| Match 1 - Mark Ailshie Team Pern vs. The Shadow Group W - Pride Rock On the far side of the arid plain, the four huge beasts which called themselves 'dragons' leaped into the air. Fain watched as they wheeled in great circles, hunting them. Any one of those beasts could kill a man with the most casual flick of its claws. It made Fain chuckle insanely. Like the other dragon. And yet unlike. "Move out," he commanded, and the fade and the gholam moved to comply, each casting a wary look back at him as they did so. Fain had never heard of the gholam before they were teammates, but it hadn't been long before he had subjugated its will to his own. As far as he could tell, the gholam was completely indestructable and could have torn his throat out with its bare hands. Fain rubbed his hands together in anticipation, and drew the dagger. F'lar rode on the wind and looked down at their quarry and frowned. Three men, one atop a horse. He could never convince the dragons to hurt a human--it wasn't in their natures. Not anymore. "F'nor, you take the one on horseback. F'lessan, the one afoot that moves strangely. I'll handle the leader myself. Jaxom, you help whoever needs it." The dragonriders of Pern swooped into position. F'nor's Canth couldn't be forced to attack the man, but it would certainly take out the horse. F'nor gave it a mental command, and the dragon ripped the horse in half. The man in black spun like a snake and raked the dragon's side with a black sword. F'nor heard the cry of pain in his mind, then leaped off the back of the dragon, a long dagger in his hand. He would face it man to man. It took him a few seconds to realize that the Myrrdraal had no eyes, and was certainly not a man at all. F'lessan took a little less time. As he swooped over the gholam, preparing to strike, the Gholam suddenly roared at him and leaped, clawing and tearing at the Dragon's throat. Golanth was astonished, and tried to use its claws in self defence, but they raked over the gholam's body with no apparent effect. The Gholam punched into the dragon's throat and tore out its trachea with it's bare hands. Golanth coughed and sputtered, and crashed headfirst into the ground, dead before it hit. F'lessan scrambled to his feet and fumbled for his dagger. The Gholam came at him, shouting in rage. F'lessan backpedaled--anything that could do that to his dragon wouldn't take long to kill him. F'lar landed Mnementh near the bony little man. The man seemed to be arguing with some unseen companion. F'lar was wary, but dismounted, fully aware that the man wouldn't dare approach him while he was mounted. "Now, I said!" shouted the man suddenly. "Do it, now!" With a hiss, the man sprang suddenly at Mnementh, swinging his tiny little knife. Surprise rippled over the bond, and F'lar couldn't tell whether it was his own or Mnementh's. What kind of a fool would attack a grown dragon with a knife? Mnementh flapped his mighty wings once and swooped away. The bony man took one ineffectual swipe and nicked Mnementh's wing. Nothing he couldn't fly with, though. F'lar squared off against the man, confident that his own knife fighting skills were far superior, even if the man WAS insane. A ripple of shock came from Mnementh, followed quickly by alarm, and then a searing, horrible pain. F'lar cried out in blinding agony, only dimly aware of the man's demented ravings close by. He glanced at Mnementh, and was shocked to see the beast crashed into the ground, it's wings swiftly turning black and shriveled. The plague, whatever it was, was reaching into the beast's breast and down its neck. F'lar thrashed in agony. Fain couldn't stop grinning. For some reason, when he had killed the dragon, it had affected the man as well. He was virtually defenseless. Fain stepped up and jammed the dagger into the man's shoulder. The man spun - faster than Fain would have thought possible - and carved a deep slice into Fain's shoulder. Fain cursed and hopped away, his hand to his shoulder. It was a deep cut. He would be lucky to survive the night. He brought his hand to his mouth and tasted. Salty. Meanwhile, F'nor was struggling to match blades with the myrrdraal. He sent a frantic message to Canth that this was no man, and Canth roared in, claws and teeth flashing. He tore the myrdraal's head from its shoulders, and the halfman fell, flailing as it did so. F'nor breathed a sigh of relief, then spun to look for his friends. But Canth was not so sure--the huge bronze kept snapping and clawing at the flailing myrdraal, unsure why it wouldn't lie still. Jaxom saw the danger to both F'lar and F'lessan. F'lessan was closer, and in any case, whatever he was fighting was certainly not human. As he watched, the Gholam took F'lessan's dagger in it's gut and, completely ignoring it, shot a hand into F'lessan's mouth. The scream of pain was enough to make Jaxom queasy. He coaxed Ruth into attacking, and the dragon swooped down upon the Gholam. The gholam looked up, F'lessan's blood still coating his arms and smiled. He had never met anything that could hurt him other than that man with the foxhead medallion, and he wasn't used to worrying about anything. The dragon opened it's mouth, but the Gholam didn't flinch. It breathed fire at him, and the Gholam didn't even dodge. Until the fire touched it's skin, and he realized that it wasn't channeling. If the flame could engulf thread, it could certainly attach itself to the gholam. The gholam roared in pain and leaped, snatching the dragon by the throat. Jaxom was pitched over his head to the ground some twenty feet below, landing at a most unnatural angle and breaking his leg. The gholam ripped and tore, but Ruth kept breathing, until both warriors disentegrated in a bath of flame and blood. Jaxom cried out in pain. F'nor saw Ruth's brave act of sacrifice, and moved in that direction. Canth hesitated--the halfman still didn't seem to be dead. F'nor directed it to leave the thing alone and follow him. Canth complied, but suddenly sent a message of shock and pain across the bond. Something had just bitten it on the tail. F'nor looked back and saw the frail bony man that F'lar had gone after, blood seeping from an open wound near his neck. He was holding a rupy-hilted dagger and wearing the broad grin of a maniac. F'nor drew his own dagger and advanced on him. It was a few seconds before the plague hit Canth. When it did, the Bronze was in such agony that F'nor was barely aware of his opponent until he had plunged the cursed knife into his arm. Fain danced away and watched the man and dragon writhe in agony. This was always his favorite part. He could feel the life leeching away from his wound, but he was still alive, and in moments, he would be the only one. He tore his attention away from the dying and walked to where he had seen the boy fall. His fingers were greasy with his own blood, and now his steps were growing uncertain. He found the boy right where he had fallen, his eyes red with tears, his leg broken underneath him, holding a dagger unsteadily in front of him. The boy was wounded, but dangerous. Like Fain himself was. He may yet die today. Fain gave a gurgling laugh, and noticed he was geting thirsty. He stepped into the boy's reach and let him stab him in the stomach. The cursed dagger whipped out and sliced into the boy's bicep. Fain reeled back out of range and waited. He was too wounded to survive beyond the next few minutes. But a few minutes was all he needed. Winner: The Shadow (1-0) Team Pern (1-1) Match 2 - Brian Ailshie Team Pern vs. The Bears Group W - Pride Rock F'nor: F'lar, you're alive!?! But the what was all of that?F'lar: I can't say I understand it. One moment that man attacked, the next moment we were here. Mnementh doesn't seem hurt anymore either.Mnementh: I feel good, but I don't know what happened either.Jaxom: Ruth says we must have somehow leaped back in time. He remembers fighting the great cats, and the men who were not men, but not enjoying the feast of the cats.F'lessan: Golanth says there are 2 large animals below. They're about the same size as the great southern felines, except they're more like canines.F'lar: Well, let's go check it out. But let's be more careful this time. There may be more of them than we see.Walt Disney: And in fact there are more than he can see. Not only is the great jungle-bum Baloo leading Kenai to the rock formation, but also following and ahead of him are 2 more bears! Bouncing ahead is the magical Gummi-bear wizard Zummi-Gummi, armed with several bottles of Gummi-berry juice. Trodding behind is the un-named CareBear. They of course have seen the 'great winged beasts' above them and are hurrying to Pride Rock and the relative safety there.Andy Katz: The caution the dragons are showing is actually working against them this time, if they let the Bears get under cover, they'll have a lot harder time grabbing at them. And if one of those big bears gets one of the dragonriders, there's gonna be pain baby! Where's my pizza?Disney: Uncultured swine. The smallest two dragons have dropped down toward the running bears. They are cruising in fast; this probably won�t be pretty.Jar Jar: Me no watchin'RJ: Shouldn't you be fighting somewhere?Ender Wiggin: Not if his team isn't fighting at the moment, he can watch and learn if he wants.Brian: Yes, I did say they could learn from watching, they just can't take things from each other, or anything like that.Anne McCaffrey: Watch my dragons! They're about to catch the bigger two.Jaxom: F'nor! Careful, there's another one behind us! Anne: Canth pulls upward, and Ruth makes a nearly unbelievable turn on his wingtip. He scoops up the CareBear and swallows it.Katz: Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that the white dragon is capable of chewing and swallowing the stuffed bear. The little runt is gagging on the ground!Anne: You'd best not let Jaxom hear you call Ruth a runt. He'd not like it one bit.Disney: Baloo and Kenai have seen the dragon fall and have turned to try and finish it off. Zummi continues ahead, thus far unseen in the tall savannah grasses.Kenai: There's a man riding that beast! Now what do we do?Baloo: I don't know about you, but there's only one man-cub I like, and he ain�t it! Let's get him.Anne: Jaxom's long dagger is more for carving food than fighting a giant bear; he's in trouble. Before Canth can finish his loop and return, or the other two dragons can join in, Jaxom goes down. Ruth screams and disappears. The other dragons scream in agony, anger, and frustration. Canth leaps on the bigger bear and tears into him. A moment later, Golanth takes down the other. F'lar: If only I could remember how I leaped free of death! Disney: As the three dragonriders try to soothe their companions, Zummi Gummi gets into the caves around Pride Rock. He looks back and sees that none of his teammates have survived.Zummi: Ooh, this is berry vad, er, I mean very bad. Now what will I do?Disney: He begins to look around the caves in search of a good place to defend himself or even ambush the dragonriders.Andy Katz: Anyway, let's speed up! a fair while later, the dragonriders decide to explore the rock formation the Bears were heading to. Zummi has now set up several Gummi-type booby traps. When the three riders dismount and start to explore, he finds an opening and attacks. He drops a small avalanche of rocks on F'lessan, and leaps at F'lar, his little wand waving. Unfortunately for Zummi, the dragonriders are fairly adept with their daggers. They manage to catch Zummi, and end it soon. Winner: Team Pern (2-1) The Bears (0-1) Match 3 - Robert Newell Star Trekkers vs. Power of Moria Group M - Florida Everglades Spock was mad. Well, Spock is incapable of being mad, but Wesley Crusher was beginning to get on even his nerves. Spock had ordered everyone to stay together in the swamp that he had correctly surmised was the Florida Everglades. Wesley had decided that he knew a shortcut out of a bad stretch of bog and had gotten himself lost. 7 of 9 didn't mind that the annoying boy was missing. At least he wasn't still trying his pathetic attempts to flirt with her. He was worse than Ensign Kim. Odo was following the group disguised as a small bird. Out of nowhere, 7 of 9 went down with a wrist thick spear through her thigh. Lugbuz charged through the undergrowth and swung his sword at Spock. Spock shot him with his phaser, but the orc shrugged off the stun beam and before Spock could dial up the setting higher, Lugbuz had knocked Spock's phaser away into a murky pool. By this time, 7 of 9 was up, limping but not bleeding from the hole where Lugbuz's spear had been removed. Borg nanites worked busily to repair the damage. Spock was holding his own against the much stronger orc and Odo was morphing back into his normal form nearby. At this moment, the cave troll lumbered into view. 7 of 9 went to intercept it. Typically overconfident, 7 of 9 was shortly reduced to a greasy smear om the edge of the cave troll's club. Unfortunately for the beast, some of 7 of 9's nanite enriched blood spattered on it and began to assimilate it. The troll collapsed into a come as the nanite began to bring it into the collective. Lugbuz had fallen to Odo and Spock with Spock only having taken a few glancing wounds. Odo and Spock went over to the borgifying troll, and not knowing what else to do, began to make sure it was really dead. Spock heard it first, a combination of hissing steam and heavy footstep. The Startrekkers turned around and saw a flaming monstrosity, gnawing on the not yet dead body of Wesley Crusher. Wussley was still screaming. His legs were gone, but the woundes were cauterized at each bite, so he would take a long time dying. Odo raced toward the beast but was sent flying back as he was struck by Wesley's now mercifully dying body. Spock picked up Lugbuz's sword and charged. The Balrog's first sword blow cleaved the orcish sword, and Spock with it, in two. Odo had gotten up, just in time to be seized by the balrog. Odo tried to escape, but the Balrog's grip was too strong. IN a flash of flame, Odo's body disintegrated and the Balrog let the ashes sift through its fingers. For good measure, it dismembered the body of the downed troll, sensing the alien influence trying to revive it. Winner: Power of Moria (1-0) Loser: Startrekkers (0-1) Match 4 - Brian Ailshie Ghostbusters vs Creatures Group V - Minas Morgul John Madden: This one aughtta be a good one. The Ghostbusters, busting some creepy creatures.Andy Katz: Yeah, but I don't think any of them creepy ones are ghosts. This could get tricky baby!Madden: Well, my money's still on the Ghostbusters, those nuclear backpacks of theirs really pack a punch. Boom!!!Brian: Ok, let's get on with it. The Ghostbusters appear just shy of the bridge to the haunted fortress. But the creatures are spread out. The first to attack is the creature of the black lagoon. Or today, he's the creature of the dirty little Morgul river. He leaps up and lunges at Winston. He drops to the ground and rolls away, as two blasts from Ray and Peter lock on to the slimy creature. A second later and Egon throws out the trap, but since the creature isn't really a ghost it's not trapped. Though it is pretty cooked now by the beams. Ray and Peter shut down, and the creature's corpse falls to the ground.Madden: Boom baby!! Here comes Bigfoot. He drops down from Gollum's stairway and thumps Winston on the head. This time three blasts; from Ray, Peter, and Egon; fry the furry creature to a crisp. Anybody hungry for Venison?Winston: Why are they always attacking me? What did I ever do? I want the next one to attack one of you guys ok? AAAGGHHHH!Katz: He screams in pain as the next creature takes him down. The Velociraptor gets a kill! That's what I'm talking about baby!! As the other three Ghostbusters try to get in position to shoot without hitting Winston, the dino looks up and growls at them. He leaps at Peter next. Ray and Egon catch it with their nuclear powered beams, but too late for Peter too. The dino lands on him and if the claws and teeth didn't kill him, the laser beams did.Ray: Oh! Oh, no! Oh this is not good. We've lost two of our friends! What are we going to do!?!Egon: Get a hold of yourself. Remember, we were told that we'll be returned to health after this match. Winston and Peter will be fine. We've just got to catch that worm, where ever, and what ever that might be.Ray: Fine!?! What are you talking about; two of our friends are DEAD! They ain't gonna be fine!Brian: Unfortunately, though Egon is correct, Ray is too distraught, and he's also making too much noise. Neither of them hears the Tremor Worm until it's too late. The worm leaps up from under them and swallows them. They might have fought their way out before the digestion takes over, but it seems they clonked into each other and knocked out. They won't recover in time. Winner: Creatures (1-0) Ghostbusters (0-1) Match 5 - Robert Newell Team Dragon Reborn vs. The Shadow Group W - Pride Rock Rand was not happy. He had been transported from Caemlyn somehow right after he had been bonded by Elayne, Aviendha, and Min to this huge rock in the middle of nowhere. As usual, he was worried sick that something might happen to his three... not wives, they weren't married and he still thought the Aiel were crazy for thinking that a man could have multiple wives, whatever Aviendha said, ...girlfriends perhaps is the best term available. Elayne was even more upset. Since they had been whisked off to who knows where, her plan for Rand after the bonding ceremony was on hold. Out from behind a rock, a Myrdraal appeared. Rand channels Fire instinctively and the Fade flashes to ashes that are swept away by the wind. Rand immediately insists that the four of them Skim away to safety. Aviendha angrily asks Rand al'Thor if he thinks her witless. Of course she and Elayne had already tried that. Suddenly, the sky darkens, and fog rolls in from nowhere. Elayne and Aviendha can see each other, but they can only sense Rand and Min off in the distance. They are very confused what is going on. INstinctively, the link with Elayne guinding the flows. With their power heigtened senses, they see a small man trying to hide behind a rock. Since he is armed with a rather nasty looking dagger, Elayne seizes him with Air and floats him over to them. "What are you doing here Master..." she gets no further before Aviendha stabs the man in the stomach. "What are you doing!" Elayne screams. "Why? I had him bound..." Aviendha interrupts, "I am sorry sister, but this man is Padan Fain. I recognized him from the description Rand al'Thor gave me". Remembering all that Rand had told her of this monster, Elayne channeled. I won't go into detail of how painfully Fain died, but suffice it to say, they were not merciful to the man who had caused Rand so much pain. Rand and Min are not at all confused, they recognize this as the work of Padan Fain. "Fain!" Rand bellows "Come and face me!" I will be haunted by you no longer!" Instead of Fain, a rather non descript man walks toward them out of the fog. Rand was about to speak to him whem Lews Therin screams inside his head. A Gholam! Rand has no idea what the crazy man means but takes no chances and weaves bonds od Air to hold the man fast. Impossibly, the weaves disappear before they can touch the "man". Webs can't touch a Gholam you lunatic. We're dead, dead, DEAD!! Lews Therin begins sobbing in the back of Rand's head. Thinking on his feet, Rand weaves Earth and opens a chasm under the the Gholam before it can reach them. He continues to channel and digs the hole deeper. And deeper. And deeper. He only stops when Earth gives out and he has to switch to Fire for some reason he can't fathom. As he collapses the hole Lews Therin wonders with amazement I never thought of that. Winner: Team Dragon Reborn (1-0) Loser: Team Shadow (1-1) |