(good call on the reshaping, I totally forgot about that!)

Tin Man shot backwards. Flesh does not smell good when it's electrocuted. Its a gross smell. He'd been electrocuted three times. The last time, it'd been when Tin Man was thrown into an electrical hub of a power-plant. Good times. This time, he felt his flesh rending and burning and then the electricity fried his brain and he didn't feel anything. His corpse was smoking in the sand.

Then five minutes passed.

His brain reset after all critical systems had healed. He sat up in the sand and cracked his neck as his stomach nit itself back together again and the burns melted into scar tissue which would soon turn into normal, healthy skin. Tin Man stood and brushed the sand off his pants. "Whew that was some kick," he said, chuckling. "Best not do that one again." He winked at Machina. "Now, where were we?"

Tin Man pulled at her feet and... made a face. "So that's how you avoided us all these years," he drawled. "That's annoying." All this time, the elevator had descended back under the sand and he pulled at it now. Deep and smooth enough to be undetected by the cyborg, he began to reshape the metal under the earth at her feet. He made big scooping blades that turned on a central axis. "Do you hav'ta speak in that stupid language? Its so...basic." He took the hat off his head and mopped at sweat on his brow. "English is just so dang in'neresting, doncha think?" He replaced the hat and formed a short stout blade in his hands from the metal that was embedded in his duster. "Well, lets get this started."

The blades under the earth suddenly started spinning. Again, they were too deep to be detected but were situated just under the layer of sand. The blades spun downwards. A wide cavern that was about ten feet in diameter started to be formed. Very very quickly, the blades spun down and a hole opened up. The weight of a nearly pure metal being plus the heavy, unstable sand made for a very bad combination. The ground under Machina instantly dropped nearly twenty feet, sucking at the cyborg with the tons of sand. The effect was sinking sand - nothing to stand on or to jump off of - nothing to dig at because once you take away an armful of sand, there was ten gallons more to take its place. A normal person would suffocate but Machina would simply be stuck and effectively disabled.

Tin Man felt the blade bite into his face but at the same time, he took the metal of the sword and held it a few inches from his face. At the same time, he took the hilt and wrapped that around Kale's hands, fusing them to the entire sword. Then he took the rest of the blade in a firm elemental grip that would keep it here even if Kale teleported...thus leaving his hands with the sword. Tin Man started to press the blade into itself like a frog drawing in its tongue. As he worked, the flap of his face that was nearly carved off, started to fuse back onto his skull.

And Hatter was left where he usually was. Crouching in the shadows and watching life from afar, this time over a gun's barrel. He watched the combatants quietly, waiting for an opening to declare himself the winner of this contest. Truth be told, he hadn't felt this exilirated in a long time. Ever since he was married, such face paced lifestyles weren't the norm for him... So this was a nice little reprive...

((To answer your question a bit too late, Mongoose, normal ammo for now. I would have specifyed if it were otherwise.))

(how'd hatter react to Antonious' attempt to disarm him telekinetically?)

(Ok, I'm sorry, but I can't allow anything to happen to the buster sword. It's less a part of Kale's character and more a part of mine. I need to play a character with a buster in order to satisfy myself. If Tin Man breaks the buster, then I'll have no choice but to leave Writer's Inc. forever. But that's not going to happen. Kale will react faster than it takes Tin Man to warp his sword. I'm never quitting on you all... ^_^)

Kale noticed Tin Man's power essence moving toward his sword. Not acceptable. He would not allow the Buster to be damaged, so he rolled backward in midair and used Tin Man's well-built body as a pushoff point. He flipped off backward into the air and vanished.

Machina watched Kale's attack, or almost attack, and retreat. Apparently he had quite a strong affinity for his buster. She pulled the horizontal leap trick again, the sand flying off backward as she launched herself directly toward Tin Man at about Mach 1. And of course, being that she moved at Mach 1, there was an extremely loud BOOM as she broke the sound barrier. But this time, instead of kicking the ground to throw a massive dropkick, she crossed her arms in front of her face, or what would be above her head, should she had been upright. This was to provide a sort of lever that, once in contact with Tin Man, she would use to throw him backward at nearly the same speed as her flying leap. He would naturally break the sound barrier as well, and she would kick off the ground again for a second leap. But that was for the next post.

Tin Man launched upwards into the air, using the metal from his boots to provide a platform. He timed it perfectly with the noise of Machina's launch. At the same time, he pulled out a big yellow button and pressed it. Opening where he once stood was a portal to the space between the universes. It was a place of non-existence. Greater beings like Time Lords used it as a prison. Tin Man was a greater being, not a Time Lord of course but a greater being.

This is how it happened.

He heard Machina launch. She'd be there in under a second moving at a speed in which it would be impossible to turn or stop before reaching his position. As soon as she launched, he jumped and opened the portal, leaving a big 'hole' for her to run herself into. Essentially, she'd jump herself into the space between universes in which she would cease to exist.

(Kale can lose. Machina cannot. It is physically, mentally, psychologically impossible. I'm just not allowing the buster sword to be damaged. That's it. Tin Man can break as many of Kale's OTHER swords as he wants. Just bear with me for a few more posts. I'll remove Kale from the game eventually, but not yet. I gotta go for now. Later.)

This is the Nexus Arena 3, right? The thread that I created for fights, so that Bleeding would have a place to TRY to beat up on my PCs and keep it out of the story threads. I made a point of saying that there wouldn't be a whole lot of rules about what he could and couldn't do. But when the sparring de-generates into OOC arguments about the value of the IC posts, that's where I draw the line. You two figure it out in the next round of posts, or I'll ask for permission to delete all the posts with the heavy OOC debating in them, and y'all can pick it up at that point.

Oh, BTW, Bleeding, Machina CAN loose, in my thread, and it looks to me like Tin Man is her match, if not her better. My suggestion, though I won't hold you to it, is to allow several of Tin Man's moves to work, just as several of Machina's and Kale's moves have worked. That would be the mature thing to do. And get off the sword thing. This is role playing, not life. If you have a buster sword IRL, you can caress it and call it your precious till the cows come home if you want. But everything here is temporary and dependent upon all the other writers. If you don't want the outcomes to be dependent upon the other writers, then you're right, and you need to take your writing to a place where you have the kind of control you need.

Like I said, one more post each, and then we're back in character. Thanks for your cooperation.

(I'mn'a edit out my OOC comments from the previous posts and then the ball is in Bleedings court for the IC response)

((Most likely not well, Mongoose. He obviously still has his gun. x3))

(or you just ignored that action, Dread. I have no way of knowing, unless you post it. I'd appreciate it if everyone responds to every action that is relative to their PC in such a way that everyone else can understand everything that's going on. Thanks.)

Well, that was lame. Never, in the last thousand years, had one of Antonious' telekinetic actions been ineffective. What did that mean about Hatter? The last time the two of them had fought -- that one involved Linda, and Hatter was insane at the time -- They'd been fairly evenly matched. But even an opponent that was evenly matched would lose his weapon if it were hit with that kind of force.

All of which meant Antonious needed to see what Hatter was about before he committed to anything. He stood still and waited to see what Hatter would do next.

A portal opened, or was it a wormhole? Did it matter? A humanoid form tumbled through and came up on its feet, only swaying a little from the former motion through which it had come. It was average in every way; entirely non-descript, much like a manequin. It was clothed in a very generic way, and simply stood there, staring straight ahead, waiting for its author/creator to show up and imbdue it with character.

(that's your cue, Addison. He's the one that I'm supposed to play in our little scene for your story.)

The instant Tin Man opened the portal, Machina kicked the ground. Non her original plan, but still neccesary. This caused her to launch into a huge arc, high over the portal and directly toward Tin Man. This all happened in the space of less than a tenth of a second since her horizontal leap, which was ALMOST too fast for the average human eye to follow. Almost. Machina used her arms like bird wings, twisting her body around to scissor kick Tin Man's head with enough force to snap a redwood tree.

(A little idea, Arem, and it has nothing to do with our previous OCC posts. What if Tin Man knew Machina's true name? [Yes, true name.] Machina is just the name she took when modern languages began to develop. Her true name, and ONLY Tin Man [being an ancient himself] would know, is "Sola Kys", meaning "Sun Kiss" in the ancient language. Its origin refers to her extreme level of power, compared to the sun's power.)

(nope. I'm done)

Hatter waited... Staring at Antonious through his viewfinder... This wasn't good. He had the distinct idea that this vampire knew exactly where he was. It must have been him that knocked his rifle out of his hand... It was a good job he'd been able to reclaim it, else he would be in even more trouble right now...

Experimentally, he took a shot, delibratly swinging it extremely wide so that it didn't even look like it was meant for the vampire in Hatter's mechanical sights...

(I should have caught that the Hatter was still hidden, inspite of whatever it was that Bleeding's PC did. Sorry.)

Antonious took a gliding step forward. It was hardly a walk at all. More like he simply moved forward the length of a step, moving his feet and legs as though he were walking, though they never quite touched the ground. He smiled just a little, about to greet the Hatter, when he heard the next shot. It wasn't that the shot was particularly loud. It was more that his hearing was that good. He heard the slight creaking of the trigger, the hammer falling, the explosion of the powder, the sound from the contact of the round with the barrel of the rifle.

It wasn't so much that he watched the bullet pass, as though it were in slow motion, so much as it was that he determined by the time the bullet drew near him that it wasn't within range to do any damage. Something like the way a pro-baseball player "keeps their eye on the ball" when the pitcher lobs a fast ball. Obviously the difficulty was several times higher here, but then, Antonious' preternatural senses effectively canceled that out to the point where he didn't swing, so to speak, at the wide ball, as it were.

His gaze snapped back to the Hatter's location. "You did want to fight, didn't you, Mr. Hattigan?"

That was enough to prove that the vampire did indeed know where he was. What were his options? The dragons were overkill, at the moment, and his card guards and their leader had been put out of commision. He had on him his coatful of various canes and his ammo, but besides that, all he could trust was his rifle...

He pulled back and began to move around the outer rim of the arena. Merely a way to stall just a bit... He had a plan... He pulled out his pocketwatch and began to fiddle with it a bit...

(You called me, Mongoose? ;) I'm here, just deciding how to state it.....)

(Okay. Are we dealing with that same campfire sparring scene? You can start by setting the scene. Describe the campfire and who's there. Or, you could start, and this would be my preference, with a description of the characters. Just what I need to know in order to play him in such a way that you can copy and paste into your story, in whole or in part.)

(Alright, well, here's the best I can give for a sort of bio on the two main fighters in this scene:

Archeim-

A young teenager about seventeen years old. Very strong and fit. He's a very good fighter, but he gets cocky. He's the one who initiated this sparring scene.

Samius-

An older fellow. I haven't decided how old, but he's atleast in his forties, if not older. He's been very quiet in this storyline up until this point.

Archeim initiated the fight, and if need be I can post that here. They fought using combat sticks that the masters used to train young swordsmen (let me remind you this is more of a mideval setting, but then again, its not necesarily along the lines of that time... that make sense?) As of Archeim's fighting style? He can fight well, having learned from some of the best. What effects the way he fights is his emotion, or rather why he is fighting. The why changes the how. Samius does not fight. He merely defends himself, up until this point. For instance, when Archeim would attack, Samius would merely dodge or block his attack. Samius hasn't made a sound, and wont until the end of the fight. (strong silent type, no? haha) Now Samius has dropped the stick and challenged (silently, mind you) Archeim by placing himself in a hand-to-hand combatant's defensive stance. This is where I'm having trouble, becuase I'm not that great when it come to hand to hand... I can totally fill u in on anything else you need.

(So basically, Mongoose, do you want to play the part of the wise old strong man or the cocky teenager who's about to get his butt kicked...? ;) )

The manaquin looking thing suddenly animated, absorbed the texture and color of well weathered skin, complete with a few small wrinkles, and long, greying hair, including a full beard. His clothes were in good shape, but old, clearly hand repaired more than once.

Samius, for that was his name, slowly slid his left foot backward, placing it at a right angle to his right, which pointed directly at the boy who thought so highly of his fighting abilities. Samius' left hand came up to about the height of his shoulders, while his right remained forward and down at about the height of his stomach. He looked the boy in the eyes, and raised an eyebrow as if to say, "you coming?"

A boyish grin crossed the older teen's face as he pulled himself to his feet, brushing a bit of loose rock from his pants. The laughter flew at him, like daggers, from his comrades mouths. Shame and anger were a sight hidden behind his eyes, but he couldn't let them see. He fisted his hands and spread his legs a bit to balance his weight. His eyes fell upon his oponent...

Who continued to stand, waiting for the inevitable attack. Age had taught him nothing if not patience. If the boy wanted to pose, as boys would, he would let him. And when the boy became impatient the boy would attack, and in his impatience would do so sloppily, just as he had done so far. At that time the older man (already forgot his name) would continue teaching his lessons.

He raised the other eyebrow, tilted his head a little to the side, and continued waiting.

Archeim gritted his teeth and inhaled slowly through his nose before moving forward quickly. He was already frustrated from losing the first half of this "match" and was not keen on losing it again. He ran forward and made to grab for the older man's throat...

A good move, relatively speaking, to grab for one's throat, Samius thought. Or perhaps he would have thought if he hadn't learned so many years ago to stop thinking and just act. And act he did, as the move was not unexpected given what he'd learned of the youngster.

A small movement of his head to the side, and his left hand in the opposite direction, and he caught Archeim's hand, applying just a little pressure to bend it at the wrist in a VERY uncomfortable way. The wrist lock took little strength on Samius' part, but was almost guaranteed to give him full control over his opponent. All he had to do was to apply just a little more pressure right there, and either the wrist would break, or Archeim would be thrown off balance far enough that it would become quite difficult for him to counter the move.

(This was fairly obvious, but as we continue, am I to assume that you want Samius to maintain the upper hand? Let me know if that changes.)

(Yes. Samius will always seem to be one step ahead ;) )

Archeim winced. He should've thought that through a little better before actually making that move... but he wasn't thinking this. No. He was too busy venting his anger in his next move. As he was thrown off balance he knew he was going to fall. He kicked his left foot forward and in between Samius's legs, twisted his foot, and jerked back towards him, using the force of the fall to attmept to bring the older man down with him...

(that kind of off-balance?)

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