Geez3r

There seems to be the popular opinion in various forms of media that swords are infinitely superior to guns. This stems from the ability to have a more dramatic fight sequence using swords rather than guns. That is all fine and dandy, and I too have enjoyed several sword fights in the movies. But one of the things that have always irked me about this is that swords are always considered to be more honorable than guns, and a lone protagonist with a sword will always succeed against any number of antagonists with guns simply because the sword weilder is obviously superior. Swords remind of a simplier time with knights and royalty and dragons. Okay not so much the last one historically, but it is the staple of the genre which the time period has now become. But the thought of the inferiority of guns stems from this time period. You see in the olden days, it was easy to keep the peasants in line. Only knights and royalty were allowed to be trained with armor and weapons (and the few who could afford such a thing). An untrained peasant with a sword is as much a danger to himself as he is to those around him. But give the same peasant a gun and suddenly, if he doesn't like the tyrannical rule of the royalty, he can do something about it. If he wants a voice in the community, he can get it. If he wants a piece of land, he can get it. If he wants to stop the knight that abuses his privelages he can do it. If he wants to lay his life down in defense of his country, he can do it. You see what guns really represent at their core is giving power to the common man. With that power, man can elevate themselves to the level that they were always supposed to be at. With a gun, a man can fight inequality and win freedom and justice for all, not just for a select few. My name is Eric Micheals. I build guns. My name is Malice. I use guns. And I fight for the freedom of the human race.

Still here. I was waiting to Toptomcat to post, we've both kind of said our goodbyes to him, so it would be a little weird for us to carry on before he did the same.

Yeah so I'll being Initiatives if you intend on fighting him. You both get a VP/HP for having the crowd to deal with as well. For DJ A: Initiative (1d20 6=25)

DJ Anarachy looks legitimately hurt by you continued desire to pound his face in. "Ya don't see what I be doing here mon? Deese people out here, dey ain't had fun in dere life fur so long. "ow could dey in dis city? I jus tried ter make jus one little night in dere lives better mon, give dem a night a good ol fashioned fun wit out all dat hesitation day all got mon." DJ pauses for a moment and looks down at the people all dancing below you. He then slowly takes off his sunglasses and places them on the turn table. DJ Anarchy looks back the pair of you, and the music coming from the booth suddenly gets far darker and sinister, and the DJ looks far more imposing than he did just a moment before. DJ Anarchy balls his fists saying "I can't let ye stop wut I dun here today. But if ya really got ya heart set on it, ya might want ter do it quick - they ain't got much time." You realize with a jolt that the crowd below you has started tearing each other apart like a mosh gone horribly wrong. Blood is already starting to stain the ground.

DJ Anarchy looks at the pair of you long and hard, with his arms crossed. Then he absolutely loses his composure as he breaks into a fit of laughter. Recovering he wipes a few tears from his eyes (which you notice are entirely black except for a red dot where the pupil would normally be) and enthusiastically responds in a bit of a Jamacan accent* "Really mon? It ain't done nothin to ya? Ah, if only me pappy coulda lived to see this day, hedda be so prouda me mon. I don know I did ta upset ya mon, but cha got me deepest appologizes mon. I been waiting me whole life ta meet somebuddy like you. Fill me in, wut brought ya here this good day mon?" * Or at least my attempt at one -desu

As Captain and Shard trade blows back and forth, Malice takes to the air. He charges straight at his target, throwing a vicious haymaker and clips the beleagured Shard. ANd just like that, it's lights out for Shard, as the sickening crunch of Malice's fist sends him flying through the air, landing sprawled out next to Blue Star. Landing next to the Captain, Malice looks at him for a moment and shrugs his shoulders saying "Couldn't let you have all the fun." He shakes his hand out for a moment before adding "I personally liked the last shattering sound he made most of all, how about you?"

Well she was staggered from your attack, the first shot knocked her unconscious, the next knocked her to dying, the one after killed her and the last was unnecessary. At least if I followed the rules to the letter, she's not dead. Droids are programmed to not kill or something.

Start of Captain's turn Round 3: 46 - Shard 31 - Blue Star - She's just sleeping in ketchup 19 - The Captain - VP x1 - Bruise x2 17 - Malice - VP x2 - Bruise x2, 14 - Droids - ALL GONE

Seeing his partner take down, makes Shard get serious. He spring away from Malice into the center of the arena. Then with an absolute torrent of sound, Shard disappers and reappears rapidly around the arena striking visciously at everything that isn't him. Shard's attack reduces everyone of the droids to little more than slag. Malice gets the wind knocked out of him by a sharp shot to the chest, but is more or less alright after the initial shock.

End of Round 2: 46 - Shard 31 - Blue Star - She's just sleeping in ketchup 19 - The Captain - VP x1 - Bruise x2 17 - Malice - VP x2 - Bruise x1, 14 - Droids - 9 Droids (For sake of argument we'll say that they're clumped in groups of 3 in case anyone wants to AoE them) Droid Spawn Start of Round 3 (1d6=5) Start of Round 3: 46 - Shard 31 - Blue Star - She's just sleeping in ketchup 19 - The Captain - VP x1 - Bruise x2 17 - Malice - VP x2 - Bruise x1, 14 - Droids - 14 Droids (2 groups of 5, one groups of 4)

Captain sails through the air and delivers a devestating punch to the temple of Blue Star as she is sent flying through the air. As she skids along the ground, and comes to a halt she slowly sits up and shockingly enough maintained her focus even after taking a shot like that. In other news, Malice finally gets his composure back and shakes out the cobwebs, but he can't manage to do much else. The droids on the other hand spring into action again. Two attack Malice, 2 attack Captain, one attacks Shard and the remaining 4 attack Blue Star. The droids that attack Malice display marksmanship worthy of the Imperial Army and hit everything except the red white and blue target right in front of them. The one's attacking the Captain apparetly recieved similar instruction and would have take out the front row if not for the forcefeilds. The engineer who programmed the robots is probably looking for a second job as they still have no luck making contact against Shard. Unfortunately for Blue Star the droids are apparenly expert marksmen when it comes to semi-conscious psychics laying on the floor a stone's throw away from them. Blue Star's force field is sadly not capable of dealing with 4 simultaneous shots to the back and after a last muffled scream, she goes limp and her eel disappers as well.

After musing for a moment on who could be behind this, the answers, in the forms of questions obviously, start becoming clearer. The music for lack of a better word has been steadily getting louder as you move into the edge of the forest. But now it is becoming much louder much faster. A quick glance around shows the reason why, everyone is picking up speed. Some are simply walking faster, others are starting to jog and even a few are starting to get into a flat out sprint, but everyone is picking up speed. Odder still, everyone starts to seem more and more excited. But something's not right, it seems wrong.... like it's forced. After a few moments of this faster pace, using god knows what form of transport this time around, the source of the music is revealed. Seemingly everyone affected has gathered in the clearning. There must be hundreds if not thousands of people gathered here, with more arriving at every passing moment. They all start dancing when they reach the clearing. No one seems to be dancing the same way, but yet it all fits together. The clearly was obviously made by chopping down nearly every tree in the vicinity, which are now being fed into a dozen or so bonfires scattered about. But all of the oddities so far could not have prepared you for what is actually creating the music. Right in the center of the clearing, a giant rock about 20ft x 15ft x 3ft is floating. This center rock is being orbited by about 10 giant bolders seemingly pulled from the nearby area. People are dancing under the floating rocks seemingly without a care in the world. Then weirdest of all, there seems to be a DJ booth set up on the central rock. Old school turntable and a few speakers, certainly nothing capable of projecting such a loud sound so far. As you take in the sights, which certainly never say static, as you can swear that you see the fires change color every now and then, and the occasional tree away with the beat. The DJ makes his presence know. A booming voice echoes through the clearing declaring "DJ ANARCHY!"

Things are looking bad for our "heroes" as more droids pour into the arena, and Shard and Blue Star go on the offensive again. Shard dances in from of Captain for a moment before taunting "Sorry Captain, you're just no fun. It's a shame that you're all just talk." With that the now signature and highly aggrivating glass shattering sound echoes as Shard suddenly appears next to the teetering Malice and throws a back elbow at Malice without even looking. Shard's cockiness is his undoing however as his attack misses completely. After witnessing her teammate's antics, Blue Star touches her temple as if she had just gotten a giant migrane. "You may be an idiot, but I know better than to underestimate even you." She calls to the Captain. She then pulls her legs off the ground and yet remains aloft. She cits cross legged, as if mediating, even going so far as closing her eyes. This is apparently not cockiness as visible blue psychic energy begins radiating off of her, and a spectral blue 3rd eye appears on her forehead. Then in front of her, a mote of blue energy appears and expands. It takes on the appearance of what could be easily mistake for a demonic eel and it shoots through the air straight at the Captain, sinking its fangs into the Captain's flesh. Even more distressing is that even though its attack was successful, the eel doesn't disappear, rather it circles the Captain looking for another chance to strike. This move appears to take all of Blue Star's concentration as she does nothing else than float there.

Droid Spawn Round 2 (1d6=5) Start of Round 2: 46 - Shard 31 - Blue Star - Bruise x1 19 - The Captain - VP x3 - Bruise x1 17 - Malice - VP x2 - Bruise x1, Stunned 14 - Droids - 9 Droids (For sake of argument we'll say that they're clumped in groups of 3 in case anyone wants to AoE them) I'll post Shard and Blue Star's actions later on today.

After the smoke clears from Malice's attack, the droids spring into action. One of the droids lines up his sights on Malice. The attack hits a weak point in his armor. Two more of the droids blast away at Blue Statr. One of the attacks is wide, but the other hits. But Blue Star's force field proves to be too strong to penetrate and she is left unharmed. The last active droid takes a pot shot at Shard but the Matrix rip off remains as elusive as ever, as he easily sidesteps the attack without the use of his powers.

Even as the Captain roars at Shard, all he does is smile back*. Furthermore, the Captain's windmill punch his nothing but air as the sound of shattering glass is heard again, and Shard is about 2 feet to the left of where he just was. ===================================== After recovering from what felt like a sudden case of vertigo, Malice decides that it's time to get revenge on Blue Star, and not to mention taking out a droid or two in the process. Malice unloades a volley of missles at two droids and Blue Star. If it weren't for the unexpected angle, the attacks would have missed, but they hit home this time, a sloppy attack like this won't work twice. Blue Star's forcefield protects her from the worst of the blast, the droids however aren't so lucky and are quickly reduced to their component parts. *Auto-success

After the duo *ahem* ... travel together... for a couple of minutes they get a better idea of what they're up against. From your vantage point you can see how wide spread the effects are; most of West End has probably been effected. Thousands and thousand of people are walking the streets all headed West, slowly but surely. In the forests that lay beyond Freedom City, and odd sound can be heard on the winds. It's an eerie and primal sound. It causes your pupils to dialate, your breathing to come faster, the hairs on the back of you neck stand up, and your heart begins to race. It's an unearthly melody and yet stangely familiar all the same. And - wait...? Could it be? No, not possible. It has a good beat?

As the forcefields around the ring once again activate, several of the house droids pour into the arena. They look cheap and mass produced, but that doesn't mean that the weapons that they weild are any less deadly. They are lanky humanoids with a red and gold paint job emblazoned with the Circus Maximus logo. But the Captain and Malice have more pressing concerns as both Shard and Blue Star spring into action. Shard takes a large dramatic step forward, planting his foot like he's going for a huge uppercut, but he's on the other side of the ring, he can't hit anyone can he? That's what was going through the Captain's mind, at least before the sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the arena and Shard has appeared right infront of the Captain. His previously telegraphed punch now becomes inescapable and deadly as it hits solidly under the Captain's chin. Malice takes a step to go assist the Captain but as his eyes breifly connect with Blue Star's eyes, a wave of nausea washes over him. Malice quickly recovers from the assualt but it costs him a few seconds and leaves any chance he had of helping the Captain long gone.

Malice and Captain get 2 VP's for this round because of the increased risk the droids present, minions or not. Match 3, Round 1 Droid Spawn (1d6=6) Inititative Time: 46 - Shard 31 - Blue Star 19 - The Captain - VP x4 17 - Malice - VP x2 14 - Droids 6 Droids

The Arena Rules this time around: The Arena will be populated by dozens of robot droids. They will attack the competitors at random using whatever weapons they have at their disposal. Mechanics: at the start of every round, a d6 is rolled, this is the number of droids that spawn this round. The droids are minions and follow the standard rules for minions. Although robotic, they are not mindless, they do have very basic AI. They are however not exactly pushovers. Their targets will be determined by random (rolling 1d4 per droid, each result representing one of the combatants). When one team is defeated, something interesting will happen with the remaining droids. I won’t say what now, other than to say that focusing on the enemy combatants alone might not be the best of ideas. The droids are treated as a third party in the case of any effects that rely on teammates. The Platform for the arena this time is standard. No tricks with the ring alone.

As the duo continues their celebration (one of them a little more intently than the other) their competition arrives as the arena is prepped for the next round. This time there are two of them, though they look a little tougher than the previous opposition, they simply walk more confidently than their peers. The first is the second female of the night. She is introduced as Blue Star. Her name is obviously a play off of her blue hair and matching bright blue eyes. She is very fair skinned and rather thin. She wears a white cloak with a hood than is drawn over her head. Under the cloak she wears a black unitard and finishes off the set with a pair of black boots. She steps quite softly, almost not touching the ground at all. She seems rather detached from the goings on of the arena, but gives a small wave to the crowd nonetheless. Her partner on the other hand has probably seen the Matrix one too many times, as he’s doing his very best Neo impersonation. Black sunglasses, black trench coat, bad acting, everything. The only thing different from him and Neo is that his T-shirt (black as well) has a pattern on it making it look like there is a bunch of glass being shattered out from his chest. It’s probably got something to do with the fact that he’s introduced as Shard. Arena Rules: To follow.

I thought that last round was going to take a little longer than it did so I'm going to need some time to finish the new combatants.

With a groan Malice sat up "Well, that sucked." He sat on the ground on a moment to try and regain his composure and calm himself down. Malice had lost before but rarely had his pride been wounded this badly before. He was more than a match for anyone else in the ring that night, and yet here he was sprawled out on the ground looking up. I guess fights really do come down to luck. Given the right circumstances, anyone can triumph. Even that idiot. Malice then stood up, wiped himself off and then took flight to celbrate with the Captain. He was quite subdued though due to looking like an idiot in that round.

I think you just made Darwin an alcoholic.

So if you've been keeping up with Marvel you'll note that the two characters I've been basing Malice off of essentially becames one and the same. So I get to brag for a moment that I was first, and get to use some new swanky art for Malice's picture. So if you could swap out the old picture for this one, I'd much appreciate it. I've got the file name and what it actually looks like respectively, not sure which would make the mod's jobs easier.. http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/2/27 ... riot_5.jpg Done by MBCE