APOCALYPSE 2123:The Void War

[Grandsword]

Spoiler Show

~The Story~
the year was 2112 A.D, humanity's technological advancement had hit an all-time high, and scientific explorations have traversed the world over, revealing historic secrets almost everyday; however on march 8th 2112; a discovery that would change the world was made deep under the island of Manhattan, in the region known as the Mohegan void trench, when deep sea oil drillers drilled through a loose layer of bedrock and exhumed a mass of glowing purple stones, and upon digging deeper found a layer of a pitch black sheet-like metal; scientists later determine that these two materials have amazing qualities, the purple stones, named voidstone ore due to it's area of discovery seemed to act as a self contained thermo-nuclear reactor, releasing insane amounts of energy when exposed to magnetic fields; while the metal, aptly dubbed black metal by metallurgists was a light weight, high density, high durability material that could easily be shaped to fit any necessary project.
these two discoveries changed the world, and in little more than a year the USA's technology revolved around these two materials, with every city, including it's new capital, farside city,a sparkling urban jewel floating far above the Mohegan void trench, it's rejection of gravity a symbol of the technological breakthroughs that voidstone had given the people. this advancement came not without a price, however. unknown to most is that widespread use of voidstone ore had mutated humanity on the genetic level,
causing one in every fifteen people to become darkloids, twisted creatures of superhuman attributes that reproduce through a "corruption" plague.
the darkloids proceeded in spreading their plague over the course of a decade, expanding into a hive mind led by a mysterious figure known only as voideus.


our story begins in 2123, where an explosion in a voidstone refinery had showered the nation in a mutagenic cloud, resulting in the emergence of a faction of metahumans called the void's fist, who seek to secede from the U.S. and create a country solely for powered individuals; plunging the nation into a three way war between the government, the void's fist and the darkloids for control over the now chaotic land

in the central hub of the ruins of grand central station a mass of darkloids of various shapes and sizes were gathered around a makeshift podium, upon it a seemingly humanoid figure stood, this figure was pale skinned with black hair accented by a single tuft of white that frames the left side of his face with fair skin and amber yellow eyes, he was dressed in a simple black sleeveless jacket featuring white highlights on the collar and on a single line on the front, this was opened halfway down, revealing a well-toned but lean chest with a silver cross necklace dangling loosely from his neck;on the bottom half of his body he wore black slacks with silver plated black metal armor on the left leg and a string of belts loosely tied to the upper part of his right leg.
a simple pair of silver plated black metal armored boots completed the outfit; the figure would perfectly pass for being human, except for his arms, for the black and orange chitinous material that they were coated in marked him as a darkloid. "today is the day, my brothers and sisters!, today for the first time in ten years we shall walk in the sun, free from the shackles of the collective! and i swear to you that no ocean will contain us! No more borders around us! no ruins below! no ceiling above! today! we! claim! our! destiny!!" the figure spoke to the gathered hoard, his words calm and measured as he drew his blade and destroyed the barrier that sealed off the ruined station from the rest of the world and led the darkloids out of the station, many of them covering their eyes from the sun's rays as the figure looked around, amazed at the beauty of the surface world of NY, it's buildings shining with a relflective black gleam in the mid-day sun

​

 

[luna008]

'Atleast im still free like this!' Flourence thought as she jumped over rooftops. She was still in her work clothes but that didnt bother her, free running was still free running even in jumpsuits. With as much time as she got for free time, she couldn't take a second to do anything but what she absolutly wanted to do. And they didn't count training as work time so-

"Hiyah!" Flourence quickly cut at a target as she ran past. She had set them up on her running route to save time. She could hit a target while moving now...just it couldn't move at the same time...It was aleast progress, right? At the end of the session, Flourence sat where she could look out over the city. "It's me agasint all of you, I'm not going to lose..."

 

[Grandsword]

"such beauty..i'd almost forgotten.." Leon whispered to himself as he turned to the winged darkloid at his side, marveling at how human she appeared, despite only being a shadowfiend, after a second he cleared his throat "dusk, i want to lead a detachment to the rooftops. i have no doubt that balus and his knightmares are fast on our trail ; we'll need the high ground.; we quite simply don't enough soldiers to defeat a unit of knightmares in a straight fight, so we'll use gorilla tactics, your unit will pick them off from above, while the ones with me will flank the knightmares to prevent escape. i'll deal with balus..

 

[luna008]

"Of course my lord, I shall do my best, as always." Dusk told him, then she gently placed her hand on his cheeck, careful not to scratch him with her claws, "Just be careful, alright? Wouldn't want our fearless leader to die now would we?" She smiled at him, then turned and jumped off the stage, using her wings to glide down into the crowd of darkloids, in which they parted for her. "Okay troopers, follow me. And try not to die, alright?"

Dusk sighed inside her head. She didn't like direct battles, even if it was gorilla tatics. She would much rather sneak up on them and slice them with her claws. She could still do that now, but with out the stealth, it would'nt be as fun. But if she did the mission well enough, she would be able to futher get close to Leon, so a boring mission like this would be worth the trouble. Who knows? maybe it would be funer then she thought.

 

[Shinra]

mmm another boring day...

Renn had enough of protecting for once, He always thought it was a good thing. But he was still as vengeful as when he came home from his first day at grade school, the words still rang through his head: "Swirly!, Swirly!" He came home with a wet head because he was targetted and taken to the bathroom and lifted by his legs into the toilet.

He almost drowned as well, but as soon as they left he was left alone to recover.

"Grrr."

He was greeted by a knock on the door, it was the attendant sent by the captain who leaded the troop Renn was supporting.

"Come in."

"Uh... Anjeru?"

"Yes?"

"The meeting is about to start. Report to the briefing tent."


Renn walked in to see the captain and three soldiers arguing...

"Trusting the Sellsword again sir?"

"We have no choice, Angeru has proven to be our most effective infiltrator, and I remember you having a tail of darkloids that had us lose almost 30% of our force or need I remind you?"

"Those were Shadowfiends! I couldn't hear them."

"That's why I say Anjeru should go... His higher training allows him to detect Shadowfiends."

"Listen..." Renn said. "I have a method that'll allow skippy here to do as he wishes here and prevent a tail like I can." He pulled out a glass vial with a dark ore crystal the size of his first finger inside. "The cryst is sealed to prevent Voidore infection, also dispite Shadowfieds are quite adept at hiding themselves. They cannot hide the one thing that sets them apart, Voidore radiation. Voidore crystals are naturally purple, but I've observed that upon the presence of more Voidore or the presence of Darkloids, they grow brighter. trace your trail with it and you'll even know if Shadowfiends are tailing you."

Renn tossed the crystal to the troop and left.

 

[Grandsword]

just as dusk led her brigade to the rooftops, a twin set of blades pierced through the ground, followed a chorus of guttural roars as a group of 10 knightmares leapt out of the bowels of the earth, their demonic appearance and burnt gold armor an intimidating sight as Leon stood behind a barricade and rose his blade to the sky "alright! peon squadron!, hem them in with your arm extension! shade units, link up and make a cage around them; neophyte squadron!, pick off their armor with your scythes! we gotta give dusk time to organize her strike!" shouted Leon as a cloaked figure shimmered into existence behind him in a purple haze "troublesome traitorous pest, today you die!!" the figure said as he moved to plunge his sword into Leon's unprotected back "not today balus!" snapped leon, blocking the blade with his arm, sparks flying from the impact as leon pushed balus away and pointed his sword at him

 

[luna008]

Dusk had just gotten onto the roof when she saw that Balus had already made it. This meant Dusk had to hurry or her part of the plan would be usless. A part of her wanted to go down and help Leon. Partly to help him and gain favor, but there was also another reason, to both wanting to go down and help Leon and why she didn't like direct battles. The best way Dusk could descibe it was there was something primal in her that wanted to tear somethign to shreds when it came to direct battles.

It wasn't darloid cuased, it had always been there since as far as she could remember. Her turning just strengthed the urge and increased the violence of it, juging by the carnage she saw she had done when she had regained her senses after the turn. When she was doing assinations, she could keep control, but this wasn't an assanation, this was battling, so time to do the next best thing to assinations.

"Quickly get in your postions!" Dusk commanded, " We must help our lord before he is over runned!"

 

[Mistearea]

"While those words are very...inspiring, I would suggest that you get up and actually fight. Darkloids are all over the place."

Kael smiles as he places an old and wrinkled hand on the shoulder of the woman, but then he notices that. He concentrates on the hand just enough before he watches the skin freshen and be filled with youth to match the rest of his body. At this point it matches everything on his body and even inside. At this point even carbon dating methods would show that he's only twenty years old, but only he knows that he's really closer to seventy years old. With that he finally lets go of the girl's shoulder before she notices anything about his age and looks out at the horizon where he sees the early signs of fighting.

"If I had to guess, it's a significant size of Darkloids going up against the normal humans."

Kael finally looks over at the remains of the dummy and realizes that the young woman was really just practicing. He smiles as he thinks about how he used to do just that when he was younger, but that's what happens when you are born just to be an officer in the military. With that he pulls out one of the handles that he keeps on him at all times and tosses it into the air a few times. If he was to makes the blade appear now, it would most likely be made mostly out of the ore that changed all of their lives. But that's only if he activates it at the center of the battle. But with that he puts the handle away and turns back to the woman.

"Or do you feel that you need more training?"

 

[luna008]

"While those words are very...inspiring, I would suggest that you get up and actually fight. Darkloids are all over the place."

When Flourence heard those words, her first instinct was to find someplace to hide until the embarrsement went away, but since that wasn't going to happen, all she could do was bury her face in her hand. Ever since this whole thing started, the number of people sneak up on her while she was in her own little world kept increasing, and at really bad times to boot. Not only was it annoying, it was also bad since that meant an enemy could sneak up on her to, and not just shadowfiends. Well, atleast she sorta knew the person that disturbed her thoughts.

"O-oh, hi there Mr. Megano, so nice to see you." She looked back at the man standing behind her. He looked only to be a year or two older then herself, but Flourence still felt the need to call him Mr. out of respect. Guess it was just the vibe he gave off. Then Flourence noticed him taking a look around her training area.

"If I had to guess, it's a significant size of Darkloids going up against the normal humans."

Flourence laughed quietly, embarresed again. Truth was this was were she fought a losing battle agasint herself. All those marks on the surronding area was where she misshandled her sword, and if it wasn't for her power, her body would look simular to the rooftops. Flourence figured Megano meant humans that weren't in the army and had no way to defend themself...or atleast, thats what she would guess in his place. Of course, then he had to realize this was Flourence's training area and does some fancy trick with his knife...great...

"Or do you feel that you need more training?"

"Well, um, you see..." Okay, so there happened to be another reason why she trained alone. Back when this whole mess started, there was a whole lot of people to train. Not enough teachers to go around and not enough dummies to pratice on. That's when they learned about Flourence's gift. It wasn't like they stabbed, shot, or used their powers on her (well, there was one time, but everyone agrees that was an accident) she was mainly used in unarmored training and the like. All she suffered was some short term bruises, a few short term broken bones, and suffered a trip through a wall (the guy wasn't used to his super strength) all in all, it wasn't that bad. It could have been worse, they had to send some people out onto the field that had to learn from experince, so being the pratice dummy advioded that situation and gave enough time for them to find out about Flourence's lock picking skills.

But most people knew her power and knew that they could go ruffer on her then a usual person, and since she was training with a sword and had no urge to be cut by anyone, she didn't want to take the chance of getting a more tougher teacher. But...Megano seemed nice, strangly in a kind old grandpa way (Flourence would never tell him that though) so maybe he wouldn't try to make the training as intense as possible? Besides, she heard he had a simular gift as her, so maybe he knew what it was like?

"O-okay, sure. Why not?" Flourence told him, while thinking, 'Please go easy on me'.

 

[Mistearea]

Go easy on her? Not likely. He's the type that likes to push people beyond their limits so that they can obtain much greater heights than what they originally thought possible. That's how he got to where he is currently. With that he flips the handle in his hand once more and catches it. When he catches it a blade forms out of nothing to show the blade of a Gerber Mark II extending roughly nine inches out. He smiles as he thinks about how it could be considered inaccurate, but that's not the point right now. At the moment he flips the blade to be held in the reversed grip and lunges at the woman standing before him.

He plants his shoulder hard into her ribs, but doesn't let her fly away from that attack. Instead he grips the collar of her shirt and slides his left foot sideways along the ground. The heel of his boot slams into her ankle with enough force to break it, but he knows that won't be an issue with her. In truth it was just to knock her off balance so that he can pull her over his body with his right hand. Normally he would have planted the knife into her stomach, but that's not what he's aiming for at the moment. Instead he just pulls her collar the moment that she has her head aimed directly at the ground. This causes the girl to slam onto her back, but he does take it a little easy on her by making it only her own body weight that fuels the impact. But that's not all. As if a guiding force for the throw he places the blade against her throat and smiles.

"Remember to always keep your balance. And enemy throws that off, and you're dead."

 

[luna008]

It was hard for Fluorence to tell what was going on in Megano's mind as he got out his knife and did another fancy trick to open it, then to be held in a reverse grip. Then he lunged at her. His shouder rammed into her chest, but it didn't knock the breathe out of her, and that worrid her instantly. If they don't try to knock the breathe out of you, something worse was going to happen. She briefly saw him grab her collar before she noticed his left foot was moving towards her right foot, and not in the "sweep her out from under her feet" motion either. Shi-

SNAP

There went her ankle. She had a few moments to wander if she would black out from the pain since this was the first time that particular ankle had been broken, before the pain hit. Well, the good news was that she didn't pass out, bad news was she really wanted to pass out cause now she was going to fall. Atleast Megano made sure it wasn't her head that broke the fall, but her body hitting the ground caused the air to come out. While she laid on the ground trying to get her breathe back and trying not to cry or cry out from the pain, he just placed a knife agasint her neck and smiled.

"Remember to always keep your balance. And enemy throws that off, and you're dead."

Flourence didn't care if the guy had a knife to her throat, she grabed him by his own collar and pulled him down close to her face, so if he couldn't see her eyes before, he could certainly see them now. "Listen you jerk, the next time you want to use me as pratice dummy like the rest of them instead of actually training me, a warning would be very much appricatied. Now will you kindly get off of me so i can set my ankle before it heals like this and you have to break it again?" She said in a calm angry tone, even though she wanted to shout every profanity she knew at him. Then she noticed some red at the top edge of her googles. She touched the top of her head and found that her hat was gone so her hair was out around her like she had landed really hard on her head instead and had been bleeding. She let go of megano and buried her head in both hands. This day couldn't get any worse...

 

[Mistearea]

Kael just smiles as she thinks that he meant to use her for his own training. Sure, it's something that most of the others do thanks to her healing capabilities, but that's not what he was aiming for this time around. But instead of getting to his feet to allow the girl to stand up he reaches towards her ankle and lightly presses his fingers to the flesh. With his touch alone the bones slide themselves back into the original positions and mend themselves making it seem as if she never broke her ankle. Kael just smiles as he gets to his feet and sets the girl onto hers. It's only at that point that he notices something strange about the woman standing next to him. She's missing something that blends in so well, but is somewhat essential for her appearance.

"Alright, I'll get the hat for you."

With that in his mind he charges at the hat as it drifts to the ground far below. As if acting for a suicide he leaps off the edge of the building and keeps his eye on the prize. It could be the old training that he's undergone, but he keeps his body rigid as he extends his arms to his side so as to help him "glide" to the hat. But that's impossible for a human like himself. Despite his precautions he begins to fall again, but he does manage to grab hold of the piece of headgear. That just leaves the issue with the landing. If he could keep the age regression up just before he slams into the ground, he could easily survive. But that's harder than it looks even for him. Instead he focuses on the railing for a part of the fire escape on the building that he just left. It's better than nothing.

He watches as his designated railing rapidly approaches him from below. At the last second he thrusts out his hand and locks his grip onto the metal bar. Because of this he slams into the bottom of the platform with a sickening crunch and snap coming from his arm and his ribs. He quickly places the hat on his own head and pulls himself up with his good arm. He ignores the pain in his chest and instead runs a mental check to see what all he broke. He know that he managed to break three ribs and his arm in three spots, but the odd injury is that the socket for his shoulder was broken cleanly off. He just sighs and he lets his own ability run what it wants again and feels the pain vanish. With that he makes his way back up to the roof of the building and presents the hat to the girl.

"The least I could do after breaking your ankle like that."

 

[Grandsword]

directly below the two void's fist soldiers Leon and balus clashed, the voidstone shards in balus's blade glowing as he charged it "after i kill you, I'll break that bitch of yours, i'm sure she'll make a good Pet..." he said to Leon who apparently wasn't pleased with balus's plan, and pulling rage into strength forced him on the defensive from Leon's heavy strikes as he swung his sword in a flourishing combo ending in a spartan kick that sent balus through the buildings wall, Leon then positioned his blade so that the guard acted as a knuckle duster turning to face balus he smirked "time to fly, you S.O.B!!" said Leon as he rushed forward, the massive blade of his sword cutting a deep line behind him as he uppercutted balus , sending him up through the roof, the noise of cursing obvious to anyone remotely nearby as balus's body flew upward and through the roof before gravity went into effect sending him on a plummit towards the rooftop

 

[luna008]

Instead of listening to her, Megano just healed flourence's ankle himself. So maybe he was nice....maybe. Atleast her ankle didn't hurt anymore. "Thanks..." Flourence told him as he helped her up. As he stared at her trying to figure out what was diffrent about her all of a sudden, Flourence tried to find her hat. Oh, there it was, slowly floating to the ground below. Nice, now she would have to climb down, but that was fine. She need some time to calm down after the "fight".

"Alright, I'll get the hat for you."

Flourence was about to tell it was fine and that she could get it, but then he had to jump off the roof. "What the hell are you doing!?" She shoughted at him as she watched him fall, trying to do some gliding trick. He grabbed the hat, but at this rate he was going to become a greese spot on the ground. That is, until he grabed ahold of a fire escape. Flourence could hear his bones break from where she watched and her stomach turned. She watched him apparently heal himself, then make his way back up to the rooftops and hand her her hat back.

"The least I could do after breaking your ankle like that."

Flourence stared at him for a minute before saying to him, "You are insane aren't you." Though she only got to "insane" before there was a loud crash. Flourence looked up and saw a body come crashing towards them.

 

[Grandsword]

balus attempted to right himself in midair, but swore when he saw the woman gazing up at him "crap, i've been spotted!; if lord voideus finds out.." he thought with a shudder, visualizing the things that the slumbering horror was capable of as he activated his stealth field, the characteristic purple haze obscuring him as he adjusted his dive to land blade first on top of the observer that saw him

 

[Mistearea]

Following her gaze up to the source of the distraction, Kael instantly knows what exactly what is coming towards them. He's seen countless of their kind before so there's no mistaking it. But his mind doesn't focus on that right now. No, instead his mind races at the prospect of a hidden attack. If it wasn't bad enough with all of the dust, the man turns his body into a type of haze that becomes very hard to see. But that's perfectly fine with him. As long as he knows the original position of something flying through the air it's easy to calculate where they will be and at what time. That's one thing that makes aerial attacks one of the worst types of attack of all. Sure it might be good to add a little extra power into something, but it leaves you wide open for all sorts of counters.

In one swift motion the air clears once more as Kael pulls out both of the handles from his jacket and activates them. This time instead of daggers forming, the blades elongate into the blades of traditional Ninjato, swords of Japanese origins but considerably straighter than the blade of a katana. It's with these weapons that Kael pushes Florence out of the way of the attack and uses the blade to not only top the initial blade attack, but to also push the man to the side. Normally this would not be very likely to happen due to the straining of the muscles in his arms, but for every muscle that is pushed to its limits and repairs are needed, Kael just accelerates the time on his arms to repair the damage and make himself just that much stronger. That's the glory of being able to control the age of his body.

 

[luna008]

So the shadowfiend thought that he could just dissapear huh? Thats what he thought. Flourence quickly pressed a button on the left side of her googles and everything changed to infrared, including the shadowfiend. He maybe be able to dissapear to the human eye, but his body temperture was still there. It kind of surprised her at first cause the shadow fiend looked almost human. But it was still aiming to kill her or Megano so she couldn't let her guard down. Flourence pulled out her own sword, ready to block it if she could, but then Megano had to push her out of the way. She landed on her butt a foot way as Megano blocked the shadowfiend and pushed him away. This was starting to become more then a little embarrsing. First he breaks her ankle, then he risked his life for her hat, now he was protecting her from a shadowfiend. Flourence had to prove that she wasn't some useless dead weight!

"Mr. Megano!" Flourence shouted at him, "If I tell you where he is, do you think you can fight him? Cuase I can see him." If Megano couldn't fight the shadowfiend without seeing him, then Flourence had just opened herself up for attack. But she couldn't go back now. Her survial depened on Megano, so Flourence was willing to make the shadowfiend even more willing to kill her if that meant they could deafeat it.

 

[Grandsword]

leon looked up through the hole balus's body made to see him fighting two humans, a woman and an older man, "Mr. Megano!" he heard the woman yell to the older man "If I tell you where he is, do you think you can fight him? Cuase I can see him."

"can't have balus killing any bystanders, it'd make my message of peaceful coexistance a total flop.."" he thought, cupping a hand to his mouth "don't you worry yourselves up there! that bastard's mine!! he yelled, as he tossed his sword to a wall and used it to perform a wall run towards the rooftop

 

[Mistearea]

Kael just smiles at the sight of the first creature being pushed away and flexes his arms a few times. He admits that it feels a little weird having this build again, but that's to be expected. It's been roughly fifty years since that point. But his concentration is broken by the appearance of yet another creature. Kael looks at this one with a healthy dose of intrigue. Judging by his speech patters and how he seems to be connected with this other one, a person would think that this newer one was maybe one of the Voids that happened to get a nasty physical mutation. Hey, it's been known to happen. But with the way that he's being with the original combatant makes it obvious that he's not human and he's part of the only other group.

"...This is strange. This guy looks too human..." mutters Kael to himself.

He finally looks over to Florence and shakes his head as her question finally strikes his mind. He didn't want anything to happen to the girl, even if she is rather hard to kill. The only thing about it is that she's better suited for running, not fighting. They never got to that portion of her training. As a result he puts the blades away in their respective holsters on his hips and motions for the girl to run. But thinking that she might not like him enough to listen to his orders, he decides to make the order verbal. "No, this guy here," he points towards the one named Leon, "is something different. It's safer if you report this to the others while I try to collect data."

He finally looks to where the other person was makes a note that things would get hard with the other person attacking him if things turned into a battle. But knowing him, things were absolutely going to get messy. Afterall, he needed to figure out what this new guy's combat parameters are. With the current data on this guy's type, he could be the weakest ranking for their kind. But then again, the weakest wouldn't be able to make a jump like that. It was obvious that this one was quite powerful. But that didn't explain the human appearance. Do they eventually return to the form that they abandoned however long ago? This just brings up the question if they also go through the ranks like a type of promotion through metamorphosis. No, they're more like a highly intelligent insect population. They are most likely forced to stay at the level that they start at. But what about this guy?

 

[Grandsword]

upon seeing Leon begin his accent up to the roof and hearing the man order his companion to tell others of him and Leon, balus made to rush the man and skewer him while the pesky women with the infrared goggles was occupied, only to be stopped via leon's clawed hand to his face, the stronger and, as balus had to grudgingly admit, more powerful archlord holding him a matter of at least 2 feet above the ground, and by his face no less "give it up balus, we both know that you can't win against me in a straight fight, even when i'm holding back..; and believe me, despite my desire to unleash my Exceed on you, I Am holding back.."