CAVE GEAR
Crystalwatcher
(Verified GM)
- Location
- Limbo
"... Fuck it." The temptation to just leave her here to die is a strong one. A very strong one. The kid had been out to decimate humanity: but you really couldn't bring yourself to do it. No one deserved to be reduced to being a sacrifice to anything, let alone the Children of Nightmare. "Once she's down check her for a chest buster. I don't want to deal with-"
Gabriel crosses the only closed circle in the massive array, and it flares to life. West's eyes snap open and everything starts to go wrong all at once.
"GGAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Her scream is blood curdling. The agony it conveys spooking Gabriel enough that she leaps away. The angel flaps her wings once, and glides to where your standing in seconds. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" You watch in horror as West's stomach seems to bulge under her armor, before the sound a twisting metal begins and even it starts to bulge outward.
"What the fuck is that?!" Sam's shout come just before claws suddenly pierce their way out of the armor. You blink, and West vomits blood as whatever the thing that was suddenly growing inside of her tears its way free. Magical metal is rent and forced aside. The creature that frees itself is fully grown, and far larger than something that had just been born from such a petite girl had any right to be.
A Greater Nightmare. The Ultimate Evil that controlled the lesser nightmares. Born from the deepest desires of those used to summon them, they were the reason the Children of Nightmare were the threat they were.
The creature turns around, completely dismissing you and your team as a threat in your entirety. She slithers around West, cutting her down from where she hung, and gathered the girl in her arms.
"Mama." Her voice is soft and childlike. Completely at odds to the scene you had just witnessed. "Mama, it's time to wake up."
West's eyes open slowly, leaking tears of blood. How she's still alive you have no clue, but she somehow is. Her eyes are dulled with pain, but they find the Nightmare easily. "You are..." You have no idea what passes between the two of them, but you can see the happiness in West's eyes as she dies right then and there.
"Mama? Mama, what's wrong? ... Mama? MAMA!!!" The Nightmare's cries rise in crescendo.
You are stunned speechless by what you have just witnessed. "Alright, who else is confused by this?" Mike though is under no such restrictions.
"Greater Nightmares are born from the deepest desires of their host, and are specifically tailored to those desires... but they're always twisted in some slight way that ruins them entirely." Gabriel is trembling beside you, her sword clattering slightly as the monster across the room begins to lash out at the surroundings.
"So you mean... West wanted to be a mother? But in granting that wish, it killed her?" The Nightmare freezes at Samael's summary. You mentally facepalm at the obviously stupid comment. "Probably shouldn't have said that out loud." No shit.
The Nightmare turns around. She is covered in West's blood from holding her close, and her eyes carry a special kind of insanity. "I didn't kill her. It couldn't have been me! IT MUST HAVE BEEN YOUR FAULT!" She lunges at you, and Team GEAR scatters.
The Nightmare crosses ten yards in seconds, her initial swipe missing Samael by centimeters as her claws tear into the stone he had been standing on as if it was made of little more than paper.
"Libras! Shell! Empower!" Light fills the air, and Samael's initial spell races across the space between him and the Nightmare. Light ensnares the dead Magical Girl that she was still carrying, and you watch as more lights race back to him. Then Light envelops you and you can feel the power rush through you: just as it had during the fight at the mausoleum and in the basement of the research center. You feel unstoppable.
(James Full Auto: 1,250 Base Damage, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +885 Divine Inspiration, +500 Hostile Divinity Effect = 3,885 Total Damage
Michael Full Auto: 1,250 Base Damage, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +885 Divine Inspiration, +500 Hostile Divinity Effect = 3,885 Total Damage
Samael Full Auto: 1,250 Base Damage, +24 Dice, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +885 Divine Inspiration, +780 Faith in Victory, +500 Hostile Divinity Effect = 4,689 Total End Damage
Team GEAR: 12,459 Unified Damage, x2 Synchronize Bonus (Hail of Lead) = 24,918 Total End Damage
Nightmare of West: 999 Base Resilience, +105 Dice, +49,836 False Existence, -49,836 Weak against Divinity, +500 Impossibly Fast = 1,604 Damage Reduction
23,314 Total End Damage
Nightmare of West = 50,000 - 23,314 = 26,686 Health Remaining)
The wall of lead that you and your teammates unleash upon the Nightmare turns the enclosed chamber into a rave. The light of your guns strobe, their bright flashes overwhelming the soft lighting of the leftover magic from the circle that had summoned the monster. It screams in pain, and writhes across the floor, trying to get away from your attack. But your initial scatter is enough to keep her pinned in place long enough for you to deal significant damage.
"What the hell?" Gabriel though doesn't take the fact you actually hurt it well though. "How did you do that?! Greater Nightmares can't be hurt! I heard that whole platoons of humans would empty their weapons into those things and still not manage to hurt them! How? How did you?!" With the snake-tailed girl on the ground stunned from your attack you take a glance at the angel.
"No clue. I think it might be something to do with the Connection." It was the only thing that really made sense to you. Every time you had heard of a Greater Nightmare showing up had been exactly like Gabriel had said. Hell, you had once witnessed such an event: an elder Nightmare had taken to the field and wiped out your whole platoon before a Magical Girl had driven it off with her life. "I'm not going to question it."
A sob cuts off your byplay. You raise your gun but it proves meaningless.
The Nightmare is slowly trying to crawl her way away from you. Her green blood leaks across the broken rocks, but she refuses to put down West's body. She's crying. "I'm sorry." Her voice is small. And in that moment you can't help but acknowledge that she is nothing more than a child, despite being able to break stone with her bare hands. As you watch she curls into a ball, holding the Maiden of the west's remains as close as she can. "I'm sorry... I don't want to fight any more... Please, stop hurting me."
Sam and Mike don't lower their guns, but you do when Gabriel looks at you questioningly. "She's just a kid." And boy did you never think that term would apply to anything you fought.
"Can we trust you not to go after the innocent? I don't want to let you go, just to fight you later." you direct the question to the Nightmare that was now whimpering in fear between you and your teammates, lacking the strength to crawl away.
"Yes, just... please. I don't want to fight any more..." A part of you doesn't want to let her go, but a memory of Nepgear sleeping quietly in Rei's bed flashes through your mind's eye. With a nod, you wave a hand signal to your team and turn away.
"We're just going to leave her here?" Gabriel calls after you.
"Yes. We are. Let the kid grieve for her mom." The angel glances between you and the Child, before coming to a decision; squeezing her eyes hut she dashes past the snake-girl and follows after you. Both Michael and Sam silently follow themselves.
As he passes her, Sam comes to a stop, drawing not only her attention but the rest of yours as well. "I... sorry about my comment earlier." The Nightmare twitches, but doesn't lash out. "If it's any consolation... She serves Shiva. And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let her die so easily... If you find her, would you try and convince her how bad an idea it is? To serve Shiva and Sil I mean... If anyone would be able to convince her, I'm pretty sure it would be her kid." He turns and walks away without waiting for a response.
Team GEAR leaves West's child in the chamber alone.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
You decide to take the tunnel that had been to West's left. The walls here again take on the signs of xenomorph habitation, but you fail to run into any more of them after the first drone at the start of your spelunking adventure. It doesn't feel you with confidence.
"Two down, five to go. Who do you think we'll run into next?" It does get Gabriel talking though. The angel keeps a careful eye on the walls and ceiling, she rambles into the silence. "I hope we run into Angel WEAPON. I wanna know if the rumors of her actually having a single wing are true. I've always been curious about that...." Honestly, you didn't really mind. Her young voice broke the oppressing silence rather well, and the bright light from her sword cut through the darkness easier than your own flashlights.
Her rambling cuts off though when Samael asks a question you hadn't ever thought very much about yourself.
"Ya'know... I've always wondered. How exactly are new angels born? It's widely accepted that Humans and Angels can interbreed, but as far as human scientists can figure out, Angels are otherwise completely sterile. So new born angels have to come from somewhere, right?"
Gabriel goes silent. You personally believed the question was a bit rude but...
"We're born from prayers." Gabriel's response is a bit bemused. As if it was something she had believed everyone to already know. "If enough people pray for the same thing, an angel is born from those prayers. For example, I was born from a group of School Children praying for someone to save them and their class." She smiles, blushing, "I'm told it's supposed to be hard for Angels like me. That were born to be protectors, because we can't just leap to go help the ones that prayed for us. I'm different, because right as I was born I knew that those children had been saved by someone else. So... I wanted to get to the front lines as fast as I could, so I could help others like those children were helped."
You glance at her, but keep your guard up. "Do you know who those Children were? And who saved them?"
"You guys did." You all stop walking, but Gabriel doesn't seem to notice. "I still have the memories they passed on to me when I was born. There was a group of demons across the street from their hiding spot. They were wishing with all their might for someone to come save them... and they saw Solid Core and Truth. They killed the demons, and you all followed after them. It was inspiring."
You, Michael, and Samael share a look. This Angel had been born less than a week ago: the scene she had described to you sounded like the New York attack when the helicopter had dropped you off.
"We angels are born fully formed. Our knowledge is imparted onto us by those that pray for us. Since I was prayed for by school children, I'm actually not all that learned. It's slightly embarrassing... But I'm determined to live up to the name those kids gave me."
The rest of the trip to the next chamber passes in silence.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
The next chamber is a similar setup to the one that had held Maiden of the West. The difference was that only a third of the magical circle that covered the chamber was glowing, with the lights slowly crawling across the lines towards the crucified Magical Girl.
This one was Hero WEAPON.
"Cut her down. Preferably before we have to fight another Nightmare." Gabriel flutters across the room, careful not to break any of the glowing lines, as she frees the unconscious Hero WEAPON from her imprisonment. As the cords break and Gabriel pulls her down, the light from the magic lines die leaving you in the angel's little puddle of light.
"And that makes three. Which way should we go next?"
You turn back to the rest of the chamber.
Nepgear always seemed like a girl who would love flying.
The exits to the left and right are nearly identical.
The left smells like the sea. But you can hear the wind from the right.
You huff. Time to choose a direction.
[]Go Left.
[]Go right.
+100xp Brought down a Class Three demon
+10xp Let the Nightmare of West survive
+15xp Saved Hero WEAPON
+2xp Learned a bit about angels
127 EXP Gained = 1,033 EXP Total
(WARNING! You cannot vote to spend EXP untilAnastasiaNepgear is rescued!)
(Samael learned Armageddon Pulse!)
Gabriel crosses the only closed circle in the massive array, and it flares to life. West's eyes snap open and everything starts to go wrong all at once.
"GGAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Her scream is blood curdling. The agony it conveys spooking Gabriel enough that she leaps away. The angel flaps her wings once, and glides to where your standing in seconds. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" You watch in horror as West's stomach seems to bulge under her armor, before the sound a twisting metal begins and even it starts to bulge outward.
"What the fuck is that?!" Sam's shout come just before claws suddenly pierce their way out of the armor. You blink, and West vomits blood as whatever the thing that was suddenly growing inside of her tears its way free. Magical metal is rent and forced aside. The creature that frees itself is fully grown, and far larger than something that had just been born from such a petite girl had any right to be.
A Greater Nightmare. The Ultimate Evil that controlled the lesser nightmares. Born from the deepest desires of those used to summon them, they were the reason the Children of Nightmare were the threat they were.
The creature turns around, completely dismissing you and your team as a threat in your entirety. She slithers around West, cutting her down from where she hung, and gathered the girl in her arms.
"Mama." Her voice is soft and childlike. Completely at odds to the scene you had just witnessed. "Mama, it's time to wake up."
West's eyes open slowly, leaking tears of blood. How she's still alive you have no clue, but she somehow is. Her eyes are dulled with pain, but they find the Nightmare easily. "You are..." You have no idea what passes between the two of them, but you can see the happiness in West's eyes as she dies right then and there.
"Mama? Mama, what's wrong? ... Mama? MAMA!!!" The Nightmare's cries rise in crescendo.
You are stunned speechless by what you have just witnessed. "Alright, who else is confused by this?" Mike though is under no such restrictions.
"Greater Nightmares are born from the deepest desires of their host, and are specifically tailored to those desires... but they're always twisted in some slight way that ruins them entirely." Gabriel is trembling beside you, her sword clattering slightly as the monster across the room begins to lash out at the surroundings.
"So you mean... West wanted to be a mother? But in granting that wish, it killed her?" The Nightmare freezes at Samael's summary. You mentally facepalm at the obviously stupid comment. "Probably shouldn't have said that out loud." No shit.
The Nightmare turns around. She is covered in West's blood from holding her close, and her eyes carry a special kind of insanity. "I didn't kill her. It couldn't have been me! IT MUST HAVE BEEN YOUR FAULT!" She lunges at you, and Team GEAR scatters.
The Nightmare crosses ten yards in seconds, her initial swipe missing Samael by centimeters as her claws tear into the stone he had been standing on as if it was made of little more than paper.
"Libras! Shell! Empower!" Light fills the air, and Samael's initial spell races across the space between him and the Nightmare. Light ensnares the dead Magical Girl that she was still carrying, and you watch as more lights race back to him. Then Light envelops you and you can feel the power rush through you: just as it had during the fight at the mausoleum and in the basement of the research center. You feel unstoppable.
(James Full Auto: 1,250 Base Damage, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +885 Divine Inspiration, +500 Hostile Divinity Effect = 3,885 Total Damage
Michael Full Auto: 1,250 Base Damage, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +885 Divine Inspiration, +500 Hostile Divinity Effect = 3,885 Total Damage
Samael Full Auto: 1,250 Base Damage, +24 Dice, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +250 Full Auto, +885 Divine Inspiration, +780 Faith in Victory, +500 Hostile Divinity Effect = 4,689 Total End Damage
Team GEAR: 12,459 Unified Damage, x2 Synchronize Bonus (Hail of Lead) = 24,918 Total End Damage
Nightmare of West: 999 Base Resilience, +105 Dice, +49,836 False Existence, -49,836 Weak against Divinity, +500 Impossibly Fast = 1,604 Damage Reduction
23,314 Total End Damage
Nightmare of West = 50,000 - 23,314 = 26,686 Health Remaining)
The wall of lead that you and your teammates unleash upon the Nightmare turns the enclosed chamber into a rave. The light of your guns strobe, their bright flashes overwhelming the soft lighting of the leftover magic from the circle that had summoned the monster. It screams in pain, and writhes across the floor, trying to get away from your attack. But your initial scatter is enough to keep her pinned in place long enough for you to deal significant damage.
"What the hell?" Gabriel though doesn't take the fact you actually hurt it well though. "How did you do that?! Greater Nightmares can't be hurt! I heard that whole platoons of humans would empty their weapons into those things and still not manage to hurt them! How? How did you?!" With the snake-tailed girl on the ground stunned from your attack you take a glance at the angel.
"No clue. I think it might be something to do with the Connection." It was the only thing that really made sense to you. Every time you had heard of a Greater Nightmare showing up had been exactly like Gabriel had said. Hell, you had once witnessed such an event: an elder Nightmare had taken to the field and wiped out your whole platoon before a Magical Girl had driven it off with her life. "I'm not going to question it."
A sob cuts off your byplay. You raise your gun but it proves meaningless.
The Nightmare is slowly trying to crawl her way away from you. Her green blood leaks across the broken rocks, but she refuses to put down West's body. She's crying. "I'm sorry." Her voice is small. And in that moment you can't help but acknowledge that she is nothing more than a child, despite being able to break stone with her bare hands. As you watch she curls into a ball, holding the Maiden of the west's remains as close as she can. "I'm sorry... I don't want to fight any more... Please, stop hurting me."
Sam and Mike don't lower their guns, but you do when Gabriel looks at you questioningly. "She's just a kid." And boy did you never think that term would apply to anything you fought.
"Can we trust you not to go after the innocent? I don't want to let you go, just to fight you later." you direct the question to the Nightmare that was now whimpering in fear between you and your teammates, lacking the strength to crawl away.
"Yes, just... please. I don't want to fight any more..." A part of you doesn't want to let her go, but a memory of Nepgear sleeping quietly in Rei's bed flashes through your mind's eye. With a nod, you wave a hand signal to your team and turn away.
"We're just going to leave her here?" Gabriel calls after you.
"Yes. We are. Let the kid grieve for her mom." The angel glances between you and the Child, before coming to a decision; squeezing her eyes hut she dashes past the snake-girl and follows after you. Both Michael and Sam silently follow themselves.
As he passes her, Sam comes to a stop, drawing not only her attention but the rest of yours as well. "I... sorry about my comment earlier." The Nightmare twitches, but doesn't lash out. "If it's any consolation... She serves Shiva. And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let her die so easily... If you find her, would you try and convince her how bad an idea it is? To serve Shiva and Sil I mean... If anyone would be able to convince her, I'm pretty sure it would be her kid." He turns and walks away without waiting for a response.
Team GEAR leaves West's child in the chamber alone.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
You decide to take the tunnel that had been to West's left. The walls here again take on the signs of xenomorph habitation, but you fail to run into any more of them after the first drone at the start of your spelunking adventure. It doesn't feel you with confidence.
"Two down, five to go. Who do you think we'll run into next?" It does get Gabriel talking though. The angel keeps a careful eye on the walls and ceiling, she rambles into the silence. "I hope we run into Angel WEAPON. I wanna know if the rumors of her actually having a single wing are true. I've always been curious about that...." Honestly, you didn't really mind. Her young voice broke the oppressing silence rather well, and the bright light from her sword cut through the darkness easier than your own flashlights.
Her rambling cuts off though when Samael asks a question you hadn't ever thought very much about yourself.
"Ya'know... I've always wondered. How exactly are new angels born? It's widely accepted that Humans and Angels can interbreed, but as far as human scientists can figure out, Angels are otherwise completely sterile. So new born angels have to come from somewhere, right?"
Gabriel goes silent. You personally believed the question was a bit rude but...
"We're born from prayers." Gabriel's response is a bit bemused. As if it was something she had believed everyone to already know. "If enough people pray for the same thing, an angel is born from those prayers. For example, I was born from a group of School Children praying for someone to save them and their class." She smiles, blushing, "I'm told it's supposed to be hard for Angels like me. That were born to be protectors, because we can't just leap to go help the ones that prayed for us. I'm different, because right as I was born I knew that those children had been saved by someone else. So... I wanted to get to the front lines as fast as I could, so I could help others like those children were helped."
You glance at her, but keep your guard up. "Do you know who those Children were? And who saved them?"
"You guys did." You all stop walking, but Gabriel doesn't seem to notice. "I still have the memories they passed on to me when I was born. There was a group of demons across the street from their hiding spot. They were wishing with all their might for someone to come save them... and they saw Solid Core and Truth. They killed the demons, and you all followed after them. It was inspiring."
You, Michael, and Samael share a look. This Angel had been born less than a week ago: the scene she had described to you sounded like the New York attack when the helicopter had dropped you off.
"We angels are born fully formed. Our knowledge is imparted onto us by those that pray for us. Since I was prayed for by school children, I'm actually not all that learned. It's slightly embarrassing... But I'm determined to live up to the name those kids gave me."
The rest of the trip to the next chamber passes in silence.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
The next chamber is a similar setup to the one that had held Maiden of the West. The difference was that only a third of the magical circle that covered the chamber was glowing, with the lights slowly crawling across the lines towards the crucified Magical Girl.
This one was Hero WEAPON.
"Cut her down. Preferably before we have to fight another Nightmare." Gabriel flutters across the room, careful not to break any of the glowing lines, as she frees the unconscious Hero WEAPON from her imprisonment. As the cords break and Gabriel pulls her down, the light from the magic lines die leaving you in the angel's little puddle of light.
"And that makes three. Which way should we go next?"
You turn back to the rest of the chamber.
Nepgear always seemed like a girl who would love flying.
The exits to the left and right are nearly identical.
The left smells like the sea. But you can hear the wind from the right.
You huff. Time to choose a direction.
[]Go Left.
[]Go right.
+100xp Brought down a Class Three demon
+10xp Let the Nightmare of West survive
+15xp Saved Hero WEAPON
+2xp Learned a bit about angels
127 EXP Gained = 1,033 EXP Total
(WARNING! You cannot vote to spend EXP until
(Samael learned Armageddon Pulse!)
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