Defeat The Godmodder

[JOEbobobob]

[1] never giving up! nay! not doing that! Nothing I can do, you say? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. I'll do something! definitely! so there!
I arrive in the dream world and... hm. on the one hand, i have this first idea which involves an actual dream, but on the other hand its totally not going to work. instead...
I wonder if Morpheus would like to be a player?
I go to Morpheus, where he lays deep asleep (shouldn't he have a dream self appear here then? :onlyhalfjoking: ), and I look at the Tether that connected him to me (who was connected to communication and hence all players) for DREAM freeactions.
And I pour energy into it. No, more then energy. I pour in player power, of course, and that's all well and good. But I also pour in some of my MIND. Just a bit. Only 10%. if I'm not done the round before the Godmodder returns, I'll probably retrieve it. But I do it. And if the Godmodder shows up early, and I lose it? Fine. That's a risk I'm willing to take. And if you think it's worth the risk, and you have to pay up, you can't really complain, can you? Either way...
Once I make sure the Morpheus is very securely connected to this tether, and the tether is securely connected to me, I wake up and take shelter in the stairwell. And, well, that's my action.
[0] Dreaming may be ineffective, but there's other stuff I can do. If the above did not consume my mental energy (though i would allocate this "action" there, if it will improve my odds), I look through the hoard of shadows for one which seems to be moving with less vigor, and also which has no identifying characteristics. The goal is two-fold; one, to reduce physical risk to myself, since the more they struggle the harder it'd be, and two, to avoid messing with any quests similar to Piono's.

 

[Ranger_Strider_]

Arsenical! Go load the Ranch Blender. Everyone! HOPE with me!
1) I run to the wounded Tranq drone and shank him. I hold onto him and use his body as a shield.

 

[pionoplayer]

I have a hunch... HOPE

Piono finishes assembling the machine (was gonna have it take 5 rounds but the boss is gonna be over by then). It looks sort of like a mix between a cannon and a harpoon, except instead of a massive spear, the thing in the barrel of the "gun" is a large cage, reinforced with the strongest metals that Piono could find in the assorted robot parts. It wouldn't hold up against the entire throng of shadows... but that's not what he's trying to do.

Piono turns back to the swarm of shadows, and clasps his hands together, then separates them, causing a pulse of air in the middle of the horde of mindless player-husks. This knocks over several shadows, but not enough to really slow them down. One shadow in particular though, has something else happen to them. One shadow, wearing a necklace of fused ruby and sapphire is launched up into the air, up above the heads of the other shadows, and Piono slams on the lever of his contraption. The gun lurches backwards from recoil as the the cage shoots out on a chain and grasps onto the shadow in the air.
Unfortunately, Piono has miscalculated the trajectory somewhat, and the cage falls to the ground before it properly clears the horde of shadows, and a couple of them latch on at the cage gets dragged rapidly up the stairs past the suppression bots before they can fire on the shadows. Piono grimaces and points a finger gun down at the shadows, the tip of his finger glowing, and fires off a bolt of light that launches one of the shadows off the cage and back into the throng, then he blasts another one, but then the cage comes all the way up and there are still 2 shadows left hanging onto it in addition to the one inside the cage.
They drop off the cage and make a beeline for the entryway leading into the boss arena to try and get at ender_smirk, only for a wall made of glowing triangles to appear in their way, they turn around and snarl, only for one of them to get grabbed by a hookshot that pulls it towards Piono, who punches it in the jaw, dropping it to the floor, dazed. The other charges right at Piono, who gestures, causing a chunk of wall from the back of the stairwell to slam into it's head, sending it cartwheeling away into the crowd, roughly around the time that the shadow at his feet starts to rise, Piono picks it up by the scruff of the neck, and FALCOOOOON! PAAAAAWWWNCHes it back into the crowd, before turning back to the captured shadow, which is trying fruitlessly to break out of its cage.

Piono looks up at the shadow with pain in his eyes. "This isn't how I saw our reunion going... I know you don't understand me right now but... I promise it's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. I'm going to bring you back, and we're going to kill the Godmodder. And then everything's going to be okay."

 

[Redrover1760]

I use SPLASH, I splash a bucket of water at the Gatekeeper, that I secretly picked up from earlier, making it extremely vulnerable to Electricity attacks this turn and HOPEfully messing up its circuit boards or something.

Free Action: HOPE

EVERYONE FREE ACTION HOPE THE COUNTER IS MOST LIKELY COUNTING THAT.

Free Action 2:

I list my plan for defeating the Gatekeeper.
Step 1: People who use Disco Squares need to have their attacks boosted by other players.
Step 2: Free Action Hope because its likely the Counter on the robot correlates to that.
Step 3: Hopefully get out before Morpheus dies and be the Big Heroes.

 

[EternalStruggle]

ES uses his sword to slash the Sniper Gun to bits, attempting to fight off sleep as he does so. He's not going to HOPE because that's just him, also they need to confirm that theory first.

 

[That-Random-Guy]

I claim a Disco Square and HOPE.

For my action, I pick the weakest Tranq drone (or, failing that, the Dual Gun Hinge) and set about smashing and electro-damaging it.

CRACK CRACK CRACK SMACK *SHATTER*

 

[Algot]

I claim a disco square and rip the gatekeeper in half. after that I sew it back together again, backwards. the fact that part of it is backwards disables its do not self destruct sircuit causing it to explode

 

[Bill Nye]

"I was going to claim a disco Square, but I will let someone else take it."

Free Action: I have HOPE that we will win this
Action 1: I think It is time to go on the defensive. I create a magical Barrier that will block the attacks of the Gatekeeper.




"hey... what's going on here? why am I no longer in control? Anyone...? Why would he do this?"

 

[Crusher48]

Free Actions: I take cover behind the Gatekeeper. This seems illogical, but big things tend to have a hard time turning around to shoot behind them. I then check the counter, HOPE, then check the counter again, on a hunch.

Action: I mind-control one of the Defunct suppression bots, activating it and turning it to our side. I then have it and the other newly activated defunct suppression bot initiate a team-up attack on the Gatekeeper, using a Disco Square for bonus damage.

Wait, what? How do you mind-control a robot? Robots aren't mind-controlled, they're hacked!

Well, both robots and people have brains relying on electrical impulses, and I've mind-controlled some stranger entities that have completely alien brains. I think mind-controlling an electronic brain is easy at this point, especially given that they don't have any innate shielding. If you want, you can just call it technomancy instead, but I think mind control is a funnier description.

 

[Cephalos Jr.]

Free Action: I broadcast reassuring images, increasing HOPE.
Action: I grab a Scratchspear+1 and run up to the Gatekeeper. I then leap up, stick my hand to its leg, and pull myself up, creating handholds by sticking myself to it. I climb up to the sniper mount, then start climbing on the gun. As I do so, I have to stay steady while the gun moves around. However, I reach the firing mechanism of the gun eventually. So I find an opening and spike the Supermassive Sniper Gun with a Scratchspear+1. For one turn, the Supermassive Sniper Gun is disabled, or else heavily weakened. Then the Scratchspear+1 will probably shake free, but it works for now.

 

[Alastair Dragovich]

After feeling the Curse of Repetitiveness take effect over the co-opting of the enemy suppression bots, I should have felt concerned. I would have tried to do clever things to get the others online.

Instead, I felt a powerful, hot feeling surge through my veins. I laugh mildly sardonically. Even now, in a serious situation like this, I'm still a bit of a overly dramatic tool.

It doesn't matter, so long as I can be a tool to fix the situation.

I stand up from my work and walk over to Arsenical. "I claim a Disco Square. This groove I feel... is the beat that marches ever onwards, after all."

I tap the mindless Arsenical's form (and Karpinsky's) and take the blender once it's done. I go to the right spot to fire at the Gate Guardian. My hands grip the Blender, unknowingly leaking my meager player power into it. It smells distinctly like anime.

"You know something, Cybil? I'm not stupid enough to deny that I probably would be tempted by that. That the despair might cause me to panic and take such a deal. That my fear would cause me to work at myself, year after year after unknown year to break down my guilt, to convince myself there was nothing to be done."

I place my hands in their proper spots, shifting my legs to hold my ground.

"And yet, somehow.... YOUR RESPONSE REALLY PISSES ME OFF!"

I press down the buttons, feeling the sheer POWER that came from the love and care that was put into this. The effort, the sweat, the materials.... they all THRUM to life as the blender charges up.

"The Boss fully healed itself, so you gave up? You knew the crystals and guns don't restore themselves, but you didn't even try to dance them down? You..." I swallow, my mind swimming with a potent mix of emotions. "YOU TOOK THE SACRIFICES AND INFORMATION THAT YOUR FRIENDS GAVE THEMSELVES TO FIND OUT AND SPAT ON THEM ALL! Words don't DESCRIBE how little of a shit I give about your sob story!"

The Blender fired, causing my braced feet to shift back. I was now gripping the blender so hard that blood was trickling down as its powerful blast fired at the Gate Guardian.

"Did you honestly think that any of this was about doing whatever feels easy!? About what our base instincts scream for!? About mere comfort and immortality!? YOU IDIOT!"

I poured my all into this attack. My Love. My Anger. All of my Sorrow. But none of those were really what I felt. Or, rather, none of them were the source of my one thrumming feeling.

"THIS IS ABOUT MOVING FORWARD, EVEN WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE THE FUTURE FOR ALL THE PAIN! THIS IS FOR VENGEANCE, TO KILL A MONSTER WHO KNOWS NOT BUT SUFFERING! THIS IS ABOUT KNOWING, EVEN WHEN LOGIC AND FEELING ALIKE, THAT THINGS CAN GET BETTER, EVEN IF IT'S JUST A FAR OFF DREAM! THIS IS ABOUT TRUSTING IDEALISM AND NOT GIVING A SINGLE DAMN ABOUT PESSIMISM OR NIHILISM OR EVEN REALISM!"

I began to feel the backsplash of the ranch drench myself as I pushed the blender as hard as I dared to go. I also felt the Shadows claw and grasp at my ankles as I was pushed back to the staircase. I didn't budge an inch.

"THIS IS ABOUT CONTINUING TO DANCE EVEN WHEN YOUR LEGS ARE TIRED! THIS IS ABOUT STRIKING A POSE, EVEN WHEN YOUR BODY CAN'T HANDLE IT! THIS IS ABOUT LETTING THE MUSIC FLOW THROUGH YOU EVEN WHEN YOUR MOOD IS AS DARK AS PITCH! THIS.... THIS IS ABOUT FUCKING HOPE!!! THE GREATEST GROOVE THERE IS!"

The stream of ranch glowed for a second before slamming into the Gate Guardian in one last burst! The force of the HOPE imbued attack cracked the armor open, ranch and hope alike seeping into it. Their nature, antithetical to its own existence, caused it further damage even now that the Ranch Blender had finished firing.

With a few breaths, he gave the ranch Blender back to Arsenical. Using the last of his energy, he then pointed to the sky and struck a groovy pose. The fiercer side of his emotions spent, he now looked like he was only just STARTING to boogie down!

 

[Kyleruler]

I claim a Disco Square!

Following the hunch of others, I HOPE - no, am DETERMINED - that we'll win this!
(Yea this still counts as a hope Action.)

Through the sheer power of disco, Michael Jackson music begins playing as I face the Gatekeeper down. This was something I recognize - disco! Yea, I never really paid attention of when Mom played it on the radio, but nostalgia now fuels me!

Dashing straight towards the Gatekeeper, the blade switches rapidly between various neon colors, settling on a eye-blinding teal before slashing directly into it. Whipping it out of the Gatekeeper, I begin slashing into it at many various different angles - up, down, sideways, upside down, and eventually, a direct thrust into the Gatekeeper's centralized core. Due to RedRover's earlier action, this should deal massive damage!

Summary -
- HOPE! DETERMINATION!
- Slash into the Gatekeeper with the power of disco and it being wet!

 

[CaptainNZZZ]

Ah once again I've used up all of my loaded spears for my Flaming Spearnir. Gotta reload... (x1)

As I'm at least somewhat vulnerable while reloading I attempt to take cover behind one of those Defunct suppression bot. (Free Action)

 

[The Ego]

I grab the pan-spacial battery from the destroyed crystal it was attached to. It then bends the fabric of space to plug into the Chain Electroscythe +1, boosting it some more. I fire some finger guns and a wink at Xerath before duck and cover'ing.

HOPE.

 

[Krill13]

Eyowe rushes through the entrance to the room and into a Disco Square, claiming it.

Y'all know what time it is. Yep time for some Sonic Shooting shooterino with the boost of a Disco Square. Eyowe fires the Sonic Shooter at the Gatekeeper. It's immune to MUSIC attacks, but probably not SONIC attacks.

HOPE is HOPE

 

[Captain.Cat]

Free action:

Now that Power Crystal C has been destroyed and no more Power crystals remain I decide to rush up to the Supermassive Sniper Gun.

Action:

Standing along side EternalStruggle as he is attacking the Supermassive Sniper Gun I start attacking the Supermassive Sniper Gun as well with my Knuckleslashers.

 

[The_Nonexistent_Tazz]

[A] ATTACK
[FREE] HOPE AGAIN

"Operator, I believe it is group consensus that the Gatekeeper's weakness is Hope. Please continue to channel that particular power," Omniglot says.

Leah claims Disco Squares, or tries to because like everyone is doing it. She takes aim at the Gatekeeper and fires everything she has-that is to say, she fires the Serious Sizzler. As it's pretty Serious, the flames already do some pretty serious damage on the Gatekeeper, causing it to melt and crack from heat application as the jet of flame kicks it up to full intensity. The fires burn and burn, and warp, and twist, and confines itself into the form of one Serious Sam, who is pretty serious about using that big-as-gorilla depleated uranium cannon to fire depleated uranium cannonballs. Made of FIRE! Unfortunately for the Gatekeeper, Serious Sam is even more serious about just using the fact he's made of fire to beat the ever-living-tar out of the Gatekeeper.

Leah keeps burninating the Gatekeeper away, with Omniglot and her wings on support fire, as her arms do the stretchy thing and morph into more flamethrowers-a nozzle for each finger-creating an eleven-strong flame crescendo. The Gatekeeper gets rather tired of all these sick burns, only to come down with the common cold (irony) from how sick these burns are, forcing them to stay in bed and not attack Leah mid-combat animation. The Gatekeeper curses Dinkleberg-screw that guy!-as they lament the fact they can't sleep while the beds are burning and can't dance while the world is turning, or at all because the Gatekeeper does not have the ability to do dances as a gigantic sphere of doom, which is starting to become a gigantic sphere of being melted into a pile of slag.

Leah keeps pumping it up, using her foot to pump more and more of the infinite hand sanitizer into the flamethrower for ammunition via some complicated contraption made through Player Power, enabling her to effectively give herself infinite ammunition as she fires more fire into the fiery inferno of fire that is the Gateekeper. Four is death, causing the fire to turn into a facsimilie of death, who as a facsimilie is really only a hooded skeleton with a scythe, but that's all you really need to get ahead in life, isn't it? Or, not-life, as the case may be, as the fire-skeleton-reaper thingy is both a skeleton and made of fire, neither of which are alive, but what is alive is the Gatekeeper and Mr. Fiery Reaper Dude is here to fix that with a frenzy of scythe swings, which are totally ineffective as scythes are such bad weapons that I take this time to complain about it to Moniker, like if it isn't for the fact Mascythe was 'Legendary' and thus has magical powers I probably would just laugh at it, scythes are terribly melee weapons! Thankfully, this guy's scythe is made of fire so the lack of cutting force is compensated for more burning force.

The Gatekeeper is really starting to feel the heat, which is odd as they do not have feelings, being a cold, dead robot with a cold dead heart. But wait, didn't it lament its inability to sleep earlier? They did! Oh no! Their life(?) is a lie! The Gatekeeper abruptly goes into MID-LIFE CRISIS mode, which causes them to get distracted from stopping this nonsense by abruptly wishing to carry out their urge to make a painting! With tranquilizer fluid! Alas for players everywhere this thing has infinite ammo, but it still distracts from, you know, shooting at Leah to make her stop firing more fire as it pulls out tiny robot arms to set up a conveniently fireproof canvas and beginning the process. Eight seconds later, it realizes that this is stupid and it should probably deal with Leah, and probably the rest of the Players. Leah responds by dealing herself into a Poker Game, satisfying the requirements, and somehow continuing to fire at the Gatekeeper as she casually plays some cards.

"Operator, your ability to hold down a nozzle for an extended length is admirable, but given the nature of player powers as this unit understands them, we may be benefitted by an alternate attack pattern," Omniglot quips.

Leah morphs her hands as a response to grow a few more free hands (yes, really), so she can still hold cards, her flamethrower, and kick a nozzle up as the additional hands generate additional flamethrowers, which set themselves up in a wide curved formation around the Serious Sizzler, and begin firing more jets of fire. This time, however, the fire curls and twists around the Serious Sizzler rather than going directly into the way-too-hot-to-handle-directly Gatekeeper over there, creating a rather-large drill like pattern around the Serious Sizzler. A few seconds later, the 'drill' blossoms outwards into... A flower. A big orange flower. All the fire stops-the Gatekeeper looks delighted! Flowers! Its favorite. The Gateekeper approaches and uses its special nostril-facsimilie apparatus, specifically designed for this very instance, to get a big whiff!

This turns out to be an insanely massive mistake-this Flower isn't a regular flower at all; it's known as a Phoenixflare Flower, which, on the one hand, is obviously like the big daddy of all Fire Flowers. It's like if a Fire Flower got an Invincibility Star on top of being a Fire Flower-this is what we're talking here. That includes taking damage if you touch it. But there's more, way more. In the multiversal language of flowers, Phoenixflare Flowers, for representing a Phoenix and their eternal rebirth from ash, also represent Preserverence, Determination, and HOPE, which may or may not be the Gatekeeper's weakness. (If not of the Critical Soul kind.)

Also it's a big fiery flower that Leah's using to blow violet-hue fire directly into its chassis as it does so, which is also kind of bad. And then the big fiery flower turns into a big fiery flower monster, which is even worse (for the Gatekeeper), as it detaches from Leah's Flamethrower to directly accost the Gatekeeper with leafy appendages and, you guessed it, more fire.

Leah finishes all of this chichanery off by looking at her bayonet, shrugging, walking up to the distracted Gatekeeper, and promptly firing more Fire into the Gatekeeper, causing the Gatekeeper to pause at the revelation that Leah didn't use the bayonet and just did even more fire like wow is that her one gimmick, causing it to facetank a massive firey explosion as the Phoenixflare Flower decides to explode into flames, as it is famous for exploding into flames at a moment's notice.

Leah stands back, confident in her extreme damage, if nothing else.

[x0]? Leah Hopes that this attack is a really good one that can really damage the Gatekeeper really hard and prevent Factory Reset from ever firing off by turning it into scrap metal way before then.​

 

[Paradoxdragonpaci]

(x0)HOPE THAT ALL SHALL BE WELL AND THAT THE FUTURE WILL ALWAYS BE BRIGHTER THEN THE PAST

(X1) I Attack a Tranq Drone with the Plasma Orange,a Glorious Orange Plasma Star is born around the Tranq Drone,just for a second,before it collapses to focus directly upon the Tranq Drone with the Heat of a Newborn Star

 

[Ender_Smirk]

"Guys, I have an idea about the shadows, so can I have a rebreather? I can swim indefinitely if I can breath down there, can bring a piece of bread, and I doubt the Shadows can swim as fast as me, especially with the most recent version of Minecraft's swimming upgrades. I am only a nuisance until this boss is gone, and I can get over them into the water, and might be able to lead them out into the sewers and out more permanently if I have long enough. Any objections?"
He moves into position near the allied suppression bots, prepared to help them hold the lines even if no one is on board with his plan.

He RAGES at the whole current situation, and the fact that he apparently can't get the boost he would need in raw power to create a temporary portal even if they can get to the correct room.

 

[GoldHero101]

Free Action Focus - HOPE: I have hope that we will make it through! SO MUCH ENERGY IS COURSING THROUGH MY BOOOODY!

Action Focus - LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!: I DANCE! I LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY into everyone's face.

 

[General_Urist]

I decide that with how important lil' Drainy is, it's best to give him some upgrades that improve his survivability. For example, the cheap chinesium plastic casing gets replaced with carbon nanotube-reinforced titanium and all the moving parts get their shock absorbers much improved.

Free action: Some sneks with wizard hats appear. NOPE ROPES OF HOPE!

 

[Evonix]

It's not enough to simply escape the dungeon, it must be destroyed in the process, of course the godmodder could probably remake it with little effort but annoying him is cause enough. To begin I extract the infinite hand sanitizer from my suit(finding somewhere dry to work first of course) and from that the infinite hand sanitizer itself, locking the dimentional bracer around it(why would I wear it? it's not a bracer as in the armor piece) next, allowing me to move the source around and manipulate it. Once it's set to my satisfaction I add the temporal essence as I control the bracer to allow it to mix in an unusual way, normally accelerating a process comes with the cost of it ending sooner but it's irrelevant in this case. To complete my preparations I sacrifice my ouroboros as is tradition when dealing with infinities, cutting through it over my work and breaking the loop, due to it's unreal yet real nature it's not just superstision, of course even if it was when dealing with player powers even stuff with no basis in reason can have effect. I move my hands closer on each side to it, bringing everything to a point inside the bracing. I bring them apart pulling the spacial knot into being, what was once a trickle is now a vast flood. Of course just being able to light the surface on fire would be dull, rather the knot is delibratly uneven, generating all sorts of interesting whorls and by the time the hand sanitiser exits the bracing it's a fine, dense mist. The whole thing is designed with the ventalation system in mind, if it works properly the whole atmosphere of the prison should cycle through the knot and become saturated, just waiting for a spark to set off an immense fuel-air exsplosion that'll last forever, or untill some moderatly goddish entity comes around to clean it up, whichever comes first.

Also I claim a disco square if there's one left, since I own the detonation a bit of triple damage should help.

 

[Spicy Serious]

Spicy glances at the time on his imaginary watch, standard issue for Cultists, wow he let time slip by, no time to slip that mega-attack in now before the Turns roll around. He shrugs, settling to instead PREPARE for the Turns ahead.

[x1] Gathering up his last ounces of Mana at his fingertips, the trickle of energy held in a finger-tip sized ball by Power as Spicy strains out every ounce of Mana left in his nearly-barren reserves. A shakey breath leaving him as he finally bottoms out, the hollow-void omni-present as he takes his next actions. A flick of his hands sends tendrils shooting from the orbs, orange and blue mingling together as Power works to sustain Mana, the tendrils hang stiffly in the air for a moment, before Spicy raises his arms back a quiet grunt of exertion leaving him as the oddly-heavy tendrils swing around. Spicy stares down at the Gatekeeper, hitting it with a glare before shifting his weight forward, bringing the stiffened bands of Mana down onto the automoton with a rush of air.

There's little sound as they strike the metal, instead silently wrapping around it's hull, before branching out like the roots of an aged tree, and pulsing a calming blue. Spicy lingers here for a moment, unsure of the next step...before setting his mouth inn a thin line, he'd have to make due with the meager Power he has. He focused, Power culminating as he uses it to see through the Tendrils, machinery littering his mind's eye as he begins to push. Push is Power from not his body, but from the source currently residing inside the Gatekeeper, the Mechanical Runes currently sitting idle. A subtle sparkle leaves them as they begin to creep their way along circuitry, guided along by Spicy's vision of the bot's internals. He maneuvers Runes into all the appropriate areas, before forcing Power into the new array of Runes littering the Gatekeeper's internal body, the Power mimicking the Mana before it...which holds off the reaction for another Turn.

Spicy glowers at the waste of a Turn, but refocuses his mind. He has HOPE that all of htis setup will pay in dividends, and now that Xerath's confirmed that Alice's alive, more HOPE than ever that he'll be reunited, and that he'll keep his promise.

And Spicy...he can't quite find it in himself to have FAITH, not right after yet another god's death, and the likely death of GOMAK, but he can still feel his heart hardening, the steel of FAITH not forgotten to it as he takes position to defend Vall and Xerath.


(More prep-work...)

 

[Winkins]

HOPE!

(Action!)
Showing a caring smile at Disco-Chan, I make a promise to catch her up with everything that happened as I need to help my comrades right now.

And so I crouch deeply before DRAGOON jumping towards the Gatekeeper. I soar upwards, upwards, and upwards, and just when I was about to hit the 'ceiling' of the hub, a portal opens into another dimension. Said dimension is the dragoon jumper dimension! a dimension that gives access to other dragoon jumpers an unlimited height to soar through before coming down!

Already in the distance, I can see dozens of dragoons relaxing in their upward flight and a couple who begins readying for their descents. While I was looking around in my climb for height, I notice a fellow Dragoon who happens to be soaring upwards beside me. To pass time before I reach my peak, I decided to chat with the dragoon.

(Will be landing next turn and receiving a stun after landing attack for some good damage.)

 

[Moniker]

(Note: This post received a major edit. Due to a mistake where I forgot Krill13 fired the Sonic Shooter, I didn't realize you all actually did do enough damage to take down the Gatekeeper this turn! My apologies.)

I claim a Disco Square!

I run up to the Gatekeeper, and hit it's sniper rifle gun thing! I use whatever player power I have left to boost my Ultimate Diamond Swords electricity effect!

Click to shrink...

You claim a Disco square, and use your attack...

Still holding onto the panel by the chain he attached to it, the quiet watcher tries to work out what mechanism the panel was using to keep it attached to the Gatekeeper, and on how to get it open. If things got bad enough, he knew what he would try.

Click to shrink...

The panel appears to be using an electronic latch. Perhaps once the countdown hits 0, the latch will deactivate and the panel will come free.

I claim a Disco Square.

HOPE!

Main Action:
I disable the safeties I built into the Electric Spear. Then I heft it and start charging it up. Small flashes of lightning crackle throughout the room. For those players that have hair, it stands on end as static electricity builds up. An ominous hum builds, louder and louder.

Then a massive bolt of lightning arcs from the Spear to the Gatekeeper, coursing through all of its systems, overloading circuits left and right. A similarly massive clap of thunder is heard.

The bolt was too much for the Spear's subsystems to handle. They too become overloaded, crackling with electricity. I sense that the Spear is building up to an explosion, so I throw it at the Gatekeeper. It sticks in the main chassis and explodes.

I then hand the Ranch Dressing Blender off to Arsenical with orders to crank it up, load it with bread, and then hold onto it until another player takes it from him.

Click to shrink...

Ranch dressing blender handed off! Arsenical spends his faux-action cranking it up to full.

The Electric Spear is overloading! You take aim at the Gatekeeper, and claim a Disco Square for your super-strong attack...

[1] never giving up! nay! not doing that! Nothing I can do, you say? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. I'll do something! definitely! so there!
I arrive in the dream world and... hm. on the one hand, i have this first idea which involves an actual dream, but on the other hand its totally not going to work. instead...
I wonder if Morpheus would like to be a player?
I go to Morpheus, where he lays deep asleep (shouldn't he have a dream self appear here then? :onlyhalfjoking: ), and I look at the Tether that connected him to me (who was connected to communication and hence all players) for DREAM freeactions.
And I pour energy into it. No, more then energy. I pour in player power, of course, and that's all well and good. But I also pour in some of my MIND. Just a bit. Only 10%. if I'm not done the round before the Godmodder returns, I'll probably retrieve it. But I do it. And if the Godmodder shows up early, and I lose it? Fine. That's a risk I'm willing to take. And if you think it's worth the risk, and you have to pay up, you can't really complain, can you? Either way...
Once I make sure the Morpheus is very securely connected to this tether, and the tether is securely connected to me, I wake up and take shelter in the stairwell. And, well, that's my action.
[0] Dreaming may be ineffective, but there's other stuff I can do. If the above did not consume my mental energy (though i would allocate this "action" there, if it will improve my odds), I look through the hoard of shadows for one which seems to be moving with less vigor, and also which has no identifying characteristics. The goal is two-fold; one, to reduce physical risk to myself, since the more they struggle the harder it'd be, and two, to avoid messing with any quests similar to Piono's.

Click to shrink...

You prepare to put your MIND through a tube. MIND isn't really something you can control, but let's assume you've bypassed that. If you wanted to put your MIND through the tube to Morpheus... you would have to put ALL your MIND in. All your MIND would be transferred to Morpheus.

As you're about to foolishly begin anyways, a confirmation box appears.

"Are you sure you want to do this? It's a phenomenally bad idea."

Wow. Normally, when you do a bad thing, it just happens and doesn't bother warning you. This must be a REALLY bad thing you are about to do.

Arsenical! Go load the Ranch Blender. Everyone! HOPE with me!
1) I run to the wounded Tranq drone and shank him. I hold onto him and use his body as a shield.

Click to shrink...

2 damage to the Tranq drone! You're protecting yourself with the Tranq Drone, though if you don't get hit or have the Tranq drone otherwise eliminated this turn, it'll shoot you at the end of it!

I have a hunch... HOPE

Piono finishes assembling the machine (was gonna have it take 5 rounds but the boss is gonna be over by then). It looks sort of like a mix between a cannon and a harpoon, except instead of a massive spear, the thing in the barrel of the "gun" is a large cage, reinforced with the strongest metals that Piono could find in the assorted robot parts. It wouldn't hold up against the entire throng of shadows... but that's not what he's trying to do.

Piono turns back to the swarm of shadows, and clasps his hands together, then separates them, causing a pulse of air in the middle of the horde of mindless player-husks. This knocks over several shadows, but not enough to really slow them down. One shadow in particular though, has something else happen to them. One shadow, wearing a necklace of fused ruby and sapphire is launched up into the air, up above the heads of the other shadows, and Piono slams on the lever of his contraption. The gun lurches backwards from recoil as the the cage shoots out on a chain and grasps onto the shadow in the air.
Unfortunately, Piono has miscalculated the trajectory somewhat, and the cage falls to the ground before it properly clears the horde of shadows, and a couple of them latch on at the cage gets dragged rapidly up the stairs past the suppression bots before they can fire on the shadows. Piono grimaces and points a finger gun down at the shadows, the tip of his finger glowing, and fires off a bolt of light that launches one of the shadows off the cage and back into the throng, then he blasts another one, but then the cage comes all the way up and there are still 2 shadows left hanging onto it in addition to the one inside the cage.
They drop off the cage and make a beeline for the entryway leading into the boss arena to try and get at ender_smirk, only for a wall made of glowing triangles to appear in their way, they turn around and snarl, only for one of them to get grabbed by a hookshot that pulls it towards Piono, who punches it in the jaw, dropping it to the floor, dazed. The other charges right at Piono, who gestures, causing a chunk of wall from the back of the stairwell to slam into it's head, sending it cartwheeling away into the crowd, roughly around the time that the shadow at his feet starts to rise, Piono picks it up by the scruff of the neck, and FALCOOOOON! PAAAAAWWWNCHes it back into the crowd, before turning back to the captured shadow, which is trying fruitlessly to break out of its cage.

Piono looks up at the shadow with pain in his eyes. "This isn't how I saw our reunion going... I know you don't understand me right now but... I promise it's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. I'm going to bring you back, and we're going to kill the Godmodder. And then everything's going to be okay."

Click to shrink...

You now possess one CAGED SHADOW in your inventory.

There is no familiarity in its eyes. No pity. It isn't even looking at you. It's still focusing on Ender_Smirk.

I use SPLASH, I splash a bucket of water at the Gatekeeper, that I secretly picked up from earlier, making it extremely vulnerable to Electricity attacks this turn and HOPEfully messing up its circuit boards or something.

Free Action: HOPE

EVERYONE FREE ACTION HOPE THE COUNTER IS MOST LIKELY COUNTING THAT.

Free Action 2:

I list my plan for defeating the Gatekeeper.
Step 1: People who use Disco Squares need to have their attacks boosted by other players.
Step 2: Free Action Hope because its likely the Counter on the robot correlates to that.
Step 3: Hopefully get out before Morpheus dies and be the Big Heroes.

Click to shrink...

The Gatekeeper is covered in water! Electricity-based attacks will now do 1.5x extra damage! This affects Karpinsky's electric spear attack...

ES uses his sword to slash the Sniper Gun to bits, attempting to fight off sleep as he does so. He's not going to HOPE because that's just him, also they need to confirm that theory first.

Click to shrink...

8 damage to the Gatekeeper's sniper rifle. The sniper rifle is about to break...

I claim a Disco Square and HOPE.

For my action, I pick the weakest Tranq drone (or, failing that, the Dual Gun Hinge) and set about smashing and electro-damaging it.

CRACK CRACK CRACK SMACK *SHATTER*

Click to shrink...

Disco square claimed! You prepare your attack...

I claim a disco square and rip the gatekeeper in half. after that I sew it back together again, backwards. the fact that part of it is backwards disables its do not self destruct sircuit causing it to explode

Click to shrink...

How did you know about the do-not-self-destruct circuit? Disco square claimed!

"I was going to claim a disco Square, but I will let someone else take it."

Free Action: I have HOPE that we will win this
Action 1: I think It is time to go on the defensive. I create a magical Barrier that will block the attacks of the Gatekeeper.

"hey... what's going on here? why am I no longer in control? Anyone...? Why would he do this?"

Click to shrink...

You create a magical barrier! It will protect you fully from one attack!

Free Actions: I take cover behind the Gatekeeper. This seems illogical, but big things tend to have a hard time turning around to shoot behind them. I then check the counter, HOPE, then check the counter again, on a hunch.

Action: I mind-control one of the Defunct suppression bots, activating it and turning it to our side. I then have it and the other newly activated defunct suppression bot initiate a team-up attack on the Gatekeeper, using a Disco Square for bonus damage.

Wait, what? How do you mind-control a robot? Robots aren't mind-controlled, they're hacked!

Well, both robots and people have brains relying on electrical impulses, and I've mind-controlled some stranger entities that have completely alien brains. I think mind-controlling an electronic brain is easy at this point, especially given that they don't have any innate shielding. If you want, you can just call it technomancy instead, but I think mind control is a funnier description.

Click to shrink...

You check the Counter. It says "23". You HOPE, then run out of free action juice and find yourself too tired to check the counter again!

The Gatekeeper backs up a little bit, nearly crushing you! You scurry out of the way, losing your cover.

Another Suppression bot comes online! You try to shove it into the path of a Disco square, but you're too exhausted from your blatant abuse of free actions! Like, seriously. 4 free actions this turn. 4. Cool it or you'll get a new rule added to the game. At this rate, you'll fall asleep from sheer exhaustion.

Free Action: I broadcast reassuring images, increasing HOPE.
Action: I grab a Scratchspear+1 and run up to the Gatekeeper. I then leap up, stick my hand to its leg, and pull myself up, creating handholds by sticking myself to it. I climb up to the sniper mount, then start climbing on the gun. As I do so, I have to stay steady while the gun moves around. However, I reach the firing mechanism of the gun eventually. So I find an opening and spike the Supermassive Sniper Gun with a Scratchspear+1. For one turn, the Supermassive Sniper Gun is disabled, or else heavily weakened. Then the Scratchspear+1 will probably shake free, but it works for now.

Click to shrink...

The Supermassive Sniper Gun's mechanism struggle to work the Scratchspear free, and eventually succeed! But not before having taken 9 damage... it really looks like its about to fall apart now...

After feeling the Curse of Repetitiveness take effect over the co-opting of the enemy suppression bots, I should have felt concerned. I would have tried to do clever things to get the others online.

Instead, I felt a powerful, hot feeling surge through my veins. I laugh mildly sardonically. Even now, in a serious situation like this, I'm still a bit of a overly dramatic tool.

It doesn't matter, so long as I can be a tool to fix the situation.

I stand up from my work and walk over to Arsenical. "I claim a Disco Square. This groove I feel... is the beat that marches ever onwards, after all."

I tap the mindless Arsenical's form (and Karpinsky's) and take the blender once it's done. I go to the right spot to fire at the Gate Guardian. My hands grip the Blender, unknowingly leaking my meager player power into it. It smells distinctly like anime.

"You know something, Cybil? I'm not stupid enough to deny that I probably would be tempted by that. That the despair might cause me to panic and take such a deal. That my fear would cause me to work at myself, year after year after unknown year to break down my guilt, to convince myself there was nothing to be done."

I place my hands in their proper spots, shifting my legs to hold my ground.

"And yet, somehow.... YOUR RESPONSE REALLY PISSES ME OFF!"

I press down the buttons, feeling the sheer POWER that came from the love and care that was put into this. The effort, the sweat, the materials.... they all THRUM to life as the blender charges up.

"The Boss fully healed itself, so you gave up? You knew the crystals and guns don't restore themselves, but you didn't even try to dance them down? You..." I swallow, my mind swimming with a potent mix of emotions. "YOU TOOK THE SACRIFICES AND INFORMATION THAT YOUR FRIENDS GAVE THEMSELVES TO FIND OUT AND SPAT ON THEM ALL! Words don't DESCRIBE how little of a shit I give about your sob story!"

The Blender fired, causing my braced feet to shift back. I was now gripping the blender so hard that blood was trickling down as its powerful blast fired at the Gate Guardian.

"Did you honestly think that any of this was about doing whatever feels easy!? About what our base instincts scream for!? About mere comfort and immortality!? YOU IDIOT!"

I poured my all into this attack. My Love. My Anger. All of my Sorrow. But none of those were really what I felt. Or, rather, none of them were the source of my one thrumming feeling.

"THIS IS ABOUT MOVING FORWARD, EVEN WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE THE FUTURE FOR ALL THE PAIN! THIS IS FOR VENGEANCE, TO KILL A MONSTER WHO KNOWS NOT BUT SUFFERING! THIS IS ABOUT KNOWING, EVEN WHEN LOGIC AND FEELING ALIKE, THAT THINGS CAN GET BETTER, EVEN IF IT'S JUST A FAR OFF DREAM! THIS IS ABOUT TRUSTING IDEALISM AND NOT GIVING A SINGLE DAMN ABOUT PESSIMISM OR NIHILISM OR EVEN REALISM!"

I began to feel the backsplash of the ranch drench myself as I pushed the blender as hard as I dared to go. I also felt the Shadows claw and grasp at my ankles as I was pushed back to the staircase. I didn't budge an inch.

"THIS IS ABOUT CONTINUING TO DANCE EVEN WHEN YOUR LEGS ARE TIRED! THIS IS ABOUT STRIKING A POSE, EVEN WHEN YOUR BODY CAN'T HANDLE IT! THIS IS ABOUT LETTING THE MUSIC FLOW THROUGH YOU EVEN WHEN YOUR MOOD IS AS DARK AS PITCH! THIS.... THIS IS ABOUT FUCKING HOPE!!! THE GREATEST GROOVE THERE IS!"

The stream of ranch glowed for a second before slamming into the Gate Guardian in one last burst! The force of the HOPE imbued attack cracked the armor open, ranch and hope alike seeping into it. Their nature, antithetical to its own existence, caused it further damage even now that the Ranch Blender had finished firing.

With a few breaths, he gave the ranch Blender back to Arsenical. Using the last of his energy, he then pointed to the sky and struck a groovy pose. The fiercer side of his emotions spent, he now looked like he was only just STARTING to boogie down!

Click to shrink...

You take the Ranch Dressing Blender, and claim a Disco Square! This one's going to be a winner for sure...

Your speech is finally enough to warrant a response from Cybil! He'll talk at the end of the turn.

I claim a Disco Square!

Following the hunch of others, I HOPE - no, am DETERMINED - that we'll win this!
(Yea this still counts as a hope Action.)

Through the sheer power of disco, Michael Jackson music begins playing as I face the Gatekeeper down. This was something I recognize - disco! Yea, I never really paid attention of when Mom played it on the radio, but nostalgia now fuels me!

Dashing straight towards the Gatekeeper, the blade switches rapidly between various neon colors, settling on a eye-blinding teal before slashing directly into it. Whipping it out of the Gatekeeper, I begin slashing into it at many various different angles - up, down, sideways, upside down, and eventually, a direct thrust into the Gatekeeper's centralized core. Due to RedRover's earlier action, this should deal massive damage!

Summary -
- HOPE! DETERMINATION!
- Slash into the Gatekeeper with the power of disco and it being wet!

Click to shrink...

Disco Square claimed! You prepare to unleash your attack!

Ah once again I've used up all of my loaded spears for my Flaming Spearnir. Gotta reload... (x1)

As I'm at least somewhat vulnerable while reloading I attempt to take cover behind one of those Defunct suppression bot. (Free Action)

Click to shrink...

You take cover behind a suppression bot, and succeed! There's only enough room behind each for one person.

I grab the pan-spacial battery from the destroyed crystal it was attached to. It then bends the fabric of space to plug into the Chain Electroscythe +1, boosting it some more. I fire some finger guns and a wink at Xerath before duck and cover'ing.

HOPE.

Click to shrink...

The Chain Electroscythe becomes the Chain Electroscythe+2! Xerath realizes the potential and claims a Disco Square.

Eyowe rushes through the entrance to the room and into a Disco Square, claiming it.

Y'all know what time it is. Yep time for some Sonic Shooting shooterino with the boost of a Disco Square. Eyowe fires the Sonic Shooter at the Gatekeeper. It's immune to MUSIC attacks, but probably not SONIC attacks.

HOPE is HOPE

Click to shrink...

As you claim a Disco Square, you take a moment to ruminate on the mechanical oddity of this. The Sonic Shooter is supposed to be a one-hit-kill weapon. However, the boss tag reduces it to dealing normal damage. So... is claiming a disco square going to make it x3 infinite damage weapon??

Luckily, it'll work out in a pretty convenient way, because the disco squares triple net damage. Neato.

Free action:

Now that Power Crystal C has been destroyed and no more Power crystals remain I decide to rush up to the Supermassive Sniper Gun.

Action:

Standing along side EternalStruggle as he is attacking the Supermassive Sniper Gun I start attacking the Supermassive Sniper Gun as well with my Knuckleslashers.

Click to shrink...

You rush up to the Supermassive Sniper Gun and use your knuckleslashers to weaken it a little more... a little more... it's ready! You grab onto it with your covered fists, use your power to grow Hulk muscles out of nowhere, and PULL! The Supermassive Sniper Gun is weakened enough that it pops right off, and onto the floor!

Supermassive Sniper Gun destroyed! The Gatekeeper can't use it to attack any more!

[A] ATTACK
[FREE] HOPE AGAIN

"Operator, I believe it is group consensus that the Gatekeeper's weakness is Hope. Please continue to channel that particular power," Omniglot says.

Leah claims Disco Squares, or tries to because like everyone is doing it. She takes aim at the Gatekeeper and fires everything she has-that is to say, she fires the Serious Sizzler. As it's pretty Serious, the flames already do some pretty serious damage on the Gatekeeper, causing it to melt and crack from heat application as the jet of flame kicks it up to full intensity. The fires burn and burn, and warp, and twist, and confines itself into the form of one Serious Sam, who is pretty serious about using that big-as-gorilla depleated uranium cannon to fire depleated uranium cannonballs. Made of FIRE! Unfortunately for the Gatekeeper, Serious Sam is even more serious about just using the fact he's made of fire to beat the ever-living-tar out of the Gatekeeper.

Leah keeps burninating the Gatekeeper away, with Omniglot and her wings on support fire, as her arms do the stretchy thing and morph into more flamethrowers-a nozzle for each finger-creating an eleven-strong flame crescendo. The Gatekeeper gets rather tired of all these sick burns, only to come down with the common cold (irony) from how sick these burns are, forcing them to stay in bed and not attack Leah mid-combat animation. The Gatekeeper curses Dinkleberg-screw that guy!-as they lament the fact they can't sleep while the beds are burning and can't dance while the world is turning, or at all because the Gatekeeper does not have the ability to do dances as a gigantic sphere of doom, which is starting to become a gigantic sphere of being melted into a pile of slag.

Leah keeps pumping it up, using her foot to pump more and more of the infinite hand sanitizer into the flamethrower for ammunition via some complicated contraption made through Player Power, enabling her to effectively give herself infinite ammunition as she fires more fire into the fiery inferno of fire that is the Gateekeper. Four is death, causing the fire to turn into a facsimilie of death, who as a facsimilie is really only a hooded skeleton with a scythe, but that's all you really need to get ahead in life, isn't it? Or, not-life, as the case may be, as the fire-skeleton-reaper thingy is both a skeleton and made of fire, neither of which are alive, but what is alive is the Gatekeeper and Mr. Fiery Reaper Dude is here to fix that with a frenzy of scythe swings, which are totally ineffective as scythes are such bad weapons that I take this time to complain about it to Moniker, like if it isn't for the fact Mascythe was 'Legendary' and thus has magical powers I probably would just laugh at it, scythes are terribly melee weapons! Thankfully, this guy's scythe is made of fire so the lack of cutting force is compensated for more burning force.

The Gatekeeper is really starting to feel the heat, which is odd as they do not have feelings, being a cold, dead robot with a cold dead heart. But wait, didn't it lament its inability to sleep earlier? They did! Oh no! Their life(?) is a lie! The Gatekeeper abruptly goes into MID-LIFE CRISIS mode, which causes them to get distracted from stopping this nonsense by abruptly wishing to carry out their urge to make a painting! With tranquilizer fluid! Alas for players everywhere this thing has infinite ammo, but it still distracts from, you know, shooting at Leah to make her stop firing more fire as it pulls out tiny robot arms to set up a conveniently fireproof canvas and beginning the process. Eight seconds later, it realizes that this is stupid and it should probably deal with Leah, and probably the rest of the Players. Leah responds by dealing herself into a Poker Game, satisfying the requirements, and somehow continuing to fire at the Gatekeeper as she casually plays some cards.

"Operator, your ability to hold down a nozzle for an extended length is admirable, but given the nature of player powers as this unit understands them, we may be benefitted by an alternate attack pattern," Omniglot quips.

Leah morphs her hands as a response to grow a few more free hands (yes, really), so she can still hold cards, her flamethrower, and kick a nozzle up as the additional hands generate additional flamethrowers, which set themselves up in a wide curved formation around the Serious Sizzler, and begin firing more jets of fire. This time, however, the fire curls and twists around the Serious Sizzler rather than going directly into the way-too-hot-to-handle-directly Gatekeeper over there, creating a rather-large drill like pattern around the Serious Sizzler. A few seconds later, the 'drill' blossoms outwards into... A flower. A big orange flower. All the fire stops-the Gatekeeper looks delighted! Flowers! Its favorite. The Gateekeper approaches and uses its special nostril-facsimilie apparatus, specifically designed for this very instance, to get a big whiff!

This turns out to be an insanely massive mistake-this Flower isn't a regular flower at all; it's known as a Phoenixflare Flower, which, on the one hand, is obviously like the big daddy of all Fire Flowers. It's like if a Fire Flower got an Invincibility Star on top of being a Fire Flower-this is what we're talking here. That includes taking damage if you touch it. But there's more, way more. In the multiversal language of flowers, Phoenixflare Flowers, for representing a Phoenix and their eternal rebirth from ash, also represent Preserverence, Determination, and HOPE, which may or may not be the Gatekeeper's weakness. (If not of the Critical Soul kind.)

Also it's a big fiery flower that Leah's using to blow violet-hue fire directly into its chassis as it does so, which is also kind of bad. And then the big fiery flower turns into a big fiery flower monster, which is even worse (for the Gatekeeper), as it detaches from Leah's Flamethrower to directly accost the Gatekeeper with leafy appendages and, you guessed it, more fire.

Leah finishes all of this chichanery off by looking at her bayonet, shrugging, walking up to the distracted Gatekeeper, and promptly firing more Fire into the Gatekeeper, causing the Gatekeeper to pause at the revelation that Leah didn't use the bayonet and just did even more fire like wow is that her one gimmick, causing it to facetank a massive firey explosion as the Phoenixflare Flower decides to explode into flames, as it is famous for exploding into flames at a moment's notice.

Leah stands back, confident in her extreme damage, if nothing else.

[x0]? Leah Hopes that this attack is a really good one that can really damage the Gatekeeper really hard and prevent Factory Reset from ever firing off by turning it into scrap metal way before then.​

Click to shrink...

You claim a Disco Square, and prep your very fiery attack! Not MID-LIFE CRISIS MODE!

(x0)HOPE THAT ALL SHALL BE WELL AND THAT THE FUTURE WILL ALWAYS BE BRIGHTER THEN THE PAST

(X1) I Attack a Tranq Drone with the Plasma Orange,a Glorious Orange Plasma Star is born around the Tranq Drone,just for a second,before it collapses to focus directly upon the Tranq Drone with the Heat of a Newborn Star

Click to shrink...

Plasma orange attack! 8 damage to a Tranq drone!

"Guys, I have an idea about the shadows, so can I have a rebreather? I can swim indefinitely if I can breath down there, can bring a piece of bread, and I doubt the Shadows can swim as fast as me, especially with the most recent version of Minecraft's swimming upgrades. I am only a nuisance until this boss is gone, and I can get over them into the water, and might be able to lead them out into the sewers and out more permanently if I have long enough. Any objections?"
He moves into position near the allied suppression bots, prepared to help them hold the lines even if no one is on board with his plan.

He RAGES at the whole current situation, and the fact that he apparently can't get the boost he would need in raw power to create a temporary portal even if they can get to the correct room.

Click to shrink...

You make a rebreather for free!

RAGE! The Rage Angel gets an upgrade! It has better attack now!

You see that due to the angle the stairs are at, the back line of Shadows is going to be pretty tough to get over... there's a very real chance you could end up caught. If you ARE caught, the Shadows wouldn't go easy on you. You estimate that you could get KOed as many as 5 times, or some equivalent...

Free Action Focus - HOPE: I have hope that we will make it through! SO MUCH ENERGY IS COURSING THROUGH MY BOOOODY!

Action Focus - LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!: I DANCE! I LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY into everyone's face.

Click to shrink...

You dance, kicking everyone in the face! You kick Alastair Dragovich in the face, messing up his groove (he quickly recovers)! You kick Pionoplayer in the face, knocking him over! You kick Valla in the face! You also kick an injured tranq drone, dealing 5 damage!

I decide that with how important lil' Drainy is, it's best to give him some upgrades that improve his survivability. For example, the cheap chinesium plastic casing gets replaced with carbon nanotube-reinforced titanium and all the moving parts get their shock absorbers much improved.

Free action: Some sneks with wizard hats appear. NOPE ROPES OF HOPE!

Click to shrink...

Li'l Drainy upgraded! Now he has even better defenses! You're almost finished... the DUNGEONSCAPE is probably just about handled.

It's not enough to simply escape the dungeon, it must be destroyed in the process, of course the godmodder could probably remake it with little effort but annoying him is cause enough. To begin I extract the infinite hand sanitizer from my suit(finding somewhere dry to work first of course) and from that the infinite hand sanitizer itself, locking the dimentional bracer around it(why would I wear it? it's not a bracer as in the armor piece) next, allowing me to move the source around and manipulate it. Once it's set to my satisfaction I add the temporal essence as I control the bracer to allow it to mix in an unusual way, normally accelerating a process comes with the cost of it ending sooner but it's irrelevant in this case. To complete my preparations I sacrifice my ouroboros as is tradition when dealing with infinities, cutting through it over my work and breaking the loop, due to it's unreal yet real nature it's not just superstision, of course even if it was when dealing with player powers even stuff with no basis in reason can have effect. I move my hands closer on each side to it, bringing everything to a point inside the bracing. I bring them apart pulling the spacial knot into being, what was once a trickle is now a vast flood. Of course just being able to light the surface on fire would be dull, rather the knot is delibratly uneven, generating all sorts of interesting whorls and by the time the hand sanitiser exits the bracing it's a fine, dense mist. The whole thing is designed with the ventalation system in mind, if it works properly the whole atmosphere of the prison should cycle through the knot and become saturated, just waiting for a spark to set off an immense fuel-air exsplosion that'll last forever, or untill some moderatly goddish entity comes around to clean it up, whichever comes first.

Also I claim a disco square if there's one left, since I own the detonation a bit of triple damage should help.

Click to shrink...

Hand-sanitizer air mist is now traveling through the vents. Any minor accident in the future will set it off. If the water doesn't get the prison, then the fire very well could...

You don't claim a Disco Square, since the Disco squares wouldn't help with this!

Spicy glances at the time on his imaginary watch, standard issue for Cultists, wow he let time slip by, no time to slip that mega-attack in now before the Turns roll around. He shrugs, settling to instead PREPARE for the Turns ahead.

[x1] Gathering up his last ounces of Mana at his fingertips, the trickle of energy held in a finger-tip sized ball by Power as Spicy strains out every ounce of Mana left in his nearly-barren reserves. A shakey breath leaving him as he finally bottoms out, the hollow-void omni-present as he takes his next actions. A flick of his hands sends tendrils shooting from the orbs, orange and blue mingling together as Power works to sustain Mana, the tendrils hang stiffly in the air for a moment, before Spicy raises his arms back a quiet grunt of exertion leaving him as the oddly-heavy tendrils swing around. Spicy stares down at the Gatekeeper, hitting it with a glare before shifting his weight forward, bringing the stiffened bands of Mana down onto the automoton with a rush of air.

There's little sound as they strike the metal, instead silently wrapping around it's hull, before branching out like the roots of an aged tree, and pulsing a calming blue. Spicy lingers here for a moment, unsure of the next step...before setting his mouth inn a thin line, he'd have to make due with the meager Power he has. He focused, Power culminating as he uses it to see through the Tendrils, machinery littering his mind's eye as he begins to push. Push is Power from not his body, but from the source currently residing inside the Gatekeeper, the Mechanical Runes currently sitting idle. A subtle sparkle leaves them as they begin to creep their way along circuitry, guided along by Spicy's vision of the bot's internals. He maneuvers Runes into all the appropriate areas, before forcing Power into the new array of Runes littering the Gatekeeper's internal body, the Power mimicking the Mana before it...which holds off the reaction for another Turn.

Spicy glowers at the waste of a Turn, but refocuses his mind. He has HOPE that all of htis setup will pay in dividends, and now that Xerath's confirmed that Alice's alive, more HOPE than ever that he'll be reunited, and that he'll keep his promise.

And Spicy...he can't quite find it in himself to have FAITH, not right after yet another god's death, and the likely death of GOMAK, but he can still feel his heart hardening, the steel of FAITH not forgotten to it as he takes position to defend Vall and Xerath.


(More prep-work...)

Click to shrink...

Your mana gathers... prep-work! This should have a nice payoff.

HOPE!

(Action!)
Showing a caring smile at Disco-Chan, I make a promise to catch her up with everything that happened as I need to help my comrades right now.

And so I crouch deeply before DRAGOON jumping towards the Gatekeeper. I soar upwards, upwards, and upwards, and just when I was about to hit the 'ceiling' of the hub, a portal opens into another dimension. Said dimension is the dragoon jumper dimension! a dimension that gives access to other dragoon jumpers an unlimited height to soar through before coming down!

Already in the distance, I can see dozens of dragoons relaxing in their upward flight and a couple who begins readying for their descents. While I was looking around in my climb for height, I notice a fellow Dragoon who happens to be soaring upwards beside me. To pass time before I reach my peak, I decided to chat with the dragoon.

(Will be landing next turn and receiving a stun after landing attack for some good damage.)

Click to shrink...

DRAGOON jump!

This alternate is a hallucination created entirely by your Player powers! Still, that doesn't stop it from being effective at damage dealing!

-----------

Disco Square claimants:
Karpinsky: 23 damage to Gatekeeper[x3! 69 damage!]
Alastair Dragovich: 21 damage to Gatekeeper[x3! 63 damage!]
Krill13: 20 damage to Gatekeeper[x3! 60 damage!]
Kyleruler: 14 damage to Gatekeeper[x3! 42 damage!]
Xerath: 12 damage to Gatekeeper[x3! 36 damage!]
The_Nonexistent_Tazz: 12 damage to Gatekeeper
DragonofHope: 9 damage to Gatekeeper's sniper rifle
Algot: 4 damage to the Gatekeeper
That_Random_Guy: 3 damage to the weakest Tranq drone

All attacks are UNLEASHED! That_Random_Guy destroys the Tranq drone Ranger_Strider was holding! DragonofHope retargets the main Gatekeeper, and everyone uses ALL THE ATTACKS to destroy the Gatekeeper! Together, they deal... they deal... Hold on, I have to break out the calculator... hang on... hang on...

294 damage!

The Gatekeeper is assaulted from all sides by sacrificed Electrospears, Electroscythes, Ranch Dressing based attacks combined with elegant speeches! The Gatekeeper is barely standing... Its attacks are canceled for this turn! And then... the Decay hits it! It's too much to withstand! The Gatekeeper withers away, and collapses...

A fog hangs over the area... a highly flammable, infinite-hand-sanitizer fog.

Your allied Suppression bots take out a Tranq drone! Valla grabs the last Tranq Drone, and disables it, seemingly also quite ready for this to be done!

-----------

THE DUNGEONSCAPE:

All your HOPE comes together as a team... this is it! The end! Your HOPE shines bright, and the enemies assailing your defenses are so discouraged, they don't even bother to do anything! For an instant, the DUNGEONSCAPE is frozen in time! Your success is at hand! Finish this, and bring the gates of this terrible place, the prison of so many before you, crashing down!

The DUNGEONSCAPE is no longer a thing! The mental defenses have stopped, or at least slowed down enough that your remaining defenses can MORE than take care of it!

-----------

Cybil keeps talking, though he's clearly been bothered by Alastair's speech. He doesn't notice that the Gatekeeper is dead.

Cybil: Hah... I wanted to offer you all the same deal that was offered me!

Cybil: Whoever does the best job of stabbing their allies in the back gets to live and be my assistant!

Cybil: But I see... I see! You're all a bunch of those... MORAL types!

Cybil: Who sit on their little... high horse! Of love... and HOPE... and whatnot!

You rummage through the rubble that is the Gatekeeper. Your suppression bots continue to hold off the Shadows as best they can, giving you enough time. Disco-Chan begins to prep for a retreat.

Cybil: But I don't pretend to stand for something! You all came to the war for your own selfish reasons, don't deny it!

Cybil: Want to know why I started fighting the godmodder?? Because I thought it would get me famous. Because I thought I could beat him, and it would get me girls.

Cybil: God! Was I STUPID!!

Within the rubble, you find a remote control labeled "EMERGENCY BACKUP REMOTE CONTROL FOR DOOR TO CYBIL'S CHAMBERS". You press the button, and the door slides open...

Cybil: But you all are in the belly of the beast... about to lose, for the third time straight...

Cybil: And you STILL can't realize how utterly WRONG you are! You won't win! You can't win!

Cybil: This!? This was the best option for ME! I'm not moral! Maybe I'm a traitor! Maybe I'm some [N-2], but SO WHAT!??

Everyone rushes through the door! Disco-Chan pulls back, the Guardbots chasing, but not being quite fast enough! When everyone is through, you hit the remote control button again, and storm up the stairs...

Cybil: This is what I HAD TO DO!

Cybil: You'd all do the same, if your FRIENDS weren't watching! So DON'T LECTURE ME!!!

Cybil turns around, fairly satisfied with himself after his little speech. Then he sees you all standing in his room. He immediately deflates.

Cybil: Crap.

---------

You look around Cybil's room. You see various cameras and controls for keeping track of the prison. You also see a pretty standard bed, a fridge, and various other amenities. Looks like he was living it up in here, using his Player powers to keep everything stocked.

Cybil: ...

Cybil: So... the inmates running the asylum, huh?

Cybil: Well... I think I know what you want. My portal, right? Some way out of here?

Cybil: Well, I have bad news for you. While there IS an emergency portal, right here--

Cybil gestures towards a large contraption embedded in the wall of the room. You barely noticed it before. It's clearly a standard metal portal, albeit currently leading nowhere put directly into solid wall. There's a terminal attached to it, with a keyboard for code inputs.

Cybil: It has a sort of... two-factor authentication. You need both A: My code, that only I know, and B: Somebody else that's decides to connect a portal to this one. For some unimaginable reason.

Cybil: I'll give you my code. I'll even give it to you willingly! But you have to promise me something.

Cybil: Part of the deal (which I'm sure you figured out already) that I had with the godmodder... was that I agree to have him place a spell on me.

Cybil: I say spell, but... that implies that its really even possible to remove. The "spell" detects attempts to remove it, and the godmodder can activate it remotely at any time...

Cybil: If he sees anyone he's double-killed outside the prison, he'll think I've betrayed him, or at least failed him. He'll activate the spell, and kill me! Not just kill, but remove me from existence entirely! No more Cybil! No more afterlife layers! GONE!

Cybil: So it's not safe for me to release you UNLESS I have a binding promise. So here...

Cybil conjures up a contract. Magically binding. Breaching it means that the other party gets total control over the breaching party's actions, which can be used to perform "reasonable" reparations. It bears strong resemblance to contracts a certain Player amongst you has made.

Cybil: This contract states that I will give you the code to use the portal.

Cybil: And in exchange, you agree not to fight the godmodder, or be seen by the godmodder, or have the godmodder made aware of your presence in any way, shape, or form.

Cybil: Pretty good deal, right? You get to get out of the prison, assuming anyone ever connects to this portal. And I get safety!

Cybil: I'd leave the portal with you, but the spell would tell the godmodder if I left this location...

Cybil: Now, come on. Sign!

Obviously, this isn't a very good deal for you. But you need to get the information out of Cybil SOMEhow.

What do you do? This is the last thing you need to take care of before you can get back on track!

Spoiler

(Note: This map is outdated, since I had to edit this post due to a math mistake!)

MAP:

Itinerary:
-Interrogate Cybil, and get him to open up the portal for you!
-Turns left until Morpheus is finished: 3

CYBIL'S CHAMBERS:
Players/Allies:
MooGoestheCow
FlamingFlapjacks(has flaming loafsaber)
Dragon of Hope?!?(has ultimate diamond sword, great attack)
The_Two_Eternities(has bread paper)
RedRover1760 (boosted dodging skill)(has wooden pole, stealthy ninja outfit)
barbedwireqtip(has Scratchspear+1)
CaptainNZZZ (has rebreather, Hacksaw)(Equipped with Flaming Spearnir - fantastic damage, 2/2 charge)
Arsenical
The Ego
Spicy_Serious(wearing husk armor - good defense)
Ender_Smirk (has scratchspear+1, 2/3 uses)(holding Shadow Agitator - all Shadows want to attack him, can only be removed from inventory by giving it away)
General_Urist(has oilflasher)(Using Reinforced Tetradent - medium attack, can attack safely at range)
Eevee Shadow Bacon(bread rope)(Chunk of ceiling)
Winkins (has chain scratchslayer - high damage, good range)
Evonix(has gauntlets of ogre strength/stench, temporal essence)(wearing Oroborous necklace, ???, wearing dimentional bracer)
Algot(giant clothespin, copy of leah's aurmour, sonic the hedgehog figurine)(Flaming short strikinator of doom - very strong water/electric/fire attack)
EternalStruggle
The_Quiet_Watcher(has chains, Shredder(damages and defense-downs 3 enemies))
JoeBOB(small amount of metal-eating acid)(has scratchspear - high damage, one use)
That-Random-Guy(has Spiky Shockmace - great damage, extra damage to robots)
Crusher48
Ranger_Strider_(has 2/3 Scratchspear+1)
Krill13 (has Sonic Shooter - can use sound-based attacks(2/2 Charge))(has butterfly, strong attack at any distance)(has x-ray goggles)
Kyleruler(Charged Battery Blade, Great damage + electricity)
Alastair Dragovich(has ranch dressing eliminator, .5/1 cranking(+.5/turn), extremely high attack)
Bill Nye(has PB&J)
GoldHero101 (2D powers)(has basic sword, gunslinger(can heal/repair))
Pionoplayer(has Caged Shadow)
The_Nonexistent_Tazz (has Serious Sizzler, good fire attack+bayonet attack)
Karpinsky
Cephalos Jr. (has oxygen gas, plasma)(has 2/3 Scratchspear+1)
Daskter(has lightsticks, oil lantern, 50% shock bread)(has 2/3 Scratchspear+1)
Paradoxdragonpaci (has Plasma orange, very strong fire attack)(fire retardation gloves equipped)
Captain.cat (has rebreather)(Knuckleslashers equipped - very strong fist-based attack)
Xerath(has 2/3 Scratchspear+1)(has Chain Electroscythe+2, very strong electric attack)
Valla
[AG - Winkins]Disco-Chan: 19,550/20,000 HP, 5,000A, Special: Disco Squares: 1/3 (repels darkness!)

ENEMIES:
Cybil

PRODUCTION:
Scratchspear generator+1(use 1 action to make 2 scratchspears+1)
Auto-generation: +1 Scratchspear+1/turn
Storage: 2 Scratchspear+1, Remote Control Glove (remote control of AG bot forces), functionally infinite zapbot/guardbot/suppression bot parts
Forge+Compressor(use to upgrade weapons easier)


DUNGEONSCAPE(Note: doesn't matter anymore!):

Spoiler

Outer defenses:
Dark Master: 100% health, massive defenses, 200% chance to mind control an ally each turn! (Elite Ten)(arriving next turn!)
Extremely Massive Gobblebeast: 200% health, extremely massive defenses, extremely massive attack (Elite Ten)(arriving next turn!)
Amazing maze: 30% chance to make new maze entrants die instantly! Or, significantly damage elite ten!
Delaying defenses+Emoji Movie Theater: 40/30/30% chance to delay new enemies by 1 turn/2 turns/0 turns!
Food room: Has appealing cake, only for those who join AG side
Enemies:
The Slab: 842% health, extremely massive defenses, grants all allies +1 attacks, reduces damage against all allies by one attack level! (Elite Ten)
Allies:
WONK Sun: 100% health, (minor/medium damage to all enemies every turn)
Blood Starved Beast+1: 200% health(200 max), extremely massive defense, extremely massive attacking power, +1 minor beast/turn (gets stronger whenever it or its minions kills something)(enemies who hit it get poisoned)(+10% HP/turn)
Minor beast x 10: 100 x 10% health, weak defenses, weak attacking power x 10
Roman Legionnaire: 100% health, major attacking power
Bell-Ringing woman: 100% health, minor attacking power, 1/1 Summon (randomly melee/ranged soldier)(suppressing 40% of mind control)(guarded by Defender!)
Melee soldier x 5: 100 x 5% health, weak defenses, weak attacking power x 5
Engage-Class War Robot: 100% health, major defenses, extremely massive attacking power
Defender: 100% health, medium defense, minor attacking power
Rage Angel: 100% health, medium defenses, major attacking power (half-bodyguards important targets)
Guardian statue: 100% health, reduces damage against all allies!
Ultimate Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon: 150% health(150 max), massive attack, massive defense
Lil' Drainy: 100% health, major defenses, reduces enemy defense x 3, goes last
Lord Healix: 100% health, medium healing ability
Scorn ray: 100% health, minor attack (can be manually retargeted)(no current target!)
Faith: 100% health (max 100), medium defenses, massive healing ability
megaGUN hopo Ultimate Blue tank: 100% health, medium defenses, medium attack, buffs an ally's attack! (mind control immune)(limit breaker)
Railgunner: 100% health, weak defenses, extremely massive attack, ignores two layers of defense!
The Render: 1% health, literally no defenses, extremely massive attack
Amelia: 50% health, weak defenses, weak attack
HOPE Ballistae: Dies when castle wall does, major attacking power
Ranged soldier: 100% health, weak defenses, medium attacking power x 1
Defenses: Extremely Massive HOPE Castle Wall(buffs castle wall defenses attack x 2)(Regenerating)(Hurts enemies that attack it), Roller/Flamethrower cage traps (activate to damage all enemies), Seizure gas grenade x 1 (use to deal massive damage to one enemy, damages mindscape when used), 80% mind control resistance
Random stat upgrader(FEAR: 2/3 to next)(Distant Memories: 0/4 to next)
Current stats: FEAR level 1/3 (Allies take 10% less damage), Distant Memories level 1/2 (Enemy attacks have a 5% chance to be canceled)
Everyone's MIND cores are fully intact.

Base Player Power: 3

OOC: Looks like you're about to win the sidequest! This is your last chance to do anything you want to do within the prison. You can take a break for this update if you want to, there's less action and more talking. That'll change once you get of the prison, though!

Next update comes on December 26th. After that, I'm going on a vacation to Florida! I'll be leaving early on the 28th, and after that I won't be able to answer any questions until I return on the 5th, or the 6th. Not quite sure yet. Sometime around then. If you want me to throw you an @ mention when I get back, just say so.

Enjoy your winter breaks, and have a merry christmas!