OOC- Wow...finally, I reached a plausible explanation for how the hackers would do what they wanted to do. YES!!!
Cyrano struggled with Nancy, finally managing to pin her. The slave crown glinted as the florescent light reflected off it.
"Aha!" He instantly grabbed it, snatched it from her head, and smashed it.
Nancy screamed, a terrible, soul-wrenching cry, and she began sobbing. Cyrano was about to go to her, when he saw Python and froze.
"Sweet dreams," Python said, releasing the shaft. Cyrano, who was too weak to dodge, watched helplessly as the arrow sped toward him. Suddenly, it was destroyed by an explosion of light. nancy stood, pure hatred burning in her clear eyes.
"Now you've really made me mad," she hissed dangerously.
Python snarled but, sensing the odds were against him, teleported away. Cyrano shook his head. "Always slippery as an eel, that one. Now we'll have to hunt him down again."
"That actually shouldn't be too hard," Silk said, dropping from the tree. "Yes, I'm formally surrendering. I'd still prefer this as my real body, but I'd rather scary-girl not be anywhere near me, so I'll behave myself. As for Python, he's gone to get Reysa, the rest of the renegade mods, and round up the slavers' guild. Where he'll resurface after that...probably Fafnir's Ridge, to summon the dragon through the hack."
"Well, that'll be just dandy," Nancy sighed. Then she saw Saify, and her face lit up. "Saify!!!" she ran to her and flung her arms around her, hugging her.
Python's teleport brought him to the furthest reaches of Infinite, the wild country where only the bravest ventured...or the stupidest. Grimacing with distaste, he sidestepped a creeper plant, its vines reaching almost hungrily toward him. His lips curled back in disgust.
"What sick-minded devil made this small stretch of Hades?" he muttered.
"Apparently someone with a sense of poor humor."
He sidestepped another vine and faced
Reysa. "You seem to enjoy it."
Reysa smiled thinly; he recognized the veiled insult. "Have you finished your part,
hacker?"
Python smirked back. "Yes,
moderator, I have. Now whether you can do yours before Cyrano tears us all apart is the question. They've caught Silk."
Reysa shook his head. "Clumsy of you. Ah, well, I suppose I'll have to fix what you bungled."
Python clenched his teeth inwardly and continued to smirk outwardly. If he didn't need this piece of trash for his plans..."Have fun then."
Reysa smiled oddly. "Yes, I shall...after I solve this problem first."
From the ground burst hundreds of vine-like tendrils, and Python grimly realized what Reysa had meant. He knew this would have happened eventually, but he had expected it to come a little later. The vines all came down at once, in a net nothing could hope to escape.
Cursing Reysa in as many ways as he could, Python swung the chain, desperately trying to make a hole in the net. He managed to make a large enough hole in the top, and he lept through it. He escaped the net, but many of the thorns scratched or lodged into his skin. Very much knowning the possibly dangerous effects, he tried to perform a cleansing cure. Nothing happened.
He turned slowly to stare at Reysa, who smiled knowingly. Python knew now- Reysa had put a block on his magic. All he had left was what little remained in the chain. But already the poison from the thorns was moving through his veins. Ordinarily, the process of paralyzation was slow, but he;d received a rather large amount, thus quickening the end. He collapsed heavily, grimacing from the feeling of fire from the poison. "Reysa, you-"
"I'd finish you myself, but I think it would be funner, and more appropriate, to let the elements finish you." He smiled cruelly. "And the creatures found here are particularly nasty." He bent down, sifting through Python's pockets, and removed the chain and the teleportal device. "I'm sure you won't mind," he said. "You won't need them anyway. Farewell, Python." and he vanished.
Python began forcing his arms to move, what little they could still do, choking on the pain this caused. He pulled a smooth, irredescent red scale from his pocket and stared at it. "A hack is easier," he murmured. "When you have a piece to work with."
He focused all his will on this scale, the containor of his last hope. He did not intend to let REysa win, even if it meant
he lost everything. Anger, hatred, hope, all he focused onto the scale...the scale of a dragon. "
Fafnir, your master calls! Come to me!"