"I'll have the extra battery storage units ready by tomorrow, no problem. Building your mech will take a little longer. Should be ready by the end of the week. I think it's good to bring in new people in pairs if possible since that's how the patrol schedule will be organized. So I'm going to talk to Ghalen I think. There's some questions about where his loyalties lie, but he's a friend and I think that we can trust him. And if I'm wrong....well, if I'm wrong you're the person most likely to be able to neutralize him without hurting him. Unless you have some objection to working with him. I'm not going to force the issue if you do. Anyways, we have the basic training SIMs ready to go so if both of you are on board with the idea, we can have you start working through those this week and then you should be ready to train in your actual mech right about the time we're done building it. Presuming everything goes to plan, of course. Delays may be inevitable. But the extra power should help us speed up production considerably, so I'm hoping that will cancel out delays."
"And if you know of anyone else who might be a good fit for this program, let me know. I'd like to bring in at least two more teams in the next month if possible. The more pilots there are, the less pressure there is on any one individual."
"My only experience with Ghalen was during the 'war' simulation, but he gave me no reason to question his comportment during that exercise. His military knowledge could be quite insightful." (^-^)
"Other than Jeran, I do not know any other ki users personally, but I will remain mindful of your suggestion. Your proposed regimen would indicate I will not be in the school very much in the future, though."
"It sounds worse than it is. The training will take up some of your afternoons. That's all. You'll still be at the school for lessons. Unless I can get special permission for you guys to train during school hours. While I'm at it, I need to see about creating some kind of work study class for the engineering types. We could use the extra hands. And Elle too. After the shuttle incident, I'll feel better having her look over the mechs before I have you guys actually trying to use them. Most of us can't tell if a screw is a millimeter too loose just by looking at it."
David fixes his facial expressions into one of grim determination as he draws on the power of his crown, doubling his size and massively increasing his physical prowess
He then charges towards the one with the scales at a simply massive speed, one comparable to a hovercraft, but passes through the reach of the four armed wind spirit to get there...
David fixes his facial expressions into one of grim determination as he draws on the power of his crown, doubling his size and massively increasing his physical prowess
He then charges towards the one with the scales at a simply massive speed, one comparable to a hovercraft, but passes through the reach of the four armed wind spirit to get there...
As Dave runs across the battlefield Andromeda shoots a couple of spells directly in his path, trying to slow him down.
"It sounds worse than it is. The training will take up some of your afternoons. That's all. You'll still be at the school for lessons. Unless I can get special permission for you guys to train during school hours. While I'm at it, I need to see about creating some kind of work study class for the engineering types. We could use the extra hands. And Elle too. After the shuttle incident, I'll feel better having her look over the mechs before I have you guys actually trying to use them. Most of us can't tell if a screw is a millimeter too loose just by looking at it."
The young monk nods.
"We shall see, then. Is there anything else you require of me at this moment?"
"It sounds worse than it is. The training will take up some of your afternoons. That's all. You'll still be at the school for lessons. Unless I can get special permission for you guys to train during school hours. While I'm at it, I need to see about creating some kind of work study class for the engineering types. We could use the extra hands. And Elle too. After the shuttle incident, I'll feel better having her look over the mechs before I have you guys actually trying to use them. Most of us can't tell if a screw is a millimeter too loose just by looking at it."The young monk nods.
"We shall see, then. Is there anything else you require of me at this moment?"
"No, not at the moment. You're free to go take care of whatever you need. And Fei? Go easy on yourself. You're not a bad person because you did what you had to. I know you don't believe that. Ephebe gives me that same look. But I have to believe that repeating it will help at least a little."
After familiarizing himself with the button, Jacob takes a period or two to take a breather and sort himself out. After that, he heads back to class... where, undoubtedly, he finds untold chaos.
After familiarizing himself with the button, Jacob takes a period or two to take a breather and sort himself out. After that, he heads back to class... where, undoubtedly, he finds untold chaos.
Dave growls as the spells are cast in his way, through the toughness of his skin he can mostly ignore the blade barrier, but the tentacles slow him down significantly which is a more pressing concern for him. Finding himself momentarilly trapped he reflexively sends out a burst of mental energy to trigger his ring only to have it stopped by a mental wall and he growls as he is reminded of the barrier on his mind and the reasons for it. Dave just barely was able to hold his focus together enough to cast the spell "freedom of movement" allowing him to continue his way unimpeded by the spells lodged in his path he flys off shouting "I won't let you hurt tybalt anymore!"
Djalos nods and stands stock-still for a moment, then he surveys the class. The young elf then says, "I must admit, this whole course is a bit boring. Do you think we should shake it up?"
"If you think it's boring, just let a teacher here you say that. Things get far more interesting."
"No, not at the moment. You're free to go take care of whatever you need. And Fei? Go easy on yourself. You're not a bad person because you did what you had to. I know you don't believe that. Ephebe gives me that same look. But I have to believe that repeating it will help at least a little."
"I actually do believe that, James," Fei replies with a respectful bow. "My struggle is with believing that I am safe for others to be around for very long. Please promise me you will warn Ghalen of those risks when you speak with him," he finishes with a small smile. (^-^)
"I should return to the school in case I am needed. I...am hopeful this temporal matter is almost concluded, and Vai can be returned to life. Barring any other unforeseen events, I will be here tomorrow to charge the new batteries."
The young monk bows again politely before excusing himself.
Another bullet lands on the ground in front of Dave and an Ice Wall springs up directly in his path.
The second bullet flies wide as the Ephebe who brought Dave here grabs Andromeda by the hair, getting an elbow to the gut for her troubles,
After a cursory glance to ensure the hallway is empty, Fei teleports back to Professor Sunwake's laboratory, appearing at a close (but still respectful) distance from his instructor.
"I have spoken with James, sabumnim," the young monk intones, sounding at least a bit more like himself again.
"Is there anything else I can do to help expedite Melody's task?"
David growls out "you can't use Ice against me, that's my sthick, stop trying to stop me I'm going to save my friend whether you like it or not" he says casting elemental aura as he continues to charge directly through the ice.
With the blue dragon subdued to the point of being unconcious, Jasper does his best to stop the new angel guy with whatever he happens to have on hand, which happens to be a rather large blue dragon.
The aura of swirling winds around him turns to swirling clockwise together to assist him in his efforts as the enormous Djinn-thing hefts the dragon, planting his feet as his torso turns independent from his waist as he builds the momentum to throw the dragon towards the new arrival.
With an echoing grunt of exertion, he chucks the dragon with enough lead that if it didn't hit Dave, it would at least be between him and the ceremony in procession.
"WHAT THE HELLS IS THIS GUY TALKING ABOUT?!"
David deftly dodges the dieing dragon but his momentum is completely haultet in the maneuver to do so when he hears the giant shouting at him "tybalt, my friend, the champion of mercy. He's sick and your little ritual is draining him so I'm here to put a stop to it. Get out of my way or I will kill you" not a smidgen of doubt in his ability to do so can be heard in his voice or seen in his posture.
With the dragon dead/dying, Lysander has time(of course) to look at the others and glare. De'Foul. Someone definitely wasn't playing nicely anymore. Time to stop pretending to do the same.
"You ymmryd! Are you so sure the catfolk is your friend? Or is he your friend like Raelle was your girlfriend?!"
"You a&$%$!#! How dare you f%*+er! I'm not enthralling him! I didn't mean to do that to raelle... I willingly sealed that so called power the first chance I had uppon finding out about it, who the f*#& are you?!?.... And what in the nine hells is a ynmard?" He shouts out a mess of emotions, from rage to regret, confusion to conceit
Lang tried his best to be more relaxed at the reception. but the constant barrage of dignitaries coming to him, all wanting some sort of favor, definitely was taking its toll on the young Avatar.
He kept looking for a way out.
finally seeing his chance, Lang sees the balcony overlooking the mountains was empty.
He glances to his friends and then looks to the balcony. he then heads outside.
Lang tries to hint for the others to follow
The scream/roar coming from Ephebe rose to ear shattering levels and a series of disorienting pulses spread across the area as time became extremely mutable. The effects were varied, as minor as simple nausea, or as major as pocket universes with alternate timelines. There was a sense of built up power ready to be released, like a sneeze that just wouldn't come.
After a cursory glance to ensure the hallway is empty, Fei teleports back to Professor Sunwake's laboratory, appearing at a close (but still respectful) distance from his instructor.
"I have spoken with James, sabumnim," the young monk intones, sounding at least a bit more like himself again.
"Is there anything else I can do to help expedite Melody's task?"
"We've lost contact with Melody," Aananda said, working with urgency. "I'm trying to reestablish the signal but we need to boost the frequency. If you can add more power to the system that would help immensely."
"Arthur, I need you to help program in signal modifications. It's probable that where she is operates on different frequencies than we do, so we need to be able to do a broad signal sweep to try and find her."
Grim tries (and fails) to be discrete as he exits the main precedings
As he is gone from the group he smiles sheepishly and says "sorry I'm not very good at this sort of parties... My sister Minnie is great at these but I've always been kinda nervous"
Anwar flinched as he got closer to finishing the ritual, the sudden influx of power from time speeding up causing his nose to bleed copiously as he worked to contain it.
Lysander funneled more power from his amulet to counteract the way time slowed down for him, trying to stay just as fast and get between De'Foul and his brother. "I'm not letting you near my brother!"
"We've lost contact with Melody," Aananda said, working with urgency. "I'm trying to reestablish the signal but we need to boost the frequency. If you can add more power to the system that would help immensely."
Fei nods, then steps over to the charging socket for his old energy cuffs. Opening the panel, he places his hand inside. After a moment, the communication array is showing a sharp increase in available power - enough to boost the frequency significantly, but without burning out the system immediately.
"This is as much energy as I can add to the system without compromising its integrity, sabumnim...." he says as he glances around the consoles, then stops.
"If we need more, though, my lace has suggested a possible solution. We should see if this is enough to reach her first, though."
Grim tries (and fails) to be discrete as he exits the main precedings
As he is gone from the group he smiles sheepishly and says "sorry I'm not very good at this sort of parties... My sister Minnie is great at these but I've always been kinda nervous"
Lang tries to reassure Grim, don't worry I'm not either, that's why I came out here.
Leaning against the railing, So, ah Grim, you wanna go do something? ditch this place for a little bit?
"Hmm perhaps instead of modulating the amplitude across a set frequency to lock in on we can modulate the frequency along a set amplitude...." He mutters to himself "or we can use differing transmission energy for the carrier signal in case the waves have been blue or red shifted...."
Mel manages to respond but the signal is broken. Found.....metal cylinder....another.....red light....not good....
there is a moment of silence then another message arrives....EXTERMINATE! in a monotone robotic voice
Not today.... then there is a sudden blast.
the rift is forced closed but Mel is trapped inside as she activated the device to close the rift.
Grim looks surprised "won't your teachers get mad?"
Sara detaches herself from talking to some of the older students about their experience with owls and follows after Lang and Grim.
"Are we going somewhere?"
The poor little Jabberwock is practically catatonic surrounded by all of these people.
He's managed to find a bench near the hospitality spread that has him mostly concealed and he's currently in the process of cowering under it.
tarka rather quietly appaears behind Lewis, abandoning whatever she had been doing before.
"Hay... it's alright."
and now she's petting him.
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no.....there has to be something we can do! Some way to bring her back...." Aananda is frantically pressing keys looking for any sign of the now closed rift, but there is no longer anything there to find. Just lingering traces of artron energy that are quickly dispersing. "This isn't what was supposed to happen!"
Andromeda has developed a serious case of 'echoes', a bit like a mirror image spell, but solid as she was jerking through time at an uneven rate, which did at least let her break free of her younger alternate. She shoots Dave with a calm emotions shell.
The arrows lead her to the infirmary where Bradley is having a particularly rough time of things as his ability just won't seem to shut off and he is subjected to one disaster after another. In an attempt to stop the cycle, he has been put in an isolation room.When Rena is told what is happening with Bradley she swears quietly, only serving to remind herself further of Tryko'Sam and her predicament. While her heart goes out to Bradley, she goes off to look for Asha instead, following the arrows again.
Finding Asha isn't difficult as she was also in the infirmary along with her brother. Well, at this point she was waiting outside the room since the nurse thought that Pyry might be embarrassed to have his sister right there while she explained basic biology to him like she had earlier for Asha. She brightened up when she saw Rena, and then frowned when she saw her friend's expression.
"What's wrong?"
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no.....there has to be something we can do! Some way to bring her back...." Aananda is frantically pressing keys looking for any sign of the now closed rift, but there is no longer anything there to find. Just lingering traces of artron energy that are quickly dispersing. "This isn't what was supposed to happen!"
Fei quickly redirects the extra power he was funneling into the communications array to the sensors in an attempt to boost their reception and keep track of the dwindling energy signatures.
"Is there any way to direct power to these energy traces and force the breach open again?"
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no.....there has to be something we can do! Some way to bring her back...." Aananda is frantically pressing keys looking for any sign of the now closed rift, but there is no longer anything there to find. Just lingering traces of artron energy that are quickly dispersing. "This isn't what was supposed to happen!"Fei quickly redirects the extra power he was funneling into the communications array to the sensors in an attempt to boost their reception and keep track of the dwindling energy signatures.
"Is there any way to direct power to these energy traces and force the breach open again?"
"There's nothing to open," she said, her voice breaking as she fought back tears. "There's no trace of the breach. If I didn't know where it used to be, I wouldn't even be able to find evidence of it, but that's almost gone too. The device did exactly what it was supposed to do. It just was supposed to do it after Melody was out of the breach, not while she was inside. Ephebe would know how to open another breach, but it would take me too long to figure out how to reverse engineer it from what we did to close it. And there's no way to know if that breach would connect with wherever Melody is now. I can't even understand the maps that Raelle made for Melody. I was too busy building the device to learn their mathematical language."
She punched a hole through the table, frustrated at how powerless she was to fix this.
Dave looks like he's just about through with talking and is about to attack him when a wave of temporal energy passes over him, shrinking him by about an inch and he gets hit square in the face with a magic bullet, calming him
Down. "Wait... Why would your brother be in moor danger than yourself?.. Things aren't adding up..."
Dave looks like he's just about through with talking and is about to attack him when a wave of temporal energy passes over him, shrinking him by about an inch and he gets hit square in the face with a magic bullet, calming him
Down. "Wait... Why would your brother be in moor danger than yourself?.. Things aren't adding up..."
"We're all in danger if he doesn't finish that ritual. Time's already mostly rewritten. Not a process you want to stop in the middle. And don't listen to that other me. She's....addled. She died badly and it didn't really do anything good for her sanity."
"Hey! You're one to talk! Like you're so wise or something. Listening to you is what got me killed in the first place!" the girl who brought Dave here yelled, taking another swing at Andromeda.
"Because I had it so much easier being a ghost and having to repeat events over and over again? I thought that would work! Sorry!" Andromeda yelled back before elbowing the other version of herself in the gut.
"I'd appreciate it if you all could be quieter and deal with the bad Ephebes!" Anwar growls from his spot on the sand, already sweating through his shirt and ignoring the slight bleeding from his nose.
"You never were good on concentrating."Lysander quips as he keeps an eye on Dave during the battle, just in case.
Another time pulse spreads across the field and a few of the Ephebes start to dissolve in the wave of golden light. This wave doesn't appear to have any effect on Andromeda, Dave, Jasper, Lysander, or Anwar though. Ephebe has stopped screaming and blood is starting to drip from her nose.
::FINISH ALREADY!:: she mentally screamed at Anwar.
The final tendrils of energy coalesce and there a blinding flash of light. Anwar stands up long enough to smile, wobble, and fall backwards.
"Shi.. Shi's back..!" He cries out happily as he radiates a Champion Aura once more. He gives his newfound surge of energy over to Ephebe. ::Fix things, Miss Engine. Bring an ending to this contrived scheme of Time's.::
For just a moment the image of a giant golden colossus hovers in the air behind Ephebe before shrinking into the shape of a woman with long, white hair and golden hourglasses where her pupils should be. Another pulse swept across the area and the 'extra' Ephebes disappeared along with the unconscious blue dragon. But Andromeda was still present. The next pulse brought the group forward in time to the present as the image of Kronos vanished.
Ephebe stood up and wiped the blood off her face from her earlier nosebleed. She was still practically vibrating with extra energy.
"Okay, so...I have just enough juice for one more thing. But it's now or never since it'll take three of us to do. Kronos is willing to give us a few extra minutes, but after that she's going to have to switch you and I to inactive status, Lysander, so the chance will be lost. I know how to save your clan without breaking the timeline. At least all of those who were there when the shadow whosis attacked. What do you say? One last shot at actual peace? Or let the dead rest?"
"you're the only one explaining. so do it now before I go over to kill her. what is it doing to tybalt" he says as he gathers massive amount of magic