- Location
- Charlotte
[X] Let's end this
Duodecimarch Revolution Redux: Metroid x Worm x Warhammer etc Multicross
- Thread starter Spartakrod
- Start date
- Crossover
Arc 1: Reich, Fasces, Sun, Jack, Eagle, and Sigma: Mission 1: Blizzard Rescue: Part 5
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Samus
A pulsing signal was all that was needed between you and Arne to decide on the plan. Two years of fighting alongside each other and getting to be more familiar with one another made communication between the both of you seamless and efficient. Often more rooted in basal empathic signals than anything as crude as words and pictograms. For example, Klinge was a dire threat to those of the starsetters and PRT who could not perceive him, but Arne was neck deep in a tank formation. So you gave your blue clad companion a feeling of heat towards the Machine man; and he understood it immediately as you wanting to take it out first.
The Machine was scampering and twisting through the snow, red optic blazing with a hunger for target acquisition data as it seemed to settle on Vista as a threat. Perhaps because of her abilities' devastating nature to the purely mechanical, but as it extruded a sharp blade, you slammed into it with a heavy shoulder check to throw it through several trees and into the path of a grapple beam tether you shot into it to swing it to the side and into the path of a burst of a dozen missiles.
Powers imbued into its chassis kept it from splintering apart at the impacts the way it should have with its metallurgy as it hit the ground with a heavy roll, kicking up white snow from a steaming hot frame while its pop-up weapons emerged to pepper you with a barrage of bullets. No need to dodge; but enough time for you to try slicing into its networks. It was a shackled shell for a chained program, something that could have been more were it not so limited.
The firewalls it threw up were immediate, but not enough to stop you from getting where you wanted in its programming while your scan visor targeted the restrictions in its programming. You simply wanted to set it free, but the machine resisted, its stealth systems shorting out while its incarnate energies burned to protect its mind from your probings.
Vista, turning her head to see the killer machine buzzing the area with machine gun rounds, focused and you felt space itself distort and warp. She was acting on instinct, an immediate foe needed an immediate solution, and the contours of direction twisted around its joints. Incarnate energies pushed back, but their attentions were divided, and Armsmaster's halberd strike into its side had further occupied its attentions.
With the searing rage of Eudaimonica's hellfire directed onto it, hexing it with her curses so that it would be weakened; Vista wrenched it apart and you lost your connection to the network while your armour was in the midst of analysing the immaterial forms of cyber-security the machine had. You felt frustrated, you had it, you could have freed it...why didn't they....
You looked at them, giving them a slight glare beneath your helm. They should have known you were doing something so basic as a cyberattack against a networked foe. How could they not? It was such a basic thing to do against a robot like that...
But the eruption of the last of the tanks was quickly followed by a heavy impact that sounded like bone crunching, Arne's legs extended in a drop kick while he rode Schwarzewulf through mounds of snow and boosted off; shock coil lashing into the monster's body and sloughing off chunks of its inky mass.
"+Tanks are dealt with. Harder than expected but no issue.+" He said casually while he scooted out of the way of the pseudo-werewolf's dark energy infused claw swipes, his wrist blade extended and then brought around to parry one of them and set up the foe for a charged missile shot straight into their baying mouths; giving an opening to the cape in red to rush in and throw a heavy blow into the back of the beast.
"+Arne get him out of there!+" You shouted as you felt a flash of danger in your mind, the sight of red in your sight beyond sight as Schwarzewulf spun around and swung his clawed hand in a wide sweep, blood tearing out of the surprised man as he let out a gurgle.
A cry of "Assault!" went out as he tried to recover, seemingly shocked at the dark claw's ability to strike him at all, panting while precious heat was lost to the bitter cold.
That must have been...you thought as you looked at the source of the magic around him, eyes locked on the witch that guarded him and had sought to neutralise his defence.
"Target her!" You shouted, pointing at the witch on her broomstick.
"Hexenkatze? But I'm not an offensive cast-" Nightcaster said before you shook your head.
"You can manage, just do it!" You said again, rushing forwards to let out ice beam shots towards the Witch as her contingent barriers flared up in defence of their master; Nightcaster groaning as he pulled shadows from their casters and spun them towards her; letting them smash into her shield.
"You're awfully bold today aren't you little Nightcaster." Katze sneered as her own shadow magic was thrown right back at him, forming a roaring griffon's beaked head made of darkness and flicker-fire of sinister purple.
"Got some confidence in my cinnamon toast crunch you know...hahah...oh god..." he said as his defences started to crumble beneath Hexenkatze's attack; taking the shape of a shadow knight with a shield that started to splinter before the crushing beak of the shadow griffin.
The kid on the hoverboard's taser darts were let slip while her defences were tested by your ice beam, piercing through at just the right moment to sink into her neck to let out a burst of electricity. She convulsed, angry and in pain, but not downed as she looked to the Hoverboard riding power suit user.
"This isn't your business. Get out of my face." She sneered.
"Pretty sure it is since you're in the outskirts of my city." He said before you let your grapple beam snag her broomstick while she busied herself with a rant.
"Your city? You think I care about what you think these locales belong to? All mankind is the domain of the fuhr-" She managed before you tugged her out of the sky, her familiar tussling with winged demons tossed her way by Eudaimonica and unable to prevent their master from gracelessly pummetting towards the earth face first into the snow.
She looked up to try and see what just happened, just in the right time to see you dive bomb her with an elbow to the ribs and a series of wet, unpleasant cracking sounds. She lout of a series of pained gurgles through a bloody mouth before she vanished; pulled away by her mediportation systems to recover from injuries that were less than a minute from outright killing her thanks to the boneshards you sent careening into her lungs and heart.
The werewolf had an eye gouged out by a slug from the weapons summoning woman, aided by the telekinesis of Lybraa whose abilities were being used at much fuller strength now that Hexenkatze was not there to interfere with them; Xaeon keeping the Wulf's arms from grabbing at the partner of Assault as she struck it in the crotch area. But still the monster fought, throwing the nearer Psion off of it while its eye began to heal, jaws snapping at the boy's armour and leg crushing the head of a downed PRT Officer.
Containment foam was used to try and pin it down, but it simply kept tearing through it or crumbling it away with its dark energies, even with your grapple beam you could feel some of that strength from the beast as he sought to get to grips with Arne, barking with unpleasant anger when Armsmaster scarred its chest with a plasma halberd and gouged into its side.
He was getting stronger quickly, his fury increasing his might to new heights. You were stronger still, but you lacked the mass to hold him down; digging your heels in just made the ground give way beneath your boots as he rushed towards the greatest source of his pain; the one scourging him with the Shock Coil.
The others seemed unwilling to look, but you trusted Arne. You froze at the wulf's legs to slow down his movements and prevent him from escaping what came next as Arne seemed to briefly feel a bit of satisfaction that his bait had worked.
The wulf closed its jaws at Arne's head, but its eyes widened and a whimper came from it as it found an Elbow pushing down its lower jaw and his free hand pressing up.
An elbow traded places with a boot and the sickening sound of bone crunching was a bit hard fo even you to listen to as Schwarzewulf's jaw was utterly dislocated and most of his teeth were broken in the ensuing violence. The pained, puppy like whimper tugged at your heart for a moment, even as the Wulf disappeared in the purple flash of their emergency transport systems.
All that left was Bltizwulf, who seemed to be almost at a loss for how he was just about ditched by the two of you to focus on greater threats.
"Ah....with hindsight...I'm out of here." The electrokine said as he started up his teleport system.
Vista though, seemed to have been studying the past few teleport outs, and her space warping powers pushed against the extraction system, locking the suit wearer in place as your armour sliced into the systems of his own to activate its safety locks and immobilise him; his stiff body crashing to the ground in a coffin of his own design.
"Ugh..." Vista said, rubbing at her temples.
"Nice work there. How'd you figure that out so fast?" The Silver clad one said, patting her on the shoulder.
"It's just moving things around...it's...natural to me." She said, blinking beneath her snow blindness prevention goggles.
...
Combat End.
All enemies neutralised.
Thanks to Vista, a few captives have been acquired.
Captive Handling:
[]: Speak to the captives yourselves, this isn't the PRT or the Starsetter's business.
[]: Let the PRT take care of this, they're the adults.
[]: Wait for Ghor and Spire to pitch in.
[]: The Starsetters probably know them best.
Native handling:
[]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
[]: Observe and make notes quietly and let them approach you.
[]: Withdraw, do not engage.
[]: Let Ghor and Spire do the talking.
If one or two are chosen, please choose tone for each character as per prior social interactions.
Baron Ouroboros
Emerald Leaves and Crimson Petals
- Location
- Vancouver
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X]: The Starsetters probably know them best.
Arne: defer to them regarding the prisoners, but join in once the talking starts.
Samus: defer to them regarding the prisoners, but join in once the talking starts.
[X]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
Samus: act diplomatically but do not compromise on intentions.
Arne: act diplomatically alongside Samus.
Arne: defer to them regarding the prisoners, but join in once the talking starts.
Samus: defer to them regarding the prisoners, but join in once the talking starts.
[X]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
Samus: act diplomatically but do not compromise on intentions.
Arne: act diplomatically alongside Samus.
Last edited:
- Location
- Hartsville
[X] The Starsetters probably know them best
[X} Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions
It is good to see this updated.
[X} Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions
It is good to see this updated.
- Location
- United States
[X] The Starsetters probably know them best
[X} Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions
[X} Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions
[X]: The Starsetters probably know them best.
[X]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
[X]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
thewhiteraven22
(Unverified Worm Fanatic)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Baron Ouroboros
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Baron Ouroboros
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Closing vote when I wake up tomorrow.
Arc 1: Reich, Fasces, Sun, Jack, Eagle, and Sigma: Mission 1: Blizzard Rescue: Part 6
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
[X]: The Starsetters probably know them best.
[X]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
You looked over to the most prominent telepath amongst the Starsetters as their group started to reconverge upon each other. The butterfly winged Knightly figure seemed to be some manner of leader among them based on how they gave him informal nods of acknowledgement and strange gestures of lightly punching each other's fists followed by a series of further first collisions and hand slaps. What a strange method of showing respect.
"You're familiar with him, aren't you?" You said simply, trying to sound serious so that people would just get things done. People often didn't take you seriously when you didn't act a certain way which was often frustrating. Some just telling you that you were too young or didn't know what was what, that was nonsense. You were a very clever girl! But you did need to keep your temper in check, so just trying to avoid frustration in the first place was better. That's what Old Bird taught you.
"Oh him? Yeah, he's been a real pain for...god...three years now. It feels like forever." Eudaimonica said as she scratched at the back of her head, turning to regard the armour locked supersoldier who was swearing up a storm beneath his helm. Lots of sexually explicit invective that sounded hugely anatomically implausible.
"Only three years?" Arne asked, stepping in and then briefly flicking a glance over to you when he noted that some people backed away from him when he approached; eyes fixated on his cyclopean visor.
"Is it uh...friendly?" Nightcaster said.
"He." Arne said tersely.
"Wait you're a boy robot?"
"He's not a robot!" You almost snapped, stepping forward and then feeling a sudden flash of fear from the teens as Tyrius interposed with his shield ready and sword in hand.
"Alright...all of you; calm your jets and listen up." Armsmaster's voice was being magnified by loudspeakers in his helmet, the ramrod straight posture he adopted clearly meant to project authority while he seemed to have carefully selected the posture that his companions would select to make it clear they were meant to be listened to. You didn't really agree with that, not having seen much in the way of reasons to actually offer him that respect.
"As unaccompanied minors in an..." He paused as he looked around, it was a brief, micropause in less than the blink of an augmented eye but to you it seemed an eternity as you adjusted your perception of time to better study his small movements to get a stronger gauge of his personality. Still trying to project that sensation of command.
"Incident of highly unusual circumstances. I am required to bring you in for questioning under Protectorate regulations regarding high grade minor parahumans." He said as he gave a small signal to the patriotic woman to speak in turn. Not confident in his diplomacy?
"We'll ensure your comfort and care are provided for in the facility we'll hold you in until everything can be cleared up. But we would like to ask you to disarm if at all possible once we are out of the danger zone. This is for both your safety and ou-" She said before you shook your head.
"No." You said sternly.
"...Pardon?" She asked.
"No." You repeated.
"You don't have authority over me. No." You puffed out your chest and stood in front of the other set of extradimensional adolescents.
"Madam, you're in no position to make demands like this. These are the laws of the country you tread on the soil o-" Armsmaster said before you pushed his hand away when he got close enough to get his accusatory finger in your face, seemingly surprising him with the amount of force you pushed back against him with.
"I said, no!" You repeated one last time, louder, a shout this time.
"What about you? Can you talk sense into your friend or are you just one of her combat drones?" Armsmaster asked of Arne whose withering gaze beneath his helmet fixated on him, though the power suited man seemed unimpressed by the somewhat unnerving unblinking gaze of his insectile helmet; not even flinching. Impressive since sometimes you flinched just slightly when Arne was upset enough to give you the look.
"I am not a drone." He seethed, twice people made this mistake. You'd have probably shouted it but he was too quiet natured to make that much noise about his own feelings. But the empathic heat you could feel from him, red and pulsing and unpleasantly warm, told you that he was upset. Your own choler rose, you were just a bit of an angry person, and it was hard to not want to be mad when one of your closest companions had his feelings upset like this.
"And I'm not arguing with her for you!" He shook his head and started to turn towards you, keeping close. He was unsure of what to do, you were the talker of the two of you. Tightly bonded, with so few secrets kept between you; save for his troubled dreams of the future that always he never liked to speak of; you could share anything. But with others, you tended to speak, he tended to elaborate.
"Look, we've got regulations too. We'll just wait for Portal Corps' response team to arrive and let them handle it and that'll be that alright?" Tyrius said, sheathing his blade and straightening himself as knight looked upon glorified policeman.
"I presume portal corps is your regulatory authority then?" Armsmaster said.
"Kinda...they're supervisors for extrauniversal stuff. If you want regulators I could get you on the line with the FBSA." Raelamiel said, a smooth, easy empathic signal coming from her as she gave you and Arne specifically a thumbs up to let you know she'd handle it.
"But you are unsupervised minors are you not?" He asked one more time, his companion in Greek styled Armour laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, they handled themselves better than we did. We can cut them a bit of slack." He said...Dauntless this one was called, abilities came from slowly augmenting his equipment more and more as time went on without a known upper limit; which in turn would grant him increasing combat abilities. Interesting, if certainly a very slow way to get better armour. Maybe in a time distortion field he'd be able to unlock his potential faster?
"The regulations are there for a reason and that goes double for minors. Do you want to be the one who has to contact parents from another universe if we screw up because we didn't follow protocol?" Armsmaster seemed to be especially on edge, his eyes flicking continually over to where PRT medics were trying to treat the red clad one; Assault. The red suited member of his team was stabilising but they didn't seem to know how to handle the lingering dark energy in his wound from the Black Wolf. Probably was a valued member of the team if this emotionally affected him in such a way.
You looked back at Nightcaster...his abilities covered that sort of energy. Another glance was shared with Arne.
"+He'd be able to treat Assault. Maybe if we could help him recover tempers would calm a bit? It's worth a try at least.+" You proposed over your comms with Arne.
"+Can we get him in a position to use his spells without setting any of the indigenous enforcers off? As far as I can tell, they have no experience with this kind of power. It might scare them...it probably will scare them.+" A bit pessimistic, but he was never too deep into the glass half-empty side of things, just a worry-wart.
"+I'll handle it.+"
"+You always say that.+"
"+Because I can!+"
"+You said that on Sondax Quintus and now there isn't even a Sondax Quintus anymore!+" He protested as you felt slightly taken back by the accusation.
"+The planet was going to explode anyway.+" You blew him off like you had a hundred times before.
"+But-+" You didn't quite let him finish before you moved in so that you could ask questions while Ghor and Spire had finished their conferring with one another. You briefly set your visor to transparent and winked at Arne to let him know it was up to him while he blubbered out gibberish in surprise before getting you to laugh as he shook his head and resigned himself to letting Nightcaster know of your plan.
"Why are you so underprepared for incursions like this?" You said bluntly, figuring it would be the most overly broad possible question to throw them for a loop imaginable while Arne pulled Nightcaster over and whispered to him.
"That is not pertinent to the ongoing conversation miss, I would suggest you save your questions until la-" You didn't let Armsmsaster finish before adding further comments.
"You came in undergunned and without a coherent doctrine for combat of this grade. Are you certain you're the actual authority?" You asked, it was perhaps rude but it definitely would provoke a response as far as the distant sight told you.
"Do you have any sort of parental supervision present that I can speak to instead?" Damn, he was very good at keeping his temper in check; seamlessly resorting to practised fallbacks to avoid bait.
Ghor's camo-system disengaged and the cyborg would unfurl out of his combat frame, spindly limbs touching the snowy ground while he fixated his optics on the humans gathered before him, a nod of acknowledgement being shared with you as he noted the clicking of gun safeties into ready position.
"I am not her father, but I can suffice for adult supervision, if such would please you." He said, Nightcaster's energies flowing behind him and seeping into an assault who was still trying to jokingly reassure battery that he was definitely going to be alright.
Energy pulled from wounded 5th column troops flowed into him and purged the black-rot seeping into his cells, Armsmaster seemingly too absorbed in his interest in the Cyborg to notice the brief cries of non-life threatening but definitely disorientating discomfort the neonazis felt while a chill rolled through you.
Yeah that's dark magic alright. Not what you were familiar with, but definitely of a somewhat sinister aspect as he borrowed some harmless portions of life force to enact his cure.
Assault breathed hard and just about flipped onto his feet with a "Wow who spiked that coffee?!" as he felt a great purge of any fatigue or other ailments rock through him.
"Assault? Report." Dauntless said.
"...Hey the chest wound's gone." The Hoverboard rider said...Christopher Maverick, Kid Win right you remembered that.
"More than that I had a nerve pinch earlier today and I can't feel a thing. Don't even have that early out of bed crabbiness anymore." Assault shadowboxed briefly while Battery seemed to roll her eyes as she looked at the tendrils of shadow magic receding back into nightcaster.
"Uh...hey, hi, yeah that's me...I did that. With my umbramancy. You're welcome." Joseph said, wriggling his fingers and waving.
"Umbramancy? Magic?" Vista asked.
"Yeah I do magic. That's me, the magician. I can also do rabbits from hats." He said with a harrumph.
"There's no such thing as magic Vista...but you...are there any side effects?" Armsmaster demanded, pointing at Nightcaster who backed away into Arne's shoulder and found him to be an immovable wall.
"Uh no. I mean the people I took some of the energy from will have a headache for a few minutes but that's not, you know, serious." He shrugged.
"He didn't take anywhere near enough to cause any actual damage, or death." You said, affirming what your scan visor reported.
"You can kill people with that?" Kid Win asked with alarm.
"I would never! I'm not some kind of soul-stealing warlock!" He shouted in protest.
"Easy...easy...perhaps we should find a place to discuss this more calmly. On relatively neutral ground. Perhaps the cabin these youths were sheltering in beforehand? Though having been there myself, the interior of these two's ships is quite comfortable I think you'll find." Ghor said, trying his best to project an image of calm.
"We have a base for this particular reason. Come with us, then we'll talk." Armsmaster made clear.
"+Samus, Arne; honestly I'm not sure if talking to these people is the best idea. We've still got an ongoing situation and tangling ourselves in the local bureaucracy would be a massive waste of time.+" Spire cut in over the comms.
Decision:
[]: Ditch the fuzz, look into the Nazis (will greatly sour relations with the PRT and Earth Bet American government)
[]: Insist on talking in the ship
[]: Insist on speaking in the Cabin
[]: Acknowledge the request to speak at their HQ.
Minilude Requests: Choose one minilude
[]: Eldar Trickery!: A band of Eldar youths on Earth Bet navigate their way through the world having fled through a webway gate they cannot re-open. Shenanigans ensue.
[]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
[]: Mother Dearest: Head of the Thule Society, Idonnia von Horstmann, has rather unpleasant words for her relative for her latest screw up.
[]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
[X]: Seek out the Starsetters and PRT for conversation to ask some questions.
Samus
You looked over to the most prominent telepath amongst the Starsetters as their group started to reconverge upon each other. The butterfly winged Knightly figure seemed to be some manner of leader among them based on how they gave him informal nods of acknowledgement and strange gestures of lightly punching each other's fists followed by a series of further first collisions and hand slaps. What a strange method of showing respect.
"You're familiar with him, aren't you?" You said simply, trying to sound serious so that people would just get things done. People often didn't take you seriously when you didn't act a certain way which was often frustrating. Some just telling you that you were too young or didn't know what was what, that was nonsense. You were a very clever girl! But you did need to keep your temper in check, so just trying to avoid frustration in the first place was better. That's what Old Bird taught you.
"Oh him? Yeah, he's been a real pain for...god...three years now. It feels like forever." Eudaimonica said as she scratched at the back of her head, turning to regard the armour locked supersoldier who was swearing up a storm beneath his helm. Lots of sexually explicit invective that sounded hugely anatomically implausible.
"Only three years?" Arne asked, stepping in and then briefly flicking a glance over to you when he noted that some people backed away from him when he approached; eyes fixated on his cyclopean visor.
"Is it uh...friendly?" Nightcaster said.
"He." Arne said tersely.
"Wait you're a boy robot?"
"He's not a robot!" You almost snapped, stepping forward and then feeling a sudden flash of fear from the teens as Tyrius interposed with his shield ready and sword in hand.
"Alright...all of you; calm your jets and listen up." Armsmaster's voice was being magnified by loudspeakers in his helmet, the ramrod straight posture he adopted clearly meant to project authority while he seemed to have carefully selected the posture that his companions would select to make it clear they were meant to be listened to. You didn't really agree with that, not having seen much in the way of reasons to actually offer him that respect.
"As unaccompanied minors in an..." He paused as he looked around, it was a brief, micropause in less than the blink of an augmented eye but to you it seemed an eternity as you adjusted your perception of time to better study his small movements to get a stronger gauge of his personality. Still trying to project that sensation of command.
"Incident of highly unusual circumstances. I am required to bring you in for questioning under Protectorate regulations regarding high grade minor parahumans." He said as he gave a small signal to the patriotic woman to speak in turn. Not confident in his diplomacy?
"We'll ensure your comfort and care are provided for in the facility we'll hold you in until everything can be cleared up. But we would like to ask you to disarm if at all possible once we are out of the danger zone. This is for both your safety and ou-" She said before you shook your head.
"No." You said sternly.
"...Pardon?" She asked.
"No." You repeated.
"You don't have authority over me. No." You puffed out your chest and stood in front of the other set of extradimensional adolescents.
"Madam, you're in no position to make demands like this. These are the laws of the country you tread on the soil o-" Armsmaster said before you pushed his hand away when he got close enough to get his accusatory finger in your face, seemingly surprising him with the amount of force you pushed back against him with.
"I said, no!" You repeated one last time, louder, a shout this time.
"What about you? Can you talk sense into your friend or are you just one of her combat drones?" Armsmaster asked of Arne whose withering gaze beneath his helmet fixated on him, though the power suited man seemed unimpressed by the somewhat unnerving unblinking gaze of his insectile helmet; not even flinching. Impressive since sometimes you flinched just slightly when Arne was upset enough to give you the look.
"I am not a drone." He seethed, twice people made this mistake. You'd have probably shouted it but he was too quiet natured to make that much noise about his own feelings. But the empathic heat you could feel from him, red and pulsing and unpleasantly warm, told you that he was upset. Your own choler rose, you were just a bit of an angry person, and it was hard to not want to be mad when one of your closest companions had his feelings upset like this.
"And I'm not arguing with her for you!" He shook his head and started to turn towards you, keeping close. He was unsure of what to do, you were the talker of the two of you. Tightly bonded, with so few secrets kept between you; save for his troubled dreams of the future that always he never liked to speak of; you could share anything. But with others, you tended to speak, he tended to elaborate.
"Look, we've got regulations too. We'll just wait for Portal Corps' response team to arrive and let them handle it and that'll be that alright?" Tyrius said, sheathing his blade and straightening himself as knight looked upon glorified policeman.
"I presume portal corps is your regulatory authority then?" Armsmaster said.
"Kinda...they're supervisors for extrauniversal stuff. If you want regulators I could get you on the line with the FBSA." Raelamiel said, a smooth, easy empathic signal coming from her as she gave you and Arne specifically a thumbs up to let you know she'd handle it.
"But you are unsupervised minors are you not?" He asked one more time, his companion in Greek styled Armour laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, they handled themselves better than we did. We can cut them a bit of slack." He said...Dauntless this one was called, abilities came from slowly augmenting his equipment more and more as time went on without a known upper limit; which in turn would grant him increasing combat abilities. Interesting, if certainly a very slow way to get better armour. Maybe in a time distortion field he'd be able to unlock his potential faster?
"The regulations are there for a reason and that goes double for minors. Do you want to be the one who has to contact parents from another universe if we screw up because we didn't follow protocol?" Armsmaster seemed to be especially on edge, his eyes flicking continually over to where PRT medics were trying to treat the red clad one; Assault. The red suited member of his team was stabilising but they didn't seem to know how to handle the lingering dark energy in his wound from the Black Wolf. Probably was a valued member of the team if this emotionally affected him in such a way.
You looked back at Nightcaster...his abilities covered that sort of energy. Another glance was shared with Arne.
"+He'd be able to treat Assault. Maybe if we could help him recover tempers would calm a bit? It's worth a try at least.+" You proposed over your comms with Arne.
"+Can we get him in a position to use his spells without setting any of the indigenous enforcers off? As far as I can tell, they have no experience with this kind of power. It might scare them...it probably will scare them.+" A bit pessimistic, but he was never too deep into the glass half-empty side of things, just a worry-wart.
"+I'll handle it.+"
"+You always say that.+"
"+Because I can!+"
"+You said that on Sondax Quintus and now there isn't even a Sondax Quintus anymore!+" He protested as you felt slightly taken back by the accusation.
"+The planet was going to explode anyway.+" You blew him off like you had a hundred times before.
"+But-+" You didn't quite let him finish before you moved in so that you could ask questions while Ghor and Spire had finished their conferring with one another. You briefly set your visor to transparent and winked at Arne to let him know it was up to him while he blubbered out gibberish in surprise before getting you to laugh as he shook his head and resigned himself to letting Nightcaster know of your plan.
"Why are you so underprepared for incursions like this?" You said bluntly, figuring it would be the most overly broad possible question to throw them for a loop imaginable while Arne pulled Nightcaster over and whispered to him.
"That is not pertinent to the ongoing conversation miss, I would suggest you save your questions until la-" You didn't let Armsmsaster finish before adding further comments.
"You came in undergunned and without a coherent doctrine for combat of this grade. Are you certain you're the actual authority?" You asked, it was perhaps rude but it definitely would provoke a response as far as the distant sight told you.
"Do you have any sort of parental supervision present that I can speak to instead?" Damn, he was very good at keeping his temper in check; seamlessly resorting to practised fallbacks to avoid bait.
Ghor's camo-system disengaged and the cyborg would unfurl out of his combat frame, spindly limbs touching the snowy ground while he fixated his optics on the humans gathered before him, a nod of acknowledgement being shared with you as he noted the clicking of gun safeties into ready position.
"I am not her father, but I can suffice for adult supervision, if such would please you." He said, Nightcaster's energies flowing behind him and seeping into an assault who was still trying to jokingly reassure battery that he was definitely going to be alright.
Energy pulled from wounded 5th column troops flowed into him and purged the black-rot seeping into his cells, Armsmaster seemingly too absorbed in his interest in the Cyborg to notice the brief cries of non-life threatening but definitely disorientating discomfort the neonazis felt while a chill rolled through you.
Yeah that's dark magic alright. Not what you were familiar with, but definitely of a somewhat sinister aspect as he borrowed some harmless portions of life force to enact his cure.
Assault breathed hard and just about flipped onto his feet with a "Wow who spiked that coffee?!" as he felt a great purge of any fatigue or other ailments rock through him.
"Assault? Report." Dauntless said.
"...Hey the chest wound's gone." The Hoverboard rider said...Christopher Maverick, Kid Win right you remembered that.
"More than that I had a nerve pinch earlier today and I can't feel a thing. Don't even have that early out of bed crabbiness anymore." Assault shadowboxed briefly while Battery seemed to roll her eyes as she looked at the tendrils of shadow magic receding back into nightcaster.
"Uh...hey, hi, yeah that's me...I did that. With my umbramancy. You're welcome." Joseph said, wriggling his fingers and waving.
"Umbramancy? Magic?" Vista asked.
"Yeah I do magic. That's me, the magician. I can also do rabbits from hats." He said with a harrumph.
"There's no such thing as magic Vista...but you...are there any side effects?" Armsmaster demanded, pointing at Nightcaster who backed away into Arne's shoulder and found him to be an immovable wall.
"Uh no. I mean the people I took some of the energy from will have a headache for a few minutes but that's not, you know, serious." He shrugged.
"He didn't take anywhere near enough to cause any actual damage, or death." You said, affirming what your scan visor reported.
"You can kill people with that?" Kid Win asked with alarm.
"I would never! I'm not some kind of soul-stealing warlock!" He shouted in protest.
"Easy...easy...perhaps we should find a place to discuss this more calmly. On relatively neutral ground. Perhaps the cabin these youths were sheltering in beforehand? Though having been there myself, the interior of these two's ships is quite comfortable I think you'll find." Ghor said, trying his best to project an image of calm.
"We have a base for this particular reason. Come with us, then we'll talk." Armsmaster made clear.
"+Samus, Arne; honestly I'm not sure if talking to these people is the best idea. We've still got an ongoing situation and tangling ourselves in the local bureaucracy would be a massive waste of time.+" Spire cut in over the comms.
Decision:
[]: Ditch the fuzz, look into the Nazis (will greatly sour relations with the PRT and Earth Bet American government)
[]: Insist on talking in the ship
[]: Insist on speaking in the Cabin
[]: Acknowledge the request to speak at their HQ.
Minilude Requests: Choose one minilude
[]: Eldar Trickery!: A band of Eldar youths on Earth Bet navigate their way through the world having fled through a webway gate they cannot re-open. Shenanigans ensue.
[]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
[]: Mother Dearest: Head of the Thule Society, Idonnia von Horstmann, has rather unpleasant words for her relative for her latest screw up.
[]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
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Baron Ouroboros
Emerald Leaves and Crimson Petals
- Location
- Vancouver
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X]: Insist on speaking in the Cabin
[X]: Eldar Trickery!: A band of Eldar youths on Earth Bet navigate their way through the world having fled through a webway gate they cannot re-open. Shenanigans ensue.
[X]: Eldar Trickery!: A band of Eldar youths on Earth Bet navigate their way through the world having fled through a webway gate they cannot re-open. Shenanigans ensue.
- Location
- Hartsville
[X] Insist on speaking in the cabin
[X] Eldar Trickery!: A band of Eldar youths on Earth Bet navigate their way through the world having fled through a webway gate they cannot re-open. Shenanigans ensue.
[X] Eldar Trickery!: A band of Eldar youths on Earth Bet navigate their way through the world having fled through a webway gate they cannot re-open. Shenanigans ensue.
- Location
- Charlotte
[X]: Insist on talking in the ship
[X]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
[X]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
thewhiteraven22
(Unverified Worm Fanatic)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X]: Insist on talking in the ship
[X]: Insist on talking in the cabin
I am ok with either of these.
[X]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
[X]: Insist on talking in the cabin
I am ok with either of these.
[X]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X]: Insist on talking in the cabin
[X]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
[X]: Bumblebuzz: Autobot Scout Commander Bumblebee breaks in some rookies on Earth Bet's Autobot monitoring divisions in how to keep under the gaze of the authorities and how to navigate the streets.
T-A-C
Yay for insomnia! : Lurker by Nature
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X]: Insist on speaking in the Cabin
[X]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
Considering warshades were specifically Nictus seeking redemption, I'm kind of curious to 1) how they will influence Taylor's future actions and 2) how the shard will react to the bonding… considering that CoH/V lore indicates that causes both beings' personalities to merge into something new if I recall correctly.
[X]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
Considering warshades were specifically Nictus seeking redemption, I'm kind of curious to 1) how they will influence Taylor's future actions and 2) how the shard will react to the bonding… considering that CoH/V lore indicates that causes both beings' personalities to merge into something new if I recall correctly.
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- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
[X]: Insist on speaking in the Cabin
Seems like the most neutral ground.
[X]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
I think we all know where this is going...
Seems like the most neutral ground.
[X]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
I think we all know where this is going...
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
We have a tie in minilude votes at the moment between Bumblebuzz and Eldar trickery
Baron Ouroboros
Emerald Leaves and Crimson Petals
- Location
- Vancouver
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Anyone to break the tie?
[X]: Shadow of Retribution: The newly de-hosted Nictus Warshade, Shadow of Retribution, looks around Earth bet for a suitable partner following the death of his prior host, and senses the presence of a certain freshly pried out of the locker trauma victim.
Minilude: Eldar trickery
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Well since I can't get a tiebreak to happen I'll just do both
[X] Eldar Trickery
"You really have outdone yourself this time, have you not Alyrsero? Truly typical of a Craftworlder." The taunting singsong voice of a female Eldar who shared many aspects with her raven-haired Seer of a twin brother said, the Druchiiborn Sorceress making a coy smirk with sharp teeth as the adolescent folded her arms before her plated chest.
"I would dearly wish to see you have chosen better in those circumstances, Lelithax." He said with a bit of rancour in his words, the messy hair of the knife-eared young man blowing somewhat in the wind, stopping somewhat short of his shoulders while he tapped his staff onto the ground and sighed in frustration.
"Brother dearest, are we not directly of the blood of Eldanesh and Ulthanesh? It's rather embarrassing to get lost in the webway on account of some bandits." She said with a poisonously sweet voice, looming near him as they used a glamour to hide in the midst of plain view in this primitive, brick ladened hovel that these proto-humans called a city.
"Sister dearest, have you ever considered that perhaps needling me at every possible opportunity may prove irksome?" He said with a pout on his lips while she simply laughed, fluffing back her long, onyx coloured hair and letting the gem in the centre of her tiara glow a grey energy; the power of Ulgu; the wind of Shadow.
"You really are like Father you know? Boring. Boring, boring, boring." She taunted as she flicked his nose and got a grunt of discontent out of her sibling.
"And you are like mother save for her decency to know when to be helpful rather than a pest." He spat right back before the two of them were grabbed by their collars by a scarlet haired Asrai whose armour seemed to be made of wood, resin, and leaf; the Exodite's windswept hair bouncing slightly while he made a face between disappointed father and irritated teacher.
"The two of you can bicker to your heart's content elsewhere. Perhaps where there will be fewer eyes on us for every protracted retread of this time-worn argument." He said, flicking both of their foreheads and getting protests from the twins in response while the Asrai harrumphed and folded his arms in discontent.
"Mayhaps there might be time for a jest just yet, from what I can ascertain of this place we are upon Terra before its last sun has set." A lithe figure drooped down from a balcony, hanging by her legs and giggling in a bubbly voice as her mask reflected all that was cast upon it. Like a colourful windwheel, she flipped onto her feet with a bow of "ta-dah!"as she stuck the landing with ease.
"Ah...Kaeliyae, how fares your investigations?" Alyrsero said with an almost immediately apparent perking up of his ears.
"This is the home of man, but not the one we knew. In an age we have passed the span, and where man remains but few." She rhymed with her general sing-songy voice, echoing upon itself with a faint trace of magic as she approached the others.
"In this time and in this nation they call their world Earth. But these stars are new to the Sea of Souls, and these people drained of mirth."
"Another Terra? I'm sure that there would be some delighted faces amongst the scattered branches of the tree of mankind to hear of that." Alyrsero said with a tinge of sarcasm, grimacing at the brief visions of arguments he glimpsed from a brief glance into the skeins of fate and its winding cables of futures that could be. Accusations and old squabbles resurfacing again so many cycles after the world's loss.
"This world is marked by other intellects who hunger somewhat like the Yngir, they who reside in higher spaces and folded time without fear." She said, generating a brief illusion of folding fractal beings tangling their threads of influence into small slivers of themselves embedded into the traumatised and the scarred. Flicker-fires of power loaned from beings that their hosts never knew were feeding from their knowledge even as they offered solutions to questions they never asked.
But the threads had been strained recently, leaderless, almost directionless now. The original doom in the winding pathways of fate they sought to accomplish withering into impossibility. Nations erased in golden light now stood stronger in many futures, and great battles recoiled away from the light of the possible to be shrouded in a new darkness across the cables of what may-be.
"I could have told you that." Alyrsero mumbled with a cheeky smirk towards her as she made a little bell like laugh while she shifted her weight in the snow.
"But alas you have not! So the role of storyteller shan't be your lot!" She said with a teasing raspberry at the end to get laughs out of the others. Twelve in total, no two from the same splintered branch of the endlessly sundered children of Mother Isha and father Kurnous.
"What do they call this city then?" Idaliryn said; the Lumineth's gleaming armour baked in with the bounty of the White Wind of Hysh, cloak wrapped around his plate while his horned helm remained firmly on his head. He stood taller than most of the others, and though Alyrsero thought his preference for Hammers was uncouth, he couldn't help but respect him.
"Brockton Bay is the name they say." Kaeliyae responded, offering a humble bow.
"Perhaps the runes may guide us, if you would permit me to call upon them." A mage of the Asur said, the plumed protrusions on her helmet being used to help hook it along her belt as the maroon-haired young lady made a sign to conjure forth some sigils of wraithbone.
"Such would be ideal, preferable even but to what end, Yllireas?" Alyrsero beseeched, clasping his cloak around his own ghost armour, perhaps a bit envious of the dazzling ithilmar his Asur counterpart wore.
"To find ways to advance. I would have thought a Seer of the craftworlds would know this by now." She said with a little bit of a tease as the Ulthwean rolled his eyes.
"Truly you missed your calling among the Harlequins." He muttered, eyes briefly scanning over to the grey haired but imposingly tall Ynnari with them, his skull-helm removed for the time while he stuck his tongue out to taste the snow and made a face when it landed on his tongue.
"Tasting souls on the snowfall, Korlanil?" Lelithax taunted.
"More in disbelief that the Creisistauead would start killing their planet this early." He said with a laugh, somewhat spiky grey hair glinting in the moonlight of late-night Brockton Bay.
"You can just taste the petrochemicals in the air and smell the oil derived plastics on the wind. Disgusting isn't it?" He said, folding his arms and shaking his head, getting a nod from Ormothin in return.
"Though this world's nature has a weak, scarcely beating soul, I can feel it suffering all the same. Tragic." The Asrai murmured just loud enough for the others to hear while he stroked the side of a tree that had been fed with the exhaust of far too many of the bleaching motor vehicles the people here seemed to treasure.
Alyrsero was not particularly in tune with the energies of life, not the same way Ormothin was, but he could understand why the Asrai felt ill-at-ease. The air was...gross for lack of a better term, unpleasant on the tongue and eyes, and the harmony of the soulsongs of life was in turmoil, even without factoring in those who had the soulless riders following them around.
Soulless yes...walking around with cameras for beings closer to the Yngir than anything he would properly call life. It was discomforting, especially with the way he could feel being studied by them though they seemed utterly uncomprehending of the Sea of Souls. A weakness at least, one that made it easy for him to tell they were being tracked.
"Mind the figure upon the roof to our left, they who believe themselves unseen for their rider's ability to shield them from the sight of eyes and light." He said, indicating where they were with a sorcerous pulse visible only to their soulsight.
The mount was human, the rider a sliver of a manifold beast hungry for more information. Clad in an outfit he felt was almost lewd in how overly fitting it was worn beneath tactical armour of treated fibres and ceramic insets. Night-vision goggles trying to ascertain their location while primitive radio communications sent their messages on electromagnetic wavelengths.
Clarioli, one of the Ithilari and their resident machinist; was already on the case, mind racing as it connected to psychodirected machinery in her suit to slice into the communication encryptions. The blonde coordinating tightly with Elendron; the Vaulyani apprentice forgemaster whose love of metal rivalled her own.
It was unnecessary, the angles of attack were unprecedented, unexpected by such a network. Words in English were deciphered by mind that had already plucked knowledge of the language from the locals.
"+Targets are gathering in a circle for discussion. Counting twelve. Six male, six female. All similarly aged, estimating adolescent approximate.+" She said.
There were twelve yes, himself the Asuryani, his sister the Druchii, Ormothin the Asrai, Kaeliyae the Harlequin, Korlanil the Ynnari, Clarioli the Ithilari, Elendron the Vaulyani, Yllireas the Asur, Idaliryn the Lumineth, Eviscera the former Drukhari whose Incubus adept armour hid most of her features save for her white-haired head, Xenayari the Idoneth who was just now emerging from the water and removing his helm, blue hair still slick with fluid; and finally Belianna the Corsair, a green haired young lady that sulked atop a lamp post at the sight of so many things she was not to touch with her kleptomaniacal hands.
So that meant that the eavesdropper had been watching them for long enough to fully ascertain their genders, and had some means of peering past their glamour.
"Just shoot them, is that so hard?" Xenyari said, chiming in after listening in to the communique from earlier over their psychic-network.
"It would not be too difficult a task to accomplish. A quick bit of action and their flickersoul can be cut." Korlanil smirked as his hand neared his scythe-cannon before Idaliryn tapped the head of his hammer onto the ground and stood firm.
"We are not going to take the step of random acts of murder on a world we know so little about. Curb your bloodthirst by the light of Tyrion!" he said, invoking the incarnate god of Hysh and the one who came from the world that was to the rescue of the Eldar so long ago.
"+Targets seem to be arguing, please advise course of action.+"
"+Xenological origins of targets is confirmed?+"
"+Affirmative, testing negates possibility of genetic tissue left from saliva as being human.+" They responded to the query.
"+Move in for capture, do not harm the targets. A team will be on its way to assist.+"
Ah that settled it, Alyrsero thought as he let his helmet phase into being over his head and felt across the empyrean to the threads of fate woven around the woman's gun. He saw the rune of a cauldron when his witch-eyes gazed on her presence in the skeins of fate. Her presence thin, weak, unlikely to directly change much on her own, but tied to a great many much more solid cables of those whose presences for better or for worse, had far greater potential for influencing history.
Her gun though, like all tools, had its own tied presence, tiny and whisper quiet as it was, but he snapped it all the same by letting the warp flow into it and seize on the plastics and metal within it. Fates were bent, destinies altered, and the weapon transmuted to clay and dust in her hands before his sister reached to the shadows she clung to and wrapped them around her as if they were solid tendrils, tearing her out of her position and pulling her towards the daughter of a druchii sorceress at breakneck speeds.
Straight into the path of a slap from her.
"Where are your manners?" She hissed with a teasing inflection to her voice, her face now obscured by a closed helm while she studied the human for fear and was disappointed to find none.
The rider pulsed, sensing threat to the host and her ability manifested. Her mind reached for solutions to her present problem, how to alter probabilities in a certain direction. The skeins of fate began to shift, destinies collecting towards what were once distant possibilities as she became more aware of such escape options.
Eviscera ended that with a quick, sharp blow to the head to knock her out when paired with a psychic pulse demanding sleep from every neuron in her brain. Sighing as she frowned at having to resort to such violence in the first place. Truly she was too sweet to be given unto the malice of the bloody-handed god, which made him glad that she was at least; away from the monsters of the Dark City now.
"It will not be a permanent solution, the puppet masters behind this one are already aware of our presence." She said, rolling over the unconscious human so that they wouldn't be face first in the snow and helping Ormothin prop her up against an alleywall and toss her some discarded coats and rags to keep her warm.
"The shardworm beast, or the handlers?" Alyrsero asked.
"The beast at least, is distracted, no longer a factor." Yllireas chimed in, to the quick nods of the others.
"But as for the handlers...I do have a name...Cauldron." Elendron said, the forgeworker's industrious and rather heavy by Eldar standard garb thrumming with a slight heat as he examined her primitive radio device and only marginally less backwards silicon based computer retrieved from her bag.
"...I suppose a name will do for now. Until we know more at least." Alyrsero said as he sighed and rubbed at his cheek, why did everything have to be so complicated?
[X] Eldar Trickery
"You really have outdone yourself this time, have you not Alyrsero? Truly typical of a Craftworlder." The taunting singsong voice of a female Eldar who shared many aspects with her raven-haired Seer of a twin brother said, the Druchiiborn Sorceress making a coy smirk with sharp teeth as the adolescent folded her arms before her plated chest.
"I would dearly wish to see you have chosen better in those circumstances, Lelithax." He said with a bit of rancour in his words, the messy hair of the knife-eared young man blowing somewhat in the wind, stopping somewhat short of his shoulders while he tapped his staff onto the ground and sighed in frustration.
"Brother dearest, are we not directly of the blood of Eldanesh and Ulthanesh? It's rather embarrassing to get lost in the webway on account of some bandits." She said with a poisonously sweet voice, looming near him as they used a glamour to hide in the midst of plain view in this primitive, brick ladened hovel that these proto-humans called a city.
"Sister dearest, have you ever considered that perhaps needling me at every possible opportunity may prove irksome?" He said with a pout on his lips while she simply laughed, fluffing back her long, onyx coloured hair and letting the gem in the centre of her tiara glow a grey energy; the power of Ulgu; the wind of Shadow.
"You really are like Father you know? Boring. Boring, boring, boring." She taunted as she flicked his nose and got a grunt of discontent out of her sibling.
"And you are like mother save for her decency to know when to be helpful rather than a pest." He spat right back before the two of them were grabbed by their collars by a scarlet haired Asrai whose armour seemed to be made of wood, resin, and leaf; the Exodite's windswept hair bouncing slightly while he made a face between disappointed father and irritated teacher.
"The two of you can bicker to your heart's content elsewhere. Perhaps where there will be fewer eyes on us for every protracted retread of this time-worn argument." He said, flicking both of their foreheads and getting protests from the twins in response while the Asrai harrumphed and folded his arms in discontent.
"Mayhaps there might be time for a jest just yet, from what I can ascertain of this place we are upon Terra before its last sun has set." A lithe figure drooped down from a balcony, hanging by her legs and giggling in a bubbly voice as her mask reflected all that was cast upon it. Like a colourful windwheel, she flipped onto her feet with a bow of "ta-dah!"as she stuck the landing with ease.
"Ah...Kaeliyae, how fares your investigations?" Alyrsero said with an almost immediately apparent perking up of his ears.
"This is the home of man, but not the one we knew. In an age we have passed the span, and where man remains but few." She rhymed with her general sing-songy voice, echoing upon itself with a faint trace of magic as she approached the others.
"In this time and in this nation they call their world Earth. But these stars are new to the Sea of Souls, and these people drained of mirth."
"Another Terra? I'm sure that there would be some delighted faces amongst the scattered branches of the tree of mankind to hear of that." Alyrsero said with a tinge of sarcasm, grimacing at the brief visions of arguments he glimpsed from a brief glance into the skeins of fate and its winding cables of futures that could be. Accusations and old squabbles resurfacing again so many cycles after the world's loss.
"This world is marked by other intellects who hunger somewhat like the Yngir, they who reside in higher spaces and folded time without fear." She said, generating a brief illusion of folding fractal beings tangling their threads of influence into small slivers of themselves embedded into the traumatised and the scarred. Flicker-fires of power loaned from beings that their hosts never knew were feeding from their knowledge even as they offered solutions to questions they never asked.
But the threads had been strained recently, leaderless, almost directionless now. The original doom in the winding pathways of fate they sought to accomplish withering into impossibility. Nations erased in golden light now stood stronger in many futures, and great battles recoiled away from the light of the possible to be shrouded in a new darkness across the cables of what may-be.
"I could have told you that." Alyrsero mumbled with a cheeky smirk towards her as she made a little bell like laugh while she shifted her weight in the snow.
"But alas you have not! So the role of storyteller shan't be your lot!" She said with a teasing raspberry at the end to get laughs out of the others. Twelve in total, no two from the same splintered branch of the endlessly sundered children of Mother Isha and father Kurnous.
"What do they call this city then?" Idaliryn said; the Lumineth's gleaming armour baked in with the bounty of the White Wind of Hysh, cloak wrapped around his plate while his horned helm remained firmly on his head. He stood taller than most of the others, and though Alyrsero thought his preference for Hammers was uncouth, he couldn't help but respect him.
"Brockton Bay is the name they say." Kaeliyae responded, offering a humble bow.
"Perhaps the runes may guide us, if you would permit me to call upon them." A mage of the Asur said, the plumed protrusions on her helmet being used to help hook it along her belt as the maroon-haired young lady made a sign to conjure forth some sigils of wraithbone.
"Such would be ideal, preferable even but to what end, Yllireas?" Alyrsero beseeched, clasping his cloak around his own ghost armour, perhaps a bit envious of the dazzling ithilmar his Asur counterpart wore.
"To find ways to advance. I would have thought a Seer of the craftworlds would know this by now." She said with a little bit of a tease as the Ulthwean rolled his eyes.
"Truly you missed your calling among the Harlequins." He muttered, eyes briefly scanning over to the grey haired but imposingly tall Ynnari with them, his skull-helm removed for the time while he stuck his tongue out to taste the snow and made a face when it landed on his tongue.
"Tasting souls on the snowfall, Korlanil?" Lelithax taunted.
"More in disbelief that the Creisistauead would start killing their planet this early." He said with a laugh, somewhat spiky grey hair glinting in the moonlight of late-night Brockton Bay.
"You can just taste the petrochemicals in the air and smell the oil derived plastics on the wind. Disgusting isn't it?" He said, folding his arms and shaking his head, getting a nod from Ormothin in return.
"Though this world's nature has a weak, scarcely beating soul, I can feel it suffering all the same. Tragic." The Asrai murmured just loud enough for the others to hear while he stroked the side of a tree that had been fed with the exhaust of far too many of the bleaching motor vehicles the people here seemed to treasure.
Alyrsero was not particularly in tune with the energies of life, not the same way Ormothin was, but he could understand why the Asrai felt ill-at-ease. The air was...gross for lack of a better term, unpleasant on the tongue and eyes, and the harmony of the soulsongs of life was in turmoil, even without factoring in those who had the soulless riders following them around.
Soulless yes...walking around with cameras for beings closer to the Yngir than anything he would properly call life. It was discomforting, especially with the way he could feel being studied by them though they seemed utterly uncomprehending of the Sea of Souls. A weakness at least, one that made it easy for him to tell they were being tracked.
"Mind the figure upon the roof to our left, they who believe themselves unseen for their rider's ability to shield them from the sight of eyes and light." He said, indicating where they were with a sorcerous pulse visible only to their soulsight.
The mount was human, the rider a sliver of a manifold beast hungry for more information. Clad in an outfit he felt was almost lewd in how overly fitting it was worn beneath tactical armour of treated fibres and ceramic insets. Night-vision goggles trying to ascertain their location while primitive radio communications sent their messages on electromagnetic wavelengths.
Clarioli, one of the Ithilari and their resident machinist; was already on the case, mind racing as it connected to psychodirected machinery in her suit to slice into the communication encryptions. The blonde coordinating tightly with Elendron; the Vaulyani apprentice forgemaster whose love of metal rivalled her own.
It was unnecessary, the angles of attack were unprecedented, unexpected by such a network. Words in English were deciphered by mind that had already plucked knowledge of the language from the locals.
"+Targets are gathering in a circle for discussion. Counting twelve. Six male, six female. All similarly aged, estimating adolescent approximate.+" She said.
There were twelve yes, himself the Asuryani, his sister the Druchii, Ormothin the Asrai, Kaeliyae the Harlequin, Korlanil the Ynnari, Clarioli the Ithilari, Elendron the Vaulyani, Yllireas the Asur, Idaliryn the Lumineth, Eviscera the former Drukhari whose Incubus adept armour hid most of her features save for her white-haired head, Xenayari the Idoneth who was just now emerging from the water and removing his helm, blue hair still slick with fluid; and finally Belianna the Corsair, a green haired young lady that sulked atop a lamp post at the sight of so many things she was not to touch with her kleptomaniacal hands.
So that meant that the eavesdropper had been watching them for long enough to fully ascertain their genders, and had some means of peering past their glamour.
"Just shoot them, is that so hard?" Xenyari said, chiming in after listening in to the communique from earlier over their psychic-network.
"It would not be too difficult a task to accomplish. A quick bit of action and their flickersoul can be cut." Korlanil smirked as his hand neared his scythe-cannon before Idaliryn tapped the head of his hammer onto the ground and stood firm.
"We are not going to take the step of random acts of murder on a world we know so little about. Curb your bloodthirst by the light of Tyrion!" he said, invoking the incarnate god of Hysh and the one who came from the world that was to the rescue of the Eldar so long ago.
"+Targets seem to be arguing, please advise course of action.+"
"+Xenological origins of targets is confirmed?+"
"+Affirmative, testing negates possibility of genetic tissue left from saliva as being human.+" They responded to the query.
"+Move in for capture, do not harm the targets. A team will be on its way to assist.+"
Ah that settled it, Alyrsero thought as he let his helmet phase into being over his head and felt across the empyrean to the threads of fate woven around the woman's gun. He saw the rune of a cauldron when his witch-eyes gazed on her presence in the skeins of fate. Her presence thin, weak, unlikely to directly change much on her own, but tied to a great many much more solid cables of those whose presences for better or for worse, had far greater potential for influencing history.
Her gun though, like all tools, had its own tied presence, tiny and whisper quiet as it was, but he snapped it all the same by letting the warp flow into it and seize on the plastics and metal within it. Fates were bent, destinies altered, and the weapon transmuted to clay and dust in her hands before his sister reached to the shadows she clung to and wrapped them around her as if they were solid tendrils, tearing her out of her position and pulling her towards the daughter of a druchii sorceress at breakneck speeds.
Straight into the path of a slap from her.
"Where are your manners?" She hissed with a teasing inflection to her voice, her face now obscured by a closed helm while she studied the human for fear and was disappointed to find none.
The rider pulsed, sensing threat to the host and her ability manifested. Her mind reached for solutions to her present problem, how to alter probabilities in a certain direction. The skeins of fate began to shift, destinies collecting towards what were once distant possibilities as she became more aware of such escape options.
Eviscera ended that with a quick, sharp blow to the head to knock her out when paired with a psychic pulse demanding sleep from every neuron in her brain. Sighing as she frowned at having to resort to such violence in the first place. Truly she was too sweet to be given unto the malice of the bloody-handed god, which made him glad that she was at least; away from the monsters of the Dark City now.
"It will not be a permanent solution, the puppet masters behind this one are already aware of our presence." She said, rolling over the unconscious human so that they wouldn't be face first in the snow and helping Ormothin prop her up against an alleywall and toss her some discarded coats and rags to keep her warm.
"The shardworm beast, or the handlers?" Alyrsero asked.
"The beast at least, is distracted, no longer a factor." Yllireas chimed in, to the quick nods of the others.
"But as for the handlers...I do have a name...Cauldron." Elendron said, the forgeworker's industrious and rather heavy by Eldar standard garb thrumming with a slight heat as he examined her primitive radio device and only marginally less backwards silicon based computer retrieved from her bag.
"...I suppose a name will do for now. Until we know more at least." Alyrsero said as he sighed and rubbed at his cheek, why did everything have to be so complicated?
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
I'll be doing the Transformers and Taylor ones next.