Bran crashes through the windshield of a nearby parked sedan slamming it back into a pileup of blaring car alarms.
Okay. Ow. Brute Force isn't gonna cut it.
Wingblade is able to give him a much needed moment to regain his footing.
Bran removes his dented helm and shakes his head heavily, safety glass pinging off his pauldrons.
Alright, get back in the game. Can't just charge in, gotta have a plan, gotta have- He stares in shock at the tremendous runic gate,
Gotta get someone to deal with the portal to another realm.
Jesus, that's actually my job. The god-stuff is real.
Wingblade, E-. He coughs to cover almost spilling Eli's name, and turns to face the gate, Please help Hashtag and the captives. I can tend to this.
Keeping a wary eye on Haxor, Bran thunders over to Thor Girl and clasps her hand as he plants his spear, grounding her to this Earth.
You are your Father's daughter, no fool to be gulled by mortal trickery, no oathbreaker who would ignore her truesworn geas.
You are here to seek reunion with humanity?
Then remain.
We will face him as one.
As Wingblade shoots off down the street, she nearly dislocates Bioshock's arm. He lets go just in time, but as the circuit breaks, something unexpected happens. Something painful. Bioshock collapses to the ground as his muscles start seizing, and he can't even unclench his jaw to scream. After a lifetime - or maybe just a few seconds - the pain subsides and he regains control of his body. Fighting back tears, he pushes himself back to his feet. You're fine, you're fine, nobody saw. It turns out their really is an upside to everything, even somebody getting sucked into a portal to another realm of existence.
Skuld begins to move again towards the wizard when gives his pronouncement and a gate opens before here. To her home.
The smell the wood burning in her mother's hearth;
The sounds of the Choir at her grandfather's church.
Children from a hundred different realities playing in the streets with each other.
She sees it all in the briefest of flashes, of moments shown like phantoms in the portal.
"How is this possible? What sort of magician are you to breach the Bifrost arch and whistle up a Way to my home?"
There is the briefest moment where she surrenders to the beauty of it all. As she does, she begins to slide quickly towards the gate as the moment seems to stretch out before her; then that moment is shattered by a hand being thrust into her view. Looking from the hand to the man, Skuld is momentarily surprised, but as the portal continues it's pull, she hears the trade language she was taught by her uncle Heimdal.
He finishes his words, and she takes his hand.
Valkyries and pagan goddesses - Father Rotoli is definitely going to have strong words for me in the confessional about the company I'm keeping...
Haxor is panting heavily, he stumbles and falls to one knee, almost falling over without the use of his arms. His eyes look up, the veins pulsating on his face, and blood streaming from the orifices of his head.
He looks scared.
He looks angry.
"Die!" he screams, half reluctantly as his face contorts in pain. The data that is literally flowing from his body begins to flow into the gate, enlarging it and changing its destination. The calls of Valkyrie grow louder and the portal begins to pull at twice the strength.
Haxor himself falls unconscious the data pulling itself from his body ceasing, but the portal wavering, but its suction growing to pull at bystanders, the surrounding buildings, and both Thor Girl and Bran the Blessed.
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House-aquarium-desert. House-aquarium-desert. house-aquarium-desert-street. house-aquarium-desert-street. house-aquarium-desert-street-warehouse. house-aquarium-desert-street-warehouse. house-aquarium-desert-street-warehouse. house-aquarium-desert-street-warehouse-moon...
Hashtag has been rocketing around local space at speeds and distances that would be normally impossible for him to do, but he had realized the pattern. it cycled through each location three times (with a limited amount of drift) and then on the third time adds a new randomized location.
house-aquarium-desert-street-warehouse-moon. house-aquarium-desert street-warehouse-moon-battlefield... why is there a portal there?
He got an idea. It wasnt his best idea, but if it didn't work, well he wouldn't be aany worse off than he currently was.
house-aquarium-desert-street-warehouse-moon-Portal...
He struggles to bring one iota of his power under his control as he whips down the final cycle before a new and potentially worse location was discovered. His nose bleeds profusely, perhaps from repeated exposures to the vacuum of space, but when he departs the moon he pushes himself. He arrives in front of the portal.
"Needthiskaythanxbai!" He blurts, reaching into the portal just as his haywire powers start to teleport. Confflicting extradimensional translocations cause a rather stupendous display of brilliant colors and sounds and strangely an overwhelming taste of fudge.
On the first beat, when he gets to the inbetween, he doesn't come out to a new location. He doesn't go anywhere. Collapsing to what he assumed to be the ground, he noticed the portal's strange energies still rippling off him.
"That's... bad." he mutters. His mom would scold him so- HIS MOM!
Lurching to his feet, he tries to visualize his mother's presence. He makes the mental commitment to travel... and nothing happens.
Not good!
-Posted with Wayfinder
As the portal begins to grow, Skuld once again feels both the physical and emotional pull of home. This time, however, she shakes it off, as she sees a fire hydrant go flying through, followed by a dog, then a chuck of one of the nearby buildings.
Shaking herself from her ennui, Skuld uses her physical strength to punch a series of holes into the concrete, in a roughly circular shape which she then uses to cap the opening of the portal.
Wingblade pushes herself to her feet one more time. Seeing that Haxor has passed out from exertion and the portal plugged, her thoughts immediately turn toward saving the adults.
Despair threatens to overwhelm her when her wings again fail to respond. Instead, she funnels her panic into a desperate push toward the hoodie-wearing hero who made them work a moment ago. "Help! You need to help me! Get them working again! I gotta go save Whip and Blink!"
"Hashtag!" As soon as the teleporter appears, he's gone again, only to return moments later. Eli has to shield his eyes from looking directly at the bright lights, and when he can see again, Hashtag is gone.
"Does anybody else smell that?" The fudge smell makes Eli wonder what else can go wrong with his powers, but before he can figure it out, he catches the sight of a pink-haired blur rushing at him.
Wincing, he braces himself for impact, but she stops short of bowling him over. He would have preferred that to what she asks instead. "I don't know," he says, averting his eyes. "Last time, it hurt." How was he supposed to explain that to Wingblade without sounding like a total wuss? He didn't even understand it very well himself.
Bioshock didn't have a lot of experience with hijacking other people's powers, and every time he had done it so far, there had been consequences. He still had nightmares about that future he had seen with Hashtag, and just now he had experienced his worst discharge yet. That pain wasn't something he was interested in experiencing again anytime soon. It hadn't even felt like a normal discharge. It was more like...feedback?
A thought occurs to him, and he looks back at Wingblade curiously. "Or maybe..." Cautiously, he holds a hand out toward her. When his hand is just inches away, he feels something, the familiar tingling of biocurrents but somehow a little stronger. "I'm gonna try something, but don't move until I say so. Last time you shot off like that it almost wiped me out." Nervously, he makes contact with her shoulder, just by her wing, and a small blue spark jumps between his hand and the metal. Bioshock feels the circuit re-established without even having to try!
Taking a deep breath, he steels himself and slowly takes his hand away, bracing for the pain. But it never comes. Instead, he feels a faint buzzing feeling, and when he runs a system check, he discovers that the current is being generated without his conscious control. That's weird. It feels like I can shut it off, but what if I can't turn it back on?
"Okay," he says to Wingblade. "There's something weird going on with my powers. If you want your wings to work for now, we have to maintain skin-to-skin contact. If we have to break contact, you need to give me a second to prepare. If you don't, bad things will happen. Do you understand?"
Bran helps Thor Girl to wedge the concrete more securely in place.
He points at Wingblade and Bioshock
He then turns back to the wake of the portal, We already lost some chunks of building, I have to make sure nothing's about to collapse!
Wingblade holds still as instructed, watching closely as he reaches out and touches her shoulder. She gets the exhilarating sensation of her wings back, but it dies when he pulls his hand back.
A look crosses her face. Her eyes show desperation bordering on despair, and her lower lip trembles slightly. "Is it-- will they--" she starts, then she squeezes her eyes shut. "...Nevermind."
She opens them again, jaw set. "I understand. Let's go." With a deft move, she is suddenly behind him and has her arms locked around his chest. The metallic blades slice through the air uncomfortably close as they begin beating hard behind them.
The ground falls away rapidly as Wingblade puts all her desperation and adrenaline into the effort of flight. As she buzzes past Bran the Blessed, she shouts to him, "Bran! If Hashtag recovers, tell him the aquarium!!!" and they're whooshing past out of earshot.
She pushes herself hard into reaching top speed and soon the ground is rushing past them. She angles toward the suburbs, climbing just high enough to skim the tops of the trees and whip around buildings and power lines.
Once she reaches a satisfying speed, she puts some effort into getting them more altitude. Knowing that the higher they are, the more likely they'll spot the right water tower, she banks left and right to find thermal updrafts.
"We find Blink," she explains once she levels off and reaches top speed. "Save her. You wake her up, and we talk her into finding Whippoorwill. She'll help. She'll help," she says, sounding like she's trying to convince herself.
She spares a glance at the boy in her arms. She did know him. He was in Bronwyn's circle, or at least her orbit. Eli or something. "What's your name? I'm Wingblade."
With Hashtag's interference to weaken the portal's pull and Thor girl's mythic strength to cap the draining gate, the portal keeps sucking, and sucking, and sucking, and then stops. The debris of buildings and cars mid flight drop to the street and but the gate itself stands, some form of alteration from what Hashtag has done. However, now it is a powerless arch, no way to hurt anyone.
Hashtag, with only short flashes of the in-between, to be here for so long you're already starting to panic. Your very thoughts seem to echo in your mind and you turn this way and that windows into different times different worlds surround you passing by as you run but never reach and the color fades and brightens your mother's smile as a boy says goodbye disappearing in a portal that never existed since time began and ended in the last few moments....
A small tug at your waist.
And you see a young boy, young girl, young boy, shifting in and out, smiling, laughing, frowning, crying, similar yet so different, pointing and directing, two panels that drift closer and closer the train approaches the water half-way filled the tank and drowning.
A small tug.
A decision.
Bran looks around, but most of the fight is over. In fact, the most dangerous element is the now desperate Wingblade and the young teen who is helping her fly off in a frenzy.
Wingblade and her holding tightly passenger speed off though nowhere near Wingblade's top speed alone. They can see the train in the distance, and following it, you are slowly gaining.
The train gives her a surge of panic, but a smattering of hope that she'll be able to outpace it and reach Blink in time. She turns her focus to the line of track stretching out ahead of it, looking for signs of a tied-up shape that matches what was shown on the image while trying desperately to increase her speed.
"I'm not-- I'm not fast enough. Not while carrying you. I can't drop you, so can you do that thing? Push me, make me go faster? I'm serious; don't hold back."
Wingblade, trying to push yourself while Bioshock is on your back causes whatever power you have left in your system to be even more restricted by Haxor's tampering. You begin to lose both speed and altitude.
Bioshock immediately regrets everything about this day as he suddenly finds himself looking down at the earth from what feels like it's very high up. Closing his eyes, he tries not to throw up. He likes the idea of roller coasters, but he gets violent motion sickness every time he gets on one, and this is much worse than any engineered thrill-ride.
He forces his eyes open as he feels them losing altitude. The thought of trying to keep pushing doesn't excite him. If he has a discharge or accidentally turns off the feedback, they were both going to take a fall. "Seriously?! If I screw this up, they're gonna start calling you Nosedive!"
Still, he can hear the desperation in her voice. Well, not in her voice so much as in her blood chemistry. He could feel her emotions, and they were starting to bleed over into his own. "Alright, focus. Your state of mind controls this as much as whatever I'm doing, so I need you to focus."
Tapping into the feedback loop, he juices Wingblade with adrenaline. Simultaneously, he bypasses her brain's self-limiting functions. Free from those self-preservation instincts, Wingblade can really let it rip - the muscles in her back will start to shred and separate from the bone as she does. As she pushes herself, Bioshock can feel his own back muscles ache, but he doesn't dare to try to tamper with either of their bodies any further.
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Wingblade's relationship to pain was... unique. Unlike most people, normal people, pain was a deterrent, something to be avoided if possible. But she healed so fast she had a rather cavalier approach to pain. It served her as a warning rather than an emergency, no different than being hungry or tired. Besides, the experiments she underwent in the lab showed her true agony -- being peeled open and operated on over and over again with no anaesthesia or even a comforting word. Pain was nothing.
Until now.
Her wings beat harder and faster than ever before, abusing the joints and ligaments where the flesh flowed into metal. Muscles ripped, healed, and ripped again, over and over, with each beat.
She was back on the table, bright lights beaming into her eyes, all sorts of whirring and grinding instruments invading the flesh of her back.
She blinks and she's back, flying over the train just ahead of the lead car but only just. As it begins to gain on her she realizes she'll never outpace it. Her heart is about to burst, her wings threatening to explode from her shoulders.
"I can't! I can't do it!" she cries desperately.
She looks over her shoulder and sees the train right behind her. But I can stop it!
She suddenly slows, flaring her wings out for a brief moment to deccelerate abruptly. The with a quick "Hold on!" to the boy in her arms, she arrays her blades in a conical fashion just as the train slams into them.
With a thunderous crash, they're through the windshield, pressurized glass flying everywhere. She does her best to protect Eli, taking several vicious cuts along her arms and legs.
Ignoring them, she glares at the shocked conductor. STOP. THIS. TRAIN." she tells him.
Both Wingblade and Bioshock, take a powerful blow for hitting and breaking through the train hardened glass window. Or....Wingblade, take three powerful blows to completely protect Bioshock from any harm. I'll let you decide.
[ooc]My new favorite thing is giving players choices. :D
The train conductor, enjoying an egg salad sandwich, freaks out when he hits the largest metallic bird he's ever seen and as the bird-human hybrid begins screaming at him, he immediately begins the emergency shutdown sequence. He still hasn't noticed anyone tied to the tracks or anything.
Bioshock, if you're still conscious, you can see what looks like a person tied to the tracks further down the tracks. Now on the train, you wonder if you might be fast enough or quick enough to prevent the inevitable.
Wingblade coughs, blood bubbling up from somewhere in her lungs. "Go, you need to go, save her! Then tell her! Whippoorwill needs her!
With the connection severed, her wings suddenly begin convulsing, wildly slashing the cabin to ribbons and threatening dismemberment to anyone trying to help her.
She looks down at herself and sees a bloody handrail protruding from her chest. Huh. Atoms didn't... come... this...
With Wingblade's wings firing at the speed of malfunctioning synapses, he completely shreds the controls of the train, making it impossible for the engineer to bring the cabin to a complete stop manually. It'll come to stop when it runs out of momentum, but not before.
A cold spike of pain runs through Bran's chest. Shayera.
The fury that had run through him at Haxor's wanton cruelty surged anew as he stalked over to the unconscious villain. Thrusting Gae-Dearg into the earth he seized Haxor, shaking him awake, even striking him across the face until he stirs.
Be silent a moment while I explain the twinning of your fate. One branch: You take me to Wingblade, now, and you may flee to continue your wretched feud until the time comes for a new reckoning. The second branch: You are weakened and disoriented, and I will crush your skull between my fingers.
"Easy, we must not allow our emotions to rule us. Harming this one will make you no better than he is. You asked that I lend you my winds, and so I shall."
Closing her eyes to concentrate, Skuld steps into the air on her own. As she does so, winds begin to pick up around both Haxor and Bran; they, too, soon rise into the air. Whispering to the wind, both groups slowly rise. Once they are at a height equal to the height Wingblade flew off at, Skuld will open her eyes and point, and the small group Rocketed in that direction, moving at half-hurricane speeds.
Bioshock stands in the train compartment, somehow completely unharmed. He watches completely aghast as Wingblade convulses, probably dying in front of him, and definitely destroying any chance they had of stopping the train. He starts swearing repeatedly as his brain desperately tries to get a handle on the situation. Looking out the window, he sees a body tied to the railroad tracks in the distance. Without Wingblade to fly them, there were only two options - try to slow the train himself, or try to outrun it. But he isn't that strong or that fast. To get to Blink in time, he'd have to be able to fly, or teleport, or...
That's it! In his heightened state of panic, the unthinkable occurs to Eli. Hashtag's powers - they aren't magic. His brain handles the teleporting, it's just physics! Eli grabs onto this train of specious logic with both hands; it's the only solution to his actual train problem. If I can get my brain to do what Hashtag's does, I should be able to teleport!
As the train gets closer and closer to the body on the tracks, Bioshock closes his eyes and tries desperately to recall Hashtag's CNS map and the sequence of synapses that fired during teleportation. His palms begin to sweat and he begins rubbing them together unconsciously. As he guessed, he can't find any extra organs, glands, or other biological capacities in his memory of Hashtag's system. But the sequence is complicated, making use of neural connections that Eli hasn't developed. Mentally, he plots a workaround, hoping that the timing of the signals leaves room for some delay. "Please, G-d, let this work..."
Taking a deep breath, he sends the signal. Normally Eli can feel them, but they're just tiny tingles. This one feels like a lighting bolt coursing through him, He hears a deafening CRACK! like the sound of glass being shattered.
Opening his eyes, he realizes it's worked - but not as he'd hoped. Instead of standing next to Blink tied up on the tracks, he's...somewhere else. That place in between places, the one Hashtag had warned him about. The one where he saw his future.
But there are no visions of impending doom to greet Bioshock this time. It's just dark. Turning around in a circle, he tries to get his bearings, but there's nothing. Panic begins to well up in him again, and - Wait! What's that over there?
In the distance, he spies some strange undulating waves of energy. He can't make out the color, if color even has a meaning here, but they seem to be radiating off of something - or somebody. As he runs toward the source, he begins to taste something. Is that...fudge? Before long, Bioshock can tell that the source is indeed a person. A person he knows. "Hashtag!"
Hashtag felt stuck for eons. Minutes, even. And then Bioshock shows up and he shakes his head. "Eli?" he asks, rubbing his eyes. "This place is whack, yo. You shouldn't be here. Or are you a different Eli? One from another place?"
He struggles to straighten up. "Doesn't matter, gotta fix this and go save my mom." he says, gesturing to the strange portal energy still leaking off of him.
Eli breathes out a sigh of relief - it really is Vick. "No kidding man, we've got no time to lose! There's a train headed straight for her! I tried to teleport to her, but wound up here instead. Wherever here is." He looks around, indicating the whole place. "What is that, exactly?"
"I dunno what it's real name is, but I've called it the in-between. It's where I go before I go somewhere else. Einstein-Rosenbridge-type shit." He shakes his head again. "Look, my teleportation's borked, but if you can 'port, I can guide you. I don't need directions to find my mom. We're guideposts for each other."
With Hashtag's interference to weaken the portal's pull and Thor girl's mythic strength to cap the draining gate, the portal keeps sucking, and sucking, and sucking, and then stops. The debris of buildings and cars mid flight drop to the street and but the gate itself stands, some form of alteration from what Hashtag has done. However, now it is a powerless arch, no way to hurt anyone.
Hashtag, with only short flashes of the in-between, to be here for so long you're already starting to panic. Your very thoughts seem to echo in your mind and you turn this way and that windows into different times different worlds surround you passing by as you run but never reach and the color fades and brightens your mother's smile as a boy says goodbye disappearing in a portal that never existed since time began and ended in the last few moments....
A small tug at your waist.
And you see a young boy, young girl, young boy, shifting in and out, smiling, laughing, frowning, crying, similar yet so different, pointing and directing, two panels that drift closer and closer the train approaches the water half-way filled the tank and drowning.
A small tug.
A decision.
The young....entitity, again pulls at Hashtag, and the pull get's stronger and stronger as both portals start moving towards you. The one that leads to your mother, the other that leads to Whippoorwill.
Bioshock, you don't see any entity, but you do see the two portals making their way towards you, as if struggling to put something out of place back into place.
Bran threatens Haxor angrily, trying to force him to come to.
But it's no use, the reality hacker is out cold
Thor girl rockets the wrong direction, however, she luckily is on a flight path that will take her over the Halycon city aquarium.
Bran took several deep breaths as Thor Girl stopped him from doing something truly stupid. I really would have... hurt him.
Keeping that in the forefront of his mind, he tries very hard to calm down on the flight.
She's okay. She'll be okay. This is Shayera, she's the only one who walked away from Balor without a scratch.
Please let her be okay.
It's only as the aquarium comes into view that he realizes that there has been a mistake.
His heavy jaw clenches as he growls out, Cousin, this is not- He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath.
She'll be okay. Be a hero. You know this is where she'd want you to be anyway, where she asked you to send Hashtag.
Here. The aquarium. We need to act quickly to find Whippoorwill.
Spotting some kind of movement from the corner of his eye, Bioshock spots what look like two portals moving toward him. "What the-"
But when he looks back to Hashtag, he sees that they're farther apart than they were. He tries running back, but it does no good; the portals are still getting closer and Hashtag is still fading into the distance. "Vick! Hang on! I'll get your mom, we'll come back for you!"
With the two portals looming toward him, Bioshock jumps through the one that shows Blink. Just like that, he's back in Halcyon City, and the train is still hurtling toward him at a frightening speed. "Oh sh--!" There's no time for introductions, and he gets to untying Blink as fast as he can.
Bran and Thor Girl, soaring above the aquarium, can see police cars arriving on the scene.
Bioshock struggling to free the trapped Blink, still unconscious on the train tracks.
Hashtag, stuck in a liminal space which is trying to force him out.
Wingblade, unconscious, a large blank on the train rushing down the tracks.
This is a decision point where the game plays for keeps. This is a moment where your characters lives may be changed forever. For those that can act, be at peace with your decisions. For those that can't, live with what you have done.
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Vick had to make a choice, but was tormented by the realm he was in. Every time he started to decide one way or another, the in-between seemed to fracture more, each crack revealing the terrible consequences his decision would unleash.
In his heart, he wanted to go through the gate to rescue his mother. Saving her would be easy. Shove Eli away from the train, and take her with him on a short 'port to the side.
But that was considering his powers worked properly. That bastard Haxor really f%@$ed him over. He should never have let his past friendship with the kid soften his response. What use is there for a kid like Vick, who played games with pictures when people put their lives on the line?
He knew what his mother would want. Her guilt over Redline and Overhaul's deaths was no secret. If she could atone by some grand action, then she would have. He knew what she would tell him right now, if she could.
I love you, mom. he thought, turning to the aquarium gate. Eli, I hope you got the chops.
He takes a deep breath and goes through. Whipporwhill, I'm going to save you!
Despite the cushioning of Thor Girl's winds, Bran lands heavily, the clanking of his mail clearly announcing his presence to the surprised authorities. He gets his feet under him and dashes into the atrium of the building, calling over his shoulder, Worry not, we are here to help!
She was in some kind of shipping container. That will stand out. It will take a lot of water to fill. It's saltwater.
He quickly scans the map for appropriate exhibits and stops as inspiration strikes, ...And as a mustache-twirling "fan of the classics" how could he resist somehow adding the Shark Tank to the mix!
This way! Her prison shall be no barrier to our might!
Skuld landed the group near the aquarium building itself to avoid damaging the police officers. She collected the unconscious Haxor and approached the officers, saying "This man is what I believe you call a supervillain. He has been subdued, but should be restrained."
Having delivered him to the authorities, Skuld turned and flew into the Aquarium, following Bran's lead.
Skuld flew to the indicated container, not waiting to bring Bran with her this time. Hovering near it, she took hold of the metal and attempted to peel back the side to allow Whippoorwill to be freed.
The Shark Tank was a large circular chamber, one of the crown jewels of the Halcyon Aquarium. The lights usually shone dimly through the tremendous ring that housed the perfect predators, allowing their shadows to circle the onlookers more closely than the sharks themselves.
On class trips when she was younger, Bronwyn had always enjoyed the little shiver of fear that passed through her while dozens of potential man-eaters swam dead-eyed all around her, the same way they had for millions of years.
She had seen Jaws at a formative age, and no amount of statistics about how unlikely shark attacks were would ever really convince her that they were safe. But it had always made her feel brave, standing there even though they scared her.
Now though, Bran couldn't help but curse the designer who had made such an oversized tank. Though in their defense, not many people would have accounted for the possibility that a reality warping super villain would one day put a poorly sealed shipping container inside their exhibit.
Not even in Halcyon City.
Thor Girl's armor kept her safe, If she even has to worry about sharks. Or drowning, but as she ripped open the container it became clear that that shockwave, or a shard of metal, or maybe just a final cruelty from Haxor had drawn Whippoorwill's blood. It wasn't a lot.
But that blood had drawn a lot of attention.
Bran bunched his legs and leapt toward the gantry the staff would feed the sharks from. Catching hold of it, he couldn't help but pause a moment, staring at the predators knifing their way through the water, before using Gae-Dearg's blade to open a long slice along the back of his forearm, parting the carefully knit links of his coat, before hurling himself into the opposite end of the tank.
She just needs a little bit more time to get her out. Please let us have been in time.
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Current Day, at the Hospital
*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
*beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-*
=====================================
At Defender HQ
You all are sitting in one of the side meeting rooms, meant for the public and possible witnesses for crimes. It's only been a couple days since the Haxor incident and most of you who were injured are still in pretty bad shape. Wingblade, even with her healing factor, is the worse off. She's been given leave from school for "family reasons" and is taking the time to allow her body to heal. Currently, while she can use her wings, her body can't handle the g-forces of her flying. The muscle memory she's built over the years comes to work against her, and she's been 'grounded' until fully healed.
The local papers have been having a field day with the efforts of your team, most quickly picking sides even if owned by the same parent company. Thor Girl has been demonized to some extent, blamed for summoning the strang gate structure downtown that is almost indestructible. The actual portal has faded, but the gate remains. The city isn't happy with her slaughtering 70% of the rare fish and water mammals that had been in the tank she attempted to break down, her blow sending a vibration deadly to the sea creatures in the facility. The tank intact, it seemed like wonton violence, and thus most people look at her as a vengeful fledgling of a god, trying to take revenge with violence.
Bran is actually revered as a hero by some small circles. Saving a member of the Defenders will do that for your reputation, The animals he killed raised some fuss with the public, but not many could argue with the results. Unfortunately, this was the most positive of the publicity of the team.
Bioshock has been labeled as a possible terrorist, possibly in league with Haxor and responsible for a train for almost derailing on the track. The small detail of how he saved Blink's life is passed over, and the city grows to hate him in only a couple days. Today, a retraction is being printed as corroboration of stories has led to the truth of the matter, but not everyone learns the truth, and his name is dragged through the mud in most circles.
Blink and Whippoorwill are recovering normally. Whippoorwill was assigned assistant monitor duty with Matrix, and spends her time drilling Wingblade in new fighting techniques, ones involving how to get out of situations when captured or injured. Blink is allowed a "home arrest" for the time being, and she along with Hashtag has been allowed some quality time as she recovers. They stay in a small apartment, a Foursight assigned as a guard to keep an eye (or four) on the folks that can disappear with a blink. It's only been a couple days, but they've been enjoyable. Blink seems weak, but she's a strong-willed person, and she's expected to recover soon.
Now, we return to the present. Hashtag, Bioshock, Thor Girl, Bran the Blessed, Wingblade; you are all sitting around a small round table, water and snacks have been provided. You were told you would be seen in a few minutes. That was twenty minutes ago. Still, you can't leave. Not yet.
Finally, the door opens. Nick walks into the room, his poker face firmly placed on his face. You guys watch as Tectonic, an old member of the team, peeks in from the side of the doorway, she smiles awkwardly, gives Hashtag and Wingblade a thumbs up, and ducks out of view.
"Let's not mince words." Nick begins, taking a seat. "As much as I love interrogations, interviews, wordplay, and such, this is serious.
He presses a button on the console in front of him. And an image of a person is lit up in a three-dimensional hologram above the table. A Young man with shoulder length long hair. He's a tad overweight, but his smile is genuine. Under one arm is a laptop, his shoulder supports a messenger bag.
"Mack 'Haxor' Lindale. Deceased today, 11:45 am. Cause of Death: Natural."
He looks at you all for comment.
"KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR DEFENDS DEFENDER"
Mary-Beth proudly held up the clipping, This was totally worth going and finding an actual newspaper for.
She was doing her very best to cheer up Bronwyn, who'd been in a bit of a funk since the fight.
But it wasn't going particularly well.
Mary-Beth... People really got hurt. Bronwyn was sitting on her bed, in her favorite Marco-hoodie, but that wasn't helping either.
So, you're not gonna put it on the fridge? You're gonna leave "FRESHMAN SETS FRESH RECORD" all alone?
Okay first? Mom put that up there, second, you don't think that would be a little suspicious? Third... We got really lucky. I'm glad everyone made it out, but Blink and Whippoorwill are still hurt, and so's... So are some of my teammates.
Hey Bronwyn, I get it. I'm sorry. But even if it didn't all work out the way, this was still a win, and you need to remember that! Mope if you want, but you're keeping the clipping. I know you're raw right now, but c'mon, you're going to want this later. You helped save Whippoorwill! Heck, even if you'd just met her you'd want to save that headline.
Bronwyn rolled her eyes with a grudging smile and took the clipping, carefully folding it and tucking it behind the frame that held her first track-plaque.
Fiine, you're right, Mary-Beth.
I mean it's not like anyone died...
Bran flinches, He was hurt so-
No.
I hurt him.
Did he... did he ever wake up?
Hashtag raises a hand.
"The stuff." he says, as if it meant something. "The stuff he was on, whatev's you want to call it."
Looking around, he shrugs. "What? Power-amplifying compounds don't just show up when you mix household chemicals. Especially not shit that makes a dude go from bending to breaking all the goddamn rules like that."
He shrugs. "And he wasn't the murdering type, before. Well, not like he was. God he looked like a PCP junkie."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Shayera just stands with her arms folded, her mouth turned into a frown. She shrugs when Vick talks, and taps her foot impatiently when Nick seems to expect something more.
"Okay? I mean, are we sure this is the real one? Last I heard, there had been four of him. So there's one less, but that still means there's three more Haxors out there who could get the same idea.
"So this one's dead. Yeah, not feeling anything."
She turns back around and sits at the table, crossing her leg and staring away from everyone. Maybe she'd have felt differently if it didn't feel like her body was being ripped apart every time she flapped her wings. Maybe if Whippoorwill hadn't been hurt, and maybe if all those sea animals hadn't had to die. Maybe.
Maybe.
"Aww..."
Nick's dejected look breaks through his face as his serious demeanor fades away.
"Dangit. I was sure I could get a reaction and everything. I even had Matrix set up cameras..."
But there was actual business to be had, and Nick is quick to move on from his failed attempt of pressuring you all.
"As Wingblade says, we have no reason to believe this is the original Haxor, but as far as the public is concerned, a dead super is a dead super. And as Hashtag mentioned, there's also this substance that made him go crazy. Matrix is still analyzing the traces left in his system, but its most likely a power enhancer with some nasty side effects."
Nick takes a look at you all.
"Okay, no bullshitting around anymore from me. This is actually some nasty business here. We need to track these down ASAP, but the Defenders are too high profile to go stomping in. The suppliers will be long gone if we try that. So I had a different proposition...Think you guys could handle it?"
Bran's hollow expression quickly changes at Nick's japery,
One.
Two.
Ten!
He leans forward heavily on the round table and thrusts a gauntleted finger at Nick as he fumes,
Is this a joke to you?!
People could have been killed, a man may have died, and you want to see if you can -. He breaks off shouting closes his eyes, and after three deep breaths continues in a quieter tone, though it has lost none of its hardness.
Of course this "nasty business" must be sought out. It must be torn out root and stem! But rather than begin thusly you waste our time with deceit and mockery? Why?!
Shayera gives Nick a look like she's ready to do violence. Bran, however, reacts before she can compose a proper pithy statement in response to his poor attempt at getting reactions from them.
She instead looks away again, but keeps the two of them in her peripheral vision. "Save it. Nick here has this inferiority complex about being the youngest Defender. Except now Tec is the youngest, so now he's just sad."
She turns her head to glower at him. "Save your 'Are you up to the challenge?' bullshit. Give us the job and let us do ours."
Skuld had been pensive recently. Her first real foray into this 'heroing' business had not gone well, and people were saying some rather nasty things about her. This is not good. she kept repeating over and over in her mind. Father will not be pleased.
At the meeting, Skuld had been sitting in silence, thinking those same thoughts round in circles, until Bran raised his voice.
Shaking her head, she said "There is a tradition among the followers of my people that uses the root of a plant to increase battle fervor. It seemed something similar, but to a much greater effect. Given that he could open a portal to my home, it might be possible that he received the drug from there, or maybe there was another place from which he gained this elixir."
"I'm a sad man with terrible hobbies, one of which is lording my information over you non-Defender heroes. Maybe I won't give you the information.." That shit-eating grin on his face.
A small hologram pops up on display, a miniature Matrix gives Nick a look before it disappears.
"Or I'll give you the information and be happy Matrix doesn't publish my internet search history..."
The file he hands you is full of both Matrix and his handiwork. Technical details and the majority of the definitive data has come from Matrix, while Nicks' work includes psychological profiles, interviews, and somewhat surprising jumps in logic.
But from all the information, you can gather three possible leads.
1. There could be an element of magic at play. Going to the Eldritch School of Magical Learning could be insightful.
2. There's an old abandoned facility that had been used for genetic testing among other mad science. It served as a transport point where nefarious villains could temporarily store their work while on the go before transferring facilities.
3. There's rumors that the drugs are coming from the local medical university. It's said some kind of genius chemist is at work, whipping up wonder drugs which may include what you're looking for.
Being grounded made Shayera frustrated and irritable. She had to fight to keep from lashing out at the other members of her team, but she managed. The same could not be said for Nick, whom she took every opportunity to antagonize.
Ultimately, the information was shared and the three options lay before them.
Shayera forces aside her doubts about her still-recovering condition and concentrates on the job.
"I don't know much about magic. That's Thor Girl's and Bran's area. The medical university would amount to us looking for a needle in a haystack, unless Matrix or someone has been able to find any unusual compounds in Haxor's body that would give us a starting point. The genetic testing facility seems to be the most straightforward. That's my suggestion, unless there's more that Nick's decided to keep from us just to show how smart he is by making us look dumb." She gives him a withering glare.
Bran wrinkles his nose at Nick's more prurient comment, but nods at Wingblade's good sense.
If we know that villains make use of this facility, then even if this is not the source of Haxor's Bane, it seems our visit there could scarce be wasted.
After all, just 'cause I have a magic spear doesn't mean I know anything about magic... Maybe Mary-Beth could help? Nah, Shayera's probably right.
"While we do know of magic, and have people in our family who can wield it, most of my family has innate abilities, like my own. It's something of a sport on my father by my grandfather than all of father's abilities stem from his Dwarven-made artifacts."
"I have been told that mysticism runs in your family. Perhaps you can shed some light on this where I can not?"
Bran looks uncertain, and replies, carefully choosing his words to ensure that they are in English, I have some sense for sorceries, but I am not spellwise myself.
It is possible that if we went to this Eldritch School there would be some trail I could follow, but I assume that it would not be the only arcane spoor on the grounds.
"We have other teams that have started up in the city. Other young heroes looking to make a difference. We're giving you special treatment to decide which one you want, but we'll be splitting the remaining with the others. You've got members on your team calling for the magic school and the abandoned lab. Which is it going to be?"
Nick looks at you all, expecting an answer.
"I'm partial to the lab." Hashtag offers. "Haxxor wouldn't know what to do with magic; he's a tech-head. Also, there was no tentacles coming out of his ears so I don't think Eldritch was involved."