(I accidentally ordered diet instead of regular soda when at a restaurant with my wife so now I'm caffinated and can't sleep so have this informational on one of the major villains on the house.)
Armin Ziegler is the Twelfth Person to hold the title of Fuhrer following Adolf Hitler (1933-1960), Reinhardt Heydrich (1960-1982), Wulf Spitzer (1982-1987), Rudolph Koenig (1987-1999), Werner Bergmann (2000-2010), Heinrich Burgdorf (2010-2023), Hermann Kreps (2023-2030), Felix Jodl (2030-2044), Karl Stirner (2044-2050), Friedrich Steiner (2050-2072), and Konrad Engels (2072-2093). Coming to power after the death of Konrad Engels due to an assassin's bullet delivered by the anti-nazi resistance from a colony timeline conquered by the Weltreich, Ziegler is a deeply ambitious man and dreams of unifying all the "worthies" of humanity entirely under his aegis and fully melding the Weltreich into the Nictus Empire with the Herrenvolk at its helm; dominating over other favourites of the Nictus such as the Council Empire or the Empire of the Darkened Sun.
Rising from the ranks of the SS, Armin Ziegler used to study architecture before joining the Schutzstaffel and then working his way up the ranks until he could assume position of Fuhrer in the vicious power struggle that followed his predecessor's death; having his loyalists liquidate the other claimants before a civil war could brew and promising the conquest of a new world for the Reich as its economy began its usual process of stagnation and decline whenever its expansion had taken a pause. Applying the same energy he learned in the Hitler Youth to the contest of proving himself to be the only worthy leader, he bullied or browbeated everyone into proclaiming him to be the new, true Fuhrer and swore himself in as the absolute ruler of the Weltreich, promising an end to the stagnation and the backsliding of his predecessor and a new age of unity and conquest.
A believer in Himmler's monotheistic Germanic religion and a proud student of Hitler's "racial science", Armin Ziegler is also a devoted afficianado of metahuman studies, particularly interested in the Well of Furies that gave the famous Reichsman his powers; as well as the Red Spider who continues to bedevil the Weltreich to this day. His interests have apparently lead him to some manner of success, as he has survived more than forty years as Fuhrer; longer than any before him, and does not age and assassination efforts all find themselves failing even when they confront him on his own. What sort of incarnate power he has taken is anyone's guess, but Vanguard; Primal Earth's primary shield organisation against extraterrestrial or dimensional threat; regards him as a threat on par with that of Tyrant's Praetorian Empire, perhaps more so.
While the Weltreich's technological progress has stagnated relative to the amount of time it has existed due to the forcing of science to comply with Nazi racial doctrine and the elimination of most potential talent for not fitting said racial doctrine or expected gender norms, the Weltreich still commands formidable assets simply from the time it has existed and the amount of plunder it has been able to acquire; especially under Armin's extremely ambitious expansion programs. While the initial attempted invasion of Primal Earth some nearly thirty years ago; headed by the Reichsman and his Amerika Korps; ended in failure and the capture of both the Reichsman and his team, Ziegler has never lost sight of his prize of Primal Earth for daring to thwart his designs.
He has studied the failures of the first invasion, the Rikti War, and the Praetorian-Primal war and has come to believe that so long as the next invasion avoids the bottlenecking that the first one suffered from; they should be victorious, especially with a lightning offensive to prevent the Primals from picking at the columns of his Reich the way that they did at Marcus Cole's Praetorian Empire. Particularly now that the Primal Earth version of Marcus Cole; Statesman; has been dead for more than eight years and their version of the Red Spider; Lord Recluse, sinks deeper into malaise with the death of his former best friend and arch-nemesis.
Ziegler has fully revived and endorsed the cult of personality, proclaiming himself to be a Fuhrer as great as Hitler, having his portraits be mounted on equal level to the founding Fuhrer in a move unprecedented in the Weltreich's history. Charismatic, with an architect's grandiose vision for master plans and grand success, and cutting a distinctive profile with sharp chin, neatly kept hair usually hidden under a peaked cap, and his ominous black uniform, Ziegler's blue eyed gaze stares down upon the Reich with the disdain of a conqueror upon the already conquered. What he has is not enough, and the multiverse awaits his Reich's conquest and order. With the Nictus urging him onwards, he prepares for war to "save" humanity from the Coming Storm, and extends his network of patronage and allies across multiple realities.
He has made amends with the Council Empire, the Empire of the Darkened Sun and other Nictus affiliated alternate timeline fascist states to form the Cosmic Axis, which he plans to use as a bedrock for a unified Human Reich purified of inferior stock. He has drawn those loyal to the National Socialist cause in realities where the Third Reich was vanquished such as the 5th Column on Primal Earth and the Empire-88 and Gesellschaft on Earth Bet in the Shardworm Metaverse to his growing Axis, with the intent to soon bring about the vision of Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer for all humanity. A purely Aryan populace free of all traces of immorality, Judaism, Communism, mongrelism, slavicness and other such diseases of humanity. *
*As the Axis America timeline in CoX has rather little lore due to being a throwaway mission backdrop and some context for portal corps lore I had to expand massively to create the Weltreich faction. Especially since they were, for the most part, day one content from 2004 that received few updates afterwards.
[X]: She's already gotten the attention of one extradimensional power granting entity, what's another on top of that? (Not an ideal option but will be funny) (Arne)
[X]: Try to see how the mission in Munich...or this whole day as a matter of fact; really affected her, she's seen a lot in the process of a few hours.
"Battery, you fought until your knuckles bled! Even without any augmenting armour. Even before Eudaimonica and Nightcaster came here you were fighting so well!" You said, trying your best to wedge into her uncertainties. The attentions of that...thing were overwhelming to be sure, you weren't entirely sure on whether having the notice of something like that was good or bad...you didn't get the most benevolent sensation from the being, but you weren't given too much choice on whether or not to accept her gift.
"Look I..." She started, almost as if she was about to make a revelation, something buried inside by years of shame looking for a chance to emerge. People who might keep quiet, people who hold no investment into what she is now. But she swallowed again and shook her head, rubbing her face and looking at her drink longingly. You didn't quite get what she wanted out of it, was it not sweet enough? Was the taste of the colourings unpleasant? As far as you can tell it was perfectly normal flavoured electrolyte water with blue colouring.
"I'm hardly the star member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. I know a lot of the young girl aspirants in the area hope they can be like me but well...you know women's soccer?" She said, rapping her fingers against the table.
"Boy's world huh?" Eudaimonica said, getting a nod out of her as she looked at the table.
"More female than male parahumans yet there's more than two men for every woman on the team. And I'm just kind of the basic bruiser on the outfit. I hit things fast or shock people. Not an all hours tank like Adamant or a walking arsenal like Armsmaster or the other walking arsenal in Miss Militia. My powers aren't really...flashy and I feel so out of my depth with this weird magic and monsters bullshit. And now I'm being told there's aliens among us and we're going to have to refight world war two? I just..." She said, sighing as she looked forlornly at you, upwards at you despite being about fifty per cent older than you. You were more than thirty centimetres taller than she was, and it was sometimes easy to forget that she was older than you besides being more...filled out in some places.
"I wanted to just help my dad as a little girl, help him with bad guys getting out of jail. I got my powers, didn't know how to properly use them, but I somehow screwed my way up to the top. Now...I feel like I'm lost all over again. I'm just some New York White Girl who can barely afford rent. I'm not cut out for this cosmic charade show. What am I supposed to do...just...punch every Nazi like Indiana Jones? Can I fistfight an entire alien invasion? How am I in any way, up for being picked for some goddess' team?" She said, looking glumly as you recognised an opportunity to speak.
"What you did there was so brave! Even with baseline genetic coding, you have so little time to live but decided to risk everything in a situation even I didn't really understand!" Just the thought of someone putting themselves at risk with that many timebombs lurking in her genetic code made her seem so selfless to you. Her hair would probably start fading in colour by her fifties even, yet she went halfway around the world into the thick of it right behind you.
"Yeah it's...not often I'd see someone just rush into that much fire without any extra protection. I could maybe, craft some sort of armour for you with the fabrication bay on my ship?" Arne said, eyeing her up in a way that made Battery raise her eyebrows, though she lowered them when she realised that his attention was entirely innocent, not lingering anywhere inappropriate and only taking as long as he needed to figure out her dimensions exactly as he mentally worked out the proportions of his design.
"I...look I can't just ask you for a handout like that."
"You've more than worked for it! Come on, how many foes have you taken down today?" You said, blurting out a bit as she stopped to have a think and ran a few numbers before shaking her head.
"I lost count after the hundredth or so Nazi I clobbered."
"Nine hundred and thirty six!" You said, offering her one of your distinctive thumbs ups and smiles as she shrugged.
"You've taken out thousands." She said. "But well..."
"That just means you have something to try and catch up to. Think of it as a challenge! You've got what it takes to handle yourself. And with what you've been given, just think of all the good you can do with it. I didn't well...start like this." You said, sitting down after noticing you had stood up a bit in your chair and crossing your legs.
"Nah I figured you came out of your mom in the power suit." She said as you squinted a bit.
"That would be anatomically improbable." Arne said before you thought and then whispered to Arne that you thought it was most likely sarcasm, causing him to flush and look away in embarrassment at having missed the joke.
"It's okay...it took me...longer than I'd have liked to figure it out." You said, a bit of pink on your cheek as Battery had herself a small laugh and shook her head.
"Man I'd like to meet your parents one day, just get to know who raised you two like this." She said as you made a small frown and looked away a bit awkwardly, and her eyes shifted with realisation almost all at once as she muttered an "oh" followed by a "Sorry..." as she looked back at her hands as if they had some kind of stain on them.
"What's wrong?" Eudaimonica said before the central crystal in her tiara whispered in the infernal language into her ear. "The threads of those who birthed them were cut long ago with great violence." It said as she paused and looked away with a sigh.
"Well uh...if you want my opinion. If you've already gotten the attention of one extradimensional entity, what's two right?" Arne said, trying to break the silence as best as he could. The shadow of Nightcaster recoiled as if he had spouted some kind of curse while the glowing crystal in Alice's tiara dimmed briefly, but you nodded and grinned at a very confused looking battery who seemed to outright stumble backwards in surprise.
"...Two...what are you talking about Arne?" She said, her face contorting into an odd expression of bafflement and trying to recall anything that might have prompted him to bring that up.
"I've never seen anything like that before. Not like...the Well of Furies."
"Your abilities originate from a symbiotic fragment of some sort of larger entity that's bonded to you via a special organ that you've developed for interface with it." Arne grabbed at some paper and one of the erasable pens and quickly drew up a sketch with speed so great it seemed that the diagram he was making was being loaded into existence rather than being drawn to the eyes of slower to react people.
It made perfect sense to you, his mapping out of her altered physiology, how the fragmentary being had wired itself into her biology with a note that the entity had seemingly ceased any of its own thought functions, how it channelled energy into her body and supercharged her cells into a high electromagnetic state that allowed for massively increased power in tandem with a temporarily bolstered physiology able to deflect heavy munitions and break the sound barrier and even some of the math equations he applied to try and lay out his proofs.
Eudaimonica looked at it as if her brain was about to fry and Joseph produced a holy symbol as he stumbled back at the math. "Away with you accursed equations!" He hissed before stumbling out of his chair and falling onto his back while you looked down at Joseph.
"Are you okay? You shouldn't make those sorts of displays on those chairs. They're not meant for being tipped back!" You cautioned as he gave a thumbs up and wheezed.
Battery though, looked at the math in front of her as if Arne had written complete gibberish and at the diagram he had drawn out as if he had just vomtied out an abstract art museum's entire gallery before her eyes. The different colours Arne had used to make it more visually clear and distinct only making her even more confused as she looked at the paper and tilted her head.
"...What?" She said, looking at one of his charts and tracing her finger along the x-axis and then looking at the anatomical diagram he had sketched up and then back at him.
"...Are you saying I've got...space crabs?" She said.
"What, no! It's not at all like owning pet crabs grown in zero gravity!" You said, shaking your head as if she herself were spouting absolute gibberish.
"No I mean..." Battery said as she looked at the diagram and rotated it around to find a perspective that would make it more sensible to her.
Alice leaned in and whispered to you and Arne. "She means like, crabs as in like, lice that get onto your pubes." She said as you did a doubletake at her and then looked at Arne and then back at her.
"...Sexual parasites? Not at all, gods of my clan, not even a little. She's got no signs of sexually transmitted disease. Why would I?" Arne said as he ran his hands through his white hair and looked at the table and then at you with a silent plea for help.
"We're not trying to say she has a sexual parasite infection! It's not even a parasite it's...you'd agree its a symbiont right Arne?" You said, looking back at him as he gave a nod.
"It's not a parasite, it's got a mutually beneficial relation with the host. It's a mutualistic organism." He said, wriggling his fingers to add some emphasis to his explanation as the colour of his cheeks started to fade back to their usual pale hues.
"Yeah. You provide it with data and it provides you with a set of abilities transmitted into your cells through its extradimensional fractal conduits." You said with a nod.
"Samus, Arne, are you saying I've got an alien in me?" Battery asked.
"Well..." You said as you tried to think of a more tact way of saying it before Arne blundered to his explanation straight away now that his mind was going. You were trying to be less blunt, he was trying to be less wilting when expected to speak; unfortunately this meant he often just...spoke.
"It's not at all unique to you. All the parahumans from your metaversal cluster I've been able to study have a fragmentary entity like this attached to them. Some of them seem to be brain dead or dormant while others still seem able to influence behaviour in some way, such as encouraging or discouraging certain behaviours and pushing aggression responses. So I was just thinking that maybe if I could get a few to examine more closely, perhaps in a raw form I'd be able to isolate their central mass and-" He said before Battery shook her head, blinked, stared at him for a long while, then looked at you, and then at the other two in the room.
"What about them?"
"No that's just magic." Arne said, seemingly a bit crestfallen at having been interrupted.
"Just magic?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's completely separate from your power source, which is also distinct from the...Well." He said before it started to dawn on him that something was amiss when a long silence permeated through the room and he started to scratch at the back of his hand, looking between the others in the current room in an attempt to discern why everyone had stopped talking before you laid your hand atop his and moved the scratching hand off.
"Arne." You said softly as he rested and relaxed, looking towards you and smiling a bit.
"So everyone's powers on this planet..."
"You didn't know?" You asked, frowning a bit. It seemed like something you thought would be the top priority for their society to figure out and were kind of at a loss as to why they wouldn't have figured it out by now. You put your whole life into understanding every single facet of progenitor technology and biology that you could so that no aspect of your abilities would be beyond your comprehension.
"...Nooooooooooooo?" Battery said as she looked like her brain had just expanded, trying to understand the diagram in front of her.
"...Can I...show this to people?" She said.
"Obviously yeah!" You said before Wheeljack crackled in over the Intercom.
"+You know I was uh...trying not to inform them about that. Thought it'd be rude. But yeah, it seems to be a quirk of your metaverse. Fragmentary portions of some larger being I'm trying to figure out in my spare time. Also good news, we have averted the inversion of the flow of time in the local area. So claps out for me!+" The Autobot chief scientist said as you gave him an enthusiastic clap followed by Arne while everyone else just looked kind of stupefied by the sheer insanity unfurling in front of them.
"But uh, Battery, do you have a name?" You said, realising that you never really pried into her first name.
"Samantha." She said, undoing her pony tail and letting her brown hair fall down to her shoulder blades with the longest sigh of relief that you just instantly sympathised with. Letting your hair down after a prolonged day always felt like a rush.
"Hey! We can both be called Sammy!" You said with a wide grin, clapping as Arne nodded.
"Might get a little confusing." He said with a slight coy smirk on his face that made you roll your eyes before turning back to her.
"Well...I don't think I quite uh...got the favour of what you're suggesting I did...but well, from what I've seen you four's vote of confidence means a lot."
"Oh come on we're not like...big deals back home. I'm just another Mastermind." Alice said, shrugging her shoulders as Joseph nodded.
"Hey, I think you're cool still even if I'm still in training. Do you know how rare it is for people to get any response out of Well relics and Incarnate Shards?" He said, now having both you and Arne's full attention and curiosity.
"Given what the Well said to me, I'm guessing very?" She said.
"You'd be right. One in one hundred metas. You're a one percenter!" Joseph said as Samantha had a laugh.
"I wish I had a one percenter salary kid. Hah...well...god...that reminds me, do you two have any place to stay besides with the giant robots?" She said, scratching at her hair a bit.
"That goes for you two as well." She added.
"...Uhhh...we can crash in another dimension I guess?" Alice said before Battery shook her head and wagged her finger.
"Nuh-uh. You guys are staying with me. Ethan's pretty big on wanting kids so we've got some spare rooms. I'm...not sure I'm ready to commit to that but hey. Looks like we get some use out of it right? I'll just bring out the spare mattresses." She said as you looked at Arne and gave a wide grin.
"Sleepover?!" You said to him as he nodded.
"Yeah that, seems to be the case. Spring mattresses and old radiator heaters...like a museum piece." He said, thinking to his memories of what 21st century living accommodations were like.
"Well, look...I was a kid too so I'm not going to ask you to sleep in separate rooms just...don't wake the neighbours?" She said.
"Oh it's okay, Arne and I don't really sleep a lot...we'll be quiet. Promise!" You said with your hands clasped together. That was something of an understatement, you didn't have to sleep so you never really bothered unless there was nothing to do. Though given that you'd be away from your vessel's workbench you might end up being forced to take a nap to pass some time. Sitting around at night waiting for things to happen sounded dreadfully dull.
"Alright. Now...warning. I'm affiliated with a government law enforcement team and they're not super keen on unregistered vigilantes. I'm going to have to clear things with Piggot and the others. It's..." She said, pausing and procuring her phone and looking at the time and mouthing "what the fuck". "Okay it's still going to be pretty early in the morning when we arrive and most people are staying home. I know some places that try to stay open even when the weather's frightful though. And god willing, the Christmas songs have stopped playing by now." She said, resting her hand on her cheek and smiling as the two of you looked at each other and gave a nod while Alice and Joseph whispered to each other.
"And uh...red and black, please keep the dungeons and dragons monster manual menagerie out of sight when we're in civvies. People in the Bay would freak if they saw the legions of darkness and hellfire dancing on the steet." She said, clearing her throat as she gave them a pointed look and stared at Joseph's shadow folding his arms in disgusting and kicking at a roll of paper on the floor before detaching itself from him and going to a corner to sulk.
"Aww come on you hurt his feelings!" Joseph groaned as he stood up and tried to walk up to his shadow and pat it on the shoulder only for it to push him away in a display that made you snigger.
"...Okay do I need to apologise to the shadow?"
"I'm pretty sure they're just being melodramatic, their motions are incredibly exaggerated for attention," Arne said, taking a second to analyse their movements.
The shadow extended a middle finger towards Arne who flinched at the rude display. "W-wha? Come on! What did I do to warrant that?" He said, making a frown and a pout while Battery had a belly laugh and you and Alice started to crack up into laughter.
A knock at the door was heard shortly afterwards.
"Pardon me, would you people care to offer me some of your time?" Piggot said before your armour; in its zero-point state, sent you a message from Bumblebee.
Bumblebee: Hey, if you'd like to hang out by your ships, I've got something cool to show you guys!
Bumblebee: If Piggot is trying to get your attention, I can have someone occupy it for a bit, or I can wait if you'd like.
Bumblebee: Though I think your ships have something inside of them waiting for you...hrm.
Bumblebee: On the other hand, Kyrion's got some news for you they think needs to be said in person.
But Joseph raised a hand. "Hey, if you need some time to have a chat we could uh...hop on over to the shadow realm for a bit and talk about the incarnate...doohickeys. Just saying, we're gonna have to like...do it at some point but well...up to you really."
Actions:
All options destress a bit.
[]: Let Piggot in (Further briefing about Brockton Bay from the PRT. Start relation with PRT and Earth Bet American heroes.)
[]: Go off with Eudaimonica and Nightcaster (Continue forming friendship with Eudaimonic and Nightcaster, help familiarise yourself and the Worm characters with the incarnates and well of furies, prepare for relations with Primal Earth heroes.)
[]: Meet up with Bumblebee (Develop friendship with Bumblebee and autobots, deepen relation with the Autobot force and autobot party options, and check on your ships.)
[]: Discuss things with Kyrion (Greater leads on Chozo and Alimbic presence on dimensions such as Earth Bet and Primal Earth, establish greater connections with Section 13, introduce to new team mate option.)
[]: Write in
[X]: Let Piggot in (Further briefing about Brockton Bay from the PRT. Start relation with PRT and Earth Bet American heroes.)
Samus
You decided to quickly message Bumblebee back before he could take you for a flake of some sort.
hatchingSentinel: sorrryyyyyy Bumblebee but it'd be rude to just put off a briefing!
Bumblebee: Aww I understand Samus. When you've got the time though, come on and hang out!
Bumblebee: I've got some great stories to tell and something really cool to show.
Bumblebee: They still call things cool in your universe right?
novaKnight: In some Vernaculars, yes.
Bumblebee: Ah right, thanks for that Arne!
hatchingSentinel:
novaKnight:
hatchingSentinel: >
novaKnight:
hatchingSentinel: >
novaKnight: Oh no, Samus your eyebrows are escaping again!
hatchingSentinel: > they are out of control!
Bumblebee; Hahahahahah
Bumblebee: Catch you two as soon as possible!
Okay now that was out of the way...
"Come in!" You said, letting Piggot slide into the door as she turned the handlebar type doorhandle downwards and muttered something rather impolitic about Europeans and the shape of their doorknobs. She stepped in, trying her best to look unimpressed by what she saw, but the tension radiating from her told a rather different story of a woman who just had her world turned upside down. A little shake to her step, the serpent of disquiet coiling around her mind, a slightly sour note to her mental aura. All things your keen eyes quickly picked up on as she looked around briefly.
"Where are...oh...you look, markedly less inhuman than I expected." She said, getting a shrug out of you while Arne idly chewed on a nail until you gently moved his hand away. You remember being told rather frequently that it was not seen as a hygenic habit while you were at the Prodigonia facility's programs for helping you adjust to non-progenitor species company. Besides with the accelerated healing the two of you have, his nails would grow back before he knew it anyway.
"Use the nanofile." You told him, giving him a small smile as he nodded and produced one from his pocket, quickly rubbing it across his nails to let the nanites each into the keratin he produced.
"So I presume that you trust me enough to speak to me in civilian guise at least?" She said, her eyes trailing to Eudaimonica and Joseph as they had produced some manner of console to play on, roughly rectangle-shaped with a blue and red controller on each side as they played some kind of...fighting game you guessed. She was playing some kind of power armour clad space commando*, he was playing some sort of mustachio'd man and Sammi was about to say something before Piggot harrumphed.
"Children, if you could please pay attention?" She asked with a sigh as they sheepishly put their consoles away.
"Sorry...so are you with like...this world's FBSA?" Alice asked, putting her hands forward and clasping them together, having a small thumb war with herself.
"...Pardon?" She asked.
"Federal Bureau of Superpowered Affairs." She said as she once again produced her FBSA license card, getting a nod out of the woman as she pulled up a chair and rested in it, stroking her index finger along her chin as she propped it up with her thumb before finally formulating her response.
"Yes. The Parahuman Response Team, though I am lead to believe you prefer the term...Metahuman yes?" She said, a thumbs up coming from Joseph's shadow that made her tighten her lips before looking at you and Arne, tilting her head somewhat upwards in response to the rather substantial height difference between the two of you and her.
"You two though, are a bit of an enigma. What would be the preferred term for your...kind?" The way she said that made you rankle inside. It felt grotesque, and you soon flashed a less than pleased face to let her know that you weren't interested in being called that again. Arne though, just made a small frown and stopped the tapping of his fingers in a way that made Piggot tense. The intense red colouration of his eyes seemed to unsettle her, and you started to get the impression that she thought his countenance was...strange.
"Extra or Supranormals...or Ultrasophonts. It depends on where you are in the universe really but, Ultrasophonts is the term that well; our caretakers would prefer. So, if you have to use a term, I guess go with that? I don't know. Call us what you like?" Arne said, the slight tendency to ramble indicative to you that he was feeling somewhat uneasy. The less quiet he was, the more uncomfortable he was served as a pretty good rule of thumb for gauging his mood when he wasn't keen on being open with his psychic signature.
"If it's all the same to you, for now I'd like to stick with what I know." She said, pulling out her briefcase and laying out some of the files she had stored there. Paper, which made you and everyone else raise an eyebrow. You thought for a moment about the tree that died to make for the pulp that made these sheets and frowned. It seemed like a waste. These papers would only degrade with each reuse, this was the only time they could be used at this level of quality with the technology here. You frowned and sighed before Piggot gave you a look you had trouble reading until your empathic senses told you she was confused.
"She's just, not really happy about the paper usage." Arne spoke up, getting a grateful nod out of you while you played a bit with your ponytail and sighed.
"Still not quite a paperless society I'm afraid." She said. You took a moment to realise it was a joke and bit your tongue to stop yourself from letting out a comment in response while she also pulled out a laptop that gave you about the same impression that looking upon Dinosaur fossils did.
"How much data can you fit in that thing? Two terabytes? Could you really fit the...important details in that?" You said in disbelief. This planet's internet barely managed zetabyte levels of data usage. An infinitesimal amount. So small you could design and assemble a drive to fit literally all of it pretty trivially even with basic tools. She wouldn't be able to provide all the important data such as spectroscopic analysis, biological statistics, weather patterns, gravimetric anomalies, subatomic fluctuations...
"Brevity is the soul of report writing." She said as she looked to Sammi.
"Your husband has told me everything, so no need to fill me in on the details, suffice to say it's very troubling information."
"Uhh yeah, the Fifth Column on a timeline not ready for it? Yikes you guys are not in for a fun time." Joseph said, taking a look at some of the papers, focusing on a picture of a Red and black Ubermensch Obert shaking hands with Kaiser; who seemed almost comically short next to the Raserei Oberst.
"The Empire Eighty-Eight has grown exponentially bolder and more vicious over the years. Their numbers constantly swelling, their equipment more plentiful, exotic, and of higher quality. We've barely been able to keep up as they start to push out rival gangs and attack with greater violence and enthusiasm than ever before. We weren't able to determine where they got this surge in strength from, but it seems you all put the pieces together." She said, your eyes scanning over a pile of papers. She was right in that the sudden explosion in activity would be difficult to explain with traditional recruitment methods, at least, not with the degree of organisation they were showing before a sudden and massive rise in power a few years ago.
"And it's hardly the only problem we've been facing. While it's not supposed to be my business, I've been looking into the reports of the disappearances of many homeless people and the reports of monsters in underground and out of the way places." She said, her breath briefly pausing when she mentioned underground monsters. From your read of her available information, she had a rather bad experience with that sort of thing. You could commiserate, there were...certain things you didn't like talking about yourself.
"Eudaimonica your...demon spoke to me about the Rikti and how they make more. How they drug and mutate people into their own kind." She said, looking to the Tiara on the redhead's forehead where the Demon Lord was currently residing, staring into the gem as it glowed in affirmation.
"Wait...those things weren't...alien alien?" Battery said, doing a doubletake.
"No, no. Their genes are modified from a human baseline but spliced with something very extraterrestrial. But it's...what's the word in English...stagnant." You said, fishing around for the right term in the dictionary for what you meant before continuing while you scratched at your neck in thought. "In a way that suggests that the alien genes have simply been templated into humans for a very long time. I don't think there has been any...True Rikti for a long time." You said, not quite liking the idea of calling them "true" Rikti as if the ones you fought were somehow lesser for being hybridized, you didn't think of yourself as any less human or chozo for being both after all.
"Yeah that was supposed to be like, a Vanguard secret but capes are capes so they just kinda...blabbed when they started finding out you know?" Joseph said, understandable; why would anyone want to keep news like that a secret?
"That seems very important to let people know, so...I'm glad they let others know. Shame on the ones who wanted to keep that a secret!" You said, folding your arms and nodding.
"Right, but as I was getting to. They're not the only source of unusual sightings or disappearances. Odd religious groups have come up, we thought it was the usual sex cult activity; something not in my department. But a lot of the new recruits who come to them either have a strange bitemark, or had intercourse with someone with the bitemark; and despite the seemingly high incidence of pregnancy, these people never report to the hospitals nor are the expected number of children enrolled in school. Furthermore, every neighbourhood they crop in gets a higher incidence of monster sightings." She said, passing on the relevant files on her laptop for you and Arne to pore over. While it seemed like a sign of manner of lifecycle hijacking, you had never seen anything that exactly fit the description and shook your head.
"Some sort of infectious organism is my best guess? Something that relies on altering host sexual behaviour to spread. Definitely extraterrestrial, but I have no idea what it'd be." He said, taking a look at notes of other, differing cults also cropping up in the Bay and the notes on various observed doctrines or symbols. "But...most of these don't look like anything I've seen. I'd need to get a closer look to tell you more." He said, running his hands through his hair and sighing.
"Hrm, unfortunate, the autobots told me much the same." She said with a somewhat disappointed sigh.
"We've also been experiencing a major upswing in trigger events, but many of these people then disappear shortly afterwards. Many seemingly designed to specifically encourage tinkers; parahumans with abilities to produce advanced technology. It's given my department something of a problem. The parahuman population is growing very rapidly, while mental health institutions are being swarmed with the traumatised and frightened." She said before Alice raised her hand.
"Trigger events?" She asked.
"Powers in this world only come from people who've experienced some manner of intense trauma. Which seems to activate something inside of them." She said before you couldn't help but blurt out.
"The extradimensional symbionts that bond with intelligent beings on this planet look for hosts who've had significant emotional disturbance!" You said, beaming brightly as if you had done something to be proud of only to slink back when you realised Piggot was staring at you with a thoroughly unimpressed expression. Did you make some sort of mistake? Arne a least, didn't think so as he patted you on the back while Sammi just gave a nod.
"So, what do you want us to do about it?" Arne asked, getting a nuzzle out of you before you gave each other some space.
"We are overloaded as is...and with these statues of the cultures that raised you waking up we can hardly take any additional strain as these things become prizes for otherworldly invaders on top of all of our own native issues. But you're...new to things here, so I'd like you to have some time to integrate and observe. Learn how the system works. I would very much like to...avoid the sort of damage Munich University suffered." She said, getting an extended sigh out of you. Regulations and restrictions, much of which weren't even all that useful for keeping people safe from authority. The Galactic Federation's regulatory system for Freelancers and Supramilitias was already enough of a chore to go through.
"I guess I understand. But are you trying to recruit us again?" Arne asked, getting straight to the point. "The answer's still going to be no. I...we can't...shouldn't tie ourselves to any one government. Not right now anyway. Especially when you do a lot I'd find really hard to feel okay with being part of." He said quite bluntly.
"I'll let you have time to think about it given the circumstances of your arrival. Please do consider though, being stateless for the duration of your stay will make much of your life complicated." She said.
"We can manage." You said for him, glowering a bit at her for trying to insist on a topic he clearly wasn't interested in pushing any farther.
"What is your plan for finances? We don't live in a post-scarcity or post-labor society and none of you here have any presence in the administration. No schooling records, no listed job experiences, not even so much as a social security or a passport number. You can't exactly depend entirely on Samantha and Ethan for all your daily needs in America." Piggot said, steepling her fingers as if she had made an ironclad point.
"And before you get ideas about using your technopathy to simply write yourselves into the system; that's not something that I'd be allowed to simply let happen. Perhaps you can fight off every cape that could be dispatched to deal with you, but you'd be making enemies without reason and cutting yourself off from assistance." She said, briefly making you wonder if she too was precognitive before realising that was silly, your visor would have caught that before hand. She was simply good at guessing how someone might use their powers to skirt around her bureaucracy.
Spirits you hated these suited tools of invisible systems of levers and gears.
"Now, we don't have to tie you to the American government per se. There is something we could do with the U.N; arrangements to be made with the security council. Especially given the circumstances we are facing. I'll be...blunt. With the state of the world we are not ready for an alien invasion. Let alone multiple ones. Especially not against those who have likely already infiltrated our society. Much of our defence is oriented to either skirmishing with each other, taking on rogue parahumans, or repelling the Endbringers. A massive assault by technologically superior foes would be..."
"A massacre. Your P.R.T officers are highly equipped by your standards and the Rikti slaughtered them. And you've been talking to the Autobots, haven't you?" Arne said, a bit bluntly, lacking in tact; still trying to find the balance between coming in with the subtlety of a sledgehammer or shying away with the stiffness of a wilting flower depending on his mood and demeanour towards the person. On the other hand, you weren't exactly too much better with the people who created the Iron Cage of rules and regulations yourself, it rankled against your free spirit and fondness of liberating chaos.
"Yes..." She said, Battery looking towards her.
"Ma'am, I've seen how just a few of the Autobots fight. If the Decepticon Army is like that; most capes would get pasted fighting their basic troops. And, we don't really know how to find which ones of them are in disguise." Battery said flatly, getting a nod out of Emily.
"Yeah, uh. Back home, most people below security level forty would be dead weight." Nightcaster said sheepishly.
"What is the highest security level?" Piggot asked.
"Seventy five. Used to be fifty. But with more incarnates and incarnate level threats they kinda just, expanded the range." Alice said.
"And speaking of the two of you, what are your plans for managing your way around our incarnation of Earth?" Piggot said.
"Uhhh...we were just gonna wait for our team to pick us up once Portal Corps zeroes in on our location." Joseph responded.
"They're just going to...drop in without warning?" You said, already seeing an obvious flaw in that plan as Joseph tugged a bit of his collar.
"It's kinda Portal Corps standard protocol?" He said as Piggot placed a palm over her face and muttered something about the anarchy of other dimensions.
"And how long will that take?" She asked.
"I have absolutely no idea!" Alice said, offering two thumbs up and a cheery grin as if this was all a joke to her.
"And who is going to pick you up?" Piggot asked.
"Uh...probably other Starsetters. Steel Paladin, Lybraa, Rundrasta, Mistral Slash, Boltdancer, Blastjack, Mechamaven, and Dawnmaker." Joseph said, trying to recall the names of the people who said they'd be on their way to pick him up before he got out his phone and typed in something, before nodding and giving a thumbs up. So at least he could remember something like that correctly.
"And these are all humans from your reality?" Sammi asked.
"Oh what? No way. Steel Paladin's some kind of Fairy from another multiverse and well, overall really spiffy looking twink. Rundrasta's some kind of...frost angel or something, really pretty though. Lybraa's a psychic elf from another reality and Dawnmaker's a Peacebringer so he's Kheldian...Elfy...mixy...thingy. The other part of him came from like, another reality too. Slash and Bolt are human though." Joseph said.
"And how long would you expect it to take for them to find you?"
"I dunno, they're usually pretty competent. I'm surprised they haven't found us already." Alice said before Piggot got a phone call, prompting her attentions to shift towards her pocket as she fished out her primitive rectangular pocket computer and pressed in the security pin to allow her to access the call, which you briefly saw was coming from someone by the name of...Vista you think? Probably a codename.
"Yes, Vista, I'm in the middle of important business with our extraterrestrial guests." You decided to listen in on Vista's end of the conversation, focusing in on her words, however muffled they were by Piggot's cheek in the way.
"+Uh, ma'am we've got a situation. And I know you said not to call you unless it was an emergency but...+"
"I'm going to assume this is an emergency then."
"+Okay so eight parahumans I have never seen in my entire life just popped out of a portal asking for where two of their friends were and most of the adults are out somewhere else so we handled talking to them. But uh, this guy on the street pulled out some kind of rocket launcher, shot the Knight and then got blasted into bits so Aegis thought they just murdered him even when I told him that person felt like a robot and now there's a fight in the street and...+" A crashing sound was heard followed by the wail of a car alarm.
"+Yeah we kind of gave the...superhero standard hello?+" She said in a tiny, embarrassed voice.
"...Is there some sort of secret handshake among your subculture that involves thrown cars?" You asked, utterly baffled by this strange slang.
"Oh it means a fight broke out. It's kind of how superheroes who've never met each other say hi." Joseph said as if this was no biggy.
"+...I'm okay.+" A fainter voice in the background said before wheezing.
"+...Kid Win could you not try to tank the big robot's fist with your face?+" She said.
"+YOU ARE ATTACKING DULY SWORN METAHUMAN VOLUNTEER HEROES OF PRIMAL EARTH, THIS VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW CODE SECTION ALPHA 34 DASH SIX B HAS BEEN REGISTERED, SUPPRESSIVE FORCE AUTHORISED! SUBMIT TO ARREST TO AVOID FURTHER NONLETHAL CONFLICT.+" Another, louder, metallic voice boomed.
"+...Hooooh shit it's got missiles, oh my god it's got so many missiles. Should I just pull it apart? The girl who made it seems really...proud of it. Also kind of a jerk because I'm 99% sure she just gave the new guy a wedgie.+"
"+PREPARE FOR A PARAGON CITY WELCOME NEEEEEEEEEEERDS!+" A loud, feminine voice shouted before breaking into maniacal laughter right up until she started coughing loudly. "+...Ugh, throat dry, need water.+"
"Hey that sounds like Mechamaven! Oh man she's teleporting in her heavy assault bots?" Joseph said, again putting you slightly off with how he seemed to take this...completely unseriously.
"Is anyone seriously hurt?" Piggot said after some stunned silence before electricity crackled on the other side of the phone.
"+Uh no we're mostly just...fighting to try and restrain each other. They're just trying to cuff us. And we're just trying to foam them. Newbie's wedgie is uh...atomic though. Ouch. Knight guy's fine though, the rocket launcher didn't even dent that armour and the robot doppelganger thing was halfway through ranting about some guy named Megamawhatsit before it got zapped.+" Vista said.
"+VISTA GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE! WE'VE ALMOST GOT ONE OF THEM!+" That voice sounded male. And rather desperate.
Actions (Specify whether Samus or Arne do it, though both can do the same action to support each other.)
[]: Try to get a more in depth sitrep and then teleport in via autobot ground bridge, this will take more time though.
[]: Use the autobot ground bridge to teleport everyone into the Arkhangelsk base to break up the fight
[]: Just teleport in and get everyone to knock it off
[]: Use the ground bridge and restrain everyone.
[]: Try contacting the two teams and talk things out
[]: Have a third party sort them out
[]: Write in
* To get all the "hey you're a fictional character!" stuff out of the way, any setting that will be used in this crossover has never appeared as a fictional franchise in any of the Earths that will show up. So any setting mentioned as a fictional franchise by Bet or Primal Earthers (or others) can be assumed to not be showing up in the crossover. Thus Metroid was never a game series in either Primal Earth or Earth Bet, thus Nintendo's first female scifi protagonist is Aelita Efimna Sokolova of the series Cosmodon; made by a joint Pajitnov & Pokhilko Electronic Bureau-Nintendo project.
Last edited:
Showdown at the Bay & Starsetters Team Omicrom (Takes place in Arc 1: Intermission 1.4)
The Starsetters are one of the newer Metahuman teams of Paragon City, founded in the summer of 2019 by the Peacebringer Helian Justice and the Warshade Gloomy Retribution as well as a brother and sister pair of emigres from the Psykor Dimension known by their titles of the Xaeon and the Iybraa; or War-Seeker and Knowledge Quester in their native languages. The Psychic Elf-Like Aliens, only fourteen at the time, confided with the merged heroes that a team where they could go on patrol together with their fellow youth heroes and where non-humans would be especially accomodated would be the ideal placement for them, and with the official permission of the Mayor of Paragon, got permission to set up a portal to their team headquarters in Khalisti Wharf.
The Starsetters are primarily but not exclusively focused on young heroes as well as heroes who have moved in from other dimensions, universes, planets, or are in some way distant from humanity such as mutants, Coralax, Peacebringers, robots, cyborgs, and a number of other such species. The Starsetters have also always sought to maintain a welcoming, inclusive environment that any member regardless of origin can feel welcome in, and has focused itself on not simply crime-fighting; but crime prevention through social and community service. The Starsetters also allow for adults or humans to continue to join their ranks, but these members are expected to keep in mind that the team is meant to be a welcoming place for our nonhuman heroes and for younger heroes to find their place.
The Starsetters have to their name a large number of high security level heroes from around the world as well as a significant number of incarnates, not the least of which are its founding members. This gives the Starsetters a tremendous deal of firepower for a relatively new organisation, and its support from a number of prominent non-humans in the hero community has also allowed it to expand at a significantly greater than normal rate. Already, the Starsetters are considered one of the best places for newcomers to the Primal Earth dimension or to the planet of Primal Earth itself to go through at least for a period of time to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings.
...
Starsetter Team Omicron is primarily lead by Tyrius Veldegard, the famed Steel (or Solar) Paladin and a recent emigre to the Primal Universe from a distant "Worlds Aflame" Metaverse as well as his primary paramour, the Frost Angel Raelamiel Thelimir, better known as Rundrasta. The two incarnates form a potent power couple with him focusing on taking the hits while she dishes out the damage. Included in their typical roster is Dawnmaker, a Yurye-Kheldian merged Peacebringer whose combination of Yurye psionics and Vondun living metal symbiote armour and Kheldian energy prowess and physical might has made him a nationwide teen senstation; Mechamaven, a young up and coming mastermind with a tremendous skill with robotics from the African-American mutant community; Blastjack, a Soviet foreign exchange student loaned out to the Starsetters following his contact and bonding with an extraterrestrial power source as part of Soviet-American goodwill measures channelled through a Craftertech Rifle and power suit designed by Vector Shift and modified by maven for his use; Iybraa herself with her Vondun living metal power armour symbiont and her tremendous psionic powers; Boltdancer, an Electric Controller who's recently risen from the African-American mutant community of King's Row to join the Starsetters to get his foot in the door; and finally the sensational Mistral Slash who's come all the way from Japan with her mutant superspeed, camouflage, physiology, and her ability to channel energy through objects such as her sword.
Starsetter Profiles
Tyrius Veldegard, aka Steel Paladin
Age: 15
Hair Colour: Red
Eye Colour: Green
Species: Fairy-Nymph hybrid
Place of Birth: Lelndilmyr, Eldrakar, Xarazanth, Nightfire Universe
Powers: Massively enhanced physiology, fae magics and physiology, Paladin magics, omega level pyrokine, Goddess Granted Sword, Spear, Armour, and Shield, Solar Incarnate, Nymphic Beauty.
Skills: Skilled and charismatic leader, masterful melee combatant, experienced with multiple forms of magic, excellent model builder, very charming and personable, best diplomat on the team, only person on team to have the patience to finish a game of monopoly.
Origin: Supernatural
Archetype: Tanker
Security Level: 75
Raelamiel Thelimir aka Rundrasta
Age: 15
Hair Colour: White
Eye Colour: Blue
Species: Kfohrim (Frost Angel)
Place of Birth: Vhoxon, Heavenly Choir, Throne, Choraleum Dimension
Powers: Angelic Physiology and Magics, masterful melee combatant, omega level cryokine, flight, Frost Incarnate, "Lucky Shots", Heavenforged Power Armour and twin Frost-swords, Angelic beauty.
Skills: Expert socialite and party organizer, masterful knowledge of heavenly politics and event organisation, Innate knowledge of warfare and combat, Paragon City youth beatboxing champion, Supreme Dream Teen Meme Queen (Self Proclaimed).
Origin: Supernatural
Archetype: Scrapper
Security Level: 75
Arkoril Ypshalon, Bringer of Glorious Redemption, aka Dawnmaker
Age: 17 (Yurye Host), 151,389,670 (Kheldian Symbiont), 1 (Combined identity)
Hair Colour: Gold
Eye Colour: Orange
Species: Yurye, Kheldian
Place of Birth: Itaxon, Federation of Hashara, Higras, Psykor Dimension
Powers: Yurye Physiology, Kheldian Peacebringer abilities, Vondun Living Metal Symbiont Power Armour, Incarnate
Skills: Through the Bringer of Glorious Redemption, Dawnmaker has the accumulated experience of a hundred and fifty million years of existence and a million lifetimes. Speaks fluent Pirate.
Origin: Extraterrestrial
Archetype: Peacebringer
Security Level: 75
Darla Brown aka Mechamaven
Age: 14
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Species: Human (Mutant)
Place of Birth: Paragon City, United States, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Innate understanding of non-magical technology allowing her to quickly decipher and then understand what she needs to reproduce something like it with the materials available, Built her own power suit and energy weapons, and an army of robots and the facilities to rapidly manufacture more to be teleported in to her location no matter where she is, time manipulation devices, Incarnate.
Skills: Mastery of robotics, engineering, particle physics, and a number of other STEM fields, impeccable real-time strategy gamer, mediocre Super Smash brothers player.
Origin: Technology
Archetype: Mastermind
Security Level: 75
Ivan Valeryvich Kalashnikov
Age: 15
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Blue
Species: Human
Place of Birth: Mikhailgrad, Soviet Union, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Bonding with Extraterrestrial power source has turned him into a living dynamo of constant energy production that can be used to charge all manner of exotic technology or simply used in a more raw form, primarily uses it to power an advanced power suit and beam weapon designed for him by Vector Shift and Mechamaven, practices esoteric martial arts that grant supernatural prowess as well, super-reflexes and regeneration, overall augmented physiology, Incarnate.
Skills: Best chess player in the entire starsetters team, excellent marksman and melee combatant, extremely multilingual, exceedingly good at coding, second strongest meme game after Rundrasta, extraterrestrial power source has granted him with some extraterrestrial knowledge.
Origin: Science
Archetype: Blaster
Security Level: 75
Elerya Ophilix aka Iybraa
Age: 15
Hair Colour: Blonde
Eye Colour: Orchid
Species: Yurye
Place of Birth: Irkana, Federation of Hashara, Higras, Psykor Dimension
Powers: Yurye Physiology and Psionics, Vondun Living Metal Symbiotic Power Armour, Psychic Incarnate, Herald of the Yurye Prime, virtually impossible to knock down or lock down
Skills: Skilled manipulator, master of Telepathy, Psychodynamics, and Telekinesis, Capable markswoman and melee combatant, Paragon City dance dance revolution champion to beat for two years in a row, Psychology expert, can download memories and skills as she desires
Origin: Extraterrestrial
Archetype: Dominator
Security Level: 75
Marcus Wilson aka Boltdancer
Age: 14
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Species: Human (Mutant)
Place of Birth, Paragon City, United States, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Electricity Control, Electric Speed, Electric generation and augmentation, can draw out electric power from the ambient area or call it from an extradimensional source, able to protect body with electricity, magnetic control
Skills: Innate understanding of electromagnetism, expert at using electronic telecommunications, high skilled healer and motivator
Origin: Mutant
Archetype: Controller
Security Level: 75
Mitsuki Aiko aka Mistral Slash
Age: 16
Hair Colour: Auburn
Eye Colour: Hazel
Species: Human (Mutant)
Place of Birth: Nagakonai, Japan, Earth, Primal Universe
Powers: Can channel energy through body and objects, enhanced physiology, can turn imperceptible across a wide spectrum of detection methods, Incarnate
Skills: Excellent at twister, undefeated Starsetter Champion at hide and seek, Master of multiple martial arts, Excellent at fighting games, great at drawing, skilled markswoman and trapsetter
Origin: Mutant
Archetype: Stalker
Security Level: 75
Brockton Bay, 13th of January, 08:31 AM
The eight of them had managed to subdue some large...green man who spoke like a stereotypical idiot, using "me" instead of I, and never using words with more than a handful of syllables. Like many other of these self-identified "trolls", they were freakishly strong, regenerated blindingly fast, took hits like champions, but didn't seem to be overly fond of fire. This one, in particular, didn't bother with guns or melee weapons, simply grabbing a lamp post and trying to use it like a baseball bat. Clobbered several PRT officers senseless and didn't seem to be affected by any of the known parahuman power neutralisers. Which lead Vista to conclude it must have been those "Metahumans" that she'd been briefed about.
She also got a brief memo on some magic threads and shards and doohickeys, like the stuff she went to bed with last night, but when she woke up they were gone and the main thing she remembered was this strange dream of something feminine talking to her.
Emphasis on brief, something about another set of realities...at least three others...giant robots, nazis, and two teens who fell from space in alien power suits and got up just fine. Why does all the weird shit have to happen in the bay, she wondered? Couldn't this be New York's problem for once.
"Did you get the Hot Chocolate Vista? This weather is going to be the death of me." Clockblocker said, interrupting Vista's thoughts, rubbing at his arms and shivering in the subzero temperatures before Vista offered him a piping hot mug full of cocoa with the exact brand of marshmallows he preferred, getting a nod of thanks out of the redhead while he ducked out to remove enough of his mask to have a sip. Vista herself sipped from the other mug, glad for the winterised version of her costume allowing her to preserve at least some heat while she rubbed at her gloves.
"See, this girl always brings the best chocolate. Come on, what's your secret?" One of the newer wards; brought on in the sudden explosion of trigger events; said to her. Vista took a look at her; her costume mostly meant for warmth as her regeneration and toughened tissue made her not overly concerned about the hits she took to get close enough to make use of the metal covered claws she could project from her skeleton or the detachable metallic bone shards she could push out of her shoulders in a rather unnerving display. Feralborn's powers were often kind of messy but her stubborn refusal to stay down made her a natural compliment to Aegis; especially after his second trigger; even if she wasn't quite as strong and lacked his flight. In any case, it was best to let Starla Smith take the hits in her stead when possible.
"She just gets them from Diego's Chocolates." Clockblocker said with a laugh. "Best place in town, really sweet Spanish couple owns it and man the Churros are to die for." He said, rubbing his belly wistfully.
"...Don't literally die for Churros, please." Vista added. "But yeah, it's just a place I can get to easily. The owners are sweet too." Vista added.
"Wasn't planning on it...but uh...you got any for me? Kind of hungry here." She said, crouching a bit as her camouflage patterned costume ruffled with her movements, steam curling out of the scarf she wore over her mouth and morning light bouncing off of her goggles, the hood she wore darkening her covered face a bit further as she idly flicked one of her claws against the snow, driving some of it out of the way.
"Are you ever not hungry?" Shielder said, folding his arms with a coy smirk on his face even with the cherry red tint to his probably thoroughly cold nose. While not officially a ward, the New Wave had offered their help in the operation, and while arrogant and kind of flirty at the wrong times, Eric's shield powers had come in handy countless times.
"You know she needs to eat more to keep that power of hers going." Laserdream cut in, his older sister hovering overhead as she kept an eye out for any further trouble, blonde hair trailing behind her in the sky before she shrugged and set herself down to keep out of the frostbitten winds, pink and white outfit feeling just a bit too skimpy for this sort of weather.
"You're just jealous because I never have to watch what I eat." Starla said with a smug grin beneath her camo mask that got an eyeroll out of shielder.
"Tease all you want, I know you dig me." He said with a finger pistol that got a bit of a stammer from Starla before she turned away and harrumphed.
"Keep flirting on the job and you might get laid sometime this century." Cerebro was another new recruit, another Brockton Native and one of the last Jewish people in Brockton Bay after the Empire-88 started carrying out pogroms. It made him rather bitter and cynical and Vista always figured him for someone who'd likely ditch the Protectorate and the Wards if they ever got in the way of his hoped for vengeance. His helm had, entirely cosmetic, wires and tubes emerging from it and going into his neck, his gas mask making a prolonged hiss as he sucked in filtrated air.
"Got something up your sleeve point dexter?" Clockblocker said, offering him a snack bar only to be rebuffed.
"Nah I'm not hungry...but I've just been trying to piece together the patterns of these trolls. They don't move around like they know the city so they can't be local. Get me some mementoes and I'll have it deduced I'm sure." Cerebro was amazing at deduction through long distance observation, but where he really shined was when he had some physical evidence to look at. A living forensic lab and a master of taking data he observed and compiling answers, strategies, or well crafted theories. It also made him amazingly good at beating people down once he had them figured out, especially with his enhanced physiology and the gear he tended to carry with him.
The downside is that he couldn't predict the future, just give an educated guess at it, and what he made were deductions, not scans. If he couldn't physically sense something or if he wasn't aware of it his power just didn't work on it. Not like Tattletale who always seemed to know things she couldn't possibly have ever been around to find out. Still, Jerry Einstein was fun to have around as long as it wasn't time to watch mystery shows together. On the other hand, she'd never seen someone go through so much
"This week is officially the worst." Kid Win said with a sigh as he deployed his suit's rebreather to avoid having to expose his lips to spit freezing cold.
"I get told that there's aliens in the Sewers but here I am dealing with a bunch of...dumb jock druggies. Come on, I just want to look at one plasma blaster." Kid Win sighed before receiving a pat on the shoulder from Lady Silver. Lady Silver was hardly the first cape with a knight theme, but Mary Goldberg certainly put some of the most effort into trying to rock it. If summoning energy-charged full plate with a mighty energy enhanced two-handed sword or lance wasn't enough, her ability to seemingly project an armoured Alicorn into being made her supremely versatile. In her armoured form she was one of the tallest members of the ward, her gleaming silver, platinum, and gold coloured full plate with a feathered crest almost making her look ostentatious.
Of course, almost ceased to apply when she found a cape lying around that she insisted she had to wear that since became part of her costume, having demonstrated significantly increased abilities; including an odd tendency for attacks to redirect away from her; ever since putting it on. When the PRT briefed her on what...Nightcaster and Eudaimonica told them was magic Vista thought of Goldberg, how she seemed to break a number of rules. She claimed to have never triggered, these were abilities she just had after finding a suit of armour. For the longest time Vista just thought it was...a lie but now...hrm.
"Cheer up Kid Win. There will be more foes to best in the coming days! Surely in the near future we shall be blessed with a chance to take the battle to these Rikti?" She said, getting a nod from Kid Win.
"You know you don't have to do the LARP dialogue when we're not in public right?" Kid Win said.
"...It's fun though." She responded, folding her arms.
"At least these guys are dumber than rocks." Vista said, humming as the PRT arrived to collect them, one of the officers saluting the group as they passed by.
"Same chemicals in this guy's system as far as we can tell from a quick look. So this seems to be the result of some kind of drug." The detective said as he took a look, going for the most stereotypical trench coat, fedorah, and pipe look he could have possibly managed; seeming to have tumbled out of some noir crime drama film from the prohibition era with an accent to match.
"...What kind of drugs gives you superpowers, makes you green and turns you into a moron?" Aegis asked as his team started trickling in, rubbing his neck after having taken a pretty hard knock to the head earlier that made him glad that he was pretty hard to keep dead.
"I have no idea. Can't be any of the local gangs because these guys have been turf warring with all of them besides some of the weird newbies and the Mafiosos. My guess, shake the local Italian crime family. Probably got their fingers on it." He said as he lit his pipe up and took a drag from it.
"What makes you say that?"
"Vial the drug comes in says "Luccini pharmaceuticals", that's an Italian name." He said as he fished out evidence and put it into a bag. He took a moment to regard the brow horns the drug addict had been developing as well as the sharp, boar like tusks that had been emerging from their lower jaw.
"Christ, who'd get people hooked on this shit?" He said with a sigh.
A few more were dropped onto the pile, freshly knocked out by the white and gold clothed Glory Girl as she descended from the air, holding herself in a "Ta-dah!" pose and offering that same old cheer leader smile that let Vista believe things were going to be alright. She dusted off her hands while Gallant footslogged behind her, huffing a bit and then extending out a hand to ask for everyone to wait.
"Hh-Kid...can you...make me a jetpack? Please...ahhh.." He said as he pushed himself up, getting a pat on the head from Victoria.
"Uh sure, when I've got time." Kid Win said with a shrug as the Detective took another drag from his pipe and puffed a ring of smoke from it, making Glory Girl scrunch up her face in response and mutter something about pipe huffing cancersticks like it made them look cool.
"I think that should be all of them. This one called himself Grog the Tog...could you believe that? Good thing he was about as smart as he sounds because this guy packed a punch. God, you should have seen him make boxing gloves out of cars and knocking himself out by headbutting into a cooling tower wall." She said as she gestured to the largest of the trolls, a near ten foot behemoth of a man with muscles thicker than Vista's entire body.
"...A drug did this?" Aegis said, clearly baffled.
"All evidence points that way." The detective answered.
"That kind of superpowered dope on the streets..." Fleur said*, rubbing her chin.
"Is already raising merry hell." The detective finished.
"With steroids like that the guy's balls are probably the size of M&Ms." Clockblocker joked, getting an "eyyyyy" out of Kid Win as they briefly exchanged a high five while Vista sniggered and Aegis and Shadow Stalker just let out long groans.
"Classy." Was all Glory Girl said in response, clearly unimpressed given the strength of her eye-roll.
"So uh...is that everyone? Been runnin' all over hell's half acre tryin' ta catch all these green fellas in this here weather like the heart of a banker on foreclosure day and I swear by baby-jesus if I ain't glad ta be through with 'em." One of the new wards, Greased Lightning said, the kid's voice giving him away as the child of two migrants, one from Texas, one from Arkansas. Vista found it charming even if she could hear people snickering behind Hank's back whenever they thought he wasn't in earshot. That is, when people weren't suggesting she get to know him better since they were about the same age.
Hank Henryson wore a red white and blue outfit that occupied the in between space of a race car driver and a mechanic with some added ballistic protection that didn't really seem to fit with his Greased Lightning name, but she figured all the patriotic speedster themed names were currently taken. On the one hand, he wasn't quite as fast as velocity, on the other hand he didn't have velocity's limitation on impacts that made Velocity more annoying than threatening in melee and he was actually really quite durable. Still, Aegis wasn't keen on the thirteen-year-old southern fried white boy taking hits to the face he didn't have to, and mostly had him on support.
"Greased, this isn't Texas. Remember your speech coach training. We're not here for the Foghorn Leghorn rehearsal" Aegis said.
"Boy I say if ya'll keep bringin' up that gosh darn chicken I swear on Mary mother of Jesus I'll have myself a dying duck fit." He stamped his foot and seethed mostly to himself, folding his arms. Vista was...still uncertain on some of his...Southernisms but she was pretty sure he just said he'd be really mad if they kept teasing him about his accent.
"Come on, be nice to him." Clockblocker said with a bit of sympathy as one of the other newbies, Quetzal, moved in on one of her serpents; dismounting and dusting her shoulders off from the snow that had accumulated onto it as the feathered Serpent coiled around her to provide warmth. Despite the name though, she wasn't Mexican, instead hailing from Bali in Indonesia. Ni Wayan Suardika Dewi; though to her eternal annoyance many just called her "Niway"; namely the same people who pushed her into taking a name from an entirely mythology than her own Hindu faith. She had wanted to go with Naga, but PR told her such was too obvious.
Her costume melded serpentine and avian influences, scalework armour, showy and probably well insulated water proofed feathers, a cloak that could help to keep out the sun on hot days, and more rigid bits here and there where flexibility wasn't necessary but protection was. She wore ski goggles at the moment to keep the glare of the snow out of her eyes, and wore a flight mask to help provide her with oxygen whenever riding on one of her projected serpents high enough to need extra oxygen to breathe.
With the frequency of her retreat to high altitudes, she nearly always dressed for cold weather regardless of the temperature on the surface, and Vista had become quite accustomed to the word "Dingin"; or "Cold". Vista couldn't really blame her, she was a native of a warm, tropical beach resort island whose value only increased when the Endbringers struck at a number of other popular tourist destinations. East coast winters must be like the ninth circle of hell for her.
"So what have your snakes found?" Shadowstalker said, clearly hoping that somehow the weather would improve from abominable to tolerable simply through sheer willpower as she stubbornly glared at the snow, trying to wish it away beneath her breath.
"That seems to be the whole bunch. But the funny thing is that a lot of these people sound like they're from Rhode Island." She said as the winged snake let out a gout of steam from its mouth while she patted at the projection, letting it flick its tongue into the air and taste it.
"Yeah, street people I talked to didn't recognise any of them." Vista said, taking another sip from her hot chocolate and chewing slightly on a marshmallow. Sweet, fluffy, just chewy enough the way she liked it. Paradise.
"Man like they could recognise their own mothers." Stormchild, who had just descended from the sky herself, had genuinely moved in from Mexico unlike Quetzal. Vista remembered when she was a he, before she came out and asked Panacea to help her out in exchange for a favour she wasn't privy to. Still, having some actual ranged firepower was massively helpful. Lola Rodriguez's costume was based more on the wear of fighter pilots, an armoured g-suit, bomber jacket, flight helmet and mask. Handy when one is up in the clouds.
Truth be told, Vista was one of the few people who wasn't in awe of her power, if only because she could easily neutralise it. Everything she did was just down to aerokinetics, even the lightning that often put the fear of god into people in her way was just being really good at rubbing together enough dust and ice in a certain path to create the static discharge. A clever trick to be sure though.
She was glad for the extra support though. She supposed it was one benefit to the rapid increase in the number of triggers going on these days. Lots more people to help out. They now had enough for multiple squads for the Bay these days. It of course made her miss when the unit was a bit tighter knit but on the other hand, patrolling in fire teams of five to eight split from squads of ten to sixteen was much safer than doing so in pairs. Even when they needed to split down into smaller units, it was nice to know she had more company.
"These guys are so dumb I don't think they recognised what street they were on. Kept on babbling about Skyway City or something. Absolutely out of their minds."
"Doesn't sound like any place I've ever heard of...either it's some suburb I don't know about or some kind of store...or maybe it's from that other universe." Vista said, parsing through the plausible sounding theories in short order before getting a shrug out of Stormchild.
"Yeah, I guess. What matters though, is that these clowns are face first in the ground."
"As a professional clown I take offense to this." Clockblocker said with a wide grin beneath his mask.
"Yeah, where's your license gingerboy?" She scoffed. The teasing kept on going for a bit while the comms filled up with the usual childish joking around, but Vista tuned it all out in short order. She felt something in the air. Her eyes widened and the fabric of space that she was so attuned to had an unpleasant tingle to it. Something pushing itself through across an impossible distance. Her breath drew short and her eyes grew wide as she pushed Clockblocker out of the way of a swirling maelstrom of white tearing itself into the air.
The air split apart in a rapidly widening electric circle with a lightning orb at its centre, humming and electric crackling mingling to produce an unearthly howling noise before eight shapes began to push through well...not quite eight, but eight she recognised as at least likely to be living breathing...humans? A knight with butterfly wings and black, red and gold armour, a boy in a blue and yellow trench coat, someone in blue and yellow power armour, a girl in pink and white with wings of crackling energy, an angelic figure in gleaming and cold blue-white armour, someone in gaudy yellow-green armour riding upon the shoulders of a large robot at the helm of a formation of large robots, a cloaked figure in white and red with a sword in hand, and someone in red, orange, and gold living metal armour glowing like sun, a roman style helm concealing their head save for glowing eyes and a billowing cape flowing behind them.
"Heads up team, Portal Corps says that this is the city closest to where Eudaimonica and Nightcaster dropped off to." Steel Paladin said, rising higher into the air with his wings seemingly hextupling in size as he stretched them out to their proper length; a glowing and sacred halo surrounding him while his wings grew to the proportions of a proper butterfly relative to his rather tall frame, drawing attention away from his gleaming kite shield or the rune encrusted red sword that lay in his other hand.
"...Oh my god he sparkles." Vista said as her eyes widened at the sight of the Butterfly knight's fully spread wings, each twice as long as he was tall at their full span, sugary dust billowing out with every wing flap until they wreathed themselves in crimson and golden metal with blackened eye spots; glowing with a solar light that made all the gathered PRT officers and Wards flinch away, raising anything that might shield them from the brilliant light like the unwelcome but comforting glare of the morning sun. It was...beautiful. Not awe inspiring, not terrifying, not intimidating...just...beautiful.
She felt the urge to just, say hello...to get to know him, transfixed by the beauty of the Butterfly Knight's wings. But she realised that this was some sort of compulsion, some sort of trick on her brain. A command to be at peace and to welcome the presence of the emissary of the Morning...was this magic? Or just some sort of really weird power? She heard that magic was a real thing apparently...but seeing it before her was another thing. Not even Glory Girl's presence felt so overbearing on her psyche...but she put two and two together. The wings, the sparkles, the presence of demons earlier, that strange presence and unplaceably celtic accent.
"He's a fairy..." She said with a dumb smile on her face. She had so many games of pretend as a child that played out like this. Swept off her feet by a prince among fairies, handsome and charming. She recalled collecting books about fairies, trying to get them to come to toadstools or mushroom circles and staying late at night in the hopes of seeing magic. And here it was, resplendant as the sun after the long night.
"Don't be afraid. I am the Steel Paladin, Emissary of Our Lady of the Unconquered Sun, Leader of Team Omicron of the Starsetters. We mean you no harm." He said gently, his voice supernaturally compelling. She wanted to believe him, she wanted to trust hi...this was more magic. His voice was supernaturally compelling. You couldn't help but feel like everything would be alright if you just listened to it; and every flap of his wings seemed to intensify the effect as the blizzard stilled around him, glittering sugary dust billowing from his wings and filling her mouth with an indescribably sweet taste.
Then he pulled off his helmet and her jaw just kind of...dropped. A lean, youthful face, like the most beautiful boy she had ever seen, with boyband styled windswept hair as red as a fire truck, eyes like emeralds that shone like stars with an inner light, and pointed ears that went to his temples. She felt like she'd go blind if she looked at it without his permission...no she would have her eyes burnt out if she gazed upon him against his desires, at least unless she was lucky or tough...but he wanted her to look upon him to know that everything was going to be fine, and it was at that point that she was certain.
"This is magic..." She said.
"What...come on, it's probably just the PRT freaking out about some weird pow...what the fuck he's hot?" Clockblocker said, at first having not looked directly at the Steel Paladin before turning and stopping all of his thought processes at once. He was straight as an arrow, but the compulsion to admire his beauty seemed to ignore that bit about Dennis.
"We are just looking for two of our friends who have been here recently. If you are kind enough to let us find them in your dimension, we will be on our way. Or if you'd prefer it; we could establish an embassy." He said with a voice that sounded like her favourite singer...it probably sounded like whatever the listener thought would be the most pleasant to hear out of those lips.
"I don't like this, this guy's putting out some mad mind control." Aegis said, hostility quickly forming in his voice.
"...Aegis no." Vista said, starting to have a sinking feeling about where this was going.
"Aww dangnabbit I didn't sign on for this pretty boy fourth of july show." Greased Lightning said as the Angel drew a little further forwards, her own armoured and feathered wings beating at a regular pace that didn't quite seem like they should be allowing her to achieve flight. Her own presence was also calming, a messenger of peace, a harbinger of justice, and also...fun? She got the feeling that she was a lot of fun, like a party could be just barely perceived around her as she made a V for victory sign with her fingers.
"Yoooo, waddup other dimensional peeps? Rundrasta here comin' at you live all the way from the Choir invisible with an Angelgram for ya'll. Now, ya'll can point us in the right way and I promise you it'll be worth your while my dudes. Or like, I dunno, we could do the standard superhero hello. But like, we got two junior partners lost here probably knee deep in your meme culture doing magic shows or some shit, so we need to find them. Before their parents start missing them, you dig?" She said, her tone absolutely...unexpected from an angel in a way that made Vista briefly step back.
"Hey, they seem like they just wanna hang out. So maybe we should just, I dunno. Give 'em what they want? Phone up Piggot? I think they're with her in...Russia or something." Clockblocker said, tugging his collar just a bit as the stand off continued, PRT officers all training their weapons on their Paragonite counterparts, the symbol of a setting star all proudly displayed on their shoulders and chests.
"Who's to say that they are who they say they are...this could be a trick." Shadowstalker said, already knocking an arrow into her crossbow.
"Bleh more fucking Americans..." The blue and yellow one with a rather menacing looking energy weapon said as his gun began to whine with charged energy and Vista felt a sudden sense of alarm starting to rise up inside of her. Too much of the team was just spoiling for a fight to back down at this point. All it would take is the wrong move and they'd have a massive brawl right here on the street.
"Hey, Vodka Drunkinski, where'd you buy that accent?" Feralborn cackled as she extended the claws from her gloves and got into a low stance, growling like a predator while Steel Paladin sighed and placed his helmet back on.
"Guys, please can we not have a fight for our first contact scenario?" Vista said. She could feel that low pressure looking for an excuse in her head, but she was ignoring it for the most part. This wasn't a situation that needed to be escalated, everyone could walk home without bruises.
"We can still talk this out, I'm sure." Glory Girl said, getting in front of the group and urging calm before turning towards Steel Paladin, though the Red one moved in front of her, seemingly matching her movement for movement.
"Uh...hi, Glory Girl. Welcome to Brockton Bay I guess. We're the Wards and New Wave. Well, me, the blue haired guy, the other blonde, and the girl in the Fleur De Lyls are with the New Wave anyway. The rest are wards. We keep the peace here...we're all heroes right?" She said, offering her hand as the glowing one offered one in return.
"So you are. I am Yvranil, I am Bringer of Glorious Redemption. Together, I am Dawnmaker. I am also pleased to see that we don't have to fight. I wouldn't like to have to hit your face." He said, shaking her hand and making Vista breathe a sigh of relief as everyone started to stand down.
"Aww you're sweet!" Glory Girl smiled.
"See...we can all get along!" Glory Girl said, looking to Dawnmaker and urging him to lift his hand up with hers in a sign of peace.
"Well, guess this won't be a hot entry after all." Mechamaven said, her robots quickly retracting their weapons and resuming a bodyguard position around her, beeping as the heavy looking automatons' bar code like optics scanned the area.
"Hey Vista, you think you could get me like...a night together with the girl with all the robots." Kid Win whispered, eyeing the machinery with true hunger.
"Sure I'll be your wingman." Shielder said before Kid Win realised what he said and stammered, almost falling over in embarrassment while Cerebro let out a snort.
"...You sure this is the east coast? It looks like ghetto San Francisco here. Place looks like the gentrifiers got everything the crooks didn't." Boltdancer said with a groan of discontentment as he looked at all the snow. "Swear it looks like the Hordes of Winter had their way with the place." He sighed.
"I know right?!" Quetzal shouted from the back before getting a thumbs up from Boltdancer.
"Hrm, they're not here." Iybraa said after a moment. "Scanned half the eastern seaboard. Seems like this dimension's still in twenty eleven though so they probably still think advice dog is funny." She said, looking towards Vista and her group and making them feel a brief sensation of being stared at before she looked back to the other team mates. "...Definitely still think Advice Dog is funny. Also the guy with the blue hair is a pervert." She said, looking to Steel Paladin who offered her a shrug.
"Okay, what did you just do?" Aegis said, pushing closer towards the Starsetters.
"Read your minds, duh. Haven't you ever met a psychic?" She said, not uncrossing her arms as her pink coloured energy wings continued to hold her aloft in the air, her living metal armour shifting around more like the exoskeleton of a crab than a conventional suit of plate and motors.
"Without our permission?" He said.
"I don't need it." She said back, leaning her head towards his.
"Move away from Iybraa, quickly." Mistral Slash said, her hand on the hilt of her sword as she approached, Aegis complying just enough to give the psychic her space. The sensation of tension returned. All it would take was a single sp-
"GLORY TO LORD MEGA-" One of the bystanders's arm shifted into some sort of cannon, skin peeling back into some kind of blue gun with a barrel the size of a fist while his mouth pulled apart into mandibles. He didn't seem human to Vista...he didn't even feel human...if she could just pull him out of the way with her power she could stop a crisis before it got out of hand.
"Hell no, Nemesis automatons!" Boltdancer flicked his wrist to sent out a burst of electricity that froze the transforming man mid-sentence into a paralysed statue crackling with lightning. "Okay any of you mind explaining why you've got disguised murderb-" Boltdancer started before before Blastjack's gun let loose and obliterated the suited man with a blue-yellow charged sphere of plasma that reduced what was likely a machine to bits of scrap.
"Tired of talking to avoid an inevitable outcome." He said.
"Oh no, you clowns are not murdering people on my precinct!" Aegis said before pointing at the Starsetters. "Take 'em in!" He shouted, Steel Paladin looking towards Vista with genuine sadness in his helmet's glowing eyes before he exhaled and nodded.
"Looks like we're going to have to bring some people into the Paragon Police department. Starsetters, arrest them!" He said, drawing his arming sword and pointing it at the group.
Eight charged into sixteen while PRT Officers scattered out of the way to give them space, opening fire on Mechamaven's robots who whipped out stun-weapons in return as bullets began to rain on their pitiless metallic hides; the Wards and New Wave figuring they had the benefit of numbers while the Starsetters went in with the confidence of individual prowess.
The first to meet were Glory Girl and Dawnmaker; her rushing in for the usual flying tackle, him cannonballing towards her so fast that Vista's eye couldn't follow and the ensuing shockwave from their collision rattling windows across town and sending snow flying outwards. Glory Girl remained standing, but her field had collapsed and she had to quickly move out of the way of Dawnmaker's next haymaker, only for the shockwave from the missed swing to hit her in the chest and throw her back with a grunt of discomfort.
"Okay...you're strong...good, means I don't have to hold back." Glory Girl said, grinning as she cracked her knuckles and met his next punch; surrounding in a comet like nimbus of alien energies and hurtling faster than most actual comets with a blow as hard as she felt she could get away with committing to; another shockwave erupting outwards and throwing Vista off of her feet as Glory Girl felt herself surprised by how much harder and faster she could throw that punch than she normally could. It was a surprise she didn't let herself cling to though, as Dawnmaker's eyes began to glow.
"I am truly sorry it had to come to this." He said apologetically before his eyes erupted into powerful beams of yellow light that smashed into her with a fury Vista couldn't look at directly; his frame making another thundercrack of supersonic movement as he dodged around a thrown dislodged lampost with tremendous speed.
Steel Paladin clanged his sword against his shield, which began to glow with a compulsion after he had cast the gauntlet at Aegis, Lady Silver, and Feralborn. "If you wish to do this, come on and get it over with." He said with resignation as his wings compacted into a smaller, more agile size, moving much faster than he should have to dodge Lady's Alicorn Driven Lance and deflecting Feralborn's claws with a parry sweep of his sword. Aegis threw a punch towards him, a double-fisted blow that would have brought a Rhinoceros down, but Steel Paladin was already behind him before his eye could track and he bashed him into the air with a shield uppercut.
"Please don't make me have to escalate." He said, bringing his shield to deflect Feralborn's claw strikes and his blade into the path of Lady's zweihander and his boot into Aegis' chest.
"Escalate?! After your gunner just iced a dude?!" Aegis shouted
"If you want to go ahead, the bruises to come are entirely on your head." Paladin said as he shoved both of the women on either side of him away like ragdolls.
"Bring i-" Aegis didn't finish before Steel Paladin headbutted him straight into the ocean, temporarily taking him out of the fight.
Shielder rushed ahead, Vista shortening the distance he had to travel as he singled out Blastjack while he was busy vaulting around Gallant's shots like he was in the Matrix.
"Come on, hold still!" Gallant shouted, his concussive shots failing to connect before Blastjack's energy rifle spat out paralyzer energy that locked Gallant in place before a sweeping roundhouse was thrown his way; Shielder's field preventing Gallant from getting knocked out of the park by the kick and forcing Blastjack to bounce back and sweep a stun beam in Eric's direction.
"Incompetent and horny. Terrible combination." Blastjack growled as he hit the ground again and allowed himself to take Shielder's fist on the chest, his hand impacting the power suit's plate and a sensation of pain rushing through his hand as he pulled back and shook it.
"What do you know of fighting, American?" He said.
"I am *Shielder*, not *American*." Eric said as he looked behind him while Blastjack casually stunlocked a PRT officer rushing behind him with a containment foam bomb in ham.
"You are easily distracted." Blastjack said, at first seeming to charge up a large beam in Eric's direction, firing it; but then stopping suddenly, pivoting into Eric's guard with a step and then uppercutting into his gut with enough force to make him fall over with the grace of a deflated balloon.
"Auugh right in the kidneys." He said as Blastjack raised his gun in front of his face.
"Stay down." He cautioned until Gallant bowled him over with a concussive shot rather stronger than what he could normally put out by quite a few...orders of magnitude given how he was normally pretty wimpy and direct sniper fire from the PRT couldn't even get him to flinch while he was distracted himself, Blastjack grunting and gritting his teeth as he felt suddenly shaken.
"Cry about it." Gallant shot back.
Cerebro's decision to try and fisticuff Rundastra was in hindsight, likely a mistake as he could tell she; and all the other starsetters; were fighting with most of their limbs tied behind their back, hands continually reaching for a proverbial set of cuffs meant to prepare them for arrests. He had deduced her primary fighting style, but that wouldn't do him any good if she could hit him faster than he could act on his predictions. An ice covered first whistled over his head as he tried to palm her in the helmet only for her wing to smack his hand aside.
Laserdream's beam sliced towards her back, only to be absorbed into her enervating, energy draining cold that only grew more intense as it absorbed the energy, Rundastra's next attack coming in the form of a fist into Laserdream's shield and then a shockwave of cold to conjure ice around her legs; leadening her flight while the Angel's wings behind her held Cerebro's shock batons at bay and took the electricity he fed into them without pause.
"So, gonna guess you guys ain't up for dinner tonight?" She said casually before she let out another wave of cold that Cerebro and Laserdream only just managed to avoid while a dozen PRT officers weren't quite so lucky, temporarily immobilised in ice in the process.
"S'cool, I was ready for a fight anyway." She said as she started to rapidly drain energy out of the Area Cerebro was in; she could have taken it all; but he sensed that she wasn't trying to outright kill him, for which he was glad. What he wasn't so glad about though, was how the drain became a sudden blizzard as air blew into the suddenly so cold the CO2 was starting to freeze spot that threw him off his feet and bowled over many other PRT officers.
"...Cool...c-come on..." Cerebro wheezed as he pulled himself out of the snow only to be punted across the street as soon as his head popped out.
"Home run." She gave a thumbs up, clearly having the time of her life.
"Impressive power, but you need to touch me to use it right?" Mistral Slash said, teleporting out of Clockblocker's way as he tried to reach for her and then casting knock out gas bombs into the direction of yet more PRT officers, sending them onto the road below with a motion before she bolted out of Dennis' way once more, dodging around his attempts to fence her in with time frozen objects.
"Man I hate fighting speedsters." Clockblocker groaned as her sword glowed with energy and then slashed towards him with a large crescent shockwave produced from it, getting a gasp of surprise from him as he threw himself out of its way; Stormchild's Lightning bolts erupting towards Mistral Slash while her tornadoes attempted to limit her avenues of movement. She teleported once more, making Stormchild swear while Clockblocker froze an approaching snowplow; stopping it from running into the fight while he started freezing some snowballs.
"Come on I can take this Mall Ninja loser!" Stormchild grunted, trying to blow Mistral's gas back into her face only for her to teleport out of the way, Clockblocker though, whistled at Slash.
"Hey you, Weeb. Come 'ere." Clockblocker said, running back out of the way and kicking up a number of objects he froze as soon as they were airborne while Mistral Slash rushed towards him, a satisfying smacking sound informing him that she crashed into one of them and spun around, rubbing at her head after having hit the flat of a piece of paper.
"Come on, not fast enough?" Clockblocker said before he saw a glint of metal and yelped as it slashed towards him, the sword not touching him, but it was never meant to.
"Ha, missed." Dennis said proudly until he got a sudden sensation of cold on his face...she had sliced his mask off. Its halves falling into the snow and his face getting a full exposure treatment from the January blizzard wind. His eyes no longer seeing through the materials of his mask but instead unaided. Yet he didn't even have the slightest graze on his nose, meaning she was not only fast but implausibly skilled with that blade.
"Cute." She said with a smile beneath her helm while Dennis flushed and rushed to grab a spare PRT helmet to cover his face.
"COME ON!" He shouted as she started to rush towards him, some sort of cuffs in her other hand after having drop kicked Stormchild into the snow. She was much faster than he was, even holding back as she was; he only had one chance. He counted, baited her into reaching towards his outstretched hand, then touched her with the other to lock her in time; if only temporarily. Some sort of power in her resented being contained like that, and unless he kept reapplying his effect, it'd end much sooner than it was supposed to.
Iybraa was soon found to be essentially unstoppable, none of the parahumans really had any resistance to telepathy and she simply turned those who tried to get in her way around with a single psychic command. The only time Fleur even tried she found her energy bubbles being stopped by Iybraa's telekinetic barrier while she scanned through the entire planet, further bubbles only getting Fleur grabbed by Iybraa's telekinesis and tossed aside without even getting the Yurye's attention.
Other New Wave and Ward members who arrived on the scene met similar fates, while many PRT officers simply turned around and used containment foam on either each other or the reinforcements sent to deal with Iybraa after identifying her as the most dangerous part of the team. But nothing worked. Not even the containment foam missiles managed to reach her before she simply ripped them apart with her mind or returned them to sender, dozens of other PRT and police squads being lifted into the air where they couldn't bother her while she worked. Even Steel Paladin and Rundastra; who were facing an ever larger number of foes being thrown at them, weren't able to so utterly dominate the battlefield as Iybraa did.
"If you people want to stop humiliating yourselves, you can start anytime you want." She said as she continued to hover in the air, pausing briefly when she sensed an energy beam heading her way and then forming a shield to stop Legend's artillery blast from inconveniencing her as he arrived on the scene; firing once again to meet the same result and getting her to turn her head towards him.
"Lemme guess, pew pew guy?" She said.
"Miss, you are in a world of trouble right now if you don't stand down."
"If you just get out of our way and let us find our team mate, we'll leave your dimension be. Deal?" She said as Legend charged up and fired once again.
"No can do, I'm bringing you in." He said, intensifying his blast until she started pushing back with a column of psionic energy.
"Human, you really want to do this? Fine." She said as she extended a hand and then sent forth a shriek heard more in the mind than the ears that brought Legend's hands around his ears as she assailed his psyche with a gout of psychic energy.
"You want to fight me? Here I am, take your best shot." She said as she pulled her hands together then created a staff of raw psychic power, twirling it around and extending it to positively sun wukong degrees before whipping a surprised legend out of the way as he discorporated into light and got closer to blast her with more of his lasers, straining against her psychic shielding while she casually picked up a bunch empty vehicles and threw them his way at enormous speeds; readjusting their paths according to her will to try and catch him as he darted around her in energy form.
Shadowstalker was to put it mildly, not very helpful against Boltdancer, already having been locked into electric paralysis by him as he tried to rejoin his team despite the Wards and New Waves' efforts to split them up. His electric gremlins and voltaic sentinel manifested in buzzing, crackling fields of living lightning, smashing into the serpent projections of Quetzal and bashing aside the PRT who tried to intervene, burning through any attempted containment foam in the process.
"Snakes huh?" He said, turning towards his teammates and throwing out a wave of augmenting electricity to charge their reflexes and speed, letting them move faster and harder than before; while his electrical minions giggled and cackled like a swarm of monkeys as they jumped from place to place, Lightning-Bats made of living electricity dueling in the sky with her winged serpents while on the ground, her Nagas tried to stab into the electric minions or press past his immobilising and stunning waves of lightning.
"Black kid with electric powers?" She shot back as he shrugged and clapped his hands together to create a shockwave of electricity to throw back the enemies surrounding him, pulling his hands apart to create a chain of electricity that he swung around and then lashed towards her, forcing her to bring a one of her shield serpents in the way; the projection extending its hood to block the jolt and then fading once disrupted by the lightning.
"Indonesian kid named Quetzal?" He retaliated, One of his Gremlins being engaged in a shoving match with her Naga while her winged serpents tried to sneak from behind.
"Shut up already both of you!" Shadowstalker said, letting loose a bolt from her crossbow only for it to ping off his electric field.
"Lady, calm your tits down, I didn't want this fight to begin with. I'm just trying to check on my friends." He said with a sigh as Quetzal nodded and raised her hand, her serpents standing down just as Boltdancer's minions did.
"...Are you serious?! Arrest him!" She shouted before he sighed and let out a stream of electricity from his finger into her chest, making her convulse on the ground.
"H-hate you...so much..." She managed through her convulsions.
"Kay." He said.
"How you wanna stop this?" Quetzal asked as Kid win flew around with an excited laugh.
"Man this is fun!" He said as he dodged around a massive robot's fist, his weapons lancing into the ten meter tall behemoth's frame as it bleated out alerts to him to halt and submit to peaceful arrest.
Vista though, was now on the phone, and Kid Win, busy shooting down one of Mechamaven's smaller robots, was soon laid out by the big one's fist and sent into the snow with a heavy collision. He groaned up and told Vista that he was fine, Even while Greased Lightning was trying to run around the robots only to run into a vortex of distorted time where even he was going slow enough for Mechamaven to catch up.
"And this is for the three robots you broke jerk!" She said before she fished out his underwear and...oh god why did he have to get underwear elastic enough to go all the way around his head.
"OH LORDY I'M GONNA HAVE SUPPER WITH JESUS!" He shouted in obvious pain while he stumbled around, his voice small and pained as one of the robots was foamed down by the PRT only for its companion's stun missiles to knock out the PRT Squad, others paralysed by a series of stun bolts from another's gatling energy weapon.
Feralborn shouted at Vista to get off the phone before Steel Paladin grabbed her by the legs and tossed her with a casual motion that sent her out of line of sight, an increasingly distant scream being heard from her as Vista did what she could to make sure she'd be back in the battlefield, trying to alter the space in front of her; not where she was, but the air where she would be until she found herself coming around in a circular route having slowed down to simply terminal velocity before crashing through the window of an abandoned building with a grunt and a groan. Aegis was still trying to take him on, but Paladin was now ignoring his fist impacts, hardly even flinching as he walked down the street like a juggernaut, simply grabbing at Silver's sword and pulling her off her horse before throwing her into Aegis.
He started walking, and Vista knew she couldn't panic, turning to the robots as they clanked around and casting her first forward and pulling at the soulless hunks of metal, twisting them in ways she knew no machine could endure and taking advantage of every bit of power she could use on them since they had no ability to resist it. Limbs flying apart, components pulled into directions that rendered them useless, fuses lit, a nigh unstoppable army of machines reduced to scrap in seconds. Some robots though, couldn't be affected this way, that strange power in some of them resisting these efforts to pull them apart.
She got creative, redirecting missiles back at their senders, moving in some of Iybraa's thrown projectiles. Her stomach did turns as she strained, but she figured that they were being guided by Mechamaven. Maybe if she could take out the tinker...or thinker...or master...she could stop the metal march as more machines were being teleported in. The girl must have had some sort of nanoloom somewhere just making more robots for her. Probably in a pocket dimension. The big one fired its massive volley of missiles, hundreds of stun projectiles that would have laid out a division.
It was overkill, it was excessive. But it was also what Vista needed as she shifted the missiles around in an arc back into Maven; exploding behind her as she was entrapping other capes responding to the robot storm in her distorted timefields and stunlocking her hard enough to knock her out; the robots suddenly coming to a stop and withdrawing to a defensive position. Vista let out a sigh of relief as the machines pulled back, Kid Win patting her on the back.
"...Clever girl aren't you?" He said as she nodded, surprised at herself for being able to pull that off, usually such fast projectiles were...
"Surprised you were able to do that with missiles." He added as he panted, nervously looking at the cavalcade of machines standing silent.
She remembered...the dream...it said she was worthy of something. Was this it?
*Fleur due to butterflies survives to this point at least.
I awoke in the hospital bed to the sounds of thunder outside and the rattling of the room. The hospital staff had vacated the room and left me to my fate. Typical. Why would anyone want to be around me? I chanced an opportunity to look out the window where I saw Glory Girl in a brawler lock with some glowing...Roman guy, though the longer it was going on the more clear it was that she just wasn't strong enough to hold back the other person, especially after his hands erupted with energy that threw her onto a building. That made me slightly nervous, she was one of THE capes around here and the guy outmuscled her straight up. Then I thought about it for a moment more.
...Right...so the hospital staff had left me to die. I sighed, at this point in my life, I felt so lowly about myself that she couldn't even find it in me to be upset anymore. Maybe dying would be ideal even. No more going to fucking school. No more dealing with all the taunts and teasing. I could just pass onto oblivion. Or whatever came after death. I wouldn't mind oblivion, nonexistence was at least free of pain. Maybe I might attain some sort of lucid dreaming state in a playground of her own imagination. Maybe I'd just burn in hell. None of it could be worse than what I just went through.
I lurched my head back and looked to see a cockroach staring me in the face as if I had called its name, and my first reaction honestly; was to scramble back. Why is a cockroach this big in a hospital? What sort of negligent staff would let something like this just crawl inside of a space for patients? I know people love to talk about how awful the healthcare system is, but this? This is beyond ridiculous.
But I could...I knew it was staring back at me, because I could see that it saw me. I could see a lot now, in the low resolution way that bugs saw the world. Some of the mites on my hospital bed even made me clench my legs and adjust my gown when I realised what sort of look they were getting...but am I really seeing this, I wondered? Seeing the world out of the grimy compound eyes of all the creepy crawlies we unknowingly share every house with? Did I trigger...is this my power now?
Back then, the idea of my condolence for going through that hell was being the lord of the flies was enough to make me want to die all over again. Maybe if I lived in Australia or Brazil where there's something that can make you shit your spine out and die in a single bite near every house it'd be worth it. But here? There's not even mosquitos year-round.
I was prepared to throw my head into the pillow and wallow in self-questioning. Why? Why this? What did I do to go through all that and only get this? Is managing to survive all that just some cruel joke? Or am I just lucky in the worst way? Never when I need it. I was prepared to let myself spiral a bit, delving into my thoughts and racking my brain around where it went wrong. But the room got much darker, not simply from the lights going out, but from all the lights seeming to just leave the room.
A cloud of shadow passed through the walls, like smoke through the grate before coalescing into the rough impression of a sphere. Purple, black, small hints of blue. I was terrified to say the least, certain that this was the Reaper come to collect or some new parahuman serial killer or worse having found its newest victim.
"I'm not ready oh god no no no." I said, crawling into the back of the bed and realising that despite my earlier thoughts; I still wanted to live. Was it spite? Was it just being afraid of the uncertainty of what came after? Was it just realising that when staring my possible end that maybe dying wasn't as blissful as I thought?
I couldn't tell you, probably all of the above.
Taylor Hebert, that is your name yes?
I remember going stock still as if I were encased in ice. It floated near me, hovering over my body and shifting the way a cloud would. I couldn't make out any particular features, but I felt that I was at least making whatever passed for eye contact with it.
"Y-yes." I croaked, all the dignity of an actual frog.
I am Shadow of Retribution. I seek a host, one to become one with. My prior partner gave her life for mine, and I must wear the raiments of solidity if I am to survive. I sensed the anguish of your dreams, the loneliness of ostracization. I sense also, your longing to pay justice to those who wrong you and others.
I'd like to say I got some witty response to my first encounter with an alien, but truth be told my response was more akin to "Bwuh?" and a nod made more out of not being sure what were the right words to say to something so strange.
It took half a minute, but I did finally say something above the pre-school level of competency. "...Host...are you a parasite?"
A symbiont. I am of the Nictus. A species beyond your galaxy, beyond your universe. Like you, I am cast from my kind, for I cannot abide by the evil we do to maintain our empire. Mine is a long, lonely war with few friends. But I will bring about absolution, if not for my species; then for myself. We can assist each other, Taylor.
"Symbiont...are we going to share the same body? I'm not...enthusiastic about having a voice in my head."
We will become one. A composite of our two personalities. Perhaps it is best I show you. Fear not, there is no pain in this process.
I was about to express my doubts before a tendril lashed out from the cloud and into my head and I saw not the dingy, dirty, bug infested hospital room but an enormous black expanse with mists of shadow over countless doors and shelves, with a realm of light behind me with just a single pathway.
"What is...where am I?" I said before I realised that I was currently less than decent and covered up, blinking to note even my glasses weren't covering my eyes at the moment.
This is a realm of the mind Taylor. Yours is behind you, mine is behind myself. Dress yourself, if you wish. Each of these doors is a partner I had, until death did us part or I was made to leave.
There were thousands of doors, thousands of lives. I imagined myself in the sort of clothes I always wanted to wear, flattering, tasteful, something to make me feel important and wanted, and I followed the cloud to the newest looking door. I hesitated for a second before Shadow of Retribution pulsated.
Open it.
I hesitated even more, a reflex regarding being told what to do, but relented out of curiosity. What I saw dispelled the idea that this was some sort of trick because I could feel it in a way that felt like genuine memory. I saw a woman of ashen hair and moon paled skin in costume; teleporting from one site to another, chasing down some sort of vehicles that turned into machine people. Her name was...Rosalina Smith I felt, twenty nine years old; together with this being...this...Warshade, they were Black Rose. They were at once two but one. They were Rosalina just as they were Shadow and just as they were Black Rose. It was...odd...but she seemed happy with it.
She tried to follow some of the machine people through a portal, taking them to the outskirts from what was the largest city I've ever seen to what I recognised as a suburb of Brockton Bay, some yuppie hive full of snobs convinced that everyone with less than six figures in their bank account was subhuman. She kept going, they cut her off eventually; she put up an amazing fight, until this tank monster man drove up and unfurled into a pile of guns. Including one that caused agony that made me scream mentally as it rocked through me as well.
Again, and again. Blows that could break skyscrapers into dust rained down on her until her ticket was punched by a final shot of that horrible weapon. She died in agony, and left behind friends and family who'd never know where she was buried on a planet not her own. I felt bad, pity. A desire to find her remains as I saw Shadow pull themselves free and race away, before the machine men could ensnare them with their traps.
They looked around, for anyone who fit their criteria. Pain, a sense to avenge wrongs, a desire for justice to be done and those who were also outcast.
But I needed to know more about Rosalina, so I looked behind...I saw a full life. I saw her being pushed around for her bisexuality, I saw her being tormented by nazi pond scum because her mom was Jewish. I then saw her family shot. A man in a death themed helmet with a swastika on his chest taller than a truck having them lined up and letting rip with a rotary gun. All while she watched from a bush, heroes rushing in too late to save her family.
That's how Shadow Found her, after the host before her had also died. I pulled out, I'd seen enough. I looked to the Shadow, understanding.
"What are you?" I asked.
Once, my kind were Kheldians. Born of a Star, finding ways to merge with other beings to grant them powers and allow our lifespans to extend indefinitely. Then some decided to create a way to forcibly merge with unwilling beings and steal life force for ourselves. So we became Nictus, and to this very day continue the old war against our ancestors.
"Stealing bodies? And yet you want my permission?"
I am a Warshade. We came to want redemption, to repent for what we have done for the Empire we built. I no longer steal flesh without permission.
I was curious though, and looked through the doors, until I came across one I felt was right, and saw through the eyes of some...alien with many limbs, looking upon a child of another species with wings and a beak, like some sort of Pteranodon.
"This flesh is young, take it, Shadow. Yours will soon die of its injuries." One said, older, menacing, crueller.
"I...I can't. She has her life ahead of her. Even after everything we've taken." Shadow, a long time ago, millions of years even, said.
"I want...I want to go home...I want my clutch...where is everyone?" The winged child whimpered, hiding behind the membrane of her wings amidst the....corpses of the dead.
"She is scared and weak. You can take her over easily."
"March of Revenants, I cannot act so barbarously against someone so defenselessly. Have we not already won? Haven't we done enough killing? I can heal this body."
"You lose heart now after all the prisoners you have consumed? You are soft. If you do not take her, then we will kill her." The other said with a menace so cold I could imagine the icicles hanging off of his words.
"No! There's no point in it! It's barbarism for barbarism's sake! They will resist us to the end if we cross this line."
"We have crossed it already. If they deserved to not suffer it, they would have defeated us already." They said, simply as if that was a fact of life.
"No! Stop! We will not stoop to this!" A fight broke out and thusthey were forced to flee, to hide; going from world to world in an attempt to stop the very war machine they had fought for. Every door I checked showed this repeating. The friends lost, the alliances made, the battles waged. And the anguish of not knowing whether they were even accomplishing anything. More planets being consumed, more civilizations reduced to little more than breeding stock for a reliable supply of hosts.
It hurt, it hurt to watch. But I couldn't stop. I had to know. And only after I had satisfied myself with what I had seen did I reach to the cloud.
"Come." I showed it my own low points. The trio and all their taunts, the betrayal of a girl I thought was a friend only to twist the knife into my back to hang out with the more attractive and the more popular instead. Every insult, every ruined attempt at a date, every awful prank or just straight up beating. Shadow remained quiet, they had seen scenes like this before. Pain was a universal factor among all of their partners. But I could feel them, they still felt for me.
Finally, a chance encounter with a locker and the crawling insects and worms around. Left in there to die with no seeming way out, and no help forthcoming, breaking down for hours until at last I was overwhelmed by a sudden sensation of agony and euphoria. And then I went blank, overwhelmed and eventually fished out by paramedics. And of course, those three...they didn't get a slap on the wrist. Nobody would believe me if I told them anyway. Nobody except the Shadow.
Do you wish to be one then?
"...I...yes...I've seen the power you can give...I...please. We could do so much with it. We could...just do it!" I saw the sheer might that could be at my fingertips once I fully mastered becoming a Warshade. Tank rounds glancing off of me, ships lifted overhead, transforming into prior hosts, dark energy blasts to tear through large robots and monsters, teleportation, speed, gravity control...I...I admit I got greedy, I just wanted it all so bad.
Then it is done.
I snapped back into reality as I felt the Shadow of Retribution sink into me. I convulsed briefly, shaking as the darkness seeped into every pore, but it settled within and I was born anew. A strange moth with scythe like forelimbs had seemed to respond to my earlier call, finding its way through the ventilation and settling near me.
It was then I got the idea for what I'd like for people to call me from now on as I shot up, snapping the restraints meant to hold me to the hospital bed like rotten twigs and thinking of home.
"Black Moth." I said before I vanished a black void and reappeared in my bed.
...If it was that easy then...yes...this would work.
You patched yourself into the camera feeds uploaded as people scrambled to cover what was going on live and immediately stopped the rapping of your fingers, a motion done to calm your often restless nerves. You had much...bigger concerns than the jitters born of standing overly still for too long as you had the watch you wore project the images your suit's zero-point form was wiring into your memory for the others to see. To put it politely, there was quite a substantial deal of bedlam already going on as the Starsetters were concentrating towards each other; the psychic holding off increasing numbers of capes who seemed to just flock towards her looking for a fight even as she held everyone approaching her back without even seeming to try.
"Who else is going to respond to the escalation?" You asked bluntly, no point in beating around the bush. You needed an answer shortly.
"The Guild, Protectorate, and New Wave at least; bringing in more of their heavy hitters. Military forces are already on standby. Local unaffiliated capes will probably be drawn in for a chance to get involved too." Piggot said bluntly, looking at you with worry written on her face. At least, you thought it was worry. Her thoughts inside though seemed considerably less upset at the idea of the cape community being shown its limitations.
"Joseph, Alice. Who else is going to respond?" You asked, not even turning your head towards them, simply flicking your scarlet coloured eyes to their direction and drawing a fine line with your face.
"Uh...fuck at this rate the Vindicators and Freedom Phalanx and Liberty League, probably other Starsetter teams too...wouldn't be surprised if the PPD and Vanguard make a show." Alice said.
"...Military forces are you...hold on...maybe I can try to narrow down some possibilities." You said, taking a moment to inhale and exhale.
"Maybe we should try a waking vision?" Samus said, steepling her fingers in front of her nose and taking a moment to think humming as she tapped her fingers together. "We don't have time for every possible explanation. Someone needs to stop well...a war from breaking out when we're not even sure what's threatening these Earths." She added, getting a nod out of you.
"...Okay, I'll go in. Samus..." You said, looking towards her directly.
"I'll be there for you, don't worry." She said, getting a smile from you. You were slightly nervous about doing this with her. You had tried to hide the visions of Sylux from her. You were terrified of that future coming to pass, and didn't want her to worry about it. Every time you tried to find what roads lead to becoming the blue-green eyeless monster, you were blocked by walls of grief, pain, and anguish you were afraid to confront along with deliberate obscurations. Whatever lead you down that road was agony, and you were too much of a coward to try and face it head on.
And the idea of Samus knowing you as a coward...she already did so much for you. It wasn't fair to burden her with your nightmares any more than you already did. Especially when she had so many of her own to deal with. It was enough to commiserate over your orphanings, and every time you brought up the ten years of pain and abuse under your Alimbic caretakers you felt like you were burdening her with knowledge she didn't know how to relate to. Her caretakers loved her unconditionally, the few who truly cared for you after awakening from their fifty thousand year slumber...you were spiralling. Stop it. Focus, focus.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, concern.
"I...I'll talk about it later, stuff to focus on now." You said, shame in your voice as she sighed but nodded in understanding.
"I'm ready, let's start." She said, offering a hand that you squeezed.
You paused for a moment to try and focus the distant sight. It was hard to do so with things that didn't immediately concern yourself when you weren't trancing, you had the potential but lacked the discipline and training for it. Samus though, was there to give you a hand, letting her own mind's eye coil with yours as you saw into the Morphoscape beyond the material realm. Twisting tendrils of possibilities, roads into futures that might be or were so weak and ephemeral that simply a momentary gaze at them collapsed the chances of them ever happening, pasts that were or could have been, presents either real or pushed aside into other branches or withering into unreality. You saw...snarls of pathways, threads of individual destinies writhing and wrestling from other planes into the heated tangle of conflict. Branches leading into...
Violence, destruction, orphans, widows, corpses and ghosts. Destruction, carnage, cities burning, worlds burning, everything coming to doom and destruction as a thousand apocalypses coiled around each other and dragged possibilities with them into oblivion or subjugation. Your own mind was clouded with brief flashes of home; intermingled with Samus' own flashes of unwanted memory. Screaming, ghouls feasting on the dead, fire rising through the defenceless, raiders and pirates sawing their way through the living to wade through piles of the dead. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. Nothing to understand, not even names to go by for who was doing this or why as their posthuman armoured warriors cut down the guerilla hub you called home with ruthless force and precision.
Gore on your hands, people screaming or making desperate attempts to fight back. All futile. You were prepared for small incursions by the Federal military, by Space Pirate Raiders, Kriken Punishment teams, Vhozon justicars or the like...these men, who bore no marking on their grey and green armour...overwhelming, pitiless, cold. They saw targets, they killed them, they moved on. So many people you knew dead so quickly...Astrid, Kwame, Isagil, Oerion. Dead, dead, dead. Did they want the Alimbic ship? How could they know of something found only a day before? Why did they need to kill everyone? Questions you couldn't answer, questions that dug their nails into you like a falcon into its prey.
They were chasing you, five heads cackling; your parents and their ever-shrinking band of fellow commandos running with you as fast as they could. The sarcastic but endearing Morr, courageous and funloving Lydyl, valiant and resourceful Sylan. Each dying in turn to one of those six monsters. Not even mighty Spire's lithic progenitor could stop the five-headed beast that lead the six, lead the armies of masked men, every time he drove it away it always returned. Atop leathery wings and gusts of cold, calling for you, demanding you. Your parents; mighty Gyda and cunning Erik; were the last to fall, so that you and Spire could make your escape from an ocean of armoured monsters. Your small hands bleeding as they slammed against the window of Spire's cockpit, your throat swelling as you called for them to come back as they left you to face their end.
Samus had shed a single tear, her teeth gritting as she dug her fingernails into her palms and squeezed her eyes, trying to block out the visions she found herself wheeling back to. A purple dragon's legion of deranged hooligans, five lieutenants eagerly jumping at the call of the ones who held the dragon's leash to raze the work of simple miners to the ground and filch from them their works for a dread council of the very worst sorts of society imaginable. Violence, frenzied, sadistic, and utterly unrestrained as those crushed by their hierarchy finally found people beneath even themselves to vent on.
They were not efficient or quick, one of the largest fleets in that entire supercluster's primary element against a mining colony of just ten million. It wasn't even a massacre, just cruel and twisted amusement before they made off with the fuel crystals the miners had harvested to power the sinister plans of their Confederacy. So many of them were like tearing into flesh they were starved of deliberately to turn their lowest ranks into emaciated and desperate monsters unafraid of death if it meant a chance to fill their famished bellies for at least a time.
Others who had known nothing but cruelty and brutality took the time to savour the sweet pain of people they were allowed to strike. The many species of warriors brought along laughing at their cruelties or fighting over who got the first pick of victims. There simply weren't enough to go around for an army that outnumbered its victims a million to one, and that made the ones looking for relief all the crueller.
Her friends dead one by one, her mother's throat torn open before her eyes for the crime of defending her from the amethyst drake and her father gone in a final, heroic effort to lay waste to a vessel the size of a small moon by denying them the fuel they sought to steal. You were only brave enough to get glimpses of it, and it was enough for you to scratch at your scalp with your nails to make the side of your head bleed while Samus let out a wailing hiss through clenched teeth.
Torment that lasted until Winterpyre requested a chance to step into your mindspace and was given it; banishing the visages of terror from your mind, flashbacks vivid and loud fading into nothingness as you opened your eyes and let out gasps of breath. He reached for you, and dragged you towards the light of the waking world, the mental avatar he conjured looking far more angelic and pleasant than his typically bestial form of fire and skulls.
Alice was also there, her form an idealised version of what she normally looked like as she offered an orb of light in her hands. "This is well...a spell of courage. It's, look it's not going to be a replacement for therapy. Minds are trickier to heal than bodies or souls. But this is a pick-me up...and I want you to have it. I...I'm not gonna pretend I can grasp what you suffered. Not like, personally, God knows I have a lot of friends who lost everything really early on I don't really know how to relate to at times. But...we're friends right?"
"Enough to know that you guys need this. Come on, afterwards maybe we could like...show you fun stuff? Get to know some local kids? Uhh...what do you like to eat? I'll get you something, my treat." She said, a sad smile on her face as she let the spell's magic flow into the two of you and drag you out of the hellscape of your nightmares into the waking world, where Alice gave a small nod while her Tiara glowed.
You pulled out, shaking your head and rubbing your temples. That sort of focus, while you were conscious or weren't in a meditative trance, was still not the easiest of feats for you to pull off, especially when a lot of the visions assailed the two of you with traumatic triggers. You shuddered, the sight of blood, flame, frost and pain making you stagger a bit. But it wasn't real...you were safe, and among friends deeply concerned with the way the two of you were in the midst of a massive panic attack in their presence.
"...S-sorry..." You said, breathing and still shaking.
"We need to...stop them from starting a war. If this escalates out of control it's going to..." What would be the right term? Something simple, not too much jargon they might not get.
"Escalation cascade. Then your two timelines tear each other apart, and then all the Earths linked by this follow...along with...a lot more." Samus said, finishing your thoughts for you. She was better with words than you were, people were kind of complicated at times, and it was hard to explain things a lot. She wasn't...ideal at it...but it was something.
"I'll go in, the psychic won't be able to directly affect me. We well...won't really be able to remain secret after this, but I don't see any other choice." You said.
"You're not going to convince them on your own...but I think I can show people the footage we have? Why they need to stop fighting." Samus said.
"+Blimey...alright, may as well. Thought we might keep the robots in disguise bit up longer...ah frag it.+" Jetfire cut in over the comms with a considerably less over the top accent than usual which likely indicated that this was something he considered very seriously.
"I'll accompany you, set up some communications. You handle the problem actors, is that alright?" Samus asked as you gave a nod, your armour forming around you as you stood up and cracked your neck. Samus' suit shimmering over her similarly quickly.
"Alice, Joseph, come with us...they're looking for you so showing you're okay is going to be necessary. Just uh, don't give them the impression you're hostages that would be...bad. Not good, probably make things worse." Samus said, getting thumbs up from the two of them as they put on their masks, followed by Sammi.
"...Huh..." Joseph said, looking down at his phone.
"+Aw frag...gonna have ta get in the talkative types.+" Jetfire said before a Soviet officer cut in afterwards.
"+I swear upon the entirety of the Rodina if you send Blur or Wheelie I will never forgive you!+ Okay, that got you all laughing a bit...good...levity was good.
"Jetfire, start the groundbridge." You said.
"Hold on, hold on! You can't just rush in and reveal aliens are real all at once. Are you even the slightest bit aware of the panic that this would cause young man?" Piggot said.
"We don't have a choice and Primal Earth already knows. Sorry, but we'll have to break protocol. Besides...it'll be easier for you from now on...right?" Samus said as Jetfire buzzed inf.
"+Hrm...maybe drop in with your ships...might make more of an impression.+" Jetfire said as he formed an idea in his head and then focused his attentions back to Samus.
"+Oh, Aran...I gots an idea...+"
Brockton Bay, 8:52 AM, 13th of January
Based on the information given to you by Joseph, Positron was essentially a living anti-matter generator in a power suit of his own design further empowered by being the keeper of the Incarnate Flame of Prometheus. Since the death of Statesman, he was the leader of the Freedom Phalanx and essentially the top hero in America. When he was feeling nice, he simply fired bolts of ionising radiation, non-radioactive energy blasts, or slugged them or disabled them with his gadgets. When he was not feeling nice, he either vented nuclear explosions or raw streams of anti-matter that he shaped the explosions of; annihilating virtually anything in his way. Even if his armour was rather primitive by your standards, he had a lot of raw power to go off of and was much deeper into the path of the incarnate than you were. It also explained the flashes of radiation you got from the sensors.
Raymond Keyes was once a scientist at Crey Industries who worked on a suit of next generation power armour until a freak accident granted his body the ability to produce anti-matter and nuclear reactions, allowing him to power the armour entirely by himself and giving him enormous radiological prowess as well as destructive power. After an injury in the Rikti invasion of Primal Earth, Positron's powers had gone out of control, turning him into a living anti-matter bomb that would detonate catastrophically were his armour ever breached; forcing him to fully seal himself inside for more than six years until the Dark Watcher healed this malady. He also was entrusted with the incarnate flame of Prometheus, further elevating his power and gifting him with a tremendous creative power that allowed his designs to advance even further and allowing himself to instinctively find ways to tap into the power of the Source to bolster his abilities. Following the death of Marcus Cole, the Statesman, Positron replaced him as the leader of the Freedom Phalanx; a position he has held for more than eight years. While his technology is inferior to your own, the amount of destruction he can release should he cease holding back as well as the amount of Source power he has accumulated or been entrusted with makes direct engagement with him inadvisable.
In terms of personality, Raymond Keyes is a modernistic, compassionate if somewhat obsessive hero who tries to live up to the legend of his predecessor and former colleague. He is tremendously focused on crime-prevention in an effort to turn people away from crime in the first place and involves himself heavily in social causes and has grown increasingly critical of his native Paragon City's increasing police militarization at the behest of the Federal Government, overriding the concerns of the Municipal government of Paragon City. He is strongly involved with youth programs in the hopes of preparing the younger generations for the life of heroism as the first individuals to have been born after the initial Rikti invasion start to come of age and to prepare for the Oncoming Storm which threatens humanity as a whole. He is patient and understanding, and takes his job with gravity but not without being able to have some levity now and then. He has fully grown into the role of the new icon of American heroism, though he lacks Statesman's overt patriotism and tries to be more of a hero for the entire world. He also puts a lot of effort into trying to redeem villains and bring them back to the light, believing that simply stopping villain attacks is hardly a solution to the problems they represent.
In combat, Keyes is incredibly versatile. While initially categorised as a Defender due to his emphasis on using his radiation in supportive roles such as enervating enemies and empowering or regenerating allies with his blast attacks in a more secondary function, he has since shown that he can fulfill virtually any of the archetypes of the FBSA's metahuman classification system and in fact, will do so; making use of powerful and skillfully delivered melee attacks, incredible defenses combining energy shielding, armour, incarnate fate warping, and more; shrugging off nearly any status effect such as mind control, temporal freezing or warping, or even simply being pushed off his feet; incredible battlefield control capabilities, the ability to quickly summon robots and radiological constructs under his command, cloaking devices, augmented reflexes and speed and more. Via the fires of Prometheus, his ability to invent and develop technology has increased enormously, making him one of the most versatile metahumans to have ever existed, and some wonder if whether his slow path to incarnate power has allowed him to surpass Statesman altogether.
Samus' Notes: To be given the fire of innovation...the ideas he must have...oh I need to chat to him soon! Just not so...sure on his dedication to legalism or slow change. We can't afford that now.
Arne's Notes: I...hrm. I'm not sure what to think about Doctor Keyes honestly. He seems like a good man but...can we trust the fate of the cosmos to older generations?
Then of course, was the rest of the Freedom Phalanx and other teams being called in for Primal earth's greatest anxiety; yet another hostile alternate Earth likely to wage war with it. Earth Bet was also escalating, sending in more top capes and military force to the scene as the scanners of the Sleipnir picked up some aircraft below you; even lead by Eidolon, the seemingly greatest of their number, the man with a power for virtually any situation. A triumphant visage of the unmistakable prowess of a just cause.
Eidolon, also known as David is generally considered to be the most powerful cape on Earth Bet, even if some are instead partisan to his Soviet counterpart "Chernaya Gvardiya" who arose following the death of Hero. A middle-aged man with a largely unlimited connection to his extradimensional symbiont, Eidolon lacks many of the usual restrictions on other parahumans, even as his powers decline from overuse without being replenished by the intended draining from other shards, he remains someone considered the man to beat due to his ability to easily switch between powers as the situation arises; usually holding onto three and discarding them if he does not require them, letting them fade and be replaced by another, perhaps more suited ability for the present situation. He can hold onto more than three at a time, but doing so usually dilutes the potency of each ability. However, each ability usually has some build-up time upon acquisition, which has grown longer as his power reserves continue to deplete.
Strongly religious and possessed of a tremendous sense of justice, Eidolon is nevertheless something of a stickler for his belief that the end of days is coming and the world must be prepared. This has lead to him being considered "a bit of a downer" by some, but he does truly enjoy his work, relishing not only in the chance to fight enemies with virtually any power he might be able to find useful, but also the adoration of much of the world who regards him as an almost messianic saviour figure who can always be trusted to save the day no matter what the threat. Feared by virtually all villains and regarded as one of the only Capes who might be able to take on an Endbringer on his own, Eidolon commands worldwide respect and adoration, with endless speculation on what he might look like behind his fully concealing uniform.
While your status as a progenitor and now, an incarnate, would block the totality of his "instant win" powers or usages, combat against him is currently not recommended due to his extreme versatility. His symbiont will quickly cycle through whatever powers it believes that he requires to survive or triumph in the current battle, and as such he has no consistent weaknesses or capabilities, forcing user reliance on precognition to stay ahead of his rapidly shifting repertoire. The primary saving grace is a lack of immediate awareness of how to use new abilities he might gain, but this is counterbalanced by Eidolon making sure to regularly practice with the more frequent sorts of powers he acquires to never be caught flatfooted by an ability he has no experience with.
Samus' Notes: Hrm, it seems that he tries to keep his name off of electronic records to avoid people finding it out. I wonder why? That strikes me as somewhat suspicious...
Arne's Notes: For one who claims to be of strong Christian faith, he lacks much in the way of Christian symbolism present upon his person. He also seems like he's got things to hide beyond his heavy usage of supplementary vials to boost his abilities.
Samus' gunship followed behind your strike fighter in autopilot mode while you looked behind yourself in the cockpit of your craft as it descended into the atmosphere. Ethan warning Joseph not to touch some of the instrumentation he could reach from his chair.
"Oh don't worry that's the entertainment menu." He said as Joseph looked giddy, pushed the button, and immediately got lost in a cavalcade of game and video options.
"Uh...we're not going to have time for any of that." You said as you jigged the controls slightly. You had groundbridged right over North America to shave a few seconds from the flight time, and the sleek craft flew with an escort of not just the Dormach, but also Jetfire's aerial squadron.
"Volva, sitrep please." Samus said, requesting the feminine A.I of the ship pull the necessary information out.
The report of another hostile dimension drew in Metas from Primal Earth like someone had kicked a war-wasp nest and threw it into the midst of a steel-bee hive. The Parahumans of Earth Bet were arriving as fast as they were able by any means possible, gathering for a spectacular but so far wholly nonlethal brawl that stood on the knife's edge of turning out nasty. It reminded you of how a lot of furballs got started. Some interceptors try to attack some incoming important assets only to stumble into the escorting fighters and call for reinforcements. Then the escorts would call for backup, forcing the reinforcements to call for more reinforcements, and then this would continue until no more available strike craft were in range for the call to service. The original objectives of the battle lost in the need to win the attritional engagement to not be on the backfoot.
Thinking about it, this was also how most freelancer or ultrasophont mega-brawls got started. Friends calling in friends when they ran into more than they expected and things spiralling from there in short order.
At this point people were coming in for the simple sake of a fight more often than not, and the pandemonium that was resulting was impressive to say the least. You were surprised at how quickly things were spiralling, but the comm chatter you picked up suggested that so many people just lived for a chance to get in fights like this that they were ferrying each other into the fray. There had to be hundreds of superpowered people here just...brawling for what seemed to be its own sake. This all seemed so stupid to you.
"...What are they even doing down there?!" Samus said, eyes widening as she leaned forwards on her seat.
"...Hahahah...what the fuck are we diving into?" Assault said with a nervous laugh before bumblebee beeped over the comms. Yeah, this did seem like a bit of a mess.
Laser Crusader: Shit why didn't you people tell me there was a raid going on?
Ectoplasmus: Because you slept through the voice call you fucking goober.
Laser Crusader: Gosh sorry, I'm here now aren't i?
Brawlastator: Haha haven't had this much fun since the last Rikti assault!
Starcrusher: That was literally five minutes ago!
Brawlastator: I know right?
Steel Paladin: Could you people focus? We're having our healers work overtime to minimise collateral damage. Who even are half you people?
Sir Arctic: Zounds, prayathee doth mine eyes not spot a dragon beyond yonder distance?
Chronolectra: Oh bother be, he won't cut his Shakespearean accent even for me!
Mynx: Well, you're the one with all the rhyming.
Ms. Liberty: Can we please, for the love of God; not get into a contest over who has the most annoying speech patterns?
Tin Mage: Be cautious when exerting yourselves. They are lacking in Mediportation grids so injuries inflicted on them will be long lasting.
Rundrasta: Hey, ya'll came ta party!
Positron: Who the hell is "Armsmaster" and why is he making speeches at me?
Ascendant: I have no idea, have you tried hitting him?
Positron: I mean, I'm content to just ignore him, he cons Grey anyway.
Penelope Yin: Keyes, they're fellow heroes here, must we continue on with force?
Positron: The Praetorian Power Division thought they were heroes too.
Numina: Certainly true, but I don't quite get that same sensation from this dimension.
Synapse: Plenty of babes here though.
Positron: Berry, keep it in your pants.
Synapse: I'm just saying...
Positron: Berry, stop being horny on the comm channel.
Ms.Liberty: Five minutes without plowing another supermodel and you're already thirsty. You are an absolute parody of yourself.
Synapse: You're all just jealous because you don't date three supermodels every day.
Fusionette: So what's this dimension's deal anyway?
Ephram Sha: It appears that powers here come solely from fragments of strange beings. Beings that desire conflict to learn and grow. We must be ready.
Numina: Keep pushing forward, their ranks will thin sooner than ours I believe,
Dawnmaker: Are most of you even aware of why we are even here in the first place? What purpose does this show of force serve?
Dark Watcher: The purposes of this conflict have shifted, we need to establish a beachhead and establish the facts about this world.
Apex: Suits me fine. We'll knock this place over like Praetoria in no time.
Stalwart: Preferably without Hamidon devouring this civilisation.
Dream Doctor: No need to fear, there is no incarnation of Hamidon here.
Stalwart: Fantastic!
Blast Furnace: Let's turn up the heat!
Rundrasta: Bruh, cringe fire puns.
Blast Furnace: Come on...like your ice puns are any better.
Rundrasta: Hey...they're not ice puns...they're...
Blast Furnace: Oh please don't say it, god please do-
Rundrasta: Nice Puns.
*Mass comm channel groans*
Invincibelle: Creeps tore my costume!
Sunstorm: When doesn't it tear?
Invincibelle: IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE ISSUE!
Citadel: Advising caution, one of them is a matter eraser.
Frostfire: Well now he's a popsicle, nyuk nyuk.
Luminary: Damn! One of them got Serpent Drummer.
Quiver Queen: A moment friends, I have the arrows for the occasion.
Citadel: He will be back shortly once the portal corps biopod has him ready to go again. In approxima-
Serpent Drummer: Who was the one who got the cheap shot on me?
Quiver Queen: I believe the one throwing the Ice Fractals.
Serpent Drummer: Many thanks.
Raid Rage: Hah, Eagle Eye's down, told you his powers sucked.
Rage Rave: Come on, have some sympathy.
Raid Rage: Dunno, sounds p cringe to me.
Rage Rave: You did not just call your sister cringe.
Raid Rage: Super cringe.
Rage Rave: Mavis I am going to pout.
Flambeaux: Aww this is like, so gonna look great on my Instagram.
Vector Shift: SHUT UP WITH YOUR VALLEY GIRL SHIT I SWEAR TO GOD!
Flambeaux: Tch, ruuuude. Just cuz I'm like, late twenties doesn't mean I can't do some stuff to act young. Ugh, get some like, manners kid.
Vector Shift: AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHH
Adamanta: Kek.
Vanguard Colonel: Stun rounds only, we're not at war yet people. Make sure we can get some for interrogation.
PPD Officer: Tons of these guys have got some power that's screwing with our robots.
Vanguard Colonel: Probably some powers limited to not function against biological entities at full effect, neutralise upon detection.
Dauntless: So I've gotten out of Warpspeed's time dilation chamber, what exactly is going on?
Warpspeed: Hahahahaha fucked if I know.
Adamant: I'm uh...pretty sure these guys are from Nightcaster and Eudaimonica's home reality.
Panacea: This is absolutely crazy. Who are any of these people?
Adamant: I am...pretty sure I knocked out that guy before, she just seems really pissed now.
Panacea: People, try to keep in a smaller formation, I can't reach all of you!
Velocity: Watch out they've god a speedster faster than I a-
Cerebro: Velocity's out cold.
Dragon: Is there anyone who can stop their speedster?
Cerebro: He moves at literal lightning speed and hits as hard as something moving that fast should to boot and can take the commensurate punishment, these people's powers don't work on the same principles ours do...so we'll need to adjust tactics.
Dragon: He's right. Try some sort of electromagnetic containment field. We're never going to tag someone who moves near light speed otherwise.
Cerebro: He can't resist the urge to taunt, lure him out with some sort of threat to his masculinity. Or perhaps...hrm...he likes to flirt...who has the biggest bust size here?
Dragon: That is...that might work? It's stupid, I hate that it might work, but it might work.
Cerebro: I'm not proud of it either.
Miss Militia: Why are there so many archers?
Kid Win: Renaissance fair? I don't know...seems hokey and overplayed to me.
Miss Militia: For that matter why do so many of them wear capes?
Kid Win: Mysteries of the un-...multiverse.
Clockblocker: Uhh...anyone got a spare mask I can wear?
Glory Girl: So...taking his supernova thing head on was...not ideal. I think I can see now.
Shadow Stalker: I'm...owww....
Vista: Hi ow.
Shadow Stalker: Sigh
Greased Lightning: Aww hell I ain't ready for Angel summoners.
Wanton: So...is this an every day occurrence in Brockton Bay?
Greased Lightning: Forgive me cussin' but hell no it ain't!
Wanton: Well...it at least got you to get your accent down to a manageable level. Small victories?
Greased Lightning: Awww fffffffffiddlesticks.
Wanton: Watch it there, keep at it and you might get us a PG rating.
Greased Lightning: Up yours.
Alexandria: These guys have heavy hitters just crawling out of the woodworks.
Eidolon: Then redouble your efforts.
Legend: This psychic scrambler thing from the wizard kid works...I'm pretty sure I'd be chicken dancing right now if it weren't for it.
Narwhal: A lot of them seem impossible to form forcefields within, some sort of power blocking me out.
Alexandria: Well don't give up, if we just keep at it they'll have to go home right?
Eidolon: One would hope, they seem to at least be fellow heroes, just...misled about our intentions.
Alexandria: So all this is over two children?
Legend: Well I mean...this is fun I'll admit.
Dragon: Fun is hardly what I'd call this mess.
Legend: Live a little, nobody's getting seriously hurt right?
Eidolon: I'll admit, this is quite the test of my powers.
Dauntless: Well, I'm having kind of a blast testing my new limits myself.
PRT Officer: Ugh what do I do against the power armoured troopers with the V symbols?
BBPD Officer: Hell if I know?! I'm out of here!
PRT Officer: Wait...where are you g-GET BACK HERE COWARD!
BBPD Officer: Yeah screw this I'm not paid for this shit.
PRT Officer: Brockton Bay's finest my ass...
Lady Photon: So I'd ask what the situation is here but...I can clearly see none of you know either.
Manpower: Yeah, join the fun.
Lady Photon: So who is in overall command here?
Military AWACS Callsign "Starmaker": That would be me, this situation's gotten out of hand to the point that I've been assigned. Callsign Starmaker.
Lancelot: Wait...the military?
Military AWACS Callsign "Starmaker": We're taking this as a possible invasion scenario. If you can't handle it, we're bringing in airstrikes.
Jessenova: Hahahaha what?
Manpower: I thought the idea was to try and avoid a war?
Military AWACS Callsign "Starmaker": Can't take that risk, came straight from the President's desk.
Julievolt: Why are there fighter jets overhead?
Lunaman: Probably because they're bringing aircraft themselves?
Julievolt: Isn't this all over literally...two people?
Sunkid: God there's so many people to fight, I've bagged at least three.
Earthstorm: Six
Julievolt: Twelve, keep up.
Lunaman: Stop measuring dicks, we're taking like three to one K.Os here and they just keep on coming.
Lunaman: Besides they seem to have some teleport and instant heal system going. We're gonna get worn down at this rate.
Plutonian: Not to mention they seem to have like...panaceas out the ass. Why do they get so many healers?
Lunaman: Shut the fuck up and keep fighting before the air force decides it wants to get involved.
Yeah this was...a mess to say the least. Flying superhumans trading blows high in the skies and more coming by various means, teleporters trying to bring in reinforcements from elsewhere in the bay or beyond, more primal earthers just pushing through the portal in a constantly increasing flow. Weather controllers had pushed the blizzard out of the way to provide more visibility while news crews from both worlds moved in to try and get the scoop; a cavalcade of information flowing outwards between the two planets as everyone sought to share what was the most exciting to watch battle in Brockton Bay's history.
The meeting engagement from the darkest pits of the lowest underworlds imaginable to your faith. Though your eyebrow certainly quirked when the Primals brought out an AWACS of their own, the craft immediately phasing partially out of reality and rising higher as the Vanguard craft asserted C&C functions over the raid league pouring into Earth Bet.
"...Uhh...damn is it double security level merit day or something?" Nightcaster said, eyes bulging in his goggles as you could just feel things teeter on the brink of catastrophe; primal earth and earth bet aircraft starting to warily make passes at each other, waiting for the order to fire.
"So uh...what's the plan?" Alice said nervously.
"Assault, Battery...try to talk your...side I guess down? Nightcaster, Eudaimonica...same. I'm going to drop in with the autobots, keep them from fighting any more. Samus...you can talk to everyone right?" You said as she gave you a nod back before you opened the bottom hatch of the Sleipnir as it descended in cloaked form faster than the Vanguard or USAF aircraft could track before detaching from your chair and rolling out the bottom of your craft, descending through the maelstrom of brawling at supersonic speeds while Jetfire transformed with the rest of his aerial squadron; a number of ground bridges opening up behind you to let the Autobots through with nonlethal containment weapons at the ready.
For a moment, all eyes were on you in a display that made you feel distinctly uncomfortable. This sort of attention made you feel rather self-conscious, but the images of ruin wouldn't leave your mind. Samus landed nearby, patching herself into the communications arrays while you pushed yourself to your full height atop Jetfire's shoulders; Nightcaster and Eudaimonica flying where they could be seen as Winterpyre emerged from her Tiara and expanded into a larger than prior form, wings emerging from his back to carry himself into the air while Eudaimonica and Nightcaster grabbed onto his horns, the demon's call to order being heard over the din of battle.
The demon's roar getting even Positron's attentions in the midst of his rampage through much of the Protectorate as he was about to deliver a knockout blow to the barely conscious Armsmaster whose seconds long battle with Positron had ended in a rather brutal blow to Colin's pride; his throat in his hand while Eidolon was bringing the hammer down on Iybraa to reinforce legend, throwing dozens of supermassive projectiles at her to overwhelm her shielding, pushing the incarnate back as she reacted to the new threat.
Beams then formed inside of her barrier, striking her and searing into her Vondon armour, which held but drew pained grunts from her. Her attempts to crush him halted by his containment fields, blocking off the incoming blows cold and pinning her to a building with more of his rays, a casual wave of his hand blocking off Citadel's support with a second containment field; halting the Incarnate Robot in a hurry only to stop when he had seen the Demon King rise from the ground; unchaining more of his true form from his hellish realm; rising to many dozens of meters with a hateful snarl curling from his obsidian maw.
Samus: You all need to stop fighting now!
Eidolon: Who are you...what sort of...monster have you brought here?
Positron: ...Eudaimonica? You alright kid?
Eudaimonica: Yeah, fine.
Positron: Since when did Winterpyre manifest that much of himself outside of his realm?
Winterpyre: Should you persist in this foolishness, I would be forced to take action.
Infernal: I've been waiting for a chance like that.
Winterpyre: Not the time nor the place.
Samus: Look, who I am is not important, what matters is that you are all in very serious danger if you keep going like this.
Jetfire: She's right...you've all got something a lot bigger than a squabble between earths heading your way chaps. A lot more of it at that.
Eidolon: The Balrog in our midst being evidence of this?
Samus: The...no...look, we have footage. Your worlds are at risk of alien invasion, they are already among you!
Positron: I seem to be looking at alien robots right now.
Jetfire: Look, lemme explain.
Jetfire: We're the autobots, and our job is to protect blokes like you from would be conquerors.
Jetfire: You, earth Bet types, you know Munich?
Samus: I was there, the...Nazis were being backed by one of the alien invaders on your world.
Eidolon: Aliens?
Samus: Mhrm.
Positron: Aliens...did they mention a Coming Storm?
Samus: Yes! In the 5th column and Weltreich datalogs.
Positron: Requiem...of course. Should have known he'd try to find more places to get racist trash to expand his armies.
Eidolon: Are you of either of our realms?
Jetfire: No.
Samus: No.
Eidolon: Hrm...troubling.
Jetfire: And there's more than our four metaverses involved. Look, something really, really fraggin' big's goin' on and it's got reality fallin' apart at the seams. We're in for the apocalypse mates. Now, you lot can pound the snot out of each other, fine. Then you both get smashed to bits by what's comin'.
Samus: I...I have visions, you all die if you let this escalate to a war.
Eidolon: ...I see.
Positron: That would explain Dream Doctor's doomsaying increasing to a greater than usual degree.
Positron: Alright. Let's meet up.
You were a bit busier though with firing off charged paralyzer bolts at anyone who seemed ready to want to keep fighting, luckily most of the people here were willing to pause for a bit, but you had to deal with a number of stragglers and troublemakers. Synapse, perhaps too caught up showboating, was someone you had to catch. He was fast to be sure, but the report on him was right, all you had to do to draw him out was to show your own speed, and he was trying to outrace you in no-time.
He was fast, but you were fast too if perhaps not quite as fast in a run as he was, you were faster to react, and precognitive, and you snared at his feet with the grapple beam to rope him into a gentle stop, glaring at him through the monocular stare of your helmet's optics.
"Stop." You said simply, harshly, gesturing to Nightcaster and Eudaimonica as they waved back.
"You want to go ten rounds bug man?" He said, looking at your armour with a confident glare before Positron landed next to him, dropping a groaning Armsmaster by his side while Eidolon flew next to you.
"Posi, come on are you trusting these guys?" He said, Keyes rubbing his brow even with his helmet on and looking at Synapse with a glare that could best be summed up as "severely disappointed."
"Berry, please, the adults are talking." He said before shooing him away.
"Raymond I'm nearly forty fi-"
"You act like you're nine." He said with a prolonged sigh.
"I grew up after Cole passed on, clearly you haven't." He said coldly to Synapse in a way that immediately told you they had something of a strained friendship. Synapse grumbled as you let him go, speeding off to...yeah he was flirting with one of the Primal Earth metas already. That seemed right for the sort of man you expected him to be.
"Alright, we'll hear you out." Positron said, looking back to the group. "Everyone, stand down please." He said, offering a hand out before sending out a stand down signal.
"+Everyone, stand down, now.+" Eidolon commanded, the remaining brawls coming to a sudden halt while Samus stepped beside you and gave you a thumbs up.
"...Mommy...the train went swimming in the piano..." Armsmaster grumbled on the ground as he faded in and out of consciousness while Eidolon looked down with some concern and touched him to mend his injuries, bringing him up with a start and a shake of his head before he backed away from Positron.
"...No hard feelings." The Anti-matter Avenger said, giving a thumbs up.
"Speak then, what news do you bring of the end times?" Eidolon said.
Actions: (Specify Samus or Arne)
[]: Start with how you got here
[]: Start with the threats you're most familiar with (Space Pirates, mysterious Wormhole Junction operators)
[]: Start with the omnipresent computer virus that is literally tracking all of their data right now.
[]: Start with the Weltreich
[]: Start with the Chozo and Alimbics relics and the power they represent
[]: Start with prompting the Autobots to speak
[]: Write in
Last edited:
Character Profile: Winterpyre, High Demon King of the Frostflame
Winterpyre, a title given to him in lieu of speaking the most commonly uttered fragments of his true name; Crydiaboloch; was once known as a destroyer of nations and a despoiler of worlds who had brought ruin across countless dimensions and caused the deaths of innumerable beings as his armies devoured realms to be added into his Hell of the Frostflame; Coclegestus. However, over the millennia, he came to have a change of heart; despairing of the constant destruction he had caused and having an epiphany regarding the suffering he caused, not merely to deserving sinners but to endless innocents laid to waste by his rampages and devilry. He began to mellow, and sought to atone, rebuilding where he had once destroyed, healing where he had once harmed, turning the legions bound to him to good and noble causes.
He would come to encounter the Dahl Family who summoned him to Primal Earth, hardly the first time he had been there but he sensed that the family sought to make use of his powers for a better cause; and he soon came to dote upon their young Daughter Alice, seeing in her a path to redemption for himself and his people. He agreed to serve her faithfully, limiting himself to a smaller, less intimidating form more akin to the ice demon princes often summoned by Demonomancers unless more of his power was needed. But ever hints of his true abyssal majesty would leak through; hints at the far more massive and powerful being behind the facade of being yet another major demon summoned by a too young caster. The truth though is that Eudaimonica does not use any bindings on him, the shackles on his power are of his own design; and he obeys her out of love, not fealty.
Considering her to be like a daughter, Crydiaboloch became fiercely protective of Alice, always moving to take harm for her sake due to his virtual immunity to pain and the futility of trying to kill him, not only because of his nature as an immortal demon able to reform in his hell whenever slain; but also because only a few could ever draw out the entirety of his titanic form; a form whose wings would cause an eclipse and whose flames have brought the end of days to countless worlds. However, it is not easy for him to manifest at his full grandeur, for moving so much infernal mass at once is something that there are a great many restrictions on for good reason. Manifesting the entirety of his form would require either a truly tremendous apocalypse ritual or a massive breakdown of reality itself.
In most cases, Crydiaboloch is simply a powerful servant, but hardly able to end most battles of his own accord save through outlasting any attempts at destroying him given his tremendous regenerative powers and the minute portions of his body that most foes get to interact with. To confront him in his own realm though, is a mistake few make twice. For it is a realm that he has great control over, bound to him as it is. It is also a realm where one would have to confront his demons and his hellbeasts in the totality of their numbers, in a place where to inflict a true death upon them is something that most would struggle with without the right rituals and equipment.
But he is not without weakness, such as to cold forged Iron blessed by the heavens that remains anathema to his nature and body as the power of the Choir realms always is, and of course; his dependency on Alice. Without her, his hold on the material plane weakens and he is forced to devote more of his power to trying to remain anchored without the proper rituals to remain on the material plane, making him more easily banished or bested while much of the lesser demons are banished instantly in case Alice is knocked out or worse yet, killed. Should his adored one truly perish though, Winterpyre will lose most of his desire to keep fighting for his cause; and retreat to the depths of his hellish fortresses to wallow in pity under the weight of his failure.
His devotion to the girl he has, against most rational reason, decided to adopt also clouds much of his judgement. He will abandon most other plans to focus entirely on Alice's defense should she be in mortal danger, and he continually sees threats around her to the point of sometimes being a difficulty in her life as he chases away potential dates he deems unworthy of her affection, intimidates teachers at Statesman Academy who seek to fail her or even give an insufficiently high mark, even chasing people out of movie theatres when she complains about them talking in the midst of a film. His tendency to assume the worst out of anyone who approaches her with the intention of befriending her or dating her has made her social life suffer somewhat, as few wish to risk the ire of a High King amongst Demons or his many vexing curses.
His habit of helping her cheat on exams by whispering the answers to her and doing her homework and school projects for her also has caused her actual knowledge of heroing and magic that she is supposed to learn to suffer; increasingly relying on the teachings of the Frostflame Hell directly rather than her curriculum. Something that has impeded her knowledge of Pyromancy and especially the Cryomancy she is supposed to be learning in addition to Hell magic. He also has a soft spot for Children he sees as suffering in general, a form of his atonement for the endless orphans and trauma victims he left in the past, duty bound to try and aid those he sees as being left in pain from their traumas and circumstances. Against the youth, he never fights to kill unless his foe is simply a monster wearing the form of a child.
As a High King of Demons, Winterpyre is an Incarnate being and as such has a great many resistances and immunities; and of course as a being of frost and flame, heat and cold are virtually useless as tools against him, and his physical prowess is enormous; supplemented by a vast and versatile array of magics at his disposal. However, against foes especially resistant to magic, his offensive abilities diminish, as does much of his versatility. He has not developed his connection to the Well of Furies as much as one would think for a being as old as he is, and the path of the Incarnate is something he is more academically than practically familiar with despite the numerous tomes on it in his demonic libraries. Something he has sought to alleviate.
However, his greatest shame is that he often takes it upon himself to deal with foes that Alice; who refuses to use lethal force in general; is too innocent or naive to; in his eyes; see the need to deal with permanently. A number of villains and monsters have been outright killed by Winterpyre altogether, sometimes even having their souls scourged into oblivion to make it far harder to raise them again; usually out of Alice's sight. He always tells her that he has simply sent them to be reformed in his fortresses in the Frostflame, but in truth, only some are ever sent to this place, others facing oblivion or simply having been killed on the spot by the Demon or his servants. It is something he fears Eudaimonica learning one day, and his mind is uneasy with the fear of what she will say or do if she ever finds out.
Eudaimonica's attainment of Incarnate status brings Winterpyre much relief, for he feared having to watch Alice die of old age if she refused to use her hell magics to sustain her life and youth. His emotional dependency on her is often baffling, but may be due to him not having any currently minor children of his own; all of his brood having grown up a long time ago, many opposing his turn towards the light and even doing battle with him. Something that brings him a great deal of grief whenever he proves unable to convince his still wayward descendants of the righteousness of his particular path and way.
The Midnight Club and Freedom Phalanx are well aware of what Winterpyre actually is, as is the Circle of Thorns that seeks to bind him into their service and turn him back into the world ruiner he once was. The Hellions, that infamous lowlife satanist gang, also worship him by his old titles, praying for the time that he may return to evil and the glory of whom they believe to be Satan. Those who continue to appreciate his old work bother him as much as those who believe that he may very well be putting on a facade and may still be the apocalypse demon he once was underneath it all.
"Jetfire, you know this place better than I do. You should start." You said, nodding to the Autobot Air Commander. He stepped forward, white armour gleaming in the revealed sun and red helm distinctive amidst the crowd. As a nineteen and a half meter tall robot, he certainly grabbed attention; the wings of his Sukhoi alt mode blocking out some of the daylight streaming in from behind him.
"Eh you sure miss? I ain't really much for big speeches an' all that. But if ye like." He said, turning towards you while Arne
"Right lads, name's something you lot can't pronounce; but ye can call me Jetfire. Spiffin' lad, one of the right hand bots meself. But I'll be honest with you. Not much for dramatic speeches, not like Prime. So I figure, why the 'ell not. Gave 'im a call 'fore we set out and well..." Jetfire said as he stepped to the side, a hard-light holographic recreation of a figure that even you felt briefly awed to see. A blue helmet and legs, a red chest and arms, interspersed with chrome joints; armour-plated like a knight of old with noble blue optics that hit you with every second of the untold millions of years of war he had waged for freedom and justice's sake. Even in holographic form, he had a presence you could call...divine. An anointed of a higher power. The same sort of holy presence you felt from looking at the avatars of the Chozo Ancestor gods, calming and benevolent like Old Bird.
Positron and Eidolon's thoughts stilled, Arne staggered before recovering his footing, Winterpyre recoiled slightly, and all the Autobots quickly saluted. For a moment, the red hot hostility of the world seemed to just melt, and everyone hinged on what this figure, a titan of justice, might say next.
You fished out a name through his truly ancient strand in the Causeways of Destiny, a cable of inviolable fate. A name you had heard before, but only now known to associate with this figure.
"Optimus Prime." You said in a reverent breath.
"Ummm...hi." You said, a little louder, a little bolder, mind trying to analyse every mechanism, every bolt and fibre of his being in an attempt to make sense of how he worked.
"Is there...something inside you? Something else...I feel something so old and wise inside you. C-can you tell me?! I...what are your..." You realised that you were making a fool of yourself and bit your tongue, shying away a bit as you completely fumbled your first words. "I am the Hatchling of the Chozo, I have fought alongside your autobots. It is an honour to be alongside someone like yourself."
"The honour is mine. I have been shown that you are brave and wise far beyond your years, and it is quite rare for a human to suspect the presence of Primus' Matrix inside of me, even rarer without seeing me in person. Though I do not have the honour of knowing the Chozo very well, they clearly made a wise decision to take you in their care. I hope to fight by your side some day soon." He said with fatherly pride despite having just met you. You beamed beneath your helmet, offering him one of your thumbs ups as he made the effort to return the gesture towards you.
"I...hi...hello...I'm uh...Neophyte of the Alimbics...I worked with...working with your aut...I accompany her an...who uh, wow you are really tall." Arne said, his words even clumsier as he tried to fish around for any terms. "I...I'm sorry I'm interrupting." He said, shyly looking away as Optimus Prime shook his head and offered his holographic hand out to Arne and yourself to lift the two of you up closer to him, the hard-light feeling just as solid and real as any metal and giving you an approximation of the sensation of actually being on his hand.
"No. You are not. I have been told much about your valour so far. From what you have shared with my comrades in arms, and the bravery of your struggle to save worlds not your own. I could only wish to be honoured with your direct presence, but alas this long war calls me to fronts far away from your world for now. Know that you have my respect, and that while you remain separated from your caretakers, my Autobots will be glad to assist you in whatever way they can." He responded, your hand reaching out to one of his thumbs before he let you stand upon his shoulders and looked out at the gathered humans and not so humans before him, the Autobots keeping in a respectful formation around his avatar.
"Prime, gonna spoil tha' kids if ye keep this up." Jetfire said with a laugh.
"If what you told me of what they have been through is accurate, spoiling them would be the least I could do." He said with an avuncular tone as Windblade laughed and shook her head.
"Optimus Prime...is that a code name?" Positron said before Eidolon shook his head.
"Doubtful, a translation of a title. I suspect your true name would be difficult to pronounce yes?" He said.
"That would be the correct assumption. I am Optimus Prime, current Paramount Leader of the Autobot Revolutionary Alliance. My forces have been among your two worlds in hiding for many years, seeking to counter our Decepticon foes already amongst your ranks." He said, deciding to dispense with the masquerade almost immediately while Bumblebee played a "robots in disguise" jingle that you didn't recognise but were sure would stick in your head for the next few days.
"I have suspected that there were unusual mechanical presences within a great many vehicles for some time now. You are mechanical, correct?" Citadel said.
"We are indeed. We are mechanical life forms who originated in the metallic world of Cybertron in a reality far beyond your own. Our race has however, long been sundered in the throes of civil war since what you would consider to be the triassic period." He said, allowing the Hologram to show a beautiful gem of a metallic planet, much larger than Earth. A history of expansion and colonisation in all direction stretched over a truly enormous gulf of time. You almost took a step back though when the planet started to erupt in a series of detonations and swarmed with warships that spread all across what the Cybertronians considered to be the known universe. You already had an inkling of it...but seeing it in such visualised form was shocking; especially as the timer counted down millions of years, just spent in endless, ceaseless total war.
"A conflict between we who fought to abolish the caste system, the ideology of spark supremacy, and to end our history of grueling conflicts over pointless conquests; those who sought to preserve the system for themselves and maintain their aristocratic and imperial power; and those who believed that the only path for our race was the subjugation and exploitation of all of existence to rejuvenate what they saw as an ailing nation held back by weakness. The Autobots, the Imperidroids, and the Decepticons. But in the millions of your years we have fought, we have only fractured farther, our civilization stagnating as our best and brightest perished in the trenches of ceaseless conflict." He said, clearly using some sort of compulsion not to make people believe a lie, but to know that he spoke only truth. You could verify as much yourself with a brief glimpse at his enormous tendril in fate, interlocked to an impossible number of other destinies, seeing so many people entwined with his own fate come to a sudden end. Was it his Matrix? It must be...you could feel such...blessed wisdom from it. This was someone who did not take to lying often.
"So, why not speak to us about this beforehand? We could have worked together and helped stop things earlier. Hell...there's been so many conflicts we've had you could have helped with!" Positron said, not angry so much as...needing. Needing to know why.
"Why didn't you help before?" You asked, also needing to hear it from him himself.
"My apologies, we try to preserve indigenous civilizations from the trauma of being drawn into our politics as best we can. We have worked with some of your agencies in the shadows, but to drive the Decepticons out of hiding means to invite them to escalate to overt force. As devastating as many of your prior conflicts have been, it would hardly compare to the Decepticons deciding it would be easier to annihilate your Solar system to extract its resources than to take the political costs of losing access to your wealth. And once the Decepticons emerge from hiding, so will other threats, lest they risk falling behind our oldest foes' progress in attempting to usurp your world for their gain. Our revelation here already guarantees that they will begin to take greater action. Though it pains me to say it, we must be ready for a higher form of warfare. One I fear all elements of the worlds under threat may not be willing to aid us in." He said with a heavy, grave tone as he looked upon the city as if it was already in ruins and sighed.
Arne
Being in Optimus hand, even in holographic form, made you feel alive with a holy presence. Something you rarely felt amidst the secular alimbics who had taken care of you...but sweet mother Elmorni often brought you relics of your clan's faith, and that same feeling of being valued and treasured filled you now as your eyes met with Optimus' optics, even if only for a moment. It almost was disappointing to be let go by him to rest upon his shoulders, not without saying something to earn his approval. But you had your chance now.
"I...I don't think I've met any Decepticons yet. But we have direct proof of at least two of the empires trying to conquer these joined worlds. The uh...Rikti and the Weltreich. How much do you know of the Nictus?" You said, trying to focus just on what was important to say so that you didn't trip on your own tongue. Gods, why was it easier to fight to the death than talk to some people?
"More than enough to know that the Kheldians' struggle with them has many parallels with our own civil war." He said, looking to Positron who flew to a height more level with Prime.
"Nictus...Weltreich. So this is where the Nazis have been getting more superhuman muscle. People with powers who didn't fit our system. Origins that don't make sense...they must be coming here to escape the Coming Storm." Positron said, realisation flooding through him.
"That's not...that's not going to work, it's going to spread through every linked reality." You said, bluntly; Eidolon's attention focused on you now.
Samus stepped up though, knowing that of the two of you; she was merely semifunctional rather than awkward....most of the time. "You can use all sorts of powers right? Discarding them to get new ones as you need them...you can see the future, like we can, yes?" She said. "I know you don't have full control over it, but perhaps you could attempt to grasp some sort of long-term precognition? Probablistic so you can determine what's likely to happen." You added as Eidolon nodded in response.
"If I am fortunate that should be...yes..." He seemed to pause for a moment before going absolutely stock still. "I see...fortunate then that you have stopped those on the side of light from waging civil war for now." He said, looking towards Positron as he flew up, offering a hand to the armoured scion of Prometheus.
"Hey, personally; I'm much bigger on diplomacy and trade with alternate earths than adding yet another enemy to the list." Positron said as he took the hand and gave a handshake that you could just about sense the footfalls of the significance of. The sense of doom faded somewhat, probabilities becoming just a bit more likely to end in something beyond the Great Filter.
"You...have a list of other Earths you consider enemies?" He said, slightly disquieted by the idea of having so many foes that an entire list would need to be made.
"Growing constantly I'm afraid." He said as Raymond and David broke off their handshake while Legend, seemingly miffed that Positron was mostly talking to Eidolon and not him, harrumphed to move in a bit closer and offered his own hand to shake.
"I'll give you credit, not a whole lot of people could go that many rounds with Iybraa for that long." He said, Legend giving a smile and a nod.
"I had her in the bag."
"She's fifteen, please don't put her in a bag." Raymond said in a deadpan voice that took you five seconds to realise was a joke before you started to chuckle.
"She will probably adapt to Eidolon's trick though...but you two...can you pass me all the files you've got from the Reich? If the Nictus are planning something this big, I need to get ready. Got so much to worry about these days..." He said, looking to you as your suit interfaced with his for a moment. You then realised something.
His power armour didn't have the Virus. His suit was uninfected by whatever malware was being passed around the computer systems here like wildfire. Should you say something to him? Was it the fire of Prometheus that burned within him? You weren't exactly sure, but you did take the hand he offered to shake firmly.
One of the enormous dragon suits flew overhead as you passed out the data you had collected to every system in the area capable of receiving it; your armour uploading the information it had gathered at blinding speeds, compressing the information wherever necessary to fit into more primitive systems as you could feel the technology around you. Compromised in nearly every case by some malady that seemed to leech at the information you threw out to the infected systems, sending it to some distant set of networked servers and bounced around in a labyrinthine set of duds and rewirings that even you couldn't quite trace the true origin of. Not without more data to properly triangulate anyway. Whoever wrote this program was an expert at making sure that their trail would not be followed; cutting connections whenever the malware sensed your presence to leave dead trails.
You had excised all the personal information from the data you collected. You were still...unsure on whether to give out your actual name to these people for the most part, at least in public anyway. Being able to slink back into obscurity by simply not wearing your armour or using an alternate look for your suit was a nice thought. And the attention of the news crews around you made you thoroughly nervous.
"If this is only one of many dangers, then we are in grave peril. They are mobilising for further strikes that will likely fall on this city and Paragon next. Now...I know the two of you are young, but I would like to ask you a favour. Can you help monitor the situation here for some time? As we discern the extent of this linking of realities, your ability to gather information has proven to be as invaluable as your raw battle prowess." Optimus' holographic avatar said as he offered his hand for the two of you to get onto, lowering you to the ground and looking at you.
"I...yeah. We can." You said, sucking in a breath and puffing out your chest.
"I'd really like that...there's just so much here to see! It's like a museum!" Samus said cheerfully, grinning beneath her helmet while you stood yourself straighter.
"Excellent. Now, for our first order of business, I will allow Kyrion to speak. He has been an invaluable ally, and an important resource on your capabilities and what dangers may come from what you call home." Optimus said as Kyrion's holographic avatar cut in with a nod, wave and salute.
"Thank you Urglik Prime."
"You are of course welcome."
"Now...I have come to suggest the possibility of perhaps forming embassy and means ensuring cooperation. We are still a ways yet from forming a more united organisation for the defence of the imperiled worlds, but with what we have on hand...we could work something out. At least get the foundations started. This portal site seems to be as good of a place as any." Kyrion said, looking at the swirling rift between realities and then back towards you all.
"Wait...who are you?" Legend asked, folding his arms.
"Anti-Imperialist Agent, Revolutionary Subversive, and general pain in the back sides of people who would like to conquer and exploit lower tech civilisations for their benefit. You can call me Kyrion, I come from Section 13 of the Intelligence Services of the Omdyn of Democratic Council Omnipragmatist Republics. The boy there and I come from the same country, though not of the same nation. I share a home reality with the two of them you see; in the far off year of fifty thousand and fourteen." They said, spindly limbs adjusting themselves as they spoke with an almost genteel demeanour, the synthetic offering nod and gesticulating in an articulate manner you studied intently, in the hopes of coming off as sophisticated as the spymaster at some point.
"So basically space KGB?" Legend asked.
"Crude but somewhere within the ballpark." They answered, curt, polite, and efficient. All things you wish you could be with your speech. "Ah right, baseball is a bit of a passing fad of a sport...somewhere in the vicinity of the dodgeball target." They said, a shift in tone indicating a joke that got you to laugh again.
"How did you know I played dodgeball?" Legend said as the synth shrugged its shoulders.
"You've got the aim of a star player, Urglik Legend."
"So...what now?" Samus asked, speaking up and craning her head towards you.
"Yeah just let me think about...what are we supposed to call you two again? You've changed codenames a bunch...might be fine for bouncing from planet to planet but well, if you're going to stay here. Try a consistent one. It'll stick better. Even with your armour's uh, appearance changes." Legend said.
"I'd like to add another thing. If you're going to work with us; I'd like to offer my personal recommendation to the Freedom Phalanx. I've taken a moment to look over your data and well, to be frank, I'd love to have you on the team." Positron said, offering a hand. "Of course, you don't have to decide now. Have a think about it though." He offered.
"Look, we've met before and you'll be hanging around here so why not give the Protectorate or the Wards a go?" You frowned at the thought of that. Your knowledge of what pre-space faring America was made the idea of serving in its law enforcement sit in your stomach like itching powder.
"Oi well, if it's all the same...Autobots don't mind bringin' in non-cybertronians." Jetfire pitched in.
The Otmetsolsoza would probably also be interested come to think about it but...tying yourself to any one government...
"Hey, if you wanna hang out with the Starsetters well...I think you're cool!" Alice said from atop Winterpyre who gave a nod and a snort of flame.
"Could you give us some time to think, please?" You said, looking to Samus.
Hero Name voting:
Arne Choices:
[]: Nova Knight (CommNet chat handle)
[]: Eagle-Squire (Meaning of first name, rank amongst Alimbics)
[]: Ranger (Codename from mysterious black ops organisation that levelled Cylosis)
[]: Primoris (Primary title amongst Alimbics)
[]: Duskguard (Affectionate nickname from Elmorni)
[]: Sylux (Name of future alter ego)
[]: Neophyte (Prophetic title from Alimbics)
[]: Sigtyr (Name of Odin)
[]: Sarxyl Avar (Alimbic name)
[]: Go with actual name and dispense with secret identity
[]: Write in
Samus Choices:
[]: Hatching Sentinel (CommNet chat handle)
[]: Huntress (Future title from Space Pirates)
[]: Metroid (Word for Ultimate Warrior among certain Chozo dialects)
[]: Hatchling (Prophetic title from Chozo)
[]: Dawnchild (Affectionate nickname from Old Bird)
[]: Goldraven (Pet name from friends)
[]: Inheritor (Primary title amongst Chozo)
[]: Aine (Celtic Goddess)
[]: Aira-Sekh (Chozo Name)
[]: Go with actual name and dispense with secret identity
[]: Write in
Team Choice (Arne and Samus must choose the same option):
[]: Freedom Phalanx: (Independence from most governments, strong ties to primal earth, lots of mentor options, frequent free upgrades, large variety of power origins to work with, second best regular income of Incarnate components. Requires revealed identity, will be placed into Sidekick program.)
[]: Protectorate (Strong ties to Earth Bet, legal privileges on Earth bet, regular guaranteed income, access to Shard powers to study and tinkertech, comes with caveat of greater need to follow regulations and participation in schooling system. Requires secret identity.)
[]: Otmetsolsoza (The Protectorate but Soviet. Much of the same regulations as the Protectorate and the same benefits. This is more if you want to see more of Molotok and Serp and their friends.)
[]: Autobots (Strong ties to the Transformers, best mentor options, highly sophisticated technology to study and incorporate, lower numbers, lack of people in peer group, facilities have human comfort mostly as a secondary concern; politically well suited, autobots generally very experienced with working with children.)
[]: Section 13 (Strong ties to Metroid universe, most understanding of Chozo and Alimbic relics and how you operate, weakest presence on these earths so far, gives the most operational freedom to operate the way you'd expect Samus and Sylux to. Significant grab bag of upgrades to access. Very politically well suited, few people in peer group at the moment.)
[]: Starsetters (Independence from most governments, strong ties to primal earth, largest peer group due to mostly being made out of kids and people a bit outside the normal experience of humanity, no need to reveal identity, significant incarnate component access, broad range of power origin upgrades to incorporate. Socially somewhat misfitted with humans. Tends to have the least access privileges.)
[]: Vanguard (Strong ties to Primal earth, enormous array of equipment to choose from for regular upgrades and training, best incarnate income, significant salary, a great deal of freedom to operate in most cases. Tied to the Primal Earth United Nations, most militaristic, has some...morally questionable company due to their open-door policy. First target for alien infiltrators on Primal Earth. No identity policy.)
[]: Suggest starting on that new organisation (Most freedom, has to start up from scratch and puts burden of leadership more squarely on you two but can be tailored to your desires.)
[]: Ask people to make offers and show why you should join them.
[]: Remain independent for now (May be able to make choice later when opportunities arise.)
[]: Write in
Genuinely surprised to see Sylux not being chosen at all.
Though to be fair, the road Arne takes to becoming Sylux in Saga is one of heartbreak and a deeply painful revelation about the people who scoured his homeworld to ruin for the promise of getting their hands on some Alimbic technology that he was not prepared to handle after the Chozo, Alimbics, and rather importantly for Skjoldr; Elmorni; were no longer involved in the lives of their charges.
The following is not really a Saga spoiler since this isn't treated as a dramatic reveal so much as it is an inevitable discovery; for one thing, the reader knows who destroyed the people of Cylosis long before Arne ever does. Think of it like how Anakin's fall into Darth Vader is treated, you know it's going to happen and the general gist of how it happens long before you ever see it happen. Besides, this doesn't contain a lot of the important details in the future chapters of Metroid: Saga that would actually be treated as surprises.
The people who scour Cylosis are of course, the Galactic Federation's Black Ops paramilitary outfit under the command of its intelligence service rather than its military chain of command or civilian government; the Rapid Armed Intelligence Division or R.A.I.D. Whose basic soldiers are basically Astartes+1; more than three meter tall posthuman power suit clad bioborg killing machines with automatic mini-missile launchers as standard issue meant to be able to fight mainline space pirates; who based on model scaling are 11-13 feet tall; with individual superiority rather than the Federation's usual tactics of greater numbers and heavy reliance on vehicles. And of course, outmatch other combatants like Kriken Soldiery, Omdyni Mech-Grenadiers, or Vhozon Confessors.
Though Samus doesn't know of them because the R.A.I.D is a deeply buried secret to the point of not even officially existing and having a completely off the books R&D and logistical/industrial complex and chain, when Arne finds out about it after most of the resusticated Alimbics are wiped out again by a betrayal from within the ranks by the anti-Arne faction of Almbics and the Zebesian Chozo get plastered by Mother Brain betraying them to the Space Pirates after obscuring their visions with her psychic powers he assumes the worst. It goes down shortly before zero mission just after their seventeenth birthdays; a bit less than two years after the betrayal; Arne finally finding what the RAID really is; no longer knowing who to trust after having had some severe downspirals, and just leaving Samus and ghosting her to let her think he killed himself so he can face the Alimbic faction that was against him before its partnership with the RAID bears fruit in a way that would radically alter the balance of power. Leaving Samus to go return to Zebes on her own to do battle with Mother Brain and Ridley.
Both face their betrayers and their new allies made from the people who orphaned them. Samus merges the Ancient Chozo armour that was always made to be acquired by her with her own suit to grow her understanding of ancient Chozo technology; Arne acquires the Armour of an Alimbic Paladin and more importantly; the Sylux armour designed by the traitor Alimbics as part of a suite of inventions meant to provide the means of bolstering their combat capability to progenitor levels. Arne takes the name of the Armour and assumes his new identity and remains in it for years; hiding himself out of shame and an incredibly unhealthy mix of emotions he's not in the right headspace to handle. He doesn't become evil so much as broken and lonely, having failed to deal with his childhood trauma the way Samus did and becoming a lesser, darker hero than her for it.
In Saga, it'd take years for the actual truth to come out and reconciliation to begin, here, you can stop his fall from ever happening to begin with. Just make sure his mental state remains in good condition and make sure he gets friends. He's not only an orphan, but a victim of severe physical and emotional abuse from Zurvduat who not only never loved him but came to hate him for being; in the general's opinion; soft. An overly sensitive crybaby overly attached to the legacy of the corpses of his birth parents, always reading through the texts Gyda and Erik Skjoldr wrote on politics, philosophy, guerilla warfare, sociology, and more that Elmorni; chief of research on the Alimbic ship that Arne's parents uncovered and accidentally revitalised; encouraged him to indulge himself in to grow a connection to his human side.
Zurvduat's hatred was only further worsened because his actual biological children all died when Gorea devoured the Alimbic Tetrarch Order; and he woke up to a universe where the country he served and the family legacy he cultivated for hundreds of thousands of years was all dust in the wind for the last fifty thousand years. Despite all the man hours he spent searching, he never found any proof that any of his offspring reached safety in stasis, and now he had to raise a sniveling smoothskin whom Elmorni continually sabotaged his attempts to try and make a simple, pliable philosopher-soldier and a template for human-alimbic hybrid soldiers to help rebuild the empire with their hugely depleted manpower. And perhaps even one day being useful bodies for the countless disembodied Alimbic telepathic essences left by the sudden, traumatic demise of the whole of the Alimbic species; such as say, his eldest and most favoured son.
So Arne's a pretty broken person who has a black hole of trauma in place of a proper father figure and has a tendency to wilt from pressure from people who remind him of Zurvduat on top of his terror from Cylosis' demise. He's desperate to please people he likes, tries to not bother them with his problems if he can help it, continually insecure regarding ever displaying any signs of weakness from his person, and constantly doubting himself. Being put through training like running the same six-hour long (not six hours from his accelerated perspective of time, six hours from our perspective of time so it's even longer for him) combat scenario again and again, having to repeat from the very beginning any time he made a mistake as small as overkilling a single drone, for five days without pause or rest, made him into a neurotic mess of self-criticism.
Samus' problems are more to do with her tendency to be overtly selfless and need to just help everyone in sight. An obsession with fixing everything she can to try and make it so nobody goes through what she did on K-2L ever again. She doesn't know how to take a breather, while she criticises Arne for not thinking about himself enough, nobody pushes themselves quite the way she does to try and help out others. She's the kind of person who spends endless hours thinking about how they can help solve everyone's problems large and small and will spend whole months without getting enough rest or down time just trying to find out how she can save either the multiverse or just some people she thinks are down on their luck. She's burning the candle at both ends and tends to be very reluctant to let other people take her burdens unless she's absolutely sure they can take care of themselves. She's afraid of losing people, and worries herself deeply every day over how all of her friends are doing.
Which also leads her to not make too many, because she can't help but worry. Even for people who definitely can take care of themselves like Arne. She resents restrictions placed on herself and yet is one of the most protective friends you could have. If she doesn't think you can take care of yourself she's not likely to let you go very far without giving her assurances. Which makes her distant from normal people because they're all so fragile. It also means she tends to not like to be supported by large number of more mortal allies because she'd worry herself sick over the possibility of mass casualties from people who aren't able to take punishment the way she can. Not unless there's something done to let her take her mind off of their fates. Something to make them less fragile, less vulnerable.
She's a free spirit, but needs to learn that it's okay to spread the burden and that it's okay to let people take risks. She's able to handle it for now because she's still in the "oooh, aaah" stage of things, but once things start to sink in to her she's going to freak at the idea of people who can barely squeak to a century of life throwing away their lives in this kind of combat and will be sinking herself into trying to hold the weight of the omniverse on her back. So far people have avoided serious, mortal injuries, but that's not going to hold forever, and as smart as she is; she's a not super well adjusted teenaged girl who's been outside of a restricted social circle comprised entirely out of some of the remaining progenitors and some handfuls of youths for maybe a whole year in total.
She also has a temper and often responds to her trauma by trying to bury it in rage when something she can lash out at triggers it. When she's in an episode, she will break things, she will scream, she will just go absolutely frenzied in an attempt to try and distance herself from the sensation of helplessness she felt on K-2L. In a vision where she can't really do that she is at least, manageable. When she's in more of a capacity to try and punch her way out of things, you better hope you've got a holodeck handy for her to go full on "hulk smash!" in or at least, a lot of things to break you don't mind losing. She builds a lot of dumb A.I training robots specifically to have something to fight and break when she's got an episode going on. That sense of fear of powerlessness also drives her to push herself to self-improve and try to push for being the best she can be at all times.
It's why she doesn't go into missions with more than a tiny portion of her gear unless absolutely needed; she needs to prove she can manage even with a stripped-down arsenal and just what she can find. To prove that she could stop another K-2L with her bare hands if need be. Arne does it because he doesn't bring in equipment he feels that the current deployment doesn't warrant; fearful of overkill following year after year of abuse to make him more "efficient". Samus does it to prove a point. That she can handle it, she can save people, that she can help people even if she doesn't bring in her a-game.
While you guys sort out this important vote: more fluff bits
Iris* Server "Cool place for Cool people", owned by Rundrasta: Shortly after the "Brockton Bay Brawl Bonanza"
Assault: So anyway that's how I beat up about three thousand Nazis and got to talk to God or something.
Dawnmaker: I believe the term would be "epic".
Xaeon: Nice work there! I can always respect someone who can clown on the Reich.
Battery: I uh...still need to think about how to file the paper work for that overseas mission. What should I write down for "had a conversation with a magic fountain?"
Serp: Write what she told you, obviously comrade.
Chernaya Gvardiya: Serp is correct, the truth should suffice.
Battery: Just trying to process it all honestly.
Mistral Slash: Don't worry about it too much, it's overwhelming the first time but you get used to it.
Molotok: I think she was a bit cute honestly!
Rundrasta: Bruh.
Boltdancer: Bruh.
Laser Crusader: Bruh.
Rave Rage: Bruh.
Starsinger: Bruh moment.
Molotok: She was like this...fancy fairy just dancing around! Very interesting.
Rundrasta: Lot of words I'd use to like, describe the well of furies. Cute is
Rundrasta: So far down the list yo, like the list is in fucking hell at this point.
Rundrasta: We'll be digging for trilobite fossils with the list
Steel Paladin: Raela, everyone sees her in a different way.
Rundrasta: Tyri; she's creepy and I don't trust like, someone who thought Tyrant was gonna be the
Rundrasta: Chad thundercock saviour of humanity
Xaeon: Can we even call Tyrant a Chad?
Positron: Please...stop making me think about Praetorian Cole's sex life.
Vista: Uh, hey, Xaeon. Speaking of people with names like yours, have you seen someone called Scion? Golden man, looks like a very muscular Jesus?
Vista Uploaded Scion.jpg
Xaeon: Oh? I think he just showed up in Pocket D one day and had a conversation with DJ Zero and then decided the purpose of life was partying or something.
Vista: Oh! Oh! How long has he been there.
Xaeon: Few years. Before I came to Primal Earth honestly.
Clockblocker: Pocket D? That a club or some kind of sex thing?
Iybraa: To be fair, it is full of horny people. It's some metadimensional universe created by this, all powerful party guy who found some way to divide his power level by zero or something but all he does with it is throw a forever party in a reality where he uses his godly powers to prevent anyone from getting hurt. It's pretty nice to hang out, lot of adult-only sections though. Infinite number of kid-only spaces too.
Clockblocker: ...You know, fair if I had the power to create an entire Universe with a finger snap I'd probably throw a party too.
Battery: Scion is just...partying?
Xaeon: Pretty sure he's trying to drink the infinite kegger dry while a bunch of other abstract higher beings cheer him on to chug right now.
Eidolon: Can this...DJ Zero be asked to help?
Positron: Hah! Not even a little. All he cares about is his forever rave. Every time we catalogue a new reality, he's already had portal links there since time began that anyone he deems is cool can go through to join the fun. He's got a very...broad definition of cool. Seems like any hero or villain or most civilians can go through.
Eidolon: Hardly the most responsible use of such power.
Citadel: It does however, mean that he poses no threat and that his cluster of created realities can be utilised as a neutral meeting ground, or if worst comes to worst; safe refuge.
Legend: Well, I'm sure I'd be able to get in. How are the drinks there?
(Reacts: ok_hand 381)
Penelope Yin: Cosmically perfect.
Legend: Hrmmmm...
Eidolon: Rundrasta, you claim to be an Angel, yes?
Rundrasta: Yo, I am an angel. (emoji: sunglasses)
Eidolon: You seem quite profane for a servant of heaven.
Rundrasta: 'Cause that mysterious higher power shit is fuckin' borin' yo!
Eidolon: Language.
Rundrasta: Bruh you ain't my mom. Besides, she taught me to swear. Cuz she's epic.
Aegis: Are people still using "epic" in 2020?
Steel Paladin: As far as I know it faded from use for a bit and then was brought back in a more ironic form.
Vector Shift: Yeah Pally's got the gist of it. People stop using it unironically I wanna say in...2012? Then people used it ironically six years later.
Mechamaven: You gotta understand that the meme game of the future is all about layers of irony. (emoji: ablobsunglasseswink)
Aegis: ...Okay I already had issues with you people but this lack of sincerity thing might be a bridge too far.
Adamanta: idk bro
Adamanta: you be bein' kinda cringe
Aegis: Stop calling me that!
Nucleon: Ahh you have been accorded the title of "cringe" yes human? I too have been proclaimed "cringe tbh".
Shadow Stalker: Please...try to talk normal, professionally even! Not this...impenetrable layers of meme speak!
Boltdancer: Bruh, chill. Just having fun.
Shadow Stalker: STOP SAYING BRUH! I swear you people are like broken records!
(reacts: bruh 467)
Jetfire: It seems that way. Nucleon. Wear it with...well not pride. Wear it though.
Shadow Stalker: ...
Aegis: Breathe Shadow Stalker.
Kid Win: Huh...so this is the app. Cool. Lot of nice features here, liking the addition of avatars myself.
Rundrasta: Ayyy you made it. No hard feelings for the whole fight right?
Kid Win: Hah, you kidding? That was a blast. I've got so much information to go over now it's crazy. Best day I've had in a long while honestly.
(Reacts: this_tbh; 84, 100; 73 Bloodtype_B; 72, regional_indicator_A; 72, regional_indicator_S; 72, regional_indicator_E; 72, regional_indicator_D 72, sunglasses; 65, thumbs_up; 54, megaflushed; 31, possumgrin; 21, lordrecluselaugh; 19, smilecat; 17)
Kid Win: ...Smiley reacts? Interesting idea. What's based though? What am I based on?
Boltdancer: Based on Bofa.
Aegis: ...What's Bofa? Several people are typing
*A special secure version of Discord made by multiple hero groups working together to serve as a chat, voice and video communication, stream, and image and video sharing service. Invented on Primal Earth. Has a villain counterpart called Neith; started by Arachnos and operating from the Rogue Islands.
