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

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Interlude: Into the Abyss
  • Threadmarks
    • Into the Abyss

    Finding Beyond Metaverse, 2031 circa Anno Domini Calendar, 4831 circa Golarian Calendar. ​

    In a distant reality, swirling with the quintessence of the souls of the dead was a realm suffused with the sins of the malicious and the lawless. A pit at the bottom of a multiverse comprised of endless realms of horror and cruelty, worming its way towards a seemingly endless bottom, a cancer far more malicious than the malestrom of pure whimsy above it, far less organised than the blasted wastelands of hate or the nine circles of tyranny that shared its stance on morality.

    This was the Abyss. And it was beset by a new form of roiling storm, its sins and malice feeding into another realm of chaos, and its demons at war with a new sort of daemon. Not the beasts of self-loathing they knew, but things of emotion and storyflesh who hungered for the malice, the corruption, and the excess of the Abyss. One such realm was Demons and Daemons battled in skies of a realm of false hope, magic, and torment before the eyes of its reptilian lord.

    Abraxas, one of the very eldest of Demonkind, without having had to be one of the firstborn of the Abyss beforehand. The great Demon King of Corrupt Magic and Poisoned knowledge. A monster whose legs were two winding snakes and whose hands held whip and shield that gazed upon the battles with eyes of contempt from his head, akin to that of the skull of a fanged bird decorated with a membranous crest. Green scales bristled with anger as cackling creatures of many colours vomited forth from a blue realm of shifting crystals, mazes, and madness, but the lord of this twisted false paradise could taste something else.

    "Magic." Abraxas muttered, magic enough to get him his black heart's desire, the power he craved without the responsibility of the easy means of attaining it. Or perhaps something more. Something to surpass the jackal-headed beastmother who dared to seek to lord over her accomplishments over him or that of any other Demon Lord who simply grasped for Godhood blindly and allowed themselves to be bound by its rules. Not he, he would have even greater power without the demands, without the obligations.

    "But not the magic we know, lord." One of his lieutenants said, a slithering beast of feathers and scales, a mockery of holy couatl and their insipid ties to the upper planes that dared to look down on the pits below them.

    "Even better." He crooned.

    "We are stretched thin, lord. These creatures pour into the Abyss from who knows where, and our efforts to learn have ended in failure." The creature said, Abraxas' eye turning towards the lieutenant with barely disguised murderous intent, fingers sharpening to claws with a thought.

    "Sire, would it not be wiser to maintain our focus on Golarion? To not abandon our scheme when we are so very close to achieving what we want? Would it not be the act of a foo-GAK" The creature never finished before Abraxas grabbed him by the neck, wrapping one of the serpents that formed his legs around his comrade's throat and holding him high above to let him know who was in charge.

    "Are you questioning my leadership?" Abraxas whispered, fangs bared and venom dripping from his maw. He pondered for a moment, what he should do to "reward" this impudence and stared into the hordes of creatures who battled with some of his minions over control of a rift; twisting magic and winding deceptions against abyssal rage and chaos tainted sin.

    A great winged creature of fire and storm, one of Abraxas' balors, a horned thing four times the height of a man with a whip in one hand and a sword in another flicked his blade to separate the head from the neck of a squamous, squelching thing of endlessly shifting form, bellowing his patron's name to the sinister sun above before being engulfed in fire that scorched even the fireproof. A limb twisted into serpents that transformed to crystal and then coiled into the head of a biting eagle that spat fragrance before the Demon hacked off the offending arm and forced his magic into it to regrow it, roaring at the avian headed trickster that had cast the spell.

    Hrm...perhaps.

    Abraxas mused for a few moments before tossing the demon towards the lines of the strange flame and advancing crystal, a sacrifice for knowledge. He would have his answers, and those who would not prove useful in that search would prove useful as fuel for his quest. The Master of the Final Incantation snorted through the nostrils of his snout as a simple spell on his part wove around him to bring him skywards, to be closer to the magic, to understand it.

    The energies danced on his fingertips, and he could feel the mythic might imbued unto him as the lord of this realm; tainted as it was by the malicious energies of the infinite Warp that spilled into the endless horror of the Abyss; but that corruption was a sweet milk to him. One that he could experiment with, one that he could taste on his tongue and find the motes of something that could one day grant him his hour.

    "Send the scouts, delve into this Warp, and tell me everything you find should you survive." Abraxas said to the greater demons who awaited his arrival as he descended from winds of blasphemy with heavy flaps of his temporary, dragon like wings that seemed to wither into mist once he no longer needed them. A Balor, a ruined of nations and a feller of Kingdoms named Angrazaganik, snorted lightning from his nostrils; closer to the power of lightning than flame than most of his kin and rearing himself to a greater height to try and impose himself on the master of this realm.

    "You go in first if you care so much. What's in it for me?" The Balor crackled with the fury of the storms of a million worlds, wings spreading far and lash roiling with the energy to reduce mountains to ash while his jaws snapped with fury and displeasure at the presumption of Pazuzu to own infinite loyalty from him. A vorpal sword that hungered for the heads of countless heroes roiled with power, while the Demon let loose a loud hiss as he stomped towards the Serpentine Archmage.

    "What is in it for you?" Abraxas stopped, the two snakes that made up his legs turning their heads towards the Balor and letting out a sound like boiling pots while he loomed over his rebellious lieutenant.

    A sword swung out, eager for Abraxas' head, forged of the cold iron that was toxic to Demonkind and wreathed in the energies of malice and disorder, curling with mythic storms that could harm even the normally lightning proofed Demons.

    "Keeping your head in my reach? Now I see what's in it for me!" The Balor roared over the sounds of the battles raging around them, shrieking horrors and screaming terrors from two realms of evil vomiting into one another like a cyclone wrestling with a hurricane. The abyssal bloodrage imbuing the Balor Lord with greater power as he dreamed of the throne he would soon claim from Pazuzu, already seeing the Demon King of the Feckless Magicks corpse at his feet in his dreams.

    But they were never more than dreams, for above the howling of the twisting currents of evil magicks was the sharp ping of his sword clanging against Abraxas' passive autofields, diseased rainbows of foul sorcery forming a barrier that the Balor Lord's blade could not pass through. The Balor's whip crackled again, trying to weave through the corruptions of fate that Abraxas weaved through his thoughts, attempting to force impact through the tuggings at the threads of destiny demanding that it missed. Implosion spells weaved from the Balor, trying to crush Abraxas into pulp, squash him into the tiniest shape he could imagine while his maw opened and let forth his arcs of diseased Storm; swinging again with wild fury.

    He felt his sword clash into something, and could see victory through his quartet of eyes, mighty artifacts thrumming with power as he closed for the kill; stepping in and twisting in for a bite. But his head despite his movements seemed to be dropping away from Abraxas for reasons he did not understand until Angrazaganik saw his hooved feet.

    Abraxas had decapitated him in a single lash of his whip and his jaws opened to let forth ugly glyphs of poisonous spellcraft that seeped into the Balor's body and dissolved it into energy. The strands of magic flung back into the great magician with a second thought, melting into it and giving him a fresh sensation of power while he drank deep of the crumbling Balor's strength; preventing it from unleashing its death explosion while he shuddered with the morsel of might added to him.

    A taste, but the King of the False Paradise of Pleroma desired a feast.

    "What is in it for the rest of you, is that you avoid his fate." Abraxas commanded to the others gathered here, cruel eyes unblinkingly looking down on now properly cowed subordinates.

    "And should your service be satisfactory, and not a moment sooner, I might deign to share a piece of the prize with you." He menaced, dragging a tail whose head was that of yet another snake across the face with fangs bared of a Marilith's whose feminine upper body recoiled at the pain of the Demidivine toxin that not even a Demon's usual immunity to poison could protect against. Hissing ichor burning against her skin while she tried her best to not cry out.

    "I however, have other tasks to attend to. This Warp and the other realms we have seen are but some of the doors in the great hallway. I want to see where they all lead." He snapped, a tongue forked tongue of many colours rolling in his mouth in his mouth as he could just about taste the possibilities.

    "And how I can profit from each and every opened door that would invite me in." Abraxas chuckled darkly.

    "And what of this invasion?" The Marilith asked.

    "You have studied my works of science and magic yes?" Abraxas snarled with barely disguised contempt for what he viewed as a stupid question beneath one of his great generals.

    "Aye, but we are working with unknown energies and powers he-" She didn't finish before his snake tail constricted around her neck and the Demon King snorted from his nose.

    "The very foundation of science is exploration of the unknown. Experimentation, study, records, tests; all of this and more is our creed. We are the great Scholars of the Abyss; the quest to learn at all prices regardless of prior failures is our unholy purpose. Do not mock me with foolish requests. Show initiative! Show that you are worth more to me than a telephone to relay my commandments!" He snarled before he let her go, letting her grasp at her neck while he made a face of disgust.

    "Deal with it in the manner you believe would be pleasing to me. But do not shut our gates wholly to our guests. Not when there is so much to learn." Abraxas said, first with menace before smoothly shifting into a pleased laugh.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Interlude: Musings of the Learned
  • Threadmarks
    • Inheritance Metaverse, Artificial World Arganti​

    The great hall of communion was once again a hub of discussion between the Progenitors, the Ancients who had invested so much into making ready the cosmos and had sown seeds for their "inheritors". Those of the modern species who had been given the honour of living amidst those who could work wonders beyond the gods of their old religions confined by the imaginations of living on a single world.

    The communion hall shifted according to the desires of the occupants, what they wanted it to be in order to provide a place for neutral discussion, a place where the competing egos of cultures ancient beyond measure could be allowed to meet without catastrophe. But the arguments of the divine were not quite so far from the sort of arguments more technologically and spiritually primitive cultures would have.

    For one, the hall had taken on a form to reflect the rancour of the room. Circular, arena like, discordant of aesthetic. There were people here who were generally never invited to these sorts of discussions due to the discord that surrounded their presences and the history they had with those who typically held these discussions. Some had been excised from the general circle only recently, others had not been welcome in this company for much longer.

    And one of the most major examples of these individuals was Raven Beak; clad in his military splendour. A great Warchief of the militaristic Mawkin tribe, one who had been present at the anointing of Samus as one of them. One who had not shown his presence for quite some time. His chrome and gunmetal armour, fitted with an impressive headdress upon its helmet and a brilliant scarlet cape made him seem to be even more of a giant than he already was, and the red eye-pieces of his helm had the same cold lustre they always had.

    If he had broken his general isolation from the Kah-Sahmat Chozo after briefly partaking in the anointing of Samus Aran as an heiress of the legacy of the Chojinzuko; then matters were either truly dire, or he felt the need to brag about something. The second he opened his beak, speaking in the Mawkin dialect, he removed any doubt about what he was here for.

    The heavy head of a strange alien was dropped from his hand. A battlemaster of the Battalion; the insectoid creature's helm still bearing a visage of contempt and hatred even from the confines of the Impervium-Absorbium alloy helmet that had its neck-guard severed by abilities the Chozo Warchief had mastered. The impact heavy and resounding throughout the room as Mawkin Chozo Warriors under his command stamped the bottom ends of their sword staffs into the ground as if in praise; not flinching from staring ahead.

    "I have conquered." He declared simply.

    "Once more, invasion seeking to disrupt our project meets its end at my hands. And for those who have shown me and my colleagues support, you have shown me your wisdom. But the rest of you; those who still do not see the light, I bring you warning." He said with cold calmness that concealed icy contempt. "My might and intellect has so far been able to keep the peace, and the lower species are still able to contain things on a peacetime footing. But can this continue?" He boasted, gesturing to his own chest.

    "The lower beings are too obsessed with their meagre contemporary politics. Too focused on jockeying for material forms of influence in their limited understanding of the cosmos. The ones that we see with greater favour will not be ready for true total war soon enough. Not unless we take matters into our hands." He added, his gestures like that of a lecturer explaining the basics to students.

    "We have in our means the ability to ensure that our work can resume. And though you have not had the wisdom to give me access to the proper means to ensure a quick end to this intrusion, we can still salvage our efforts and set our work back onto its proper road." He said, looking coldly at Old Bird in particular, a look of blame, of disdain.

    Re-Sekh did not enjoy the presence of Raven Beak, few of Kah-Sahmat enjoyed the presence of the great general of the Mawkin but ever since the start of the present crisis; Norakern to use his personal name in his own tongue rather than his formal title of Ashkar Behek, Raven Beak; had been carrying himself with ever greater swagger and confidence. His demands had grown more insistent, and he found himself supporters in Zurvduat and Mother Brain who were all too willing to accept the arguments of the chrome-clad commander.

    "You are wasting time that could be used to re-establish the order that you have so carelessly allowed to decay into the present anarchy consuming the cosmos." Raven Beak refused the indignity of not using his Mawkin dialect by means of telepathy even though Old Bird knew fully well he was capable of it.

    "The jackboot is not the way to ensure peace. How many times have I had to explain this to you?" Old Bird said, getting a dismissive wave in response from Raven Beak who even in the midst of what was intended to be a polite discussion, deigned to bring his arm cannon and the dual-sword staff that signified his status; purely to lord over his prowess over the others.

    "You even use the analogies of beings you were witness to the entirety of the evolution of? What shame you bring upon our people, Re-Sekh." Referring to him by his personal name instead of "Itar-Kuhun" as his title translated to was clearly a jab meant to attack his pride. Something that may have worked when he was a younger and less wisened man, but to the ageless elder he was now, it was merely bluster.

    "-He speaks truth, you need true warriors who can wage war at scales that the neokin of the present cycle are incapable of comprehending to allow the work of the progenitors to resume its tracks and impose sanity on the discordant realities.-" Zurvduat said, the silver armoured Knight-General's form looming high upon hovering tripod legs, arms folding with barely disguised arrogance.

    "-It is enough of a miracle that we tolerate your decision to grace us with your presence, Knight-General.-" Elmorni thrummed, her telepathic voice raw with displeasure at having to look upon her military counterpart who seemed to regard the ancient Mystromagus like some manner of museum relic, barely giving her a second glance before turning his floating, neckless head away from here.

    "-And you have the audacity to spew your nonsense without even acknowledging me?-" She said, hurt and anger apparent in her voice.

    "If you had allowed me to continue moulding the Primoris Neophyte into a proper Tetrarch Knight to serve as a template for the Neophyte Squire project we would have had this situation resolved alread-" He responded without even facing her before her psychic voice boomed, air particles vibrating from her furoro as her telekinetics let loose a roar.

    "-HIS NAME IS ARNE! STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM LIKE A TEST SUBJECT!-" She would not let him finish his words, not another damn utterance out of his mind.

    "-Perhaps the openness of this meeting was in error. We are beset by many opposing viewpoints, many irreconcilable.-" Astrath the Father said, the radiant form of the Ylla contained in golden armour of somewhat angelic countenance and form. An eyeless crowned helm of gold and ivory ringed by a halo complimented a form that was somewhat humanoid, but whose majesty was incomparably added to by the presence of a pair of wing like structures of light and radiance. A blessed Scholar of the Ylla, adoptive father to Sevrin, and a speaker of many truths, Astrath was truly old, enough so that Old Bird considered him a peer, but he had few enemies at the very least.

    "-I propose that perhaps we allow those who are outsiders to our internal politics mediate, so that our tangled webs of rivalries and dispute can be navigated neatly.-" Astrath intoned, the psychic voice generated by him melodic and gentle.

    "And who would you allow to hold the presumption to stand with such an honour among us? The Toads who follow the plans of dead wreckers? The Empty-Souled golems deceived by Star eating fiends? The frail near-humans whose mistakes brought an age of chaos to their own reality? The old machines who can't even settle a political dispute after a galactic year?" Raven Beak's tone was not respectful, it was not meant to be words of kindness, contempt was rife in them, and everyone could just about smell it dripping from his every breath.

    "Though I disagree with the conclusions of Raven Beak, I agree that the opinions of uninformed outsiders are hardly going to bring value to our discussions." The Night Matron said; her form a cloak of shadow in raptorian shape, like the suggestion of a mother of darkness rather than an actual being who could be given a name; shifting and curling in the shadows according to strange patterns.

    "New perspectives are needed to stop stagnation of viewpoint! Astrath speaks with that same old wisdom, but that's one thing that hasn't changed! Someone fresh and less biased might be what we need!" Chyrael said, the Faeran patron's fluttering butterfly like wings stretched out behind him and refracting diffuse patterns onto his decorated white regalia. His hair a short scarlet mane and ears the shape of knives to compliment eyes that glowed like green suns.

    "Ignorant viewpoints are worse than nothing at all." Vhekronya chimed in, the N'Kren Lady's form somewhere between a carapace, a sarcophagus, and a knight's suit of armour; darkly coloured and deathly of aspect. "We are not served by the commenteriat of the unaware and unknowledgeable. Our work is of far too much importance to allow for derailing by those who cannot meaningfully contribute." She said with not quite disdain, but more concern, motherly, if grave.

    "If necessary, we will simply destroy this reality and start over with the guidance. The inheritance is too important to allow this incident to jeopardise it." She said, almost immediately getting a caw of protest from Re-Sekh.

    "No! Absolutely out of the question!" Old Bird shouted louder than he had in a very long time.

    "If the Old Foe is to be unsealed from the Omega Void, more than just one reality will be imperilled. We must consider the option at least." Benevolence of Forgotten Infernos; the current Lord-Commander of the Vuldran crackled from the inside of his armoursuit, a volcanic hiss and bubble rumbling from within his scarlet, orange and obsidian form; the horns on his helmet giving him a somewhat demonic countenance.

    "We will not allow things to develop to that point. We need not work as either tyrants nor destroyers to ensure the continuation or the inheritance. There are better ways." Turagi; a great commander of the Hydrael bubbled from within her environmental suit, her piscene and cephalopodic form hidden by its plating even as her tendrils wriggled with her words.

    A Slann made itself manifest in the room through an opening allowed to it by Old Bird while the bickering continued, floating upon its dais and allowing the essence of Mazdamundi Ascendant to flow into them, taking on the shape that the eldest of the second generation had in an already failed world, red and mottled of colour, seemingly obese even through the technosorcery he wore, though his thick neck bore the headdress upon his head with ease.

    "You dare allow this outsider step in without invitation?" Raven Beak said with scorn.

    "-It was invitation enough, for we must speak of matters of uniting efforts if we are to ensure a future. I know not of your grand designs to the degree that I have contemplated the Great Plan. But we have similar ends, it would be folly to not begin to speak of ways to join our works.-" The Slann rumbled with uncharacteristic humility.

    "-And what is it that you propose?-" Astrath asked.

    "-An exchange of knowledge, and an understanding of why is it that you place your hopes on your adoptives.-" Mazdamundi Incarnate rumbled.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • MrPremise said:
    Good question. Why do you need 12 teenagers with attitude?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Thinking in terms of individual characters is somewhat strange to the Lizardmen who are first and foremost; Servitors for the agenda of other beings. Even Mazdamundi and Kroak were only ever pieces in the puzzle.

    The idea of uplifting a species only through very distant off-hands guidance and adopting the occasional orphan with nowhere left to turn to rather than just descending and remoulding the entire culture directly is incredibly alien to them.

    Though the Duodecimarchs are just twelve particularly valued inheritors, there's more but they're the twelve who've chosen to, intentionally or not, fulfill the roles of duodecimarch.
     
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    I get the feeling that Raven Beak is the sort of person to draw himself as the gigachad to a soy-wojack depiction of Old Bird.
     
    Interlude: Sound and Shock (Shockwave and Soundwave)
  • Threadmarks
    • Shockwave's Laboratory, unknown location, unknown Metaversal Cluster​

    Shockwave often liked to ensure that his research benefitted from his personal supervision and efforts. It was only logical for the cyclopean Decepticon Commander to want to ensure that his most precious projects were worked on by his still peerless capability for analysis and deduction. He took no pride in the knowledge that out of the entirety of the vast Decepticon State; he had no equals in terms of scientific skill and experience. It forced him to have to do much of the work himself, it made delegation a calculated risk, it delayed progress.

    And with the endless, grinding, unrelenting war, his personal attentions were required too often to fully educate assistants with the sort of care and attention he would have preferred. But it was irrational to muse on what he would have preferred, better to focus on how he could make the best out of what he had to work with. And what he had to work with was a custom designed laboratory made to his exact specifications. Creature comforts were kept to a carefully designated optimum for worker morale and resource efficiency.

    Minor subroutines in his processors constantly weighed the necessity of adjusting worker schedules for maximum efficiency; counterbalancing desires for leisure, independence, and regularity against the short term gains by fine-tuning and micromanaging. It would be easier if more thought the way he did, without distraction or illogic. Without temper, excitement, confusion or delusion.

    But that was again, fantasising; a useless activity. He purged that delusion with a simple desire and got back to his work, examining the metadimensional dissection of the tiny organic cadaver with his emotionless, faceless red optic stare; antennae fixed and unmoving on his strange inorganic head. He didn't regard it as disgusting, gross, or anything of that sort. Some of his colleagues hated working on organics and all their...wetness, but it was simply science to him. No more unpleasant than observing microbots.

    "Subject was known as Mar, occupation "Objective Observer". Species: Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Native Reality: Shardworm Universe designation "Bet". Date of birth; local Calendar; 11th of October 1978. Date of most recent expiration; one hour prior to recording." He started with a voice that wasn't cold so much as hollow and empty.

    "Subject's apprehension was mandated by increasing suspicions of Agent Shoulderbreaker assuming the guise of his 2009 Hyundai Genesis motor vehicle during the human's attempts to monitor Parahuman designated "Glory Girl", also known as Victoria Dalton; known associate of Dawnchild and Duskguard and Jetfire's local autobot command." He continued without skipping a beat as he didn't spare so much as a second glance to a body that could best be described as having attempted to go in every possible direction at the same time and took on the consistency of an omlette.

    "Known abilities before commencement of experimentation: None. Suitability for augmentation: High. Mental State before most recent death: Broken to the point of requiring neuromechanical repair, expressing doubt about nominally held religion, no further hope for rescue maintained. It would be most effective to remove his memories of the most recent experimental sessions to retain personality." He continued to note to the recording, out loud for the benefit of those 'Cons who insisted on having natural audio data accompanying their logs.

    "Why would we need the subject's personality to be intact? Especially when we can make him remember or think anything we want him to. It just seems to be a bit of a waste." Oil Slick gurgled through the fluids in the transparent dome around his head module, the spindly science oriented Decepticon questioning one of the inner circle of lieutenants who stood just below Megatron.

    Had he been Deathsaurus, Gigatron, Starscream, Strika, Nightracer or any number of other Decepticon Arch-Commanders; he might have snapped at Oil Slick for talking out of turn. But Shockwave was liked for having an open mind out of a belief that immediately shooting down an opinion was a good way to deny him potential input. He had the multitasking capabilities to keep on doing his work even when spoken to anyway. And frustration was an irrational response in any case.

    "Because such forcible means of mind control can be traced and detected. Soundwave's manipulations were uncovered by Dawnchild, Duskguard, Sunburst, and Moonshade and as of yet; their cyberwarfare defences are thwarting efforts at indirect observation and we are lacking in infiltration assets in Jetfire's forces. We are dealing with extranormal countermeasures, and will need to resort to extraordinary measures to gain an information advantage." Shockwave responded without even looking away from his work as he analysed the cadaver.

    "And what have we learned from attempting to activate so many of these "shards" into this human at once?" Oil Slick gurgled, letting out a grotesque wet slurping sound at the end of his sentence.

    "That sudden activation of so many of these trauma-induced abilities at the same time is inefficient." Shockwave said flatly in a way that he calculated would disarm Oil Slick and his questions by making him unable to be sure whether or not he was joking. Shockwave of course, never told a joke for mirth's sake; but sometimes he would make them because it would reduce tension or catch people off guard.

    It worked, Oil Slick stumbled somewhat before the arm cannon bearing deception and tried to regain his footing before his weakness was made obvious before the taller, bulkier Decepticon Arch-Commander. But such was a futile effort, Shockwave already knew Oil Slick well enough to read every single one of his emotional tells as good as any Cyberspeaker.

    "And that when we design our next generation organic infiltrators, we will need to prioritise robustness of tissue to allow them to withstand the energies that we are imbuing them with. Experiments with Sourcewell reality designation "Primal" metahuman augmentations have been extremely promising with maximising the effectiveness of forced shard bonding." He said, calmly as if he were simply recounting facts.

    "Experimentation with Cybertronians of course, has also provided dividends, as has our experiments into creating artificial shards independent of their parent entities. A decisive advantage will soon be within our reach, one above and beyond even having new allies." He explained while he took a moment to examine some tools and made sure that they were to his specifications after having been crafted for him on order.

    "Begin revivification process, we will resume our experiments on Mar and other test subjects in a single cycle." He said, getting a nod from the gathered scientific aides.

    Shockwave's thoughts were divided briefly by a notification that, exactly as he anticipated, he had an incoming request for communication from Soundwave. Soundwave he understood, many confused their names based on the English renditions of their titles. Many thought their mindsets were more similar than they actually were based entirely on how Soundwave's voice modulator gave him a highly synthesised monotone means of speech and how his helmet gave him a rather faceless visage. They were wrong of course. Soundwave is cold like a glacier, Shockwave was focused like a laser.

    With a thought, the communication projectors displayed Soundwave's image as a hologram, the Arch-Commander of Intelligence staring at the taller Science Commander through his red visor; an arm extended to allow the vulture like Laserbeak to perch on his arm. Blue and white, Soundwave could sometimes seem to be unimposing, especially next to the intense Purple of Shockwave or the almost manic Red, White, and Blue of Starscream. But Shockwave knew that Soundwave had held onto his position for more reasons beyond his unbending loyalty to Megatron.

    "Lord Megatron wishes to know more about your progress regarding your research." Soundwave said, his vocoded voice sounding autotune, almost musical if it weren't also so devoid of inflection or emotion.

    "Megatron receives real time updates about my work at all times, but we have made breakthroughs ready for deployment. With the focus of the Inheritance Metaversal Cluster intruders now refocused onto the Nictus, we expect a wealth of opportunities to make use of the initial production runs to gain advantages in the game of influence." Shockwave reported while his machines jolted to life and stitched Mar's body back together to the last cell; purging the memories of his recent trauma as his flesh was reknitted into something more durable.

    "Megatron is unconcerned with the actions of the autobot auxiliaries for the time being. Please do not burden him with unnecessary details." Soundwave replied, receiving no response from Shockwave besides an electronic ping of acknowledgement of his message.

    "I would advise Lord Megatron to reconsider his stance. But I will note his desire for a more concise report." Shockwave responded without annoyance or frustration, merely a mental note that he would need to work to convince the Slagmaker of Kaon to not overlook non-cybertronian combatants.

    "Our efforts at re-establishing our communication network supremacy are proceeding faster than expected thanks to your work. Megatron is pleased by your expedience in counteracting interference in our intelligence operations from the technological end." Soundwave relayed, seemingly trying to distract Shockwave with something only tangentially relevant as if to catch him out in something. Soundwave of course, regarded everyone save for Megatron's favoured Consort Nightbird as perhaps harbouring disloyalty to the Decepticon ideology. Of course, nobody believed in the Decepticon way harder than Soundwave; not even Megatron.

    But there was one misconception Shockwave could not tolerate.

    "My division's work, I am not capable of managing the entirety of all research efforts on my own, and it is because of the talent that I have been able to shepherd that we are able to make the progress we have. With my guidance we continue to not merely reclaim the old glories, but move in directions the ancients did not fathom." If Megatron was allowed to believe that it was purely Shockwave's genius that allowed for Decepticon science to progress then he wouldn't send him more talent to mould into proper researchers and developers. Of course, he couldn't let Megatron believe he was replaceable, or else Megatron would try to replace him. An outcome that Shockwave wished to avoid for now.

    "We estimate that an interversal war will soon begin in earnest. Our intelligence assets report major build-up of Nictus and Nictus sympathetic forces across many realities. They are making their move. Our forces will require quantum modulation weapons to deal with the puppets of the Dark-Energy Life Forms." Soundwave informed Shockwave, though he had already estimated that this was going to be the likely outcome. The war would be furious, its outcome not entirely certain; depending on who interfered and on whose behalf. The Nictus could be bargained with, their mindset was very similar to that of the Decepticons, and arrangements had been made already. Alliance could be a possibility.

    But of course, only one could stand atop the Energon hill at the end of the day, and between Megatron and the Dirge of Entropy there was plenty of room for friction. Not in spite of their similarities, no; because of them.

    "You will have them of course, I anticipate the Kheldians will soon move to wrap up their own ancient species civil war to determine whether light or darkness is the destiny of their kind. And such weapons will be useful against either side." He responded with brisk calmness while he idly managed the procedure of the next experiment, keeping part of his mind focused on mars' transformation and augmentations; the flux of his state of consciousness as they tried to determine what would work best.

    "The matter of diplomacy is not in your division's ability to decide." Soundwave answered coldly.

    "I am making no suggestion of alliances, merely that it is a possibility."

    "Fantasising is not something you do unless you entertain the possibility of carrying through with it, Shockwave. I know you." Soundwave asserted, and to be fair he was in fact; absolutely right.

    "Given our Lord's plans, it is a likely possibility to have to prepare for." Shockwave countered.

    "Remember that my optics are turned inwards as well as outwards, Shockwave." Soundwave said without any overt menace; merely a cold statement of fact. Against Starscream it would have been met with boastful confidence, Shockwave simply nodded in acknowledgement.

    "Whatever the outcome, we will have a wealth of information not possible to acquire under strictly controlled conditions. The actions of the Humans aligned towards the Nictus will be easy to predict; as most human racialists are." Shockwave continued while he made note of how Mar responded to the memories written into his altered brain and the conversations he was having with the solid-light holograms created in front of him. So far, so good.

    "What I don't get is why these humans care so much about which breed of slime they are." Oil slick gurgled.

    "Do we not look down on many forms of Cybertronian offshoots such as the Constructicons, Predacons, and Stunticons?" Shockwave asked. "Or our stance towards other species and mechanical intelligences; particularly the sparkless." He responded with the same tone he did when explaining energon physics to Oil Slick so many astrocycles ago.

    "We are right! There are differences between the modbots and us, between the sparkless and us, between the organics and us. Humans are so heavily inbred that the difference between two populations of them can be lost to rounding errors." Oil Slick snarled.

    "Then you have not internalised everything I have taught you. Humans like most social beings without a programmatic internal nature will do what they believe is in the interest of the group they empathise with as a result of their environmental conditions and past experiences. Whom they empathise with and what they believe to be in that group's interest is malleable, and creating divisions to direct that perception against an enemy is an effective method of maintaining control. Regardless of its actuality." He replied.

    "But we are correct in our assessments of divergents and other forms of intelligence. That is the difference. That is the conclusion of our ideals. No other possibility exists." Soundwave stated, making it clear that he didn't want to hear any of Shockwave's smart aleck answers.

    "Of course, the Path of Conquest is beyond question as always." He replied as he looked at Mar's response to interaction with pretenders designed to make him feel comfortable despite his environment.

    Deeming it optimal, Shockwave allowed himself a sensation of satisfaction to encourage him to do more such things in the future.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Mission 1: The Cursed Sword
  • Threadmarks
    • Samus​

    You weren't really fond of just sitting around and waiting. You were proactive, not reactive. You wanted to be on the attack, not playing firefighter. Action and dynamism motivated you, sloth and inactivity drained you. You hated sleeping sometimes because it felt like you were wasting time that could be spent doing literally anything else. Lectures and briefings bored you because you could just read through the memos faster than they could speak it and get on with it. That was faster, more efficient, just better all around. That way you could help more people, and waste less time on doing...nothing of value. Papa often said you were too impatient, but why just sit around when you had so much power to help?

    So listening to Positron ramble on and on and on about things you already read through was something akin to your personal...Hell would be a bit too strong of a word but sort of like your purgatory? A not really desirable experience you'd rather not have to do any time soon but not exactly...miserable?

    Keyes was many things but fun to listen to was not one of them. He was the leader of Freedom Phalanx not because he was charismatic and a maker of soaring oratory, but because he was a skilled commander and a good friend to have. Also raw power was a good bonus to have on top of all that. Didn't make him reading off of power point slides any more stirring though.

    "-We've had reports of increasing Nictus activity in recent days. Larger than we've ever seen before. The Kamoebas attack on Brockton Bay was just one of many recent incidents instigated by forces aligned to the Nictus or sympathisers. While we're still putting some pieces together, what we can tell is that they're trying to cause unease, worry, and anxiety." He explained, gesturing at the bulletpointed lines on the holoscreen. Spirits you were so bored...

    Blah blah blah Nazis on the rise

    Blah blah blah exploitations of existing political anxieties

    Blah blah blah it's important to work with extraversals and extraterrestrials

    Blah blah blah we need to to get all the information and boots on the ground we can get

    Blah blah blah give a round of applause to Dawnchild and her friends for everything they've done for us all so far.

    You tried to make yourself small because you didn't like to be the centre of attention, not in this way. It felt like being a fish inside of a tank. You'd know, given that you very nearly got Chris kicked out of Seaworld for life by jumping into the water trying to save the animals from confinement in a space too small for them. Though you still insisted that the real problem were people who couldn't understand Orca language ignoring its plainly vocalised cries of complaint about its living conditions.

    Or when you tried to adopt literally every puppy, cat, bird, and fish in the pet store and found that being able to speak in the languages of dogs is in fact; weird and not at all common even on Primal Earth. But they were just so cute and so in need of your love and you just wished you had more hands to hug and pet all of them. It wasn't fair that they dragged you out of there with so many animals still in need of your affection.

    Or...you were just trying to distract yourself with anectdotes. But it had done its job at least.

    You let yourself run on autopilot to the end of this. You already knew, things were bad, things were building up towards something even worse, things would take the plunge once more into disarray and destruction. But you were there, you'd be able to handle the danger, to save the day and make sure nobody would be suffering, not the way you did. Nobody else would suffer the way you did. Not when you could help i-ByTheSpiritsAFoxYouMustPetIt.

    Your arms reach out to grab the fox and cradle it, not at all really cognisant of the fact that you were still wearing your armour, holding the Fox with gentleness that would let you stroke the back of a butterfly without the slightest bit of stress to its carapace.

    You felt something odd about this fox. You were aware that there were shapeshifters that took the guise of foxes in Paragon City. But the magic was closer to the Reaper that was seen in Brockton Bay a week ago. Something more...you reacted quickly and lowered your arms to let what was about to happen happen.

    "Subject is taking on an alternate form, likely sort of entity: KItsune, reality signature identical to Gevatter Todt." Your visor informed you, your eyes opening with some extra interest before the transformation completed.

    It shifted, expanded, and in its place was a boy. A Boy with a big, bushy orange foxtail and prominent ears and bright cyan eyes. He seemed to be of Japanese ethnicity, if one could overlook the whisker-like marks on his cheeks or the pronounced canines he had. Or the tail, or the ears. Okay fair there was quite a lot to have to overlook to not notice that he was inhuman.

    "Hello, you're the Dawnchild right? I've been looking for you for a while!" He said with a wide grin.

    "I'm Teramoto Ryunosuke. Oracle and well; a lot of other stuff of Tsukiyo. I think...maybe...but Hi! I've been looking for you!" He says, tapping his lips a bit while he thought before he shrugged his lamellar covered shoulders, his mid-neck length long hair shaking a bit as he scratched at his chin with a fingerless glove fitted hand.

    "Oh...what are you looking for me for?" You asked, blinking, unsure whether or not to call the others to meet with you while he leaned a bit forwards and grinned widely, his messy hair ruffling a bit with the wind around.

    "Well, you see, it's mostly to know if you can help us out." He said, somewhat bashfully as his tail waved behind him.

    "But...who is "us"?" You asked with a more serious tone.

    "Well it's just...we're a bit lost honestly. We're...kind of adventurers I guess, have you heard of Golarion?"

    "...No?" You said, thoroughly confused now.

    "Oh...well...all the information here says that you're a particularly great hero. And I tend to trust my visions and divinations. They did help with learning the weird language here." He scratched at the back of his head, leaning into scratching at the back of his ears in particular and letting out a little yip before shaking his head.

    "Okay, what do you need help with?" He seemed trustworthy, your senses detected no particular danger from him, and his auras seemed sweet, noble, earnestly lost though. And finally, not helping people in need just wasn't who you were.

    "Well, I'm not bringing you a dire warning or anything like that. But I do feel like something is building in the background, and that I think you could help explain this to me?" He said, fishing out something from a bag you identified as a portable pocket dimension that was being used as a means of storage. Practical, sensible really. You made use of that plenty of times yourself.

    He presented something that you took a moment to analyse, the emblem of the Thule Society you'd come to have more than just a bit of an issue with over the past few months. Even in cufflink form, the symbols gave you a sensation of unease. But that wasn't the only thing that drew your eyes, the other was the scabbard contained sword he was holding. An old Norse design of blade, the runes on the scabbard warning of pain if the blade ever was unsheathed. Not just for the user but all who dared approach.

    "Tyrfing." You said, recognising the blade from your recollections of Old Mythology. The cursed sword of Norse sagas, a blade that would bring power and might but also insanity and aggression. A blade that once unsheathed could not be resheathed until its wielder had caused the death of at least one other person. You reacted almost immediately and smacked it out of his hands, his fingers yanking back as he jumped back to let the blade clatter onto the ground.

    "Do not touch that sword!" You said, seeing the runes shift from cool blue to blood red before ceasing their glowing altogether.

    "How did you get this?" You asked pointedly, placing a boot on top of the sword to make sure it didn't go anywhere.

    "Well we were trying to explore around and well...there were these casters we tried to speak to but the second our paladin took off her helmet it got very violent. Other champions came in and assisted, but one of us got our hands on this blade and well, my curse helps keep the sword's curse under control." He said, picking the sword back up with a sweep of his tail and curling his fingers around the scabbard.

    "I had a vision that you were someone who was...helpful and kind and would assist us. We don't know how to get home and I'm pretty sure that we've got well...people after us. So please...can you help?"

    Actions: ​

    Order priority from greatest to least

    []: Bring in the other inheritors first
    []: Look for the rest of Ryunosuke's friends
    []: See if anyone in the Thule society is still after him
    []: Contact the Freedom Phalanx and Starsetters
    []: Contact the Wards and Protectorate
    []: Contact the Autobots, Imperials, and Eldar
    []: See if there's a safer place to store the sword away
    []: Bring Ryuonosuke to somewhere less public to talk more about him
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [5]: Bring in the other inheritors first
    [4]: Look for the rest of Ryunosuke's friends
    [1]: See if anyone in the Thule society is still after him
    [6]: Contact the Freedom Phalanx and Starsetters
    [7]: Contact the Wards and Protectorate
    [8]: Contact the Autobots, Imperials, and Eldar
    [3]: See if there's a safer place to store the sword away
    [2]: Bring Ryuonosuke to somewhere less public to talk more about him

    See if he is still being chased, get him away from the public, hide the sword, find his allies, call back-up

    I think a decent plan of action, also man those Nazi's must have real bad luck to keep having their plans encountered by us.
     
    [1]: See if anyone in the Thule society is still after him
    [2]: Bring Ryuonosuke to somewhere less public to talk more about him
    [3]: Bring in the other inheritors first
    [4]: See if there's a safer place to store the sword away
    [5]: Look for the rest of Ryunosuke's friends
    [6]: Contact the Autobots, Imperials, and Eldar
    [7]: Contact the Freedom Phalanx and Starsetters
    [8]: Contact the Wards and Protectorate
     
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    [1]: See if anyone in the Thule society is still after him
    [2]: Bring Ryuonosuke to somewhere less public to talk more about him
    [3]: Bring in the other inheritors first
    [4]: See if there's a safer place to store the sword away
    [5]: Look for the rest of Ryunosuke's friends
    [6]: Contact the Autobots, Imperials, and Eldar
    [7]: Contact the Freedom Phalanx and Starsetters
    [8]: Contact the Wards and Protectorate

    Close ranks first, then let other groups know.
     
    Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Mission 1: The Cursed Sword Part 2
  • Threadmarks
    • Samus​

    The Thule Society, as the primary mysticist arm of the third reich, had quite the long reach and as many fascist groups often do; has quite an extensive deal of contacts within the halls of bourgeois wealth and power. Those who had listened to the siren song of the promise that the Weltreich could protect their wealth and privilege within society and ensure that those who ought to be below them stayed below them.

    Theirs was a sinister legacy and after several encounters with them, you weren't in the mood to give them any room to attack you again. Especially not with the Kitsune potentially in harm's way. Best to get a good read on what this kid was all about first as you scanned around, confident that for the time being no one was around who could threaten the boy before you let your visor give you a read on him.

    Ryunosuke is a Kitsune whose body is imbued with a substantial amount of potent magical energies both fused into his form through his curse that compels him to occasionally speak in nonstandard languages when under significant stress as well as his descent from potent users of magic. Ryunosuke's true form is that of an anthropomorphic fox, but he prefers his human and kitsunememi form due to interacting with humans frequently. While not particularly physically strong, especially by your standards, he is exceedingly agile and possessed of both a sharp mind and a keen way with words and force of personality. A force of personality that helps him predict and even outright deflect incoming blows or harmful effects through magical energy and prophecy and serves as the basis for most of his magic. He has a somewhat limited number of spells imbued into his body, particularly his more powerful spells, and his reservoirs of magical energy can be depleted through overuse. While rest can restore his supply of magic, adding new spells to his magical matrix requires substantially more effort, though some of his weaker spells can be changed out from day to day depending on what he prays for following a period of rest. Each of his nine tails is imbued with magic power that allows him to cast spells from it, which can also be used to bolster his wardings or his physical power and can be used to cover shortcomings in his magic.

    Immune to disease and effects that cause or induce fear, he is also capable of imbuing his songs with his magic to achieve a wide array of effects, and is gifted at restoring the health of others through his spells and touch. Enemies who read to his senses as particularly predisposed to the powers of disorder or malevolence can also be designated by him for substantially greater impact. Ryunosuke has special ties to a Kirin named Uihara that serves as his mount of choice as well as a pet Fox named Takashi that serves as both a familiar and a means of tricking enemies by using his own ability to assume the form of an ordinary-seeming fox and transforming his familiar. Based on accessible records, he has already made a minor name for himself through this prank within Paragon City. Particularly when combined with Uihara's own sorcerous ability to change shape to add the maximum possible quantity of confusion as to whom one is speaking to. However, Ryunosuke while mischievous, is also highly respectful when it comes to his pranks and will always back off if requested to do so and tries to avoid pranks that are humiliating or meanspirited.

    Further analysis suggests that Ryunosuke has some descent from entities more closely aligned to his deity than he realises, contributing to the exceptionally metallic colouration of his hair and the particular luster of his skin as well as the glow in his irises. Further study will be needed to make a clear identification of the ancestry he has, but it seems to contribute to his chipper and optimistic attitude and virtually unbendable sense of righteousness. He is, however, noted to be forgiving almost to a fault, having difficulty accepting that people he trusts can do wrong and is exceptionally willing to overlook often glaring personality faults or cover for the misdeeds of people he believes to be friends.

    So a spellcaster in essence, one with a formidable but not infinite reserve of spells that as far as you can tell, are meant to cover a decently broad array of subjects. Seems to split his magical traditions along a number of lines, some more focused on support, others more focused on destruction, others on battlefield control and deception. Overall, a boy of many talents who could probably find a place in just about any group. But as of right now, he was in your trust and care, and he had just said that he was likely being pursued.

    You quickly grabbed at his hand, getting a burble of stammering gibberish from him as you pulled him towards a denser crowd of people that would at least offer him some cover from whatever was interested in finding him before bringing him into one of the public transport terminals that were guarded by the City's police drones likely to prevent anyone but the most serious of attackers from poking into your business. You took another look around and then moved your eyes back to him for a moment, his eyes blinking rapidly while you tapped the side of your helmet.

    "+Arne, Agata, Sevrin.+" You said, pinging the three at their various locations, Arne busy working on some manner of mechanoid from the inside of his starship, Agata doing curl-ups while upside down under immense gravity, and Sevrin just about wrapping up a religious ritual involving cradling a light source.

    "+Samus, what's going on?+" Arne asked, lying supine on his back while his nimble hands adjusted some alignments on the components of the robotic companion he was making.

    "+I am in the middle of something if you do not mind Sammy.+" Agata grunted as she pulled herself up one more time, sweating from her long bouts of activity.

    "+I have done my daily duties, I am ready to hear your request.+" Sevrin said, calm as ever.

    "+I think I have an idea of what the Thule Society wants to do now. I'm with an extraversal named Ryunosuke who has a cursed sword. Tyrfing. Sending you the datafiles now+" You said over the line.

    "+If they're looking for that, that can't be the only artifact they want. Tyrfing is powerful but never made you unbeatable in the sagas. After all, it wants to go from one user to another.+" Arne said without skipping a beat while he teased in a power cell into the matrices of his latest creation.

    "+Well, regardless of whether it is their only goal, if Nazis want it, they shouldn't have it no?+" Sevrin pointed out with a smirk on his face.

    "+Mhrm, have you seen the retrieval team yet?+" Agata asked.

    "+No...the coast is clear for now.+" You said.

    "+Yeah I'll get there in a bit. Don't worry your golden head.+" She said as she dropped down with an immense impact due to the increased weight that the dialed up gravity put her unarmoured body under, landing on her hands and then dropping onto her feet and dabbing her head with a nanosalve before ordering the room to return things to normal, placing on a shirt to cover her midriff before forming her zero suit and then armour around her.

    "+I'll be there...don't worry.+" Arne said, moving his goggles away from his eyes and finishing up his work after petting the head of the newly activated cat-like machine. His own armour manifested over him in a blue flash, and a quick activation of his blink pack brought him much closer to where you were.

    Sevrin of course, had already been moving towards you from the moment he heard your summons, so of course he was the first, offering a little wave as he stepped into view before Arne and Agata appeared shortly afterwards, the other eight tails of Ryunosuke seeming to materialise purely to wave in alarm from the sudden startling appearance of the other three. He calmed down shortly though, and cleared his throat to offer a bow of acknowledgement.

    "Hand me that." Agata said, extending her hand to Tyrfing.

    "Wait bu-"

    "Bad people want it yes? I'll make sure they don't get it." She responded brusquely.

    "Moonshade..." You started before she looked towards you and sighed before relaxing slightly.

    "Please?" She added.

    "I...alright, but it's only because you're moonshade." He said, gulping as he handed the scabbard over to the taller, armour clad girl who gave the weapon a once over and then clipped it to her waist guard.

    "Don't really see all the fuss honestly..." She mumbled under her breath.

    "Hey, uhm." Arne still had some difficulty speaking to new people. Especially when just brought out of his mechanist zone. He concentrated a bit, shifted his posture and his tone went from slight and shy to more poised and confident, more like a real knight.

    "Where are your friends? If you're under threat, so are they. It'd also make getting you debriefed a lot easier." He said, the Boy biting his lower lip with his fangs briefly before letting his tails wag a bit to indicate a direction.

    "I'll just teleport us there...real quick." He said, fishing out a scroll from his pouch and unfurling it, reading its incantations and producing an image of a small but rather diverse group of people not too dissimilar from him trying to figure out how the menu at Burger King worked. And also finding to their displeasure that gilded coins are not legal tender in the State of Rhode Island.

    And with another incantation he extended his offer of teleportation, allowing you to subconsciously accept and bring you to the inside of one of Paragon City's many shopping centres where the cashier was currently acquainting their head with the cash register while a rather feisty young lady with purple coloured skin and prominent horns and a prehensile spaded tail arguing with the employee about the validity of her currency.

    "Brilista are you st-" Ryunosuke started before being made to silence with a quick "mouth close" hand gesture without the pale rose colour-haired girl even looking in his direction.

    "This here is gold plated, come on that has to have at least some value!" She said as the frustrated looking employee pinched her brow and started to reach her finger over to a button to call security while she brandished a gilded coin before the employee.

    You, sensing disaster, quickly stepped in and pinged the cashier with a payment tab of about a thousand US dollars forwarded from you on their sake, prompting her to stop and pull her sallow-skinned hand back from the button and assume a gentler demeanour.

    The girl flicked her eyes over to you, yellow irises staring out at you and her tail briefly stiffening when she realised you were looking her right back. She was carrying an awfully large number of chemicals on her person, A rather dangerous amount of volatiles actually. A quick scan revealed her name to be Brilista Ventervale, a self-styled intellectual who specialised in creating items of power, studying targets, alchemy, and studied forms of magic. She had a number of books on her, inscribed with all manner of formulae and descriptions of how to achieve certain effects along with large quantities of notes.

    She had a coat with some plated armour beneath clearly designed for maximum mobility, and goggles she had placed onto her forehead while she brushed aside her long, straight hair and tilted her head and then looked to Ryonosuke.

    "That's Dawnchild?" She asked, her accent a bit strange, vaguely eastern European but not quite, her elfin ears wriggling a bit while she spoke.

    "Are you done yet? I'm hungry!" Someone else shouted, his hair the colour of the sun and seeming to flicker like the ribbons of plasma on the surface of a star. His body temperature was definitely abnormally high, his eyes the colour of fire and his pointed ears almost seeming to glow with an inner heat along with the rest of his late afternoon sun coloured skin. As if plasma or magma was flowing in his veins and arteries instead of blood. Ziqud Iyaasah, Ifrit born to half-elves and one of a rather literally fiery temperment as a result of his fire elemental and genie heritage. Certainly seemed to be...

    "As ravenous as your element." Agata said quite bluntly.

    "Hey! Who said that?!" He said, his youthful features bristling as his hair, normally in a boyish cut seemed to take on texture more like a lion's mane made of the stuff of the sun and a hiss could be heard from him as his spit boiled in his mouth. Seems he took fiery temper a bit more literally than most. very much like Yesuntai honestly, though Ziqud was definitely a bit bigger.

    "I did." Agata said bluntly as Ziqud narrowed his eyes, the rather impressive looking set of plate armour he wore silent as it moved around his body while Ryunosuke clearly was nonplussed by the sudden aggression everyone was displaying, urging calm and rationality before the last of their merry group of four; though you had a feeling that there was at least one more half to the group that were just elsewhere for the time being; stepped in.

    You could tell immediately they were an android, just from the way their aura shone in your othersight and from the reports of nanite solution instead of blood being present beneath their humanlike synthskin and the odd circuit board pattern markings that danced around glacier coloured skin with a cold glow. She definitely had concealed weapons on her, potentialities hidden by sorcery waiting for the right moment to be brought forth.

    "I recommend a cessation of belligerence before hostile first impressions take root." She offered before raising a hand. "Greetings, I am Viri. I serve as this group's primary tracker and vanguard combatant. Also often the primary mediator." She said, her voice rather monotone, little emotional inflexion or range. It seems that the Android wasn't designed with social interaction in mind despite how much effort went into mimicking so many biological functions. Clearly designed for agility and long-term power rather than burst lifting strength or bulk. Somewhat like you, but more...stiff. Compared to Brilista she definitely had more muscle though. Well, muscle-equivalent anyway.

    You made sure that information about them was sent to the Autobots and other allies, then filtered through those in the Phalanx and Protectorate you trusted. It was hard to gauge who was fully trustworthy though, you still sometimes struggled to parse people's meanings, especially when they suppressed tells and you didn't really know them all too well. There were signs when people were lying, but skilled liars knew how to not give them.

    Bulkhead pinged a message to wait for him to arrive outside the mall to pick you up, noting that Bumblebee was out on deep recon at the moment. Disappointing but understandable at least.

    "We'll have something to put the Sword away in as soon as my friends arrive. Are you all alright?" You asked, trying to get everyone focused back on task.

    "I mean...sure..." Ziqud shrugged as he looked Viri up and down briefly while she sat herself on one of the chairs in the booth, her more plasticish armour bending a bit with her movements while Ziqud grumbled a bit about how he no longer had leg room.

    "Ryu, you didn't bring that sword with you right? Not without putting it somewhere safe right?" Brilista said, looking at Ryunosuke pointedly while he gulped sheepishly.

    "...You brought it here, didn't you?" She said, eyes widening as he took a look around and you briefly felt a sense of incoming danger, reaching out your hand and grabbing something that raced towards the scene. You looked and noted it was a missile, one about to arm and detonate.

    Thinking quickly, the time dilator activated and the missile's detonation was frozen for the time being, letting you quickly step outside and throw it to the sky, returning to where you were as soon as you had gotten rid of the immediate danger and firing off a paralysed beam shot at the direction the missile had come from, striking some manner of machine before you yanked it towards you with the grapple beam.

    An assassin drone, you murmured as you tore out its power systems from its spindly chest; the other Inheritors already on alert as you resumed time and let the skinny blade limbed thing crumple onto the ground. There was a sudden outburst of murmurs and worry, everyone looking around and then towards you as the nazi machine's head was stomped on by your boot to make sure it remained broken.

    "You aren't safe here. Where's the rest of your group?" You asked pointedly.



    "Two of them are at Independence port, uhh...Liberty Harbor I think? One of them is at Astoria and the last is at Atlas Park." Ryunosuke said, letting you have a moment to think. You were currently at Talos Island.

    "Can they handle themselves at all?" You asked.

    "They've seen adventure yeah...but they wanted to see the city up close so they wandered off." He said sheepishly.

    "The two at the Port are Sinlal Evem and Rumufi Ludhuvi. Our Witch and Druid; they're uh...Sinlal is descended from a Celestial and Rumufi is part Marid, Water Genie. The one at Astoria is Maert Lilychild; our Occultist, psychic...general weirdness handler; changeling, dark hair, one green eye, one red, dark hair, hard to miss her. And at Atlas Park is Tilgisclan Firevigil, he's like...our moral compass. Apsu has something in mind for him but I don't really know what's the deal with the Dragon God." He explained, your suit feeding you quick Paragon Police Department profiles on them.

    Sinlal had hair that seemed to be spun from strands of silver with pointed ears and eyes that glowed a noble hue of blue-grey; his skin was on the darker side too, but with a sort of sheen not seen in humans, he seemed to disdain armour and kept company with a Compsognathus, a small feathery dinosaur, according to the PPD his magic seemed to be focused less on raw power and more on control and altering the abilities of others to fight. Rumufi was blue-skinned with webbed fingers and gill slits on her neck, her features somewhat Semitic with wavy sea-green hair and turqoise coloured eyes, her garb made from the discarded carapace of sea-creatures rather than metal, seemingly inseparable from a long legged crocodilian that was just at home on land as well as water; her more nature focused magic making her more able to handle herself in close quarters. The two seemed like they covered each other's weaknesses and strengths quite well though. Independence Port was a major area of economic activity even with the frequent giant Octopus attacks. It was also crawling with the 5th Column and the Council among other Fascist groups, to the point that the PPD had marked out a number of "only enter with backup" zones patrol officers were supposed to avoid and leave to metahuman specialists. Given that the 5th Column took marching orders from the Weltreich, they were the closest to the Belly of the Beast.

    Maert Lilychild was something of a space cadet (note to self: ask what this term means, you don't think she's a cadet for space programs) but easy enough to pick out of a crowd once you knew what to look for, a frizzy haired dark skinned girl who seemed to have her head somewhere else half the time. Usually seen with a phantom knight and a strange summoned creature she could possess the body of that the description noted had a somewhat morphic and frequently disturbing form. Astoria, from the description of it, was once the resting place of the Carthaginian God of Death and Sterility Mot who had once threatened to consume the souls of Sourcewell Humanity in his bid to displace the Well of Furies; but Mot was defeated years ago and can never feed again. Still, the legacy of Mot likely drew someone interested in the Occult like herself to the place just to see what it was like and commune with what spirits and psychic essences were there. On the other hand, that same lingering horror of Mot and the banished Pantheon likely would mask anything trying to hurt her.

    Tilgisclan according to his file claimed to be descended from Radiant and Paradise Dragons and consorted with the beings of Heaven. His PPD file said he was very friendly and astutely observational but also somewhat dogmatic and held himself and others to high standards. it seemed that he could control how much of his inner dragon he manifested, but usually looked mostly humanoid save for patches of scales, backwards swept horns that rose from the confines of his literally glowing platinum-gold textured and coloured hair and seemed to be more fond of having his wings out and about than Brilista or Sinlal who usually had them moulded into their body. A healer and a guide as well as a holy warrior, he had gone straight to Atlas Park; the city's centre and the site of its City Hall as well as an informal centre of the cape community to try and present his petition to the city in the hopes of getting them to hear out his case. He was by far the safest, both deeply formidable in battle and also literally surrounded by capes as well as the core of the city's defences.

    There were others, but they were on the Rogue Islands, reportedly safe due to Lord Recluse's orders, but right now you weren't sure if you could even set foot on Richter's nation of villains.

    Arne though pointed out Bulkhead's arrival; his green form rolling up near the window and breaking you out of your thoughts. It was a bad idea to split up in general, but taking a look at your list of contacts...

    Chris, Vista, Victoria, and Gallant were with Taylor, Tattletale, Regent, and Grue on some sort of team-building thing slash a tour of the city with Alice, Elyra, Boltdancer, Raelamiel, Steel Paladin, Mistral Slash, Dawnmaker, and Aronim and might be able to help watch over one of the three disparate groups until you got there.

    Dragon was currently in the city, accompanied by Armsmaster, Assault, Battery, Ascendant, Numina, Citadel, and Yin who were quite eager to get the Guild and Protectorate more familiar with Paragon City, with Arcee, Windsaber, Hotshot, and Cliffjumper on standby nearby in case anything went wrong.

    Alyrsero, Lelithax, Kaeliyae, and Ormothin finally were at the lakefront near the city hall of Atlas Park; seemingly being lectured by Alyrsero's father Vrailius. You doubted you had all that much pull over Vrailius or his former Druchii spouse Veskyrai but keeping them aware that there might be trouble could be worth it; either them or Scoutmaster Cyrus and his Astartes Initiates on terrain familiarisation duty and Tarkus and his tactical astartes.

    Actions:​

    Pick one group to go and check on first.

    []: Sinlal and Rumufi at Independence Port.
    []: Maert at Astoria
    []: Tilgisclan at Atlas Park.

    Designate places to go for the three available contacts.

    Eldar & Blood Ravens (Currently at Atlas Park)
    []: Astoria
    []: Atlas Park
    []: Independence Port

    Taylor, Wards, Undersiders and Starsetters (Currently at Peregrine Island)
    []: Astoria
    []: Atlas Park
    []: Independence Port

    Armsmaster, Dragon, Citadel, Yin, and Autobots (Currently at Founder's Falls)
    []: Astoria
    []: Atlas Park
    []: Independence Port
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X]: Sinlal and Rumufi at Independence Port.
    Eldar & Blood Ravens (Currently at Atlas Park)
    [X]: Atlas Park
    Taylor, Wards, Undersiders and Starsetters (Currently at Peregrine Island)
    [X]: Independence Port
    Armsmaster, Dragon, Citadel, Yin, and Autobots (Currently at Founder's Falls)
    [X]: Astoria

    Covers all of the ground, and gives us some reinforcement if the port is dangerous
     
    [X]: Sinlal and Rumufi at Independence Port.
    Eldar & Blood Ravens (Currently at Atlas Park)
    [X]: Atlas Park
    Taylor, Wards, Undersiders and Starsetters (Currently at Peregrine Island)
    [X]: Independence Port
    Armsmaster, Dragon, Citadel, Yin, and Autobots (Currently at Founder's Falls)
    [X]: Astoria
     
    X]: Sinlal and Rumufi at Independence Port.
    Eldar & Blood Ravens (Currently at Atlas Park)
    [X]: Atlas Park
    Taylor, Wards, Undersiders and Starsetters (Currently at Peregrine Island)
    [X]: Independence Port
    Armsmaster, Dragon, Citadel, Yin, and Autobots (Currently at Founder's Falls)
    [X]: Astoria

    Grab the two in the most troublesome area first.
     
    Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Mission 1: The Cursed Sword Part 3
  • Threadmarks
    • Samus​

    "We should head to the port, the people there are in the greatest danger and we'd be able to help two of them at once. It's just...the most efficient solution honestly." You said before you made a face beneath your helmet, yuck, that was very...Mother Brainish.

    "I can agree with that...we should be able to get there quickly. Independence Port shouldn't be too hard to screen through to find our lost adventures." Arne said, thinking up a plan in his head quickly, your own thoughts in sync with his.

    The Eldar were already in Atlas Park, and the priest was in probably the safest place in the city. No need to move anyone to handle him.

    Astoria was spooky, and the one there had her head in the clouds. The experience of Dragon's group would be good at making sure she got to a designated meeting spot in one piece, before she poked into something left over from Mot's rampage or the Nictus got to her.

    Independence port had active 5th Column bases and hideouts though, as well as activity from the Council among others. And Taylor could get there quickly despite the distance from her position. The choice was clear.

    Requests for deployments were sent, dispatched to those who were the most likely to listen to the information sent. Affirmations were made, discussions were had. Time was saved. You took a look at the others.

    "Can you see where they are right now?" Sevrin asked Ryunosuke.

    "Uh, no they've got nondetection spells up. Normal precaution stuff. But I can get us to where they said they were going to be." He said as he pulled out another scroll, letting its words glow while he read off parchment. Another remote viewing spell to provide him with enough information to let him be sure of where he was going before he clapped his hands and said the magic words to yank everyone there in a single step.

    Independence Port was...busy. As if nothing was out of the ordinary. Ships came, ships went, filtering into the massive natural harbour and out of it with goods from around the world. There was more tension in the air than normal though; contributed to by the formations of American naval warships that were docked at Fort Abrams' facilities or were steaming out to the open ocean to join the formations of warships on patrol.

    Power Island and its imposing war walls surrounding the Terra Volta electrical plant certainly wasn't a welcoming looking place. There were a lot of implications about something as banal as a city's largest power plant being sealed behind so many fortifications or looked over with a veritable army of guards; including power suit clad PPD officers, Psionic Police, mechanoids with far too much weaponry to seem like suitable beat cop units.

    Just, how many people ended up maimed or worse at the hands of the police here? You've seen them conduct arrests with units equipped with cluster-missile launchers and plasma cannons; which felt totally inappropriate for a city where the largest portion of dangerous criminals' deadliest weapon was a blunt instrument or a 9mm pistol.

    "What sort of device do they keep locked behind those barriers?" Brilista asked, adjusting her goggles after making sure all her body parts where were they should be.

    "Power generator, pretty experimental technology for the general technology level here." Arne said briskly, always glad to speak of machines and metallic things.

    Taylor's group appeared in a flash of darkness, popping in all at once while Tattletale fell to the ground and coughed a bit, shaking her head and trying to reorient herself after being pulled through Shadow of Retribution's darkspace.

    "I feel like I got my head dunked in a roller coaster." She groaned.

    "You get used to it." Dennis said after shaking his head and taking a quick look to make sure he still had all of his limbs attached before giving you a thumbs up.

    "Hey, what are you kids doing here? This is a restricted area!" One of the supercops shouted, their cape fluttering a bit in the wind while their peaked cap lowered slightly at his desire, giving him a vaguely M Bison esque appearance that felt more dictatorial than comforting to you.

    "We're looking for two outversers who are in a lot of danger. The Reich...Nictus are looking for a sword they stole from them. Possibly other things. Please...have you seen anyone matching these descriptions?" You said, squeezing your gauntlet and projecting an image of the PPD photoshoots of the duo in question while Arne looked through the web of data across publicly accessible networks to try and pinpoint their location.

    "Yeah, whatever. Power Island is off limits to anyone without sufficient security level clearance. Scram before I get in touch with your mentors." The Officer said, clenching his jaw as he did so, the Police taking note of you with clearly unpleasant regard. Most of your heroics had been on Earth Bet so far, and your reputation on Primal Earth wasn't quite as...strong. It certainly lead to a feeling that they looked at you like a fraud, something that couldn't live up to the legend.

    "Seigneurs, we are with Autobot command, perhaps you could allow us this once?" Sevrin said before one of the officers shook his head.

    "Don't care what alien credentials you flash around here. The PPD knows these streets, not a bunch of space kids in tin suits." The SWAT officer said as he turned around and signalled to the others to adjust their perimeters, clearly unsatisfied with them.

    Ryunosuke seemed to be a bit...baffled by the hostility of the PPD, and his ears lowered slightly when he he heard a comment about "god not another animal eared freak" from a power armoured officer, looking down and chewing on his lower lip to try and pretend he wasn't offended.

    Taylor certainly didn't seem to appreciate the rudeness from the police, even as Dennis and Chris whispered to each other about "asshole beat cops"; marching straight up to the caped officer without fear of retaliation as her Nictus aura began to flare around her, shrouding her in shadow while her wings spread wide to further impress the nature of her power over the officer; shard bound Insects flying around her like a cloud of locusts.

    "Maybe you could show some respect to people trying to help make your lives easier for once?" She said with venom in her voice, the officer making a face and twitching his arm as if he was preparing to hit her before holding back as soon as he saw Alice and her Demons and Fire elementals nearby; the hissing of the fiends and creatures of flame making his comments quiet down to some...

    Wait why is he looking at Boltdancer and Grue that way? They haven't done anything so far...as far as you know. "Those kinds of people?" You caught from the officer's thoughts as he made a grunt and looked away.

    Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Chroma, Hound, Windblade, and Strongarm transformed and urged some restraint and caution in the area, the large autobot towering over the others and extending his massive hands to show that he meant no harm. Hound though was well...Hound, being personable wasn't really his thing.

    "Cops are cops anywhere looks like..." Grue muttered to himself.

    "So what's so important about these two kids that you bring in eight starsetters, four LARP rejects, the whole Quartet, six autobots, and eight Beters?" The Captain said to you rather pointedly.

    "They're looking for the Sword of Tyrfing and a number of other mythological relics. The sword likely meant to make it easier to acquire something much more dangerous." Arne said, hoping his somewhat Scandinavian accent would make him sound like more of an expert.

    The captain sighed, rolled his eyes and muttered about "gods and monsters bullshit" to the other squaddies present who agreed in a hurry.

    "Hey I've had just about enough of your constant attitude. What have we even done to you?" Ziquid snarled as he approached the Captain whose eyes began to glow briefly with intent just before Dawnmaker interposed themself in front; appearing in a flash of light as the Kheldian-Yurye hybrid folded their arms with clear disappointment.

    "You will stop this." Dawnmaker commanded, not requested, commanded.

    "We will split up to cover more ground. Mercifully, our charges are not with...the gallant officers of Paragon City." Dawnmaker just about sneered with a degree of contempt you never expected out of generally unfailingly polite "superhero's superhero".

    "Hey what makes you think you can just walk out of here, we're not done with yo-" The Officer said before the eyes of the Kheldian-Yurye hybrid began to glow like suns within his helmet.

    "I AM TIRED OF LITTLE MEN WHO THINK A UNIFORM PROVIDES THEM WITH A BLANK CHEQUE TO DO AS THEY PLEASE." They said with a furor that made the air shake without necessarily being loud, more like a dictate that could be felt by anyone and everyone as if it were ringing in their skulls.

    "You will cease this farce, or I will speak to the Kheldians who merge with those who bear your badge and the fallout of that upon your pact with my kind will be on your head, Darrel." Dawnmaker concluded with a coldness that made the officer gulp and back down.

    "Wait, why is that enough to make him back down?" Brilista asked, the Tiefling's tail wagging with interest.

    "They have a lot of influence among other Kheldians." Sevrin whispered back. Huh, you don't think Dawnmaker ever told that to you, but then you never spoke to them very often. You probably should at some point, to get to know the Kheldians better.

    "We'll take the four. Dawnmaker, take your team, Taylor; go with your group. Make sure any potential threats to the two are dealt with." You said before Bulkhead signalled to the autobots to transform and roll out, your map of Independence Port loading up to try and point you in one direction or the other.

    "+I'll keep in touch.+" Taylor cut in, smiling on her end of the comms before she cut out; teleporting her group out to another part of independence port, quickly met with rapid-fire swearing in Italian-American accented English and automatic weapons fire followed by gravitic distortions from Taylor's Nictus powers.

    Spreading out wasn't that hard, especially with your ships providing a bird's eye view of Paragon City and Ryunosuke's spells being used to guide your path. The four kept to some sort of group flight spell, buzzing around at a more languid pace than you and your fellow inheritors who bounced around on the directions that Ryunosuke provided. You could move faster, and you wanted to, but Ryu and his companions weren't quite capable of keeping up with you at your full speed. Most people weren't, which was certainly annoying, but it couldn't be helped.

    You stopped at the outside of an...abandoned warehouse. You feel as though this is far from the last time that you'll find important things occurring in abandoned warehouses in Paragon City.

    "Torag's beard they just leave something like this unattended?" Brilista muttered with astonishment as she just...stared at the massive, multi-story, above and underground building just laying relatively derelict.

    It was to be fair, a waste of a perfectly good Vatican city-sized warehouse. You were pretty upset at the idea that a place like this was just...not being used.

    "Snipers at the windows, maintain stealth." Agata said, extending a hand to urge everyone to stop.

    She grabbed at a nearby empty can of coke and tossed it into the air and didn't even flinch when the can exploded into burning shards of ruptured aluminium as soon as it had a clear line of sight to the building. Merely a self-satisfied nod that she felt as though she was proven right about her hunch.

    "Observation: Frontal Entrance will likely meet with significant resistance." Viri intoned.

    "Why are there so many Nazis in this city it's absurd..." Arne complained mostly to himself.

    "Most of them aren't from the city." You assured him

    But you did have an idea. Dawnmaker's team had plenty of veterans of the city, maybe one of them could be of some assistance. You pinged his team with your situation, not wanting to put the newbies at risk before you were fully assured of their ability to withstand the sort of firepower they had. Especially since, if the two were in there, they were likely already in trouble.

    Boltdancer was the first to respond, seemingly having expected you to make a request for some on the ground assistance.

    "+Whiteston Warehouse? I've had to go into that hellhole on fifty god damn missions. If your adventuring party members are in there they're probably gonna be held in one of the lower levels. Probably what...floor negative five? Got a mage-cage in there from when Nemesis used it to...hey Aro, what did Nemesis use it for again?+" He said, his dark skinned features hidden behind his mask as he pinged the Yurye brute archetype.

    "+Nemesis...Mage-Cage...oh right he was trying to create a "perfected spellbook". I'm not really much for magic so I don't know the logistics behind that.+" The Elfin Psion shrugged.

    "+Spellbook that would update itself with instructions to cast any spell that was cast in its presence to let the wielder learn magic nearly instantly.+" Alice added.

    "+Hocus-Pocus stuff...fun...+" Chris groaned.

    "+Magic is perfectly legitimate! It's not "Hocus-Pocus" stuff Chris!" You grumbled.

    "+Anyway, you guys'll wanna take the subway. Don't head to the main terminal under there the Nazis'll be all over that. There's an old maintenance hatch, tunnel leads up into the main floor. Won't set off the phase-through or teleport detectors or burrowing sensors too. Probably got a few Circle of Thorns whack-jobs close-by but nothing you can't handle. Seeing as you saved my ass from the Genestealers 'n all.+" He said, shrugging a bit before you gave it a bit of thought.

    "+Maybe we could split up again? Sevrin and I take the main route, we'll take two of the adventurers. You take the sneaky route Blondie.+" Agata said, cracking her knuckles as she looked at the primary entrance to the warehouse.

    "+Hold on , I don't know much 'bout you aggie but you're just gonna kick the door down?+" Boltdancer asked.

    "+Affirmative. It will be fun.+"

    "+Since when did I agree to this?+" Sevrin protested.

    "+Did you ask the D&D group?+" Boltdancer asked.

    You took a look at them, and then back at Agata early already planning to just bulldoze her way through the front door of this veritable fortress of questionable architectural decisions. No, you wouldn't let her try her...tactics with them in her group, not until you were sure they could take the sort of firepower that she drew to herself by force of habit.

    "+Unicron's Pit, if you're kicking in the door count us in.+" Hound laughed.

    "+I'll need one person from the Starsetters and the Ward/Undersiders team each to help coordinate.+" You asked.

    Actions:

    Pick one person from each of the following teams to accompany you to the Warehouse. Minicons will be dispatched to replace them on their teams to ensure optimal team size.

    Starsetters:

    Aronim Ophilix aka Xaeon: Yurye, Brute Archetype Hero. Highly powerful psion bonded to a living-metal Vondun armour shell who gets stronger the more intense the combat he gets involved in and the higher his emotions run, very durable and hard to put down but needs constant combat to stay ramped up. Tank/Melee damage.
    Raelamiel Thelemir aa Rundrasta, Frost Angel, Scrapper Archetype Hero: Lethal and highly mobile CQC combatant wearing heaven forged armour who is virtually unrivalled for sheer close quarters striking power among the starsetters with the ability to randomly deal even greater damage. Primarily a Cryokine with divine power, defeces are most vulnerable to high temperature. Melee Damage.
    Tyrius Veldegard aka Steel Paladin: Nymph-Fairy hybrid, Tanker Archetype Hero: One of the most obnoxiously resilient heroes in the starsetters encased in virtually indestructible otherworldly plate armour bearing a Sunsword and a Shield never known to have ever been overcome by any attack. Most vulnerable to mental attack, still mentally recovering from Tyranid induced psychic trauma. Tank.
    Alice Dahl aka Eudaimonica: Human Demonomancer, Mastermind Archetype Hero: Commands a massive army of magical entities such as Fire Elementals, Demons, Golems, and more. Excels at support and is capable at dealing ranged damage through her other spells but is somewhat fragile if directly engaged should her defensive spells be bypassed. Winterpyre's allegiances are dubious. Minion/Support.
    Marcus Wilson aka Boltdancer: Mutant Electrokine, Controller Archetype Hero. Incredibly broad control over electromagnetism able to be used for support, offense, defense, or battlefield control with a particular specialty in control andsupport abilities. Able to create animated constructs of electricity and magnetism and is quite intimately familiar with the ins and outs of Paragon City. Control/Support.
    Mitsuki Aiko aka Mistral Slash: Mutant Kineticist, Stalker Archetype Hero. Stealth specialist, martial artist, able to alter the vectors and direction of incoming energy as well as absorb or amplify kinetic energy, not only through her armour but also her blade. Also able to bend energy to divert nearly all forms of detection and allow her to study a foe to strike forextreme damage. Skilled with operating with most forms of devices. Stealth/Melee.
    Arkoril Ypshalon aka Dawnmaker: Yurye-Kheldian merger, Peacebringer Archetype Hero: All rounder, de facto leader of the Starsetters. Through Kheldian rider is by far the most experienced member of the Starsetter team. Only substantial weakness is to Quantum modulation weapons, has the whole gamut of superpowers. Basically anything you want out of them.

    Earth Bets

    Taylor Hebert aka Black Moth: Parahuman-Nictus Merger: Controls arthropods through her parahuman abilities to an immense degree of fine control, as well as beings implanted with fragments of her Nictus symbiont, usually particularly favoured arthropods in her swarm. Nictus abilities are quite similar to Dawnmaker's Kheldian abilities, but themed after darkness and gravity instead of light and electromagnetism. All-Rounder/Minions
    Brian Labourn aka Grue: Parahuman-Incarnate Augment: Controls darkness, abilities augmented from nuisance to genuine umbrakinesis by augments from an unknown source along with general physical enhancement to escalate Brian from a mere thief to higher grade combatant able to influence and control the battlefield and prevent enemies from concentrating and gathering properly. Control/Stealth.
    Lisa Wilbourn aka Tattletale: Parahuman-Incarnate Augment: Conventional abilities enhanced by treatments offered by unknown source Incredible intelligence gatherer, abilities augmented to the point of precognition and clairvoyance as well as enhanced physicality and intelligence and an ability to foil detection and tap into esoteric martial arts. Intelligence/Reconnaisance/Stealth.
    Jean-Paul "Alec" Vasil aka Regent: Parahuman-Incarnate: Conventional abilities enhanced by treatments offered by unknown sources greatly enhancing ability to control the bodies of others, psionic abilities have been activated by the treatment meant to augment him to serve some manner of purpose, allowing him to function in either control or ranged damage. Control/Ranged Damage
    Melissa Simone Belmont aka Missy aka Vista aka "If you use the cringy name my parents gave me I will gut you": Parahuman-Incarnate: Space warper augmented via her connection to the Source that has not only augmented her physical capabilities in tandem with a modified exploration suit loaned to her by Arne Skjoldr but also increases the potency of her dimensional manipulation to the point of even being able to affect space, living matter is more difficult for her to influence but not impossible with her increased powers. Control/Support.
    Chris Maverick aka Kid Win: Parahuman-Incarnate: Tinker with an emphasis on equipment modularity and customisation, user of a continually toyed with power suit and bearer of an incarnate shard that augments his physique, gear, and intellect; allowing him to diverge from the original Entity Shard's general limitations for his understanding and ability to craft gear. All purpose combatant but is particularly adept at mobile mid-range combat, avoiding getting tied into fights and slipping into whichever range his foes are weakest at. Striker.
    Victoria Dallon aka Glory Girl: Parahuman-Incarnate: The most prominent flying brick among Brockton Bay's teenaged heroes and resident beauty queen. While not usually using the armoursuits offered by Samus' group, since bonding with an incarnate fragment her physique has increased greatly, as has her ability to modulate and utilise her energy fields and defences, gaining ranged energy attacks and the ability to form hard-light constructs among other things as well as enhanced reflexes and non-shield based durability. Tank/Melee.
    Dean Robert Stansfield aka Gallant: Parahuman-Incarnate: Blaster whose powers primarily attack the psychology and mind of foes, especially adept at disrupting psychic magic, psionic, or pleromic constructs and excels in countering such mentally focused enemies; also able to control and project kinetic energy and light, primarily working from a distance where his less trained reflexes will be less of a hindrance. His armour is designed for durability and additional firepower in case of hardier enemies. Blaster/Tank.


    Situation:

    It is likely that the two are being kept in the Warehouse rather deep within it, the warehouse is a quite open battlespace that will soon be swarming with Nazis quickly after breaching into it, with the majority coming from the 5th Column and Empire-88 rather than the Weltreich proper.

    It is highly likely that named major villains will be present at the Warehouse to try and stymie any possible advance, and the longer the two are kept in the care of the 5th column the more likely it is they will be subjected to torture or worse to give them the answers they want.

    The Autobots will join Agafya and Sevrin's team to bash in through the front to draw attention, while Samus and Arne will join with four of the adventurers and two from the other two teams to infiltrate through a subterranean passageway.

    The passageway will be relatively lightly defended, but once the Nazis are aware of your usage of it, resistance will stiffen. This will however, make the job of the other two teams easier.

    Once the nazis are alerted to your breach, less snipers will be protecting the angles of approach, allowing the more fragile teams to slip in.

    Cargo truck bays are currently closed and will require particularly physically powerful or metal warping characters to breach to allow for tertiary and quaternary team infiltration. The loudness of this insertion will lead to heavy weapons fire almost immediately, favouring more durable teams.

    The roofs are heavily guarded with weapon batteries and sentries and will be dangerous to try and approach directly.

    The staff entrance doors are watched with security cameras but are usually more lightly guarded and thus more suited to teams who are less resilient to weapons fire but can work well with some space to breathe.

    The windows are monitored and will require a stealthier approach to deal with, and teleportation insertion is being blocked by the 5th column's incarnate fields. However if the initial approach is managed they will offer vantage points in the building.

    Your knowledge of what's inside the building is quite poor, but Alice's demons are skilled at infiltration and are capable of stealth.

    Team Strategy: Pick five priorities and set from greatest to least.

    []: Civilian Defence (Defend civilians at the line of battle)
    []: Search and Rescue (Find civilians trapped in enemy territory and save them)
    []: Reconnaissance (find out where the foe is and what they're doing)
    []: Force annihilation (destroy as much of the foe as possible)
    []: Ally assistance (try to shore up the efforts of friendly military forces and pick up more team members to get eight people)
    []: Objective capping (Use your foresight to determine points of strategic interest and deal with them)
    []: HQ elimination (look for and kill important enemy characters, units, and structures to weaken their overall efforts)
    []: Fire Break (Contain any enemy advances and eliminate these pockets of advance to keep frontlines stable
    []: Lockdown (Stop the enemy from enjoying freedom of movement by eliminating their infrastructure to support it and choking the avenues they're using to move)
    []: DISTRACTION CARNIFEX!!! (Make the most noise possible to pull as much attention to yourselves as you can, drawing forces away from allies and civilians at obvious risk to yourself.)

    Write in Team Tactics and Character Actions:
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Plan Sneaky times

    Picks
    [1]Mitsuki Aiko aka Mistral Slash

    [2]Lisa Wilbourn aka Tattletale

    [1]: Search and Rescue (Find civilians trapped in enemy territory and save them)
    [2]: Reconnaissance (find out where the foe is and what they're doing)
    [3]: Objective capping (Use your foresight to determine points of strategic interest and deal with them)
    [4]: HQ elimination (look for and kill important enemy characters, units, and structures to weaken their overall efforts)
    [5]: Lockdown (Stop the enemy from enjoying freedom of movement by eliminating their infrastructure to support it and choking the avenues they're using to move)

    Tactics:
    1. Using any method to conceal our movements into the Wearhouse, we should try to enter as stealthy as we can
    2. Samus Should try to play bodyguard alongside Ziqud , to the more vulnerable members of the team if any hostile action happens or cover is blown, until then she is is going to try and break into the Nazi's network and see what she can drag up on their plans.
    3. Tattletale and Ryunosuke should be able to provide key info on where the captured folks are/any surprises the Nazi's may have in store.
    4. Arne and Mistral Slash should be able to pull off quick and effective assassination's on any major individual we come across, with little attention to our own movments
    5. Brilista and Viri should be able to deduce key points inside the werehouse that the Nazi's might be using more often then not, thus keeping th team from stumbling into danger.

    Character Actions:
    Samus: Keep the other teams informed about what is happening.
    Arne: Scramble the communications of the Nazi's, try and keep them from organizing any unified resistance or communicating about the attacks
    Tattletale: Use her powers to better understand any tactics/advantage the Nazi's have and relay the info to the other teams
    Mistral Slash: Try to keep the team safe from the shadows
    Teramoto Ryunosuke: try to find out the best course of action to take
    Brilista: Create little traps and hide them for the Nazi's to stumble into, it should cause some more chaos.
    Ziqud: Keep the Team safe from any enemy attack
    Viri Omicron: Try to predict likely courses of action the leaders of the Nazi's will do
     
    Last edited:
    SteelWriter77 said:
    [X] Plan Sneaky times

    Picks
    [1]Mitsuki Aiko aka Mistral Slash

    [2]Lisa Wilbourn aka Tattletale

    [1]: Search and Rescue (Find civilians trapped in enemy territory and save them)
    [2]: Reconnaissance (find out where the foe is and what they're doing)
    [3]: Objective capping (Use your foresight to determine points of strategic interest and deal with them)
    [4]: HQ elimination (look for and kill important enemy characters, units, and structures to weaken their overall efforts)
    [5]: Lockdown (Stop the enemy from enjoying freedom of movement by eliminating their infrastructure to support it and choking the avenues they're using to move)

    Tactics:
    1. Using any method to conceal our movements into the Wearhouse, we should try to enter as stealthy as we can
    2. Samus Should try to play bodyguard to the more vulnerable members of the team if any hostile action happens or cover is blown, until then she is is going to try and break into the Nazi's network and see what she can drag up on their plans.
    3. Tattletale should be able to provide key info on where the captured folks are/any surprises the Nazi's may have in store.
    4. Arne and Mistral Slash should be able to pull off quick and effective assassination's on any major individual we come across, with little attention to our own movments


    Character Actions:
    Samus: Keep the other teams informed about what is happening.
    Arne: Scramble the communications of the Nazi's, try and keep them from organizing any unified resistance or communicating about the attacks
    Tattletale: Use her powers to better understand any tactics/advantage the Nazi's have and relay the info to the other teams
    Mistral Slash: Try to keep the team safe from the shadows

    Team Target Priorities
    Team 1
    1.Kurt
    2. Nazi Minions
    3.Kamoebas
    4.Erhard

    Team 2
    1.Odilia
    2.Clovis
    3.Nazi Minions


    I would have more, but i don't know what our other Four allies coming with us are skilled at.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Eh nix the stuff about Odilia whoops.
     
    As per request:

    Their classes/archetypes are as of yet unknown but what they can do is already apparent.

    Teramoto Ryunosuke: Kitsune Arcane and Divine Caster: Extremely sociable innate magic casting master adept with both divine and arcane magical power, strong at both offence and support through his mixture of spells, while his Kitsune tails allow him to make use of an additional repertoire of mostly control-oriented spells. Powerful force of personality and expert diviner whose connection to the mysteries of the concept of the moon make him very adept at telling what's about to happen or what might be a good idea that day. Can also be surprisingly lethal in close quarters, especially if given time to amp himself with his spells though he relies more on energy output and agility than raw physical strength. Also excels at restorative and sound based magics. Has only a limited selection of spells however, with a particular deficiency in weakening enemies. Has a fox as a familiar and a Kirin mount as well. General Offense/Support

    Brilista Ventervale: Tiefling Mad Scientist and Witchcraft practicioner: Highly intelligent and cunning mistress of chemical and technological effects and imbuing them with some magic to even greater effect. So long as she has time to prepare she can conjure up all manner of interesting devices, often even macguyvering them from random scrap she can find lying around. She tends to be somewhat focused on destroying large numbers of enemies very quickly and amplifying herself to quickly deal heavy damage in close quarters, especially against enemies who don't notice her, once the chaff is removed from the board, though the mutagens she imbibes for this purpose do affect her common sense, already somewhat weakened due to her descent from the Daemons of the plane of Abaddon. Makes use of both mechanical and alchemically created servitors to assist her in battle. AoE and Stealth Offense, Control/Debuff, Minionmancy, and Intelligence.

    Ziqud Iyaasah: Ifrit Arcane and Divine Warrior: Hotheaded and fierce but well-meaning, Ziqud is one of the principal direct melee combatants of his group whose magic is primarily focused on either clearing out things in the way of smashing, bypassing obstacles that prevent him from getting close, or enhancing his ability to destroy things in short order. Particularly effective against enemies that his faith considers to be aligned towards the powers of evil or chaos, whom he can strike with especially increased power. When angered, he enters a state of heightened combat power that amplifies his physicality in proportion to his rage and allows him to utilise additional abilities from his mystic heritage, his magic is primarily innate. Rides upon a fire drake when able to but is perfectly fine fighting on his own two feet if needed, or with flight if his foes refuse to let him engage at his preferred distances. Melee Offense/Tanking

    Viri Omicron: Android Forensic Hunter: Unemotional psion, tracker, stealth expert, infiltrator, and eliminator of particularly problematic enemies through a combination of physical, magical, psionic, and her own inborn technological capabilities. Extremely smart, if focused in different fields than Brilista but is perhaps the least personable of the primary group of four. However her nature as a pseudo-living robot makes her extremely resistant to most mentally targeted effects while also providing her with protection against effects keyed against inorganics. Very agile and able to sherlock holmes her way through many enemies with essentially precognitive powers of analysis that allow her to essentially make sneak attacks even against enemies fully aware of her presence. Extremely stealthy and skilled at handling traps and the like as well and can coordinate some mechanical companions as well as a strange, psionically reactive stone that is keyed to her thoughts. Stealth and Outflanking Offense/Reconnaisance.
     
    Arc 1: Fourfold Endeavour: Act 2: Mission 1: The Cursed Sword Part 4
  • Threadmarks
    • Arne​

    With a chant and clap by Ryunosuke, Mistral and Tattletale were teleported over to your group as soon as they were selected, their forms appearing in blue flashes of energy as they stumbled onto the ground and took a moment to examine the group. Both girls were still rather...distant to you and gave you a second glance, perhaps offput by the cyclopean design of your helmet which was even less human of appearance than Samus'.

    Aiko's words became a quick burst of astonishment at seeing Ryunosuke however, immediately recognising him for one of the Kitsune.

    "It's astonishing to see something like you in the flesh." She said with barely concealed astonishment. "I had heard...stories but I rarely left Tokyo to see the Yokai of the countryside." She said, clearing her throat as she tried to look presentable, your suit detecting elevated hormone levels and heart rate almost immediately from her.

    "Aw thanks. But I'm really not all that special." He said with a chuckle before you harrumphed to get everyone back on task. Time was after all, of the essence here.

    "Whoa, you four...your readings are...weird as hell." Tattletale started before you raised a hand.

    "Extraversals, we'll have time for introductions later. First we need to get inside the building." You said, getting a few nods of agreement, taking the front position as you usually did, dropping into the subway tunnels and letting your senses guide you towards derelict passages in the sprawling underground of Paragon City.

    "You people could have an entirely different city in your underground. God, how do people even get anywhere in this sprawl?" Tattletale murmured as she tried her best to keep up with everyone else despite her disadvantage in terms of speed and stride, being the shortest of the group here when you took one moment to look at a cavernous hole in the wall and stepped through, your armour affirming your hunch that there were no guards here at the moment.

    The decrepit abandoned passageways were dusty and filled with more vermin than you would have liked, your eyes briefly lingering on another rat of unusual size with fierce red eyes that you side-eyed.

    "The 5th Column hasn't heard us at least...not yet." Samus said, checking her echolocation visor to see how the sound waves travelled, there were no receivers nearby, and it seemed that the barriers were too thick for the sound to pass through to anything that could hear them, likely to hold the weight of the city above up.

    "Ryunosuke, do you have any idea what's inside that warehouse?" You asked him as the eight of you approached the entrance to a derelict part of Paragon City's sprawling subway tunnel network. Flickering lights, rodents of unusual size some of whom were particularly grotesque and stank of unnatural warp energies and noxious disease.

    "Scrying's blocked, but I think if we go through this route we'll do pretty well...definitely alright." He said, trying his best to smile before he cleared his throat and affixed his kabuto's faceguard to his head, sealing off the eye-covers with magic lenses to protect his vision while he sniffed a bit at the air.

    The entrance was there, like Boltdancer said, only lightly guarded with some Ubermensch, Vampyr and drones. It seemed that they didn't think anyone would even think to go through this entrance with how few guards they had, though with your combined senses you were able to avoid a number of patrols of some of the less pleasant denizens of the underground segments of Paragon City, including a number of Rikti patrols and mutate monsters. Perhaps they banked on nobody being able to get through the gauntlet of third parties without alerting their reinforcements?

    Well, it was going to be their mistake, you thought as Samus stopped the group and scanned the enemy formation.

    "<<I hate this city, can't they design fewer fucking underground passages?>>" One of the soldiers complained to a larger, higher ranking compatriot who took a moment to tap something onto his smart phone, likely carried to play apps that would have been forbidden from his HUD. His German was good, but the accent indicated a non-native speaker, likely from the Pacific Northwestern United States based on his inflections, if you had to guess...Idaho or thereabouts.

    "<<Do you ever stop whining Thomas? Did your parents ever teach you how to not be a fucking bitch? Shut up and do your job and let me enjoy some quiet for five seconds.>>" His superior shot back, not even glancing from his phone, based on his accent he was probably from Rural southern England, hrm. As far as you knew the Fifth Column's cells tended to operate more separately to avoid the downfall of one impacting the fortunes of the others. If they were bringing in people from Europe they had something planned.

    "<<If you want "not doing their job" what about these Empire-88 clowns? Ingrates lose their shit when they get hit by a nine millimetre and can't stop whining about how it's not fair for metas here to teleport to safety.>>" Another said, this one probably from Paragon City proper.

    "<<Well excuse me for not coming from a place where bullet proofing powers grow on trees.>>" One of the ones bearing the sigils of the Empire-88 rather than the skull insignia of the 5th Column growled, this one's more personalised outfit suggesting they were a cape rather than a mass produced super soldier. Her voice was clearly feminine, and the Empire and Column were much too fond of traditional gender roles for her to be anything but a woman, not in a pin-up nazified supergirl style get up like that.

    You weren't sure why she thought that a domino mask would protect her identity in a world where saliva droplets in the breath contained enough DNA to make positive IDs but evidently she did. Let's see...Sarah White, originally from some small town in Oregon.

    Sarah White, age 16, is an Anglo-American native to the town of Eugene, Oregon in Earth Bet raised under the auspices of two prior members of the Empire-88; David and Jane White. Though the mechanism of shard based powers means that she does not directly inherit the abilities of her parents, she would still trigger into parahuman abilities at an early age following hand contact with someone she later found was Jewish after years of being raised to despise semitic peoples.

    Her abilities revolve heavily around the manipulation of electromagnetism and electromagnetic forces, abilities which make her one of the most powerful assets of the Empire-88 with her abilities following their fifth column enhancement allowing her to launch quarters at high enough speeds to destroy the Cheyenne Mountain complex multiple times over and can output enough electricity to vaporise multiple shielded supercarriers instantaneously. Her defensive abilities are amplified to the point of making her able to easily withstand nuclear weapons and use electromagnetic manipulation to replicate extreme super strength.

    Her weaknesses are her vulnerability to energy drain and lack of skill and reduced capability when it comes to manipulating positrons and other forms of anti-matter; allowing them to cause her harm through the radiation output by the annihilation process. She is also incapable of manipulating your shield, armour, or bodies; forcing her to rely largely on ranged attacks and crude direct damage. She is considered a low-grade threat overall, and should be easy to deal with; particularly with your superior reflexes and esoterics.

    "I'm going to deal with Blitz, Tattletale, Mistral make sure nobody gets a report out. You four help the others take out her help. Samus well...want to come with?" You said with a small smirk beneath your helmet as you felt a little part of you relish the challenge of another electrokine. If you were the stormchild, why not test yourself against someone else of your element?

    "Should be easy. So why not?" Samus said with a little swish of her hips as you nodded and set your eyepieces to opaque mode.

    Lightning coursed around you, and you let in a breath through your helmet before exploding out towards her; melee weapon in hammer form and spinning as your speed booster rocketed towards her, a devastating swing crashing into her automatic electromagnetic fields as you could sense her sudden surprise.

    "Fuck it's the tincans!" She said at a speed most of her compatriots wouldn't even be able to process before your arm cannon sparked to life and let forth threads of shock coil anti-matter, neutrinos and energy stripping, stabbing into her shielding and lighting the room up with interesting noble gas lighting as elements were combined into heavier atomic numbers by the energy pouring from your weapon.

    "Grah, why you of all people?" She complained as she tore nearby nails out of unused equipment and sent them rocketing through the air at relativistic speeds; sparking orbs of plasma ripping through the sky; a weltreich time dilator letting them devour time even faster. Your own time dilator fired off, letting you simply sidestep the projectiles and throw yourself in a screw attack tackle into her defences until they cracked.

    You grabbed at her neck as soon as you unfurled out of the screw attack and while she was still frozen, tossed her into a heavy footdive by Samus that sounded like it broke something even before she gave her a face full of charged super-power missiles.

    Time resumed shortly, several 5th Column and Empire-88 troopers falling to pieces as a result of damage inflicted them during the temporal stasis, Tattletale already working on the computer systems as her abilities informed her of the exact steps to take to silence the auto-alarm.

    Ryunosuke waved shortly afterwards, fire still curling off his finger tips after having reduced multiple 5th Column warbots to slag, a lesser Vampyr crumpling to his side as Viri withdrew her blade from its own flank, analysing the blood on it until the door opened nearby.

    "Are you sure you can handle this?" Samus asked, looking towards Ziqud as he shrugged and pushed ahead, two handed sword in hand.

    "Easily." He scoffed while you piled into the entrance. The warehouse was much like many other paragon city warehouses, seemingly overly large for no particular reason and full of empty space that seemed to be rather wasteful to you. There were shelves stacked with all sorts of goods, but you quickly identified that a lot of them had been replaced with 5th column materials that were likely to be used in future operations against Primal America.

    Your hand briefly lingered on one of the crates, your eyes noting the coded German label. Your brain worked a cipher that would have stumped the world's supercomputers to figure that it referred to a package full of nuclear weapons materials. Right next to one full of "Propaganda materials for the Irony poisoned."

    "Irony poisoning?" Samus asked, stopping briefly at it.

    "+People who do a joke so much they end up believing it for real. You see it all the time with people who start with racist jokes ending up becoming actual racists.+" Mistral said over the comms, her stealthy form moving ahead with Viri, Ryunosuke, and Tattletale to get a feel for what might be ahead. A number of marked traps appeared on your HUD courtesy of Mistral's link, with their nature and their activity status listed for you to glance at.

    "Keep going, we'll catch up shortly." Samus said before the building shook with the rumble of a detonation. Distant shouting rang loudly in your ears as more blasts thundered far away; telling you that Sevrin and Agafya had started their end of the mission some distance away.

    "+Jeeze...I thought we'd have more time.+" Lisa mumbled over the comms.

    "+Hey, are the uh...renaissance faire bunch connected to our network?+" She asked afterwards, her voice making it clear she was a bit closer to the trampling of 5th Column Troopers towards the nearest intrusion than you were.

    "+No. Try it with Viri maybe? Though I don't think she has that ability built in.+" Samus said, cocking her arm cannon as the two of you sensed a fight likely coming.

    Ryunosuke pointed to the left as his Kirin appeared in a burst of flame, his fox familiar jumping out of his bag and landing on his shoulder with a heavy growl while you let out a few bursts of frequency-beam fire to punch through the cover to your left; sine waves sliding through the particles of matter and striking into Nacht Elites who thought they had the drop on you.

    "Bomb out!" Brilista shouted as she stepped ahead, the Tiefling advancing and then lobbing a stick bomb with a hard pitch, letting one of her contraptions out of a pouch to expand into a wall of iron while she ducked back as the soldiers let out shouts of "Grenade!" before the explosive erupted in alchemical ice-fire that burned cold, crumbling away the unprotected caught in it in a dark flash of absorbed light followed by snow-blind white.

    Ziqud raised his sword, uttered a prayer, and energy flowed into it until it glowed, filling it with power before he charged into the fray, his form seething with rage born power and inherited magics as he snarled and tackled into the nearest War-Wolf; burning arcs severing limbs while his own aura protected him from retaliatory strikes. Crashing waves of power sparked at him when one of the warwolves burning with nictus blackflame slammed a gravitationally distorted hand into him, but Samus' ice beam fire put paid to the warwolf in short order; shards vaporising from her follow up missile.

    "Well, seems like we know why our guards went silent." One of the Empire-88 goons said before being grabbed by the neck by a 5th column ubermensch and tossed like a softball to obsfuscate your aim. A quick containment foam missile gave him a soft landing before your shoulder-weapon shifted to a magnum-cannon subweapon and burst fired a series of slugs into the Red and Black armoured Ubermensch, throwing him out of the way as you slid across the floor, ducked beneath a Vampyr's claw swings and snapped its arm like a toothpick with a brief twist and pull to tear it out entirely.

    Another detonation of icefire went off; one of Brilista's quick-traps engulfing Empire-88 gangbangers herded as meatshields by the 5th column's troops who advanced by fire of gatling gun and plasma weapons, sinister orders barked over the comms by the higher ups of the Nazi paramilitary as they fell into lines of cover; some scourged off the field by Samus' shots or Viri's quick teleporting assassination strikes; others huddling under psionic barriers and continuing their resistance.

    Other traps seemed to present those who set them off with illusions of their worst fears, causing cardiac arrest from fright while Brilista hastily mixed two of her chemical extracts together in the heat of battle; letting a now mounted Ziquid interpose himself between her and a powerful cutting laser.

    "+You people enjoy missions like this don't you?+" Lisa said as she snapped the neck of another gangbanger, throwing herself out of the way of a line of rotary gun fire that chewed its way across the floor.

    "+That's a ridiculous assertion! I don't like knowing people are in danger from people like these!+" Samus said, a power bomb consuming a wing of incoming lower quality drones while she shrugged off the retaliatory fire, not bothering to dodge what she knew wasn't a serious threat to her to begin with.

    "+Viri is saying that they are likely to be bringing in more powerful combatants to make up for the failures of these dregs. Expect incarnate powered soldiers in short order.+" Mistral said in a low whisper, currently silently observing the movements of further 5th Column reinforcements.

    "+Anyone important?+" You asked.

    "...Massively powerful psychic presence." Ryunosuke muttered slightly before you felt something big on the edge of your mind, like the sucking sensation of being a bit too close to a black hole, survivable but there's a dire sort of immediacy to not be there. Something that only briefly felt in tune with the mental wavelengths of the Nazis before lashing out against them with a whipcrack that rocked the building. Someone else was also here, you weren't sure who, but that did mean that this was likely to get a lot more complicated.

    "That is...not good chemicals I'm smelling. What is that?" Brilista said as you noticed a green fog that engulfed unprotected Empire-88 soldiery and rapidly devoured their bodies, causing them to expand frightfully fast before exploding in a burst of yet more of the self-replicating gas; others engulfed by a more purple mist that caused rapid growth and swelling into muscle bound monsters.

    "We're not the only ones here for your friends." You said, realising that whomever was releasing the gas was likely a master of genetic manipulation to be able to induce such mutations in people who breathed in the purple mist. Which likely meant they were here to collect samples.

    "Pull back, most of you aren't protected against gas like that." Samus said, noting that even soldiers with gas masks were overwhelmed by the forced evolution gas and directing everyone to move to be literally anywhere else as fast as possible. The ground was shaking with the clear signs of something digging through it, and Ryunosouke shuddered for just a moment.

    "We're going to have to head down, quickly. The others have boring machines." He said before he looked at the ground and sucked in air, glyphs forming at his command and parting the ground to allow a quick passage way down for you all to slide across, leaving the growing firefight to resolve itself.

    "There's a lot of monsters ahead. Creatures taken from older eras of this world...hydras and...the walking dead...draugr." Ryunosuke said as he let his senses dive into the sight beyond sight briefly. "Lots more than that too..." He said, letting moonlight dance between his fingers as he prepared to release his spellfire on the first monster that he saw.

    The room lead down to a hallway, and you could hear the gauntlet of all sorts of mythological creatures in the way between you and advancing further down into this dungeon of a warehouse, all while above the warehouse was now a bedlam of warfare. It was likely that the nazis would have more ambushes ready for you, but you were also concerned about the intruders and their psychic powers; as well as their deadly gas weapons. You'd be fine, your compatriots? You weren't so sure.


    Situation:

    An unknown third party has made its own attack on the warehouse, likely wanting the DNA of the two captive teenagers for their genetic experiments. They have psychic powers as well as a mastery of chemical warfare and genetic engineering.

    The Nazis are split between multiple fronts and so you'll have a straighter shot towards them.

    The Nazis have a lot of mythological monsters up their sleeves, at least the undead and Laernean Hydras, probably more.

    Sevrin's team has successfully breached into the warehouse and is making as big of a mess as possible.

    So far, no known higher up capes from the 5th Column or the Empire-88 are known to be present.

    The two rescuees are healthy and unharmed for the moment.

    Team Strategy: Pick five priorities and set from greatest to least.

    []: Civilian Defence (Defend civilians at the line of battle)
    []: Search and Rescue (Find civilians trapped in enemy territory and save them)
    []: Reconnaissance (find out where the foe is and what they're doing)
    []: Force annihilation (destroy as much of the foe as possible)
    []: Ally assistance (try to shore up the efforts of friendly military forces and pick up more team members to get eight people)
    []: Objective capping (Use your foresight to determine points of strategic interest and deal with them)
    []: HQ elimination (look for and kill important enemy characters, units, and structures to weaken their overall efforts)
    []: Fire Break (Contain any enemy advances and eliminate these pockets of advance to keep frontlines stable
    []: Lockdown (Stop the enemy from enjoying freedom of movement by eliminating their infrastructure to support it and choking the avenues they're using to move)
    []: DISTRACTION CARNIFEX!!! (Make the most noise possible to pull as much attention to yourselves as you can, drawing forces away from allies and civilians at obvious risk to yourself.)

    Write in Team Tactics and Character Actions:

    See how teams are doing:

    Choose one:

    []: Team Taylor (Taylor's group)
    []: Team Xaeon (Aronim's group)
    []: Team Sevrin (Sevrin's group)
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Plan Time to get our new Friends and Leave

    [1]: Search and Rescue (Find civilians trapped in enemy territory and save them)
    [2]: Ally assistance (try to shore up the efforts of friendly military forces and pick up more team members to get eight people)
    [3]: HQ elimination (look for and kill important enemy characters, units, and structures to weaken their overall efforts)
    [4]: Force annihilation (destroy as much of the foe as possible)
    [5]: Objective capping (Use your foresight to determine points of strategic interest and deal with them)

    Write in Team Tactics and Character Actions:

    Tactics:
    1.Ryunosuke and Ziquid will lead the way to their lost allies, with the divination powers of Ryunosuke leading the way and Ziquid's tanky powers keeping the team safe as they move forward.
    2. Arne and Samus will try to find the third party who has access to these Chemical weapons and determine the best means to deal with them and whatever soldiers they brought.
    3.Viri and Tattle tale will work together with Mistral to keep in the shadows and strike out at any foe that try's to get to close to the group as they make their way to where the others are being kept.
    4. Brilista will keep making traps and place them along the route the group is taking, just in case any of their enemies will try to follow them.

    Character Actions:
    Samus: Use your Cryomantic powers to make the warehouse as hostile as you can with freezing the area and foes.
    Arne: Use your Lightning based powers and abilities to add to Samus's ice traps/obstacles
    Viri: Keep to the shadows and try to take out any surprise foes in our path
    Ryunosuke: Try to find the best path to take to your allies.
    Brilista: Create some simple Mechanical minions to help keep the harmful gas away from those in the group who are venerable to it.
    Ziquid: Keep Ryunosuke safe while he divines the best path
    Tattletale: Work with Viri to find weak points in enemies to exploit.
    Mistral: Try to optimize the amount of kinetic energy being absorbed and how much you let out in a fight

    -[X]: Team Taylor (Taylor's group)
     
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