Fear Ourself (part 17)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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20th January 2013
19:14 GMT
Space… Judders. I'm not sure what qwa-matter does to spacetime, but the feedback from that detonation just destroyed my warp module. And that doesn't make sense. A region around the rear half of Parallax's construct body flares in a sort of white-gold colour, which fades almost immediately and…
Joseph Harrolds stares, clearly stunned, at the broken remains of his passenger's construct form. It's not just that the back end is gone, but that the destructive effect appears to be propagating along its body. If he drops the construct then we've got an opportunity to grab him right away.
"What-?"
On the planet itself the yellow colour is beginning to fade. Lantern Priest wasn't willing to inject peoples' souls with his own willpower, but he was willing to use his power to create a sort of barrier between their psyches and the yellow light. The result will be that they're still not thinking straight, but at least their fear won't be strengthening Parallax and they're more likely to survive with that thing being weaker.
Some sort of serpent-insect thing dashes up the side of a skyscraper, claws tearing through the exterior of the building as it tries to reach Priest. I don't know whether it actually has any intelligence or instinct or Harralax isn't as distracted as he looks, but it's managed to head towards the one person who can deny him the planet as a power booster. It reaches the top of the building and bunches up, ready to leap at Priest with claws-.
Ragnar flies in, his construct sword slicing through the legs on its left side. It loses its grip at once and begins to fall even as the legs of its right try to scrabble to maintain their hold. A moment later and it's the building that fails, chunks of metal, glass and concrete tearing their way out of the structure as…
Gravity… Takes a firm grip on something that… Should by all rights be able to fly.
Huh.
But Ragnar's already in position, giant construct boar spear upraised and ready as the construct monster plummets downwards to impale itself, decaying into yellow motes an instant later.
Ragnar grins as the motes begin to coalesce around him, then frowns as Priest dismisses them with a wave of his hand. A moment later and the motes are gone and he's back into the fray, relishing the opportunity to go ham on the construct monsters, though just about disciplined enough to stick with Priest rather than charging after the next monster to catch his eye.
Warp module reformed.
Thank you.
Parallax appears to be coping with its damage by shrinking, letting its outer parts fade and focusing its efforts on a smaller and more intense construct body. Which could work, except that Lord Malvolio isn't giving him time to recuperate and is instead pushing through the fading yellow body parts with sword and shield at the ready. Jade and Lysis are clear of the combat area-.
Harrolds spots Malvolio as he batters aside a section of carapace and twists, lunging at him with mouth open wide and-.
And fire, because someone forgot to obscure my line of sight and now doesn't have enough construct volume protecting himself.
And fire continuously, because I can still feel people dying on Yaolsan because when people in our weight class fight it's everybody's problem.
Parallax's mouth bites at Malvolio, who shoves his shield between its jaws and enlarges it just as my shots start hitting the back of its neck. The chitin construct begins to disintegrate as Malvolio brings his sword around to stab at its throat. It doesn't go in easily, but construct flesh parts around it as it-.
"GAH!"
The construct Parallax vanishes, Harrolds-
"Not."
-appears in front of me, and-.
And the Earth is Anti-Lifed because of my interactions with-.
I don't-. Believe that!
SHIELD!
The colossal beam of yellow power slams into my decidedly rushed shield, and my mind hasn't quite-!
Dodge!
"Allowed."
Oh, yes? Because I'm fairly sure that Harrolds had desires before he went to Yellow Planet.
Lets see what they were. Desire amplification.
We see fights between superhuman warlords, brief and inconclusive affairs as neither party is strong enough to withstand the attention it will draw from others. We see his desire to take control of the syndicates as he takes control of his-.
This time I fire the blast, his construct armour fading as he's knocked flying-
"Uh."
-and the lights on Yaolsan go out as he restores himself, battering the beam away with a gauntlet construct, stabilising himself.
"Do you want another go?"
"We're in no hurry. What do you think of our first attempt?"
"I imagine you scared quite a few people. I mean, given how powerful you are the number probably wasn't anything special, but you've been away for a while, so… Well done?"
What did I learn from that snapshot of Joseph Harrolds' life? The impression I got was that he's rational, pragmatic and self-interested. I didn't see any positive association with the Crime Syndicate. Not as an achievement he worked toward or as a team he liked being a part of. Which means that they're just a group that he tolerates because he needs to in order to do other things. They're his syndicates, and the best way for him to keep them that way is for him to cooperate with the other Syndicate members.
"Though I suspect that Ultraman is taking advantage of your absence to do something stupid back home."
He rolls his eyes. "Very subtle."
"Yeah. True, though."
"We need to grow used to our power before returning home."
"Does the part of you that is Parallax really care about that?"
"Do you care if we threaten your home?"
"Right now? No. Honestly, my Earth's-"
Lord Malvolio's battering ram construct strikes him in the side, punching through his construct defences as the two of them carry on away from the planet.
"-a mess."
"Did the villein say ought of significance?"
The battering ram splits in two as Parallax prepares to re-enter the fray.
"We can hear your fears too, Green Lantern. You can't bury them deep enough to escape our notice. Let us show you."
19:14 GMT
Space… Judders. I'm not sure what qwa-matter does to spacetime, but the feedback from that detonation just destroyed my warp module. And that doesn't make sense. A region around the rear half of Parallax's construct body flares in a sort of white-gold colour, which fades almost immediately and…
Joseph Harrolds stares, clearly stunned, at the broken remains of his passenger's construct form. It's not just that the back end is gone, but that the destructive effect appears to be propagating along its body. If he drops the construct then we've got an opportunity to grab him right away.
"What-?"
On the planet itself the yellow colour is beginning to fade. Lantern Priest wasn't willing to inject peoples' souls with his own willpower, but he was willing to use his power to create a sort of barrier between their psyches and the yellow light. The result will be that they're still not thinking straight, but at least their fear won't be strengthening Parallax and they're more likely to survive with that thing being weaker.
Some sort of serpent-insect thing dashes up the side of a skyscraper, claws tearing through the exterior of the building as it tries to reach Priest. I don't know whether it actually has any intelligence or instinct or Harralax isn't as distracted as he looks, but it's managed to head towards the one person who can deny him the planet as a power booster. It reaches the top of the building and bunches up, ready to leap at Priest with claws-.
Ragnar flies in, his construct sword slicing through the legs on its left side. It loses its grip at once and begins to fall even as the legs of its right try to scrabble to maintain their hold. A moment later and it's the building that fails, chunks of metal, glass and concrete tearing their way out of the structure as…
Gravity… Takes a firm grip on something that… Should by all rights be able to fly.
Huh.
But Ragnar's already in position, giant construct boar spear upraised and ready as the construct monster plummets downwards to impale itself, decaying into yellow motes an instant later.
Ragnar grins as the motes begin to coalesce around him, then frowns as Priest dismisses them with a wave of his hand. A moment later and the motes are gone and he's back into the fray, relishing the opportunity to go ham on the construct monsters, though just about disciplined enough to stick with Priest rather than charging after the next monster to catch his eye.
Warp module reformed.
Thank you.
Parallax appears to be coping with its damage by shrinking, letting its outer parts fade and focusing its efforts on a smaller and more intense construct body. Which could work, except that Lord Malvolio isn't giving him time to recuperate and is instead pushing through the fading yellow body parts with sword and shield at the ready. Jade and Lysis are clear of the combat area-.
Harrolds spots Malvolio as he batters aside a section of carapace and twists, lunging at him with mouth open wide and-.
And fire, because someone forgot to obscure my line of sight and now doesn't have enough construct volume protecting himself.
And fire continuously, because I can still feel people dying on Yaolsan because when people in our weight class fight it's everybody's problem.
Parallax's mouth bites at Malvolio, who shoves his shield between its jaws and enlarges it just as my shots start hitting the back of its neck. The chitin construct begins to disintegrate as Malvolio brings his sword around to stab at its throat. It doesn't go in easily, but construct flesh parts around it as it-.
"GAH!"
The construct Parallax vanishes, Harrolds-
"Not."
-appears in front of me, and-.
And the Earth is Anti-Lifed because of my interactions with-.
I don't-. Believe that!
SHIELD!
The colossal beam of yellow power slams into my decidedly rushed shield, and my mind hasn't quite-!
Dodge!
"Allowed."
Oh, yes? Because I'm fairly sure that Harrolds had desires before he went to Yellow Planet.
Lets see what they were. Desire amplification.
We see fights between superhuman warlords, brief and inconclusive affairs as neither party is strong enough to withstand the attention it will draw from others. We see his desire to take control of the syndicates as he takes control of his-.
This time I fire the blast, his construct armour fading as he's knocked flying-
"Uh."
-and the lights on Yaolsan go out as he restores himself, battering the beam away with a gauntlet construct, stabilising himself.
"Do you want another go?"
"We're in no hurry. What do you think of our first attempt?"
"I imagine you scared quite a few people. I mean, given how powerful you are the number probably wasn't anything special, but you've been away for a while, so… Well done?"
What did I learn from that snapshot of Joseph Harrolds' life? The impression I got was that he's rational, pragmatic and self-interested. I didn't see any positive association with the Crime Syndicate. Not as an achievement he worked toward or as a team he liked being a part of. Which means that they're just a group that he tolerates because he needs to in order to do other things. They're his syndicates, and the best way for him to keep them that way is for him to cooperate with the other Syndicate members.
"Though I suspect that Ultraman is taking advantage of your absence to do something stupid back home."
He rolls his eyes. "Very subtle."
"Yeah. True, though."
"We need to grow used to our power before returning home."
"Does the part of you that is Parallax really care about that?"
"Do you care if we threaten your home?"
"Right now? No. Honestly, my Earth's-"
Lord Malvolio's battering ram construct strikes him in the side, punching through his construct defences as the two of them carry on away from the planet.
"-a mess."
"Did the villein say ought of significance?"
The battering ram splits in two as Parallax prepares to re-enter the fray.
"We can hear your fears too, Green Lantern. You can't bury them deep enough to escape our notice. Let us show you."
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