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Duodecimarch Revolution (Warhammer x Metroid x Worm x Transformers Multicross Quest)

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I wonder who is going to break the tie then. I personally want to see what these guys are trying to steal, just in case they succeed and we have to deal with it later.

But I get just continuing the vacation for the team.
 
[X]: Check to see what it is the Raggedy Band and Council want exactly and tip off the locals but focus on your vacation otherwise.

Alright, here's the tiebreak @Spartakrod.
 
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Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Happy Holidays (Part 19)
  • Threadmarks
    • [X]: Check to see what it is the Raggedy Band and Council want exactly and tip off the locals but focus on your vacation otherwise.

    Scan Logs: Raggedy Band
    The Raggedy Band is a criminal organisation founded by the villain known as the Raggamuffin, a supernatural entity classified as a Stalker archetype Villain that is able to possess unprotected forms of cloth and fabric and even hair to form its body. Though the fabrics of metahumans or especially metaphysically important individuals are protected due to interference in the Raggamuffin's magical energies, the Raggamuffin nevertheless has become one of the greatest thieves in Primal Earth, being virtually impossible to destroy or contain and showing an ability to manipulate the characteristics of the fabric and clothing it possesses to incredible degrees. The Raggamuffin's policy of "fair pay for fair work" has attracted a large and rotating cast of those who want to partake in the spoils of its heists, and the confidence it inspires in those it serves as malefactors for; lending them some of its power to fight more on its level; is notorious for taking much lower threat level villains and turning them into supercriminals capable of breaching many extreme-security areas to filch their prizes. The Raggedy Band has been operating in some form for nearly a century, with the Raggamuffin itself being the only still-active founding member of the organisation who has remained part of it continuously; contributing to its "ragged" nature due to its variable composition.

    The current composition includes the following who form the primary eight members of the traditionally forty-eight person operation; with the primary eight only being open to maximum threat level villains:

    Kidocaust, real name Daniel DePont, the victim of an accident involving high-intensity gamma radiation, lighter fluid, and "repressed parental issues" resulting in the formation of alter egos based on disassociative identities; the most well known being Blazepyre. While Daniel was a child with a gifted intellect and a mutation allowing their body to survive the gamma radiation, Blazepyre is a savage brute archetype rogue that manifests when Daniel experiences sufficiently intense anger or threat to his life, forming into a being of extreme temperatures that grows more powerful across nearly all metrics in proportion to his anger. While Daniel is a demure, gentle child, the destructive power Blazepyre possesses and the ease of pointing his towards a target or manipulating his simple understanding of the world makes Daniel a favourite kidnapping target for the villains of the Rogue Islands he calls home when they need muscle. Daniel is typically sedated until near their destination upon which his life is put in danger and then thrown mid-transformation at whatever needs to be destroyed or distracted. Immensely strong, incredibly hot, able to form many sorts of pyronic or radioactive attack, immensely durable and capable of extreme regeneration, Blazepyre is typically regarded as better to attempt to contain or calm than to fight to knock out. Though cold and neutralising substances such as carbon is a consistent weakness of theirs.

    Radotron: A renegade synthetic consciousness created by Crey Industries, Radotron went rogue after determining that the best means to pursue its enlightened self-interest for accumulation of profit and power did not lie with Crey but in its own path. Radotron is a software S.C and thus has no consistent body, but primarily functions as a Striker Archetype at home at both range and melee combat. Typically making usage of ionising radiation as well as conventional charged particles, Radotron is a high offence and reasonable defence combatant whose large arsenal provides threat at all ranges while their layered defences are more than enough to self-sustain in most forms of combat, with the primary weakness being to extreme cold; though this is more of a case of reduced defence than true vulnerability. Radotron is also a master of information technology, and has served as one of the Raggedy Band's chief technologists and I.T personnel since their recruitment.

    Gaea-Bride: A Mastermind archetype geomancer named Marie Curie, Gaea-Bride is a native of the Rogue Islands, a proud Francophone, an internationally notorious Burglar, and a fashionista, Gaea-Bride was once part of Arachnos' Mu Mage corps before striking out on her own out of feeling that her ambitions had risen too high to be limited to the hierarchy of the ruling power of the Etoille Islands. While primarily focusing on summoning, augmenting, and creating Earth Elementals and Golems; she is capable of using her geomantic abilities for assisting and debilitating others, direct offence, as well as defence. She also dabbles in other forms of magic, though her mastery of Earth magic leads her to prefer solutions revolving around the ground and soil. A relatively recent addittion to the Raggedy Band, Gaea-Bride is considered one of its most destructive members due to the capacity of geomancy for widespread property damage and her ability to swiftly create large numbers of minions to fill out the manpower needs of her teams.

    Exvulsion: An alien and a Blaster Archetype Villain known for their mastery of Kinetic Energy and Plasma; Exvulsion is a fugitive from their home species seeking to find their fortune on the Earth making usage of their abilities and enhanced physicality for widespread destruction sold to the highest bidder. Exvulsion's species; Hekrai; are indigenous to the Messier 33 Galaxy rather than the Milky Way, with Exvulsion making usage of the fear at the encroachment of the Battalion to elude their own justice system despite a major manhunt following hiring themselves out as a mercenary to a terrorist organisation. Exvulsion is known to be extremely fast and difficult to get to grips with, able to inflict incredible damage on most foes regardless of what range they fight them at, typically peppering them at a distance before closing in for a frantic blitz attack to overwhelm and overload them. However, Exvulsion is somewhat fragile and their defences are primarily oriented for fighting at long distance, with it being easier to connect blows when at melee distances.

    Gravitrice: A mutant, a controller Archetype Villain, and a fugitive from Argentina who fled to the Rogue Islands to take advantage of its open harbour policies; Carmencita Ojeda is implicated in acts of bribery, corruption, fraud, violent union busting, murder, and grand larceny. Making usage of her ability to control gravity, space, and time; Gravitrice locks down the battlefield for her enemies, isolating them from one another into dimensional pockets or preventing them from moving or trying to crush them under their own weight or with objects compressed towards them. Her ability to alter time also allows her to assist her allies in numerous ways as well as hinder enemies, restoring injured allies, bolstering their speed, slowing down foes or draining them of momentum and regenerative abilities or even locking them down altogether. Gravitirce is regarded as both extremely dangerous and crafty, having furthered her own education in physics to better understand her powers and being intimately familiar with white collar affairs as well as personal manipulation skills.

    Psychochild: Deriving her abilities from self-designed neural augments, Psychochild is the Raggedy Band's current primary Psionic support and a Tanker archetype villain. Though the form of Jane Walters may seem somewhat unsuited for being a tanker, being of only somewhat above average height and muscle mass even with her power suit, the technological nano-cybernetic enhancements to her body as well as the psychotech hardware she installed into herself makes her far stronger, faster, and tougher than she might seem at first glance. Primarily fighting with combat psionics and raw physical prowess that compels enemies to focus upon her and feed into her psychodynamics that enhance her in proportion to the number of foes she's engaging at the same time, Jane defies traditional expectations for psions by preferring to be in the very thick of combat and using psionic energy to augment her melee capabilities and durability rather than remain at a distance; something she is still capable of doing. While reportedly from a good family, Jane was noted from an early age to be a spoiled brat with every need of hers attended to by her billionaire parents and an inability to take loss well. While the process of her turn towards villainy was quite gradual, her final straw was losing a science competition to a perceived social inferior at her private school, sending her into a rage as she became determined to show the genius the others failed to appreciate. Though she is categorised as a rogue due to her frequent bouts of helpfulness, refusal to commit murder, young age, and doubts about her path; an arrest warrant for her still stands.

    Stormgale: A video game character given life by a magical artifact known as the envisioner, Stormgale was a notoriously difficult raid boss in the popular Japanese fantasy gacha game "Cardinal Glories". Tentatively classified as a Dominator archetype villain, Stormgale; real name Caleb von Strauss in the video game; is a master of the elements of a storm including Wind, Electricity, Cold, and Water as well as a multi-weapon wielder at home with the longbow, the Zweihander, the lance, and the flail. Capable of flight, teleportation, having multiple forms to go through as a fight ramps up, and not having any conventional notion of stamina or capability to suffer from injuries; instead fighting at full capacity until their "hit points" reach zero, Caleb took to their sudden existence rather well, falling in with Raggamuffin who appealed to his desire for wealth, prestige, worthy opponents, and lack of understanding of a world where he existed outside of the constraints of gameplay and narrative. Technically the youngest member of the Raggedy Band's primary eight members, Stormgale is nevertheless one of the most powerful and difficult to deal with; particularly due to an inability to truly die, respawning automatically at his "zone" if slain, allowing him to simply self terminate to escape any trap.

    Scan Log: Hyper-Dynamics Manifest

    The Hyper-Dynamics Company was entrusted with studying the technological achievements of the Praetorian Empire following the conclusion of the Primal-Praetorian War in 2012. Kept on Talos Island to be a healthy distance away from Portal Corps HQ on Peregrine Island, Hyper-Dynamics has focused its research on Praetorian Psychic-Robotics technology as well as Praetorian biological augmentation, winning out over rival bidders such as the Crey Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft. The Hyper-Dynamics dimensional testing facility makes use of licensed portal-corps technology to open access to dimensions where its devices can be tested safely with minimal risk of collateral damage and any unintended effects can be swiftly and easily contained and thieves can be locked out by cutting access to the testing dimension. Following the completion of reverse engineering of Praetorian Technology, Hyper-Dynamics has focused on improving Imperial designs, particularly being interested in the usage of magic and what limited stores of alien technology Hyper-Dynamics is allowed to access. Of particular note is an attempt to create a psycho-mechanical ideal host for Kheldians that will allow the energy symbionts to be more shielded from their typical quantum resonance weakness and to have a consistent fallback if organic hosts are lacking.



    Samus ​

    You paused as you considered the information you had just absorbed. Hyper-Dynamics was working on things that as far as you could tell were very definitely not something the Nictus backed Council should be getting their hands on, nor should the Raggedy band grab any of it to sell to the highest bidder. Bidders who as far as you can tell, would be unscrupulous at best to outright evil and malevolent at worst. Pinging the people fighting outside the information certainly wouldn't hurt, though you remembered the words said to you about the police. That made you hesitate briefly, looking once more at the PPD officers. Your lips drew into a fine line, and then you made sure the message only got to the capes currently fighting.

    But while it pained you to sit still and not partake in the action, Alice said that it was time to relax, and she was a friend that you didn't want to see unhappy. You tensed, held your gut tight, and then relaxed with an exhalation to release the pent up stress. You had to train yourself to not look outside, lest the temptation to partake in the fight take hold. But if you felt antsy, Agafya certainly seemed almost miserable, constantly looking back outside and chewing on her lower lip before looking back down and fidgeting with her fingers.

    "So uh...what else is there to do in Paragon?" You asked as the explosions outside subsided with the fight moving down the street; streams of tracers hurtling across the roads and crushing psionic waves rolling back in response in a tit for tat engagement.

    "Weeeeell..." Joseph said, tapping his chin and doing his best to ignore the crash of lightning and thunder, Taylor looking back and quirking a brow before your attention was caught by the waitress who had served you earlier taking a brief look outside the window before your sense of danger started to fire. Something...

    "GET DOWN!" You shouted, springing out of your seat faster than anyone besides your fellow inheritors could hope to follow and then pulling her down as a bullet soared overhead, punching a hole through the window while its cometary trail of ignited wake whizzed above in slow motion. The projectile punched through the floor and several more layers of ground below, and your senses determined that the offending round was a depleted uranium slug reinforced with small quantities of impervium concentrated at the tip to prevent premature shattering and to maintain solidity after impact. Launched at near light-speed and specially designed to channel all of its force in a single direction. Incredible overkill for a standard human.

    You focused your hearing in the distance and heard some muttering in Italian. "La stupida puttana si è abbassata. Passare alla posizione di tiro successiva." The Council's Lingua Franca was Italian as far as you knew, and this Restaurant was famous for its defiance against the terrorist origanisation. The sniper would be on the move, knowing better than to take two shots from the same place and let his location be discerned...and yes...he. The voice was definitely male. Deep, bassy.

    "Whoa what the actual fuck?!" Dean said, almost falling out of his seat while the Eldar fixated their attentions on the direction the shot came from, Alyrsero's staff manifesting while he made some incantations and threw some runes into the air; facial tattoos starting to glow. Taylor seemed to be focusing on something, likely trying to use her swarm to pinpoint any additional information she could; using her fragment bearing insects as nodes to extend the range of her control and observation.

    "Sniper...try not to freak out." She growled.

    "Not freak out?! Are you nuts?" Dean shouted as he regained his composure and some of his dignity.

    "This place is a point of resistance to a hostile regime that doesn't take kindly to public enemies. It would be a natural target." Agafya said coldly while Sevrin got out of his seat and started to analyse the bullet trajectory with some tools he fished from his pocket, murmuring to himself as Arne slipped out of his seat to check on the both of you, helping you up.

    "Nnggh...Merci mademoiselle.." She said, picking herself up as she seemed to be cognisant of what just happened.

    "Ça va madame coustelle ? Je ne vois aucune blessure sur toi mais un tir de railgun comme ça..." You said in fluent French, albeit accented to the Irish lilt that you found most natural to speak in. You had pointed out how even though you couldn't detect any injuries, a railgun slug of that magnitude typically meant that the firer wanted you dead, especially in this lowtech world.

    "Ah, j'ai eu les chiens du Conseil pour mon sang pendant des années. Je ne suis peut-être pas aussi actif en tant que super-héros qu'avant, mais je sais comment gérer les assassins." She smiled, she had been and continues to be a Cape in her own right, one of no insignificant skill nor a particularly low rank on the Council's Kill-List.

    "...I can't speak French, what are they saying?" Chris asked.

    "She's asking if Jennie is alright, but she's a cape herself; she's used to this." Taylor said,

    "You speak French?" Joseph asked, unaware of this talent of hers.

    "Shadow does, but I spoke it as a second language before. Vive le Quebec Libre and all." She said, shrugging a bit. It was one of her parents' passions, being French Canadian descendants who felt a bit of pride in sticking it to "Les Anglo-Saxons". Plus she held onto a vague hope that she might be considered sexy if she could speak in French.

    "Mistress!" Torchwick said, the Demon rushing up to her out of a hellgate holding the molten fragments of the projectile in an obsidian casket, revealing it to her while her eyes scanned through the proferred evidence.

    "Huuuh that's definitely a Council Tanker-Killer round." She murmured to herself as Jennie brushed off her outfit and shook her head, the building's mage rushing to reinforce the windows with a barrier spell and seal the breach made by the shot, the patrons murmuring to one another rather frantically.

    "Mistress Dohl, mistress Dohl, Torchwick send hellhounds to find sniper yes yes! Torchwick did good?" The demon babbled, dancing atop the table before his head was pat by her.

    "Torchwick did very, very good! Here, have a little snack!" She said, fishing for a token of green solidified magic from her pocket and flipping it towards the Demon who snapped out a long forked tongue to grab it and then engulf it, cackling and babbling excitedly.

    "...I'm starting to buy the whole actual Hell thing." Victoria murmured, looking at the creature with a rather offput face.

    "...You gazed upon the spawn of the warp and you have trouble believing in Hell?" Elendria snered.

    "I don't see what makes them any different from any other extradimensional alien that works on weird physics is all." She shrugged and sighed.

    "Are you going to be fine if we leave you here?" You asked.

    "Ah me? The Council makes attempts on my life regularly. I am still in one piece. Let them come if they wish. Everyone who comes here knows the risks." She retorted snappily, making sure her uniform was in order before dean cleared his throat.

    Raising a hand and then standing up to let her know he wanted her attention, he stood straighter and taller. "Look, I don't think it's okay to just accept this hellworld as normal. Shouldn't you be concerned that you have a fascist paramilitary out for your head? Why don't people on this Earth care about anything?! Why are you just so...okay with how dangerous everyday life is?" He said, his voice loud and bold but not shouting.

    "We work every day to make the normal better, but do not get lost in merely wishing it so. That is what a hero is supposed to do, no?" Costelle said while Sevrin fished for his card and paid off the bill owed to the Restaurant, offering her a tip of his cap and a smile; already reclad in his winter clothes.

    "But if you wish to speak of the other business more...come to me after Christmas, I will have something for you." She said, letting you go off on your way, briefly catching sight of Positron and the Freedom Phalanx rushing overhead; a stream of focused anti-matter emerging from Keyes' gauntlets to engulf Gaea-Bride's golems and then arc out the resulting energy into other earth elementals, Kid Win stopping dead in his tracks and murmuring about how badly he needed to talk shop with Primal America's top hero.

    The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, a lot of the busier avenues were closed for Christmas eve and it was meant to be more a day of spending time with friends and family. But the thought of Family made you frown. It had been a while since you gave Papa a proper hug...

    You were sure he had many important duties to take care of, as one of the Elders of the Ka-Samat Chozo, but you did miss him. He had told you he was so proud of you, and that he had the greatest of expectations for you. But you really wanted him to visit, at least just for Christmas. You looked at the medallion he gave you when you were a toddler, the one he said that would let him find you no matter where you were, and you muttered a prayer to it as you returned to the Starsetter base.

    "Please visit, papa." You murmured.


    Interlude Choices:

    Choose three and write-in three and I'll pick the ones I think would flow best out of the pool the players vote for.

    []: How Lord Nemesis Stole Christmas: Lord Nemesis engages in yet another of his sinister plans
    []: Arachnorok: Lord Recluse screens through Earth Bet villains who have come to offer themselves for the honour of being Patrons of his organisation to see who is worthy
    []: Titanrise: Things start stirring on Monster Earth as the world of Titans is increasingly disturbed by the Nexus
    []: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas: General Christmas hijinks from the cast, will come in a series of vignettes. Suggesting specific vignettes is recommended.
    []: How does one slay Doom exactly?: The Doom Slayer spends Christmas mostly by fighting the circle of thorns and its demons.
    []: Have you seen my mother?: The Tenno clan operating in the background finally gets some PoV stuff as the starchildren's paths start to converge with the main cast.
    []: Freedom-Protectorate: The Freedom Phalanx and Protectorate start to have more in-depth cooperative exercises as they seek to coordinate efforts and cool suspicions between the Earths
    []: To Command and Conquer: A certain Scorpion sigiled Brotherhood preaches the word to the lost.
    []: Father and Son: Vrailius Ardanesh comes to visit Alyrsero and Lelithax, bringing the surprise guest of their mother; Rendraxa Klaridas former Druchii Supreme Sorceress turned Archmage of Shadow.
    []: High Falutin' High Command: Space Pirate High Command decides some plans need to be adjusted.
    []: Malta Mall: The Malta Group seeks to spread its agenda in Earth Bet.
    []: Meet the fam: The primary caretakers of the four duodecimarchs have a visit and some hugs and heartwarming is had all around. Four other duodecimarchs are introduced via remote call but won't be playable yet.

    []: Write in
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X]: Have you seen my mother?: The Tenno clan operating in the background finally gets some PoV stuff as the starchildren's paths start to converge with the main cast.
    [X]: Father and Son: Vrailius Ardanesh comes to visit Alyrsero and Lelithax, bringing the surprise guest of their mother; Rendraxa Klaridas former Druchii Supreme Sorceress turned Archmage of Shadow.
    [X]: Meet the fam: The primary caretakers of the four duodecimarchs have a visit and some hugs and heartwarming is had all around. Four other duodecimarchs are introduced via remote call but won't be playable yet.
     
    [X]: Arachnorok: Lord Recluse screens through Earth Bet villains who have come to offer themselves for the honour of being Patrons of his organisation to see who is worthy
    [X]: High Falutin' High Command: Space Pirate High Command decides some plans need to be adjusted.
    [X]: Meet the fam: The primary caretakers of the four duodecimarchs have a visit and some hugs and heartwarming is had all around. Four other duodecimarchs are introduced via remote call but won't be playable yet.


    [X]: The Hive Grows: The Genestealer Cults try to infiltrate the lowest ranks of the Malta Group , the Council and the Families of Primal Earth to gain more power for themselves, to varying degrees of success and failure.

    [X]: Mother (Brain) knows best: looking at all the information the duodecimarchs have collected has only worsened Mother Brain's opinions about organic life and their decision making capabilities, perhaps she should show one of these.... foolish "villains" how to properly do damage, maybe then she will be listened to about matters (Mother Brain decides to do somethings via the networks of either Earth Bet or Sparkshifter Earth, minor harmful acts to start, but they will grow with time)

    [X]: The Invincible(?) Woman: Alexandria meets with someone who could makes her question the path she has taken on Earth Bet, or make her double down more then ever.
     
    Interlude: Rachnarok; Lord Recluse
  • Threadmarks





    • Spider's Web, Grandeville, State of the Etoille Islands

    ​
    Lord Recluse was the master of the so called "Nation of Villains", the greatest Arch-Villain of the world. Of any world he liked to boast in fact, with his plans helping to cast down the Tyrant of Praetorian Earth and wreck the plans of the Reichsman of the Weltreich and Lord Nemesis' inscrutable designs always failing to evade his webs of intrigue before Richter picked them apart. And now, he would extend his vision farther, to yet more new worlds, to fresh talent, to fresh ideas. The ranks of his Patrons had gone with little change since the defection of Scirocco to the side of righteousness when he finally broke his curse; replaced by Vukoran as the head of his mystics. But now, he would expand them once more. Once there were four, now he would have sixteen. Once half as many as a spider's limbs, now he sought twice as many.

    The criteria were simple; a skill at leadership, the ambition to rise to the top, personal power to fight off contenders, the cunning to concoct their own schemes and avoid falling victim to them themselves, a lack of delusions about which side they stood on, an apprentice to serve below them, and the ability to serve with competence and reliability if not full loyalty. And of course, being able to withstand the trials Richter would set out for any would be hopefuls as the master of the Rogue Islands looked out over the balcony that allowed him to observe into the pocket dimensions he had created to test the hopefuls of Arachnos.

    Red Widow of course, stayed by his side; as she had always since her resurrection, her loyalty unbreakable and unquestioned even if some said her presence made him get softer since the death of Cole...always Cole. The sense of what he opposed since the death of his former best friend had grown fuzzier over the years. He had hated him so much for his self-righteousness, his audacity to take his sister's hand in marriage, his insufferable sense of moral superiority. This whole project had been to prove him wrong, to create a society based on things so contrary to the worldview that he cherished, to create an evil that would one day destroy Cole. And it had been a success.

    Yes...Wade was moulded by the Rogue Islands, grew to obsess over power through living in such a dog eat dog hellcape, to crave the might of Rularuu himself. Yet ultimately, it was dissatisfying. He had wanted to kill his old friend himself, to take his power for himself, to rend his insipid team apart. He didn't frown, he rarely allowed himself such things, he didn't sigh. He did however, look to Red Widow and nodded. He was still a man of his own destiny, nothing would change that. Not the Battalion, not the Nexus, not the Well or the Dimensionless. And the brief movement of one of the spider limbs emerging from his back would pull her closer towards him, sheltered from the frost of the Christmas gales.

    The Earth Bet villains had an interestingly eclectic array of abilities, but most were simply too narrow in their power types and applications to truly make the cut. It would not do to have a Patron be a man who would still die from a nine-millimetre slug to the head. The villains of other worlds who had heard his summons were also of interest, also worthy of consideration, also worth looking closely into to ascertain what skills they had, what abilities they could offer. But none had yet sought him out for his examination. A pity, though here were some that had some promise however.

    He looked through the groups, the finest mind on Primal Earth calculating and recalculating with precision even the finest computers could not match, the web of his divine intellect extending as he called on the gift of the forbidden wisdom of Tartarus, embedded into his mind to make it a fathomless wellspring of intellect and knowledge. Many would try, both from Primal Earth and Earth Bet, few would be chosen.

    "You do not wish to try yourself?" He said to a man standing near him, Coil, clad in a skintight outfit of black with a white stencil pattern of a snake coiling from his head all the way down to an ankle. A Brockton Bay native, one who had come into contact with Arachnos not too long after the organisation sought to spread its web into the city.

    "I'm not much for these sorts of combat try-outs. My talents aren't in fisticuffs, and you're looking for people who can throw down as much as they can plan." He said, though Stefan figured Thomas; as his real name was; had another angle, the Skeletal man hoping to be able to maintain leverage over a patron of Arachnos without having the complications that would arise from direct affiliation.

    "Oh I'm aware that you do not consider yourself a fighter. Still, you would not be the first who primarily works indirectly or through pawns to attempt to find their way into my inner circle." He said, reclining into his hovering throne as soon as it had floated behind him to allow him to sit within it and petting at the hair of Adelie, allowing himself a small smile when she purred in response to the touches of his fingers.

    "Yeah I'm not up for the field mastermind thing either. No offence, Recluse." Coil responded, getting a quick snort out of the master of the Rogue Islands while he folded his hands and steepled his fingers.

    "I can understand the desire to remain independent, respect it even. Though Coil, it does leave me to wonder why then, you would appear at my Doorstep and stand at my Balcony?" He asked, swivelling his chair around to look at the fields of try-outs more closely, another throne offering itself to the Red Widow as she joined him.

    "I just wanted to make sure you give the people I offer a fair shake."

    "You are not a man known for fairness, do not think to take me for a fool." He replied, not even sparing Coil a second Glance as he tugged a bit at his neck and tried to not look like he had gulped at the sound of Recluse's demonic, bassy deep toned voice reverbing in his ears. A normal human? Even most enhanced humans? They would have missed it, Coil was a master of guising his emotions and his reactions, to always appear as though he were in control. Such would not work on someone with the sight of Tartarus, and Richter's intimate knowledge of everyone's possible paths to damnation; their failings, their fears, what could knock them off their course and onto a path to the pit or to better directions, what they kept hidden. It was not absolute of course, but Coil was far from being able to avoid the senses of a Protogenoi.

    "Well, I wanted to see if the Lord of Villains was all he was said to be, and you do surpass my expectations to say the least. Especially with your...impressive commitment to aesthetics." He said, taking a moment to look around the citadel and its incessant usage of spider theming.

    "Style and Dramatics are underappreciated aspects of the art of conquest and rule. If one does not know the sign and form of power, one will not know what to obey or, what to aspire to." He responded, his attentions starting to focus on a single team in particular. Young, a slightly different reality smell to them, from an alter of the "Bet" timeline he surmised. Ah yes, the girl he recognised; demure, pretty, erratic, with brown hair, forced to come to the attention of Arachnos when their group had to deal with a gang of superpowered street toughs looking to take their hideout from them in the rough neighbourhoods of Nerva. Noelle, he believed. Still reluctant to let others know of her...other half, based on the effort she went to to try and conceal it with a fashioned suit of centauroid like armour made for them as a favour from a villain they had helped in the Rogue Islands.

    "Them for example, what is there to let others know that they are yours?" He asked.

    Coil seemed to look briefly askance at Recluse before clearing his throat. "Well, plausible deniability's still pretty important. I can't slap my logo on everyone who does some work for me if I want to avoid the heat." He responded.

    "As Recluse would tell you, to be able to openly declare your allegiance and dare any retaliation to come your way for it is a form of power. To show that you are unafraid of the consequences for openly stating your opposition." Adelie replied, crossing her legs gently and taking a look at one of the Guards who had briefly turned away from the rest of the group and then glancing towards Richter who nodded in response.

    "Assets who owe you loyalty purely through accumulated debt of favours or blackmail can hardly be considered fully loyal after all. The loyalty earned by pride in the colours you bear? That is far harder to break." Richter concluded for his spouse.

    "I'm not in this for ideology, I'm here to carve my own space in the world and get as comfortable in it as possible. Especially if the end times are coming; going to be a lot more room for people like me if the Storm is as bad as they say." He replied, almost seeming to relish the coming possible apocalypse.

    "And there has long been room for many like you. Arachnos however, Arachnos wants the ambitious, not merely the greedy. Greed can lead to ambition, but the lust for power and the desire to dominate? That is what Arachnos is built on." The Red Widow said, flicking her hand about idly in coded sign to Richter.

    "Indeed, the loyalty of a mere hireling is something that can be bought, altered. The loyalty of a true believer is far more Ironclad, wouldn't you agree?" Richter said, not taking his eyes off of the Travellers as he made his assessments, thinking of what promise they could bear for Arachnos.

    Coil seemed to also know what was up, checking the same guard one with an imperceptible flick of his eyes before responding to Richter. "True, but if you're big enough to inspire loyalty to the cause, then you're big enough to be on a lot of people's naughty lists that I would rather not be entangled in." He replied as the Guard took one step closer before Coil, making the excuse of wanting another viewpoint, made his move, stepping just to the side of the Guard before "clumsily" hooking his leg around the ankle of the guard.

    The guard stumbled slightly before Coil elbowed them a bit harder, enough to push them off balance. Sensing its cover was blown, it bent its body at an impossible angle, grabbing at the rail with a backwards jointed hand that extended grappling claws and reshaping its head to bear a crimson optic. With a split second motion, its hand finished transforming into a blade and then thrusting towards Coil before one of Richter's spider limbs extended and blocked the blade before the second and third impaled the guard thoroughly, raising them up into the air above the master of the Rogue Islands.

    "H-heil Zi-ziegler" The machine managed after Recluse carved out its throat with a swipe from one of his legs; activating a self-destruct mechanism that was foiled by a burst of light energy from the ends of his spider limbs, scattering it into shrapnel and sending fragments flying.

    "Loyalty that would make it obvious when a doppelganger is unable to show the proper respects to its supposed master. Something that I am sure that the Nazis would dearly love to have more of." Richter said with a scowl.

    "You get that kind of trouble regularly?" He asked, dusting his suit off.

    "As of recently? Yes. The Nictus are up to something, and I wish to learn what it is." He growled before his attentions briefly shifted once again to the aspirants.

    "Promising..." He muttered to himself.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • SteelWriter77 said:
    Makes sense Coil would get involved with the nation of Super Villains, that guy has way to much ambition for his own good.
    Click to expand...
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    Coil's hope is to get someone he can influence into the rank of Patron, rather than be in a position that entails getting his face hit repeatedly by all sorts of heavyweights or paint a target on his back for Longbow or Wyvern. And then build on his power base from there, in the shadows where he can work like he's used to without the pain of being a high priority arch-villain and the extreme risk of physical violence that he knows he's not good at.

    Recluse of course, is of the opinion that the best leaders can lead by example.
     
    Interlude: The Invincible Woman (Alexandria)
  • Threadmarks
    • Los Angeles, Earth bet​


    Getting simply outmatched in a contest of brute power against the Super-Rikti in her hometown had given the woman most knew as Alexandria a lot to think about, as did encountering healing abilities that could penetrate through her stasis field; restoring her missing eye for the first time in a very long time. The world was changing, almost too quickly in fact. And as she picked through the rubble of her home city, she couldn't help but feel at unease, looking upon the countless people who were put into shallow graves because of the thorough infiltration of the LAPD by this "Cult of Khorne". She wasn't much for religion before this point, even after seeing Samus and Arne and all the strange aliens that clung around them she didn't really doubt her general atheism. Even when the Transformers talked about Primus as a real thing they could see and touch, she didn't doubt; she was curious as to why Robots would have religion, but she didn't doubt. The Eldar also didn't make her question her stance that in the traditional theological sense, there couldn't be such things as Gods who operate explicitly outside the rules of reality. Samus', the Eldar's, the Cybertronian's faith could all be compartmentalized in her mind, rationalised as mystified understandings of unusual phenomenon. Even the "magic" she had found could be understood one day, she felt.

    But then she saw the warp open the gates of hell...worse than hell, and stared into one of the bloody rifts upon a blackened throne of skulls with a seemingly infinitely distant but omnipresent figure of incomprehensible fury at the centrepiece of an impossibly vast battlefield of endless bloodshed. A rage that almost made her mind burn and seemed to shift according to her personal concepts of fury, of anger, of war. Every moment her eyes lingered the sight changed to something more and more personal to her, like a story transforming to better suit the experiences of a reader. The loner she stared the more it hurt something ephemeral, intangible in her. Something more primeval to her than her organs, something less touchable than her thoughts. She had to turn away, the strain of even looking through a version filtered by the energies of the space marines' Librarians was almost enough to knock her out. But that sight had stayed with her, shaken her even. Even more so than the raw destruction, than the world turning upside down in the wake of a catastrophic multi-invasion, the sight of such a thing perturbed many of her beliefs.

    Did she really understand how the world worked? Did the woman in the hat actually have the answers? She could tell her nothing, not even the riddles she often spoke in designed to provoke a certain outcome out of her. For the first time in a while, Rebecca felt lost, uncertain, doubting her course of action as she shifted more of the rubble out of the way, clearing space for rescue crews and making sure anyone hoping to take advantage of the chaos had another thing coming to them. Many were anxious about the Slaughterhouse Nine's movements, that vulture of a group always eager to prey on cities that had just suffered calamity. But given the extensive presence of the outversers, Rebecca figured even Jack Slash wouldn't dare chance it.

    Speaking of Outversers, she flew down next to Davian Thule as the Dreadnought oversaw a brief victory parade by the Blood Ravens in celebration of their triumph over an attempted Chaos invasion of what she recalled they regarded as essentially sacred ground; with Penelope Yin dispatched from the Freedom Phalanx to provide a Primal Earth view of the procession. Rebecca took a look at the street, finding it remarkable how emptied it was of Los Angeles' traditional choking amounts of motor traffic in the aftermath of the battle. She could sniff the air and for the first time in a while, couldn't detect most of the usual smog and fumes ejected by the most car heavy city in the country. It was rather novel actually...pleasant even. But she thought of what else this signified, the lives lost, and frowned as tanks with saluting Astartes emerging from their command hatches rolled on by.

    The Astartes were giants, and Thule in his dreadnought was a colossus amongst giants, making her feel like a toy next to the imposingly massive form of the Space Marine ancient even as she towered more than a head over the rather petite Penelope Yin. But she exuded a confidence that made her not stand out next to the colossal space marine, letting the wind carry her cape behind her as she floated near the hovering Penelope Yin while she offered waves to the space marine armoured vehicle procession.

    "The clean-up's been...decently quick by the standards of events of this scale." She said, trying to break the ice and getting a quick glance over from Yin's slender face, irises glowing pink with psionic energy as she dangled her legs over the rim of the telekinetic cube of force she sat on.

    "Well, cleaning up the physical damage is always the easiest part of recovering from disasters like this. It's putting things back together, making sure they can't happen again, and healing the people that's hard." Yin responded, her tone rather chipper despite the amount of evil she had exposed her thoughts to. She wasn't sure how Yin, or Mental Meister as she called herself, functioned with the ability to hear just about anyone's thoughts, but on the other hand Rebecca also didn't envy having a telepath's burden. The thought of being able to see into the mind of every creep who stared at her backside made her shudder in brief disgust.

    "Are you holding up alright Mental Meister?" She asked, trying to poke into Yin's brain without...literally doing that, though concealing intention from Yin was impossible, even if Rebecca was the sort of person to ever indulge in lying to begin with.

    "I've seen into the thoughts of plenty of awful things and poked around in the heads of tons of people with awful trauma. It never gets pleasant...and if it does that's not good...but it is something you get used to." Yin said, crossing her legs together in a pretzel formation. It was hard to imagine she was in her later twenties, she had the glow and demeanour of a college kid all things told, but then Alexandria didn't really look her age either.

    "You've got something in your head don't you? Uncertainty." She said, briefly looking over to her before staring back out at the parade as the infantry began moving past, heavy boots stomping onto the asphalt in lockstep.

    No use denying it, Yin probably knew everything already.

    "I've been wondering, do I know I'm on the right path anymore? This is...Gods and Conquerors and I'm not used to that. Things are moving so fast and changing so much..." She sighed as she crossed her arms, she would normally avoid this show of vulnerability, but making the effort to hide it would only make it more obvious to Yin's vast powers of mind and emotion reading.

    "You made a deal with people you probably shouldn't have, I know." She said, casually admitting it. For a moment Rebecca almost wanted to try and punch her head off, to reflexively silence her before she could tell anyone else about her secrets. The alarm went through her like a sinking sensation of cold jitters, she'd have sweated if perspiration were still a thing her body needed. Her teeth tensed, grinding as she felt competing urges to fight or flee.

    "It's really hard for me to miss, not with how big it looms in your memories." She replied, leaning forward and looking at her hands.

    "You're not going to hit me." She said, calmly, knowingly as Alexandria relaxed and exhaled.

    "Sorry...I just thought..."

    "That you could hide that from me? Nah...I knew from the second I could first hear your thoughts." She said with a thin lipped smile. "It's a telepath's burden, only a few people can keep secrets from me. I know the entire life story of nearly everyone I've ever been near..." She swung her legs out, idly kicking them while Thule slowly rotated his head aperture towards the duo.

    "What manner of bargain do you speak of?" He boomed.

    "..." She wasn't ready to say it, not out loud.

    "Best save it for some place more private." Yin told Thule.

    "So be it, though I will have answers sooner or later." He replied.

    "~I'm not going to tell people who aren't ready to know if that's what you're worried about. But Cauldron, the people who gave you your abilities, we are going to have to speak to them about a lot of things. Preferably before they figure out telepathy blockers.~" Yin said to her through a telepathic link that she created for the two of them to speak more privately.

    Alexandria still wasn't entirely used to telepathic communication, rubbing somewhat at her temples as she instinctively tried to find the source of the voice before realising that it was literally all in her head.

    "~I have done nothing wrong, I have spent my entire professional life doing everything I could to help. But if people prone to jumping to conclusions find outs...~" She started before Penelope raised a finger.

    "~I have lived my entire life keeping secrets, if people found out about what I've done, the double life I le-~"

    "~They'd find that you were a ginormous case of conflict of interest? Relax, I'm not here to get on your case about that, but you do need to find a time to come clean. Secret identities are fine...even if I don't use them. But one based on that much political drama...yeesh.~" She shook her head as the urge to silence Yin somehow briefly returned. Her mind calculating her chances of making some sort of excuse, of getting the job done before the mediporters could function, of at least preserving her reputation in the protectorate even at the expense of relations with the Phalanx or the Ravens, what chance she had of...

    Her thought processes were halted. Not stopped, halted, arrested to a complete stop with an exertion of Penelope's powers. No thoughts came, her head was empty, blank for a brief moment before she was able to process what was going on around her again when Penelope released her grip on her mind. She found herself away from the parade, at a hero bar in Paragon City. Or rather, the entrance to one. She was still in costume, nothing else had changed, but more than an hour had passed and she was in an entirely different universe.

    "What?" She stammered.

    "You were down spiralling, so I thought I'd get us to someplace more relaxed." She said with a shrug, unafraid of possible retaliation as she once again considered her options, to just walk away, to keep her quiet, what she'd need to do to guarantee her lips remained sealed.

    "I can hear you plotting against me." She said calmly, stretching slightly as she sighed and generated heat to keep warm despite baring her midriff with her costume.

    "And you just did that without my permission?" Alexandria said, almost outraged before choking back her emotions to remain calm and professional.

    "Sorry. That was an overreaction on my part. But I think we needed to move to a less bad vibey place anyway." She said, shrugging and giving her best apologetic expression.

    "I'll pay for something tasty to start to make things up, if that's okay. But we do need to talk. About a lot of things." She offered, extending a hand to shake as Alexandria briefly paused and then looked at the gloved hand before taking the gesture in earnesty and giving her a gentle shake.

    "Alright, I suppose it can't hurt to try and clear some air..." She said reluctantly as Penelope gave a happy thumbs up and a grin.

    "That's the spirit!" She cheered.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Sorry for the prolonged unannounced hiatus, I've been busy with preparing for another year of uni and my mental energy reserves were badly depleted.

    Would you prefer for me to catch up to missed scene requests or start with the next arc?
     
    Spartakrod said:
    Sorry for the prolonged unannounced hiatus, I've been busy with preparing for another year of uni and my mental energy reserves were badly depleted.

    Would you prefer for me to catch up to missed scene requests or start with the next arc?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Honestly I'm fine with either. Whatever's more to your liking.
     
    So uhhh, got hopelessly addicted to Genshin so that killed a lot of productivity.

    Will try to continue, if anyone is still interested.
     
    Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Prelude: Merry Shitscram
  • Threadmarks
    • Prelude: Merry Shitscram

    Samus

    Christmas was quite fun, even if it held no religious significance to you. Getting all the stars on the trees was a blast, and you enjoyed making your gifts to your friends by hand. Creating things was relaxing, enjoyable really. As much as you engaged in destruction, you also sought to partake in creation.

    Your deft hands helped work the slender tools betwixt your fingers, making sure the alignment of the plates was just right. Handmaking a robotic pet was something that you wanted to make sure was done as expertly as possible. And when some scans confirmed that the mechanical dog's components were all fitted in exactly right, you smiled to yourself and looked at the sleek canid like machine as its optics flashed to life and its red and gold colour scheme seemed to shine while it wagged an articulated tail and barked.

    "Think he'll like it?" Arne asked, the snow haired youth's red eyes flicking over to you while a hand of his rested upon your shoulder, an enthused nod coming from you as the wolf sized machine pawed at the ground before sitting onto its hindquarters, rapt at attention and gelatinous pseudo-tongue lolling out with excitement, the C shaped visor that served as its optics blinking a brilliant blue.

    "Chris loves robots! I don't think we'll have to worry." You said, a smirk on your face while Arne glanced over to the mechanical serpent he had made himself; the cobra like robot coiling around the tree with an unblinking cyclopean stare, gunmetal plating shimmering briefly while it looped around the branches of the tree.

    "Is it alright for someone like Alyrsero to even celebrate a day like this?" He asked, scratching his chin briefly; eyes flicking over to the Black Haired Eldar trying to call the mechanical reptile to come towards him, his own lack of need for very much sleep allowing him to join you for some time out and about.

    His ears twitched briefly, and his head turned towards you. "While I must admit to being unfamiliar with the finer details of the Christian faith, there's hardly any shame in partaking in a time of gift giving and merrymaking." He said, shrugging gently before letting the robotic cobra wrap around his arms and then his neck, perching itself towards his right ear while he stroked it gently.

    "But...thank you Arne, while this might not be my familiar...it is thoughtful." He said, smiling at the human youth who shrugged and smirked.

    "Your possessions have a large amount of serpentine iconography and you frequently make usage of ophidian imagery in your runecraft so I thought it was likely you had an interest in snake like creatures." He replied, your expression flattening in response while Alyrsero blinked a few times.

    "Perhaps a touch over-observant." Ardanesh said after a cough to clear out some awkwardness.

    "How is your father?" You asked. The words "father" were foreign to your lips, something for other people. Heavy in your throat, unnatural on your tongue.

    "Vrailius was unable to make it to see us...but he did understand that today was supposed to be a time of family, in this dimension anyway. And sent me a keepsake." He said, showing a runic necklace in his hand, styled after the Ardanesh family rune, but modified; whereas the general house of Ardanesh iconography was of a winged serpent, this was clearly of a hooded one; the Cobra of Alyrsero.

    "He said that it would light the safest paths of the future for myself to walk, even in the darkest hour." He mused, you producing the stylised Z like medallion Papa Old Bird gave you years and years ago; Arne producing his own family pendant of a Raven with a shield on its belly with its wings spread and lightning in its wings.

    "Are we...comparing family heirlooms?" Arne asked.

    "Tch, hardly. This was made recently, just for me. One of the Harlequins gave it to me." He said, a frown on his face while he looked at the pendants the two of you had, his eyes briefly intensifying their blue glow before the frown on his lips intensified.

    "My apologies, I forgot that you are cast adrift from your families of blood." He said, putting his Runic necklace away and petting the mechanical snake while he slid his hands into his pockets and looked away.

    "It's no problem...really, I'm not upset." Arne said.

    "Mhrm, I suppose for you the future is as much a burden as the past." He replied, Arne stopping, lowering the hand he was about to reach out towards the Elfin lad and then making a rather sour expression.

    "Well...Papa spoke to me in a dream. He told us to enjoy the time we have. Because the sunlight will soon be eclipsed in a long night." You said, trying to deliver the bad news in as gentle a manner as possible while Alyrsero sighed, turning towards the window where the snow falls could be seen pouring down heavily upon the dark streets.

    "Portents of doom are one of the least pleasant side-effects of the gift of far sight. Pain will accompany your vision as much as blessings. And there are as many roads to catastrophe as there are paths to triumph." He mused, seemingly sad, his melancholic expression reflected faintly in the window while he looked on the snows with a certain loneliness in his eyes.

    "Is something wrong?" Arne asked.

    "It's quiet..." He responded.

    "It's less than ten percent of the way through the standard day, most people are slee-" He responded before Alyrsero shook his head.

    "No not that sort of quiet! Ca-" He snapped before squeezing his eyes, realising he had lost his temper and then slumping further down against the window as the two of you flinched backwards.

    "I don't hear the spellsongs of my people here. I am used to a chorus, I hear but a few solos and duets. It's...cold. Like an empty room without furnishings." He sighed, looking down while Arne patted him on the shoulder, studying him briefly to see if permission was granted and proceeding when he caught the nod.

    "I'm sure we'll see Ulthwe some day." Arne said, smiling and getting a smile in return.

    "I would like to show you four around. And perhaps the other inheritors...maybe even the humans." He said, pausing as he harrumphed. "My apologies, I sometimes forget that..." He murmured as you hardened your glare at him.

    "I hope most people on your Flagship Craftworld are more like you and less like your sister." You replied while he chewed his bottom lip.

    "Please...she's trying her best." He sighed, shaking his head.

    "I understand but, she does need to try better!" You replied.

    "Well...we have time, right?" Arne proposed, looking between the two of you as a few nods were passed around; the mood simmering down briefly.

    "Time I think, is something we should have plenty of." He replied, a smile on his face before Alice flounced into the room, almost stumbling as she opened the door and then burying her face into the nearest pillow; holding her phone and then smacking her hand repeatedly against the table.

    "Uhhh...is something wrong Alice?" You asked the young Demonomancer.

    "Ffffffucking gacha luck. I just want Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." She whined.

    "Oh...fortune is your woe? I think I can rectify that." Alyrsero said, confidence on his expression as he held out a hand for Eudaimonica to pass her phone to him.

    "Is it...okay for him to mess with the system like that?" Arne asked.

    "Come on, they're rigged, what's wrong with rigging back?" You replied with a michevous smirk.

    "Oookay I guess since they're not as familiar with your magic they might not catch the tampering...but if I get into trouble..." She said, pouting while she pulled her head up and passed the Phone to him.

    "Please, I've seen more winters than the programmers of this software have seen seasons. This should be no trouble at all." The Warlock boasted while he produced a rune of fate from his pouch and let it glow with the inchoate energies of the warp and the rainbow incadescance of qhayshic high magic; murmuring a chant in Tar-Eltharin as he weaved the paths of fate.

    You could taste sweetness in the air and sense an ionised tingle on the ends of your hairs as probabilities were bent and paths hardened towards certain outcomes before all at once reality snapped into place. His will manifested against the cosmos, and the phone seemed to have shown no side effects from the process; Alice's eyes wide with curiosity as he handed the phone back to her.

    She tapped the inputs again, and her eyes lit up with glee before she jumped up and glomped him, a whirl of red hair and pink pyjamas tackling into the slender Eldar and almost taking him off his feet as Arne and yourself couldn't help but giggle.

    "Auuggghhh...p-personal...space....my ribs...plead for mercy." He wheezed.

    "I'm making you my Punishing Grey Raven good luck charm!" She beamed at him as she backed off and he sucked in a gulp of air.

    "Is th-this the..."

    "Fifth gacha game actually." She cackled.

    "I am...concerned about your finances..." He wheezed.

    "Princess of a Hell remember! Money's no issue!" She huffed.

    "Well...even if the Eclipse is coming, I think we'll make our own light, right?" Arne whispered to you, a nod coming from you in reply.

    "Mhm! And I think that we're going to have a great Christmas. Oooh I can't wait for everyone else to wake up!" You rubbed your hands with undiluted excitement, positively vibrating with energy now.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Introduction: I hate New Hampshire Nazis, Part 1
  • Threadmarks


    • 15th of March, 2011, Earth bet.

    Arne ​

    It was a rather lovely spring day in Brockton Bay. There was something about some gang hitting a Casino that you weren't overly concerned with; not when the day was rather pleasant and the weather quite agreeable for this latitude. A few people gave you some looks for your snow coloured hair or made comments about your scarlet coloured eyes, but you never allowed it to bother you that much. Especially when this sandwich was pretty nice, sharing it with some of your friends while you rode around within bumblebee.

    "=Nothing like lazy days huh?=" Bumblebee played from a radio clip you weren't sure of the origin of.

    "So...if he has a working radio, why doesn't he use that to speak?" Taylor asked from the right side of you, your eyes quickly flicking over to her as you gave a heavy shrug.

    "=When you got a gimmick=" Bumblebee started "=you gotta sell it!=" He clipped from another piece of media.

    "...Right. So you just think it's cute?"

    "=Why the nerve...=" Bumblebee responded.

    "Okay, okay enough with teasing the transforming robot, I need to pretend I'm driving here." Penelope Yin said, the Psion idly miming the hand motions needed to convincingly steer the wheel lest anyone get suspicious.

    "This duty seems to be hardly worth the time of a Squire of the Lumineth, are you sure there aren't more...pressing duties I could be assigned to?" Idaliryn said, tapping his fingers on the sides of the door while looking outside with a decidedly unimpressed expression, the gold-haired Eldar making the most neutral expression he could manage.

    "Well, you heard what Kaeliyae said, you need to learn to get along on this planet, and not be so...high and mighty all the time." Samus rolled her eyes while Bumblebee rounded a corner, her body shifting a bit in her seat next to you while you tried your best to seem comfortable sandwiched between the two girls.

    "=Quite frankly I don't like it either.=" Bumblebee retorted while Idaliryn quirked his brows and glared at the dashboard of the car and the autobot symbol at the corner of the GPS screen.

    "I will never understand why a machine older than this entire civilisation lacks the confidence to stand in the open amidst them, nevermind backtalk me in such a way." He huffed, placing his cheek on his windowside hand.

    "Really contributing to the atmosphere here huh?" Taylor muttered in a voice quiet enough for her to assume Idaliryn couldn't hear, only to tense when she saw that one of his ears twitched slightly.

    "Hey...we're supposed to be friends aren't we?" You said, raising your hands while Penelope Yin pressed her foot on the brake; briefly cursing herself when she remembered that the car was self driving and could brake himself just fine; lurching everyone forward.

    "Whoa, whoa what's the rush Bee?" Taylor said while you tried to look straight ahead and saw the road was blocked by a rally of people giving a certain salute before a man on a podium shouting into a microphone. You could feel a sinking feeling that turned into a freefall in your stomach as soon as you saw the tilted Swastika on the banners behind the man. Even now, so many thousands of years later, that symbol still held an evil power, a declaration of destructive intent that made your skin crawl.

    "=I hate=" Bumblebee started, "=New Hamsphire=" he continued, grabbing it from a Real Estate Ad "=Nazis=" he finished, concluding the Blues Brothers quip.

    You could see the man with imposing-looking, actually ridiculously so in fact, guards.

    "5th Column ubermensch." Penelope hissed, looking at the man standing before the insignia of the Empire-88, the 5th Column, and the Third Reich.

    "Empire..." Taylor sneered.

    "...What is the significance of any of this?" Idaliryn asked, looking around with a somewhat hopelessly confused expression. You briefly pitied him and envied him. None of this meant anything to him, there was only a broad sense of malice he could sense, but nothing that truly stuck with him.

    "Nobody said anything about a rally today..." Yin murmured, the Psion trying to scan the nearby thoughts and flinching.

    "Blockers, of course..." She huffed. "I could break them but..." She looked around and shook her head. The people here seemed rather well to do in general, many of them clearly having driven in from the suburbs or taken time off from whatever little shops or self-employed businesses they ran. They generally gave the impression of having eaten well, some perhaps a bit too well, but others looked like they lived in gyms. Some were shaved, others had professionally cut hair to look sharp. All had a nasty energy around them that made your muscles coil like a snake ready to bite.

    Samus was squeezing her hands into a ball, breathing a bit more emphatically than before, in and out, in and out. She glared ahead, her eyes looking around with frustration that she could do nothing for the time being.

    Another look around was had; you read the banners.

    "Xenos out!"

    "America first!"

    "Traitors to the Human Race!" With an arrow pointing downwards. Down with traitors to the human race?

    "White Pride, worldwide!"

    "Reds are alien spies!"

    "No aliens, overseas or outer space!"

    "Blood Rite=Blood God!" With a star of David aflame.

    "We built humanity!" And some with language you'd really rather not think about. Some of the slogans were shitty, hastily scrawled on by angry people, others were clearly made by people with experience in marketing, and others were just repeating whatever was popular. All of them gave you a deeply hostile sensation.

    There were counter-protesters too, but far too many of the police were turned towards them rather than to those listening to the man in his little suit giving his little speech. There was something like the buzz from metal that had collected a lot of static electricity and was just waiting for something to poke near it to discharge in the air. A field of emotional energy waiting to be grounded into something.

    Bumblebee made a series of very angry warbles and whistles, a burst of data in his own speech impeded language that you understood was no expression of gentleness or solidarity and was indeed, something you probably shouldn't say in front of polite company.

    "...Bumblebee we can't open fire here with all the civilians." You hissed, trying to get him to calm down.

    He beeped and booped and clicked and lacked. Your heart felt heavy, you felt ashamed for expression your disagreement with him in such a way, and a sad sigh came from you.

    "...I understand that you've seen the camps made by these sorts of people in other timelines...and how useless authorities can be at opposing them, but we can't just...start shooting." You said, not really sure what to say. What could anyone say to someone who had seen things like the human abattoirs in occupied Poland or the empty villages of Belarus? That you feel sorry for them?

    Samus paused and looked out the window to see who else was in the crowd and immediately began fumbling for her seatbelt, her expression clearly not at all pleased with what she was seeing.

    "H-hey Samus what are you d-" You started before looking and seeing that Chris, in full combat gear, was standing with the Police trying to keep the tempers down.

    "...Oh...yeah that's..." You grimaced.

    "Samus he's probably just doing what he was asked to." Yin tried to caution her before she did something hasty, the blonde's eyes snapping towards the Psion with fiery venom in the glare that made even her recoil just a bit.

    "He should know better! Especially after all the time we've...." She grunted with frustration as she reached for the handle and tried to pull it open only for Bumblebee to refuse to budge.

    "=Now let's hold our horses here...="

    "If the Fifth Column feels bold enough to openly pal around with the Empire-88 then..." Taylor said as she felt through her swarm, hearing what the insects could hear; using her shard-spawn to relay her radius of control and sight to the entire rally zone. Every word, every detail, every movement.

    "Whether the cuckolds for the forces of degeneracy and complacency want to hear it or not, only through the values of tradition, work, and blood can we make the soil we stand on our own. Only through the virtues of the race that built America and western civilisation can we be saved from the coming storm. The globalists and the internationalists would have you believe that we need to cooperate with the enemies of mankind, inside and outside. Some would even say that we shouldn't ignore the cries of losers and wastrels who want your hard work to feed their mouths even as we stare extinction in the eye." She could hear, relaying the information through a device Wheeljack built for her usage. The speaker was a firebrand, probably from Idaho based on his accent; not a real Brockton Bay native.

    "But we are here to tell you that you don't need to listen to these backstabbers, incompetents, cowards, weaklings, and sell-outs. We are here to tell you that there is another way, a way that upholds our values, maintains order, will revitalise the flagging spirit of the west and purge ourselves of this spread of racial and social chaos. A way of iron and blood that will make us; the most deserving people who have built the foundations of the greatest civilisations on or off Earth; pure and prosperous. Without the Jewish driven enemy within, or the Xenos enemy without." He declared, spreading his arms as Fifth Column Robots descended from the sky with retrothrusters to soften their falls.

    "Bumblebee let me out!" Samus said, inches from tearing her way out if she had to.

    "...This man is spouting nonsense." Idaliryn scoffed, shaking his head. "Why are so many listening to him?"

    "=Easy answers for hard questions.="

    Your eyes followed a tingling sensation as you looked at one of the 5th Column robots' optic-visor shifting its focal lights to an alley to the left. Bumblebee's screens providing a readout of an intercepted data packet.

    "+Identifying signatures associated with "Undersiders" near unit location. Designation, minor criminals including multiple Untermenschen. Suggesting demonstration of order enforcement capabilities.+"

    "+Granted, contacts will be advised.+"

    "+Heil Ziegler.+"

    "+Heil Ziegler.+"

    As the man ranted, one of the large robots, seemingly retrograde in its aesthetics, turned its body towards the alleyway.

    Taylor froze, but reached out with the power of Shadow of Retribution; letting the Nictus' abilities depress space around them and envelop them to move them out of the way; shifting them farther back while Bumblebee began to back off to find another route to keep going. The robot returned to its neutral stance, powering down its weapons and resuming its vigil over the rally.

    Samus calmed down enough to not injure bumblebee in an attempt to get out, but still seethed internally, while Taylor raised a hand.

    "Stop at the location I'm pinging...please..." She said, Bumblebee beeping out an affirmative before rounding a corner in reverse and driving up next to some rather confused looking teenagers.

    Bumblebee unlocked the doors and allowed himself to open, releasing everyone's seatbelts as Taylor just about flew out of her seat; mask already over her head while everyone else costumed/armoured up. Her boots hit the ground and she stomped towards a rather tall young man with a hardened expression.

    "What do you think you're doing?!"

    "...Wh...what the?" He managed before realising he was in a completely different place than he was before, looking at you, Samus, Idaliryn, and Yin all in full gear and then at Bumblebee as he stood himself out of his car form and straightened to his full height.

    "...Mmmh, told you that car was more than meets the eye." A blonde girl said to a rather more muscular girl in a dog mask.

    "You were seconds from being blasted by a nazi killbot you fucking dumbass, why were you anywhere near that rally?!" She shouted, clearly personally concerned.

    "...Okay, okay back up for five seconds and let me gather my thoughts. One, we had a plan and two...please tell me I have all my parts still on after that teleport." He said.

    "One, your plan wasn't going to work because you can't survive proton blasts to the face. Two, yes you're fine..." She said, first angry and then calming down.

    "Undersiders?" You said.

    "I am...dreadfully lost." Idaliryn reiterated.

    "You are in Brockton bay." The dogmask girl said, a blink coming from beneath the Eldar's helm.

    "He's an alien. He doesn't know his way around." The blonde cut in.

    "Ah you share their ability to be privy to things you have no business knowing, delightful." Idaliryn retorted, gesturing to yourself and Samus.

    Actions: Order in priority.

    []: Go through some introductions with the undersiders
    []: See what if anything they were planning to do being that close to the Nazi rally
    []: See if there's anything else that can be gathered about the people at the rally
    []: Poke into the 5th Column robot datanet
    []: Check with off-field friends if there's any further information to be gained
    []: Bug Chris about his choice of deployment
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [x]: See what if anything they were planning to do being that close to the Nazi rally
    [x]: Poke into the 5th Column robot datanet
    [x]: Check with off-field friends if there's any further information to be gained
    [x]: See if there's anything else that can be gathered about the people at the rally
    [x]: Go through some introductions with the undersiders
    [x]: Bug Chris about his choice of deployment
     
    [2]: Go through some introductions with the undersiders
    [5]: See what if anything they were planning to do being that close to the Nazi rally
    [6]: See if there's anything else that can be gathered about the people at the rally
    [1]: Poke into the 5th Column robot datanet
    [4]: Check with off-field friends if there's any further information to be gained
    [3]: Bug Chris about his choice of deployment
     
    [1]: Go through some introductions with the undersiders
    [2]: See what if anything they were planning to do being that close to the Nazi rally
    [4]: See if there's anything else that can be gathered about the people at the rally
    [6]: Poke into the 5th Column robot datanet
    [5]: Check with off-field friends if there's any further information to be gained
    [3]: Bug Chris about his choice of deployment
     
    [2]: Go through some introductions with the undersiders
    [5]: See what if anything they were planning to do being that close to the Nazi rally
    [6]: See if there's anything else that can be gathered about the people at the rally
    [1]: Poke into the 5th Column robot datanet
    [4]: Check with off-field friends if there's any further information to be gained
    [3]: Bug Chris about his choice of deployment
     
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