Halloween Town

[Aiden]

Along the Shore

7:30 PM

A jagged line of fresh water formed the heart of the monster sanctuary that was Halloween Town. For many monsters the water was home in its own right, a place for merfolk and serpents and sirens galore to stay wet and fine for their land bound kin. It was also the early warning system, the point of entry and alarm against incursions from the Great River by the miserable marauders of mankind. Simple bandits and criminals seeking exotic playthings would find themselves slain and swallowed before they even reached the inner shores. It would thus to the discerning mind be quite concerning that such alerting did not take place.

That as the waters broke and rose with the girth of a behemoth it was not flesh, but metal - once. Twice.

Thrice.

And when the eyes of the innocent and the inhuman turned upon them, their guns turned - and where before was but the turning and tumbling of rotors, the push of waters, now there was the thunder and the fire.

[yinsukin]

Candlemen

A small squadron of candlemen gathered along the other side of the river, their unblinking stares cast into the distance.  In the face of the roar of the rotors and the threat of weapons, the lanky golems stood unflinching.  Indeed, they did not even seem worried for their own lives.  Only once the first shot was fired would they act.

[Aiden]

The Invaders

Two of the behemoths, armored in gunmetal black, were compact and agile. Weapons pointed out of ports in their sides, and large turrets stood atop them aimed at the pumpkin-headed constructs who served as the district's first line of defense. They opened fire in a hail of bullets in all directions as they pulled off and away from each other, heading from the shore towards the streets. Their weight pushed them through the cement dividers like they were paper mache.

The third one, the largest, continued straight on ahead. It flattened any obstacle in its path, and it opened fire almost indiscriminately with its machine gun turrets and its forward facing main gun. An explosion struck a nearby group of Candlemen, and whatever was unfortunate enough to be near them.

And that was before the music started.

[yinsukin]

Candlemen defence force

The attack was quick, powereful and effective.  The hail of bullets pierced the legs and torso's of the candle-men in front, bringing them to their knees.  Even then, there was no change in expression.  They were mere drones in battle.  The ones not in the line of fire began glowing with power.  Fire collected around their eyes before being unleashed in several firey beams towards the oncoming enemies.


Harley

"Oh?"

The young looking woman jumped in her seat.  Although her seat was more of a throne.  She reached into her pocket and posted a message on the bounty hunter forum. 

This is a call to all bounty hunters.  Please help us!  We are being attacked by human radicalists!  The enemy has not yet been confirmed, but we suspect it is a large squadron of humans who have come to despise our fair district.  If you can help us you will be handsomely rewarded based entirely on your efforts.  Cash rewards are guaranteed, but other rewards can be negotiated based on accomplishments in this battle!

A similar message was sent to their close ally, Serena.  Although it was a bit more direct.  I think its time we test that good faith gesture.  Prove your worth with your army.

[Aiden]

The Invaders

The weapon ports closed before the flames were fired, and their heat struck against the thick metal plating of the armored vehicles like the tide against a cliff, only it also set everything around the base of the cliff on fire. In retaliation they picked up speed, and drove themselves with palpable hostility toward and over whichever pumpkin-headed construct stood in their path. Throughout, the hymns of freedom echoed through the streets and shores over the blast and bellow of cannon and gunfire.

More metallic monstrosities of war began to rise from the waters further afield.


The Defenders

Already? Well, I suppose I did say I would...

And then, as if to punctuate the message Harley was receiving, she began to receive reports of waterlogged bodies beginning to rise from the edges of the water, up from the silt and the soil, and shambled their way up onto the cracked and broken ground.

Serana had, evidently, left her end of the bargain somewhere convenient.

At first it appeared that the dead, rotten and wretched, were useless things. The armored vehicles of the enemy rampaged freely about, resisting the immense heat with their layers of metal and who knew what else, and there was no hope of the dead reaching them.

Then they burst out into a sprint, in perfect unison, and let out gurgling battle cries as they moved to swarm the enemy armor.

That should keep them busy while I send in something more... impressive

[yinsukin]

Candlemen

The pumpkin men splattered, their mushy bodies slamming into each other, gathering into goop.  Remaining candlemen lit the corpses of their brotheren aflame, causing the massive piles of goop to expload, taking out whomever were recklessly barreling through them.  If the blobs became big enough, they could easily incinerate even the most powerful tanks.  Still, the candlemen were not intelligent. 

But the line had broken.

Candlemen emerged from the streets themselves, ambushing soldiers who had broken the line and blasting them point blank with blasts of fire.  Citizens huddled in their homes, the masks of human's placed on coat racks and tables, eyes focused on the streets in horror.  An alarm sounded and a loud blare echoed through the town.

Harley

Harley could feel it, the candlemen would not last long without direction.  They had their basic commands and could act to an extent without her will, but without her mind, it was like waging war with a simulator.  It would never really compare to the real thing.  Thats why she ordered them to start ambush tactics on those that broke the line, as well as use the dead bodies as bombs.  They were just extensions of her magic after all, no reason to worry about the "loss of life."

"Surrender invaders!  If you turn back now, there won't be any negative repercussions.  We 'monsters' aren't so barbaric as you humans.  We merely want a place to exist in peace.  If you insist in your fight, then we will be forced to show you why we were expelled from society in the first place...."

[Aiden]

The Invaders

One of the armored vehicles was caught, inevitably, between the crushing press of sodden bodies against its tracks. Given a few moments of time, it would have escaped ably and continued on its rampage. The attackers within it even opened up their gun ports momentary to shoot at the grasping limbs and torsos to speed the process along.

But they hadn't expected the Candlemen to sacrifice the remains of their own, and the vehicle was shot through with a penetrating burst of heat.

Another fell to this fate too, fresh from the water, and slid back into it. Their crew began to crawl their way out against the pressure of the water after the teeming swarm of the dead tore an entry point open, and joined them in the defense.

Soldiers all in black and red poured out of the hatches of some of the other metal monstrosities now, and began taking the fight to the candlemen on foot with automatic weapons and explosives of their own.

They did not respond, save for the sounds of encrypted communication chatter between them.

[Bern]

Valerie

"Oh my would you look at that!"

Valerie burst out in what sounded like surprise yet there was an almost forced ironic undertone to it. The Vampire king put down Sakura and observed the battle from up on a hill a few hundred meters from the conflict.

This distance was nothing before her enhanced vision and she could see every visceral detail of the clash happening, every painful exchange and every life lost, they were really going at it.

And they were so weak.

"I thought Harley was merely being dramatic, but that does look like an invasion force, does it not Sakura?"

[YOLF]

Edelgard

She landed some feet behind them, some seconds after, carving a path of soil and uprooted grass under her feet. From here, Edelgard could hear the battle, could see the flashes of metal and fire like a crowd dancing with jagged lanterns. The great machines, the masses of soldiers, the tongues of flame and destruction licking about the battlefield.

Edelgard didn't grasp the finer points of this attack, but the urgency filled her with a familiar confidence.

[SINIB]

Sakura Edelfeldt

Sakura hopped out of Valerie's arms before she allowed herself to be put down, landing gracefully upon her feet next to her. Edel, you lead armies into battle, right? She asked to confirm while surveying the carnage. Fanatic soldiers singing Columbia's praises fought unthinking magical golems which threw fire... What's your analysis?

"It looks a bit small to be a full throated invasion, I think. Isn't the Columbian military supposed to be massive?" She turned to look at Valerie questioningly. Mana flushed through her circuits, and her shadow began to pulsate beneath her as if it were boiling.

[yinsukin]

Candlemen/Harley

The men were much more effective on foot.  The candlemen fell to explosives and guns, often one dying having to die before another incinerated the soldier in a revenge kill, burned to ash by the flames radiating from its eyes.  The candlemen were giant towering but otherwise normal men with wax skin and giant white suits to cover their large but slender frames.  All of them were bald aside from a single wax stick on the tip of its head, which sparked before it was ready to explode.

The streets were all halloween decor, giant pumpkins, jackolanterns, candy corn and other things littered the streets.  In the center of the town they attacked stood an oblisk style office building, complete with a pencil like tip.  Atop that tip stood the hallow queen, her gaze cast upon the invaders from above.

"Hear me foolish humans!  I do not hide my prejudice behind unjustified hatred.  Know that as you scream your final breathes, I am silencing your life only out of necessity.  One day I pray that humans and monsters can live in peace, but today you shall burn in the fires of your own loathing for the other."

A red ball of light enveloped her dainty hands before the light itself transformed into a jack o lantern.  With a light toss, the jack o lantern fell from the sky, landing behind enemy lines and detonating, blowing scores of men into body parts and blood.  Over and over she repeated this process, dropping bombs behind enemy lines or soldiers she thought seemed particularly skilled.  Of course, she took care to avoid her lovely candlemen, using less potent bombs near her own.

[Bern]

Valerie

Her ears twitched as she caught the message that Harley had sent out to the invaders. Her eyes sharpened and she found herself frowning at the implications here. What a fool she was, she'd never achieve what she wanted in this way.

Valerie reached out with her right hand into the depth of the eternal night to pull out the one and only tool that would judge the ones beneath them, and if they were found unworthy then it would reap their sins from this world without fail.

Valerie raised the scythe above her and got into a throwing position.

"What a fool, you can talk about your freedom all day little girl but you lack the strength and more importantly the resolve to truly achieve it. What you need is love, love and overwhelming power..."

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH

The scythe tore trough the space between them, faster than sound, faster than any bullet it destroyed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. It's spinning form was a maddening sight, but one too fast for the mortal eye to ever see. All they could see was the sudden line of gore stretching from one end of the engagement to the other. it's impact was so severe, so savage, that every man hit by it wasn't simply split in half. Their bodies exploded into bits and pieces of fine meat all over their comrades who had been so lucky to not be in it's path.

But were they truly lucky?

And then it returned to her hand, before the longest arm of the clock had moved one position, the scythe had already looped around the battlefield and returned to her hand.

"Would you like some?"

Valerie held out the now crimson blade of her scythe in front of her minion, the sanguine liquid covering it would look absolutely exquisite to any of her kind.

[YOLF]

Edelgard

She looked to Sakura, lines around her eyes furrowed like patterns on reliable steel. They should seize the vehicles and swipe them inwards from the flanks. The three of them had the ability do that. She couldn't tell whether this was supposed to be a full force. The technology and army numbers that forces in the Nexus could field were unclear to her.

The Forsaken opened her mouth to speak, but the Vampire King's burst of action took the words away. She followed the bloody, spinning light of the weapon until it returned, then fixated the two vampires.

"Are we going? Deal with invaders?"

[Aiden]

The Invaders

Despite the horrendous losses, scorched flesh shot through with shrapnel all too likely filling the senses of every soldier there, the soldiers did not falter. Over the sound of gunfire, cannon shelling, and incineration their voices joined together in vicious harmony with what few stereos blasted their goddess' anthem.

... Hail, ye heroes, heav'n-born band,

Who fought and bled in freedom's cause!

The bombs fell, and many were lost. More armored vehicles were burst apart by the wrath of the Pumpkin Queen, and the music came from one less space across the spreading battlefield.

And when the storm of war was gone!

Their shouting chorus grew louder still, the men and women in their full body armor taking cover behind the ruins of their own vehicles, behind the rubble their ravaging rampage had wrought, and tried with a frightening fervor still to kill as many as they saw.

Enjoy'd the peace your valor won!

It was the hallmark of the Columbian war machine, the way dying soldiers crawled even bereft of legs into the swarming masses of their foes and let loose with explosions of their own, spending their lives as yet one more piece of ammunition. Without hesitation, without doubt, with a faith as pure as any martyr'd soul, they laid down their lives for their goal.

LET INDEPENDENCE BE OUR-!

And then they were scythed down like chaff, and they sang and shot and 'sploded no more.

The field grew quiet, save for the distant rapport of cannon fire and tank treads tearing on asphalt as the last of the mechanized forces made a run for the residential portions of the city.

Away from that.

[yinsukin]

Harley

"The vampire king herself," Harley said, placing a hand on her chest.  "What a wonderful honor it is to see you on the battlefield today.  Perhaps by working together we can-"



In a park several miles from the tower, a man was looking down his scope, Harley's back in view of his shot.  He was sprawled out along a blanket, lying down on his belly.  A loud crack filled the sky as the shot was fired.