the sore spot of her face. Yeah.


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Paige "Anima" O'Hara on Aug 7, 2007, 4:39am

It's hot. Some like it hot.

I watch as my cathedral go up in flames at my own command. Not only is there a sprinkler system but there is an exceptionally thorough and overclocked sprinkler system in here thanks to Winners' machinations. But letting the fire go out works counter to my intentions so I keep it from going off. No, instead I watch as my thrall spreads more and more flame across the room. The heat is bad, makes the hottest sauna look like Antarctica. I'm obviously less than comfortable with it, but the thought that little Armando is even less comfortable with it now and will be a husk in matter of seconds, tops, cools me a little.

It's really only a matter of time. I know it is.

And he knows that it is as well. I turn around and see what looks a whole lot like Armando sailing through the air at me. Looks like. Those are the operative words in that sentence. To all appearance it's Army, but goddammit, I'm not falling prey to attack because I didn't use an aspect of my powers for a third time. I'm not. I can feel the heavy set bugger. One of my corpses. A body. Covered in an extension of Armando's symbiote. I aim a hand at it, my fingers unintentionally fixed into some claw, possibly from anger, stress and exasperation, and wave the arm aside Like a marionette that has had its strings suddenly yanked off into another direction, the body made over to look like Armando flies off to the right before it reaches me.

"I'm getting a little TIRED of these weak ass desperation tac… no…"

"Yes."

I can barely make him out. Just barely. He looks like his surroundings, only it's all moving. His camouflage. Not enough to conceal him typically, but the smoke, the flames the quivering air, it bought him a second before I could notice him. And that second gave him the time to close the bloody distance between us. I reach out for… something… but I just don't have the time to pick, to make contact, everything is charred anyway. He strikes me in the face. He isn't as strong as Coyote by a long shot. But all the same, this alternate Armando Rosewell is probably strong enough to hurl a car if he needs to, maybe more than that, I don't know the details. What I know is that he hits hard. Very hard.

The blow rattles my brain, the edges of my vision begin to blur a little, and the blur just creeps more and more into the center of my range of view. I go down, falling to the ground. Things get more and more blurry until I can't see at all, until all that there really is is darkness.

The redheaded girl stops, looks at Anima, looks at Army, and then runs out of the room. The sprinkler system, upon no longer being commanded to do otherwise, activates, showering the room in a mist of water.

[[Edit: Sorry for putting words (word…) into Army's mouth, but the "Yes." just… fit <_<.]]


Re: Army vs. Mistress Anima
Post by Marisol Morales on Aug 7, 2007, 4:52am

Huh. I was kind of under the impression that, when Anima went unconscious, all her stuff would just kind of…stop doing whatever it was doing. You know…become unanimated or whatever. Instead, I guess all of it just realizes how much of a bitch she is and stops following orders. Whatever.

Now, even knocked out, Anima has a big potential to be a pain in the ass; all she has to do is wake up for a second and this shit starts all over again. Fortunately, I had just a little bit of forethought; when the Avengers released us, I kept my inhibitor collar around, had Linda store it inside of her. It was way too risky to try and slip it on her while we were fighting - all she had to do was see it coming and break the thing and I'd be screwed. Only have one, after all - but now that she's out, it's the perfect time.

I place it on her, locking it tight.

There's still the matter of this burning room, of course…really need to get out before the flames reach; even with the sprinkler, it's going strong. But, first…

"Hey." I hoist her up by the neck, give her a few shakes. "Didn't hit you that hard, know you're awake. Just so you know, even though I really should be leaving to burn in your own damn room…I'm not killing you. As far as I'm concerned, only one person gets to do that if she wants to, and we'll be seeing her in a minute. But whatever happens, I want you to know: you're not going back to your universe. I'm seeing to that. So whatever little empire you and your buddies built up back on that Earth, forget about it. It's done. Get used to the beating you just got, because, here, it's going to happen a whole damn lot."

I drag her out, by the hair…now that I really look at it, Paige's hair is much better short…

[It's okay. :P]


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