BATTLE
(OOC: All characters on the players side were rolled for to see how they'd come out of this battle, it's not me playing favourites)

In the streets of Melded in the shadow of both the Great Flying Battleship and the Castle of Doomforall, Cardinal Khloe finally gives the signal. The Canon Cannons begin blasting out pulses of pure white light at the great ship, and even as the sky is filled with brilliant silver fire, the great battle for the fate of the Multiverse begins.

The upper level of the battleship is mostly flat to allow other vehicles to land on it, and the group from the Castle arrives in a haze of teleportation energy and quickly scatter to avoid any attack that would hit them all. The Trans-Solar Host summon their sunswords while Anjushree establishes a thick force bubbles and barriers to provide everyone with some cover.

* * * *

Beneath the decks, Lord Vengeance hears the sound of the bombardment and orders his guards into position. Lord Vengeance himself heads onto deck with Jorges, Gaston, Tiberius, the Power Armour and Cleo. Zizzor and Dave Poots head to the observation deck. Professor Vengeance sits at the end of a long table in the room adjacent to the newly vacated control room, his face filled with intense plotting. There are two figures left in the control room, the Spider-crab who is busy at control panels monitoring the situation, and Leland Gaunt who has stopped behind for a moment, apparently to adjust his clothing slightly. He extracts a lighter, a ballpoint pen, a cufflink and a cigarette case - all gold plated - from his pockets and fiddles with them a few moments. The Spider-crab continues monitoring the screens right up until his carapace bursts open from a single close range shot to the back of what count's for a Spider-crab's head. Leland leaves the room, and heads up the stairs onto the deck.

* * * *

From the control tower Dave Poots begins to assemble the footsoldiers of the fight - dozens of chimerical skeletons begin to form on deck - a strange army made of years of bulk purchases from the abatoir mixed in with a few more exotic specimens to add a bit of flavour. The first wave falls forward, but the Trans-solar host takes this on, their Sunswords blazing with solar-flame. This is not a fight to be wasted on lackeys like this - the Rift-Resistant and the Spanish Inquisition will be focusing on the true forces at work here.

* * * *

Even as he comes out onto the deck - the shape of Lord Vengeance is changing - his finery being enveloped in the thick inky black power of the rift - cloaks billowing and the extravagent cane turning into something with an altogether more sinister aspect. What is more surprising though, is that Eudial exhibits powers to match, and even as black armour forms over Lord Vengeance, the raging fire Eudial has wielded in the past is now very distinctly rift energy, and already hurled as a beam of fire towards the would be Tyrant... Rift flies everywhere, and the two seem to lose interest in the rest of the fight...

Even as his foe steps on deck, Twitch hurls down one of his Flash Bombs, catching himself and a few of the Trans-Solar Host in its blast. The Host as beings already very fast appear merely more perky, but Twitch moves at supersonic speeds - blasting through skeletons using his ion field to turn him into a disinegrator missle, heading straight for Tiberius.... only to bounce off him harmlessly - he notes the energy emanating around him, remeniscent of Zizzors glow on the deck above... protecting him. Compromising, he barrels into the deck beneath the dragon-man instead, disintegrating that causing the hybrid to drop down a deck onto his back with a shriek of rage. Finding the other key players similarly protected, he realises he can't do anything until that crystal is taken out.

Elsewhere in the fight, Spod and Playzooki dive towards Gaston as their first opponent, smashing their way through shambling skeleton beasts to do it and find the muscular brawler a tough opponent, and stronger than either of them, even combined, however, wrapping up the Hunter with his nostril hair while Spod begins to pound him, for now they seem to be making some progess...

Jorges Remillard finds himself drawn against Aurelia and the Spanish Inquisition but the deadly fighter proves to be more than worth of his reputation and even outnumbered 5 to 1, still manages to hold his own, although he is surrounded by an aura matching the energy signature of Zizzor in the tower above that seems to allow him to turn aside blows that should be deadly - with a sidestep he dodges a blast from the prismatic dagger of Wentworth the Mammoth and disarms Imogen the Leprachaun before delivering a powerful kick to her that sends her soaring through the air. Wentworth swoops up to catch her, but he tosses a grenade of an exotic energy which causes Wentworth's bubble to implode, knocking the pair unconcious. Jorges charges towards them, sabre drawn, ready to perform a coupe de gras...

Phantasmic Slammer - much lower to the ground than most combatants and thus surprisingly stealthy, has approached the power armour from behind, and with a powerful flip manages to hurl the suit into the air - however with surprising grace, it twists in midair to land on its feet and levels it ludicrously oversized gun towards the robot. However, even as it charges up, Cleo strikes, and reveals her true colours - psyblasting the armour apart. Almost immediatly it tries to reform, but Cleo counters and using her powers - mindblasts the parts until they stop moving...

* * * *

Leland creeps up the stairs, golden gun loaded and to hand, he rounds the corner to the upper room of the tower, and withotu hesitating - blows a hole through the edge of Dave "Xenothraxus" Poots. The Boneomancer drops dead. Unfortunatly, even as he goes in for a melee attack again the other occupant of the tower with his ocean empowered artifact, Zizzor, hovering emotionlessly in the air as he is, fires a massive energy blast in a 90 degree cone at where Leland Gaunt sands - blasting half the tower - and Leland with it - out into the air falling down onto the city of New Melded.

* * * *

Cardinal Khloe didn't have time to react - her Canon Cannons had taken out the weapons of the battleship, and she was just praising the faithful for their success when the remains of the tower dropped across the line of artillery and the people operating it, burying Khloe and her comrades under hundreds of tons of twisted metal...

* * * *

With Dave Poots dead, the skeletons no longer reform when destroyed, although there are still hundreds of them around, the fight is now winnable...

Epsilon catches Tiberius climbing back out of the pit, and spins his hand clean off with his Vortex blade, severing the taloned hand pulling himself out of the pit, but not before the second hand grabs his ankle and pulls him down, slamming his chassis against the deck. A second wild slash with the Vortex blade leaves a long deep cut across the dragoncs face.

Marisa has sighted the target protecting the crew and moves in to strike she wades through the battlefield, destroying Skeleton warriors with her sorcery and finally begins to ascend. the tower quickly with magical assistance, to where one of the key players of this battle still resides. A torrent of "beestings" slams into the side of Zizzor, splintering the odd Gemstone entity into hundreds of lifeless shards on the floor. Across the battlefield, the strange haze protecting many of the combatants fades.

In the high power battle in the air above them, Lord Vengeance is gaining the upper hand against Eudial - though their power levels are very similar, Vengeance has had much longer to refine the use of those powers over a much longer period compared to the inexperience of Eudial. Every fiery torrent is expertly deflected, and Eudial is kept very much on the defensive, forced to conjur shields of rift to protect the fight fown below at the expense of her own advantage. Lord Venegance is merciless, powerful and winning...

Breaking free of Playzooki's nostril hear with a sudden burst of strength, Gaston is suddenly upon his opponents like lightning. There is no time to react as his mighty hands grasp Spod's head and twist. There is a thick snap, and the body of Spod slumps to the floor. Suddenly recalling the voice of spectral Morgan Freeman, so long ago now, Playzooki knows what to do. With every ounce of belief in himself... Drawing the massive GNUTECH XL5 "BUFFALO" CANNON from his back while Gaston is mid gloat, he fires a single spectaular blast and MMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO echoes across the deck as Gaston and a few skeletons caught in the blast radius are sent hurtling towards the deck.