Operation: Saving Private Jay (For Indigo)

The wire golem’s long tendrils enveloped Starmage’s leader and Chon! Despite being just as flexible as rope, the metallic tendrils were stronger than steel and squeezing them with a grip clearly meant for metahumans or powerful beasts! With no noticeable movement, the wire golem was dragging them closer! It’s cold red eye glaring at Carlson inside its helmet like a cruel insect getting ready to feed! The prisoners that had just been freed were quickly being overwhelmed, the Warden’s will being seen in the machines as they quickly took control of the situation, but for now the two Starmage members only had the one golem to deal with, but that one golem already seemed to have them dead to rights! The grip of the machine was so strong that Carlson could’t even keep hold of his sword that failed to slice the enchanted tendrils. It fell to the floor, a final clatter that seemed to symbolize their capture. The metallic tendrils were almost completely enveloping Carlson and Chon, which protected them from the bright blue light that blasted through the corridor! The alien flash was enough to blind not just the prisoner’s, but the machines as well! Only Carlson and Chon’s eyes were saved so as to witness the ghostly samurai.

With a chilling yell, the specter sliced through Carlson’s binds as though the metal was simple bamboo! The wires around Carlson went limp as the electrical life force powering them went dead! The wire golem did not scream, but its body reacted to its now severed appendages! Its grip around Chon was safe, but now Chon was using what could have been an ace up his sleeve! Immediately, the Golem’s remaining tendrils tightened around Chon, and the Golems that had once been so concerned with the escaped prisoners were now pushing them aside. A set of clawed Golems and one sword golem were lurching towards the trio like beasts with a mission. As if the Wire Golem had sent a signal for assistance! With the ghostly samurai still in their path, the Wire Golem quickly shifted its focus on the target it still had! The sound of burning ozone and stickling electricity began to erupt from its hand as the metallic tendrils sent an electrical surge onto Chon, looking to keep him down long enough for the Golem’s reinforcements to arrive!
–

“RETURN TO YOUR CELL.”

The cold, unfeeling hand of the Golem gripped one of Cesba’s arachnid legs with the strength to rip her loose from the ground! Just before the machine could, another pair of her legs slammed into the machine’s hand, severing three of its fingers and setting her loose. The machine looked at its damaged hand with curiosity as its partner moved in with its sword, looking ready to swing down at the spider! But Jay would suddenly be tied to the arachnid’s back, causing a peculiar thing to happen.

The two Golems halted, watching Jay with weapons ready but doing nothing else to impede him. Every time Cesba got in front of him, the golems began to attack, but so long as Jay was visible, the Golems put him in no danger. He was being proven right! The Warden of this facility must have put certain orders into these guards to keep some people alive, either for a confrontation or for capture.

As Cesba climbed onto the wall, the two sword wielding golems continued to follow them, up until a sea of fur slammed into them! The white, familiar fur began to disassemble them as though they were toys! In seconds what was two iron golems were suddenly just a pile of metal, screws, and magical energy transmuters. It seemed Jay’s friend was back…but the clawed golems were slicing through what fur he could command, and more guards were on the way to assist in his submission.

–

Sho’s phasing actually worked! His hands managed to get right into the guts of the two golems, and his “Fry” spell cooked the beasts from the inside out! With a dying groan, both of them collapsed, smoke fuming from their bodies and eyes. Such a power would prove useful in dispatching these guards! The ability to move from one plane of reality to another! Had the warden seen this coming? No, of course he couldn’t have, and even if he did, what could he-?

A distinct tap on Sho’s shoulder, then…

Suddenly, the Starmage member was struck! A solid blow in his incorporeal form?! Nothing like that had ever happened before! At least, nothing from his world.

A beast stepped through what looked like a black fog, eyes a hellish red and a face that was bare of skin and flesh!

“Well now, guess’n ah made it right n’ the nicka time.”

Spoiler:

Another warden?! How?!? Just how far in advance did the Warden of the facility know they were coming?!

Sho wasn't a stranger to having to abuse his powers in a battle if need be, it came with the trials of war you did whatever it took sometimes to get by and simply survive. Still he was thankful to have gotten that handled, when suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. Sho reacted with intent to attack regardless of who it might have been, it was no friendly gesture in an open field of war. Only to be caught clean in the face, while he was incorporeal! It wasn't as hard as one might think, the simple item known as salt could do immense damage to him after all. 

But still the fact that he was tagged there could only mean they had supernatural powers akin to Carlson's katana. Sho grunted hard and landed back first into a wall, he glared at his assailant now rendered normal again. He spat out a bloodied tooth as he glared daggers at this creature, Sho didn't even bother giving a retort. That guy would be dead soon anyway as Sho would wordlessly draw out a bullet and try to charge it full of electricity and blast it at the so called warden to fry and roast him hard!

Meanwhile Chon was feeling the strain, yet he wouldn't be bested here. He yelled out in pain as his muscles strained from the shocks, yet he wasn't defeated here. He breathed deep, he breathed the power of life within him and let it course through his veins. A blue aura would emerge from him. Chon had the power of chi, which no mere machine could ever surpass. Before long his wounds closed as he maintained a steady rate of breathing, he'd grip the tendrils and bulge his muscles as he sought to break free of his restraints, channelling the power of life itself to imbue him with might far, far beyond a mortal man. Indeed the martial artist was digging deep, reminding himself of his adopted daughters for they yet needed him!

For Carlson he smirked as Azura did what it did best, bail him out of a sticky spot. The lad then nodded wordlessly to the ghost, in a flash it would depart back into the sword. And fly, fly right into Carlson impaling him in the chest! Yet a blue aura would envelop him as he then pulled the katana out from his body with the wound rapidly healing, the two now shared a body and a combined might with one swift teleporting flash step he'd get behind the wire golems aiming to slice their heads off in one clean swoop. "FOR AS LONG AS I AM NEEDED MY LORD SHALL NOT BE DEFEATED!" it bellowed out as the leader readied his trump card for this mission!

While Cesba sliced at the machines, Jay quickly came to realize something while he was basically strapped onto the spider's back. There was no attacks coming at him. There were no advances even to her back, even them backing up when Cesba took steps back and brought Jay closer to them. He was right...The Guards weren't attacking him specifically...!

"Cesba, we need to get--"

"Upstairs, yes yes." She sways her body a bit as her long spider arms walk her around. The chaos was settling down a bit. Guards dead, prisoners quelled/massacred/left to rot again in their cells. The parts and bodies of robots strewn about and sparking a bit. "Even if we get up there, it isn't like the room won't be guarded. It is a contraband room, surely everyone's weaponry will be in wait there, its a trap."

"It is exactly where he wants us to go." Jay retorted. "None of the sentinels came after me, they didn't attack. The Warden doesn't want us to--" SHe let out a gasp as Sho was knocked into the wall! His body slammed hard into the cold brick wall as someone had gotten to him while he was in his incorporeal form. Cesba's head whipped around and she was seeing red at the new enemy in the room. The Spider would take the 'Jay backpack' off and set him on the ground still wrapped up.

"Uh, Cesba?"

"They aren't after you, you said? Then you will be fine." She stares down the beast. "Him...He will not be."

The wire golem’s grip tightened as it sent a devastating shock through its metallic tendrils! Thousands of volts of debilitating electricity was sent through the martial artist as it continued to send a secret signal for help. Chon was being not only crushed, but tased viciously to try and put him down permanently! The golem could have no idea what pain the man was going through, nor the sense of will he found in himself as he focused all his strength and power on his desire to see his adoptive children again. To the golem, it was simply taking longer for Chon to fall than most prisoners. But as his muscles bulged and his will grew stronger, the metallic tendrils began to strain against him. They cracked and warped. Something the Golem didn’t seem to understand until the thick wires suddenly burst apart!

“ERROR. UNIT LACKS CONTAINMENT EQUIPMENT. REQUESTING ASSISTANCE.”

The now wireless golem turned around to find three of its fellow golems rushing…a samurai? The two clawed golems were flanking the samurai while the one with the sword came at him with a frontal assault. But as soon as they closed in, the ghostly samurai sliced or decapitated the three droids with just a single swipe! The golems crashed or clattered to the floor, the wireless golem watching it happen…and its robotic eye began blinking.

“ERROR. UNITS HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED. SENDING VIDEO SURVEILLANCE OF THREAT. PLEASE STAND BY.”

The armless golem began to flee, charging Chon like a runaway truck with the intent of running him down in order to escape the captain's power.

–

The skull face warden chuckled as Sho spat out a bloody tooth, the youngster looking all indignant that he took a punch to the face. Then again, most people probably wouldn’t be too fond of gettin bushwacked, but that was nature. There wasn’t nothin better than slappin a city kid ‘round after they’d been on such a high horse. The kid glared into the warden’s red eyes as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a bullet just in time for the mysterious creature to grab ahold of his wrist and wrench it in the direction of Cesba and Jay before Sho could put any electricity into it.

“That’s that fancy blast thing ya did to that golem ovah there, ain’t it? If it tore ‘part one of them armored toys, think what it’d do to a pinkskin ‘n a creepy crawly…so go ahead! Fire away!”

The warden would squeeze Sho’s wrist, his skull face almost seeming as though it were smiling. He could hear the spider scuttling over, but didn’t spare Cesba a glance. Because after a moment, the warden went incorporeal, just as Sho could do. The only one being able to touch the Warden was Sho, and vice versa so long as they used their power.

Sho liked to think that his JSDF background left him well equipped to handle just about any foe. At least the conventional ones, this one however was another problem all together even factoring in the experience he had gotten in combating the supernatural. He made to end this here and now by railgunning this warden right in the jaw, yet his wrist was caught.

Mr Akatsuki had enhanced superhuman strength thanks to the electric engine built within, yet this was a reminder to him that he lacked the might of Light. Who no doubt was still wreaking havoc within the colony just because he could. Sho's attack was already charging as the warden spoke, the soldier simply muttered out "Hmph....." and Sho simply flexed his fingers and adjusted the bullet's trajectory just enough to simply blast a hole in the ceiling. No doubt some guards and prisoners might have been vaporised in the blast, Sho cared not however. This was war. Still it seemed that his foe could also turn intangible.......interesting.......there was surely no blood relation there yet it meant Sho's usual trump care was rendered moot. Sho wasn't all that surprised, after all he was just the last heir of a clan that could do it, par for the course in the supernatural however. But it worked both ways.........Sho mused as he decided to keep himself incorporeal as he'd attempt to leap up into the air with his held wrist and try to tumble with the warden in an armbar attempt!

Meanwhile Chon was getting ready to start moving here, he detected the robot making what seemed to be a mad dash to take him with it. Fortunately Chon was raised among acrobats and martial artists, he remained calm, channelled his chi energy around his feet and lept right up to the ceiling and in slow motion would see that the robot would dash right underneath him and likely head off to god knows where but preferably out the window!

Following Azura's awakening the body of Carlson would stand still on the floor, before it snarled out with "My duty is done. I return my lord's body to him." with the spirit entering the katana once again and letting Carlson be in control again. Wordlessly he made to run towards Chon's location, it was time to try and group up as the battle was looming nearer and nearer to its conclusion it seemed.......

Cesba let out a mighty hissing roar as she came towards Sho and his assailant. The spider walks on her four long arms that come from her body, lifting herself on the back two to swing the front two down on the enemy, hoping to slice at her with the long, bladed arms. It may have been a pointless effort however, as just like Sho, the opponent was able to become unable to be touched by the spider potentially.

"CESBA!" Jay shouted from his wrapped up form. "The longer we stay here, the more we compromise everything!"

"But...I..." She glances back at Sho."

Jay says something that would be out of left field, especially from him. "Being a team means that you can trust your team."

"I-I'm not leaving him here alone!" Cesba seemed stuck between Sho and the new Warden, and helping Jay. "Not with someone he cannot fight!"

"This is someone you can't help him fight."

The spider bit her lip and glances back and forth. "You better win, Sho..." She said with concern, retreating to grab Jay-backpack and follow his order to head towards the roof, or at least towards the upstairs. "He will be okay?" She asked the human on her back. Cesba was not one to leave anyone behind, but if they stayed down here any longer...The whole mission would be jeopardized and be for nothing.

"When we get my claws back, I can help. I'm not leaving here without everyone. Y'all came for me. Put faith in your team, spider." Jay said, slightly being jostled into heading up the stairs. However, the two didn't know that another energy was also moving to that same room...

The skull face Warden’s grip seemed unbreakable! Those hellish red orbs stared at Sho with a dark promise of hell waiting for him. With brute strength alone, he began to force the soldier to point his weapon at his friends, watching and waiting to see it fire and rip apart his team mates in spectacular fashion! The soldier strained, fighting hard to break free from the Warden’s grasp! However, Sho simply couldn’t shake the revenant’s grip! But what he could do was adjust it! Moving his arm as fast and as hard as he could, the soldier would take the creature by surprise and move his arm upwards at the last possible second! The mass firing cannon would erupt and launch the bullet straight through the upper deck! Utterly evaporating any beings that stood in its trajectory! It was thanks to both Sho and the Skull Warden’s ability to turn intangible that prevented them from being destroyed as well!

“Aww, ain’t that a shame? Ah wanted ta see if ya reacted ta yer friends goin tha way of tha Dodo. But ah reckon ah’ma just have ta settle fer seein their faces after I-”

Suddenly, Sho would turn intangible! While the two creatures could keep hold of one another even when incorporeal the suddenness of Sho’s movements created an opening for the smaller being to suddenly jump up and wrap his legs around the creatures shoulder! In an instant, the bigger being grunted with the awkward shift in weight! The creature almost toppled over from Sho’s maneuver!

“Pesky Lil’!”

Without waiting, the Skull Warden looked to slam the soldier into the wall, the monster’s strength seemingly overwhelming that of a normal humans!

“Fine! Ah’ll kill ya myself!”

–

As the two figures climbed up the steps towards the contraband room, they would find surprisingly little resistance. The guards were nowhere to be found, and the Golems that seemed to lumber about the hallways would patrol the halls in short, easy to predict patterns. It was an easy matter for Cesba to sneak her way past them with Jay on her back. The lumbering titans bright red eyes glowed in the dimmed hallways as their feet fell like small earthquakes. But none of them lingered around the contraband room for long. In fact, they often walked right past it, leaving it apparently unguarded.

One Steel Golem walked right below Cesba as they climbed the ceiling. It stopped beneath them and scanned the area with it’s red eye. For a moment, it seemed like the slightest noise would get its attention. One crack of the ceiling, one stray piece of web falling to the floor. But just as it looked like it was about to look up, its deep, mechanical voice cracked in its helmet.

“REPORTING: NO TARGET SIGHTED. CONTINUING PATROL PROTOCOL.”

Once again, the golem stamped away, quickly rounding the corner to investigate the rows of empty hallways in search of a target.

Sho had always favoured the standup game in cqc, the swifter he could disable his opponent with a few blows the better given that any warzone could have a bullet whistling to your head if you were a static target. Still Sho by no means would neglect the ground game and made the attempt to try and take this warden to the ground and just snap his limb then and there to make it much harder for him.

Or at least that's what he hoped, instead the warden was able to muster up strength beyond that of a normal human. Sho's altered physiology allowed him to bend steel with his bare hands but even this was more than Light casually ragdolling him about.  

"Ghgnn!" Sho groaned out as he was slammed into the wall, the metal warped and bended as his back was crashed into it and spittle and blood flew out his mouth as he swore he just felt a couple of ribs crack then and there. Alright, that hurt. His ears blurred as he gritted his teeth as he fought to stay self aware there..........

"Shit! Sho!" Carlson yelled as he and Chon would manage to swiftly follow the commotion, the blind man would waist no time in trying to take the fight right to the warden as he would bust out into a series of flips and spins to build momentum all the while Carlson hung back. Not with his sword at the ready but rather he was seemed to be fishing in his pockets for something that might assist them here.

Jay would jump down from the ceilimg as Cesba crawled out. The look on the human's face was desperate. While Cesba looked around and shuffled her hands together as Jay picked the lock. "I worry about Sho..."

"We can go back for him. Getting another fighter on your side with me having my claws back will--" SNAP. The lockpick broke."No..." A small whisper escaped Jay's mouth. "No no no NO...!"

"Shhh youre gonna alert the guards...!" Cesba tried to warn him and calm him down as he bamged a fist on the door. Her spine tingled suddenly by feeling a presence behind her, quickly whipping her head around. "O-Oh..."

Jay looked too. The tallass of hair. "B-Big White?" He was confused how they made it here. Jay would be even more confused when he saw a human hand reach from the hair holding a guard's gun, blasting the lock right clean off! "I-I don't..." Jay was shoved aside by the creature.

The contraband room was filled with all the weapons and powers of monsters hidden away in this prison. Out of all of the destructive, world ending, monstrous things...Big white grabbed a set of sheaths. Four of them. With a quick and swift cut around with a red blade....Much of that hair fell off. Turning his head slightly to look at Jay...Was Alibaster. His nemesis. His enemy for years before the worlds collided by the means of this new Order.

"Y-Y....You..."

Alibaster spoke for the first time since he and Jay had been together in this prison. "Me." He set his sheaths at his sides, carrying four different swords for different styles. "I was caught long before you were. I feel as if my work was taken and used to fuse the realities together. When I spoke out, I was brought here. Where no one could hear me. Where time almost seems to...Stand still." He grabbed Jay's claws and tossed them to him, while grabbing other weapons to steal. "And I have had plenty of time, to think of every scenario, that my 200 IQ mind could fathom...And this was still not one of them. Escaping because of you, Id say we are even. At least, once we get out of here. Come, back downstairs to help that Team..."

The pinkskin was clearly some type of military. The way he fought was like he was going for the kill every time, each and every move. The cold, stoney eyes the pinksin gave the Bone Warden was one the bulky Warden had seen dozens of times in soldiers and species who had seen action. This pinksin was fighting for what he believed in, and with every fiber in his being trying to snap the tree trunk-like arm of his opponent. Unfortunately, there was just too much difference in their strength. Even the greatest pinksin fighters in the world were simply no match for a grizzly bear or larger animal. With just a single swing, the Bone Warden smashed Sho into the steel walls, indenting them with his opponent's body and leaving him to crumple onto the floor. Sho was lucky to be alive, much less conscious. Soon, he had a small stream of blood rolling down his chin as he remained slumped up against the wall as his eyes strained to focus on the fuzzy world around him. The towering shadow of the Bone Warden shrouding him like a blanket.

“Ah’m not sure if y’all were on the kill or don’t kill list. N’ ah don’t care none.”

The Bone Warden raised his boot, hovering just above Sho’s head waiting to cave in the intruder's skull.

“Boy like you ain’t gonna do anyone any good runnin’ around. Best put ya outta our misery early.”

Suddenly a shout from the other end of the hall caught the bulky Warden’s attention. He turned away from Sho to find two more intruders, but these ones he somewhat recognized from the don’t kill list. A squad of Golems had been sent to capture them down on the lower levels of the prison. But seeing as they were both here, they must have been destroyed. The Bone Warden groaned, annoyed he was going to have to deal with even more pinkskins, one of them doing acrobatics towards the beast like this were some sort of gym class. The Bone Warden rolled his shoulder as Chon rapidly approached, his boney expression  seemingly unconcerned.

“Think acrobats is gunna work?!I just messed up one ah you pinkskins,and he has them shifting powers! What n’ tha world makes ya think I ain’t just gonna break ya, spinny boy?!”

The Bone Warden’s expression split into a hideous grin, the beast lunging to grab ahold of Chon’s arms and legs to fulfill his promise!

–

As soon as Alibaster had taken Jay’s claws from the podium they rested on, the doors to the contraband room slammed shut with a thunderous CLANG! Every weapon in the room still on their perches and stands were enveloped in a steel cage, only to be dragged down to the  depths of the facility in a defense protocol. The weapons previously taken remained, but the rest were rapidly disappearing as the steel doors locked with a rhythmic hum. Once all of the weapons were gone, a screen became visible from near the back of the room, flickering on to reveal the Warden’s nightmarish gaze was locked onto the trio inside the room. His large, pointed mandibles moved and clicked on screen as the speakers in the room squealed to life with a pained howl.

“FINALLY! I was starting to think I would have to deliver the weapon myself!”

The synthetic voice of the Warden’s translator was as cold and emotionless as ever, but the arachnid’s face was not. It’s unblinking red eyes seemed to peer and all three intruders with a level of primal hatred and hunger the likes of which few ever could truly feel as its poisoned teeth glistened on the monitor in front of them.

“But, the wait was worth it. I finally have proper footage of you arming yourself, Jay Zokaro. With this, I have all the justification I need in killing you…along with that traitorous wretch you’ve brought with you!”

The creature's shoulders began to shake, the familiar sound of air slipping through its pointed teeth was picked up on the speakers, this creature equivalent to laughter.

“I can’t believe it. Just when I was getting bored of you, Jay Zokaro. You had accepted your fate in my prison, destined to die pathetic and alone. But when your friend there swiped the key, I had hoped you might try to escape again. Imagine my surprise when you were stupid enough to call for help!” The creature hissed. “To think, my colony was wiped out by a creature too stupid to realize that all transmission are monitored and recorded in prisons! I caught your rescue request the second you started recording.”

This time, the Warden would turn its head towards Alibaster, nodding his head at the newly revealed man.

“You…I suppose you were the one who lifted the key from me, wasn’t it? I have you to thank for this opportunity. As a reward, Why don’t I play you a small snippet of Jay breaking down at the recording booth, shall I?”

IndigoDragon wrote:"Calling Team Starmage. This is...This is Jay Zokaro. I have no idea where I am, or how long I have been in this prison. But I need help to get out." Just even getting this message out there made the man tear up, his voice breaking a bit as he hung his head. "Please...I need your help. I need to get out of here...Please..."

The creature chuckled some more after the audio cut off. It’s teeth were a bit more visible in what was probably something like a grin. Of course, it had no lips to make any such expression, but its mandibles soon relaxed back over its teeth.

“As you can see, I was aware of this “rescue” from the very start. The idea that you would not only bring me the Team of Star Mage, but the Traitor to the Queen as well was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Now, I am able to kill you and that traitor and avenge my colony while reaping the benefits of putting Star Mage on ice, once and for all! I should almost thank you Jay Zokoro…but I’d rather kill you.”

The locks on the contraband door would open, allowing the group to leave if they wished. But, there were sounds outside. The guards patrolling the hallways were waiting for them, and it sounded like they were ready for a fight.

“I’ve left one path open for the roof. I expect to see you there. Oh, and I’ve put a kill order on your friends you have with you. Fight hard if you want to keep them alive!”