Alexandra looks at the third brute. I need to get That stone. she says as she dodges debris falling from the Balor-Bot's explosion (well, new Balor-bot. Old Balor-bot hadn't exploded quite yet)
she took a stance against the falling brute-squad, readying a high explosive charge. this was all about timing. her crossbow couldn't send this much explosive far, so... too early, and the bomb falls back toward her. too late and ...Let's not think about "too late" she lines up her shot, and fires before rolling away.
It is about at this time that Alexandra remembers the EyeBlights.
Alexis's fists rang against the Brute's armor, shivering the air with vibrations as they relentlessly drove them back. But then one blow fizzed instead of resounding, a shockwave of its force rippling and rebounding across all too familiar hexagons. The Brute's artificer field looked like an old design, not self-sustaining like the ones in the SCA's containment vans, but while it was intact, very little would physically harm the mech.
Behind them Kaoru led his own crash of the titans, bringing both Brutes crashing back down into the increasingly unstable launch bay. Sheets of ablative armor ripped free from Balor's host, corrosion already eating through the rivets and fastenings, spilling more and more of his destructive energies into the surrounding area.
The scattered pieces of Kaoru's former Brute didn't lie still on the ground. They rattled and reoriented, weapons unfurling to punish Balor's foes before The Silver Shadow struck! Her high explosive charges shattered the already riven components of the newly infected Brute, breaking its grasp on the infectious stone and sending it skittering along the ground!
Unfortunately, the Eyeblighted who had sought higher ground rather than match their strength against 'Bronwyn's', seemed to have no greater appetite for approaching the raging Efnysien! Instead, seeking weaker prey to quickly consume, they bounded down from on high, smashing into the ground around Alexandra and burying her in an avalanche of warped flesh!
Even as his rage spread across the field of battle, still more of Balor's power gathered in the shattered cockpit of his host as more and more of its chassis flaked away - the beam that wore away at cloth and fiber and metal would soon be enough to shatter stone and melt flesh, and his eye was upon Kaoru...
***
His voice dripping with condescension, Efnysien hurled himself for Wingblade. Oh God she's right...
"You won't be worth collaring if you're too stupid to train, puppy!" ...I'm frozen. Gae-Buidhe flashed through the air above her head once, twice,"I might not keep you after all!" He's too strong to hold..."Get it through your head - I CAN'T LEAVE!" And too Camila to stab! Efnysien raised Camila's foot in a stomp to once more send a shockwave rippling forth that was either going to smash Shayera from her feet or force her to leap into the spear's path - and Bran hit him, low and hard.
Camila went flying, limbs splayed out in shock as Efnysien arced back to land heavily in a pile of sand bags. Beleaguered disappointment shone on Camila's face as he stood once more uninjured, "Look, Lord of Crows or Raven Prince -did my real brother even permit you take his names- take this seriously or I will kill you. But first I'll pluck out your eyes, and your tongue, and that wriggly thing at the back of your throat and then I'll move to your-" Bran leapt, Gae-Dearg held high, and Efnysien froze in delight, not moving a muscle as the doom-laden spear came closer, but by the time it pierced Camila's flesh, Bran had re-shrunken it til little more than a nail's length of Gae-Dearg ran through the palm of her hand.
For a moment Bronwyn's mind flashed through the renewed link into the bond between Efnysien and Camila, a weary smile spreading across Bran's face despite the plague of Balor that scorched his innards, and the still bleeding ruin of his ear. The spear's runes were flaring to life, soon she'd be able to reach Camila again, find a way to unravel this spell or strengthen her...
She's doing so much already but- Bran's breastplate crumpled as the side of Camila's fist caromed off the curves of his armor, smashing up the side of his helmless head to knock him from his feet.
The sight in one eye was nothing but crawling worms of light against a field of dark red, but the other one saw Efnysien bend down to pick him up with Camila's un-Gae-dearg'd hand, and with a brutal toss he hurled her into the pit below.
Alexandra pumps her fist as she watches the arm blow open. she could just jump the way up. She could clamber up that jutting shard and then sh- Wham, the Eyeblighted hit her like a ton of bricks (which is wholly innaccurate, it was a tonne and a half of wildly growing and rotting flesh)
She instinctively starts using her fifth contingency. shaped concussive charged hidden in the coat. She could use it to get the remains of a building off her... though, these weren't rigid, it might cause problems F@$* it, can't breathe, need air!
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Under the heat of Balor's gaze, Kaoru saw patches of metal across the car's body start to flicker. It only made him smile. He was pissing Balor off. He was good at that. Well, since I already have his attention... He turned off the camo just briefly as he sized up a bit. Rolling down his window just enough for his car's amplified speakers to carry his song to BalorBot, he zipped around, drawing the titan's attention as he Fast and the Furious-ed as best as he could through the destruction while dodging as much of the corruption as he could. Hopefully it would be enough for someone with some idea of what to actually do about the jackass to do....whatever it was that needed doing.
Alexis did not like the artificer field at all. Neutralizing their ability to deal damage just meant that they needed to get creative, though. As Balor's destructive aura make the comm piece in their ear fizzle and short out, they got an idea.
They reached out and grabbed onto the leg of the Brute. Their muscles strain and tore and restitched as they lifted the mech up off of their feet and threw them towards the baleful eye of Balor in the middle of the other wrecked Brute. If it was already decaying its own suit with its power, Alexis hoped that it would tear through the artificer field as well.
With the space that Alexis had gained now, and seeing the Eyeblighted surrounding Alexandra, they ran towards her and hoped to get their attention or at least scatter them...
Wingblade focused on evading the attacks, keeping Efnysien talking and hoping that somehow a solution would present itself. Unfortunately, her goading only seemed to have worked on Bran, as he finally got involved once again.
She stayed alert and ready to act, not sure what Bran had in mind but trusting him to do something useful. His attack looked ineffective, however, managing to drive Gae-dearg into Camila's hand but getting thrown down into the pit for the effort.
That's an opening -- she did that on purpose. But what for? I'm no mage, and that's a magic spear. I've got no-- Wait. I've been using magic for some time now. First the pendant, then the mask, and even that stupid sleep charm. Gae-dearg is just one more magic trinket. Right?
Wingblade slips behind Efnysien just as he finishes throwing Bran. Before he can deal with the keychain-sized spear in Camila's hand, she feints, bringing up her wings over her head to make Efnysien react, then she catches Camila's wrist. My hand's messed up anyway, she thinks before bringing her ruined hand down on the point of Gae-dearg.
======================
A flash briefly blinds Wingblade. When the spots clear, she's inside an empty hallway lined with lockers. Colors are washed out and the whole place feels light and ephemeral. It didn't look like Halcyon High to her; the dreamlike quality still providing enough sensory data to rule out her school. Camila's middle school, then?
Her guess is quickly rewarded with the clear scent of Camila, joined by a panicked scream in her voice.
Without hesitation, Wingblade moves in her direction, following the scent through the unfamiliar hallways. She rounds a corner and is suddenly surrounded by a pack of pale creatures -- tongueless zombie-like humanoids. They grasp and claw at Wingblade, who weaves and dodges the knobby outstretched hands.
"CAMILA!!" she cries out, falling back out of the reach of the zombies and trying a different route. Camila's scream answers, driving Wingblade on. The hallways of the school become an impossible labyrinth, twisting and turning.
Wingblade takes to the air, deciding to ignore the zombies and fly over their heads. She evades a pack clogging one hallway and crashes into the classroom where she'd heard Camila's voice.
Efnysien is there. She'd never seen him physically, but she fought him through Camila so she knew it was him the moment she sees the grin fixed on his face and the quick movement in his body, turning his long face towards her so he can glare at her with pale, furious eyes. He recognized Shayera as well.
Battle fury surges in Wingblade as she pounces. No hesitation, no restraint. If she could kill him here, it should free Camila. He leaps at her...
They pass through each other as if they weren't there. Wingblade crashes into a bunch of desks, completely unprepared for missing him entirely. She rises to her feet instantly, wings slashing through the debris to clear the way for another charge. Efnysien had smashed into the much heavier teacher's desk at the head of the classroom. He too was on his feet and ready for another attack.
Their attacks are far less reckless this time, but similarly ineffective. A few swings, thrusts, and slashes confirm that they're completely ghosts to one another.
"Fine," Wingblade says bitterly, then disengages to find Camila.
Kaoru's size-shifting vehicle makes weaving through the fray simple. A beam of terrible entropic force gouges through the earth behind him, savagely sweeping along the pit until with a twist of the wheel of the suddenly shrinking vehicle, Kaoru breaks line of sight entirely, leaving a frustrated Balor bellowing through distorted speakers as he hurls the other Brute aside!
The other Brute's field powers down, some sort of circuit having tripped to prevent it from overloading, and it stalks after Alexis once more, spraying them with some early version of the SCA's capture-foam. Thankfully it lacks power-inhibition, and for now, their movement is relatively unrestricted. But Alexis can feel it beginning to tighten and draw close - if it fully pins them, they might not have the leverage to use their great strength!
As the other Brute quickly reengages from a distance, Kaoru can't help but notice that even though the Brutes are built with redundancy upon redundancy and carefully modular systems for easy, even mid-battle repair, Balor doesn't seem to be making use of any of that, whether out of ignorance, or simply that his virulent presence is acting on all systems at once. If you're able to survive his deadly miasma until then, it can't be much longer before he's eaten away at the Brute too much for it to function.
The earth shakes once more with the Brutes' impacts, and the already ruinous wall of the pit where Alexis's collateral damage had been wreaked begins to collapse entirely, miring the Brutes and sliding towards the rest of the fray in a spreading landslide, carrying the dazed and battered Bran along in the wave of loose earth.
Blow after blow rains down on Alexandra, denting and shattering the debris she'd sheltered behind. But before they can continue their assault, another hulking figure flings them aside with nearly the last of his strength.
Bran looks like hell. His platemail has been cracked, torn, and split, so that the layers of chain that lie beneath his newer armor is all that truly protects him. His face is pale from fever and blood loss; his great spear lies high above him in Camila's palm.
Balor thunders, a note of supreme satisfaction somehow escaping the distortion.
***
Another pack of mute Cauldron-born surge after Wingblade as she banks and rolls to navigate the hallways, but as she outstrips them, the muted sounds of flesh on hardwood cease abruptly as if they vanished once they were out of her sight.
A whiff of too-strong deodorant sends her towards another classroom with Efnysien roaring on her heels as Camila screams again! Chains trail behind Efnysien as he gives chase, each of them stretching into the surrounding walls, but not seeming to hinder him in the least as they slide through the brick and mortar of Camila's mindscape.
The classroom is a sea of empty desks, with Camila the only student. However, rather than her real body, she's a horrible amalgam; Efnysien's head also sprouts from her torso, shifting indeterminate limbs grappling for control, but both their eyes fixed on the whiteboard where rapidly shifting sketches show a birdseye view of the battle below through Camila's eyes.
The spectral Efnysien rushes through, not needing the moment to take in a sight he already knows full well. Rather than resume futilely battling Wingblade when he can't touch her, he heads for the desks, tugging at them and rattling them, his chains now reaching into the floor, and leaving the desks straining and bulging in his wake. Hands and arms of cauldron-born corpses reach out of compartments designed for pencils and textbooks, heaving as the rest of their pallid, lifeless bodies begin to crawl free!
"So what was the plan with your friend the face-thief? Found one of Manawydan's old hand-me-downs and figured the real gods wouldn't notice if you glamered up what passes for a giant these days? Or did one of those old, dead dreams of Bran's overpower some poor soul who wasn't blessed with the might of Llyr? Do you even know who you've been fighting beside?"
Here, closer to Camila's heart, the faces of the swarming dead are clearer - students and teachers Shayera recognizes from her reconnaissance, the cultists who held Camila, the Triakosia who took her. Even the faces of her family are warped and distorted across the features of the cauldron-born as they emerge!
Wingblade is aghast at the central figure in the classroom. "Oh, Camila, what am I supposed to do here?" she whispers, just as Efnysien comes up behind her.
At first the zombie attack had seemed to come completely out of left field, but she soon recalled the legend of the cauldron that could bring back the dead that belonged to Efnysien. Okay, then. I get to fight zombies. Her blades fan out and she sets herself into a defensive posture as the cauldron-born start pulling themselves into the classroom. The recognizable faces alarmed her, but she knew instinctively that they were alive in the real world.
Still, she wasn't sure what they may represent to Camila, so she goes easy on them. She uses her blunt edges, fists and kicks to keep them off of her and Camila.
Efnysien's questioning barely registers at first, being focused on protecting Camila from the cauldron-born. But once she realizes he's talking about Bronwyn/Bran, she puts more effort in listening.
"Effy, do I look like the kind of girl who knows all about this ancient magic crap? I don't know why it happened. I may not know everything about who I'm fighting beside, but at least I know she would NOT be okay with torturing a middle-school girl." Wingblade mentally chides herself for slipping that Bran's a "she". That's weird. I meant to say "he".
She pauses to knock back a surge of cauldron-born. "That puts her orders of magnitude over you," she bites. Crap! I said "her" again! Get your head in the game, Shayera!
A sliver of ice chills her spine as an idea strikes her. "My name is Shayera Kinney Li Xiu Ying," she announces. She glares at the spectre of Efnysien. "I can't lie, can I?"
Efnysien's smile stretches broader, his eyes nearly glowing with fury. "Yes. It's Very irritating."
Wingblade locks eyes with him. "Guess that means we're going to be sharing quite a bit. So tell me," she says while her wing jabs backwards and pokes the face of Efnysien sticking out of Camila, "did that hurt?"
A mark shows up on ghost-Efnysien's forehead. A quick glance behind her shows her jab made two marks -- one on Camila and one on Efnysien. She seethes.
Efnysien picks up on it. "Branwen put me in the host's head the last time The Eye used this ritual to put himself in a host that could withstand him.
"It didn't work.
"It'll never work. Just kill the child and burn the body and then we'll both be gone."
"Not an option," Wingblade spits.
Alexis was well aware of how this foam worked, though they were pleased to see that it didn't sap their strength. It also gave them an idea, as they grab a twisted panel of steel nearby.
The foam was currently not yet set, so scooping it up with the blade and scraping off what remained on their body was easy. What was more difficult was lining up their shot before throwing the foam covered panel directly at the Brute, covering it up in its own already hardening foam. Gumming up the joints and plugging precious ventilation, blinding sensors - it had handed Alexis the keys to victory in that last attempt to stop them.
Alexis turned, noticing Bran in the pit. They also realized that Wingblade was not.
"What happened? Where is she?" 'Bronwyn' asked as they approached and noticed Alexandra looking rather worse for wear next to the knight. "Did you save Camila?"
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The images scribbling across Camila's whiteboards told an increasingly grim story as the pit was falling into ruin and decay as Balor's eye was more and more unveiled. At the edges of her view Wingblade could see Camila's hand, slowly reaching back up towards her body in the real world...
But more worrying was what she found.
There's... nothing.
Maybe for a sorceress like Hex there would be something that could be done. But so far there's no part of Efnysien that isn't intrinsically linked to Camila. There's no dividing line to cut at. No magic circle to disrupt. The only part of Efnysien she'd even been able to interact with is the part that was also Camila. It might be possible to weaken him, to strengthen her, or find some other way to tip the struggle of who controlled this body.
But there was nothing here that would free her.
Wingblade grits her teeth. No. This isn't-- I gotta-- Desperation sets in, but she continues to do what she does best, and that is fight. The zombies are his. Cauldron... ites, I guess. And the 'physical' world seems to be real to him as well. I wonder--? She ducks and strikes, not giving anything away, but letting the momentum of the fight carry her into the optimal position. Then she pivots, grabbing a lunging cauldronite by the wrist and using its own strength to send it crashing into the ghost-Efnysien. Following that, she picks up one of the lighter desks and flings it his way.
Efnysien catches the flying nun in one hand, and sets the cauldron-born down with surprising gentleness. He likewise ducks aside from the desk rather than simply shatter it. "Careful kitten, I suppose if you destroyed her mind I wouldn't be able to steer her body, but just slitting her throat and burning the body would be much less painful." His voice is nearly playful, but hardens more and more until he's practically spitting acid at her!
"And of course if you just break her mind, and leave me in here with her, it might take me a score of years or more, but I'll bring this body back to haunt you for trapping me in this worthless husk!"
A very black thought crosses Wingblade's mind. If it comes to that... sounds like a perfect revenge.
She forces that desperation aside. Think, think! Desks, chairs, cauldron people -- all part of Camila's mind, then. Can't do too much damage... Crap! What can I do?
"Wait. Waitwaitwait. Ha ha! Camila!" Wingblade shouts. She spins out of the grasp of a few more clutching and grasping students to get closer to Camila. "This whole place, it's your mind! Take control of it!
"You've been here longer. You know these people," she says as she pushes away another surge of cauldronites. "You know they're not your enemies. Take control!"
"They're only monsters because I'm one too!" The Camila-head shouted, "He told me!"
Efnysien smirked, "It's true; I didn't think the brat would be able to channel so much of my strength, but we have more in common than I thought. Without all this bottled up rage, I don't think we'd have had such a close, close bond."
The air grew humid as Camila's head wept, "So it's my fault that I hurt Aunt Bronwyn, and Bran, and you!" Her voice tightened into a squeak as she screwed her eyes shut. "If I try to take control I'm just gonna make them worse!"
Efnysien gave a pout of faux-sympathy at Camila's fears, his eyes gleaming as he watched the scribbled Wingblade on the whiteboard tense up as Camila's hand gradually closed around her windpipe!
"Effy? Shut. Up." Wingblade growls as the Red nearly surrounds her vision.
"Camila, don't listen to him. He's all lies and twisted truths. So what if you've got power of your own! That's a good thing! What's bad is letting him use it!
"It's not your fault! It's HIS. The bad men put the spirit of a two-thousand year old a!++$*& into you and HE'S the one controlling you! Don't buy it for a SECOND that you're to blame!"
She rounds on Efnysien, fuming. "And you!! You're pathetic! I haven't heard a single thing from you that shows you have a shred of agency! You're a freaking pawn. They're using you to keep a major player --- me -- off the battlefield. And you're using A CHILD AS YOUR HUMAN SHIELD!!!" she screams at the top of her lungs.
"You're nothing, you know? Totally forgotten by the modern world. A footnote in an obscure legend. Your biggest claim to fame is a shitty Disney movie, and they had the squeaky-voiced comic relief character take your big sacrifice plunge into the cauldron!"
Panting slightly after her rant, she glances over her shoulder. "Camila? Take control and get your hand off my windpipe, because I am NOT dying to this loser."
"Did you save Camila?"
"Shayera... She'll do it. She'll save her." She has to.
But even as he spoke, the scaffolding that held the Brutes in place when they were at rest, collapsed. The concrete was already crumbling, only the most hardened electronics were still functioning, and all of the cultists who had not been Eyeblighted already were either fallen or fled. And then still more human artifice failed as ominous beeping sounds began to emit from the Silver Shadow's explosives belt...
A quick wriggle, toss, and sprint was enough to get out of the immediate blast radius, but it was one blow too many for the hangar. A large sheet of rock slammed into the ground above the heavy security door, splintering into rubble, and all around, wall after wall began to burst and collapse as the tons upon tons of earth and stone rested on weaker and weaker foundations.
It was all coming down.
The Eyeblighted once more began to retreat, hurling themselves with bestial strength between chunks of debris as they tore their way up to the sky. The remaining Brute began to take flight as well, the mostly hardened foam that was spattered around it not nearly enough to permanently disable its systems. But Balor, Balor could not join it. As easy to repair and reroute as the Brutes were designed to be, the constant entropic energy that spilled forth from him was too much for it to keep pace with, and his flight systems were still too damaged.
A climb might have been possible, but instead, Balor ripped at his own Brute's armor, and with each panel that tore free still more of his power spilled out, suffusing the whole of the hangar with rot and decay even as he gathered his power for a devastating blast!
Efnysien's eyes glowed, but apparently even with Camila's borrowed memories, he lacked the cultural context to be fully devastated by Shayera's Gurgi-burn. "Oh yeah. Good point. Guess I'll just lie down and go for a nap then." Both pairs of eyes close and the chains that encircle his wrists flare a deep, ugly red; the sizzle of long-dead flesh hits Shayera's nose like a wall of putrescence. His eyes reopen from his feigned snooze, and it's hard to tell if Balor's power or his own rage is burning hotter. "Guess not." He whips his chains up along the walls and deep into the ceiling above Shayera where he pulls the whole thing down on her in a rain of fiberglass, asbestos, and still more cauldron-born. Something bursts in his and Camila's noses and he cries out through bubbles of blood. "That enough "agency" for you?"
The ghostly Efnysien hovers closer watching with savage glee as Wingblade's buried beneath the wave of Camila's memories given awful flesh. Suddenly though, a burst of energy floods through Wingblade as freshly oxygenated blood hits her brain somewhere far away.
And just as her body takes that deeply needed breath, Camila's mind ripples. The desk beneath Efnysien opens, its storage cubby yawning impossibly wide, and when Wingblade once more hurls the cauldron-born back from her, this time they seize hold of Efnysien instead!
Countless hands yank and pull at him as he flails around, lacerating undead flesh with every blow, but inexorably he's dragged into the gaping maw of the desk, until with a final look to Shayera, the Camila/Efnysien amalgam slams the lid shut!
The room is in tatters, and Camila/Efnysien looks far more battered than she did before, but her eyes are no longer dull and shrunken, and Efnysien's mouth is muzzled.
The phantoms of Camila's anger, however, turn their empty gazes to Wingblade, making it very obvious that it is time to depart!
Wingblade manages a weak -- but clearly proud -- smile at Camila before somehow willing herself out of the mindscape.
Wracking pain assails her the instant she is back in her own body. Her broken hand and wrist throb, her windpipe spasms, and her bleeding cheek stings. But an excruciating agony that makes those minor afflictions almost pleasant in how disproportionate they are crashes over her from her damaged wing.
Having forgotten the torment while she was in the mindscape, it surprises her with its ferocity. Wingblade's knees buckle as she lets out a strangled, incoherent sound. She crawls desperately away from Camila, hoping that she was in control but not taking any chances.
The rumbling of the collapsing structure under the concussive blasts of explosions draws her attention out of the haze of pain, reminding Wingblade to push it aside like she had earlier. Her blurry vision clears somewhat, and she sees the devastation as Balor's Eye is unleashed. My Team's in there. Bronwyn is in there!
Desperation crawls over her. The pain from her wing threatens to overwhelm rational thought. She pushes herself up anyway and staggers toward the battle with Balor.
Too late, Alexandra realises normal countermeasures won't work. Too later, she realises that she was O2 deprived enough to trigger heavy countermeasures... This was going to hurt. Her gear would suffer for it. Armour, Destroyed. Smokescreen, combusted. Explosives, used up. Every bolt in her crossbow would shatter. Her reinforced stun baton MIGHT make it. It would hurt like hell.
Too late, Alexis noticed the ominous beeping coming from Alexandra. Too late to do anything but try and leap for cover. The eruption lifted them off of their feet as they tumbled into a controlled dive, only to feel pain erupt across their back as dozens of jagged pieces of shrapnel from the explosions peppered them. Not enough to kill them, but it would take a couple minutes to heal.
They push themselves up to see that the whole place was coming down around the team. Terror welled up in them - being buried alive meant dying over and over again. It was almost as bad as drowning. But Alexandra looked like she had taken a particularly awful blow thanks to her explosives. They couldn't leave her, so they reached down and pulled her up into a fireman's carry. "We have to go," They say, watching the route the Eyeblights were taking up out of danger, before hustling to push towards that route as well.
Her Breath is ragged and painful. her eyes are blurred with tears. or maybe the disease claimed her sight, who knew. She could sense the immediate area around her was free of the Blighted... but she could hear the cavern around her. she had destabilised everything. Her voice comes over the comms, ragged and broken. Wing, Get your Feathery Ass in here! Not all of us can come back from the dead!
SHe heaves herself to her feet, blind and wheezing. she takes a heading she's pretty certain led away from the collapsing region...
Somehow through the high-pitched ringing in her ears, Wingblade hears Alexandra's voice through the comms. She'd grind her teeth in frustration if her jaw wasn't already clenched due to the pain assailing her.
What does she think I was doing? I couldn't leave Efnysien at our backs if he was still in control. I still don't know how long she'll keep him contained -- Aaargh! I am SICK. OF. THIS. DAY!
She puts her wings to work despite the torment, and launches herself into the air. The agony screams at her, but she screams back.
Flying directly into the path of the Eye, Wingblade pushes aside the pain and replaces it with Red.
Kaoru dodged about, finally getting out of sight of Balor in some forgotten corner of the room. Out of sight of everyone, he turned around, ready to launch a surprise attack when a wave of energy hit him and his chest seared in unbearable agony as the healing magic on him seemed to be undone and his torso once more bloomed with bruises. His scream turned into a hacking cough as flecks of blood splattered against the inside of his window. Despite feeling like his body was ripping apart from the inside, some corner of his brain was aware of the rocks falling towards him, spelling certain doom. With his last shred of will, he forced himself to shrink the car as far as it could, hoping that would be enough to spare him. Then the pain turned his world black as his tiny vehicle disappeared under a pile of rocks.
Above
She knew it was time to run, to let Balor be buried. There weren't exactly stairs, but even without Bran's strength and speed, she was pretty sure she'd at least have been able to try to climb to safety, or at least the battle above.
But even her stamina was not endless and it had long since been sapped with wounds and pain.
Above the Eyeblighted were raining down blow after blow, their sheer numbers overwhelming their fear of Alexis's greater strength, and while they sheltered Alexandra from the fiends, one particularly monstrous, one-eyed beast reached out to dislocate one of their arms with a savage yank!
And below, Balor's eye was shining brighter and Brighter. A blast like that might be too much for even Alexis, or Shayera...
And if I just start climbing they'll be sitting ducks.
"Shayera!" Bran cried as he watched her dive straight towards Balor's metal frame. Her wings sliced through mechanical tendons, tearing through plates, before soaring higher, out of reach of all but his Eye. "They need you! I can take this mec- I can tend to this automaton!"
Wingblade's fury didn't ebb, but at Bran's words she redirected hit, arcing her flight back up towards her friends with the detonation of one of Whipoorwill's quills serving as a abrupt farewell.
Bran breathed a sigh of relief. She'll keep the others safe.
With a desperate surge of strength, Bran ran beneath a falling slab that had sheared away from the surrounding walls, catching it with a groan of effort that sent stars dancing across his vision.
His blood dripped, his wounds burned, his heart beat a tattoo against his ribs as he ran towards Balor, visions of past foes swimming across his vision.
With a heave the great sheet of stone intercepted Balor's blast- He waded across the ocean, the hopes of his people upon his back- Joints popped and muscles tore as he wrenched down another avalanche of stone and earth on Balor's Brute- One eye emptied of sight, and the other could see only a burning red as that tricksy-pirate-nobody blinded him, Him!-
The dust began to settle as Bran moved from place to place, piling on more earth wherever his eyes spied an area where's Balor's virulence might break free. But Balor's Brute had weapons of its own-Chittering mandibles pursued him before a grotesque stinger pierced into his back in a welter of burning numbness- An armblade plunged out of Balor's earthen prison and punched through Bran's thigh, casting him to the ground even as the last skeletal remains of the Brute pulled their way free.
"Come then fiend." **nngh** "Tarry with me but a while longer and our burial shall be complete."
Bran strained but could not rise, hurling debris at the Brute until the towering mech caught his arms in a crumbling deathgrip.
The blade swept down, and all the visions that danced in Bran's eyes vanished in a thin line of fire that raced around the width of his broad neck.
Bran the Blessed was dead once more.
Alexandra cries out as her arm is ripped from it's socket. She rears back her good arm to retaliate, the one eye Bulges from the creatures face, and burns with that same hateful energy that it's master weilds. Alexandra goes limp in Mercy's arms.
Rational thought had fled. There was nothing but fury and pain.
She honed in on the mass of bodies (enemies) streaming after a pair of figures (irrelevant) and angled her drop to land in the middle.
The Eyeblighted were too far gone to be called human; anything with sense would see those deadly wings and recoil. But these beings surged ahead and fell upon the bladed pinfeathers splayed out wide to meet them. With a snap, the wings close with shearing force, severing limbs and spraying arterial blood.
The wings open wide again and she moves fluidly, cutting down Eyeblighted with each pass of her blades. Her eyes are wide, blazing, seeing everything but recognizing nothing but target after delicious target.
She mows through the bodies like so much wheat, scything through the limbs still grasping at her but falling limply after encountering the whirling blades.
The throng of Eyeblighted surrounding Alexis opens up, bodies falling away from them as an utterly terrifying Wingblade soaked and spattered in blood with crimson wings surges past. Their eyes lock for a moment and Alexis sees Wingblade's dilated pupils pass over them without the scarcest hint of recognition. Blood-slick wings pass a hair's breadth away from their jugular, and she turns to cut into another swath of Eyeblighted.
There were more of the damned monsters than Alexis had first thought there would be. They worked to keep Alexandra free from the bulk of their attacks, kicking out legs and trying to endure. Then one of them managed to grab their arm, and yanked until they felt it pop and the ligaments tear from the bone. Tears welled up in their eyes as they struggled to stay standing.
They managed to keep up just as the fury of steel wings ripped through the Eyeblights in front of them and Alexandra, flinching as she splashes them with more blood. Alexis takes a moment to try and pop the dislocated joint back into place, before starting to shout at Wingblade. "You took too long to get here! Alexandra might die! Kaoru might die!" They said angrily at her. [ooc]Burning Influence to inflict Guilty on Wingblade.
They stood up, and looked around, now worried. Where was Kaoru? Where was Bran? They thought he would be right behind them...did he fall behind down below?
"Bran! BRAN! ANYONE?" They shouted, worry gnawing at their gut.
the last of the Brutes blared from its external speakers, distorted by Balor's virulence as well as the capture-foam stuck in the outputs. The mech was vaguely human shaped though it had no face, but something in the vicious tilt of its cockpit, and the unmoving rictus of its pilots, made it horribly clear that Balor was smiling.
One of the Brute's arms extended a wickedly sharp blade that Balor looked at with luxuriating satisfaction, but the other remained tightly clenched around the badly scuffed, and horribly infectious gem it had brought from below.
Sensors whirred and focused as Balor examined Alexis's face, the speaker washed out in a static-filled dismissal,
***
Well I guess Purgatory was always pretty likely... And it's not like it's forever.
Eyes that didn't exist anymore welled up with tears, as a girl that wasn't shook with terrible grief. I'm never gonna see her again! If I'm not there she's never going to turn away from Him, and she'll just keep letting him eat away at her soul until there's nothing left but that damned mask! How could I be so stupid!
I put too much on her, asked her to keep our friends and family safe, but I didn't do anything to keep from ripping her heart out. God I can already feel it!
Eyebrows that suddenly were, furrowed. Wait I can **actually** feel it - her anger, her pain, that bent feather in her wing-
"Am I still alive?"
The girl in Mercy's arms, no more the mighty Silver shadow than a black Kitten is a panther, rasps Don't listen to him.
He wants us scared, alone. he wants us to think were nothing, because if we do, he's right. But we aren't, You aren't. The hand grabs Higher on Mercy's good arm. You're one of the strongest people I know. way stronger than some parasite god of nothing. Go show him how right he is to fear you.
Alexandra puts out the taser-rod as a makeshift crutch. Go save the city. I'll be alright. Kay will save me.
Alexis' sharp rebuke catches Wingblade's attention, which unfortunately was only a series of target priorities. She spins to face them once the last Eyeblighted falls.
Alexis can see a glimmer of recognition as Wingblade's eyes lock on, but the heavy breaths she is taking draws in their scent. The scent of someone different/not-Bronwyn. The scent of someone she'd fought before.
An enemy.
Alexis looks back at Alexandra, clenching their fists. "I don't want people to fear me," They admit. "But if it will save you and her and him...I don't want to die again. But I'll do it for you all."
They take a deep breath, tears overflowing their eyes as they pop their ruined shoulder back into place. Moving it was still agony, but it worked. They dimly recognized they were still bleeding from that spear wound from earlier as well, but pushed that aside for the moment as they squared off with Wingblade.
"...You're stuck in the red," They realized. They cautiously stepped forward, arms out to either side. There was no reasoning with someone who was on autopilot like that. If she came for Alexis, that was fine. But they weren't going to let Balor get away.
The whole yard was wrecked. But nearby, Alexis saw the loop of cable connected to the crane hook that had fallen with the crane. In a burst of speed they swooped down, snatching it up and hurled it at the wrecked Brute, smashing into it with the force of a freight train.
They felt their shoulder come dislocated again from the attack. They stumbled, and slumped to one knee, staring up. That felt like the last of their strength used up for this. Hopefully it was enough.
Alexis' words were just noise to Wingblade. She falls into pursuit when they race past to engage with the Balor brute. She takes to the air, flying up with several power beats of her wings, then arcing over to stay out of the reach of the crane hook until it was thrown at the nearby brute. She sees Alexis stumble and her predator's instincts surge, coming at them from behind.
Wingblade's wings are stretched out, her sharp edges exposed, as she flies by. Her blades strike at Alexis' tendons as she passes. Then she angles toward the biggest target on the battle field: the Balor-bot.
"I'm not dead then," she asked the shadowy figures, but got no response. "Is Bran here? Or uh, Branwen? They know me, it's fine."
"YOU KNOW WHAT HAS BEFALLEN BRAN THE BLESSED."
The whispers surrounded her, flooding her senses with the same message, casting her to the suddenly appearing ground in a whirl of sensation.
The mists faded and she saw his tomb. The giant lay slain next to the husk of Balor's Brute. The cut had been fast, but not neat, the blood seeping through the jagged meat of the wound gave it a horrible parody of motion. But what what set her stomach churning wasn't the wound, it was the awful absence of his head. Her eyes were drawn to that void again and again, to the place she should see righteous anger, or pain, even just simple fear... There was nothing.
"You know a lot of us have lost our heads over the year, but old Bran there has really made an art of it," a weathered voice rasped drily.
Bronwyn whipped her head up, hair brushing against the side of her face a moment later when she realized it was missing. One of the misty figures had come into sharper relief. He was a craggy old sea-raider; salt stained a long, hoary beard, freckles and moles speckled a sun-drenched face. He was wrapped round in a long robe of roughspun wool that gleamed even the gloom. And while one eye was covered over with a simple leather patch, the other was smeared over with charred blood.
"Polyphemus... Why did Bran, or umm, why did I remember you getting blinded?"
"All part of the Mantle, little one," the cyclops sneered.
A hollow voice, rough with disuse sounded behind her from a profoundly tall man, shrouded in darkness, "We are bridges of life and death, and what's in between. We are bound more tightly to the mortal world, for a time, the better to protect those same mortals from the forces beyond them."
Polyphemus gave an almost imperceptible shrug, but didn't voice his disagreement, instead noting, "I'm surprised you made it here, to be honest. Most of them that get the mantle don't."
"They don't die?"
His face split wide, showing teeth much sharper than humans needed theirs to be. "They die much, much faster, long before they'd been at this long enough to cross over to this side. Ever since Bran made an enemy of that witch, the Mantle's been fraying, just spitting out cheap copies- No offense -who snuffed it before they could make our whole thing their own."
"So... what does it mean that I'm here?"
Polyphemus just shrugged with a nasty grin, but the taller, hollow-voiced man gave at least some answers. "I do not know. None have been added to our ranks for millennia. All we have seen are the flickers of your faces when you have borrowed our aspects, and hidden your bodies here, but none of your Akh- your intellects have joined us."
"Will I... Can I be reborn like you?"
"It is not a rebirth. Our... souls are here. It is an inheritance, a legacy of power, and the duties that come with it."
The mists parted before her sight, and she saw Balor standing renewed. His frustration at being bound to the earth by mortal artifice shifted like mercury into delight. He boomed with laughter as Alexis's desperate assault was interrupted by Wingblade's vicious fury.
The burning light of his eye began to stain the area a hideous crimson, even Alexis and Wingblade both bore open wounds, which curdled and putrefied as the light spread.
"They're not gonna win."
"Not while his Eye is open. Not without you and your spear."
Bronwyn nodded, then looked up, mouth open in dismay. "Wait can I go back?! Can I still... swap or whatever with Bran?! Then why the Hell are you telling me about souls and intellects!"
"Because this is the last moment when your Mantle may be set aside. You may remain here in safety until the battle has passed, or-"
"Yep, got it. Choices." She reached for where Gae-Dearg usually hung and closed her eyes in concentration, shimmering among the mists with a blood-red energy that matched her spear's haft. Just before she vanished back to the mortal realm she paused and asksed, "So wait, is Efnysien part of this whole Mantle thing too?"
"No," the shrouded lord sighed, "He's just an a@+#~+$."
***
The laughing titan's speakers nearly blew out in a squealing roar as Wingblade dived for him. The energy gathered round the sepulchral cockpit lanced out in a sullen flare of deathly energy, faster than even she could dodge! But where it should have smashed into her, it parted, streaming off into the skies. A sharp pain pierced through even the Red haze that filled Wingblade's mind, as the small spear that was still stuck fast through her palm pulsed with a steady warm glow, repelling Balor's evil.
The rubble of the collapsed pit stirred, and a boulder rolled aside as Bronwyn heaved herself into view. She held Bran's breastplate across one arm as a shield, but aside from that she was armored only in her Halcyon Hornets running gear.
"You can't have her, Balor. You can't have any of them."
Honest confusion broke through the distortion of Balor's voice
"You were already afraid of me and my spear when I was Bran," she replied with a crooked smirk, "As Bronwyn Pascal? You don't stand a chance."
Another stream of dark power flashed out towards her along with Balor's roar of startled fury, and she caught it on her shield. Instantly it began to tarnish, but before it could corrode away, the charm of Gae-Dearg leapt from Wingblade's palm, expanding as it flew back to Bronwyn's waiting hand to harmlessly absorb Balor's Wrath!
With a stomp she slammed the butt of her spear against the ground before whipping it into position above her shoulder. "Go back to the shadow."
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Alexis fell, and found it very difficult to stand back up. It was easy to see that Wingblade had carved up their tendons, leaving them helpless for the precious moments it would take to heal up. They had taken a great deal of damage over the whole day, including a resurrection, and no time at all to refuel. Alexis was starving now.
The good news was that Wingblade was focusing on Balor and the Brute now. The bad news was that Balor's death rays were probably more than enough to overwhelm the lot of them...
...and then something bizarre happened. Bronwyn, who Alexis hadn't realized was even here, appeared down in the collapsed pit. It shocked them to see her holding the breastplate of Bran (He wasn't dead, was he?) like a shield, and then...then she was goading Balor. And she was struck by him. And Bran's spear leapt into her hand and parted the beam harmlessly.
"You were already afraid of me and my spear when I was Bran," she replied with a crooked smirk, "As Bronwyn Pascal? You don't stand a chance."
"...Eh?" Alexis didn't have enough though process left for that statement to unpack it right now. They slowly crawled towards the cabling spooled out from the crane, pulling as much of it as they could for right now. Defeating Balor came first. They could do this...probably.
Without the crane hook, the cabling made for a poor weapon as Alexis whipped it out, seeking to damage the Brute further!
Through the haze and pain, Wingblade still recognizes the foul, hate-filled light pouring from the Eye. In the Red, her hate rises to match it and she streaks through the air to attack.
She's weathered Balor's Eye in the past; she doesn't fear it. Even if it scours her to her bones, there will still be something left to impact the ancient being. But the beam is deflected, and a nagging pain in her worthless hand suddenly spikes as something is ripped from it.
Wingblade's focus widens for an instant and she senses Bronwyn, the real Bronwyn about to do battle with Balor.
Shayera's consciousness stirs.
She banks abruptly, angling off her attack approach and circling around once to give her mind a chance to crawl out of the pit of pain and frustration. She immediately recognizes she lost control, her mind and body still firmly in the Red. She could take stock later, but there was still one enemy towards whom she could direct her fury.
She changes direction abruptly and drops in close to engage the brute. Her wings spark off the behemoth's armor as they rake across the chassis. She leans backward to evade an errant swing of the brute's bloody sword, then bends forward and catches the blade in between her pinfeathers as Balor brings it back around.
With a scream of exertion, she slices her wings hard together, shearing the blade off the brute's arm.
Alexandra Rises to her feet again after a moment, just in time to watch Bronwyn rise from the rubble. You were... F+~+, how did I not see that She says, her comms locked in the "On" position by whichever Balor-exposure had struck them. Friggin' Henshins.
But she was still out and exposed. No armour, no weapons, nothing left to do but get to safety... and Kay's car wasn't too far either. just needed to navigate a minefield of Balor cultists to get there.
First step, and she moves the baton suddenly. she's unclear what she just shocked, can't spare a glance, but it didn't attack her again. Step two, and she almost loses her balance on the scrap from a brute... man, Halcyon Cleanup would be mad at them
Alexandra's unsteadiness as she climbed down the pit wasn't helped by the shifting terrain, or the sudden lunges of the dying Eyeblighted who had been crushed and mangled by the collapse - or by her teammates...
Still, her baton was enough to keep grasping arms and twitching jaws at bay for now, she just had to make certain not to restart an avalanche in her climb.
There was a hole in the debris where something very strong had shifted large chunks of fallen stone into a loose path, but it was clear that they had had little care for anyone who might be trying to follow it back down. In clearing a path for themselves, they had created many places that were now a very tight squeeze, even for Alexandra.
She'd been able to avoid putting her weight anywhere too dangerous; some sort of limited precognition, or perhaps just hyperawareness kicking into high gear whenever a deceptive bit of jutting stone beckoned. Her powers weren't as well blended with her regular perceptions now. Every pulse of information carried with it an oozing feel of decay creeping across her mind.
Strangely though, when she found Balor's body, half buried in a hollow pocket of the launch bay, it didn't have any lingering miasma of his presence. The rusted hulk had no malevolent aura, not even any stink of decay. Bran's body wasn't there at all. All that remained was a small pile of badly broken armor and the jarringly modern-looking clothes he'd worn beneath his gambeson.
The mental picture in her mind's eye was still clear for where she had last seen Kaoru's car while he'd been dodging and distracting Balor, but once he'd vanished it all dissolved into probabilities and questions. What paths had been available to him? What angles of vision had Balor had available that Kaoru would have needed to dodge? How small could he get that car to go if he had to?
The rubble trembled above her.
How lucky was she feeling?
***
The lash of the cable didn't have a bite strong enough to tear straight through the Brute, even driven by Mercy's might. Still they knocked Balor off-balance, the coruscating energies surrounding his cockpit focusing on Alexis in fury as he nearly toppled to the ground. But when Balor lashed out once more with his Eye, Bronwyn surged forward to meet it again, shattering the entropic energies on her blood-red spear! "Here!" she cried, flinging them the sword Alexis had given to Bran's safe-keeping, "Maybe that'll hit a little harder!"
As Balor's Brute reeled, Wingblade struck in a savage mutilation that brought bellows of pain squalling forth from his speakers, obviously more intimately tied into the structure of the mech than the corpse in the cockpit had been. She soared over the pounding munitions of his other arm, the energies of his eye still splintering upon Gae-Dearg, easily avoiding him as she prepared for a mortal strike!
***
Time spent refining her best guess might be time she didn't have, so the Silver Shadow plunged forward, looking for the signs of passage that Kaoru's car would have had to have left, even at such a small size, but even once she found them, the treadmarks didn't lead straight to her boyfriend, but to heaps of loose scree.
The debris chunks were small enough that she should be able to move them without needing super strength, but if he'd taken even the slightest turn after where his trail was buried, she might never find him in time. Before she could get lost in another corruption-slicked reverie in search of answers a strained whisper cut through the sepulchral silence around her.
"Chi! Rhyfelwr? Rhyddha fi o'r cerrig hyn!"
Wingblade's vision starts to clear; her anger beginning to ebb as she attacks again and again the Balor brute. She hacks and hacks at the robotic body over and over again with her wings, but the pain starts to creep in and replace her fury.
She'd been on the razor's edge for too long; she'd pushed herself ever since her escape from the SCA building, and even her prodigious endurance had its limits. Her rage could only keep her going for so long when she was already past the point of exhaustion. But this was it: her enemy, the source of all this day's frustrations and beyond. She had to continue. She had to end him.
Wingblade was ripping into the mech's body, adding more damage with her wings than Alexis had been able to accomplish with just their fists. But now with their sword in hand and an acceptable target, they didn't hesitate. Unlocking the blade from its sheath, Alexis drew it and ran forward with a cry of anger, before leaping up into the air.
Driving themselves blade first towards Balor's crystal.
Just as Mercy drives at the crystal, Wingblade pulls out the remaining quills from her pocket and stuffs them into one of the cracks in the brute's casing. She brings her wings up as a shield expecting a very large boom...
Alexandra looks through the area around her. She couldn't understand the words, her power didn't translate. but she knew the language. it was welsh, not Gaelic... meant it was Bran... except it couldn't be Bran, Bronwyn was bran, that lying b&@%&. Maybe Branwyn was here, or Manwydian. she goes to look for the source.
Dwi ddim... yn siarad Cymraeg. Ydych... chi'n siarad Saesneg... neu Ffrangeg SHe says haltingly, a bit of Welsh she had taught herself in case.
"Ffrangeg? Saesneg? Latinumne loqueris aut Graecam linguam? Pa iaith mae Bronwyn yn ei siarad..?
Aquí.
Debajo of... los rocks?"
The strained whispers in different, variously intelligible tongues lead Alexandra to an accidental cairn amid the rubble. Beneath the rubble a familiar face awaits her, but not much else.
The stump of Bran's neck seems to have scabbed over, but his features are still lined with the pain and corruption of their recent battle.
"Friend your- Friend of you. Allí. Near to a brujería"
Bran can't point for obvious reasons, but he focuses his eyes precisely on a point within the great heaps of debris rather than try to give detailed directions in his lungless whispers. A few moments digging and Alexandra finds a heavy-duty footlocker, the door popped open and Kaoru's mysterious car tangled up in a heap of robes and other ceremonial implements.
As she pulls him and his car free from the robes, some of the other artifacts fall free, a misshapen candle, a fogged and cracked crystal, and a broad-bladed dagger that seems to have a blade of lead. As she sees the dagger, analyzing the bizarre choice of so soft a metal, a shiver of delighted satisfaction ripples across the surge of foulness that accompanied her powers, before the strange sensations vanish as if they had never been. Behind her she heard Bran give a strangled hiss of surprise as the blade was bared.
And then the earth shook.
***
Balor had fallen, but even with his Eye denied, even with his cruelest weapon stolen, he was mighty. As they pulled back their sword from the ruin of Balor's gemstone obelisk, a fist nearly the size of Alexis smashed against their torso, hurling them back in a heap. Wingblade seized on his distraction to jam the last of her munitions into every weakspot she could find!
And then the earth shook.
***
Stone and earth were falling all around her; the trail she'd blazed had collapsed, but the destruction from above wasn't the end.
Beneath her feet Alexandra felt the trembles of something moving, something tremendous and fast. The launch bay had been built to withstand much more than the movements of whatever dwelt beneath, but after the relentless exposure to Balor's eye and the now renewed collapse of the installation the floor was giving way as well. It could have been a moment of despair, a moment when absolutely everything seemed to be piling on, but to the canny eye of the Silver Shadow it was something else as well - a way out!
***
The Brute was destroyed, wreckage littered across the devastated construction zone. Bronwyn stayed crouched and ready where Shayera was coming back to her senses, desperately wanting to just hold her girlfriend, but her eyes were alert. A faint shimmer crept its way over to Alexis where they lay unconscious. I knew he wasn't done!
The great spear flashed through the air, and Gae-Dearg cut through Balor's essence before he could attempt to overwhelm the unconscious Alexis.
Bronwyn's shoulders fell in relief. "Okay, I don't see him...
He's gone. Just like on the train."
It had been years since Wingblade had let the Red run its course. Ever since her rescue by Whippoorwill, she'd fought it off somehow -- either by holding it at bay or clawing her way out of it through sheer will.
It had been a while since the Red ended because there was nothing left to kill.
Shayera blinks in astonishment at the devastation surrounding her. The pain rolls in like a thunderstorm, and she sways heavily but keeps her feet. Her eyes lock on Bronwyn; a slight tickle of wonder at the fact that her girlfriend didn't register to her in the Red is quickly washed away at the realization that she had been fully within it.
Her lower lip begins trembling as equal parts shame and horror appear on her face. Panic makes her eyes wide and wild as she looks at Bronwyn. "Ohhh... oh, no. I lost control." Choked sounds of desperation escape her throat as she looks around at whatever's left of the bodies and limbs after Balor's virulent gaze had washed over them.
Shayera looks back to Bronwyn in gut-wrenching shame. The pain from her wing still wracked her, but she welcomed its well-earned penance. "I couldn't-- I didn't--" she begins, as tears start to fall in earnest. She didn't have any excuses. She lost control. Everything she did afterward was her fault. It didn't matter what pushed her--
Suddenly, she sets aside her guilt as she meets Bronwyn's eyes. "Camila! I didn't free her. She beat him herself, but they're still merged. We gotta--" Wingblade turns away from Bronwyn's eyes and tries to take flight. But she yelps audibly at the aggressive movement of her wings and she falls to her knees.
Wingblade staggers back to her feet and wills herself to move, one foot in front of the other, fighting against exhaustion and excruciating pain. Bronwyn knows Shayera's wings twitch and move like living things, sometimes involuntarily if she was feeling a particularly strong emotion. But she'd only seen them spasm the one time when Shayera'd been seriously hurt by Haxxor and the train. This looks worse.
"I don't know how long she'll keep him trapped. We gotta find her. Get her to someone who can pull Effy out of her. I'm so sorry. I failed her. I failed everything," she whimpers, not looking behind her. Not wanting to see the blame in Bronwyn's eyes.
Alexandra picks up the items, trying to decipher the languages Bran was using. finally, she recognizes Spanish. French is basically Gaul LAtin, like Spanish is basically Iberian/Arabic Latin, maybe He'd understand it. Donc, je ne sais pas ce qui s'est passé, mais nous devons courir, si vous avez une magie qui pourrait aider, ne commencez pas à tenir le coup maintenant.
Well... that was her best try, and now was the time for action. . Her crush's severed head, some weird dagger, and her boyfriend in arms, she had to move. SHe stepped forward and stomped, riding a peice of debris almost all the way down, and rolling to distribute the force. dodging left and right and not bothering to explain why, she made for a sewer entrance. the piped had been shielded from the blasts, and were reinforced enough that they'd collapse slower. she could be away before the world fell down.
Well, that's just what I needed, A bowie track in my head. she thinks as she dives.
Alexis rarely found themselves in a state of unconsciousness. Normally they expected to die after being punched by what amounted to a freight train focused in a single mechanical fist. They had flown back and slammed into the wreckage of the crane, and despite instinctively protecting their head they somehow rattled their brain hard enough to make everything go dark and hazy around them.
At least they weren't dead. They liked this body, guilty as it made them to have it. Maybe Bronwyn could forgive them for this...
***
"Hey-hey-hey-hey. It's fine; it's okay. Shayera, tou didn't hurt anyone who- You're okay. I was right here. You got yourself out."
"They were... Shayera they were dead already, just moving around. There wasn't anything left of them but rage and dark magic. If I'd taken that out of them, they'd have dropped like puppets with their strings cut."
She shrank Gae-Dearg and reached out carefully towards Shayera, offering her a hand up. "Here, just hop on my back for now; you need time to heal up, okay? You didn't fail anything! We got him, and Camila... Yeah let's go find Camila. Efnysien or no, she's gotta be freaked."
Shayera leans heavily on Bronwyn, but stays on her feet. Her right hand is mangled where the bones are healing wrong, and her cut on her cheek is still angry and open from Balor's influence.
She still can't bring herself to look at Bronwyn, but she shakes her head. "I didn't get myself out. There just weren't any more targets." Her shoulders straighten slightly and her head lifts up. "Except that you were still there..." Shayera tilts her head so she can catch Bronwyn's face out of the corner of her eye. "Only Dad and the other scientists could be around me when I was in the Red."
She thinks back to those early days, after all the surgeries were finished and her wings were working. When she was being trained to kill. The Red was just about all she experienced back then; she practically lived in it.
She forces away those memories for now. "Later, though. We gotta find Camila." She holds on to Bronwyn for her balance, but pushes her to speed up to the place where she had left her.
"Shayera, I love you, but right now you're hurting yourself, and all it's doing is slowing us down. I don't have my armor, so, look it's just the safest, fastest way for us to move, okay?"
Since Shayera was already leaning on her, it was easy to simply take the rest of her weight and pick her up. It wasn't exactly the most efficient way to hold someone, but Shayera wasn't exactly heavy, even with the wings, so she set off at a quick jog, trusting Shayera's senses to tell her if she got too far off track.
"If all you wanted to do was kill something, then there were definitely other targets though, Shayera. I know your nose. Even if you wish you'd stopped earlier, you stopped, whether or not- Oh there she is!"
Camila was tucked away in the crook of a dismantled crane, almost invisible except where light was glinting off of her glasses.
"Hey, uh, what does she know? Once I drained the Plague out of Shadow, my fever had me a little hazy...
"Camila? ¿Estás bien, sobrina?"
Shayera grunts in equal parts protest and pain when she's picked up, but she doesn't fight it.
"It's not that simp--" she starts to reply, but they find Camila much to her relief.
She quickly squirms in Bronwyn's arms to get her feet on the ground so it's less obvious that she's being carried. "Oh, um, she recognized Alexis -- I mean, well, you know. So you can take credit for that, or say it was a shapeshifter or something that took your place. Which is kind of true."
Wingblade tries to stand on her own two feet in front of Camila, and is barely able to keep from standing. "Hey you," she says with a weak smile. "Still got the a++~~+@ under lock and key?"
Inside the car, unseen by its driver, lights were flashing red to highlight the various obstacles. The monitoring device on Kaoru's wrist flashed briefly as it sent his slow, somewhat erratic heart rate back to the vehicle.
運転手は無意識です。 自動操縦を実行します。 方向を計算しています。
The wheel turned as the tires attempted to speed forward, finding no traction from the car's position. Compensating, it grew in size until rubber met ground and with a lurch, surged forward. Seemingly unaware of the Silver Shadow now on the roof, the vehicle deftly dodged and swerved its way to safety with the speed and precision only attainable by a computer.