[HD] Ruins of the Necropolis

[Karl Jak]

The Necropolis is a ravaged walled city filled with bombed-out structures and decaying high-rises. Even so, the city is filled with a wealth of un-life, as its corrupted citizens continue about phantom versions of what their lives must have been before they were unmade. Ghouls mill about on devastated subway platforms and within the exposed shells of office structures, even as giant, malformed aberrations lumber through the uneven city streets.

 

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
“The Coinless” vs Miniskirt Armada Scouts​

The scouts had experienced a great deal of success over the last few days, acting and executing their role quite effectively for their general. Now, they had received their most pressing mission yet—an infiltration of the Unmade Carnaval’s largest landholding, which most of them now understood to be called ‘the Necropolis’.

They had entered the city in the dark of the night, managing to find a section of the city’s walls that was surprisingly unmanned. From there, they had stayed relatively close to one another, knowing well that none of them were distinctly equipped to play the game of subterfuge and stealth.

As the night gave way to the rising sun, the small detachment of scouts found themselves making their way back toward their entry point. While they knew they couldn’t risk departure during the day, they hoped to bunker down in the nearby city block, which had been relatively devoid of corrupted organisms and mutant monstrosities during the nighttime hours.

Instead, a scout clinging to the shadows beneath a partially collapsed storefront found himself staring at a ‘woman’ in the middle of the street.

“Howdy,” she replied in a voice that, while guttural and warped by the corruption that seethed through her body, had a distinct accent that the scout couldn’t quite place his finger on. “What’cha doing there, Mister Tippy Toes?”

The woman, a young adult beneath the seething corruption that had ravaged what might otherwise be someone who could have been pretty in a ‘daddy’s little monster’ sort of way, tapped a baseball bat against her thigh as she sashayed toward the wide-eyed scout, who suddenly heard a scream in a nearby building. He turned to see a severed arm come flying out the window as gunfire broke out in nearby streets. Before he could turn his focus back to the Baseball Girl, the bat smashed into the side of his skull.

“You really think you just walked in? Ya musta been crazy. We had’ja scouted a mile away.”

With that, the scouts head was broken in half.

The 20 scouts have all been destroyed, trapped within the Necropolis. All were killed or killed themselves.
“The Coinless” has lost 6 soldiers in the fighting.

"The Coinless" gain +5% Morale

 

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
Sabotage!​

“Y’know, this whole deal ain’t too bad,” Baseball Girl said as she poked one of her underlings—a slimy, eight-foot bipedal lizard creature—in the chest. “Nice digs. Tight, new bod,” the ‘woman’ struck a pose and flashed a toothy grin at the silent beast. “Sure does beat what I was doin’ before this.”

When the beastial monster had not response to her quip, the long-ago psychiatrist scowled. “Terrible company,” she muttered before she skipped and hopped her way back to her private quarters, which lay behind a pair of heavy double doors guarded by more silent beasties.

“Hiya, Steve,” she said, blowing a kiss to Guard Number 1. She then glared over at the other guard before leaning in close to him. “I saw your staring last night, and that’s ruuude.”

A barely intelligible monster who had little idea what the unmade woman-creature was saying, ‘Guard Number 2’ merely stared ahead and kept his eyes peeled for danger as his eccentric leader slipped into her lavish private room.

Almost immediately, her eyes were drawn to a piece of paper on her pillow. “Whasthat?”

Walking over to her bed, Baseball Girl plucked up the scrap and read the text, written in an erratic purple crayon. “Glad you got lost in space or whatever. Haven’t been happier. -J.”

If she could, Baseball Girl may have gotten a bit sobby, but try as she might, there were some particular bits of her anatomy that just didn’t work following the whole ‘you were dead but now you’re resurrected to serve a force designed wholly for the unraveling of life’ dealio.

“This is just rude and uncalled for,” she mumbled before gunshots suddenly rang through what had once been the mayor’s office of a heavily populated city.

***​

Elsewhere in the mayor’s office, the jig was up, and the discovered batch of Miniskirt spies found themselves fighting a losing battle against the squad of assassins. Hunkered down in the lobby, many of them had already turned their weapons upon themselves. They knew the fate that awaited them if they were taken alive, and a few of their companions had already been left for that horror in a conference room elsewhere in the complex.

“We need to fall back,” one of the spies shouted as he tried to get his cloaking device to work.

“To where?” Someone rasped as he ducked to avoid the suppressing fire.

“Window,” his friend muttered, pointing to a window.

“That just goes into the next fucking room!”

“Well, it’s better than fucking here, isn’t it?”

Someone nearby screamed as a barrage of bullets tore through his gut and chest. With that visual, the two surviving spies quickly threw themselves through the window in short succession of one another, landing flawlessly in what seemed to be another small conference room back when this was a functioning city government building.

Rushing forward toward a far door, the two spies managed to almost make it before the one who was a few steps ahead suddenly screamed and was slashed apart by an unseen force, spattering his compatriot in thick sheets of his blood.

“Ohshit,” the surviving spy screeched as he tried to stop and wound up collapsing a foot or so from his very dead friend. A shadow fell over him as the cloaked figure made itself visible. The grounded spy, his eyes on the terrifying red booties, slowly looked up to see the snarling visage of an anthropomorphic mouse armed with a bladed key standing over him.

“We’re going to be best pals, uh huh!”

The spy felt warmth in his pants right before the scream left his throat.

25 Miniskirt Armada Spies have been killed or killed themselves.
5 Miniskirt Armada Spies have been taken prisoner.
20 Unmade Carnaval Assassins have been destroyed.

Baseball Girl is sad (Story Injury)
Nega Mouse now haunts your nightmares.

 

[Karl Jak]

There she was—a veritable city of ghouls and monsters.

Strazio Rockwell and the Hell Divers grinned as they marched on their objective.

***

Battle Statistics

Unmade Carnaval: 300 City militia members, City Advantage
Hell Divers: 1695 Combat Soldiers

Notes: The city ‘seems’ devoid of combat soldiers, at least from your scouts’ initial reports of the southern neighborhoods (the route you’ll need to take into and through the city). Nevertheless, your armies will still have to quell the ‘citizens’, who are literal ghouls and monsters. The city is walled, but you may breach that in your first RP. My expectation is at least 4 Hell Diver RPs (at least one post by each PC here) in, at most, the next two days, and if y’all want more time to write (because you’re having fun, not because you feel pressured to do make more words), Strazio, as Siege Leader, can request that. If all four of you knock this out in a day, you can also request judgement/update whenever.

Hit up my DMs or ping me into your channel if you have any clarifying questions.​

The Necropolis (City)
Defenders = 300 militia

Vs

“Lake of Fire”
General-> Strazio
1275 Combat Soldiers
PC Soldiers -> Majin Buu, Malloki

“Something Wicked”
Lieutenant-> Altanis
320 Combat Soldiers

 

[Strazio Rockwell]

A near-silence had fallen over the Lake of Fire as they approached the Necropolis walls. A cadence of marching boots and the dull hum of plastech filled the air like a swarm of hornets. Unguarded and seemingly unprepared the city sat solemnly waiting for its executioners. Demetri’s scouting force had found a weak point in the city’s walls. The remains of some recently collapsed skyscraper sat draped across the wall like the corpse of some long-dead metal giant. It was here where plastech charges were anchored. These bright orange discs thrummed with dull energy, but once triggered they began to screech at a fevered pitch before detonating. In sequence several charges exploded, tearing open the Necropolis walls and sending the high-rise crashing down.

Lava spilled into the city as if leaking from a gaping wound. At it’s head stood Strazio Rockwell. His orders had been simple and clear, this city and its inhabitants were to be annihilated. No prisoners, no survivors, nothing but ashes would remain. Parallel to this initial tendril of plastech-clad soldiers marched Altanis and her regiment, Something Wicked. She branched off from Strazio’s charge, slipping into the city nearly unnoticed like a dagger beneath a cloak. Everything moved as planned, with the Lake of Fire moving as a hammer while Something Wicked spread out like a net to catch anything not immediately shattered. However, something was amiss - they had yet to encounter any opposition. Wet silvery eyes peered out from the carcasses of buildings before darting from sight.

“What’s going on, where the fuck is everyone?” Strazio asked Demetri.

The scout sergeant moved silently besides his general, scanning the area with thermal binoculars. Not a single heat signature registered, which he suspected was due to their foe’s distinct lack of life.

“When you shine a light on cockroaches they scurry away,” Demetri answered, “As they should, if they didn’t you’d squash them immediately. But, as soon as that light turns off they’ll come skittering back for scraps.”

“English, dipshit.”

“They aim to attack our weak points, striking at any stragglers or separated elements,” He explained, “Given our terrain this will prove to be an effective strategy if we aren’t diligent.”

Strazio clenched his fists. Orange lightning crackled around them as his plastech knuckles responded to his grip. This was irritating. He was here to fight a fucking battle not go rooting around in the dirt for insects. Further than that, the longer they spent cleaning up the city the more likely reinforcements would arrive before they could establish a foothold. This needed to end quickly, even if it meant melting the entire city into slag.
“Alright,” Strazio said, “We’ll move to the center of the city and establish an operating base, from there we’ll form kill squads that will comb the city, hopefully the smaller groups will be more enticing to the FUCKING COWARDS!”

Demetri nodded and moved to relay the message. Within a few hours the Lake of Fire had aggregated towards the center of the city. Along the way a few hapless ghouls were incinerated, but many more were sighted scurrying off into the metallic jungle. They erected temporary fortifications around what appeared to be the remains of some kind of park, though nature had long since abandoned it. Once established the Lake of Fire lurched out like some many-armed beast, sending out tendrils of soldiers in every direction. Despite the protest of his lieutenants, and the enthusiasm of Altanis, Strazio led one of these tendrils.

Before him the Necropolis stretched out, like a yawning mouth filled with rusted needles. With him was a handful of soldiers, each of them well-trained in urban warfare. They moved around him, sweeping and clearing every aspect of their environment. A certain amount of pride swelled up within Strazio as he watched his soldiers move. Though he hadn’t trained them, he was glad they were under his banner. What he wasn’t glad about was the absolute lack of action. Hours passed by and the sun began to rise and they had still yet to see much of anything.

Eventually they reached an intersection and Strazio called for them to rest. Canteens were shared as were words. For the first moment since entering the Necropolis Strazio relaxed his grip. Then he heard it. A low metallic groan, that at first he had chalked up to the shifting of I-beams supporting slowly decaying structures. But this groan became louder, moving below them.

“We’ve got contact,” One of the soldiers relayed into her radio.

This groaning became concentrated on a single point in the road. A manhole shuddered violently before it was blown off. Sunken-eyes creatures poured forth from the exposed hole in the asphalt. Dozens of the gaunt beasts crawled out and rushed towards them, only to be met by the whistle of superheated plasma rounds. But, where one ghoul was blown apart three more clamored over its corpse. In moments the surge of bodies had reached the retreating soldiers. Strazio stepped into the advancing horde screaming wildly. They had reached a very pissed off wall. His fists crashed into body after body, blasting them apart in a shower of greasy viscera. His plastech knuckles screamed violently as bright orange lightning pulsed through them and into the flesh of Strazio’s enemies. Here there were no political or social games to be played. There was only the sound of splintering bones and splattering flesh. And these were things that Strazio understood very fucking well.

 

[Magnus Might]

This was terrible. The shakes began in the morning, and Malloki had struggled to contain himself ever since. "No g-games... No games... Why am I here? W-why can't I play? D-Dolloki says... I need to play... Strong people... why... Why no pattycake?" Like a man who lived by the needle, Malloki was a creature of addiction. So long without a little bump had him suffering withdrawals. He needed that delightful tickle of pain.

Malloki NEEDED to be ripped apart!

The command finally came. The game would soon be at hand! Malloki's heart raced, his excitement neared the stratosphere. When the wall was blown to molten slag, Malloki held rank like a good psychopath - playing his part as a soldier for just a moment longer.

Nothing. No opposition - no players for the game! The other party was a no-show! To anyone else, suspicion might arise. They may be relieved and hopeful of an easy victory. Malloki was trembling with tears streaming. "NO! Not FAIR! Not fair NOT FAIR NOT FAIR!" He was promised a game! He would have his game! Even if he had to turn on the allies forced upon him. It was dangerous to keep the malicious man pent up for so long.

New orders came, but they found Malloki had gone deaf to words... "Malloki? Malloki! Stay with me. You're going to go with these--"

The manic man held up a hand to cut this messenger off short. "As a wise, dried-out sponge once said... Ehem...

"I NEEEEEEEEED IIIIIIIT!"

The words were howled at the top of his lungs. The sound of bloodlust earned a cringe from even the most battle-hardened warriors he was supposed to call allies. weapons were raised, bystanders were ready to defend themselves against the one-man mutiny.

The act was not needed. In the next breath, Malloki was gone. He had enough of this "good-boy" act. The man burst through ranks, stumbling over his own feet. "Game! I need it! Gotta play!" Soldiers blurred into the walls, walls blurred into dead streets. The sound of disgruntled voices died out and even those that had given chase were quick to give up on this lost cause.

By the time Malloki stopped to catch his breath, he was all alone. Well... almost alone. While he had not been listening to the orders, he had unwittingly followed them. Spread out to attract opposition. "OH BOY! Look at you guys! You... You're ... noobs..."

Excitement quickly turned into disappointment. His Eye for Power did not have these creatures glowing. The gnarled beings were, at best, a faint glimmer. Foot soldiers at best. Pawns.

Malloki's shoulders slumped. The quicker of the ghouls raced forward and clawed across his face, yowling as its own was torn open to match. "I was promised pros... I was promised champions!" The second attack came in the form of a powerful bite to his shoulder. Another yowl as Living Voodoo reflected the mark.

"If I have to deal with you LOSERS, might as well just END IT NOW! Not even worth my time!" Even as he complained like a child, his hands rose, one over the other. One hand drew back and earned an audible click. Not long after, the pistol itself appeared. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

The illusion was brought to his temple and with a squeeze of the trigger. His vision blurred, his body felt numb and his ears filled with unending ringing. The ghoul that clawed his face fell immediately after, landing in a pool of its own brain matter. It did not stand back up.

Malloki sniffled. "So boring... So dull... You're already tired! And I bet you'll need a nap too..." The second ghoul was already moving in, aiming to shred Malloki's leg. With that imaginary pistol aimed just under his jaw, another little squeeze had that ghoul jolting upwards before falling to its back.

More horrible creatures were drawn by the sounds. Some fast, some slow, all happy to tear Malloki limb from limb. The sadomasochist had to enjoy the little scraps of pleasurable pain he could get... before they took their naps, like the little baby noobs they were.

 

[Karl Jak]

Battle Update!

Nearby Unmade Carnval fortifications have started firing at/into the Necropolis with the intended purpose of destroying the city and entombing defenders and attackers alike within the rubble.​

 

[Altanis]

This was it. They had finally made it. Not only into enemy territory, but they now stood on the doorstep of one of their cities. The moment that Altanis had been awaiting, and which nearly every last member of her unit had been waiting for.

They had been taken by surprise when the sky had split open and dropped a hail of devastating artillery on them. Losses were incurred, but it served only to make them angrier as they pushed through it.

The walls of the city itself had been split open by explosives from their dear General's army. With that opening, the hellspawn and her revenge-driven group slipped inside with all the speed and stealth they could muster.

"You've all waited long enough. Now it's time." Altanis grinned, her clawed fingers slowly flexing and curling into fists. "Ready your weapons...and prepare to demolish everything. Anything in this city that is not one of ours is just another target." She gestured forward, her arm sweeping over the grim, depressing scene before her. "We don't need to concern ourselves with things like...collateral damage, in a place like this. It's a miracle it's even still standing at all. So let's give it a hand and bring it all down."

At her sides, the two who had oafishly proclaimed themselves as her personal aides shifted in place, some mixture of anxious and eager energy suffusing them in an almost palpable aura. They, along with all other surviving members with her, quickly began to ready their weapons; the haggard, ragged crew of mostly inconsequential looking people began to shed the messy shroud of cloaks and 'normal' clothes to reveal the proper equipment underneath.

Crackling hisses of energy rose up from many of them, as weapons suddenly emerged into the open air and came to life. Flickering spurts of red and green, blades and firearms and blunt weapons and primed explosives. The entire batch of them was more than ready, in spite of the long painful trek to get here, to dive immediately into the fray. Every one of them would probably throw their lives away just to take down even one of the monstrous things in this city with them, she knew. The more they could take down without dying along the way the better, of course...but none of them would do anything like 'be afraid' or 'retreat' here.

It was exactly the kind of desperate, crazy individuals she had requested.

Their fervor was quickly stymied, however, when one particular thing became apparent: the city was virtually deserted.

"They have no soldiers stationed here?" Altanis murmured incredulously, when the report was finally given to her. She had expected, at least, for them to have had at least some forces stationed here. At least some small contingent, even if one only ready to flee and relay messages and information to other nearby groups. So far, however...it seemed only a token group, likely the very ones who 'lived' in this city, were to be found.

"Enough of this... Spread out." She waved her hand dismissively. "At least twenty of you in each group. Remain within eyesight and earshot of the next nearest group. Comb through every last inch of this city, if you have to, until we exterminate the filth here down to the last."

This order was met with a rousing chorus of shouts and an immediate, eager response as they all scattered and broke off into groups, quickly slinking and running away to disappear into the ruins. They had had plenty of practice running and hiding, and evading detection from things that wanted to kill them; now they just had a chance to be sneaking up on things, rather than sneaking away from things. They would be fine, she knew.

She proceeded forward in what was essentially a straight line. The wreckage and decaying skeleton of the city before her was slowly ground and pushed aside by a directed wedge of telekinetic force, boring a clear and easy path right through the mess — and making a terrific noise, eliminating all chance at subtlety. Perfect for drawing the walking monstrosities of this city right toward her.

It worked without fail, as within minutes the ghouls of the city began creeping out of the ruins. Mindless things, they just charged and clambered directly into the fray. Like wild, starving beasts presented with what they thought was an easy meal.

Some of the quicker ones did manage to successfully pounce and crash into the ranks of her forces...but they were almost immediately ripped apart. Picked up and thrown off of their downed comrades, or else just repeatedly shot stabbed and bludgeoned until the pinned ones could force their way free. Many of them, however, never even got within spitting distance before being brought down.

It was a grisly scene, made all the moreso by just how much everyone involved enjoyed it. Even the ones who were borne down by surprise attacks never let their manic grins fade; one man who nearly lost an arm from a ghoulish denizen springing out from under a mound of vehicle wreckage only howled in deranged laughter as he checked the offender with a shoulder barge and crammed his entire grenade-holding fist down the thing's gullet. With a simple, sing-song "Ka-boom!" from him...both he and the offending ghoul went up in a messy explosion, scattering bits of meat and metal shrapnel and wreckage everywhere.

But their good fortune didn't last forever.

"Fuck! More of this shit?!" someone screamed in surprise and pain as an explosion rocked the street, and a shower of debris and dirt plumed into the air. Several more such blasts tore a zig-zag line across the city, seeming to shake it to its very foundations. "These bastards are firing on their own shit!"

Altanis ground her teeth, her eyes flashing in pure rage. So that was it. The same ones who had fired on them as they approached, she had no doubt. The pitiful garrison of mindless unmade freaks they called a militia left in this city couldn't possibly hope to overcome or push back a concentrated effort from a force of this size. They weren't meant to. They were just left here as a distraction...and the real threat was whoever was manning those damn guns. With that much hell and death raining down over the city, it wouldn't take long at all for them to start bringing down the ruined hulks of the buildings, and turn this entire place into one giant mass grave!

There was only one choice, here... If Altanis was to simply abandon this foolish endeavor and flee to preserve her own life, she would no doubt lose all credibility and respect with anyone who did survive. Simply sticking it out here and pushing on with their former objective would simply lead to them all getting buried and killed. And loathe as she was to actually admit it, she still needed them under her command, for now.

"All of you! Regroup!" she shrieked, her voice rising as high as she could muster. She had grown accustomed, once, to shouting over exactly this kind of chaotic mess in the past. To letting her voice carry to thousands, over the constant onslaught of clashing swords and exploding spells. That had been many thousands of years ago, and even trying to raise her voice to such an extent now made it come out hoarse and rough, and strained her throat painfully. "We will not be buried here!"

But she wasn't about to let that stop her.

She pushed forward, out of the immediate danger that was the shadow of huge buildings...and planted herself steadily. All around her, the frantic soldiers under her banner came scrambling. They weren't afraid of the Unmade and dying to take the fight to them...but they were certainly afraid of and opposed to the idea of dying to something as ridiculous as being buried in artillery fire and collapsing city. They couldn't even take any enemies with them, that way!

"The fuck do we do now?!" Morgans shouted as she slid into what little cover could be had behind a partially collapsed building. "We ain't got the right kind of umbrella for this kinda storm!"

"This isn't the time for jokes, Morgans!" Faurin snapped, and he flinched away from the claw-laden tentacle swipe of one of the city's inhabitants before promptly emptying the remainder of his rifle's magazine into it.

"Calm yourselves," Altanis hissed. "Focus on keeping these beasts away and getting the rest of our allies close." The hellion slowly raised her hands, hands clenched into fists. "I have a plan to handle this...sudden change in weather." She scowled darkly, teeth bared in a silent snarl as she turned her eyes upward.

One of her arms slowly rose up, hands uncurling to splay her fingers wide and bare her palms toward the sky. A dim haze of red fog began to pool around her arms, slowly shimmering away into the air above her. Her eyes narrowed in focus, the brilliant gold seeming to shine in the dark. Around her, the wreckage began to shift and groan, the sound of stone and steal sliding and grinding against each other.

Dust and grit began to float in the air around her. Small chunks of stone and steel and glass started to lift up, as the larger stonework of nearby buildings began to crack and splinter.

Huge stretches of the street itself, massive metal beams and supports from the buildings, entire walls and chunks of structure slowly tore free of their wreckage tombs, hurtling into the air. Each and every one of them trailed streamers of the same dark red haze pouring off of Altanis's hand. They hurtled into the air, bursting into shrapnel and smaller chunks of debris and rubble. An improvised, but devastating hail somewhere between a shotgun fit for giants and anti-air guns, turning the sky above her unit into a smoking haze, and screening them from any direct hits by the hail of projectiles.

It wasn't enough. The momentary reprieve was enough to stave off and keep them safe from one wave of the raining death...but it bought them only enough time to fully regroup before the sky light up once more with another incoming wave of raining death.

"Hell...they're really trying to bring this entire city down!" one of the nearby soldiers shouted. "Isn't this their own territory?!"

"Like they care about that! They just wanna get rid of us!" another one screamed.

"Tch...so be it, then..." Altanis growled. She threw her other arm up, and sucked in a deep breath, turning all the power her mind could muster up toward the sky. "If they won't stop firing on their own...I will simply have to make them stop..."

A chorus of confused noises went up from those around her, many of them turning their eyes to the sky, only to be utterly baffled by what they saw.

Gleaming overhead, high above the city, the projectiles raining down toward them had begun to slow...and then stop altogether. Struggling against gravity and their own momentum and whatever force held them there, they tumbled and spun end over end in place.

Altanis grunted, her arms trembling and beads of sweat beginning to form on her forehead. She slowly curled her fingers inward, into clawed shaped as if grasping hold of something...and rotated her arms about. Overhead, the trapped projectiles began to come to a complete halt.

With a noise that slowly built up from a dull growl to a roar of effort, the hellish tactician swept her arms down to either side. A heavy cloud of crimson miasma poured off of her, and the sky lit up with an identical haze as the caught missiles above were sent flying. Flying right back the way they had come, sailing on high arcs back above the city and out of sight.

All at once, the strength fled from Altanis and she let out a heavy gasp as she nearly collapsed, arms dropping to her sides. "Let us see...how they react to having their own fire turned back on them..." In spite of her exhausted state, she cackled madly, with a deranged grin.

Altanis has used one application of focus to dramatically bolster her Telekinesis. She used it to protect herself (and the rest of her unit), and to grab the incoming artillery fire and turn it away, back at the fortifications that fired it.

 

[Orion]

Buu grinned, laughing maniacally, and clapped his hands. Slender, pallid-fleshed freaks crawled out of the ground, baring awful teeth and fangs. The soldiers all around him screamed and opened fire, but Buu didn’t feel any fear at all.

He was excited.

“Buu kill those yucky things?” Buu said, hopping from one foot to another. He was certain he knew the answer.

“Yes! Yes! For the love of God, yes!” one of the soldiers shrieked, eyes wide.

Buu leapt forward, slamming his gloved hand into the maw of one of the monsters. Its skull flung backwards into the ground, making a sickening crunch. Buu promptly stamped on it, creating a puddle of viscera and bone fragments.

Another sharp toothed horror lunged at the Majin, its jaws wide open. Buu punched up into the beast’s abdomen, feeling the thin bones beneath shatter, making it double over his fist. Grabbing the monster by the throat, Buu laughed like an insane child as he birthed a ball of energy in his free hand and stuffed it into the monster’s mouth. The monster’s limbs flailed wildly as Buu forced its jaws shut. Light illuminated the monster’s skull like a light bulb until it exploded like a fleshy balloon.

“More! More!” Buu yelled, throwing the headless corpse away. “Buu want more killing!”

Relentlessly, Buu threw himself into the seemingly endless parade of demonic creatures that streamed out of the earth. Fists flew and found wonderful flesh to pulverise, stiff bones to snap, sharp claws to break. Buu laughed, unhinged. The soldiers around him kept their distance, but they backed him up, firing upon the enemy horde that surrounded their pink skinned ally.

Buu grinned as a bloody chunk of flesh stuck to his bloated cheeks. This is what he had wanted to do ever since he had been let out of his ball. Pure, unrestricted carnage. Pummelling living creatures to a pulpy red paste was what he did best and what he loved best. Finally, after all the boredom, after all the forced marching, he was having fun!

One of the beasts got past the soldiers’ gunfire and nicked Buu’s cheek with a claw. Buu delivered a final devastating punch to an unlucky monster’s throat and puffed up his cheeks, expecting his flesh to pop back into the groove. He frowned when nothing happened. He tried again, pushing his skin tighter. Still the cut remained.

“What... what you do to Buu!?” he screamed, turning on the monster that inflicted the damage. “Buu make you dead!”

Buu had been lost in a long forgotten reverie of murder and death, but a familiar sensation flushed that out of his consciousness – rage. He grabbed the monster’s arm, and pulling against the socket joint, ripped the limb free. He stabbed the monster through the ribcage with its own severed claws and threw a punch hard enough to shatter its spindly teeth.

Another horror took advantage of Buu’s single-minded focus and scored a slash across the top of his arm. Another found purchase along the Majin’s back.

Buu’s anger spiked. It pressed against his already pathetic emotional coping mechanisms until all he could feel was red-hot anger. He gritted his teeth and growled as steam shot out of the holes that lined his arms and head. This wasn’t how things went! Buu was invincible and everyone died when he told them to!

“No!” Buu screeched, swinging his head antenna around in a circle. A pink glow encapsulated its rounded tip. “You no hurt Buu no more! Turn into chocolate!”

He whipped his head forward and a pink beam of energy unleashed from his antenna. The approaching row of freaks vanished amidst the crackle of magic, and with a pop! they were replaced with round chocolate orbs that clanked to the ground.

“What the fuck?!” one of the soldiers yelled.

Buu’s anger wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t enough. He clenched his fists as more steam gushed from his enlarged pores.

“Buu!”

The pink Majin turned to the familiar voice. Matt gunned down another monster, his face slick with sweat.

“Matt?” he said. “What wrong?”

“Buu, the towers outside are firing in at the buildings! These... things are trying to collapse everything on top of us! You got to do something!”

“No!” Buu said, his fury motivating his pig-headedness. “Buildings no fall down! Buu squish bad monsters! Buu make them dead!”

“OK then, follow me!”

Matt ran out of the area. The furious Majin Buu ran close behind, purple cape billowing in the wind.

 

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
Assassination Attempt!​

Chaos.

The whole situation had gone from ‘conquest of city by numbers’ to what felt like a literal fucking apocalypse.

The Hell Divers two groups had spread out throughout the Necropolis. While that purpose had initially been to destroy the unmade ‘citizens’ quicker, that also meant there were less clusters of them to be struck by the fel bombs that descended upon the city.

Despite the situation turning sour quite abruptly, the leadership of the Hell Diver forces were resourceful, and they were doing what they could to mitigate loses as they tried to purge the city. No one was quite sure if there would still be a city after all was said and done, but at the very least, there’d be fresh piles of monsters.

Strazio Rockwell, knee-deep in the fucking chaos and loving every damn moment, swung his plastech knuckles and relished in the satisfying pop of the unmade monster as its thoracic cavity burst apart like a watermelon crashing onto some pavement.

The last thing that the general had expected on this particular day was to be jumped by a group of previously cloaked figures. A knife popped into his abdomen right before the white-haired warrior threw off the mob of assassins.

Glancing down at the knife, Strazio yanked it out and sent it through the forehead of one of the Miniskirt assassins. “Worst fucking mistake you’ll ever make,” he snarled before someone with a flamethrower laid into his from behind, melting through his protective gear and scalding the flesh beneath. Gritting his teeth enough to nearly draw blood from his own fucking gums, Strazio turned and saw that his assailant wasn’t some dope with a flamethrower.

It was a teenage girl.

“Worst mistake of your life.” Strazio growled before rushing forward.

“Try me,” Azula screamed as she launched another burst of flames. Strazio, forearms up, charged downstream and drove his boot down onto the girl’s foot. That scream was distinctly different from the last one, but the wild-eyed teenager tried to jam one of her still-burning palms into the general’s visage.

Strazio grabbed the young woman’s wrist with one hand and then aimed a plastech fist the rest of the appendage. Azula, seeing the contraption, managed to deflect the swing, but even after his punch sailed wide of the target, the white-haired man, using his extended arm as a fulcrum, merely drove Azula’s forearm back until both of them heard the distinct snap of bones breaking.

Glee on his manic visage, Strazio was three seconds away from tearing out the little bitch’s throat when two assassins armed with an I-beam smashed him it into the side of his skull.

60 Hell Diver soldiers have been killed.
50 Miniskirt Armada assassins have been killed.
(yes, I focused on the intimate part of this exchange, but there was nearby shenanigans as part of the overall operation)

Strazio has a Major and a Minor Injury -- second-degree burns on his back and forearms (Major) and a fracture to his skull (Minor). We’ll just assume he doesn’t give a fuck about the stab wound.

@Azula has a broken arm (Major Injury).

@Strazio Rockwell has been knocked unconscious and captured by the Miniskirt Assassins.

 

[Karl Jak]

The operation should have been a simple one. After all, there were no indications that the city was defended by soldiers of any variety.

And then the Carnaval had opted to turn their weapons against the city, but at the end of the day, can you really blame them? They are the monsters, after all.

No, the worst development was the absence of Strazio, who had been missing now for several hours.

Understanding that the Necropolis wasn’t some sort of holy grail at the end of their journey, Altanis understood what had to be done, barring the miraculous resurgence of the general.

Now the general, the four-legged tactician wasted little time in organizing the network of soldiers now hunkered down throughout the Necropolis. Messengers traversed what remained of subway tunnels, and visual signals were exchanged when underground travel was not a possibility.

While this territory was technically their own, the Hell Divers understood that they were still very much ‘behind enemy lines’. Separated from her Commander and with Strazio missing in action (none of the Hell Divers wanted to assume the worst about their general), General Altanis would be left to lead the charge, and the ancient being was more than up to the challenges that surrounded her.

***

Battle Update

The battle (and the square) will go to Hell Divers.

The Necropolis remains under fire from nearby structures, although the victorious Hell Divers now have access to means to secure themselves (ie, no more losses) until they move out from this position. The city can’t serve any purpose, shelter for Hell Diver’s aside, so long as the Carnaval structures can bombard it.

General Strazio Rockwell will be unaccounted for once the fighting dies down. If someone wants to roleplay searching for him, I am not going to object to that. For the moment, the two units will be merged into “Wicked Lake of Fire” under now-General Altanis. Feel 100% free to reorganize as you please before setting out on your next adventure.

Naturally, the Hell Divers can roleplaying searching through the city for signs of Strazio (or perhaps a corpse – obviously they don’t know). That will take at least one 500-word roleplay and then it’ll be RNG that determines the results.

Casualty Report​

Unmade Carnaval:

All militia/citizens in the Necropolis are dead.

5 soldiers in each structure firing on the Necropolis were destroyed. (@Arthur Morgan)

Hell Divers:

“Lake of Fire” has suffered 250 casualties (this does not include the soldiers killed in the F2F with the Miniskirt Armada).
“Something Wicked” has suffered 100 casualties.

Malloki suffers a Minor Injury after a mortar shell blasted nearby. Fortunately for Malloki, the soldiers who fired the round suffered the worse for it

 

[Altanis]

In the wake of the incident, Altanis took only a moment of pride in their victory. It had been all but guaranteed, even with the bombardment from nearby. The pack of monstrosities housed in this village barely amounted to a stumbling block, and had been dealt with without incident. It was a victory that was all the more lackluster for just how...easy it had been.

The only point of pride was in it being the first actual victory that she had had in this event. Her first encounter with the unmade forces.

It had ended on an especially sour note, however, with the realization that there was one worryingly important figure among all their ranks unaccounted for. All the casualties thy had taken, reducing their number by almost a third after the troops left behind at the village of Tulum, only to take out so few enemies in return and have their leader missing in action. For all of his abrasive and insufferable personality, and his insatiable anger, Altanis knew that Strazio wasn't going to be so easily killed by something like this. To such an end, she had given swift and simple orders.

"Scour every inch of this city, if you have to. We will find what has become of our dear, missing General." She sneered lightly, at the word. She had no time to openly relish in her 'promotion', as much as she felt is was only natural. There were more important matters at hand, for the moment. "If he is still alive, then he has been prevented from returning to us in some fashion. If he has been killed, then a corpse does not simply disappear without trace even in such hellish conditions. If he has been captured...then there will be some traces to be found of where his captors have taken him."

"Move carefully!" She swept an arm out, directing to the city at large. "Stick to cover, and do not expose yourselves to excess fire. Move in small groups to present harder targets for our enemies. Ensure every group has messengers and communications equipment, and stay in touch." She clenched her teeth, scowling darkly. "If you encounter any other enemy forces within this city...alert the others immediately and then move to exterminate them. We will make sure to stamp out every last trace of them here. Now, go!"

The command was mostly unnecessary, and only served to finally give the signal to the others to break off into individual groups and scatter into the city. Many of them gave her wary looks, those formerly under Strazio's direct command not quite trusting her just yet. She hadn't shown the raw...presence and bearing to earn their respect by force yet. But in a grim place like this, no one stepped up to challenge her or disobey. Whether that would hold out once they were in a less 'immediately under threat' situation remained to be seen, however.

Altanis's mind spun as she wheeled about and dove into the rubble herself. She took her own group to begin scouring the city for any traces of their former leader. For all that she didn't actually want to find him...the sheer idea that he might have been killed or kidnapped spurred her on. It would be incredibly easy to twist such an event in her favor, and spur this group into a more directed fervor that would more eagerly and readily follow her orders. It just needed the right evidence to get them all on the same track...

 

[Karl Jak]

The Hell Divers in the Necropolis were shaken from their fitful sleep by the sound of explosions throughout the underground subway tunnels that many of them have been using to traverse the city.

Reports have started to filter in that many of the tunnels and their entry stations exploded overnight. It is unknown if this is due to active bombardment, degradation related to earlier mortar strikes, or something more sinister.

Morale in the bunkered troops continues to decline, nevertheless, as many will start to whisper that they fear they will literally be entombed beneath the city streets.

 

[Altanis]

"So this is their game now, is it..." Altanis growled darkly. "Too afraid to confront us directly, so they resort to these methods to try and break us down..." She clenched her teeth, grinding them together as she stared at one of the ruined entrances to the tunnels below.

"So be it."

She turned away from the scene of the ruin and stalked away. Orders barked out swiftly, to all of those under her command, to gather up everything and prepare to move out. While they had whatever advantage the cover of night still afforded them, they would retreat from this worthless city and leave it as a tomb for those already fallen.

"Every one of you that falls here is one less weapon to strike back at those responsible!" She seethed, fury almost visibly radiating off of her. "Remember that, and move carefully in spite of the haste this retreat demands."

 

[Karl Jak]

'Seemingly devoid of soldiers', the Necropolis stands as a smoldering ruin of whatever glory it may have had as an assortment of already post-apocalyptic skyscrapers.

A silence fell over the cities, as the mortars moved to the south of the city before falling silent after days of steady usage.

It'll take a lot of tender love and care to make this assortment of ruins anything functional.

The Necropolis, technically 'owned' by the Hell Divers, has been ruined more or less beyond the point of no return. Travel through the square will take TWO movements, rather than one, because of how difficult it will be to navigate through the ruins.