21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 18th bell
Oh fuck all kinds of-.
I
throw up a tower shield construct as the first few plasma shots come our way, and I can immediately
feel that Hordak's technology is a
wee bit better than what modern Eternia can scrounge together.
Adora just stands there. "Soldiers, explain your-!"
I step in front of her to block their shots while Teela dodges, throwing herself back into the arena antechamber. While Sir Duncan has been assiduous in implementing my suggestions, Teela
hasn't, as she didn't feel the need to augment her staff with any sort of ranged weapon. And her normal clothing isn't up to taking hits from a rapid fire plasma weapon.
"
Orko!"
Orko looks around nervously. "What?"
Teela glances out of cover. "Did you just time travel a bunch of Hordak's soldiers here!?"
"What?
No! I can't see what you're reacting to! It's just a memory!"
"Does that mean it can't hurt us?!"
"Ah, well? Normally, yes? But the spell's only supposed to be used on one person, so... I'm not sure."
Adora raises one of her swords to the side of my neck. "Lantern, I
demand an
explanation!"
"Those soldiers work for some guy called 'Hordak', and Orko cast a spell to make your sparring match more exciting. Unfortunately, it
may have gone a little wrong."
Orko points both hands at Adora. "She hit it with a sword!"
"
Focus!" Teela leans out of cover again as the Horde soldiers begin advancing towards the courtyard wall. "Are they actually here or not?"
"No! Probably!"
"Can they hurt us?"
"Um."
"Or anyone else?"
Orko cringes for a moment, then pantomimes rolling up his sleeves. "Orange Lantern? Can you show me where one of them is?"
"
Certainly."
The closest Horde soldier
glows with orange light. He-. It? Pauses for a moment to try and work out where the light is coming from, then lumbers my way, spraying my construct shield with plasma fire. It's getting
uncomfortably abraded now, but I've learned that even though Eternian technology has regressed since Hordak's invasion there are a
surprising number of highly functional anti-air guns around the place.
"There? Okay." Orko flies directly in front of the oncoming Horde soldier, arms spread out to the sides. "Stop!"
The image barrels right through him, Orko just hanging in the air for a moment.
"Is it through?"
"Yes." I
generate a construct maser and point it at the Horde trooper's helmet. "It is."
I
fire, the beam of invisible light punching through the trooper's visor. The trooper staggers, but recovers after a moment and continues their charge. Meanwhile the jetpack guy plants… Something against the wall.
"Despara? How is he still up?"
"Cybereugenics. The best of machinery and-."
I
fire again, the shot blasting through the other eye hole. But while the trooper staggers to a halt, he
doesn't fall, and I'm left wondering what sort of head they've got under there.
Somewhere behind the floating platforms, lightning hits the ground from a cloudless sky. Ah yes, it turns out that Adam doesn't actually shout 'By the Power of Grayskull! I have the power!' when he transforms, and can actually whisper it if necessary. Which means-.
BOOM!
The man with the jetpack waves his left arm. "Squad five, rearguard! Everyone else, into the castle!"
"Not so fast!"
He-Man charges out, torso twisted so that his
armoured shoulder is there to absorb any incoming fire. The jetpack guy turns and fires with predictable results, but the regular troopers don't appear to be that agile and can't reposition. The jetpack guy boosts away from He-Man but the first trooper gets the strongest man on the planet slamming into them and they go flying into the far wall.
"
Enough of this."
With the troopers' attention off us, Adora dodges around my shield and charges the chap I shot in the eyes, He… Appears to hear her coming and levels his plasma gun in her direction. He fires at her centre of mass but she ducks under his shots and
lunges past him, her swords coming around and biting into the cabling at the back of his left knee! There's a sort of
gurgle from his helmet as his leg collapses, then Adora back flips over him, jamming the points of her swords through his eye holes and crossing her arms so that the parts penetrating the helmet slice vertically through the interior.
The trooper slumps, the armour not allowing them to fully collapse but the person inside clearly dead. He-Man now has the rearguard's full attention so Adora
sprints forward to assist him.
Teela uses the break in incoming fire to dart out of cover and approach
me, gesturing with her staff towards where the Horde soldiers are piling into the castle.
"Orko, do you see that hole in the wall?"
"Yes. How did
that get there?"
"Because the
illusions used
explosives!"
"Oh." He scratches his hat with an extended right forefinger. "
That's not supposed to happen."
Oh dear. "Where in the castle is the nursery located?"
Teela thinks for a moment. "Near the grand balcony."
"The grand balcony where the king and queen will be giving their speech in a little while? The king and queen who would have been targets in the original raid?"
Teela stares at me for a second.
"Orko, stop the spell!"
"Ah…"
"Orko!"
"I could stop it if it was doing what it was
supposed to do!"
He-Man hits the last horde trooper on the outside of the castle over the head with the pommel of his sword, then looks over to me and Teela. "What's going on here?"
I
transition to his side. "We're not sure, but we need to stop those soldiers just in case it's something bad."
"There's got to be dozens of soldiers between here and anything-."
I wince. "We seem to be the only ones who can see them."
"We need to go." Teela sprints past me and into the castle, staff at the ready. "
Now!"
"Right." He-Man takes off after her, running as fast as he can without wrecking the place with his enormous strength.
Orko sags in the air. "Oh
no."
"No." I shake my head. "This one was me. I-."
Jetpack man leaps from an upper balcony, spraying us with plasma bolts!