WW Resistance (1v1v1)

Cal scoffed, rolling her eyes at Axel.


"We won't make it out if we run." To prove this point, she picked up one of the chunks of drywall and chucked it out into the hallway. As with Silas going out, the bullets pinged around at the motion from snipers. She shrugged, pausing for a moment. In a silent toss between the voice in her head and the want to get them both out alive she did manage to figure out one thing.


"No box. Just quick hustle in whatever direction I point you, I'll follow up behind."


Cracking her neck, she tapped the wall frame and stepped forward. The hallway behind her seemed to grow darker.

Silas nodded,and slammed his staff into the wall,right beside a PA speaker,revealing wires. Pulling a microphone and splice of wire from the Box,Silas worked a little magic to connect the two. Flicking on the microphone,Silas gave his ultimatum. "Everyone! This is the leader of the cell assaulting this Nightrise facility! We are going to erase the central building of the cluster! Retreat to a range of one hundred meters! This is your only warning! Everyone within one hundred meters of the building is risking death! The bomb will detonate thirty seconds after I turn off the mic! We will survive!"





Missive sent,Silas tore the microphone off the wires,and set the timer on the Blind Bomb,sliding the Bottomless Box into his jacket,and sprinted into the Blind.

Axel shuddered, feeling the coldness of the Blind. It was funny, they lived in the coldest place in the world, but the Blind always felt cold to Axel, getting into his bones and making him uncomfortable. A deep penetrating cold.... Axel wondered if that was something about Cal. Cal was always cold, at least on the outside, and more and more on the inside these days. Her emotions were frosting over. It was understandable, given their circumstances...


After Silas sprinted off into the doorframe, he looked at Cal and winked, running in himself headlong, into the Blind.


~~~


Standing on the rooftop of a building a block away, a lone man with platinum hair chuckled, listening into the conversation the three mages and watching their every move through a lone silvery bird, perched on the wreckage of the nearby debris. It being his familiar, he had a direct link to it's mind and senses. He rubbed his hands together, feeling rather devious as he saw the leader figure fiddle with the PA system. It was a simple deduction leading to a simple conclusion, as to what those Resistance dogs were trying to do.


"They want to save some face? Not today, pathetic magi." He spat, snapping his fingers. A shimmering barrier erupted around the building in a blink, preventing all noises from the inside from getting out. His cold, piercing blue eyes didn't blink as he watched newscasters and various other civilians getting close to the wreckage, looking for answers to their questions.


His lips twisted upwards into a wicked grin.

Cal nodded, listening to Silas's announcement before he sprinted in. Good, moving fast, gave them some more time. She glanced towards the hole. Were they even listening? No one had seemed to move back, if anything, they had gotten closer.... Her eyes narrowed as Axel moved past her. Fuck.


Glancing back at her portal she took a deep breath, braced herself. Nope...couldn't do it. Turning back towards the hole she examined the people below. None had moved back, the idiots. Inhaling deeply, she braced herself to run when things got hectic. Extending her hand, three shadows rose off the floor, a mishmash of oddities and distorted features. Shock, Lock, and Barrel, as she liked to call them. Her personal crowd control when people needed to get away.


Sending them forth, they spread out over the holes, legs stretching out and through, bodies twisting as they kept changing shapes and forms. In truth, they were harmless, but they were effective. As screams ushered from outside, she grew dark. That media outlet was going to have a field day, but from what she could tell from the hole, they had backed off a good distance.


Letting her trio loose, she dropped the control, setting them on a callback timer. Either they'd get shot to shit, or they'd vanish into thin air, but they'd do their job. Ducking into the blind realm, she shut the rift behind her, hauling ass to gain back on Silas and Axel.


"Turn Left, ten paces, hang a right and run fast."


She'd already braced their exit, or at least Meido had. For once her little voice was on her side.

Cold. Of all of the things the Blind could bring to bear against him,the cold was the most unnerving. He lived in Antarctica,for crying out loud. Nothing should be cold to him. But,here he was,shivering near uncontrollably,breath misting before him. He already felt his sweat and skin's oils freezing. His bones felt like they were bathed in ice water. Regardless,this was their best shot at getting out alive.


Cal came into the Blind moments after Axel and himself,and gave their directions. Silas done as instructed,and pivoted to the left,strode ten paces,then pivoted to the right. Facing the direction,he broke off at a dead run. The exit is this way. If it isn't yet,it will be. I fear what is in here,and I am at peace with that. It proves I am human.

Axel followed along with Silas, listening to Cal's every command as he ran with everything he had. He wanted to go back home for now. Even if it wasn't much, it was what they had. A place to rest and call their own.


"Hehe, I wonder if there's a Deaf Realm." Axel quipped, chuckling to himself, but immediately regretting having made the joke, as the cold air assaulted his lungs. He coughed a few times, practically tasting the frostbite, and continued sprinting.


~~~


The man watched, looming over the scene, with annoyance visible on his face as the girl made her little minions go after the newscasters. They weren't terribly threatening, but the sight of magic caused the civilians to run from the building, and after about half a minute, the bomb exploded. Rolling his eyes, having been unable to mar the Resistance's name further tonight, Hope Astrumregis disappeared from the rooftop in a quick flash of light.

Running behind them, Cal pulled the stringers harder before the gritty world of NYC's back allies came back into life. They were....twenty blocks away? Fifteen? They still had walking to do, that was for sure. Gritting her teeth, she looked at her two partners and....yeah. One piece.


"So, we need to blend in fast. "

Silas rapidly stashed his wand and staff in the Bottomless Box when they left the Blind,and scraped the frost from his body. He was still wet,but he could just pass that off as sweat from a good run. Which,really,wasn't even a lie. Silas walked out of the alley as confidently as any local,and saw a Tim Horton's across the way,prompting his stomach to growl. "Who's up for a double double and donut?"

Axel shrugged, rolling his eyes. A flash of fire erupted around him, melting the frost and drying him at the same time. He could see concrete and rock everywhere, good, he was back in his element.


"Only if you make the coffee Irish. Let's just get back before things go even more south." He countered Silas' suggestion, stepping out behind him, running a hand through his shaggy blonde hair. After, he stuck his hands in his pockets, strolling down the street ahead of his teammates. From the signs, he had a rough idea where they were in relation to their ticket home.

Cal shook her head. Flipping her jacket hood up she followed behind the two of them. She shoved her hands deep into her pockets, and put a less strict sway to her walk. "I'm inclined to follow both ideas, currently. Coffee and scooting. I'm sure Lisa can hook us up with the Irish when we get back at that."

Silas nodded. "Coffee run it is." Looking at the signage,he got a fix for their current location. "Two take tens,I think." Walking across the street,Silas stepped into the coffee house,and stepped into line. While he waited,he fished his wallet out from his back pocket. When it came time for Silas to place his order, "Two take tens,and three apple fritters,please." Silas payed in cash,and waited for his order to come up. A few minutes later,he retrieved his coffee and pastries and left.


Stepping out of the Tim's,he passed the bag of fritters at Cal. "Save me one,would ya?" Walking down the street,Silas stepped into a run-down looking bar,and stopped at the counter. "ID,please." Silas tapped the counter three times; Once with his index finger,twice with his thumb,and said, "I'm here for the merlot tasting?" All while flashing a forged ID for a "Steven Ridley". The barkeep nodded,and gestured for the party to follow her. "Right this way,friends."





The bartender led the group into a back room,then into a cellar. In the middle of the room was a magic circle,drawn on a mat of rice paper. "Have a safe journey,magi." Silas simply nodded,and stepped - gingerly - onto the circle,and waited for his compatriots to follow. The paper would incinerate itself without a trace as soon as the spell was activated.

Stepping onto the rice paper with Cal, nodding at the barkeep on their way by, Axel and his two companions disappeared into a flash of light, being transported to their base, The Sanctuary.


~~~


Reappearing in another flash of light in a teleportation room in the headquarters building of the Sanctuary, Axel sighed. The teleporting spell always unsettled his stomach. He'd feel like puking for another ten minutes, and then be starving. Rolling his eyes as Grandma Yumi and Grandpa Corono stood waiting for the three of them, Axel knew the three of them were in trouble.


".... For the record, I'd just like to say that destroying the buildings was totally all Silas, and I had nothing to do with it, yep. I didn't blow a hole in the first one. Nope." He explained sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and taking a very astute interest in the ceiling all of a sudden.

Tight lipped, hair in a strict bun, perfectly put together. That was how Yumi Deathlind presented herself always. She was not a friend, she was their commanding officer and right now her blood was boiling. Her eyes shot to Mr. Forghen as he spoke and with a simple swipe of her fingers upon his finishing his lips would remain sealed until the duration of her talking. Beside her, her husband merely shook his head, patting her shoulder gently and stepping out of the room. The other team deployed would be arriving soon, after all.


"Do you have any idea the kind of damage you have brought today?" She scanned over each one of them carefully. Yes, she had known full well what had happened on that mission, the whole world had seen the building's face side tore open. " Forty Three Nightrise Agents, only two officers. 5 civilians." Directly at Cal on that mark. "I know some death's can not be avoided, but the amount of damage that was done was not only completely out of bounds, it disgraces you three as our elite troupe. You have better skills than that, why didn't you use them?"


"Blown open building sides with golems, ramming through walls with demons, toppling down buildings with the arcane. What have you been taught? Never, under any circumstances, make that much of a scene. You're lucky you got out of their with your limbs in tact and no holes in your torsos. Think, you aren't children any more. "


She hadn't realized she'd been pacing in front of them until she'd stopped. She unsealed Axel, her piece having been said.


"I congratulate you on a mission successful, and I'm glad to see you all back alive."

Swallowing a lump in his throat, with a quick glance towards Cal before turning back to Grandma Yumi, Axel began something he had never done before.


He began to talk back to his commanding officer, the leader of the Resistance and the oldest and strongest person in Sanctuary.


".... It was needed. We can't hide anymore. We can't keep up these guerrilla missions of ours, with the agenda to extend our survival. We caused a scene, yes, but it was a scene that lets the world know we're tired of this. We're tired of being oppressed, and if normal people and those Nightrise morons want to try and exterminate MAGES, then they're gonna get a magical bitch-slap." He spewed with conviction, clenching his hands into fists. "Yeah, we kinda shit the bed this time, we looked foolish and dangerous. But that's what we are. Dangerous. And people need to know that."


Taking a deep breath in, Axel half expected Yumi to smack him. He waited on baited breath, hoping he might be able to dodge the first one.

"People knowing that is what started this war sixty years ago." Yumi said shortly. The sound of her shoes clicking on tile floor died the second the door closed behind her.


Cal flinched as the door clicked in place and exhaled a breath she had held tight in her lungs since the start. Looking over at Axel and shook her head. "You are seriously crazy." Breaking out of where she had been standing, she pulled her arms up over her head, stretching back. " And we're totally fucked later."

Axel's eyebrow twitched. That comment Yumi made caught him off guard. Hearing Cal sound off about how they'd be fucked later in training passed through his mind, but it did nothing to dissuade him from running his mouth a little more. Stepping out of the room, watching Yumi walk down the hallway, he grit his teeth before piping up again.


".... Well, I wasn't around 50 years ago! Things will be different this time, Granny!" Axel called out, scowling a little. After taking a deep breath, he turned back to Cal.


".... Nooooooow we're fucked." He chuckled, breaking out into a grin.

Cal shook her head again, pulling out of her stretch with a yawn. Flopping her hood down she ran a hand through her hair. "Fuck it." She mumbled, ducking out into the hallway and going the opposite way of which those heels clicked. Grandmother or not, Cal didn't like her. Nodding her head, she flipped to walk backwards.


"So. I'm assuming Silas is going to do his own thing per the usual." A yawn passed through as she shrugged, "And I'm going to assume you're going to whine your way into me going with you on whatever it is you feel like doing, so, where are we headed?"

Axel blinked. He didn't really do much, other than bug Cal when she was trying to sleep. Glancing about, he looked confused.


"Wait, you're going along with it before I whine for 5 minutes first?" He questioned, his confused face breaking out into another grin. He couldn't be that sarcastic, it actually physically hurt him. "Let's go watch a movie on your laptop or something. Didn't you finally fix it the other day?" He suggested, a twinkle in his eye at the mention of technology. For a mage, Axel sure liked electronics and human stuff. Human beings always wanted what they couldn't have, and as such Axel wasn't satisfied with just magic.

Cal nodded, "Too tired and sore to really feel like resisting for that long."


Bumping into him, she nodded again. "And yeah, turns out my lovely black hole was a dead screen. Apparently, when Ms. Borden blew a fuse next door, it routed onto my end and overloaded it. And that somehow lead to a whole lot of dead pixels and nonworking bits of hardware. Got the part in yesterday morning for it after a whole lot of address hoping and a non approved trip to Australia for a brief five minutes. "


She rolled her shoulder back, feeling the muscle give a weak spasm underneath. Man, those tazers were something else...


"So, movie is a go then."

"Do you ever think about how dangerous this all is?" Axel asked out of the blue.


They'd been watching some dumb romantic comedy movie. Cal had known it would draw Axel in and let her drift off to sleep. He sat on the bed beside her prone body, but she wasn't a very deep sleeper. She was probably already awake from him just asking that question.


".... Do you ever worry about dying?" He probed further, partially because Cal was up for another evaluation soon (she hated those), and partially because she was worrying him a little more than normal in the last few missions. She'd been reckless. Not to say he wasn't, he was the king of stupid decisions that by all rights should have killed him a long time ago, but Axel's risks were usually calculated. Cal's were just dangerous.

Cal lifted a hand, tilting it from side to side. In truth, she didn't care either way about danger. Life was dangerous, some lots more so, but well, your given what you are. End of story. So for her, thinking about the danger was pointless, but though she wouldn't say it, she did when it came to others. Letting it fall back on her stomach she let silence settle in before he asked another question.


Every day. "No," Liar. "It's not something I really think about. I'd rather worry more about living, if that makes much sense. "

Axel nodded, smiling slightly. That was a good way to think of it, and he didn't want to distrust Cal, but he wasn't entirely sure she was being forthright with him. That'd be great if she was. Cal was one of the strongest people he knew, magical power or otherwise, but from what he understood of the Meido, Axel figured it couldn't be anything but draining on her.


Being about to speak up, Axel was interrupted by a knock at the door. Blinking a few times, he chuckled.


"No no Cal, don't get up, I'll answer yooooouuuur door." He sung, with emphasis on her ownership of the door. Opening the door, he was greeted by a surprise.


"Forghen. You and Porter are to report to the sparring ring immediately." With that, the man with a brown military-style crewcut turned on his heels and strode away.


"Hello to you too, David." Axel spat. David Hale stood before him, one of the few active field operatives of the Resistance that was senior to Axel and Cal. He had somewhat of an antagonistic relationship towards the two friends. David and Axel never saw eye to eye. Axel turned back in towards Cal and shrugged. "You heard that?"

To Axel's lovely singing, Cal applauded him single handed with the bird of praise. Dropping it back on her lap she listened idly to both the doorway and the sound of the movie still playing. The Notebook, again, right on the boat scene as it was about to start ring. Sparring ring. Cal sat up, eyebrow raised.


What were they getting called down to the sparring right for this early? If Yumi wanted to punish them she at least gave them eight hours of freedom to recover and it had only been what, three hours? Shit. She really was going to run them into the ground this time.


"Yup." Shifting vertical, she ran a hand through hair too short to do much with but that. "Ready to face the music?"


It'd taken them only a few minutes to get themselves down there. But to her surprise, it wasn't Silas that was there waiting for them like normal. Instead, she made out the all to familiar face of her grandmother whom was sitting next to the every obnoxious Lizzie Borden and her unfortunate partner David Hale. On the other side of her was Tybalt.


"What. The. Fuck."

Tybalt nodded to David, who stepped down into the ring. Tybalt held a scroll in his hands, the designs on the exterior of the scroll were swirly and seemed to have offshoots of wing-like appendages.


Cracking his knuckles, David seemed far too happy to be in the ring with Axel. "Mr. Von Entra needs us to spar as soon as possible. The stronger pair will be used in an experimental testing of ancient magic. Madam Yumi has already laid down the orders for your participation." He snarked, his smug grin only growing larger. A purple glow erupted around his hands, as he stood up tall, at least a a couple inches over Axel. Sighing, Axel stepped forward.


"If you were desperate to pick a fight, you didn't need to go running to Yumi." He spat, a dangerous grin of his own crossing his face.

Cal's face darkened. Of course that's what they needed. Snark bit at her tongue as she deadpanned David.


"Perhaps Yumi needs to learn her place in ordering her troops around on pointless activities." She bit out, eliciting a surprise gasp of shock from the bubbling red head that had skipped out into the ring. She was playing on ice and she was fully aware. But what was the worst they could do, really? Send her out for more snow runs? Clean bathrooms? As far as she was concerned, they couldn't -


A soft whisper reached her ear and the feeling of a nice sharp scapel raced across her head.


-touch her. The sneer that was shot towards the old woman was nothing but nasty.


"Come on." A giggle, " It can't be that bad, I mean, cna't you just humour your grandmother?."


A flash of a weird muddy brown colour sprang up, along with a squeak from Lizzie. Cal was fuming, the remnants of a demon flickering out against Lizzie's brilliant green shield. Dark purple poured off of her eye and hand like a demon ha possessed her. As Cal exhaled, more of the smoke puffed out.