Femtite veers into Horizon’s path! She button mashes to create an electric barrier that will, theoretically, counter the electricity in the Mother Brain!
Aaaand given what the creature just said, Femtite says, “I’m not flesh, I’m fire!”
She hopes someone will shoot the big angry ‘parasite.’
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He was about to do it and then a memory flashed of Tobias being flung against the lightpole because Indy had thought he was saving him with the spell. The interruption was enough to cause the jagged icicles to fall to the ground and shatter and for the mage to suddenly double over breathing heavily, with visibly shaking hands. He looks up and trembles at the necessary words, the big one should be easier to hit right he could throw one at an upward angle miss Eternia, not that it'd hurt her body anyway.
Horizon is grateful for Praetoria's defense, as he turns to face Eternia after her attack fails. "Focus on whittling down their numbers - I'll keep her occupied!"
He goes for Eternia, targeting the parasitic tendrils with his entropic powers, trying to cut her free from the influence of this overmind!
Rain crouches and puts his hands above a puddle of rainwater. The fallen sword close to Ringtone's feet melts as if it was made of water and at the same time it emerges from the puddle, hilt up, so Rain can draw it up.
There are just too many of them. We can't possibly deal with them one at a time.
Closing his eyes to focus on Matariel's guidance and power, Rain intensifies the drizzle into a full-fledged rain.
We have done it once, Matariel, when these monsters were hidden and shielded... let's see what we can do when they are visible and exposed.
Femtite's electrified barrier was so brilliant that for a moment Horizon apparently thought that it was Praetoria defending him. Eternia recoils with a hiss, the pulsing cloud latched onto her flashing angrily.
Horizon takes advantage of the opening and attacks the Archdeacon, striking at its tentacles. His entropic powers send a painful shudder through the psychic entity! It tries to share its pain with him, but the remnant of Psyche deflects the attack!
"We will not go back! The Astral Sea has no place for us! We were nomads, adrift for eons! This gave us a home!" Eternia shouts at Horizon, revealing the nature of its drive.
Indarius reaches again for the power of the single ley line nearest him, but finds that it's tapped out -- and the strain of pulling so much energy finally gets to him!
The rain starts pouring down on the crowd, and for some of the psychic entities the rain starts sizzling like it was some kind of acid! Several of them shrivel and deflate like punctured beach balls. A few in desperation cause their thralls to rush at Rain, throwing themselves at him!
Femtite decides to help Rain with the numbers. She quater-circle-kicks the Rainbow Missile command! Missiles arc over the heads of the innocent, homing in on the zeta frequency of her targets!
The homing missiles strike the beach-ball-like creatures without harming the humans below! As they do, Femtite lets her guard down momentarily to scan the ground vacated by fleeing thralls.
“Shane!” She points out a relatively intact phone. “Will that suffice as tech you can weaponize? Or call up the Astral Sea and tell it to come pick up its obnoxious children?”
Rain opens his eyes. There is a punch coming towards his face, so he steps back and dodges to his right, just to be hit repeatedly by countless others. He raises his hands in self defense to block a couple more punches but doesn't retaliates as he concentrates on the cleansing rain.
It is working... I just need to hold a bit longer. And have faith.
The last part of his thought was strange and somewhat uncharacteristic of himself. He embraced it nonetheless.
"Come on... I'm trying to help you guys."
"How many of these people were given the choice to leave?! How many want to be free to go back to their own home but you're keeping them suppressed from understanding what is going on with them?" Horizon asks as he flies around the Archdeacon, keeping his distance for now. They need a coordinated strike to fully severe the psychic being from Eternia.
"Exploiting people to make your home, taking away their free will, don't you see that makes you in the wrong here?" He implores to them, trying to keep them off balance.
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Indarius tries to pull from the line but it's tapped dry, 'The others have this right'. He wonders, the world grows hazy, maybe it's the rain, maybe it's the exhaustion from burning too much aether too fast. Regardless the mage slumps on his staff as the world seems to drag him down.
"I don't...feel so-"
He says shortly before he falls over in the mud-soaked ground.
Rain and Femtite combine to finish the mob of drone-like entities. Their tentacles are ripped from their thralls and blasted into oblivion! As a final act as they go screeching into the void, the Outsider and Soldier are given a psychic echo of their terror!
Shane scoops up the phone that Femtite points out. "Thanks! I'll see what I can do," he replies as he accesses the technology within the device.
While Indarius slumps to the ground, Horizon challenges the Archdeacon. Psychic energy courses through the cloud as Eternia replies, "No! We offer connection! You Humans are alone inside your heads! You profess to be social creatures but you don't know what it's like to have true community! Wars, strife, conflict! That's all you know because you don't underst--"
Her monologue is cut off from a massive sonic blast from Ringtone. "I should say something cool here," he pants before dropping to his knees.
Echoes of fear trigger Femtite’s own fear: Is that what they think I did to Chastity? Take her free will? Say something—
Femtite responds, voice quavering, “Free Will is more important to a human than anything. Remove Free Will from a mortal’s life, and with it you take away Joy and Meaning.”
—monologuing! That’s a villain thing. An evil queen’s daughter thing. Act! It’s what heroes do—
Trying to prove her worth as a hero, she uses her tech to hold the door to the void open.
—This better work…!
As a void appears right by the creature, Femtite says, “Speaking of away… just… go.”
She hopes a teammate will shove the psychic entity in because Fem’s too scared to ram the creature in herself!
And in case words aren't enough...
It had taken a while to gather enough residue from all the psychic energy Eternia was slinging around, and it wasn't exactly on Conflux's usual wavelength. But she'd always been good at patching disparate elements together, whether they be a bedraggled and very unlucky looking rabbit's foot, astral corposant, and/or a carefully preserved selection of alarm pheromones. And I don't need to lock her down all by myself with this, just change her astral vibe to prey.
'Cause the door's already open for something nasty. Connie smiles as something tentacley and large begins reaching out of the portal for its favored parasitic prey.
"And there's always a bigger fish."
Rain recoils with fear as the horrific echoes hit them. He tries to step back, but instead he slowly steps forward.
What? I should... He thinks as he once more steps towards the portal.
Shit... Another step forward. The sword in his hand is shaking, the feelings of fear and guilt borderline unbearable. Shit... guess I need to do what I need to do... Another step, now with more purpose and with less compulsion from Matariel.
...so others don't have to! Rain bolts. His angelic sword is pointing towards the center mass of the entity as he leaps, putting all his strength behind it.
The rain becomes a downpour and a lightning bolt hits the church tower as Rain pushes the terrible enemy through the portal and towards the mass of tentacles that were reaching for them.
"Of course we're in conflict. That's the point of being individuals, we're not always going to agree with each other. And maybe one day we'll all be able to see each other on the same wavelength."
Horizon flies up behind Rain and places a hand on his back, supporting him in pushing out the Archdeacon.
"But what you're doing isn't communality. It's tyranny where you're on top telling everyone else what to do. And tyrants will never be tolerated by us!"
"Nooo! Don't send us away! We can learn your ways! We can--" The Archdeacon screams as otherworldly tendrils snake out from the portal to latch on to the entity's pulsing cloud! It resists the pull with all of its might, staying latched to Eternia and the few remaining lesser entities that are trying to flee. There's a moment of stalemate until Rain intervenes and with Horizon's help they knock the Archdeacon fully into the grasp of the awaiting netherrealm horror!
A final echoing psychic scream resonates in everyone's mind before Femtite slams the portal shut! Just then, Shane activates a new program on the salvaged phone that sends a corresponding pulse of energy to restore the barrier between realms. "Aaand... done!" he says with a final jab at the device, and the courtyard falls quiet.
Eventually, the crowd stirs, blinking against the gentle rain that is slowing to a faint mist. Levitron lowers himself down to the ground as Ringtone pushes himself back to his unsteady feet.
Shane tosses the phone aside and runs to his grandmother. He cradles her into his lap from where she had collapsed like her strings had been cut. "Hey, Grammie? You hear me? It's Shane. Your grandson. Hey. It's over, you can wake up now. I saved you. Wake up... please?"
The famous Golden-age hero doesn't wake up, her breathing shallow.
Femtite looks to Indy, then to Eternia. She covers her mouth. With the funeral for Pixite Connie still fresh in her mind, Femtite mentally prepares herself to honor the heroine. Maybe don’t don deep purple just yet…
She disembarks from her Bug and very slowly glides to Shane and kneels beside him. Humans have a pulse. Humans breathe.
“Shane…” She’s breathing. “Shall we carry her into my craft? No barrel rolls while she sleeps—pinky promise.”
The portal closes with a sudden sensation of difference in pressure. Half expecting for him to be on the wrong side of reality, Rain sighs, relieved. He raises to his feet and turns to Horizon.
"We did it, despite how everything started." He says. "I know no plan survives contact with the enemy, but I do believe we, as a team, still need to work on at least trying to follow it."
Rain glances towards Femtite, but then turns away and back to Horizon. Some of us don't even care.
Knowing he isn't very good at neither receiving praise nor giving, Rain reminds himself of sharing his true thoughts. "You did great in bringing us back together, so I'm sure you can work on something to make us work better together... and I'm willing to help."
Seeing the many civilians around, Rain turns away for a moment to bark some orders. "Everyone, be calm. Anyone that is not injured please look after the others that are. We'll bring you all home, no matter where. Try to remember if anyone you know is missing and let me know." He then sheathes his sword, causing the little drizzle to stop after a few moments.
The cult/abductees were going to need help, but they were going to need it from someone who could human a lot better than her.
Instead Connie went over to squat down on Percy's chest where he lay drained, snapping two vials beneath his nose with a tingle of power and a piercing smell of ammonia.
"Heyyy sleepyhead. Push a little too hard outside of Halcyon? 'Cause if we're gonna do more field trips like this then a little practice and preparation would probably help your battery life next outing."
Femtite’s pale aura yellows ever so slightly with relief as the teammates who hate her most go to other teammates. Yes, stick with Shane. Remain in close proximity to his unconscious grandmother. The public shaming of the Wicked Queen’s Daughter will be postponed…
The crowd hears the authority in Rain's voice and stay calm. Many are looking like they've just awoken from a dream, while others appear to have an idea of what had just happened.
They look around amongst themselves and seem to account for everyone they know about. Levitron and Ringtone approach and offer to shake his hand. "You must be a new team member. I remember some of you from Yeoman's class, right?" Levitron asks.
Ringtone waves off that question to answer Rain's. "Everyone's here, but there's a bunch of people from the Estate back in the U.S. Then there's that pink-haired girl who invited us. But I don't know if she was part of the collective. "
============
Shane keeps his grandmother cradled in his arms. "I was hoping... she could wake up. She was controlled for so long, maybe it would have made her better? Cured her dementia, maybe?" He gently opens her eyes, but she doesn't respond.
"Dammit."
Femtite looks down at the beautiful woman, considers how Chastity’s grandmother was gray-haired, skin not so smooth. Beautiful in a different way, but…
“I understand. Her powers prevent her from aging in body, but her mind…” She gently places a hand on Eternia’s. “You hoped that an alien entity could cure her dementia because curing her seems humanly impossible?”
She then considers that a psychic connection did, at the very least, animate her. Then couldn’t a similar means allow for communication…?
“…but possible?”
Femtite’s eyes flicker from Eternia’s and lock onto Shane’s.
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Indy stirred from the potent smelling salts with a shivering groan. And slowly shakily sat himself up grasping weakly for his staff. "Tell the dick who keeps dragging us into weird situations to give me more heads up then." He could barely make a holding hand around his staff so he didn't dare try to stand right now.
"But yeah leyline here was tapped not used to the ones outside of Halcyon I even had fears of that and took a bit extra with us, turns out holding back a horde of psychic squibs takes alot of juice. And uh..."
His voice quivered like his body for a moment, "I think I need help." Connie was probably insightful enough to know he wasn't talking about his physical state. "I almost did it again... I could have missed and." He falls silent again just sitting on the soaked ground in his sopping wet robes.
Connie gets off Percy's chest as he stirs, but sits beside him instead of rising.
"Yeah... y'know, to be honest and when am I not honest? I do feel like I haven't done right by you on the whole. It's not the first time I've wanted you to be more prepared, but... you're not me, and I've been trying to help you the way that I learn. I highlight weaknesses or I put failures in front of your face, and expect that to take care of things because if you put a problem in front of me I can't help but go down rabbit holes, or hell dig my own, in search of a solution. But I'm a weird learner, and I don't think I'm much of a teacher.
"So I'm gonna try, Indarius. I'm gonna try some new things and see if they help either of us. I owe you that. I'm not gonna crap on our Fearless Leader's chest for this one though. Balls were dropped in enough other places that I'm really not faulting him with the last minute nature of this shindig."
Shane sighs. "We live in a world where so much is possible. But us Taylors... we don't get the happy endings. My parents are trapped in Hell, after saving people for all their lives. My sister went and took the Praetorian name for herself, and couldn't save them She is now off in space somewhere, you say, so I guess she gave up on saving them.
"Aunt Angela is a workaholic, Uncle Augustus was disbarred. And Eternia?" He shakes his head helplessly as he looks at her.
Eventually Shane looks up. "You said you came looking for me? What for, again?"
Kennedy pauses for a moment with a confused look as she mouths, "collection?" Then she rolls her eyes as she gets it. "And you lose points if you get more turned on by a dusty old book than what's right in front of you." She spins and takes long, purposeful strides without looking to see if Connie is following.
Assuming she is, the pair quickly reach the grand columned entrance to the Halcyon University library. As Kennedy starts up the stairs, she says over her shoulder, "Okay, act like you're a college student and we'll get through fine."
The library is busy, with students coming and going in the general rush that you see during finals. Connie finds it surprisingly easy to fall into the college mindset, glancing at the stressed-out faces as she passes them. She even feels the lanyard with her college ID bouncing against her breastbone as she adjusts her bookbag on her shoulders. She meets the eyes of a couple students she remembers from Women's Studies last semester and gives them a nod which they return. She wishes she could stop and catch up, but she needs to study for her final and that research paper is due in two days and she'd barely started.
She follows Kennedy through the security checkpoint, swiping her ID across and hearing the familiar beep like she had a hundred times. Her major in veterinarian sciences was going well but Professor Crabtree was being a hardass over her last dissection, and she wished she hadn't taken Art Appreciation as an elective because it was such a time sink but at least Kennedy was helping her through the Baroque period...
A snap of fingers in her face sends away the college life as quickly as it had come upon Connie. Kennedy smirks as she watches her expression. Connie realizes she had followed Kennedy into the stacks in the second sublevel. Rows upon rows of books, journal compilations, and collections create a quiet maze where it's easy to get lost in.
Kennedy starts walking backwards into a dimly-lit aisle, a smile and invitation on her face.
Femtite replies, “Don’t give up on happiness, Shane. Without happiness, life is nothing. And we pixites will live as long as your sun burns.”
But in respect to Shane’s question, “Time is on your grandmother’s side. But there is something you can do for your family now.
“You need to be in Halcyon City. Come morning, court will be in session. Demons wish to acquire Taylor Industries.”
"Rain," Horizon interjects as he lands next to him. "You should work with Ringtone and Levitron to see about getting everyone back to Halcyon. If you could call your friends up for our pick up, hopefully we can get out of here without so much of a trek. We've got to keep moving, so get everyone organized," He tells him as he goes to check on Percy and Connie next.
"Percy, you good to travel? You need time to recover?" He asks him, even though his mind is already filing the other critical things that he needs to take care of here. "We'll be out of here shortly. Thank you for dealing with my screw up - if you hadn't fixed the tower we might all be dealing with a mental parasite. Connie, stunning job like usual. I'm going to check on Shane, but if you think that you can help check on her condition...well, I think he needs all the hope he can get."
He looks at Shane, drifting towards him and Femtite at the end of her pep talk. "That's a little too skinny on the details, Fem. But to sum it up, the rest of your family's been indisposed or compromised, and if a living heir for the Taylors doesn't put a pin on Infinicorp's hostile takeover that's going to be bad news for a lot of people. We'll take care of your Grandmother, make sure she's looked after properly. But we've got to get moving soon, because time is not on our side."
Femtite dutifully moves Eternia into the Bug.
When Horizon mentions time not being on their side, she almost responds to remind him of the time difference between Milan and Halcyon City. But it occurs to her that means Raquel’s still in bed. Which means she didn’t read my text yet. Which means it’ll be hours before I can even know if she and I are on speaking terms…
Femtite tries not to make eye contact with anyone conscious. She doesn’t know if Connie is coming her way. She doesn’t dare to look.
With a pained expression, Connie raises a finger to call a brief pause before following down the stacks. "Hey Ken-doll. Gotta flag something real quick. Illusions are fine. Very believable illusions are fine, often fun. But don't put delusions in my mind. I don't appreciate it; separate from my non-appreciation, it's not safe. Especially if it's for much longer than that. All that okay?"
She smiles crookedly, tangling a finger in her hair as she swings her gaze along the path to Kennedy. "'Cause I'd really rather move on to the hookup. Or the ambush. Whichever one this is."
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Connie gets off Percy's chest as he stirs, but sits beside him instead of rising.
"Yeah... y'know, to be honest and when am I not honest? I do feel like I haven't done right by you on the whole. It's not the first time I've wanted you to be more prepared, but... you're not me, and I've been trying to help you the way that I learn. I highlight weaknesses or I put failures in front of your face, and expect that to take care of things because if you put a problem in front of me I can't help but go down rabbit holes, or hell dig my own, in search of a solution. But I'm a weird learner, and I don't think I'm much of a teacher.
"So I'm gonna try, Indarius. I'm gonna try some new things and see if they help either of us. I owe you that. I'm not gonna crap on our Fearless Leader's chest for this one though. Balls were dropped in enough other places that I'm really not faulting him with the last minute nature of this shindig."
Sitting there holding his staff listening to Connie talk about how she could be better at teaching him how to be more prepared. Did she even hear what he said, or see what he almost did. He could have easily launched ice-spikes into the innocent people with no safety net to redirect them into the squibs. She also wasn't going to get on Shin's ass for this being so last minute, was she also going to completely ignore Femtite almost blowing the operation from the beginning and walking them straight into a trap?
The whole conversation made him want to just turn inward more, she thought he needed help in preparation, something he could have done better if they'd had more time. He'd also never really used his magic outside of Halcyon so this was very new territory for him.
Su'um' He breathed deep from his sitting position, Morah and exhaled pushing all those quickly piling up thoughts away for a bit. Giving himself room to truly breath in the shallow and fleeting breech of the tide of emotions crashing over him at this moment.
"Percy, you good to travel? You need time to recover?" He asks him, even though his mind is already filing the other critical things that he needs to take care of here. "We'll be out of here shortly. Thank you for dealing with my screw up - if you hadn't fixed the tower we might all be dealing with a mental parasite. Connie, stunning job like usual. I'm going to check on Shane, but if you think that you can help check on her condition...well, I think he needs all the hope he can get."
"Yeah it's yeah... I need a bit. Just be careful with the grenades next time I guess. Also we maybe need to not split like that again. We've gotta work on tactics when we're up shit creek without the full squad cause usually Dee's here to help round out our group of tech, magic, and muscle. But when you, Fem, and Rain went it sort of just left the tech and magic with no muscle to cover us." He doubled over again as another wave of exhaustive nausea hit him from overtaxing himself with so little aether to burn. "We'll talk more later do your leader thing..."
After Horizon leaves and it's just him and Connie again he manages to take another deep cooling breath and level himself out again.
"Connie, had I launched those ice spikes I don't think it would have ended well, I saw... every time I get in a situation like that with civilians or even you guys I see myself hurting them on accident like I did when I first got into this and it scares me. That's what I need help with, I need to talk to someone and learn how to not be afraid to go all out how to really be in control or at least in control of 'my' powers all the time."
Another practiced set of breathing exercises allow him to calm his mind and body enough to really look over to her to gauge her reaction, the strange reptilian ice blue eyes piercing through the glamour at her.
"Feya said her powers have been anywhere from explosive to non-existent since D.O.D. did his thing and I feel like the weird tidal waves of aether that started really rocking because of that sudden hole in the veil has even been affecting my own to an extent making them more... well more. I'm worried I might become more of a threat to you and everyone than i'm worth if I can't get my hands fully on the reins." .
Rain takes the offered hands and shakes them. "Yes, I'm Rain. I joined the First Class after Wolf retired."
There is a brief moment of silence from him as Ringtone mentions the purple-haired girl. Oh, Sky... what are you involved with.
He nods to Horizon. "Sure. I don't need to call them, since the device they gave me will open the portal back home."
Turning to the gathered crowd, he continues. "Right everybody, we are leaving soon. Gather your belongings as I'm sure you want to get back home as soon as possible. I'm really sorry your trip to Italy wasn't pleasing in the end."
Rain follows Ringtone, Levitron and the others to their barracks and bedrooms to help if he is needed. "Despite defeating the Archdeacon now, we should keep the momentum and find whomever else is involved with the Church. Do you know if there is an office here, or something similar, that could have more information about their organization?"
"Oh, and I also want to know more about this pink-haired girl and how she is involved." He tried his best to keep his feelings hidden as best as possible.
Horizon sees that things are going well outside. He goes to fly up and around the top of the bell tower to take a survey to see if there's anyone else in the village who needs rescue.
When Horizon is certain that no one is listening to him, whether occupied by the former cult or each other, he takes a moment to call his mentor up. "Mission success, sensei. We've got Shane Taylor and are awaiting extraction. Furthermore, I can tell you that the extradimensional entity known as the Archdeacon has been banished from this world, thanks to First Class."
He sighs as he continues with the unpleasant news. "However, we also uncovered Levitron and Ringtone as part of the cult. And I know that Skyler was the one who delivered them. She needs to be detained and debriefed as soon as possible. It's likely that she might already be on the run."
He glances down below towards where Rain is, feeling terrible. "I have to tell Rain his girlfriend was doing recruitment for the Church. How do I break this to him without breaking him?"
Shane gives Horizon a look of grim determination after he explains the situation with his family's company. He boards the Bug and soon they're rocketing off to the west at the craft's top speed.
"You, uh, got anything to eat?" he asks.
The rescued people sort themselves into groups. Some are quite traumatized by the experience and want to do nothing but huddle together until rescue comes. Others help out, knowing the Church's computer passwords and helping access the network so that the remaining organization can be dismantled.
Levitron and Ringtone are among the ones helping First Class investigate the remnants of the Church.
When Rain gets then alone and asks about the pink-haired girl, they exchange a look between themselves. "Okay, well, the girl was at the first class that we went to. The one where Horizon and the glowing girl and the candy girl... you may have heard about it," Ringtone explains.
"Yeah. Anyway, it was attacked by some alien bounty hunter who was after Praetoria. It was tough. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Go up and down at him? We had to be saved by the glowing chick."
"The pink-haired girl... Skyler, I think, she was also like... 'this is so not our league.' So we hung out a bit afterwards. Then she invited us to some after school event at this walled compound."
Levitron shrugs. "It was pretty cool, to be honest. Good number of kids our age, cute girls, the facilities were really nice."
"It was all owned by the Church, of course," Ringtone adds. "We kind of got recruited, since we had gifts. They offered training, education, all that stuff that really impressed my folks. For free."
"I tried inviting Skyler to come with. I was kind of into her. She said she couldn't," Levitron says sheepishly.
"Long story short, we got brain nabbed once we got here."
Whippoorwill sounds relieved when Horizon reports mission success. "That's great news. I'm glad Shane's okay. His undercover mission was the height of recklessness."
She falls silent after he tells her of other things he learned. After a moment, she sighs audibly. "Shin... I don’t know if that's possible. It depends on how much he's fallen for her, and how deep she's involved. She's about your age, right? That could mean she wasn't doing this by her own choice. Prepare him for the worst, but give him reason to hope. But hiding it isn't smart.
"And I'll see if we can locate her. It's early here. She might still be at the dorms."
Femtite has her orders (and her excuse to leave). She does pull the Bug up to Connie (and Percy) before leaving.
“Constance, I need to fly Shane out immediately. We’ll talk about my girlfriend tomorrow. I would like to invite Raquel, and you as well, Percy.”
She meets Connie’s eyes and tries to get a read.
The magenta dome closes, and Femtite blasts off!
Femtite tries to be a polite hostess-slash-aviatrix.
“I don’t keep food in here. Being a normally-subatomic creature, I consume bacteria and viruses in my plasmatic form. Sorry.
“Shall we order a breakfast at an Italian bakery so you are well nourished? Or do you prefer a bite upon our arrival at Halcyon City?”
She taps some buttons to activate a touch screen on her magenta dome.
“You are permitted to stream an in-flight movie, or select music of your choice. I prefer the British indie scene, but am open to various styles of music!”
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Indarius sighs after Femtite walks up on the end of a fairly important personal conversation and just calls him Percy again. "Right.. and there's that."
Too many things to deal with right now, but the current goal was just to get back to Halcyon and reconvene with Max, hopefully she was able to postpone the buyout long enough for them to recover Shane.
"Femtite you know we have an instant transmission portal back to Halcyon right? We'll beat you there."
He drops his hand after the message.
Femtite narrows her eyes at the interruption. She replies to Percy, “It’s two A.M. in Halcyon City. I can get there before court is in session. Congratulations in advance for winning the race home though.”
She switches her comm setting to receive in Speech-to-Text mode. The text color is ultraviolet.
She says to Shane, “It’s up to you. I don’t know when the portal will open, or how long the procession will be.
“I think the comfort of my craft is the best option for your grandmother. But I will turn back if you ask.”
(It’s not until she stops talking that Femtīte realizes she accidentally voice-commanded a song called 2am from her British Indie Band playlist.)
It's clear even to Femtite that Shane has been through the wringer for quite a while. The adrenaline is wearing off and his last reserves of strength are spent. "Food sooner is good," he croaks.
Kennedy looks annoyed. "I got you through security, didn't I? I know people get funny when their heads get messed with, but I thought you'd be able to deal. I mean, you followed me, after all."
Her demeanor shifts when Connie starts twirling her hair and asks to move on to the hookup or ambush. A sultry smile grows on her lips. "Oh, yeah. You've completely fallen for my trap." She hooks a finger into the waistband of Connie's short shorts and tugs her deeper into the rows of books. Once well sequestered within the stacks, Kennedy spins Connie around and presses her body against her back, snaking her arms underneath Connie's. Then her fingers start to work on undoing the buttons on her long jacket. Kennedy's breath tickles Connie's ear as she whispers, "any moment my minions will jump out and strike. Your situation is completely hopeless. Your only choice is to submit."
Connie nods along with Percy as he explains his fears. Her expression is serious, but she's nodding a bit too fast, like she's waiting for him to get to the end. "Well yes. Of course you're dangerous. Duh? Do you know how much work goes into making sure most of my my wards don't hurt other people? And that's usually just with redirecting what gets thrown at me. And hey, let's face it, a lot less juice even when I am adding a little sizzle.
"But you're not gonna get any better or more comfortable by just not trying. You know what you're forgetting?"
Indarius just shakes his head at her own return question, feeling like he should just go be a hermit.
"You're on a team, dummy.
"If you want to hose down the area with icicles without popping any flesh balloons, or y'know, take over an incredibly complex arcane working that leaves you too busy to defend yourself against a different powerful practitioner, I can cover you. After all I have a fair bit of hands-on experience in blunting or thwarting people more powerful than me, and some of that was when the spells were heading my way.
"I'm not just gonna let you hurt people."
***
Connie scowls at Femtite's return to the formality of her Princess Mode. "It's Connie. You know it's Connie." She stops for a moment and considers. "Fine, it's been a day. We can kick the can one more time. But if getting answers from you turns out not to be the best way, I have other options."
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"Yeah I just...I'm" Even under the mask the rapid blinking and turning of his head suggests maybe he's about to cry from just the weight of it, finally hearing someone on the team say they've got his back if shit goes sideways.
"I don't want another Tobias situation. I've already hurt too many people."
It then occurs to him that he doesn't produce any tears despite the same sensation coming to him and that is both odd and low-key terrifying at the realization of the swift biological changes occurring in him.
"If you can help me with keeping people safe from myself, then... well I don't know what to say 'Conflux' except thank you. I know that you've also had a lot on your plate with everything going on, and now we've got to deal with this whole Chas, Femtite, Maeve, Moms thing. Don't leave me just leaning on you when you know you can lean on us too, Magic Misfits fit together right?" He offers her a scaly fistbump.
***
"Alright no need to get snappy, this is just another part of the lesson to take things a bit slower and think before reacting. You've got plenty of years to learn it, doesn't mean you can't start now. Also stop calling me percy on missions we've been over this, you don't want me to start calling you M. right?"
Femtite runs a search for places to eat and ignores the transcript of Percy’s reply, though not completely. Maybe calling me Maeve would be a good thing if we’re getting food…
“Hang in there, Shane. I’m going to land and get food as soon as I can.”
She hopes her comforting tone will give him strength to carry on just a little longer.
She also asks him, “Shall I enter the bakery as a glowing-haired alien, or do you have the strength to carry grandma out of the craft so I can make an adjustment and look more like a tourist?”
"When the alms is too large, even the saint will be suspicious." He recites, trying to comfort the twins and giving them a lesson at the same time. "Wouldn't it be better if people were genuinely good and capable of helping each other with no second intentions? Sadly, if that is our goal, we are still far from it."
Why am I talking as if I was an old man?
He shakes his head, to clear his thoughts. "Anyway, I'm sorry this happened to you. I'll do my best to bring those responsible into justice. You were tricked and it was not your or your folks fault... sometimes shit happens."
"Try not to let this traumatic experience change you too much, ok?"
With the help of the rescued, Rain gathers as much information as he can about the Church, paying particular attention to any mention of Skyler or her family. He also tries to find information on how the Archdeacon managed to breach into Earth in the first place, so they could be sure not to let it happen again. The whole trope of "defeated for good... but not really" was one of his least favorite.
When everyone is ready, he addresses all of them. "Everyone is ready? I'll open a portal back to Halcyon. From there, we'll be able to take you home and I'm certain the Alliance will be able to provide you with additional help, either medical or psychological. You've all been through a horrible experience and the worst thing you can do is to let it become even worse by refusing help."
After he gets a sense that everyone is ready, Rain presses the appropriate button on the old console...
The pair shrug. "I don't know the compound's name. It's just outside of Halcyon, up where all the really nice homes are," Levitron says. "There was a Mr. Hillman, I think he ran it. There was the old fancy school in the upstate. That was run by Headmistress Price."
Ringtone rubs his temple when Rain comforts them about their experiences. "That wasn't fun, that's for sure, having this other set of minds always buzzing in your head. As long as you were going along with what they wanted, it was all right. We worked, practiced... it was like this whole 'for the common good' mentality. You just couldn't ever be alone with your own thoughts."
"Don't care," Shane tells Femtite as he curls up in his seat and starts dozing fitfully. If she stops to get something to eat, he devours it and then falls into a deep sleep for the rest of the trip.
Femtite is able to drop him and Eternia off with Alliance support and their lawyers, with a promise they'll get his strength back up so he can forestall the buyout.
First Class's investigation doesn't provide any additional information on Skyler, but does list the Worrels as being longstanding members of the Church of Higher Consciousness.
The CHC was taken over by the Church of Psyche roughly a year ago, shortly after the incident where Eternia's body was kidnapped. The takeover was complete and thorough, but the Psyches dropped their name in favor of the CHC. In the ensuing months, the combined churches began looking to recruiting powered individuals in an effort to protect themselves.
Rain finds no records on the breach of the Archdeacon into this realm, so he has no idea how to prevent its return -- if indeed it still lurks within the void.
It takes most of the day to get everything of note from the compound. Italian officials eventually arrive and start their own investigation on behalf of Interpol. Some of the rescued people elect to stay because their homes are in Europe, but the rest make a somewhat orderly line to step through the portal.
The device mataining the rift in space is smoking and sparking from the strain of letting so many people pass through, but it manages to see everyone across before it finally gives out.
Femtite becomes Maeve. Maeve becomes more human, focusing on the observed behaviors of her human teammates.
Apply double standards hypocritically. Judge uninhibited. Claim moral high ground while doing something treacherous and underhanded. Shout down those with whom you disagree. Add expletives to sound intelligent. Always treat others the opposite of how you want to be treated. Never respect others’ romantic relationships.
That is what it means to be human.
She heads over to Raquel’s dorm for a human-to-human talk…
Connie fishes out her phone and messages Caio, valuing some privacy to their conversation over actually using her words.
Connie: So... Pink Elephant in the room
Connie: ya girl was doing a lil recruitment for the other team
Connie: right?
Caio: Yeah
Caio: Not happy with that
Caio: I do want to give her the benefit of the doubt
Caio: I know she is deeply involved in this and she'll have to answer for it but... if she was somewhat forced into this, it does change things a lot
Caio: She seems very wary or scared about her family and we know they are deep into the CHC
***
Once the arrangements for the rescued is under place, Rain seeks Horizon before he is able to leave for his own business.
"Hey, Horizon, we need to talk about Skyler and the CHC." He starts, but then adds. "Do not spare me of anything, please. I'm sure you understand how difficult this... thing will be, and I cannot make any mistake."
"You... have my word I will not protect her from the consequences if we discover she does deserve them." There was a huge lump in his throat and it seemed to be visibly hard to voice this promise.
Budderball: She seems very wary or scared about her family and we know they are deep into the CHC
We should text more. 'Cause that is... out of date.
Connie: You want me to hang back for a bit and let you take the lead?
Connie: Since it involves mind control and capture, I gotta say, my preference is looping everyone in.
Connie: (and if LOUD NOISES-MAN was better with names everyone would already be looped in)
Connie: but i'm with you, this isn't a shoot first sitch
Roma Downey: read
Caio: Yes
Caio: I want to talk to her alone so she doesn't feel cornered and betrayed
Caio: She... doesn't have a high opinion about herself and I'm certain she knows what she did was wrong
Caio: I'm not worried about her fleeing or fighting back
(The next message is quickly deleted after being sent. Connie was able to read Caio: I'm afraid she before it was gone)
There is some pause before another message.
Caio: I'm afraid she won't even try to explain herself and just take the fall, even if she was being pressured into this
"Sure thing buddy," Horizon tells Caio. He clicks on the aural buffer and they and both blanketed in his privacy screen.
"I can say I'm surprised to find Ringtone and Lebitron here. I should have noticed that they were gone. That's on me not paying attention to people who aren't on the team. I'll have to make it up to them somehow." He admits.
"What happens now though is out of my hands. It's likely that by the time we return she won't be there. I'm sorry, Caio." He tells him with a hand on his shoulder.
Caio brows frown as he seems in doubt for a moment.
"So, you've promised Skyler you'd not say anything to me?" He asks, surprised. "I... shit, I don't like that. I know you probably had a reason for that, but..." He frowns deeper as anger reaches his face. He rolls a hand into a fist, but then opens the hand and combs his hair with, covering his eyes and temple for a moment.
He sighs, distressed. "F!%#, from all we disagree, I respect how pragmatic you are, Horizon, so I trust you had a good reason to do what you did, but please don't do it again... I was trying so hard to get into Skyler's life and personal issues through trust and knowing someone else, someone I consider a friend, was keeping such important things from me is..."
"And I think you are wrong."
Or I wish?
"I don't think she run away. She knew what she was doing and knew it was wrong... I hope there was a reason for that... and I hope she trusts me enough to wait..."
He doesn't need to lean in close enough to whisper. They have privacy enough from his buffer to the outside. But he feels it helps make his counterpoint come across better.
"If you believe in trust so much, why were you researching her background behind her back?" He whispers to Caio. "I know, because Clocktower keeps a record of searches. And that strikes me as severely hypocritical of you to ask me to betray my word to tell you something you already knew."
He leans back. "But you didn't even confront her face to face. Or we would be having a different conversation. You better find her before the Alliance does, because one way or another she's paying for her actions."
"I wasn't looking into her past. I was researching her family so I could be ready to protect her from them..." He sighs, disappointed by Horizon's reaction. "And I'm not asking you to betray your word, I only wished that you'd have talked to me before you talked to her."
"And I did not confront her because I've found nothing incriminating her, only a connection between her family and the CHC and until now, I thought this was why she was afraid... it had not crossed my mind that she was actively working for them and not just another victim."
"Now, if you thing I'll interfere with any judgement the Alliance makes, you are very wrong." He adds, frowning. "If they believe her to be a villain and decide to arrest her, I'll not stop them... I'll work with them and her the best I can so she can clear her name and, yes, pay for what she did... she might be my girl, but this changes nothing about what is right or wrong."