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The sizzle of flesh, the sharp tang of burning iron hit Andromeda's nose before her mind can even register the terrible absence. A familiar surge of endorphins floods her system, dulling the pain, giving her a chance to act.
But her arm is gone.
Her arm is gone!
All she can do is try to keep herself under control while her arm is-
Still twitching against the surface of the step pyramid, still wrapped up in her shield, blood spurting and carbonizing against the inside of her sheath, crackling as agitated plasma arcs to the wound, as it arcs to her eyes, to her face, to the wound, to the stump, to her arm!
Her sheath ripples, bubbles, bursts. The whole area floods with an energy she can't even want to control.
And then she's gone.
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"She's bonded to the wand, even if you disarm her, she can teleport it back into her hand!" Chroknight warns them as the smoke obscures the group. She grits her teeth under the helmet. She realizes she can't do anything to save Beebee here. But maybe in the main fight...?
"Focus on getting people to safety, try not to hurt her. I need to try and stop whatever's controlling her." She takes off, weaving through until she's back at the masked boy. There was no way she was going to attack her best friend if she had a say in things. So, she spoke to her only other available option.
"I'm Chroknight...RED. It'll be important to distinguish me from others later. We can't save her from here, but if we get to the main pyramid, you think you could do something that will knock out whatever's controlling her?"
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"other one" a tinny voice whispers across the comms to the one that Time lost over and over. "SHE is alone in the ship, trying to find hope, gui has become the target of the biggest of the bad, trying to buy time... and Andy..." if a radio signal could cry "Andy tried to protect everyone, but lost part of herself, a big part." SamII informs with halting words. "We need you, please come quick."
"I'm Chroknight...RED. It'll be important to distinguish me from others later. We can't save her from here, but if we get to the main pyramid, you think you could do something that will knock out whatever's controlling her?"
Mael sighs, ”Listen, I’m not Doctor Infinity. Here’s what I know. Your friend may or may not be under the Pharaoh’s control. That scepter, and other goodies, were passed out to ‘believers’. Maybe that’s a nice way to say ‘enslaved’ but maybe not. If she’s a true believer, freeing her won’t stop her. If she isn’t… then, yeah, IF we can get to the ziggurat… and get to the vault... AND get the command scepter, then maybe we can break his hold on her. That assumes the battle up there isn’t already lost – which it may be. I’m not getting a clear picture on that.” He pauses for a moment, not enjoying what he has to say next. It was a warning he felt obliged to offer, based on hard-earned experience. ”While I was puzzling through things, you said something about ‘her carrying the weight of harming innocents with her forever’… You’ll also be accountable for the damage she does - if you could have stopped her here and you don’t try. Choices have consequences.”
The oni-masked youth looks around, giving Chronknight the space to consider and make a decision.
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"You have de right vibe, but de wrong body to actually tempt me into BDSM." Gothic-Aquarelle answers. She then covers herself in ancient Greek armor and a copy of the magical shopec before narrowing her eyes and trying to kick the Pharaoh's dried nuts.
Aquarelle might as well have kicked a marble statue. His foot screams in sudden pain from striking the unyielding demigod as he falls backwards. The Star Pharoah's face twists in fury at the insult and he grabs Gui before he hits the ground. A pulse of Ahk'nathal's force of will rips his illusion away, exposing his true face!
Any hope that the Star Pharoah would be impressed by Gui's audacity is dashed by the rasping voice in his head. "Oblivion is too good your you, Trickster. Suffer." He flings Aquarelle down to the ground, slamming him hard against the black stone that rattles every bone in his body! He picks him up again and drives a fist into his stomach before tossing him into the air and kicking him before he lands, sending Gui flying across the ziggurat's uppermost platform to crash into one of the black obelisks rising from each corner! Barely conscious, Gui sees the Star Pharoah striding towards him through rapidly swelling eyes.
Then the pyramid rocks from a massive explosion!
Maelstrom tries to dazzle Prestige with a strobe effect, but she deflects it with her scepter. She doesn't retaliate right away, instead focusing on whatever spell she's at the center of that is reconfiguring the old courthouse into one of Ahk'nathal's new seats of power.
Chroknight warns the Crimefighters about Prestige's ability to recall the scepter back to her. Screech Owl, Parkour, and Belfrey make their move against her anyway! They rush Prestige from different angles after Belfrey throws more smoke bombs to screen their approach!
While they fight, Chroknight and Maelstrom consider saving Prestige from the controlling influence of the Star Pharoah. Mael looks around for some easy means of getting to the floating pyramid, but no building in Old Town is tall enough; downtown Halcyon has much taller buildings and even then it'd be a tough feat to clear the distance between the tops of the skyscrapers and the base of the pyramid.
As he's looking up, considering the best way to reach it, a corner of the pyramid explodes!
Statian slips away from the fighting and the horrifying sight, determined to find the knowledge that could be used to turn the battle. Using Indarius' ring, her tablet, and her own prodigious intellect, she sought to gain some understanding of the Star Pharoah's power.
Data floods her synapses. Rational parts of her mind (so, most of her mind) rebels at the information on magical phenomena and impossibilities that allow the Star Pharoah to perform such miracles. Even the magic that Indarius could perform never reached these heights. Not without...
without...
Not without structure.
Statian sees a pattern emerge. Magic might have been the baseline, but even magic needs a power source. And Ahk'nathal tapped into the cosmic.
Star Pharoah indeed.
Ahk'nathal isn't just using magic. He's using defined energies of the universe, which he's harnessing through his pyramid. A pyramid that is still in orbit, following the fundamental gravitational rules of physics.
Chitin and Johnny had thrown themselves at Hap-Ro Kha, after seeing the piles of dazed and injured Tenfold duplicates around him. The Raging Auroch was even bigger than Chitin, and with a roar he met the challenge of the two students! Johnny tried to use his flight to his advantage, staying airborne and diving in to strike from unexpected angles but the child of Ahk'nathal was fast and able to withstand their mightiest punches!
Meanwhile, Ringtone was forced to shake off his shock at seeing his classmate maimed as Khamsin turned to face him! A flick of his wrist sounds the hand bell that he brings up, amplifying the soundwaves into a sonic barrier.
And then Andromeda explodes.
::We have to leave::
Gothic's message is simple and without embellishment. Damn it, Nimbus thinks as his heart breaks. He and Half-pipe had been avoiding the murderous rage-harpy and kept out of the rest of the fight. He swallows his pride and speaks into his communicator, "Fall back. Everyone, fall back." If only we had a--
A corner of the pyramid detonates, causing the ziggurat to tilt!
Nimbus sends a blast of air to counter the radiating shockwave, then points to Half-pipe! The skateboarder lets the metal-winged girl get dangerously close, then zooms straight at Ahk'nathal with her in pursuit!
Nimbus swoops in low and conjures a miniature tornado that scours the mass of locusts away from Rendezvous! She coughs and spits up more insects as they're blown away, then her whole body shudders. "Sorry, Ren. It's a bust. We're retreating."
The Star Pharoah rises from where he'd been knocked down by the explosion, looking unharmed. He turns his attention again to Aquarelle, but even though he looks straight at him, he doesn't seem to see him! Understanding crosses his face as he turns to face the real Gothic, but just then Half-pipe zooms past him, zig-zagging just enough to stay out of his grasp! Then Scythe following close behind slams into the Pharoah!
Infuriated by the interruption, he slams hard down onto Scythe which sends her onto the stone surface with a sickening crunch! With a roar, he conjures a glowing ball of crackling energy but Rendezvous' portal opens up just in time to shunt Gothic away!
More portals open up, spiriting the heroes who can't fly themselves away from the pyramid!
The pyramid rocks, tilting to one side as a result of the explosion but slowly rights itself. Hope that it was a sign of the Star Pharoah's defeat fades fast.
Prestige, surrounded and warding off a myriad of attacks from the Crimefighters, suddenly laughs.
"He's won!"
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Tenfold and Ragnarok abandon their attempts to retrieve the Shopec from Delphi allowing her to move more freely about the melee. The most important task now was to keep the blade safe, she couldn't maintain her form for long even feeding from and into the blade itself in some strange divine symbiosis. But hopefully her display against the multiplier and the behemoth, along with suitable defensive measures was enough to ensure her an unbarred escape.
She darted away from the battlefield and found a nice secluded spot to await her true target. The frail girl of science, she moved in quickly her ascendant form burning out around her as she stepped. Fast and quiet, but not able to close fast enough to not be detected.
"Wait... peace... the threads of fate do not end for you all here. He will have his victory, yes. But as always his grasp may be made to slip."
She stepped close blade raised making it look like she was about to strike Samantha for a moment.
The entire pyramid rocked and Delphi flung herself forward at Statian, spinning the girl away from the explosion. Slipping the blade with careful precision to hook the hilt on her backpack. Even as a chunk of the ebony structure collided with the side of her masked face, splintering a chunk of it and spraying blood from a new wound. She clung to the similarly small girl for a bit with a groan. The funerary mask chipped away, and slipped before Delphi managed to recover enough to reactively keep it in place. Sam is able to see what look to be long ago scarred acid burns around the gray unseeing eyes of the dark skinned girl clinging to her weakly.
"I know you" the words said within inches of the other woman, as a host of threads hover around, flared out ready to stab and tear. "You owe me a warning, of danger to my father." her words are getting darker "Does this not warrant a Danger?"
"N-no immediate danger to him." She hissed through her teeth a pained answer. "Your weave will lead to a just end. Survive now, find you, the next wielder must be uncovered."[b]
Sam stares back, considering, for three heart beats. Her hand grasps the other "[b]Andromeda is alive?" there seems to be prepared consequences if the answer is no.
Delphi nodded back weakly.
Sam sags in relief, the dread balled up inside her releasing, just a little "how... What do you need?" she knows, given this woman's powers that the probability is endless.
"Go now. I must remain. A grand sacrifice must be made, 'fore the long game begins. Keep it safe, keep them close.". She cocks her head slightly. Then places her hand between her and Sam. Preparing for what's to come.
Sam opens her mouth. She was here for data, had left her friends, had done what Samantha would have done. For data. She needed more, and this woman SHE had freed from can give her some. WILL give her all of it.
Blue light flares behind her suddenly, and that hand pushes, just enough to make her stumble back. Just one step, but then she is elsewhere. Anger spikes inside her, a promise made for the future, then she is off to find the others.
With the fading blade sent away to safety, Delphi collapsed, mask clattering away, as an always uneasy unconciousness consumed her.
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Chroknight stands still as they hear the crackle of their comms speak with a simulated voice. There's part of her that wants to deny the truth of what's being said. Sam in the pyramid? Gui facing off against the Star Pharoah? Andromeda beaten? But then the explosion rips through it above them. She flinches and looks around.
”While I was puzzling through things, you said something about ‘her carrying the weight of harming innocents with her forever’… You’ll also be accountable for the damage she does - if you could have stopped her here and you don’t try. Choices have consequences.”
Chroknight laughs. She can't help it. "Dude, you are living in a world shaped by my bad choices."
She takes a breath. "...There's no way to break her free without getting into the pyramid. And it sounds like our side has been beaten back. Some of my friends might be hurt. Or worse." She grips her fists tightly. "Prestige's right. Battle's lost for today."
She whistles hard, CORVIS cawing as he drops down on three legs on Chroknight's shoulder. The odd looking crow meets Maelstrom's mask with one penetrating eye. "The Heralds are sounding off a retreat! We need to regroup!" Chroknight shouts, before looking at Prestige.
"...I won't stop until you're free again. Or I die trying. But that's not going to be today."
Chronknight laughs. She can't help it. "Dude, you are living in a world shaped by my bad choices."
Mael shakes his head. Naïve. I was there… once.
"The Heralds are sounding off a retreat! We need to regroup!"
Maelstrom watches the ziggurat fall from the sky. ”Fine. Where?”
Maelstrom watches for the floating pyramid to fall, or land, or do something other than hover ominously over the city, but it remains steady if listing slightly where the explosion occurred.
Chroknight sees the Crimefighters also retreat from the Courtyard Square. Screech Owl swoops over to the two of them. "We're falling back to our HQ to plan our next move. You two got someplace to go?"
What do you do?
The quiet, open space of the Heralds' headquarters is suddenly filled with Rendezvous' portals spilling out the battered and beleaguered heroes. Coughs and groans fill the air as everyone takes stock of their injuries and those in need of medical attention.
"Abacus, fire up the autodoc," Nimbus announces to the base's supercomputer. "We got-- aw, geez. Quick! Get him on a bed, carefully!" the leader shouts as he sees Aquarelle's battered body. Half-pipe calls his energy board to gingerly lift him up and move him to a high-tech medical bay that is coming to life.
The other injured are attended to once they're assured that Gui is stable. Chitin's armored shell is cracked in several places. Half-pipe's arm is broken. Rendezvous is covered in welts and barely holding it together after being swarmed by locusts. Ringtone is suffering a concussion. Tenfold and Ragnarok are a mass of bruises and have matching swollen eyes.
Nimbus looks on the verge of a breakdown, but he holds it at bay with force of will. "We can't... um, we can't take too much time here. Get our wounded stabilized and we need to fall back from here. This base isn't safe enough. We gotta regroup, find others, and... and..." he swallows hard. "... and come up with a plan. A real plan. I'm sorry everyone. We don't have the Shopec anymore, but it didn't really help us this time anyway." He looks at Gothic, who is sitting away from everyone brooding, and then at Statian.
"But survival first."
Andromeda wakes up in a soft bed. When she opens her eyes, she's staring at a vaulted ceiling with a fan spinning at medium speed. When she looks down, she sees she's still wearing her starfield uniform. And her right arm is bandaged just below the elbow, where the rest of it is missing.
"How do you like your coffee?" comes a voice she recognizes.
Valence.
”We're falling back to our HQ to plan our next move. You two got someplace to go?"
Survival-mode was something Mael understood well. He looks to Screech Owl and indicates Prestige with a nod of his mask’s demonic chin. ”Depends. Does she know about your base? If she does, and you don’t want to become part of the Middle Kingdom aesthetic, your stay might have to be brief… But I’m game.”
"My friends were fighting on the pyramid. I don't know where they've gone. I'll stick with you all for now. My other option might not be safe enough."
Chroknight glanced at Maelstrom. "I'll try to reach out to my friends, but communication might be spotty." She calls up on the line to SamII, hoping to get through. "Is everyone okay? Statian? Are you all right?"
Sam takes a moment, lost for a second with a desire to SCREAM, then run to find those she cares about, but if they are going to wake up, they needed to live. "Beginning statistical analysis of safest fall back points based on current known enemy forces and population centers." her hand shakes as they start to whirl on her tablet, bringing up possibilities on holographic screens, integrating her processing power with the base's supercomputer.
"SammII.." a whisper as she works.
"I will be there with them, my tired little poppet." the Ai says, setting drones to be with Aquarelle and Andromeda.
Sam nods and lets those worries fester in another compartment. Almost offhand she says to Nimbus "I was given a sword" still slipped under the backpack straps. She describes the encounter, both of the one she had with Delphi.
”We're falling back to our HQ to plan our next move. You two got someplace to go?"Survival-mode was something Mael understood well. He looks to Screech Owl and indicates Prestige with a nod of his mask’s demonic chin. ”Depends. Does she know about your base? If she does, and you don’t want to become part of the Middle Kingdom aesthetic, your stay might have to be brief… But I’m game.”
Screech Owl shakes her head. "Nope. Never seen her before. We should be safe. Hopefully Crossbolt will meet us there."
The trio lead the way, gliding, swinging, and parkour-ing through the labyrinthine alleys of Old Town. A clock tower appears in front of them, standing ominously against the other stone buildings and gothic architecture. Maelstrom and Chroknight are granted access through a secret entrance at street level by Parkour as they follow the Crimefighters.
Although it looked like it could be condemned from the outside, the tower's interiors are actually very livable, if a little creepy thanks to the high arching ceilings and slowly grinding gear works.
Parkour leads the pair into an open lift that takes them up high into the structure where it opens into a wide space. A computer system that almost rivals Unity Base's in terms of age and its cobbled-together nature is at the center of a ready room. Belfrey drops from his retractable line, his dark cape billowing out behind him. Screech Owl glides in from another direction and lands silently next to Parkour.
Belfrey wastes no time, sitting down before the complex computer system and starts calling up camera feeds and news reports. Screech and Parkour turn to the newcomers. "Pleasantries will have to come later. For now, I'm Screech Owl, he's Parkour, and he's Belfrey. The Heralds gave a signal that they couldn't drive off the Pharoah, so we need to go into resistance mode."
"I warned Nimbus," Belfrey grumbles in his gravely voice, "there were too many unknowns."
"Sure, sure. So let's start turning them into knowns. You two: whatcha got to contribute? You seemed to know the sparkly girl personally," Parkour asks, turning to Chroknight specifically for the second question.
When Statian sends a drone to watch over Andromeda, it scans around and determines that she's not present at the Heralds' base.
Tenfold spots the drone buzzing about and looks around. "Hey, where's the meteor girl? Ren, did you 'port her out after that big explosion? "
Still hugging herself, Rendezvous shakes her head. "Andromeda. I couldn't see her, and Gothic didn't give me any other coordinates."
"Damn it, damn it, damn it. Andromeda was kicking so much ass, I didn't even think that--" Nimbus stops and turns to Gothic. He listens to some message from the telepath then sighs. "She was hurt right before the explosion, and wasn't on the pyramid when we retreated. Where's Scythe? She was controlled, but had started on our side."
Rendezvous again shakes her head. "She was too close to the Pharoah. I couldn't risk it."
Nimbus swears and again nearly breaks down, until Statian shows him the weapon.
Andromeda wakes up in a soft bed. When she opens her eyes, she's staring at a vaulted ceiling with a fan spinning at medium speed. When she looks down, she sees she's still wearing her starfield uniform. And her right arm is bandaged just below the elbow, where the rest of it is missing.
"How do you like your coffee?" comes a voice she recognizes.
Valence.
Dread trickles down Andromeda's spine as she stares at the bandage. She's not nauseous, her vision is clear, she could hear him fine. Not prolonged infrasonic exposure. She can feel some of her fingers and toes; she isn't cold or excessively bundled up. Not induced hypothermia. No machines in here with sufficient power; duration of syncope is sufficient for multiple transports. Null-class polyphasic disruptor possible but poorly suited for known procedure.
She wasn't in a box. Not back home.
Her gaze lifts to Liam's collarbone. "Who touched me?"
I thought only Johnny could just touch me.
"Two non-dairy creamers, no sugar."
Dread trickles down Andromeda's spine as she stares at the bandage. She's not nauseous, her vision is clear, she could hear him fine. Not prolonged infrasonic exposure. She can feel
some ofher fingers and toes; she isn't cold or excessively bundled up. Not induced hypothermia. No machines in here with sufficient power; duration of syncope is sufficient for multiple transports. Null-class polyphasic disruptor possible but poorly suited for known procedure.She wasn't in a box. Not back home.
Her gaze lifts to Liam's collarbone. "Who touched me?"
I thought only Johnny could just touch me."Two non-dairy creamers, no sugar."
"Sure." Valence leaves the bedroom for a few moments, leaving Andromeda alone to study her surroundings. She finds herself in a master bedroom of a large home with expensive decor. It's cluttered, however, clearly having been occupied by people not accustomed to cleaning up after themselves. The curtains are drawn, but light enough for Andromeda to conclude it's night.
Valence returns with a mug. "Here," he says as he sets it down on an end table within reach of her remaining hand. Backing away, he laces his fingers behind his head and looks up. "Paramedics. The regular kind. When I found you, you were so out of it that it wasn't that hard to peel back your force bubble so they could work on you."
"She's my best friend. There's a lot of complicated backstory here, but she really wanted to have powers of her own so that she could fight crime like me. She didn't think twice about taking this wand some cultist attacked her with months ago, and it seems that she's been learning how to use it in secret. Prestige isn't a bad person, she wants to do good. She just took the first opportunity for that without asking enough questions," Chroknight RED admits.
She sits down, feeling the adrenaline ebb away and her body needing a rest. "...We'd been fighting for a long time about her wanting to be more than a secret keeper for me. So when the chance came to reconcile, I pushed down all my worries and fears deep down about this dodgy magic wand because I desperately wanted my friend back in my life. Maybe this would have happened to her anyways, regardless of my choices."
She sighs and pulls the helmet off. It's stuffy, she needs the fresh air on her face, and she doubts anyone here cares about her secret identity anyways. "I go by Chroknight under the mask. I can manipulate time, but pretty much only for myself or those in close proximity. My powers do make me stronger and more durable though. Oh, damn, Crossbolt. Prestige hit him with her mind control magic and I knocked him down to chase after her. I hope he's okay!"
”Pleasantries will have to come later. For now, I'm Screech Owl, he's Parkour, and he's Belfrey."
The oni-masked guy raises a finger, ”Maelstrom or Mael.”
"Sure, sure. So let's start turning them into knowns. You two: whatcha got to contribute? You seemed to know the sparkly girl personally."
Mael takes a deep breath before shotgunning what he’s gathered, ”Sure. Well, the Pharaoh guy has a bunch of kids. One of them is named Delphi, wears a funerary mask. She didn’t stop me when I went after one of her brothers and she had the opportunity… so I don’t know what to make of her. She’s very mystical woo woo – talking about how we’re ‘fated’ to do something together. I’m fine with mystical but the woo woo fate bit is a hard sell for me. In addition to all the baby tyrants, the Pharaoh has ‘believers’. Looks like many are the real deal and some are mind-controlled. Among these ‘believers’, he’s distributed a bunch of relics. Which brings us to Sparkly Girl… She’s got one of the sekhem scepters. Hers is the Kherp ‘Controller’ scepter and it answers to the Aba ‘Commander’ scepter sitting in the Pharaoh’s vault in that floating monstrosity above the city. I’m guessing all the sekhem do. To break his control over the scepters and some of the wielders… we’re gonna need to get or destroy the Aba.”
He adds an aside, like an afterthought, ”Oh, and the Pharaoh offered me a deal… well, a chance to serve him forever. He's a little butthurt that I didn't jump at the offer. I’m not sure if he won’t ask me again or next time if he plans on trying to take over my mind. Soooo… you should probably keep an eye on me and be ready to put me down if I get all ’your wish is my command’.”
Mael extends his mystic awareness beyond the clock tower, hoping for some advanced notice if anything nasty and Biblical (or pre-Biblical) starts coming their way.
The trio of Crimefighters listen intently and Chro and Mael dump their info, Belfrey's fingers flying over the keyboard as he calls up various searches in response to key names and phrases. The mention of the girl in the funerary mask gets a reaction; the Crimefighters seem to know of her.
When Mael mentions they should also keep an eye on him, he gets some harsh, suspicious stares. If he intended it to be a joke, they're not laughing.
When Chroknight tells them about Crossbolt, they gasp. "Bel?" Parkour asks the one at the computer.
"On it," he responds as he brings up a dense map of Old Town on the screen and zooms in on a tiny crosshair symbol. "It's active, so he didn't disable his tracker. It's moving away from us."
"We got to go get him." Screech Owl looks to Chroknight. "What else do you know about the mind control magic? How long it lasts? Can it be resisted? Countered?"
When Mael mentions they should also keep an eye on him, he gets some harsh, suspicious stares. If he intended it to be a joke, they're not laughing.
Mael’s glance slides between each of the Crimefighters. His shoulders drop a bit and he pushes up the mask to reveal a sweat-streaked Asian face. Masks are terrible for conveying non-verbal cues. He regards them all earnestly, hoping that his seriousness is apparent in his expression. ”I’m not kidding. I let Scar from CORPS know when the Pharaoh contacted me. I’ll try to do the same for you if he contacts me again. But, I may not get the chance. You need to be prepared to drop me first and ask questions later, if I appear to have lost control.”