Neutral Omens

Even War couldn't dodge everything that had been aimed at her through the millennia, including Famine's snowballs. She laughed as she took two to the chest, but stopped as the third hit her neck and began to melt down her coat. She dropped to her knees to shake her coat and shirt out and reload. Reaching for a fresh handful of snow, she spotted a newcomer out of the corner of her eye.

Angels always made wonderful targets.

She jerked her head in Uriel's direction and loosed off a barrage of snowballs at him, crossing every few seconds to fend off Famine.

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Uriel was jerked out of his peaceful state as he felt a load of snowballs hitting him. Jumping aside, he resisted the urge to slip a dagger out of his sleeve and throw it at the attacker. He was just about to just turn around and return to the Manor, away from such childish games. Then, however, yet another snowball hit him, the others flying around him making it impossible for him to avoid them all.

For a moment Uriel just stood there, not doing anything. Then, however, with a growing sensation of dread, he felt something rising in his chest. More specifically, a giggle.

Then, the giggle bursted out, and he simply no more cared.

Glancing around, he saw a snow fortress from where the snowballs were seemingly coming from, and a glimpse of red head as his assaulter ducked. Aside from this, he saw a man-shaped creature that was definitely not a human, nor of demonic or angelic stock. A closer inspection brought up signs of Apocalypse, and he immediately could narrow the man's identity to one of only a few options. Add the thin but tidy appearance, and there was only one option -- Famine. Well, he would do just as well.

"Care for an ally?" he shouted at the man, scooping snow from the ground and starting to form a ball between his hands.

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Famine laughed and gave Uriel a mock salute as he shouted back. "Thank you, that would be much appreciated!" He grinned and glanced back at the snow fort. "The enemy..." He threw another snowball in War's direction for emphasis. "...seems to have already claimed the higher ground. And built a fort before anyone else got here, which in my opinion is highly unfair." He grinned again and watched the fort carefully, waiting for War to appear again.

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War grinned cheekily and folded her arms neatly on the snow fort's wall. "In addition to being better prepared, she's also a better shot than the two of you combined!" She ducked at the responding volley and lazily tossed a snowball back at both the angel and the other Horseman. "And as if that wasn't enough, all's fair et cetera ad nauseum."

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Uriel rolled aside, his battle instincts from a few millennia's practice starting to work. Throwing a snowball at War's direction, he then smirked at Famine's direction. "Unfair, yes, it is," he said smoothly. "And, as an angel, I cannot accept unfairness, now can I?"

With this said, he took a closer glance at the snow fortress. It was indeed well built, steady, and all in all a good snow fortress. However, it had the weakness that all snow fortresses had.

To be exact, it was made of snow. And fire melted snow.

Uriel may not have been the angel of fire -- that was Michael's job -- but he was indeed named the Flame of God, and a hand holding a flame was his symbol. So, it was about the time to live true to his name.

Taking another handfull of snow, Uriel formed into a snowball. At first, it was just usual, but it turned into a very special snowball the moment he threw it. It flew through the air, not even aimed at War but instead at her fortress -- to be exact, at the base of the wall.

And it was on fire.

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War heard the familiar sound of snow hitting snow, followed by something more alien: a soft hissing noise. She craned her head, searching for what was causing that, and squawked as she caught sight of the flaming snowball. An armful of snow ought to extinguish it, she thought as she piled some on top of it, but you can never tell. Sometimes angelic flames never smother.

She growled, louder than she needed to. "And you say I'm not fair!"

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Famine gawked at the flaming snowball, and laughed as it impacted at the base of the wall. Even if she managed to put it out, the structural integrity of the wall would be compromised, and hopefully at somepoint they could bring it down, level the playing field a bit. Of course, when one of the combatants was War, the playing field was never level. He took advantage of her distraction to fling two more snowballs at her head.

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Uriel smirked triumphantly as War tried frantically to put off the fire, only to be targeted by Famine. He let the fire go on for a while more, then put it off. Before she could attack, though, he wished for a couple of snowballs and threw them at her with all the skill he'd managed to gather from several millennia of practicing with his daggers.

Of course, he set them to melt immediately upon hitting a living target. Which meant that, upon being hit, War would also get very, very wet with icy cold water.

Well, that's what you get from starting a fight with an archangel.

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Destruction felt the pull of his own outside. A minor destruction, but in this blanketed place where nerves jangled more than swords... he wandered outside to watch, lurking in a doorway.

A crumbling fortress... well, melting really. He sighed. In the old days he would've been there. He would have been in the fortress, within the ice itself, within the fire. There was still a temptation to go back. It would be.. so, so easy. To pick up the sword again. To go back to all the... all the chaos, and nuclear physics. He'd quit! That meant no... no...

But then he saw War's face. There was mischief and joy, and... She wasn't inciting violence in anyone. Well, except by thrwing snowballs at them. And that... well, it was something humans did, too - wasn't it? It didn't have to be... about work. His realm was doing fine on its own - and he more than anyone knew it was everywhere. He could never hope to escape it entirely. And really... why should he? He wasn't responsible for it anymore. That didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.

Destruction stepped forward purposefully. Right into a very large snowball.

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"So it's three on one now?" War yelled ecstatically, watching her snowball hit home. "Pretty bad odds, I think!"

Immediately after shaking off the snow from Famine's attack, War jerked from the force of Uriel's snowballs and screeched, feeling as if she'd been water-ballooned. She gasped as freezing water dripped down her face.

Shaking off like a dog, she ran both hands through her hair and tucked it into her coat to keep it out of her way. She quirked an eyebrow. "Nice invitation. You guys want me to come out, I'll come right on out."

Kicking over the front wall of the fort as she leapt out (it would do no good to abandon it only to have her opponents capture it), War ran down the hill, ruthlessly firing off what little ammunition she had in a wintry guerilla attack.

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Destruction grinned and leaned down to grip the snow in his hands, face dripping. "Who said I'm not on your side, Red?" He yelled cheerfully, hurling the snowball at Famine with a practiced (and muscled) arm.

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War laughed aloud and blew him a kiss. "Sweet of you, but don't worry about him, he couldn't hit sand in the Sahara. It's the angel I'm keeping an eye on."

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Famine glared good naturedly for a moment before being hit hard in the face by Destruction's snowball. He blinked snow out of his eyes and threw snowballs at them both. "So I guess all those hits earlier were just flukes, eh, Red?" He threw another at her head before taking off after her.

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Uriel smirked as he saw Destruction joining War's side. This was seemingly going to get rather interesting indeed.

"So sweet of you to have faith in me, Ruby!" he yelled cheerfully while throwing himself into the ground, rolling aside to avoid the snowy attack. "Now, let's see how you like this!"

He jumped back onto his feet, calling several snowballs into being. Then he started to throw at them at both War and her new ally -- just for distraction, though. His real attack was the large snowball currently forming on top of the hill. Large, as in, its top would probably reach War's hips when it was ready. The large snowball was specified to soon roll down, and to the side, and to the other side, too, if need be, until it hit War. And preferably Destruction on its way to her, too.

He only specified about half of the snowball to melt upon contact, too. After all, he wasn't that mean.

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"You don't hit as hard as you'd like to think, Fam--" War started to call back, before ducking most but being hit by more than a few of Uriel's snowballs. She laughed aloud. "Isn't that the point, angel? Faith?"

She leapt a little closer and knelt down to re-arm herself, remaining tense and ready to spring into attack mode or fend off any attack-- any attack from the front, anyway.

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Destruction rolled his eyes. "Bah, angels!" He yelled, and leapt into the fray. Well, actually he leapt into a snow bank. But he metaphorically leapt into the fray.

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Uriel heard Destruction's words -- how could he have missed that shout? -- and was not pleased. Seeing the man's next move, he got a wicked thought. Waving his hand a bit, he made sure that the snow bank was just a bit softer than Destruction had expected -- that is, just soft enough for a man of his build to sink in as deep as there was snow. And, with another wave of his hand and an evil-ish giggle, Uriel made sure that there was a lot of that snow. At least four or five feet.

After all, what was the point of being an angel if you couldn't use your powers for anything?

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Famine grinned as he watched Destruction fall into a snow drift and Uriel's giant snowball form itself above War. He carefully worked his way to the side and slightly up the hill, maneuvering well out of the way of the snowball and hoping to get into closer range before War recovered from it.

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