Time Against the Tower

AFFILIATION

Alignment: Villain

Team: Freelance Villain

VITAL STATS

Strength: Standard

Agility: Superior

Mind: Superior

Body: Standard

RECORD

Personal Wins: 0

Personal Losses: 0

The Apologist

"You cheated!" the mad god howled, the steam of insanity rising from his brow. He thrust his finger, damningly, toward the clever god.~The clever god was silent, staring intently into his hands.~"We agreed, before this contest began, that we would not invest any of our divine power into our playing pieces!" the mad god nearly lunged forward, his anger building to a head.~The clever god looked slowly into the mad god's eyes. His own steady blue stood in contrast to the mad god's flickering yellow.~The mad god howled, "This contest is a sham! I demand that you explain yourself!"~The clever god's expression stayed the same, "I got carried away in the throes of creation."~The mad god roared with anger, shaking the very heavens, "Is that your great excuse, oh clever one!? Justice shall be restored to this proceeding! If your divine power enters the contest then so does all of ours!"~The clever god spread his hands wide, but said nothing more. All but mollified, the mad god stormed away. Now solitary, the clever god looked into his creation.~-----~Daniel Gibbon's feet left the ground. His calf muscles strained, his focus intense, as he leapt from the rooftop. The red ribbon in his long brown hair kept it from flying into his face as he slowed his fall against the side of the building. The noise of the crowd and the other competitors faded away in his perfect concentration. He touched the ground, only for a minute or so, and rushed forward in a flurry of footfalls. He leapt again, this time twisting his body into a gravity-defying wall run. He closed his eyes and counted, not trusting his senses to take him safely over all of the barrels. With faith in his practice, he tumbled to the ground, rolling to his feet. He opened his eyes again... there was the finish line. He turned a last somersault to gracefully cross the endzone.~His concentration ended, and the noise of the crowd was deafening. "Gibbons is victorious! Again, Gibbons is victorious!"~Daniel permitted himself a smile. The months and months of practice and training were all worth it: for the third year running, he was taking home a Le Parkour trophy.~-----~Through sheer willpower the clever god brought himself back out of his creation. The perspective of mortality was very cramped, but he was willing to bear it in order to experience the thrill of victory. This was but a small piece of the victory he would taste when his creation bested those of the other gods. At last that sweet reward drew near.

Daniel was groggy. He opened his eyes and startled. Where was he? This was not the room he had gone to sleep in! Where was his apartment? What was this dingy cell?~"Daniel Gibbon."~Daniel leapt, spinning around in surprise. Where had the voice come from? It sounded just like his father.~"You have fourteen hours to be the first to reach the top of this tower. All will be made clear should you succeed. There are others who will try to beat you there. They will try to kill you. You must be first. Failure means death."~The voice was similar, but this could not be less like his loving father... Shaking with fright, Daniel looked around the room. Was this the castle of some madman? There were no windows, lights or torches, and yet he could see perfectly. A steep stairway lead halfway to a door, but ended too early. The only apparent way up from there was a narrow wooden beam.~Swallowing his fear, Daniel trotted up the stairs. Carefully, he balanced himself upon the beam. His own agility surprised him; his own athelticism multiplied by a hundred times. Easily, Daniel scrambled to the door and pulled it open.~The quivering of fear left him. Daniel forgot almost instantly how strange all of this was... a creature made for a purpose will do that when finally confronted with its destiny. By the time he had cleared the next floor Daniel's old life had vanished into memory, and in its place was the unmitigated thrill of competition. He felt his purpose pulling him, and there was no greater feeling in the world.

Vol de Pied

     Running: Standard

 

Daniel stood on one end of the room. It was a long hallway with bladed pendulums of various heights and speeds swinging rhythmically across. He could only imagine what force had set all of these in motion. There was no obvious mechanical means by which this should happen.~Carefully counting out the rhythm ahead of time, Daniel took off across the room. The moment he crossed a threshold, the wall behind him began to move. It would crush him against the pendulums. It was so fast...!~In a blur of unbelievable motion, Daniel felt his cheeks pulled back and heard his footfalls come faster than he had anticipated. In surprise he nearly ran into a blade and had to spring out of the way at the last moment. Where had this speed come from? Without stopping to ponder long, Daniel sprinted through the last couple of traps and opened the door to the next room.

 

Saut

     Leaping: Standard

 

Just as the last three rooms had seemed impossible, so did this one. Daniel stopped to catch his breath, looking out over the pillars. He was suspended hundreds of feet in the air, and it had to be forty or fifty feet between each pillar. He would have to jump an impossible distance and land on an impossibly small space... and lest he lose momentum, he would have to do it all very quickly.~Pushing his doubts out of his mind, Daniel prepared to do what he never imagined he could do, just as in the last few rooms. With a little running start, Daniel leapt from column-top to column-top, trying not to think about how far he would fall if he missed one.~As his foot touched a column, Daniel saw a shadow flicker across the wall. There were no shadows in this place. Daniel's heart lurched and he lost his balance. As sheer terror struck at the base of Daniel's stomach, instinct took over. Slowing his fall along the side of the column, Daniel pushed off of the pillar, sprung off of the wall and turned a neat backflip, landing on his feet on the platform next to the door.~Without stopping to think any more than he had to, Daniel pushed on. He had no idea how much time remained...

 

Le Parkour

     Acrobat: Standard

 

Daniel opened the door to the next room. Across diagonally from the entrance was a young man with eyes like wilted clover. Flames erupted from the young man's hands, tracing an almost perfect line of heat toward Daniel. With a yelp of surprise, Daniel rolled out of the way, ducking behind cover.~'Damn, he moves fast' the other man thought to himself, back up against the wall and watching. He scanned it quickly as he dared. Six pillars in a rectangular room, a door between each pair. The charred bodies of his other competitors lay around the room. He had been able to ambush the others.~Various debris littered the battleground. The pyrokinetic waited and watched. With remarkable swiftness, Daniel scuttled across the room. The pyrokinetic's aim was good, and he hurled lines and gobs of fire everywhere. They extinguished spectacularly as they hit the walls and other doors, although nothing in the room would burn. Daniel turned a handspring, narrowly avoiding a blast of flame. The cuff of his coat caught fire, and he beat it out in a panic.~Daniel planned his course out. He had to find something to fight back with. Steeling his will, Daniel rolled forward, slithering along the ground with inhuman grace. His artful maneuvers carried him behind one of the pyrokinetic's blind spots, again without a burn.

 

Percez

     Thrusting Attack: Standard

  • Ranged Attack Only
  • Weakness: Power in Item - Hard to Lose
  • Weakness: Limited Uses - Multi-Use

 

Daniel hunkered down behind his cover, looking for anything to help him. He fumbled through his coat... what were these? Hard objects, a little longer than his hand. How had he not felt them there before?~Daniel pulled one out. It was a wooden stake, polished and aerodynamic, like a thick finless dart. He would have preferred a gun or grenades, but these were better than his fists. Feeling around his pockets, he discovered eight of the beautiful projectiles.~Daniel leaned against his cover, catching his breath. He needed a plan...

 

Vol de Percez

     Thrown Objects: Standard

 

Daniel wall-hopped up the pillar and braced himself against the joists of the ceiling. The pyrokinetic heard it happening. He leaned around to see it... and there it was. His opponent had immobilized himself. Praying to whomever would listen, Daniel kept himself sandwiched. This plan simply had to work. The pyrokinetic came cautiously toward Daniel, he hesitated a moment. Daniel's eye twitched.~With a visceral scream, the pyrokinetic hurled lashes of flame toward Daniel's corner. Dropping himself from the scaffolding, Daniel ran along the wall to slow his descent, rolling behind his cover. He simply kept rolling, getting behind another pillar. As the smoke cleared, the pyrokinetic looked up at the corner.~With speed and silence, Daniel ran along the wall behind him and hurled a stake from each hand. With a sickening noise, the wooden darts found their target. The force of the throw and the surprise of pain conspired to knock the pyrokinetic to the ground. Daniel hurled two more stakes, finishing his enemy with grim satisfaction.~Daniel walked up to his fallen foe and retrived his stakes. He cleaned them off on the corpse's clothes, returned them to his pockets, and headed for the only unlocked door in the room.

 

Resolvez

     Tactician: Standard

 

Daniel could feel that he was near the top, but a sense of urgency in his gut knew that he had wasted too much time in this room. The frustrating pattern of colors and lights was giving him a headache. Finally, it came down to a simple decision.~Daniel made one last calculation and stepped forward onto one of the colored tiles.~The other lights flashed and flickered in maddening array, but soon began to order themselves out. Without knowing it, Daniel held his breath as he watched the last few order themselves out...~...and there it was. All of the lights turned white. The door above opened. Daniel knew that he was close. He left the solved puzzle behind him and ran.

 

Centre des Dieux

     Super Speed: Supreme

  • Weakness: Limited Uses - One Use

 

He could feel the walls shaking. This had to be it; the last room. He could feel golden anticipation fight with his anxiety as he made his way up the last flight of stairs. The last door, here it was...!~Another room. Impossibly long, longer than every room of the tower put together. Here was an hourglass filled with ruby sands, and there were very few left in the top. All of his enemies, the ones that the pyrokinetic had slain, were here, wielding swords and guns and magic powers, each of them chained to the floor. They could not win, but they could do all in their power to prevent him from winning. The pyrokinetic himself stood before the final door. Daniel could not face it... he could not fail!~Daniel focused and closed his eyes. He trusted the rhythm of his practice, as he had in all of his greatest victories. He felt time itself slow for him, and he moved with his newfound impossible speed... past where he knew the man with the sword was. Past the girl with the gun, and he heard the bullets whiz by his head. He rolled at just the right moment to get beneath a blast of flame. He sprung to his feet and leapt an impossible height at an impossible speed, sailing over the pyrokinetic's head. With a victorious motion, eyes still closed, he opened the last door and stepped through it, leaving them all behind.~Daniel lay on his back, panting, exhausted. His eyes swam with spots... or were those stars?~The spots cleared, but the stars did not. Daniel dragged himself to his feet and looked. In all directions, he could see around the world. This was infinity.~Daniel's eyes fell upon the clever god, and the voice of his father came back to him. Daniel pushed that memory of his false world away. Before his creator, he kneeled. The thrill of victory set him to trembling.~The clever god smiled. "You are victorious, Daniel. But a tool desires to be used. I have more work for you yet, my greatest creation."~Daniel arose, tears in his eyes, "No creature could be more blessed than I." His voice betrayed his emotion, cracking, "Your servant awaits any orders you give."~The clever god looked out over infinity. "Gaze with me, Daniel."~Daniel looked.~"This is all of everything. There are puzzles yet more fiendish than those you have solved, and towers real and imaginary greater than you yet know. There are challenges beyond your wildest dreaming. Go, and conquer them all. Kill any who get in your way... even be they gods. You are my right arm, and for me you will conquer everything. That is your purpose."~Daniel looked out at everything and nodded slowly. This was his purpose. Nothing could make him happier.