Fandom Soul Eater: F.A.T.E

[Sir Les Paul]

Kisei☆Hoshi​

Deadsoul​

Species Death Golem
Partner Eloise Keegan
Rank Two-Star

Location Ashford Hospital, London
Mission A Reflection of Question
Status Relaxed

​

Tags: The Regal Rper RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Haze-

Kisei almost choked up a piece of his turkey sandwich upon the comment made by Wren. A quick, but light clap echoed at the table as he patted his chest, trying to force the bit of dry bread down. Directly after, he took a swig from the flavored water he procured earlier, only further trying to force it down. Once complete, he closed his eyes, then let out a sigh.

Those same eyes opened and he tilted his head, giving a pretty pronounced stare to Wren.

"What happened in Wales stays in Wales," Kisei said, half-joking, though in a fairly difficult-to-determine way. He lifted his finger up to point at Wren, again, picking her out.

"I am a one-woman weapon, and miss Keegan is that woman, wolfie," Kisei added, doing his absolute best to avoid the doghouse. At least, for that specific issue. He was sure there were others less forgivable. Granted, given that he was under some magical effect when he said it, there was no way he could think of to weasel himself out of that claim. They would just forever have to live with the fact he referred to Wren as a sexy, Italian werewolf. It wasn't even clear if that was racist, species-ist, or just extremely blunt.

Kisei composed himself a little further, exhaling deeply after a brief moment and returning his finger to the table, tapping on it for a moment as he thought over all that was said. It was good most of them agreed to clean up the story, but it definitely seemed like they were missing a huge ass elephant in the room. A pachyderm that Kisei was hyper-aware of, likely more than anyone. Zosar was at least on the right train of thought, but he needed to take that train one station further.

"It seems everyone is willing to deceive the Western European Branch, but did you ever stop to wonder if the Central Branch leaders would be okay with it?" Kisei asked, extending out the last half of his question with an almost sarcastic tone. This whole time, they wondered whether or not they should do this, but there was the question of if they even could. Would one branch deceive another? Was it a risk worth taking? These were all incredibly important questions to consider, especially given the rest of them were F.A.T.E. Agents.

How would it look of a lot of remedial Agents returned with a once-stolen mirror only to tell their bosses it was now twice-stolen? They were clearly having this conversation now, proving they felt that as individuals their opinions mattered more than the chain-of-command. It would only be an indirect admission of guilt if they returned to Death City with the mirror.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov - Daniella Ethalyn - Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, CA
​

Things were quickly going from bad to worse, to what in the actual fuck. Nadia found her thoughts turning. First there was the rise in Tempo of madness and disgust, of excess and rot, then there were more of these fuckers bleeding themselves and even dead ones not staying dead as they should, the tactical situation was hopeless in the eyes of most she was sure. This was their Battle of Stalingrad, it would be hard, it might even be costly, but this man…. No, this thing was far too dangerous, if they left, if they ran, if they did not win, mankind would pay a heavy price. The only thing they could do was break the main leaders of the enemy, no, if they could kill the leader, then it may be possible all this would die with him… Provided he was even alive in the first place.

Nadia found herself in an unusual place, doubt, and studying her comrades. Her thoughts and concentration would be shaken, not enough to affect her resonance, but it would be clear to Dani that Nadia was not a happy camper right now but was determined to break the enemy.

‘The fuck did he say about Lucifer? Did that prick bullshit us?!’ Dani growled, her own soul spiking. While Nadia conveyed doubt through their connection, Dani’s shot more and more anger coinciding with her own anxiety. ‘And why the fuck are they going berserk? The fucking sigil?’

With the anger of Dani only growing, Nadia could not blame her, it was only because of iron wills that they had not broken or given in, but for how long? ‘Da, he claims to be from this, likely in connection to that other world, rather than our devil, or the Christian one… And Da, those sigils are doing all this, we need to find a way to destroy them… Hmm…’

‘Or we keep melting these fucks…’ Dani remarked in turn with a snarl.

It was with those words that Nadia paid close attention to what they had been doing, rather than what the enemy was now doing. She seen that Raph was effective in constricting the enemy, she seen her own blows, how the enemy would rise, again and again, the unnatural runes upon the ground was behind this, behind the barrier, behind the armor, behind the horde, runes upon runes, blood upon it all.

‘Ha! That's it! Your Venom! It burns through this, we are about to see just how much of it you can make, haha! This enemy is appalling and everything we must fear, but fear is natural, and at the end, I see how we can kill him. And orders for the rest.’

‘Hah?’ Dani murmured with a narrowed gaze coming from the blade’s sheen. ‘The sigils?’ With that, Dani registered the effects of the venom on their enemies and the implications of that. She hadn’t encountered anything that could withstand the venom from the tail and going off of how the fanatics faltered against it, that would hold true with the sigils. ‘...No fuckin’ clue, but I guess we’ll figure it out,’ She said regarding the quantity.

‘We’ve no choice, they won’t let us go and I'm sure as death not letting them go. He is on the cusp of being something that will shake the world to the core… I must try and rally the others, and I think poke fun at him, though we will have to use a few of our techniques.’ Nadia said in response as in the outer world she readied the blade.

Even angered, Dani recalled the inferences of Davis and the others. These powers fed off her body’s oxygen supply. While she had improved her endurance and lengthened the timer since she first discovered it, she wasn’t entirely sure if her endurance would outlast all of this. However, like Nadia said, there wasn’t much of a choice. Everything else aside, everyone else around had proven mostly ineffectual. They were in danger, and that thought invigorated Dani more than anything else. Her rage reinforced and her wavelength spiking, the flames skittered and danced across the metal as the tail reflexively flexed in anticipation. ‘Fuck him.’

‘We’ll be fine. Though… Don’t use that fire but every so often, we’ll coordinate it. Heh, so, how much of a rousing speech should I give, or just tell them orders?’ Even as she said that Nadia looked out upon the enemy and held the blade with sheer determination.

‘Do a speech if you want…’ Dani grumbled moodily. ‘Or just kill’im…’

‘Heh. We’ll just keep it simple with a little flare. I mostly want to make the American Metal star angry. Though, for now, call off your flame, we must be smart in its use… I wonder if any of his have that same weakness?’

Speaking out loud, Nadia gave her instructions and a light rallying speech fitting to her stature and the general thought of her being a commissar, fear was a powerful thing, but so was duty, and surprisingly for Nadia, or not so surprisingly for those who knew her well, that duty was born out to the mission of the DWMA and the Civilians that would be left in their wake. Triggering the communicator, she even called the mercs into play.

“Hear me! Not a step back! Where the Church fled and the Police retreated, we shall hold the line! Our enemy outnumbers us 40 to one! At least it is an even fight! We shall deal with the blood sigils! Adrian, support us as you see fit! Kris if you do not mind it, work with yours and take out those Bishops that we make open! Raph, bring the trash down and keep the lane we make open!”

With that, Nadia spoke out loud, pointing her blade directly at him. “Night Stalker is it!? If I were as ugly as you, I would stalk the night too! Quantity is the only quality you have.”

With that, Dani recalled the blade’s fire as instructed, pending the need to call it out again. ‘What are we doing? Resonance? Amplification?’ She said, skipping past the speech and shit talk.

‘Bring out the big sword, we run down the line, I’m going to cut the hands off the wrist cutters, inject them and that sigil with Venom as we pass, Amplification the whole way, till we reach the bishops, from there resonance, we’ll rely on your wavelength. I am not sure if this is magic or not, but maybe my blood will protect us. We must kill him within ten minutes, Dani, he is very dangerous. Do not flinch or break our bond, even if I should be wounded.’

‘It ain’t magic…’ Dani replied curtly. ‘Demon weapons don’t do magic… and he’s doing the same kind of shit as me,’ She added quietly, taking Nadia’s wavelength and amplifying it, further and further until her blade began to glow and increase in span. As spirit radiated off of them, the blade engorged into a wide, blue-hued buster sword that spiked outward at the tip. ‘I know.’

‘Huh. Well, then my blood might not do much. But, Da! Onwards!’ With those words said, Nadia and Dani would enter the fray, the large blue sword was used to batter aside, shatter or cleave the minions that dared to stop them, with deft swings, chops, cleaves and even a spin, Nadia ground the enemy to dust, not focusing on all the enemies, Nadia picked on path, one route, aiming for three of the higher ranking members of the cult, Nadia unleashed the ranged energy attack to hit the back line, to harass and pin ‘Resonance, use mine!’ By that Nadia meant her wavelength and continued the attack.

Nadia went on a warpath that eclipsed her previous, spinning with the blade till she was deep in enemy ranks, throwing the knives she had, she took careful aim for the hands, heads, and even feet of those upon her as she advanced with singular purpose, to breach the barrier and to kill the foul enemy that was simply something she had no choice but to fight. Impaling the sword form of Dani into one of the large sigils on the ground, Nadia spoke within her soul space.

‘Resonance! Dani yours! Also use your venom on this! You can still hold out for five minutes yes?’

As Nadia said that, malice and rage spilled out from the blade in conjunction with the flames. The blade turned a gruesome red as the fiery tail sprouted out from it and stabbed into the ground, the venom injecting into the sigil and dissolving the ground beneath it.

‘Heh.’ And so as Nadia’s own senses started to be tugged at by the fury and rage, they now had a timer to break the defenses, and hopefully to finish off the leader, orders were given to the effect of some plan, while leaving the rest to act as they wished and a bloody path was being carved through the hoard. Nadia could not defeat them all, neither could her team, but that was not the focus in all of this.

Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPCs, Adrian) Merciless Medic (Raph)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer - Ashford Hospital, London, England​

As the rest stated their peace, the wolf brought a hoard of food and was all the more disgusting in eating it. Setting her own food back and well away from the ravenous werewolf, she was a bit disappointed with how the talk was going, unknowingly willing to voice what Zosar dared not. To broach the subject of how honest to be. Or rather, as Kisei himself had said, deceiving the Western Branch and how they all seemed to be so eager to do so. Slicing a piece of her hamburger steak off and taking the time to chew it, Maria sat her knife and fork down in the meantime to stare directly at him.

"Correction. I said I would go with what the bulk of you decided. If you wish to know what I would do... Well, it's rather simple. We are not of the Western Branch, they had no idea what they had and official communications should be opened with Death City in light of the discovery that was made on behalf of the Fae. There is no point in pretending we solved it or somehow earned the information. Honesty is the best policy."

Turning back to her meal, Maria continued, "Point of fact, we should tell the truth as much as we can and give a detailed account of all that happened. I do not offer to cover up for you. Rather I wish to see if the rest will do so, or if you'll have the decency to explain your actions in your own report. For your aid in my efforts I do not seek to report you myself. We had a mission, we finished the mission and learned something that the Western Branch was ignorant of that gives the item a value and a threat, it is only natural we stick to protocol and contact someone more senior in Death City.

The Mirror should not go back, but only as the main branch says so. The Western European Branch did not inspire confidence and lost many men and women chasing ghosts. They are in no position to secure anything. And it is important that we do let them know at least some of what transpired. Your reckless actions, sanctioned or not, disturbed the balance of power and nature in the region, though I cannot blame you for it. I did say the Fae were not to be trusted, and while my words may have angered one of them, it was as I did not trust them and knew words would be wasted outside of appeasing them with a game...

In fact, the Iron bell, would have just summoned the Kelpie, or whatever they wish to call them, and it would have tried drowning one or more of you. I fully expected we would have had to beat it in conflict. The fae do not operate on logic and reason. Only on whims and wiles, that is why witches don't much like them."

For they are too much like us...

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Elly) Sir Les Paul (Kisei) The Regal Rper (Zosar) Haze- (Wren)

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Eloise Keegan - Ashford Hospital, London, England
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Elly listened to the words of the others. Maria spoke up first and was expectedly averse to deceit, wanting to be completely honest. In truth, the deceit was more of a way to avoid any lamenting by the Western European Branch. Their actions were authorized by Kidd, and so they didn't have much to worry about in the manner of repercussions. They could very well just state that they were set off on the wrong foot from the start due to lack of intel and poor intel from the locals, complicating the mission and forcing them to take a more forceful approach. The western branch may be a bit irked about having to deal with any Fae fallout, however they didn't have too much room to complain since they lost the relic and subsequently avoided acquiring it again out of procrastination.

Then there was Wren. She thought of suggesting that the Fae attacked them first and was in agreement that giving the mirror back to the western branch was iffy at best. Elly shook her head briefly as she took another bite, making sure to chew and swallow before speaking. "Unfortunately, no... Kisei or Maria can correct me if I'm wrong, but from my understanding the Fae have certain codes they abide by. They're more than able to be childish little brats, but I think it's quite rare for them to physically instigate.... so that would drum up more questions," Elly stated simply, moving past the part of Kise's HR report. "As for that, I think we should keep it quite general but say something. After all, that's part of our justification for why the mirror should be relocated to Death City. It does far more than what was previously believed."

Then Zosar spoke, mostly agreeing with Wren. At least one thing seemed to have a consensus, and that was that the mirror shouldn't stay here. "They likely wouldn't," Elly replied to Zosar's statement before taking a sip of her drink. A lie was best when it aligned as close as possible to the truth, so saying that the Fae attacked was problematic.

As Elly sipped from the cup, her eyes glanced to Kisei choking on his food from Wren's comment. "Ah, is that so? Despite my lack of Italian or silver or red hairs," The meister hummed in a suspicious tone. In typical Elly fashion, she didn't linger too long on the topic, leaving little room to determine to what extent she was fucking with him. Following his statements, Maria followed, again making her preference for honesty known.

"For the record, I do not think it would be a good idea to blatantly lie about what happened. However, there are certain things that are going to cause more problems than render aid, such as outbursts and the like," Elly clarified with a soft sigh. "I recommend that we say that upon locating the Fae, we found ourselves on the wrong foot immediately due to lack of intel and misinformation or otherwise outdated information obtained enroute. As a result, we determined the best course of action was to take the relic and retreat. We can say that we used Kisei's speed to nab it and then we pulled back. I foresee they won't have much of a problem with that considering we were already fatigued from a deathtrap that they lost who knows how many to."

Proposing that, she set her cup down on the table again and leaned back against the seat slightly, looking to the others. "No outright lies, and we still get to divulge information that will allow anyone else who may traverse the area to be more informed than we were. We can tell them about the abilities of the Fae, their behavior, how to find them, as well as what the relic is capable of and, if they do give us a hard time, we can say we received authorization from Lord Kidd first. As for the relic, we check with Cyrus first to confirm his agreement. Given its abilities and, as Maria said, the state of the western branch, I'd presume he would be likeminded in bringing the mirror back."

RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul The Regal Rper Haze-

 

[The Regal Rper]

Team A | Malta, L.A

As soon as the doors opened he could hear it, the souls of the siblings beating in time together, and immediately the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. It wasn’t the intensity of their souls that caused the reaction, as while powerful they were far below what he had felt when they had confronted the sphinx. No, It was the fact that it sounded eerily similar to his own soul that was the problem. It was close, not exactly the same, but enough that it irked him. It was like hearing a recording of yourself talking, there was that brief second where you don’t recognize your own voice and it sounds completely alien.
“…Be careful. Their souls sound similar to mine.” Grasping onto Feng’s left arm, Wes shifted into his own weapon form, his red cord wrapping its way up her arm and securing him snugly against the outside of her wrist.
“There’s four of us…” Aki remarked with a scowl, or what passed for one for the girl, that more resembled a pout. She got the feeling they were looking down on her and only focused on Feng and Ark. Nonetheless, she shifted into weapon form, shooting into Feng’s open palm. ’Similar? So we should worry about them doing stuff similar to you?’ Aki hummed within their soul space.

‘Maybe.” He answered, unwilling to give a definite answer just yet. Similar didn’t mean the exact same, and going in thinking that their wavelength worked on the same rules of his was a bad idea. It’s similar, but I can’t tell if it’s the same as mine or if it works differently. If it’s the same….’ Wes trailed off, falling silent as he listened to the wavelength of the duo.
Listening to what was said by her two partners, it sounded like the Reaper likely attacked with sound, or maybe it was how they detected things in part. Honestly, she didn’t care much, they wanted her dead as much as she wanted the same for them. With Aki and Wes in hand and the door kicked open, from the truck, Feng leapt down and advanced with the bronze gong serving as a shield, and the gun as her sidearm, naturally. Not waiting for the inaction of Ark, she would lead off the advance as the masked Meister dived in upon them, laughing as he did so. “Come on! Come on! Ahahahaha!”

For his part Wes would immediately feel the symphony the two gave off in proximation, Feng for her part could see, that while not corrupted, these souls were all to close to it and their dirty hues were all too clear whenever she ventured into soul perception. Curiously, they gave off the sounds of a violin that was malicious in its content, with high notes following low, akin to the simple patterns that horror movies were known for, though tinged with a sense of loss, a void that just tiptoed around madness.

However, one more thing would be clear to Wes. She was listening to souls, much like him and using the wind around her form to pulse off aerial blades, not exactly like him at least as an invisible blade of air clipped Feng’s hair ever so slightly.

As beautiful as their duet may have sounded under normal circumstances, the jarring screeches akin to a violin corrupted it quite a bit. It was grating, as if someone was stabbing at his eardrums with a needle with every spike. Similar to Annika’s wavelength, there were periods of softer, deeper notes, but that only made the sudden rises all the more jarring.
Beyond the shrieking sounds of their souls however, there was something more. There was a weight to their sound, a reverberation that seemed tinged with… something. Exactly what, Wes couldn’t say, but it was present enough that even he could pick up on it from just a surface level perception.

As much as he was privy to their souls, a familiar chill rolled its way down his currently non-existent spine. It was the sister that was the source of the chill, and it was a mental jolt when he realized what it was. The sister was listening to his soul, their souls, possibly trying to get a gauge on their actions.
“She’s hearing our souls.” Wes stated out loud with more than a hint of surprise, slightly caught off guard. The uneasy feeling that he felt returned, the idea that their wavelength and his acting the same was becoming more and more likely.

Before he could think further however, something quickly shot out from the duo, narrowly missing Feng’s head by the slightest margin. ’Okay,’ he watched as a few strands of hair that were clipped drift to the floor. ’I can’t do that.’ He added, on the off chance that either woman would ask.

With the earth magic that Ark had deployed now coming into the fray, Feng found herself some cover, as she pondered the difference in between the two as internally she asked ‘Any ideas before this cover is gone?’


’I mean, Aki had a point.’ Wes winced as chips of their stone cover were sent flying, whatever method of attack the siblings were using carving away at the walls. ’We can try and blitz them, have Ark cover us. Worked for us before.

Providing cover for the trio and himself wasn't difficult, what was not knowing what sort of evaluations Wes had made. If he had heard correctly over the communicator a moment ago, he had something about them using sound like him.

Whatever Feng said at the end of her statement hadn't been heard though. Instead after covering for them, Ark slammed his foot into the ground, raised a hand and the earth under the twins caved inwards, wet mud shooting out in glops at them, spreading as if to cake.

’Might as well. Too damn Easy though.’ Still, easy was better than fair as their mobility became more fixed, entrapped as they were in the technique of Ark. Taking aim with Aki, Feng was rather willing and able to end it all, when suddenly a spike in her heart rate would be picked by her partners, something had spooked Feng as she quickly jumped back, motioning Ark to get out of the truck with one hand as she kneeled behind the cover offered by Wes. A loud Bang would follow as the spirit energy of the shot slammed in various fragments across the makeshift shield.

The mercenaries, be it from a drop in the jamming, pure chance, or noticing the commotion was now upon them. Or rather on a gangway up above before leaping down, this disruption would allow a brief reprieve for the masked duo as a woman in parts of a Japanese school uniform and sports gear faced the duo with a Shotgun in hand.

“Our Employer wouldn’t be too happy if those two bit the dirt just right now. How about you all go the other way?” She said.

Feng for her part glared and responded, ”Nah, we were asked to take you two in as well, so how about you surrender?” Meanwhile changes were happening with the masked duo, lacking the clarity of perception that Wes had, they seemed to be going mad. Well, the Meister was, judging by his laughter and tightening of the Scythe as he activated Resonance to physically overpower the ground that had turned against him, though it was not easy at least. The weapon seemed to be doing its hardest to regulate this madness wavelength, tainting herself in the process as the melody picked up.

’Whats the fucker giggling about and is there anything going on with the weapon? Also think we’ll take on the gunner, I’ll leave it to Ark. Get us ready for resonating as well, I doubt the gunner will play nice for long, Washimoto wasn’t it?’ Waiting for their internal reply she spoke openly and directly to Ark;

”Eh! Ark! Which one do you want? I don’t want them tagging up on us.”

‘It’s… not good.’ Wes admitted, the sheer amount of soul energy he was bleeding out overpowering their mage’s advance. ‘Their wavelength is spiking, sounds like rusty nails scraping on a chalkboard. The brother…. He’s close to losing it, should be losing it, but his sister is somehow keeping it in check.’
‘Not sure if she’ll last long though, it’s spreading from his soul into hers.’ The constant sound of the brother’s corrupted soul was having an effect on Wes, a slight feeling of nausea that he tried to suppress as he tried to focus on his own duo’s wavelength.

“I'll take care of the Scythe Meister.” To which he immediately responded with an attack that formed a cage of mud which shrunk rapidly, closing in on the group, forming inward thorns to impede their movement.

’Really?’ Aki hummed as she spectated. ’They've been doing this for a while, though… no?’ If they really couldn't last long at all without becoming corrupt, chances were they'd both be corrupted by now. Either way, let's take care of the other two. Chances are we can beat them a bit and they'll give.’

’Right!’

Got it!” With those words said, Feng would quickly move away to engage the newcomers, hopefully that would be enough to make Wes feel a little bit better, from what little they worked together she had figured out some of what he could sense, she wondered what he seen with the two of them… A question for another time, he would be going back to Annika afterall, still, was a bit of a shame, this get up provided a bit of good offense and defense, but she really needed to figure how to make use of their own talents and if they could help her with her own.

‘Say, Wes, we can’t really Chain resonate here, but how good are you at handling other wavelengths or hmm, call it abilities, traits? I have a berserker trait, would allow us to end this quick, but if I do it for too long the broach puts me out before I get a bit, well, distant. Oh yeah, what else can you do? Aki I know about, but might be someway I can use the two of you asides from a shield.’
Interestingly, Feng didn’t seem all that challenged about facing or ending the Mercenary pair, then again, such fights likely were so routine that she could hold conversations if they situation wasn’t dire, as another round of spirit buckshot slammed into the gong, letting out the iconic sound of said weapon as it reverberated.

For their part the Mercs were all too keen to gain some distance, to fight somewhere less crowded at the opposite end of the warehouse. Taking a few potshots with Aki, neither side had delt any damage of note as the Mercenary Meister made use of the coverage offered by the structure and its malevolent, if not illegal cargo.

For their part, the caged group buried the end of the polearm into the blade sending up a seismic charge, in an attempt to break and snap the gage at the source, and beneath the feet of Ark, before lifting it back up to fire more of these seismic slashes at the poking and prodding spikes. “YOU BASTARD! I’LL MAKE YOU BLEED!”
The only response the Earth Mage had to that was to swiftly shift the earth underneath himself while in turn, raising a second cage that closed around the first far more rapidly than the last.

“ You'll have to get out of there first if you ever hope to do that”

‘Berserker trait?’ Wes asked, his mind immediately picturing Feng wielding an oversized axe straight out of a fantasy movie. The name left little to the imagination, and it wasn’t hard to work out that it was something that she could use to power up. How well he would be able to handle it though, he honestly didn’t know. It took him a while to get used to Annika’s wavelength, and that was something he could tangibly feel. With this berserker thing, he didn’t know what or how it’d react once he got his hands on it. ‘I can give it a shot… no promises though.’

‘And as far as what I do, I can-‘ A dull ring sounded out as he was peppered with spiritual buckshot, the vibrations rolling up the string wrapped around Feng’s arm. ‘-alter sound. Make it louder, alter the pitch, absorb it and let it go like a flashbang without a bang. With Annika, she could supercharge that bang, make it a lot stronger than normal.’

‘’Other than that….’ Wes trailed off, trying to think of any other ways Feng could use him, before a thought struck him. ’Remember the Hawaii trip? Gauss used me to shoot out a sound wave, blew away two other agents.’
’Eh, lets not, sides I don’t think I’ll need it here.’ Feng said in regard to herself, it was a bit risky to do just here and now, if it worked, then she would just wipe the floor with both enemies, if it failed it would be two on one for Ark, short of the weapons going AW at least.

’And huh, that’s interesting, I think I got an idea, we can end this in a couple shots, is there anything special I need to do? And Aki, be ready, they are likely doing the same soul communication, seconds might be passing but can’t take it easy.

Meanwhile back on Ark’s side of things, the seismic blast fired by the weapon joined in resonance as the scythe pair broke through the first barrier as best as able and were attempting to saw the second as a faintly visible wave of cutting sound went right for the Mage, aiming to cut him down where he stood, if it were effective or not was another matter.

The wave did manage a scratch as he slipped by. And in return Ark struck with a low blow from directly below the pair as they made their attempt to slice through the cage. A rock the size of a head shot up right towards the gut.
’Just need a bit to store up a sound. Would help if they could hit us again.’ He explained to the duo. While he could generate the sound on his own, if he were provided with a source it would greatly reduce the time it would take for him to ready the soundwave. ’After that, I just need a good hit. Used to be able to trigger it with Annika’s wavelength, but…’ He trailed off, his soul wavering slightly as his thoughts turned to his partner.

’What about me?’ Aki spoke up. ’Do we need to wait for them to hit us? I can put a lot of power into my shots, probably more than they can. Wouldn’t that help build you up and detonate?’ She suggested.

‘Huh?’ Wes paused for a second, pushing his thoughts of his partner down before replying ‘Oh, uh. Yeah. That’d do it.’

On the side of Ark there wasn’t too much the other two could do without help, had the trio been together this would have been a bit more difficult. As they were so isolated, there was a loud umph sound, but cursing could be heard dimly followed by wheezing. The assault on the outer layer stopped, but was he out of action or merely a ploy? A follow up strike would likely be wise, but the cuffs would need to be used on both as quickly as possible to keep their madness in check and to keep them restrained.

The follow up strike came with an immediate low blow directly to the jaw. Ark didn't strike from below a second time, not immediately this time he sent one of the cage spikes out, dulling it so it would be nothing more than a bludge. A feint in all honesty, one he used to his advantage to close the gap between himself and the siblings with his earth magic pushing him forward as the meister was struck with his real finisher. A literal fist formed shaped of dirt coming up and aiming right for the chin. A move that if it connected, Ark knew would be enough to cause immediate rejection if the twin lost sudden consciousness and the link of resonance was abruptly shut down. It would not only leave both of them momentarily incapacitated for him to lay the cuffs on, but it would also guarantee victory.

Feng on the other hand quickly put an assault together with what she was given, responding to both of her weapon partners; ’Okay, we’ll aim for her shoulder and her legs, she’s spry but not armored at all…. Well, none of us are armored, hell, we even have anyone that fights armored?’ She wasn’t so sure, but this all was to their advantage.

’You're up first Aki, I’ll be aiming too but aim to hit the gun, go for the right shoulder, power like you want. Wes, I’m going to press Aki up against you and let a few more shots hit us, then I want to unleash your wave for her legs after we get them guarding up high from our shots, then we hope she surrenders.’

‘Right, just… not sure how accurate this is going to be.’ He admitted. With Annika, control wasn’t a problem, since he was often pressed right against whatever he was being blasted at. With Gauss he had his own wavelength that managed to guide his soundwave so that it would split and miss hitting Sara. In this case, he doubted something called berserker would help in that regard. ’There may be some blowback from the echo.’

’Just needs to be accurate enough! We knock them over or prone and I can do the rest!’

As the trio enacted the plan, an exchange of gunfire was let out, Feng continued to advance, before hoping atop some crates and running as fast as she could, keeping Aki in close proximity to Wes, she allowed the vibrations and sounds to vibrate off the material of Wes’s gong form, with some assistance from the mercs gunfire. Using resonance and enacting her plan, Feng placed several shots upon upper mass, aiming for the shoulder and the invincible shotgun, waiting for an opening, waiting for the duo to back up, to brace their upper form, a run and gun duel would ensue, till just the right time, Feng was leaning forwards and the mercenary was leaning backwards. “Wes! now!” As the blast wave of Wes’s struck home, Feng leapt into the air, practically jumping atop the merc, planting Aki squarely against the woman’s head. As the shotgun attempted to aim up, Feng planted Wes against it, keeping the two pinned even if they tried to transform out of this.

”Fine, fine, we surrender, your mage boy took out the other two.” was the reply in short order.

Wes breathed a slight sigh of relief to himself, both for Feng’s plan working, but also being able to take care of the mercenaries without killing them. Even though there weren’t any hiccups on his part, he felt off ever since his departure from his partner. He found it hard to focus, to properly control himself in the same way he would have been able to with Annika.
Hopefully it would pass before she managed to get back on her feet. He’d hate to have her wasting energy worrying about him.

’So that’s it. Let’s hope Gauss and the others didn’t have any trouble with the witch.’

Nodding in response, this all had been rather easy… Hadn’t it? Too easy. But better easy than a blood bath. She hoped the other team fared so well as she used the DWMA communicator, noticing the jamming was down, ”Feng here, we’re finished on our end, captured all four, how’s things on your side Gauss, got any orders, still alive?’

Collabers: RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Shotgunpenguin

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Malta Team B​

As with all things, the perception of power was academic and relative. As Gauss spoke his words and the probing attack was foiled, Synthia just smiled, a thin, mocking smile. And she spoke, all the while preparing a larger offensive. “The union of witch and man was a mistake. Turning against the ways of nature, of our ancestors for thousands of years. That some would sleep with you, a human man with so little to offer, shows we have lost value in ourselves.” Seven spell circles formed in the air, and three on the ground below, near storm drains and sewer tunnels as she continued.

“...DWMA, suddenly a child takes control of things and all those eons of hatred are to be erased? I’ll drown all of you.”

With that the multitude of spell circles activated, with the three on the ground becoming three pillars of water, that joined in unison and took up a position around the witch, making one wonder if she had a water breathing spells or feature, or if there was an air pocket inside of the new water source that continued to draw in water from ruptured pipes in the ground below.

The seven however, five became tendrils, taking water from the larger pillar or maybe from the personal mana of the caster, Ark had he been there, would have had more insight on the manner. These tendrils lashed out with speed, mass and force as the witch, true to Gauss’s expectation, took a step back, moving her water pillar with her. While the remaining ones became akin to orbs, one of the two fired off a four foot wide blade of water, partially defusing its mass. Two of the blades were now hurtling towards the pair as some communication would get across from Feng, while the words likely only made sense to them, but it seemed more likely than not that they were dealing with both of the other threats and would not be able to help with the witch any time soon. Unusually for a Witch this one was both prideful and cautious, caution born from a relatively long life, and pride from what and who she was.

Arkayis did admit that he agreed with the witches' words, more than likely for different reasons than hers. He wasn’t happy about the Union with the Witches more so because it limited the amount of witches they could purge from this world. But he really didn’t have much time to fret on that since they now had to deal with what he considered a pest that is in needed of a exterminator and opted to just follow Gausses lead figuring he had himself some sort of neat strategy for dealing with it.
’New plan,’ Gauss announced to both his weapon partners in a pinch. His tone was as quick as feet when he leapt backwards to gain more space between himself and the Witch.

Gauss shifted his wavelength from Arkayis back over to Noah, though in reality what he wanted to do, either of them probably could have. Noah simply had more experience.

’Amplify my wavelength,’ Gauss instructed, ’we’re going to move some metal. Hopefully, she’ll think that’s your ability and we can surprise her with electricity later.’ If Gauss couldn’t deceive her one way, he would try another. There truly was no limit to how underhanded he would be. And, in this case, it made sense. It was unlikely the Witch would assume they had three unique abilities, so if she saw them seemingly lifting metal and debris, the illusion would be set.

‘Mhm, on it.’

With Noah empowering that magnetic Wavelength, Gauss was able to create a central magnetic field that ripped parts of the building, debris, and nearby steel structures on the roof clean off, intercepting the tendrils for the most part. Given they were made of water, it would be easy for them to seep around the haphazard structure that floated in the air, but it would still be an impediment. Unfortunately, this one diversion was not sufficient to block all of the incoming attacks.

Instead, Gauss had to play on the offensive and dance to the tune of the attacks. The water blades were synchronized, sure, but that was only at the point of their launch. Using Arkayis as the brutal weapon he actually was, Gauss sidestepped over to the left to encounter that particular waterblade first and slashed the scythe head at it directly, abusing the indestructible nature of a Demon Weapon to overpower the simple offensive spell.

”Listen, lady,” Gauss shouted, his tone carrying over an almost-degrading tone of frustration. ”I’m all for getting messy between the species, but the tendrils are where I draw the line. I don’t do weird tentacle shit,” he said, now being much more direct in his goading. Noah actually let out a laugh at the jab, though only Arkayis and Gauss would hear it in their soul space.

”Hmm… What an interesting choice, for your last words.” The Witch said in quick order. Watching his attack, she had seen enough from that standpoint, though being a meister with two weapons, there were likely yet more surprises, however Synthia knew she could not play with him long. Such was the benefits of fighting at Sea, she could take all the time in the world, build a great wave, or a cleaving one and break a ship in half, she could snatch sailors and DWMA agents from the decks and pull them below, or her tendrils to drag smaller ships to the bottom. Land, even with one so weak, always carried risk. It would be best to kill him here and now.

As the first blade was cut apart, she sent a roughly 3x12 foot tendril out in a straight forward attack, till it broke off and turned into the shape of a drill head, launching with great force, as a third tendril of water went to encircle the trio. Her attacks were simple, yet powerful, it became clear in short order what the second tendril was about as watersickles for lack of a better word, formed from around the edges, being made ready to fire many needled pieces of water at speed. Mere seconds would likely lay in the in between as spell circles lit up the entire length.

‘She’s no fun, guys, I guess we’ll just have to kill her,’ Gauss announced within their shared soul space. That golden soul of his was still brimming with confidence. It did shudder for a brief moment at seeing her increased spellcasting, but it remained as radiant and innervating as ever.

‘Step one,” Gauss said, mostly doing an inner monologue, ‘eliminate field of sight. We can see her, but she can’t see us. Following suit, Gauss used his enhanced magnetism through Noah to tear down the steel beams supporting the building below them so that he could cleave through them with Arkayis to hop into the rubble. In doing that, he managed to both dodge the incoming attacks and leave the field of view of the Witch.

’Step two, the Meister went on, ’set up a distraction.

Gauss began pouring ample Wavelength into Noah, which at this point the two had become close enough to know that the volume of wavelength he was getting meant only one thing: Resonance. Except this time, Gauss didn’t have to extend his arm outward to spiral Noah. Instead, he could do so and remain mobile by generating his third flaming arm, which together with his normal arm, began to spin Noah rapidly, helping to generate electricity and amplify the Wavelength provided.

All the while, Gauss ran through the building to near the Witch and with his new arms could afford to split his attention. His distraction while Noah generated power was fairly simple: blast the Witch with all the debris he had sucked in to block her. While he ran forward out of view, perhaps only visible through some damaged patches in the room, shards of metal, rebar, roofing, and wall reinforcement carrying either cement or drywall were flung at the Witch in high velocity.

’Step three, boys,’ Gauss said leaping out a window on the far side of the building, ’while distracted, hit her with everything you got.

With those words said, Gauss thrust Noah forward after whatever time he gave his partner to amplify the wavelength and generate electricity. Notably, it wasn’t as long as ideal nor was he spinning as fast, but it came at the advantage of being mobile. In fairness to the relative sloppiness of the technique, the arms were still new to Gauss. He might find better ways to use them later.

’Oh, and just in case, Arky: be prepared for anything. If the bolt lands, you’re next and we’re gonna try to fry’er like calamari, Gauss said internally, as now he didn’t have to concentrate quite as much. He was literally mid-air and Noah had to take it from here with the bolt.

Even with the sloppiness of the spin, Noah did have a better handle of generating electricity from a slower, shorter spin than normal thanks to their training, the staff crackling with electricity as he let loose a thundering, crackling bolt towards the witch. While it could’ve been better if it were faster, it was much stronger than back at the Romania mission.

With the sudden burst of activity out of the duo, or no, trio, the Witch who had earned the title of Kraken watches and waits, the Meister had moved quickly, retreating into the structure, severing or pulling up portions of it via what she considered an unknown means, analyzing and rationalizing, it was likely akin to magic. That being, it was likely the work of the soul. The Meister’s Soul.

Then there was how, she had found them in the first place… It was with this realization that she immediately fired off a tendril of water and extended her hair forward she was just able to partially react to the blast from Noah, as the electricity went into her stream of water, she made a funnel with a metallic smoking pipe in one hand, and water being shaped in the other as she moved the current through her strangely oozing hair, through her own frame and then into the pipe, striking a nearby structure, how she survived and dealt with this, was no doubt next on her lips, given these sorts of people.

“In… three hundred years…do you think… I never was attacked with lightning?” It was upon noticing the spare arm of Gauss through the rubble and dust, that her eyes narrowed as the rigid mass of tentacles that made up her hair, pointed and aimed at all points around her as she took the chance to move a couple meters back. “What are you…?”

”Like so many women before you,” Gauss responded in a quick, cutting tone, ”your biggest regret.”

She could redirect one bolt of lightning. Kudos to her. Annoying, but not something Gauss was actually unprepared for. Ironically, it wasn’t Noah he thought this would be a problem with, but instead Arkayis. Fire was much, much more common. A battle of elements was often about control and redirection more so than just overpowering an opponent. Still, everything he had learned to help Arkayis if his flames were ever contested was equally applicable to Noah and that lightning.

Gauss spawned his second flaming arm for the sole purpose of reaching out to the building he had left from and using it to rappel down. Unlike his normal arms, this flaming arm was perfectly stable and sufficiently long to plant him in place. Not at all how he intended on utilizing it, but again, it was all new. This was just as much a test drive as it was a formal plan.

Back to spinning Noah at an ever-increasing velocity, now pouring even more of his wavelength and focus in with the weapon, the plan was simple. That Witch thought she had dispersed the lightning through her and into the weapon, but that electricity was not true lightning. It was not electrons being shot from the clouds straight to the Earth. No, it was an element comprised of spiritual energy. In the same way flames from a spell don't immediately dissipate, neither did an element generated by spiritual energy. Without the presence of an Anti-Magic wavelength, at least.

Together this time, Gauss and Noah would fixate on the remaining lighting coursing through the structures around the Witch and through sheer force of control, bring it back onto her. Not as intense as a single bolt, but the sacrifice in raw power came with the benefit of the unnatural way it would feed back into her as a target. It was not just one bolt. It was a dozen or more paths of lower resistance, her hair, her metal pipe as a conduit, even minerals in the water she controlled that acted as imperfections and thus connections to lead back to her.

’That bitch thought she could could just toss around your hard-earned lightning like it was nothing…’ Gauss shared, jokingly goading Noah about the Witch, ’...we don’t intend on letting her get away with that, do we?’

‘Hah, fuck no!’ Noah wasn’t exactly upset, but he was frustrated, using this to focus as he helped Gauss pull the electricity back through the Witch. Even if it didn’t deal nearly the damage it would have upon impact, it most certainly should cause disruptions in her nervous system. Ideally, her muscles spasming would make for a great opening with Arky. It would all ultimately come down to her resistance.

With the actions of the three, Synthia was caught off guard as she watched the fourth arm appear, the spiritual lightning did rebound and caught her from all points as her hair spasmed, her spouts of water broke as she fell to the ground, though it did not dissipate, staying around her, squirming here and there as she rose to her legs shakenly. “Neat…trick… But what in the hell are you?… that is neither spirit nor mana. You do not belong here, cursed one, do not think me down.” With those words, she stuck her heels into the mudded dirt and sand, raising thinner and more originated strands of water in fact too on the look of an arm mounted cannon. What it could do was another question, and this woman didn’t care to explain the trick.

The Witch spoke outwardly and used her time rising up and conjuring more water. Gauss did not waste time. He played by the book in dealing with this Witch. Negotiations failed, he played to her ego, he was unleashing powerful attacks, and now he was going to use all his speed to rush in for a kill. The standard blitz tactic, although delayed much longer than it should have been. A consequence of them being caught off guard.

Gauss intended to give this attack his all. Given the recent addition to his repertoire of skills, exactly what they could do both in general and at maximum had become a blurred line. In terms of effort, though, this would be about as far as Gauss could take it.

The Meister switched up his stance, hanging out the side of the building with his single arm. He swapped both Arkayis and Noah to his actual arms and now grabbed onto the most nearby windowsill, using it as an anchor. Just as quick as he got a grasp, he used both arms like a slingshot to thrust himself straight at the Witch with all his might.

He didn’t offer her words. There was no rebuttal. The argument between them was over and even if it wasn’t, he didn’t intend on answering any of her death-forsaken questions even if he could. He was out for blood. He was a shark in the water.

That much Arkayis could feel. It was rare their souls aligned so well, but Gauss wanted this Witch dead given the danger she presented and how well she handled their myriad of abilities. Worse, he speculated Ark wouldn’t have an answer for her, either. No offense to Feng, but it was doubtful a few blasts from Aki were going to do this Witch in.

No, it was up to them. This trio.

And, at this moment, it was on Arkayis. It wasn’t necessarily bloodlust that coursed through Gauss, but the will and drive to kill was there. Zero hesitation. No holding back. That was what Arkayis could feel. The unbridled desire to kill; and that was a trait they shared. For different reasons, perhaps, but that was irrelevant.

Gauss poured his wavelength, now more agreeable than ever to Arkayis, into the Demon Weapon. Using his own two hands and shifting Noah back to the flaming hands, Gauss elected to spearhead himself forward with Arkayis leading the charge, bringing the flaming spearhead down onto the Witch in a direct attempt to bisect her. That is what the Witch saw before her water cannon could even materialize from her magic.

This four-armed beast of a Meister flying at her with blue flames hot enough to immediately evaporate her water and singe her hair. He went from some arrogant punk to a demonic executioner real quick.

Arkayis was beginning to enjoy this moment, killing witches was always a business he took pleasure in and it had been a while since he got the opportunity to burn a witch to dust. Something that all witches deserved, Gauss's bloodlust was like adding fuel to the already raging inferno. His flames were hotter than they had ever been, with him and Gauss being completely on the same wavelength for this moment. There was a fit of mad giggles within the soul space that Gauss and Noah could hear, a rare moment as Arkayis didn’t allow himself to reveal much of his emotions other than a select few. But for occasions such as this, giving a Witch the honor of being cut down with a blade hot enough to vaporize anything in its path was something he would relish in. He had as much sympathy for this witch as a cat had for a rat, to him it was the same thing with him and Gauss being the cat that were going to kill the vermin of a rat.

As the killing intent of the two grew and spilled into action, Flames closed in upon the witch, blue and burning, clashing with the flame arms of the meister. Fire upon fire, the time it took them to close in, the witch quickly went to work in her shocked form, pulling upon herself the sheer amount of water around herself and from the water lines she had broken in their first meeting, an offensive was out of the question, in fact, what she was doing now could barely be called a spell. The hydro cannon, or the initial opening.

Borne of desperation. It was an incomplete spell with a single command, or two, as the blade began to kiss flesh, water and blood explosively reacted, hot mist and vapor mixed with mana, spell circles upon spell circles formed as the Witch let out a pain filled scream, steam and flame kissed her skin, but the expected cut, the expected slice, the satisfaction, the spurt of blood… Was not there, nowhere to be found as between eye blinks, like a hot water boiler exploding primarily in one direction, the witch had shown her desire to live was much greater than her wish to kill them. Water and mana simply exploded towards one direction, sending her flying as more water was ripped from the surroundings and lines to blast Synthia forward, towards the sea.

It was obvious between the mist and vapor, that the witch had suffered significant steam and fire burns to her body, and perhaps broke an arm, her hair, or the tendrils they formed was heavily singed, there was little doubt that she was in horrific pain. Rocketing with the blasts and additional hastily formed spell circles, she took herself over a nearby warehouse, down the cliffside that made up the coast, and into the ocean, where an even more pain-filled scream could be heard, mixed with rage and fury. Careless expenditure of mana and the carrying faintly of one voice could be heard and seen, a massive tidal wave formed, thrashed about and collapsed into the sea as in repetition, “I’ll kill you! Kill you! Kill you! GAAAAAAAH!” echoed along the shore. And just as quickly as it started, calm returned to the sea. The Witch by no means was dead, seemingly trying to nurse her wounds in her own dominion, likely too spent to try hurting them again.

The extent of her bodily damage was unclear. Gauss had been blown back in the opposite direction from the sheer force of the explosion. Arkayis didn’t get to make direct contact, either, though his flames and scythe head were damn close. The reality unseen by the trio was that Synthia would need bandages, likely some intense debridement, and either some type of hospital or healing Witch far beyond her skill level. Her clothes were tatters, ribs broken from the explosion, a small chance of a concussion, and potentially even permanent damage–that remained unclear. She didn’t just underestimate them, no, she couldn’t have planned for whatever that was. All this pain and agony came in second to the wound to her ego, those little fuckers had slighted her. She would, eventually, have her revenge.

While the Witch fled, Gauss was flung backwards, or more specifically, downwards from her in the explosion she created. Unlike her, his body was augmented quite considerably. Resonance with Arkayis at the time made him fairly durable, so while sore and bruised, he wouldn’t have those broken bones, aside from perhaps a cracked ribs of his own, though the adrenaline pumping through him made such an issue trifling in the moment.

An explosion like that occurs in fractions of a second and it couldn’t have been but another one or two before Gauss found himself en route to the ground, using his new flaming arms to brace himself against the fall. Once he had recomposed himself, he couldn’t even sense the Witch. She was out of his range of vision and out of his Soul Perception. Still bolstered from his resonance with Arkayis, which hadn’t broke though was stressed during the explosion, Gauss opted to run straight up the building he was once on until his flaming arms could reach the windowsill they were once in and yet again slingshot himself to the room.

From there, he could in fact see the Witch. She was at least halfway to the beach headed Southwest by the time he got up there, probably in no small part due to the trajectory of the explosion. She was shouting some maniacal nonsense and clearly still alive, though at what cost was uncertain. Either way, Gauss was certain that even if he sprinted full speed, he wouldn’t reach her before she reached the coast. He knew he was faster than her; their fight just proved it. She had to use some type of explosion on herself to avoid death.

”Well, boys… it looks like that one’s getting away, sorry to say,” Gauss mumbled, a little disappointed. Probably nowhere near to the same degree as Arkayis. Even mumbled, though, his intent was clear through their spiritual link.

”We’ll have to work on our speed and range,” he added aloud, turning back towards the truck yard and walking over to the edge of the roof to view their teammates, ”so, let’s wrap up this mission and get on that.”

Noah was silent, regulating what he could throughout it all. He was both surprised at Arkayis’s giggles and then disappointed they couldn't kill the Witch, but he was now worried. Worried about how Arkayis would take it, considering he was so excited to taste Witch blood upon his blade, only for the satisfaction to be ripped unfairly away from him. As a precaution, he flooded Gauss and Arkayis with healing wavelength, electricity crackling around his staff and connecting to his meister and co-weapon as he did so. He didn't want whatever Arkayis was going through to cause feedback upon Gauss, nor did he want Arkayis to lose his shit. He didn't know if Arkayis would have a Madness issue, nor was he thinking about it. He just wanted to make sure there wasn't errant rejection.

Arkayis had been raving mad that their kill was stolen from them by a mere stroke of luck on the witch’s part. He wanted that witch to be stabbed, their insides melted, their blood evaporated into air, their body burnt to dust. Arkayis madness had spiked for a moment as he began curse in the soul space “Verdammt feiger hund verflucht Hexe, fickin drecksack -” before his madness could grow any further or transform and continue their rant though they could feel Noah's healing wavelength flow towards them resulting in them calming down somewhat before eventually just scoffing and adding

”Whatever, good luck living your life knowing that a sea wench will be wanting revenge against you, better cancel any cruise plans you had or get really good at sensing it.” It was a fact that that witch was going to seek revenge, he wanted the witch dead just as much as she wanted him dead. But even if they didn’t have a burning hatred towards witches, that witch swore revenge against them and they doubted those were empty threats. She was more than likely going to pour resources into keeping tabs on them and make preparations to fight them in a second round and was more than likely going to strike when she felt like she had an overwhelming advantage, and with most of Gauss's tricks being revealed she will know what to expect next time and they would have to get really creative in order to finish them off for good.

”Yeah, I’m not too pleased she got out alive myself,” Gauss responded, agreeing with the general issue Arkayis had, albeit in a much more controlled way. The arms on his back withdrew. They weren’t yet pushing his endurance, but he could feel the toll they exerted on him. It was a lot like trying to run with a weight vest on. The same movements he could normally do required more effort. Thus, he didn’t see a reason to keep them out if he didn’t need to.

”Granted, we started the fight at a disadvantage and she had to blow herself up to escape. On a macro-level, not the worst outcome,” Gauss continued, coloring the event with his commentary and at least trying to shift the conversation in a more tactical direction. ”If she’s stupid enough to come after us again, we’ll just kill’er then. Gives us a reason to train that much harder, boys,” he added, trying to give Arkayis a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel.

With the jamming going down during the confrontation, a single message, that was in the form of several questions would come to pass over the communicators, principally calling for Gauss. ”Feng here, we’re finished on our end, captured all four, how’s things on your side Gauss, got any orders, still alive?’

”Witch escaped. She had a few tricks up her sleeve,” Gauss replied through the communicator, pressing the thumb he held Noah with to the communicator as a gesture to hear better. His ears were in fact ringing slightly still from the explosion.

”Make sure they’re all in the suppression cuffs. I’ll call into HQ. In the meantime, have Ark make stone stockades for them and separate out Meisters from the Weapons. Zero chances,” Gauss relayed, giving the requested instructions to Feng.

RedArmyShogun Peckinou Merciless Medic

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael Valerias​

Date: September 20, 2067
Location: Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, California
Interactions: Nadia, Dani, Adrian, Mister Prey, Kris, Night Stalker
Mentions: N/A
RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Sir Les Paul

Raphael saw the size of the issue before him, the dead, the sigil, the empowerment that this man with no mana was capable of. Just what was he?

He watched as the creatures were revived, but what he saw intrigued him.

Ignoring the words spewed by the Night Stalker for now - despite how much that incessant voice burrowed its way into his mind - he saw the effects of Dani’s scorpion tail venom and his own chains. The suppression quality of them had him stunned. Something about the quality of his chain’s magic prevented these guys from reviving.

Intriguing…

Hearing Nadia give out orders, he gave out his own orders as soon as Nadia charged forward into the masses. He ran to the middle of the road, calling on the communicator. “I’m going to need cover so I can stop at least half of these guys from reviving. My chains can suppress most of this empowering bullshit they got, but I gotta chain my magic circles. I need as much concentration and cannot be touched. I’m especially going to need you, Adrian. Protect me-” He growled over the communicator, a strange sound that sounded more like a strangled groan of disdain. “Er- don’t mind that. Keep me from getting hit, and it’ll be well worth it.” With that, he sent out a couple fibrin grenades, letting them explode against the ones who got too close to him while he began concentrating.

Crouching and putting his hands on the ground, his grimoire opened to the page of the magic circle he needed, he began creating one five yards in diameter, the circle being made with himself in the bottom edge.

He can already feel strain coming on as he goes to add a couple more circles, and then a couple more, the circles chaining together and glowing, covering almost half of the sigil’s bottom portion. He can feel his mana pouring from him, and Death, was it uncomfortable. All of his attention was on the magic circles, feeling them, letting them take over his perception of everything, trusting that his comrades will protect him.

All he needed to do was use his trapping spell, and they wouldn’t have to worry about a good portion of this horde, just as long as Adrian and whoever else protects him.

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, CA​

​

This battle for a brief moment offered a rare gift to the entire ensemble of agents and mercenaries. It was not often that forces could be so well matched that classical combat could continue on for more than just a few moments. Most fights weren't really fights. They were slaughters. Perhaps it was the sheer volume of opponents and their inherent durability that made this combat feel like less of a slaughter. Despite how the sigil had empowered many of the canon fodder cultists, it didn't really make them more threatening. They gained a few new traits, like a slight corrosive nature to their blood, and the ability to bend and morph their bodies in inhuman ways. Nothing the crew couldn't handle. The only real danger would have came from being restrained or piled onto, but proper direction and technique would prevent that.

For a few serene minutes, this was the type of glorious, non-stop combat that bards once sung songs about. Nadia and Dani slashing through targets only for them to reform, dancing around and through the mob. Kris was even more wily, but that was due to his weapon of choice. He darted around the field in jagged lines, trying to inch closer to the Bishops to take them out. It was a slow progress as each cultist he blasted a hole in would simply keep coming. Adrian meanwhile did as Raph requested, defending him like a one man shield wall. At times, he had to kick the cultists off his spikes or just completely withdraw them to avoid being bogged down. His fighting style lacked the sheer lethality to properly deal with the cultists.

It only lasted a few minutes. The corrosive venom from Dani did begin to eat at the blood smear on the ground that comprised the leviathan cross. It was insidious in how it crept through the blood, slowly turning it to carbonized ash. Eating and eating, extending through it, consuming it almost, and as it did, causing the effect to weaken. This was only compounded by the spell Raphael cast. While the effect from Richard was fading more and more by the moment, a good third of the entire field it contained was now being restrained by animated chains that emerged from the Magic Circles Raphael had cast upon the ground. This meant even Adrian, the least suited for combating these cultists, could return to impaling them to cause their death.

"Mongrels - all of you," Richard muttered, seeing their push back against his forces. There was a while where his side was winning. Kris was moving slowly, Nadia and Dani could only truly make it so far before the cluster of regenerating targets was too great, and Adrian was all-but useless. Now, he was losing his peons by the droves.

It was a spiteful type of hate that erupted from him. Seeing his worshippers cut down in a way that even he could not halt, it sickened him. It reminded him so much of his time on trial. He remembered what it was like when he returned to his little neighborhood in California. He didn't know at the time the police were onto him. He didn't know he was their prey. But, he was. It was that singular response of nearly being captured that drove him to Madness. Yet, such a sick man as he, Madness hardly meant anything. Before he even went mad, his soul was corrupted. Filthy. Evil. It was a unique situation of Corruption coming before Madness. In his life, he never killed anyone while Mad... so his soul was in a state of flux. Corrupt and irredeemable, yet with periods of clarity and Madness as it waxed and waned.

He went through trial, but eventually released to the DWMA. That was a whole separate story. What mattered now was that seeing his flock being culled brought back the same feelings he had when he was merely a human running from the cops, trying to avoid the accountability of his clearly heinous crimes. It brought him to a searing rage that even Dani did not know. It was fear and pride mingling together alongside his hedonistic Madness and the very evil within him. This would not be another last stand. He would not allow it. He would not be taken again.

His entire body burst into dark, crimson flames, though they were not so easily seen in the dead of the night as they did not illuminate the air as fire normally did. Whatever oddity that was, it was only a precursor to what came next. He relented his focus on his forlorn symbol, knowing it wouldn't last much longer anyway. Instead, he decided to start taking out targets one-by-one, starting with the ones he perceived as easiest. In this case, that was the mage in the back forced to sit still while he was casting whatever spell he maintained.

The blood on the ground was so thick and thorough that the entire street was nearly a puddle of the warm mess. Through that connect, that corrupted blood, Richard exerted his control. He lifted his hands, the pentagrams on each palm glowing, and with them caused a grotesque scene that only blurred the line between his abilities and magic even further. Of the dead cultists now beyond saving, he ripped their very bones from their bodies. Their spines first raising into the air, covered in the red viscera from their old bodies, and some being forced to merge back together due to the damage taken while they were still in their body. Seconds after, more and more of these pink-and-red bones shot into the air and around these spines, melding into them until they all created large, conical forms that hardly matched what actual bones looked like.

Like bullets, a dozen or more of these conical spears shot out directly at Raph. Their blazing speeds were in fact beyond what he could have hoped to dodge or react to. Luckily for the Sorcerer, Adrian defaulted to protecting his allies. His own Self-Resonance and Iron Maiden form allowing him to reach Raph before the spear-like creations and defend him with a full-body transformation.

Meanwhile, the entire barrier that held the group in came shattering down. Not of its own volition. Instead, it was a combination of the venom of Dani and an actual spell from Mister Prey. A tornado of bats now descended onto the battlefield, attacking individual cultists, and apparently having rammed themselves through the weakened barrier. Mister Prey was merely waiting for the right opportunity. With age came wisdom.

Kris was already off blowing holes into the Bishops. Or, trying to at least.

Richard didn't know the fate of Raphael, but he didn't intend on letting up on the assault. The same pool of blood on the ground allowed him to dive into it. Remerging at Nadia. Remerging with a speed that was completely unexpected. His left hand went to wrap around her throat, which it did that much. He was surprisingly strong for someone that seemed to cast spells so effortlessly. And, this close, that vile aura around him only became more intense. There were no words that could describe how disgusting it truly was. If the soul were a stomach, this food wouldn't last a second before it caused one to wretch and heave in an automatic attempt to expel the putrid substance.

"You idiots think I'm afraid to use my own two hands," Richard said, his voice raising in pitch, his cadence faster, his frustration clear. His free hand began to morph, another feat of body horror as it temporarily became a mangled mess of flesh. What it ultimately shifted to was an almost-beak like form, though the reality was that it was, in fact, the head of a worm. A creature intended to tunnel through the earth. A natural part of the ecosystem that organically till soil and break down decaying matter. Yet again being used unnaturally as he thrust his hand directly into the chest of Nadia, aiming for a kill shot by tearing through her heart.

Merciless Medic RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen

 

[Haze-]

Wren
Ashford Hospital; London, England​

A black finger nail tapped at one empty plate, clinking on porcelain. The rest of them were just as devoid of life. The war was over, no more food left. She sat there, leaning back with her arms crossed, eyes idly following on-going guests walking around the cafeteria while she listened to Elly and Zosar — “So that’s outta the question, then…” — She echoed the obvious, just for the sake of being on the same page with everyone.

She had a moment of realization, crossing her arms. Half-annoyed at the lack of simplicity behind the alibi they were constructing here, and half-relieved that she was in no position of leadership to be laying things out when it came down to reporting what had happened.

As she was bringing her soda up to her mouth, she caught Kisei washing down whatever he was choking on. She watched his hand gesturing at her with narrow eyes, up-turned lips, trying not to spit out her drink.

“Uh-huh?” — Her voice came out muffled, mouth cupped on her half-empty drink, peering over the rim at Kisei with a quirked brow. There was a snarky remark trying to pry her lips open, escape. Something, something about dyeing Elly’s hair silver or red— something else about teaching her Italian. But she bit down the words instead. The corners of her mouth twitching, like an invisible force were pulling them back down every time they unconsciously tried forming a smile. It was a primal instinct of hers telling her that Elly would rip her head off for that one joke.

Sadly, no matter how funny their reactions would’ve been, it was self-preservation first.

Then there was the witch, to whom she gave a puzzled look as she gave her piece. Not that there was anything she had said that Wren didn’t agree with, but rather, something that jutted out of her whole spiel. It was inconsequential, downright out of topic, but she couldn’t help mention it.

“So…you wanted to go for a swim with the water horse, ‘s what you’re tellin’ me. I don’t recall you warning us ‘bout the Kelpie or the bell at all back then.” — The werewolf narrowed an (exaggeratedly suspicious) eye at Maria, one ear ticking down and flicking back up. Witches relayed information on whims and wiles, too, was her hunch.

As quick as she brought it up, she dismissed it, shrugging as she turned to look at Elly and Kisei.

“Yeah,” — She started, head tilting to her shoulder — “No one said anything about sneaking the mirror over to Death City right under their noses. ‘Deceive’ ’s a pretty big word. Like the fae-disliker here said,” — She gestured towards Maria — “This juncture calls for doctrine, we should just consult someone with more pull about it. See if they can make the main branch agree that the mirror shouldn’t stay here.”

“Do we all agree on giving Cyrus a call first, then?”

The Regal Rper EmperorsChosen Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Kisei☆Hoshi​

Deadsoul​

Species Death Golem
Partner Eloise Keegan
Rank Two-Star

Location Ashford Hospital, London
Mission A Reflection of Question
Status Relaxed

​

Tags: The Regal Rper RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Haze-

Kisei let slip a light, but pointed chuckle. There was something entertaining about it all. Each member of the group had a considerably different perspective about the potential deception, in small part sculpted by their wildly different histories. One might think that Zosar, Wren, and Elly had plenty in similar, all being former thieves. But, no. Zosar was an immature member of a small time international crime rink. He was more of Robin Hood meets cat burglar than he was some large scale criminal. Elly, on the other hand, was part of a large family-oriented crime ring with a more diverse set of crimes on her plate. Her hands were probably dirtier than Zosar's, but Zosar had more experience in the broader world. And, Wren? She didn't have the luxury of some band of thieves or family of criminals; she just had to do whatever it took to survive.

Maria was a whole different type of individual herself, but her approach was markedly different, too. If left to her own devices, she likely would have simply been purely honest, including honestly telling Adam he didn't deserve the mirror and needed to take better care of it.

In any case, what struck Kisei as truly funny was that the subjects being discussed around this table were truly grave. Even if they weren't part of the F.A.T.E. Program, some of these actions could be considered a form of treason. The humor that struck him was how mind-bogglingly short-sighted this all was. Sure, they kept clarifying and clarifying what they would and wouldn't do and it became less and less ridiculous with each iteration, but even as it stood now, the idea was absurd.

One might think that it was absurd that these low-level agents would just call up Cyrus, the second-in-command of the Central Branch, and tell him they thought they should supersede mission objectives. In what world would their opinions carry any weight? It should have, for all practical reasons, went through the chain of command with the higher-ups being the ones to make that judgement call. Experience and wisdom had their place. But, then the F.A.T.E. Program gave them a direct line to said second-in-command. These agents really lacked proper perspective of the chain-of-command and just how many steps they were overreaching... but, perhaps that was a flat with the system. A problem with program.

It might be unfair to truly call them short-sighted if the road had in fact been made shorter for them.

No, what was more damning was that the agents were just completely overlooking the implications of their actions on an international level. They didn't yet know, apparently, the full depth of the friction between the branches. How if it got out that agents went to Cyrus, effectively what Adam was to the Western European Branch, and tattled on him, it would paint such poor picture of cooperation. Worse was that even assuming the agents are correct in their evaluation, is it the hill to die on? If Adam didn't want to give up the mirror, what could Cyrus do? There were so many layers to this. It was a power play and a complex one.

This whole discussion told Kisei all he needed to know.

The sound of the plastic utensils Kisei was using made a small thudding sound once he sat them on the plate. It was all made of some thermoplastic meant to be sanitized once turned in, so it was plenty hard and durable.

"Alright, ladies an' gentlemen," Kisei said, cutting into the conversation following the last question made by Wren, "I'm about to both make your day and piss you off all at once."

He smirked. It was smug. Even Elly didn't know this was coming. In fact, that is what he expected to frustrate her. Of course, how would he have gotten a genuine reaction and a glimpse into her thought process if he told her? He didn't lie to her, either. He had no intention of turning them in, betraying anyone, or getting them in trouble. She was safe, and by extension, the group was safe. What Kisei kept from here was why.

"You will all be glad to know that we don't have to call anyone," he told them. His voice had a touch of theatrics, perhaps bordering into histrionic once he shrugged his shoulders and opened his hands, gesturing them to further emphasize his word play. "Lord Kidd is going to request the mirror personally from the Western European Branch for study," he told them, finally giving them the explanation behind his stunt. And, fortunately, it did actually explain plenty. Though, it left a giant gaping chasm in regards to understanding how Kisei would know that. And, more so, the likelihood he knew it all the time and allowed them to prattle on.

"A word of advice," Kisei said, shifting his tone to a more serious one. While he did seem jovial and even half-joking before, now he was cold and serious. Not the type of way he was when he was setting up a joke, but how he was when he was actually behaving like a mentor back when he formally was one. "Don't go meddling in the affairs between branches. If you are ever stuck between two branches, do only as your told. Nothing more, nothing less, aside from maybe when lives are the line," he told them, meaning every word he said.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long - Inspector Leonardini
Malta - September 22nd
​

With all said and done, cuffs on the four they captured, and the witch being, who knows where, Inspector Leonardini was true to his word and had the same average patrol men waiting with cars for when Gauss gave the order to regroup. The drive back to the station, or rather to a holding station at Malta International, the Inspector seemed keen to get rid of them. Though, perhaps that was not the reason in full?

The Jet the agent's had come in on was long gone, but another was waiting, even now going through its warmup and preflight procedures as police in riot gear stayed with the prisoner transport, and a couple DWMA Agents with them that seemed to speak Italian from what few mumbles could be heard. These agents seemed expressly there to take custody of the prisoners, a flight log had been handed off to the inspector. It seemed they would be collected and taken by Helicopter to Rome. And they came with, unusually for these days, a written order for the team to return to Death City at once. Within the orders it made sure to in no uncertain terms to inform them all that they would be required to wait upon landing till dismissed. The team had no way of knowing about events that had happened a day or two before, about the return of Arkayis's sister and the new seemingly willfully traitorous lizard golem she had become, nor about the events of team Nadia in LA.

Not all was lost however, the policeman seemed rather happy. "We've not spotted Synthia, though if she is as burned as you say, that will stand out around here. Though, its not much but you and yours are both welcome to visit Malta whenever you like. Just ask for me, sorry to say there is no reward for this job. Though, surprised to see you took them alive. Anything else I do or enquire before on our behalf? Want any souvenirs? Heh."

"Though I must say I'm surprised, when I seen how young you all were, I was expecting a few deaths or a lot more damage. I'm honestly impressed you took them alive. Minus the masked one threatening to kill us all, they aren't saying anything. I've still got no idea what they were doing in Malta and with the DWMA taking them into custody, I may never learn that. Unless I fish up the witch, she's madder at you than me after all..."

EmperorsChosen (Aki) Sir Les Paul (Gauss) The Regal Rper (Ark) Merciless Medic (Noah) Shotgunpenguin (Wes) Peckinou (Arky)​

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael Valerias​

Date: September 20, 2067
Location: Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, California
Interactions: Adrian
Mentions: Nadia, Dani
Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen

Raphael had been staring at the ground, completely cut off from what was going on around him. One moment, he was pouring his mana out into the concrete road. The next moment, it was dark and he felt immediately cut off from his magic. He felt nauseous, his hands pressed against the cold metal floor. Looking around, he noticed the holes up top where the head of this contraption laid.

“Ah… It’s you, Adrian. Thank you…” Raphael panted, his body and soul winded from that use of his mana. He took a second to breathe, yet he could hear the mob come near.

“Alright, once I make enough chains, open those doors. We’re gonna give ‘em all a bad day.” He grunted, pouring more of his mana in his Demon Tool as he created a series of chains. One set looked like a flogger with how many chain lengths were coming off one chain, while he also made a few more.

Once done, he poured his control in his chains so he may be able to whip them around effectively. Putting the grenades on the ends of his chains to remote detonate them once he whipped them out, he also created mace heads on the end of his chain flogger and grapple hooks on the ends of his single chain lengths. One to bash the enemy and the other to grip onto an enemy and throw them around the place while the grenades weakened them.

“Alright, open those doors, Adrian.” Raphael grinned. Once Adrian did so, he unleashed the chains, the metal whipping about and the grenades attached to them exploding as Raphael saw the chains heading towards a mob, trying to give them enough space and a breather for Adrian to transform back to normal.

Then again, he felt pretty comfortable in here.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Noah Wiley​

Date: September 22, 2067
Location: Airport, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Interactions: Inspector Leonardini
Mentions: Gauss, Arkayis, Feng, Aki, Wes, Ark
Sir Les Paul Peckinou RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Shotgunpenguin The Regal Rper

After it was all said and done, Noah was getting pretty tired. They had done the Egypt mission that spanned two days (not including the time it took to get there), and then another day for this Malta mission. Even though the Malta mission was pretty short, it still was tiring.

At least it seemed that the inspector was happy. A job well done had Noah grinning like an idiot despite his attempts to appear like he didn’t really care for the praise.

At the thought of having a souvenir, Noah had to think about that. It wasn’t often they got to keep something from a mission, and this mission was a resounding success, even if it was short. Though, realizing that he was just more than tired and just wanted to rest in an actual bed for once - and his own, for that matter - he decided against it. All he could think about was sleeping back home.

He did chuckle at the half-joke regarding fishing up the Witch, and Noah just shrugged. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. They’re vengeful peeps. She’ll find us ‘n’ we’ll be ready f’r ‘er.” He patted Arkayis’s shoulder - wherever he went, hoping that the reminder of her explosive departure didn’t sour him.

Otherwise, he was going to get another dose of his healing wavelength.

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, CA​

​

’GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER’ Dani’s voice boomed with an animalistic snarl, the flames coating the blade and tail sparking higher and rocking violently. The tail struck with staggering speed, however aiming to coil around the appendage striking at Nadia’s chest to restrain it before the stinger itself loomed over him, briefly pausing before pecking down at him.

”...Y-ou-” Nadia said or spat out from the chokehold, for a corpse his body was surprisingly strong, she had found it amusing that all his plans were getting upended. Having no idea who he was, or his past, or even caring, she had decided he would die. Again. ”-ugly, moth-er -fucker!” with those words said and the efforts of Dani in attempting to save her, Nadia went for a very dirty low blow, having considered kicking him in the balls, she did not have neither room nor space for this… But she did have enough room to bring her right knee up right into his groin on the first strike and into the cut on the second onwards, before reaching out with her own freehand to give Richard a strike to the jaw.

Had Nadia been without that stinger from Dani, this would have been her end. A strike to the testicles meant little to a foul creature like Richard. The type of pain it would inflict paled in comparison to what he felt every time he reconfigured his body into a new form. The strike to his chin had the same effect, or lack thereof. It wasn’t that he was durable beyond her means, it was that her means of doing damage meant little to a being like him.

Sasori. The ability Dani possessed. The speed and reaction time it had was comparable if not entirely above most Three-Star Meisters. Richard had no hope of dodging it. His right arm was caught by her tail, coiled around his flesh and searing into it. Now not only was the vile wavelength from this man nauseating, the smell of his putrid skin cooking from her flames added to it. He didn’t realize just how fast that technique was.

It was also settling in that it drew from the same source of power that he did.

Richard forfeit his entire arm to escape Dani. As if string cheese merely stretching out, his flesh became thin, gooey wisps once he jumped back, solely attempting to dodge the stinger from Dani. He knew he wanted none of that. In this same motion, he let go of Nadia. His clothes no longer limited him either as Dani had burned away that portion of his shirt.

“JUST FUCKING DIE!” he shouted, lifting up his left arm to reveal the pentagram on his palm. Before his words even finished, he began pelting Nadia and Dani with a barrage of blasts of the same kind Cameron had fired at them not long ago. His right arm was taking some time to regenerate as it had to flesh out from the thin, messy leftovers of what was left from escaping Dani.

This was the same trick as before, though much more potent and numerous than what his Bishop unleashed on her. Each would be painful, but not lethal. A nastier element to it was that he used the same blood on the ground to up and crystalize around Nadia’s feet, trying to lock her in place for the barrage. Underhanded was the name of his game.

Nadia was not left entirely to her own devices, however. Mister Prey and his vortex of conjured bats swarmed around them, trying to absorb some of the impact of the blasts but also obscure the vision of Richard, pelting him in sheer numbers with their little furry bodies.

With all that was happening, Nadia found more than a few aspects of it to be disgusting, but now was no time to respond to it, as the source behind all of this proceeded to up the ante. Nadia for her part attempted two things to get out of her predicament. First she reached down with her free hand and punched the encroaching crystallization, unleashing Soul Force Icy. In the same movement, Nadia shook the arm aside and reached up for both hands upon Dani’s sword form. ’Let’s match quantity with quality! Complex Resonance and send blast right back.’ Nadia snarled, carrying out her part of the attack, sending a wave of energy right for the Nightwalker. Aiming her own ranged attack for his core and the now attempting to heal arm remains, she was keen to give him no breather.

She would have to thank Mister Prey when this was all said and done. Hopefully his bats cleared a lane. If her movements could be freed, Nadia would immediately rush in close. ”Nyet, I don’t think I will.”

Dani snarled as the bastard escaped, the tail loosening as Nadia tossed the arm aside. At her words, the flames surrounding the blade illuminated a violent crimson as she took in Nadia’s wavelength and spiked it with her own, condensing it until Nadia brought the blade down in an arc.

In terms of raw power, there was no doubt that Nadia and Dani eclipsed Richard. The spiritual blast from their resonance was able to cleave through multiple blasts from his palm and even hit him in return, leaving an impression on his body. Not to mention, ruining his clothes further.

The problem was not power. It was how much damage the Nightstalker could withstand. He was far more durable than any of his cultists or bishops. And, while he was not as defensive as Anathema, he seemed just durable enough to avoid destruction and capable of regenerating from damn-near anything. The slash shot from Nadia would have been enough to leave at least a bone-shattering crumple inside of Anathema, yet here was this man of mere flesh withstanding it.

Once more, even though their slash had broken through multiple blasts, it did not stop the portions of them that it did not contact. Nadia still ultimately took a pelting to her torso and legs, dampened by the shield of bats at the least, but enough to cause a stumble.

One Richard would have tried to capitalize on. No matter how broken his body seemed to become, he never had to halt his offense. A luxury Nadia did not have. While his chest and torso reformed, his left remaining arm stretched out into what most closely resembled a crab leg, albeit bladed, and he made a mad dash forward yet again with his crumpled, slinking body. That tiny window, that opening from his blasts, he wanted to capitalize on it.

He wouldn’t get the chance to.

Nadia was not alone. While Raphael and Adrian were behind her dealing with their own incoming swarm as if it were a remake of the Night of the Living Dead, they happened to not be her only allies in this fight. Kris finally made his appearance. In fairness, he had blasted down a Bishop only to learn they reformed, and unlike Richard, he couldn’t wade through this pool of blood like a shark in the waters. His delay made sense, but his presence would prove appreciated regardless.

That larger pistol of his, a modified Desert Eagle, though blood-stained and ugly from countless battles, made its appearance. Originally, it was a thing of beauty with brushed-steel and carbon fiber accents, but those had long since lost their machining. Not only that, it was an earlier modification that allowed it to use his wavelength, meaning it was a little more invasive. Unattractive though it may be, the blast that exited its barrel and tore off the left arm of Richard was no less impressive.

Another surprise. Teamwork, actually, and what should have been expected from the mercenaries. Mister Prey arrived with his own bladed arm, though it was less crustacean and more akin to a large pair of hedge clippers created with actual blood manipulation; the trademark of many offensive Bloodsuckers. With them, he was able to snip off both legs of the former serial killer, cleaving them cleanly in twain and also creating a barrier between himself and the massive pool of blood below him. Mister Prey had speculated he was drawing power from it.

Enduring the assault from the projectiles, Nadia felt as if dozens of blows from steel pipes and by a body just a bit weaker than her rained upon her. Fortunately the blows caused only superficial injuries and a bit of pain upon her legs and torso, she hurt like hell if the maid headdress wearing woman was to be honest with herself. But such pain, such onesidedness to it all, she was no stranger towards, it was akin to training with Starwulf and his disciples, in her early years at the dojo, or fighting an enemy that was worth of noticing.

”URAAAAA!” she screamed out loud, still standing as she pointed the blade at him, her shaky and no doubt later, bruised legs still standing. It was then that her allies had made their move, supporting her, it was likely for the best, no, it was, as the miserable pile of a man was made shorter, lost another arm, the Mercenaries had proven themselves. They had earned a begrudging amount of respect from her, as she gave a kurt and brief nod, speaking within her soul space, the next, and hopefully final action was to take place.

’Dani, I’ll move us in close, drive your stinger through his fucking chest, to be sure once his heart is dead, I’ll stomp his head or kick it once you are out.’

Stepping forward and sprinting through the pain and trail of blood, Nadia made it to within the reach of Dani, and kept going, though a bit more slowly as she shot her right arm, blade in hand forward. ”<Rest in piss and whatever hole you crawled out from!>”

The pain suffered by Nadia seemed to only fuel Dani’s own rage. His was a different form than hers, however nonetheless she wasn’t intimidated. As was typical with her wavelength, she became tunnel-visioned, focused on the one thing earning her ire in the moment. Everything he did increased that anger until that was all there was. As Nadia thrust her forward, the stinger struck out like a snake, aiming for dead center.

Once Nadia confirmed the strike she immediately drew back the blade and stepped forward with determination and power, bringing her boot down atop the skull of Richard, hopefully between the two, this would be enough. There was also still the matter of what to do with his accursed soul… Provided this killed him and they survived the scores of enemies still here. It was this insistence to stand upon her enemy that gave Richard his final, albeit forlorn escape.

Soon as his head touched the blood-smeared pavement, he would dive into it again, disappearing into the street itself. Not that what was left of him would mean all that much. No legs, one half-formed arm, and a hole in his chest. He was in worse shape now than he ever was while alive. Worse, he was gone. Disappeared into the crowd of cultists. This might have spurred a feeling of dread. The realization that the effort Mister Prey put into not allowing him contact with the ground was forsaken for little more than narrow-minded pride or worse completely blind battle lust.

At the very least, that specific dread wouldn't last for long. No, it would be replaced with another as the maniacal cackling of Richard Ramirez was heard only a few dozen feet beyond Nadia, Dani, and the two Bloodsuckers. He hadn't gotten far, only hiding in the crowd of cultists left, in total probably a third of their total number. For the moment, though, they stood still. Like mindless husks waiting to be given a command.

"You know..." his now raspy, strained voice echoed in the crowd "Federal or state, when a prison comes to execute a man, they always laugh..."

"So do I..."​

Fact of the matter, Richard Ramirez was dying. He only reemerged from the pool of blood because he couldn't maintain his ability to dive into it even more. Removing his limbs and puncturing his heart, even, weren't enough to kill him. In what world would sundering the heart of a heathenistic, heartless being such as himself matter anyway? No, his death came slowly. It was venom coursing in him. That which Dani imparted with the tip of her tail. Corrosive to some degree, but now burning his flesh away like thin fabric from the cherry of a fallen cigarette. The hole in his chest slowly inches outward, burning with orange and red coals as it turned his flesh to a dark grey ash. There was nothing he could do about it. His regeneration refused to rebuild what had turned to ash and his limbs were growing back slower and slower as his power waned, almost to a standstill.

His fate was sealed.

Yet still, he laughed. Vigorous. Haughty. Arrogant. He laughed as if this victory was his. He laughed like his death meant nothing. He laughed like this what he intended all along.

OOC Note: potentially disturbing subject matter following.

The reality is that he laughed because his words were true. He laughed when he executed a man. The grim fact of his cult was that the three hundred or so that the group encountered were only a third or so of those infected by his blood. Some refused to kill. Some resisted the urge after their first. Many souls he had touched were still innocent. Many were dozens of miles away. But, right now, as his life faded, he saw them be forced to do his bidding. He saw countless good people capable of resisting his vile corruption, of resisting evil yet not having a way to purge it. He saw them with impromptu weapons and bare hands killing others. Some pushed random people into the street. Some grabbed the most nearby heavy object and flung it at children. Some just picked out someone small or old and just began pummeling them.

It didn't matter exactly what it was. It didn't matter or who or what they hurt. It only mattered that someone died. As his body turned more and more to ash, the remaining cultists began fleeing the scene. They, too, were in search of new victims. It made a clear path to Richard, what little remained of him. The loon had devolved into maniacal laughter as he saw the sins of those he was now forcing to commit such atrocities. Each one was not just one life lost, but two. For, as soon as that soul killed another, it was forever Corrupted. It would be sentenced to death. Even those that danced with the devil and declined his waltz would not avoid the pathway to Hell.

That was the joke. That was the jest. That was the source of his laughter. They might have killed him, but he put this blood on their hands. It was not until backed into a corner with no means of negotiation that he pulled out his final trump card. In his eyes, they forced him to do this. And, with glee, he did it. He saw the burly man's hands wrapped around the neck of the fragile old woman after breaking into her home. He saw the mother beat her child with a trophy. He saw the teenage punk find his father's gun and use it without reluctance. He saw all those he tried and failed to pull into his cult step into darkness before his passing. He saw it all, as if getting to experience a hundred simultaneous killing sprees.

That was the loss the agents and mercenaries would face. Richard died in joy.

Even as he could no longer cackle because his jaw was ash, the scenes of these violent crimes and killing flashed over his eyes and brought him pure ecstasy. In his mind, he had won.

Soon enough, he was gone. All that was left in his place was a black, spurting flame not unlike the one Dani had encountered against the Leshy. Just as the previous one had called out to Dani, urging her to come closer, this one did the same with Nadia. Not yet close enough to hear that voice or feel its presence, but that same magnetic pull was present. Of course, it was mixed amongst a dozen other feelings from the situation.

Merciless Medic RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer - Ashford Hospital, London, England​

Now that the conversation had started, Maria listened to all of those present, or those who had sought to voice questions or concerns, first there was Elly who had a mixture of jokes and a request for information, if only in a roundabout way, before shortly turning her attention to the words that Kisei had for Wren. It seemed she rather direct the attention upon herself, surely in jest? It was nothing to ponder when there indeed was something she could answer.

"Correct, the Fae do have rules and laws they abide, however there are two things to always keep in mind. For one, unless a deal has all the details hammered out, they can and will try to trick you or give a, ah, what's the term? Ah yes, a Monkey's Paw. While some are detailed and honest. The second thing, and most concerning, was the hounds we faced were made by magic, magic akin to my own, and thus can ignore the rules altogether."

Then there was Wren, though the key event happened later to keep her quiet most of the time, Maria did still hold a bit of a grudge over it. One that she voiced readily and directly. "It seemed with this team I was listening to the sound of my own voice, point of fact one of you even asked me to shut up and say less. I'm under no obligation to give advice that isn't wanted." It may have been a bit petty, but she honestly had had enough of this mission, and to an extent this team. In a manner it was more unpleasant than Dall Island, but it was fighting against two things that could have killed her, and then messing with powers far beyond her own. All of her creations would need repairs, and she was tired enough to want a good rest. Though she knew her upgrades and repairs would prevent her from doing such.

Then, before Zosar said anything, Kisei spoke up, with his own words, thoughts, and truth of the matter, the witch could only frown. As she processed the words and the last bit of what Wren said, she sighed. "I did not say call Cyrus, rather to call the mentors and then, if need be, him. Still, what was the point in even asking us, if the matter was decided? And should an item like this, really be left with a branch that has no means to secure it? And matters between branches..."

The whole, following orders and not questioning it, just did not sit well with the Magus. She had been taught to question, to plot, to theorize, to explore and to learn. Magic could not be controlled by those with no imagination and a yes-man could not adapt and overcome. There was little reason to even speak to him about this, her world and his were far apart. "So, when do we leave? I've no wish to stay in the Isles any longer than I must, though I cannot speak for the rest."

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Elly) Sir Les Paul (Kisei) The Regal Rper (Zosar) Haze- (Wren)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov - Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, CA
​

In the immediate aftermath, Nadia felt enraged, all she could have done, or maybe should have done, was cut his head off. She had not figured he would survive with a hole in his chest where a heart should be, she had not counted on him being able to dive into the blood and the street. It empowered him, sure, but empowering and what amounts to teleportation were very different things, even if he had done it before, between that and her stomp, it should have been an instant death. It was a mistake, a failure. Yet one she could not have accounted for.

Just what were these infernal humans? Could they even be considered humans? No, they were little more than monsters. And crowing ones at that. But with what she had seen, would cutting his head off also not led to this? Doubts were unpleasant things, and she had a job to do. What ifs were nothing more than the wasting of energy for the conscious of the guilty.

She had done her job and had done it well. Though not as well as could be. They sent too few men.

These people were corrupted and lost, the only thing that awaited them was death. But he had the nerve to laugh, to gleefully set about his own next actions. But from the very start this was killed or be killed, and his cult would not have turned a new leaf, having killed people the whole while, having marched to destruction. This was not the laughter of a man that stood in triumph. It was the final cries of the demented and insane. And during all of this, his fanatics decided to scatter, bringing yet more death and destruction with them.

It was then that the black flame formed and called to her. Nadia stared at it for a few long heartbeats, then started walking towards it. "Mocking bastard I'll scatter your ashes to the wind and put out that damned flame! Your ambitions, whatever they were, die with you!"

Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPCs) Merciless Medic (Sara, Raph)

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Adrian Hackney​

"The Maiden"​

Species Human
Partner None
Rank Fate Agent

Location Page Private Academy, Southern LA, California
Mission Return of the Stalker
Status Focused, confused
​

Tags: Merciless Medic RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen

The mad dash to save Raphael paid off. At least, insofar that the sorcerer was alive. Adrian might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he had a gift when it came to making quick decisions. Given his fixation on protecting others, these quick decisions of his often carried that much more weight. Such was the case now.

The massive spears made of bone had next-to-no impact on the indestructible, iron shell of his Iron Maiden form. He hated it. The form, that was. He was as immovable as he was indestructible. Sure, he acted as a nearly-perfect barrier around Raphael, but he also lacked any form of mobility. It was something he absolutely hated. It was a near total loss of agency, especially on a battlefield. It was something he didn't understand how other Demon Weapons dealt with. Then again, they at least had the privilege of being a partner. Sure, they could not move, but they had a whole plethora of things to do while being wielded.

Adrian had next-to-nothing in this form, barring he managed to capture an enemy in it.

Once Raphael told Adrian to open the doors, there was truly little reason for him to decline. Worse, there was little else for him to do. So, that's exactly what he did. The doors of the iron maiden flung open and what fired out were those chains conjured by Raphael. Which would effectively capture plenty of cultists, anchoring them in place. Their numbers were thinned pretty heavily, so it wasn't quite the overwhelming horde it was earlier. Not only that, they were considerably weaker and held without the use of magic circles, so the concentration required was much lower.

Then... virtually non-existent. The wretched horde at one point became entirely stationary. From their position, it was hard to visually see what was going on. Adrian could feel it, though. The sheer power coming from Nadia and Dani. It far exceeded anything he could do. The blasts from Kris were of a similar caliber. Then of course, the slashes from Mister Prey. That fell into the category of magic, and thus Raphael could feel it. The fight was going on and on, back and forth, and the corruption in it meant that perceiving any spiritual or magical effects from the side of Richard was nigh-impossible, so what they saw was a one-sided fight.

Given the cultists started standing still, there was an argument for their victory. Adrian finally returned to his human form in that bright flash of red. This caused Raphael a moment of stumbling as there was a good few inches of air between himself and the ground, but nothing too difficult to recover from beyond the surprise. This itself only lasted so long until the cultists Raphael didn't have bound began running off and both Adrian and Raph could hear the cackling of Richard off in the distance and the shouting of Nadia.

Those cultists he bound were now little more than dogs on leashes with the chains. Not directly attacking, but still straining his magic with their newfound activity. It was, from their perspective, an odd series of events.

"What the absolute fuck..." Adrian said, voicing his confusion in the moment. He wasn't sure what to do. Was it safe to attack them? What were Nadia and Dani doing? What of Richard? What of the Bloodsuckers? Plenty of unanswered questions and he dared not leave Raph in the event the leashed cultists tried to turn on him.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael Valerias​

Date: September 20, 2067
Location: Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, California
Interactions: Adrian
Mentions: Nadia, Dani, Night Stalker, Mister Prey, Kris
Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen

Raphael wasn't accounting for how little of the horde there was, nor was he accounting for them changing behavior. He did capture them and crystallized their blood with the grenades, sure.

But now they were trying to run away.

Raphael sensed the magic being used further ahead where Dani and Nadia were, figuring it was either Mister Prey or Kris's doing. He was still trying wrangle these hounds as he referred to them, growling as they were putting strain on his chains and thus his magic.

When Adrian transformed back to normal, Raphael tripped, but he recovered as he stumbled back to a standing position. He coughed a little, his soul feeling more and more like a raisin the more he used his damned chains. He looked over at Adrian, his expression flat as he wanted to chew him out for not telling him when he was going to shift, only to realize the look he had.

Taking a moment, he looked over at the melting figure of Ramirez, Nadia charging forwards and yelling, and...

"Yeah, I'm just as confused as you are."

Raphael could feel something wasn't right, some of these cultists he didn't manage to capture were running away. His eyes narrowed. "Um... I don't think these cultists are being cowards now... Sure their leader is gone, but why was he laughing like that?" It was clear this maniac knew more about what was going to happen, and he was starting to dread where these fucks were going. For now, he kept the assholes he had locked up in chains.

"I don't like where this is going..." He muttered, wondering how long it's been for Sunder's MIBVI Response team to arrive.

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Daniella Ethalyn - Los Angeles, California
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

While Nadia's words and intent seeped into her, giving her some direction and steering her, her wavelength had long since become enflamed enough to pinpoint her focus at one particular thing, that being the Nightstalker. She didn't even properly notice the chains that shot out to help them, nor Kris or the others fighting around them. As her stinger delved into his chest cavity, she only wanted him to hurt more.

When he reappeared at a distance, it only angered her further. She wanted the bastard dead, yet he clung on and laughed. Dani felt little satisfaction as he faded away, nor relief that most had paused. She wanted to stab or punch something--everything. That was, until his body gave way to flame.

It was perhaps a testament that even as she was, her experience in Adolla had rocked her to such an extent that her concern over it took precedent over her blind rage, especially when Nadia began walking towards. Her wavelength spiked, fear shooting into Nadia from her before it was overcome with more ire, desperate ire. 'NO!' She growled within their soul space.

More surprising, however, was that Dani did not remain in Nadia's hands. Light enveloped her form and shot out of her hands. As Dani landed to her feet, she pressed a palm roughly against Nadia, as if to push her back. "You don't go FUCKING near it!" She shouted before turning her attention on the flame itself. Looking like a complete loon, Dani took a few stomps towards it as the scorpion tail materialized from her form, almost as if she were challenging it.

"You want to pull this fucking shit again!? FUCK YOU! YOU WON'T FUCKING TAKE HER! I'LL TEAR YOU APART YOU FUCKING FAKE--JUST FUCKING TRY IT! I'LL... kill... fucking kill... kill..." As Dani stomped toward the flames, it seemed she quickly reached her limit and the broach began to do its job. It had began to feed calm into her even when she was still in Nadia's hands. Now, it seemed to reach the point of introducing sedatives. Accordingly, Dani went from a very pissed off bear to a very pissed off, but drunk bear, hobbling about a few more steps before ultimately collapsing.

RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul Merciless Medic

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Eloise Keegan - Ashford Hospital, London, England
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Elly glanced over to Kisei as he spoke. She knew that look, and with it meant something that would annoy her. With how much that was happening lately, she began to wonder why she didn't just change her last name to Hoshi. Her index and middle fingers pressed against her temple as she brought her cup up to her lips with her free hand, awaiting what it was that would irk her.

The good news was that they didn't need to contact anyone as it would work itself out. However, that begged the question Maria had posed, why exactly they wasted time discussing it. Elly was less upset with whatever test Kisei wanted to give them or curiosity that took hold of him and was more irritated that she shouldn't even be here. She used to work at this branch and though The Loch were weaker, they weren't gone and they very much didn't like her. Even if she didn't have to worry about a gunman trying to kill her in broad daylight, someone may see her, which in turn could lead to her being tracked and issues down the line. She was safest with them not having any idea where she was. What annoyed her most, was that out of everyone present, he was the only other one to know that.

Her eyes narrowed in his direction, followed by a twitch of one brow and a slow exhale from her nose. Maria's supposed pettiness was a point to take note of in its own right, as well as Wren's shit-eating grin, but Elly could only dwell on how nonchalant her identity was being treated. Sometimes, she we wished Kisei would have gotten her an in with the clan, if only so she could train her speed to smack him in cases like these.

"I would agree with Maria... Unless, dear, you also wanted us to stroll around town just for the hell of it, hm?" Elly's tone was sweet and friendly, but she was sure Kisei would denote her displeasure and its source.

RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul The Regal Rper Haze-

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov - Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, CA
​

With the outburst of Dani, the sudden shutting off from her rage, the words that were said, and the situation unfolding, Nadia had a few moments of calm and clarity. The ability to process all that was happening, all that was possible yet to happen. The warnings of Dani stood out, but so did Nadia's stubborn determination and oath to duty. Nadia viewed this situation, much as she did leaving her gang. Sacrifices were demanded of those who would lead, and for far too many of them, it was they who followed that would pay the price.

Turning her attention to the rest and their communicators a cold determined command shot through, as her own collar, or the sudden disconnect from Dani seemed to calm her a bit too much. "Go. Kill them, kill every last one of them. His last act I have no doubt was to send his army to destroy all. No prisoners. Do not make me repeat myself. I'll join you soon, got to see to this. Every moment they live an innocent will likely die. I assume full responsibility for what is to take place. Please. I will see to this and to Dani, but just go, if you don't hundreds if not thousands more will die, tell the other teams as well, communicate with the LAPD, I'll be back soon."

It may have started as a command, but the last bit had words to it. She could hear the call of the rift and seen how desperate Dani was to protect her from it, but there was the unfortunate rule of the situation. If she left, someone else would likely find it. If she had one of hers deal with it, then, well, she would have to hope the madness of Adrian or Raph didn't explode as a result. The mercs were a no go, and any normal person gaining something from this would be a risk.

Leaving it for study was possible, but it would mean guarding it herself. Walking ever closer to the black fire, Nadia picked Dani up, ignoring the others as she ran her left fingers through the latter's hair, laying her on her back. She then crossed Dani's arms a little bit and did her best to keep her head laying on something at least a little comfortable, though that was calling nicely shaped rubble comfortable. "Sorry Dani. I know you mean well, you can be angry with me later. But this, this, what happened to you, what is happening now, it's not your burden to bear alone. Something is happening in our world, and not just to you, but in France, here, where next?"

Taking in a deep breath and letting it out in a slow sigh, Nadia shook her head. Playing with Dani's hair a little more, she would give a small peck of a kiss to her forehead and finally went from standing and she stated directly to her and to the fire both;

"I am the leader, and your partner, and I mean to ask these devils what's going on. I have no ghosts to fear. All that happens, for good or for bad, falls upon me, upon us. The people need us, I'm going to take my chances and try to beat some answers out of whatever I find. Thank you, my dear sister, be angry with me after, but at least you won't be alone with this curse, or gift. And I cannot demand another carries it to keep me safe, or to let chance hand it to another, least all this happens again."

Getting up Nadia made directly towards it, stretching her right hand at the black essence of flame. "I've no interest in deals with a devil, but I shall have answers."

Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPCs) Merciless Medic (Sara, Raph)

 

[The Regal Rper]

Zosar | London

Alright so learning that this was an evaluation on Kisei's part should have been something he expected, to say the least both points their Hoshi companion had made were noted.

All the Meister gave in response was a a steady nod. “Noted for the future then, understood.”

He had been through similar situations with the old crew, to him this wasn't that upsetting. He had no way of knowing Elly’s reason for being irritated so he didn't comment when she made her remark to Kisei either. Maria looked about done and eager to be out of here and away from them, and he, honestly, was looking forward to getting back with Wren, setting something up with Az and Reiko or whoever on evaluating her more carefully, and catching up with the other teams.

Checking on Gale would also need to be factored in to however much time he had once they got back. He just hoped Wren's instincts and Gale's didn't have some weird effect on the presence either might have on each other like the Fae had.

Mentions: RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen

Interactions: Haze- Sir Les Paul

 

[Haze-]

Wren
Ashford Hospital; London, England​

Wren was watching ice swishing circles at the bottom of her plastic cup, rasping the edges, trying to look stoic while she waited for the rest to chime in on her question. She brought up the cup, silently tilting her head back and crushing up some cubes between her teeth. Her eyes followed Kisei’s shoulders, and then — "Lord Kidd is going to request the mirror personally from the Western European Branch for study,"

“Gh—hm-uh???” — She coughed up the chewed slush she was swallowing, a thin line of cold water running down her mouth as it sat there in her tongue— her face broke down to basic shapes, as if a draft of human emotion made by an amateur artist. Wide, dumbfounded eyes and eyebrows damn near reaching for her hairline — “Shh—shay hwhat nhow…?” — Was all she managed to mutter through mouth full of ice.

She gulped, wiped her mouth with a sleeve, eyes still wide and looking like she’d been waken up from a coma with a bucket of water to the face. Her expression didn’t share Elly’s irritation. No, the reveal had been confusing more than anything else. It left her suspended; something wasn’t functioning right up there in her skull; her brain was lagging behind — ‘So what the fuck was the point then?’

Her eyes narrowed to a close, nodding along with Zosar — “The inmates can’t go runnin’ the asylum…” — She sighed. This team had been a journey, or rather— in the nicest way she could put it— a learning experience. In some way, it had been much worse than her first team, back when her first outbreak happened. She’d watched it crumble apart, bring her down with it, and then somehow hold itself together.

It was bitter.

In a petty way, childish way, she was hopeful. She’d wanted to bounce back into the job like it were a movie, in a graceful comeback, tacking through the motions like they were muscle memory. But things just felt sloppy here. Funny enough, it left her feeling like she was running on an empty stomach.

It wasn’t fulfilling.

Then again, a part of her told her that sloppiness was necessary. Crawl, walk and then learn how to run— that tacky, self-help lecture type of stuff. She could maybe start running next time. Right now, she just wanted to crawl back, take a flight and forget about half of this.

One thing she had definitely gotten out of this trip, was that she shouldn’t hang around any of Zosar’s friends for longer than necessary.

“Nah, you took the words right out of my mouth, actually.” — Wren stretched on her seat, turning an eye to Maria — “I’m done with Europe.”

She was ready to go.

“Who’s payin’ for all of this by the way?”

The Regal Rper EmperorsChosen Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun

 

[Sir Les Paul]

DWMA Conference Rooms, DWMA Main Building, Death City​

September 22nd, 2067​

To describe the debriefing session as intense would be an understatement. At the very least, the transition of the Mirror of Shalott was an easy one. The initial reluctance Adam had in the request was washed away once he learned that the mirror potentially had different effects when used by Fae Magic. It wasn't uncommon for magical objects to have some type of effect when either regular Witch Magic or Fae Magic was used on it, but it did lead to problems. Fae were wily, unpredictable tricksters. Not only that, there might have been some type of magical curse regarding its 'theft' given it was taken by force. In short, Adam had no qualms forfeiting it to Lord Kidd. He didn't expect the motley crew of Fate Agents to return with it regardless, so it being in America was still an improvement over it being in the mountains.

While impressed with their success, Adam wasn't entirely happy that a few Fae in Wales might just carry a grudge now. He couldn't really be angry, though. He didn't expect the agents to return with the mirror to begin with and that lack of faith in them led to a lack of specific orders or requests. This outcome was somewhat his fault for that.

The mission in Wales wasn't necessarily the one that made the debrief intense. The most notable consequence of the mission was right at the end, when Kidd had Kisei play that twist to see what the agents would do. That would come back in their individual evaluations later. The real issues came two-fold: the madness outbreak and entity Wren now had and the information about the golems of Eros the group had obtained. Once all of that information came to light and was explained in full, the group find themselves being dictated word-for-word, asked a million questions, and often asked the same question by different individuals. Witches came in for their magical opinion, Madness experts and those that studied historical Infernal Souls came in as well. The better part of the day they returned was spent just being interviewed. Breaks of course for the restroom and food, but for a while, there was no mention of consequences or problematic behavior. All five of them were troves of information that left some of their interviewers half-panicked.

The group didn't know it yet, but the answers they provided would go on to have greater impacts. Eros would be elevated on the DWMA top wanted list. Astila would be temporarily taken off while they evaluated how much more dangerous she might be as a golem. More so, between the information this group provided and the information that the mission in Los Angeles provided, there would be entire reworks and whole new questions about Madness, Madness-Magic, the way spirituality worked, and now debate over whether they should review the Ramirez case files to see if his soul might constitute a new soul-type. In short, in just this one week in September, the study known as Plasmology was changing in fundamental ways.

This all consumed the majority of the day. It eventually came to an end as the sun was setting. Cyrus then took over and explained that on the morrow, that Thursday, he would give them their evaluations at 1100 in this same location. In the mean time, Zosar and Wren would spend the later portions of the night being more thoroughly evaluated for Madness. Zosar would be given two magitech bands on each wrists, similar to the Incapacitator collars so common amongst the agents. In this case, they would act more like filters. If they sensed incoming Madness from Wren, they would dampen it at the cost of roughly half of her resonance intensity. It was an issue, sure, but Zosar could reflect on the fight with the Hellhounds and it be fairly clear that half her power would have been better than none. Meanwhile, Wren would require longer study, especially with her new entity... it was always such a problem when Madness too conscious form.

Elly and Maria would have been free sooner. Kisei, on the other hand, was off to the Death Room. Alone. This would act as his evaluation, but also provide an opportunity for him to share what should remain privy with just those of the upper echelon. As for the others, Zosar and Wren were taken into a conference room together being given their review by some peon of the Intelligence Branch. Cyrus would not be giving them individual reviews nor would their mentors. More changes to the system. Elly would have a different intelligence agent for her review. Maria had an interest choice of sorcerer, it seemed, doing her review; a male one, at that. This might have seemed a slight, but men like him likely had weak magic, thus made for better clerical agents.

• Zosar & Wren
• Maria
• Elly

• Unlike the others in the group, Zosar and Wren were given their evaluation together. This was in part because they were a duo. The larger part of this was that the primary discussion to be had was about the Madness they were both exposed to. Neither one of them were especially egregious on the mission, so there was little need for reprimand. Even if there was, the Madness would be a greater concern.
  
  "It appears you received your bracelets last night. Those are prototypes developed in the labs, but they should help. There is a note here from their engineer, a mister Misha... if they look too girly, he can make them more like bracers," explained the intelligence agent. She seemed young, but it was difficult to tell. Her hair was up in a bun and packed tight and her vaguely Asian features were incredibly misleading. Even if Zosar or Wren were skilled at differentiating different Eastern ethnicities, this girl was of mixed heritage, making it indefinitely more difficult. Such didn't matter, though; she was just reading from a file in a manila folder, likely pre-written by Cyrus.
  
  "This is a lot. I can either give you the cliff-notes, let you read it yourselves, or sit here and read this entire report out," she explained, expressing some of her attitude. For as formal as she looked, she didn't have the desire or patience to read through what looked like at least a few pages. That much was clear from her dull, displeased voice. "It doesn't look like you're in any trouble, this is almost all about the Madness and the new interventions. You're not being taken off duty or anything," she added, as if trying to backtrack. Truth was, she didn't want to stir up any anxieties over what was in her hands. Like a teacher that knew their test score, she was already-aware that they had nothing to truly be concerned about.
• "Miss Maria Mayer, my name is Thomas and I will the one providing your performance review," the sorcerer said, introducing himself in a monotonous voice while flipping through various floating papers in front of him, all of which were pulled from a manila folder before Maria had entered. His magic was subtle. He was not just making these papers float, but organizing them and pulling information from the written word. There was a constant, but meager, flow of mana between each paper and himself. It was not like her wires. The mana they used was miniscule, but condensed. This was even more miniscule and extremely faint. His control, or more so the control this spell exerted, was impressive at the least.
  
  "I shall begin with a simple explanation. No information was withheld from Cyrus or the Shinigami in regards to either mission. There is full transparency. To be blunt, there is argument to be expected and the point of informing you that there is no lost context is to avoid accusations of manipulation information or quotation," he told her, maintaining his monotonous voice, but not exactly inspiring confidence in how he opened up this particular review.
  
  "Good news first, your behavior during the final inquiry regarding the fate of the mirror was actually considered the most acceptable. Additionally, your combat skills and use of new magics has been reviewed by the stand-ins for Lord Rand: your performance was above average, comparatively speaking. Your use of the broom as a flight tactic, while new to you, was noted and proven effective. The power of your new elemental magic has not gone unnoticed. There are those that would see you forgo your dolls and focus on the element due to your high-affinity, but we believe Rand would not agree with sentiment and furthermore such might be a detriment to your identity as a Sorceress. To be clear, there is no insistence that you focus on your elemental magic; this is praise for it," he told her, providing her plenty of positives regarding her last two missions. He also was considerate enough to be clarify a point purely as praise and not suggestion, an important mark given Maria might be the time to easily misconstrue what she was told.
  
  "Onto the worst. Your behavior was the subject of much debate. The effect, spell or otherwise, of the Mirror of Shalott is quite intense. You and all others, really, are forgiven for what may have been said during that time. In our brief testing, the effect the mirror has is comparable to powerful cns depressants, or as you may know them, roofies. That works in your favor as the exact exchange of words in logs determined you were at least equally at fault for the verbal escalation. With this forgiveness, said escalation will not be a demerit of any kind. However, thorough review of audio logs and the series of events as outlined by you and your peers has determined a behavioral issue on your part. There existed a point in time where your word ineloquent word choice, for lack of better phrasing, resulting in a negative consequence for your group. The verbal exchange you provide was unnecessary to begin with, but it has been determined that any reasonable individual would have perceived the word you used as an insult. There simply is no excuse for this. Either you were so ignorant that you did see the negative connotation of the term as a slight or worse that you did not care about the consequences. In either case, it is a problem that must be amended. Furthermore, it is a problem that must be acknowledged. You will often meet individuals, creatures, Fae, or even other Witches and Sorcerers with deeper cultural roots in the Witch Realm, where a verbal slight like this is a genuine problem. If you slight them, that is your failure. Unless the comment made is considered something unreasonable for you to know or recognize, we will consider that your personal fault," Thomas explained, though he had to stop to catch his breath. By the time he ended this half of his explanation, it was fairly clear the sheer amount of word vomit was taking a toll on his jaw.
  
  "You later tried to justify this action and minimize it when referring to the actions of another member of your team. These are not acceptable behaviors, either. A mistake is a mistake and you must acknowledge it as such. If you do not do so, you will not fail to grow and worse you will become or continue to be a liability in any situation where verbal interaction of a sensitive nature is a requirement; and, we cannot always place you on missions where there is no chance of that occurring, outside of perhaps becoming a dedicated Monster Hunter," he told her, this time drawing in some of her other behaviors during the mission and pointing them out as problematic.
  
  "You may respond as you see fit, but I am obligated to inform you that attempting to lessen the impact of your behaviors and actions by bringing to light those of your teammates or otherwise dismissing the evaluation provided will negatively impact your perceived compliance in the program. In short, this meeting is solely about you and your actions. All other members of your group will have their own individual assessments held privately," he told her.
  
  "Lastly, should you agree and understand the issue at hand without argument, we can proceed to the next steps in the program. It has been determined that you will temporarily cease your flight training and instead that time slot will be dedicate toward sensitivity training. You will also be requested to attend an online communications class worth one credit hour over the course of the next six months," he said, providing her the consequences of her previous behavior. "We might suggest you apologize or otherwise more formally acknowledge your behavior, but has been determined that we shall not enforce it. Instead, we only aim at preventing the issue from reoccurring," he told her, explaining why the intervention was relatively minimal.
• "Cyrus pulled us deliver these long-ass reviews instea'a doin' it 'imself. This is not my job. I don' know why he though' it would be appropriate to pull an intelligence officer to relay a performance review; I never been in the field," bitched the agent, a gum-chewing blond in a uniformed skirt with a clear disdain for dealing with this F.A.T.E. Program bullshit.
  
  Isabella, as noted by her nametag, simply slid the manila folder over to Elly, as if urging her to read it.
  
  "Listen, bih, apparently they think you got no backbone. There's a whole weird section in there about your first mission where you jus' suddenly changed your 'tude which they found sketch, but that whole second mission you jus let shit go off the rails. Not coo'," she explained, barely, just trying to summarize the bulk of the review to the best of her ability. Actually, let's face it. This was not the best of her ability. This was to the limitation of her work ethic. Or, more accurately, her work ethic when she was taken off the communications array she was trained for.
  
  "You gotta atten' leadership training and do some combat sims with no partner. Some shi' 'bout seeing your decision-making," Isabella told her, showing no real tactic in how she delivered the bad news.
  
  "There's some other shi' in there about classes or Fae specialists; I'm not gonna lie, I didn' read it. What I do know is they're givin' you the chance to get a differen' partner 'cause'a the weird shi' tha 'appened with his... ex? I don' fuckin' know, gurl; that whole file reads like a shitty soap opera remake," she told her. She then tapped her fingers on the folder as if further encouraging Elly to read it. Most because she didn't want to.
  

The Regal Rper RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Haze-

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Paramount Pictures Gate, Los Angeles, CA
↪ Adolla Rift​

Nadia did not even need to touch the flame for it to draw her into the same world her dear partner once saw. No, her fingertips merely needed near it, an inch away at best. Then, her entire world was lit ablaze. As if the crackling flames of a campfire as it burnt through painful polaroids of the past, what she saw of the battlefield burned away until there was naught but blackness that surrounded her.

From that blackness, light started to appear. An endless field of lights that painted a grayscale cityscape resembling closely the streets she had spent the last two days familiarizing herself with. The layout was vaguely the same as downtown LA, but it was caricature at best. Neon lights painted every corner, providing the only color in this black and white world. The outlines of buildings in the murky shades of gray danced and diluted themselves, being made of the same black flames described by most witnesses of the event.

She was in a living city. Not a perfect replica of Los Angeles, nor one stranded in time. It was as if an obscure artist was painting their rendition of the city. Was it a city of sin? Or, the city of angels? There was no clear indication, for this artist seemed to have never seen the city for what actually was. Or, perhaps that wasn’t it; perhaps this unnamed artist saw the city for what it really was.

Regardless, it was a city on fire.

​

As if the looney antics of a Saturday morning cartoon were brought to life, Nadia would find herself floating mid-air while this world was painted beneath her. And, upon that realization, helplessly plummet to the ground. Yet, there was no hard impact. There was no pain. There was even no heat. If anything, when those eyes reactively closed upon impact, they would only awaken to a gentle coolness as she laid back-down in a pool of inky-blackness atop a random roof amongst a sea of other roofs, some painted with flames, some scoured with this black ink.

Once her eyes were opened to this new, abysmal world, so, too, were her ears to the faint sounds of battle below. Sounds clashing and clanking, though the more realistic metallic clangs of them instead of those dramatized for television. These were real fights, whatever they were. More confusing was the first voice she heard in this new world: her own.

“<Varvarskaya Shlyukha!> (Barbarian Whore!) I am not a dunce to be mocked or a dog to be led blind battle!” shouted her voice, coming from the streets below her. From the vantage point Nadia had, she could not see the source of these shouts as she was some fifteen foot from the raised lip of the building. Either way, it was most definitely her own voice doing the shouting.

”You are but a blunt instrument only meant to kill. You know not what it takes to survive! <BTy bez tsarya v golove!> (You are without a tsar in the head!),” the voice continued, monologuing to whatever or whoever she happened to be fighting. ”I have lost much and survived more–more than any of these fools! More than you! You are hardly a harsh winter in my life; a fucking cold that can be shaken with a shrug!” she went on, shooting more cutting words at her adversary.

There was a response.

” Nyet. Fuck. You!” shouted… herself. Perhaps slightly tweaked, more energy in her voice, but still, her own voice.

”<Ushi vyanut.> (My ears are wilting).” she responded mockingly, quick-witted and sharp like a blade. There was less time between her words than there was her counterpart.

In light of all that happened, Nadia was very unsure about this world, its meaning, its source, its end. What was all of this? Not that it mattered, the pondering could come later. What was more important is why she heard her own voice, in fact, it was two of her voice. Down below, fighting, curious. Nadia found this all to be very curious, the question was how to get down. It was only fifthteen feet, she could still feel her presence, her own soul, and so she took the risk, going over the side as she gripped one hand into the walls of the structure and planted her left foot forward and her right bent at the knee to slide or at least slowly fall the first half before jumping off, aiming to land right in the middle of both, “<Winter, has arrived, I am the conqueror.>” It may not have been the most friendly of introductions, but Nadia decided to meet both versions of herself and to set herself as being above them. If this did anything useful was another matter altogether.


On the blackened streets below Nadia in fact existed two almost-identical entities, each almost-identical to herself. In their appearances and wardrobe, at least. Each did have a few unique traits to them, though none more obvious than the fact the Nadia to the left was on a literal white horse with her weapon being an archaic flintlock rifle with a bayonet attached. This Nadia wore a slightly more elegant version of the maid costume Nadia wore quite often.

The other Nadia wore a similar outfit, but shorter, slightly more revealing, but oddly equipped with thickened bits of armor. Her clothing was torn and battered. And, she wielded a large sword, somewhat resembling the form Dani took, but obviously larger with a different hilt construction to accommodate the larger size. Not that a bastard sword was small by any means, but this variant was clearly a greatsword by nature.

“<Dela, a ne slova, tupaya suka.> (Deeds, not words, dumb bitch).” was the only response of the version of herself wielding the massive sword. Blunt but quick, she responded the quickest. It was almost as if instinct with little thought behind it.

”Don’t waste your breath. That dullard values nothing that isn’t the edge of a blade,” the mounted Nadia replied, spite pouring from her porcelain lips. Her narrows looked down onto Nadia for only a moment, then back to the bladed version of herself. Only a moment after firing a shot from her rifle at her, which she reflected with the flat of her blade.

”You want words, princess? So be it,” her bladed counterpart retorted. She then let her eerily-identical eyes dart over to Nadia as she addressed her. ”Help me cut down this bitch, sister; then, we can fight with our bare hands for all I care,” she suggested, offering a tentative alliance.

For her part Nadia, staring at her two clones and hearing the words of both and offer from the first, Nadia narrowed her eyes, taking in both as she placed a hand near her blades, or so she hoped her DWMA blades were there, if not she would need to do this the old fashioned way, but so far, she was not so eager to get into combat.

”For what reasons do you two fight, while this city is burning and falling? I would have answers before I decide anything.”

”The world is always burning–it is nothing new,” the refined one replied. The one carried a blade grunted. It was difficult to tell if that was some type of agreement or just her gruff communication.

”We fight because it is what we do. We see an opponent and we cut them down. To look back is weakness,” she went on, providing an answer to the question Nadia asked. Though, her tone carried plenty of disgust, as if just mentioning the concept of weakness was an insult to her own tongue.

“<Ne rubi sukh, na kotorom sidish.> (Don’t cut the branch you’re sitting on).,” inserted the other figure, more urgency and frustration clear in her voice. ”Questions are useless. She needs toppled from that high horse of hers,” the figure told her, applying even more pressure, ”you have two foes and one offers to help slay the other. Don’t be an idiot.”

”And why are you two foes of mine?” Nadia wasn’t expecting much of an answer but there was some logic in just cutting down both of them, one in a joint effort, one in the aftermath. This was all so different from what Dani has seen and told, it seemed she would learn nothing out of this after all and the only choice may indeed be to fight.

”<Tupaya suka.> (Dumb bitch).” responded her bladed counterpart, ”we are you.”

This version of her growled, squinting her eyes into a death stare at Nadia. A similar look she gave many that crossed her or whose intellect she questioned in the past. It was like looking into a mirror, except now Nadia was the one insulted by the icy blue eyes. ”That princess needs cut out like a cancer. All that needs remain is a warrior,” she spat, her words venom with every other one a different insult.

The mounted counterpart listened for a moment, but remained quite statuesque in response to all of the slander thrown her way. She simply shook her head, letting her silence hang in the air a moment as a response of disapproval.

”We are all Raspopova Semyonovna. We all know the horrors of Reno. We have all survived harsher winters and battles that would have left our comrades frozen corpses–as it has already done,” the figure answered, giving a more composed response. She referenced specifics of their past, not just heat-of-the-moment thoughts and feelings like her counterpart.

”We fight because <zhelezo tochit zhelezo> (iron sharpens iron). We fight because if we grow dull, we die. Just like all the others,” she explained, giving Nadia an entirely different perspective.

”Then both of you are lost and wrong. Reflections of me. I am a warrior as I must be, and I have pride for all that was lost. I once was indeed disdainful of all, I pushed my way through others, and did harm to any one that could not keep up with me. But then I found Dani. Violence and Battle is indeed why we exist, but we do not fight for yourself and to live alone. All of our glories mean nothing if there are not those to bring it to song. Or to speak of us even when Maria is old.

However, though it does not suit me at times, or us, I took upon the mantle of the hero, of the Conqueror and the pride that brings on, because I wish to be a beacon to the people. I wish for Dani to not be attached to one that only shows violence as acceptable to all things. And even for the sake of that, though I would never date the bastard, I did dance with Gauss in the name of our status. One of you is a wild dog and the other is pride for pride’s sake alone. And I may have spoken too much. You both should get in line and follow me.” Then a shrug as she sighed.

”Or we all three can fight and in the end I remain with my hand raised high, you both are weak for you have nothing left. I miss our parents, I miss our brother, but I try not to bring shame to what they were and are. So what shall it be?


”You are mistaken,” replied the mounted one, reviled by what Nadia just let slip from her mouth.
”We are no hero. No beacon. We wear no mantle. We do what it takes to survive and have the strength to do what others cannot. You play pretend at these things, but you cannot mean them. No more than that dance meant anything,” she responded, going off onto the same long-winded tangent Nadia was so known for.

”That girl you claim as a sister is no sister, but a dog on a leash that you have gained some affection for. She did not struggle with you as did Pavel, Nina, or Sergey. Even they, without us, fell apart. We are the strength that binds. It is our will that others answer to. We do not bend. We do not break. We do not falter or compromise,” this figure continued on, almost shouting these things at Nadia like orders.

”I am not pride for the sake of pride. I am truth, no more, no less,” she tacked on, directly countering the claim Nadia made.

”You prattle like a hairdressing harlot,” the sword wielder replied, again, just cutting through whatever the mounted Nadia mentioned. ”We attract violence. It is who we are. It is all a few orphans from Vladivostok could ever be,” she said, heaving her sword into both hands so that she could raise it beside her head in a combat stance.

”Let us fight. We shall be reminded of who we are and where we came from by glorious combat,” she said, seeming excited to even get to the point of the actual fight. All this talk was in fact boring her.

”Indeed.” Nadia said of the first comments, but still had a few words of her own. ”We fought, we crawled, we even ate rats, we had it all taken, and yet, no matter how much we did not want it, did not aspire to it, our soul demands we lead, that we drag others forward with us. We have always taken our decisions and stepped into the light, never doubting. Nor should we doubt, but we must always remember we are not perfect, we are not without faults. Though I’ll give you this much, the dance didn’t mean much of anything at all.

Though, once more, angry one with the sword, you are wrong. Orphans from Vladivostok we may be, but we went from a gang leader to a peacekeeper. One of us became a DWMA pilot of some skill, another pair married and made a restaurant with very good food, two more we cannot say, and one went to prison, yet another made a name for herself as a translator. I will never forget what I lost, but I must continue to march on. Come at me. I shall win as I must.

Its not so bad, having things weaker than us about, and who knows, maybe those we save will become greater still. Maybe they won’t. But it will have been our choice.”

With all that said, Nadia took up a knife in one hand and was already pumping up her wavelength. ”Force is one thing we all always understood. So be it.”

The sword-wielder grinned, shifting into a laugh once she heard the comments about their former friends. In a rare bit of her own arrogance, she simply commented, ”Of course their lives changed when we left–we attract violence. We thrive in it.”

The mounted figure only exhaled, still disappointed with both the counterparts in front of her. ”We led them when they would have died otherwise. We left them when they no longer needed our strength,” she said, not agreeing with her counterpart but providing her opposing opinion.

”These weaklings will get us killed. That pair of mad dogs you escort around will get us killed. I carry no affections for them and in turn I shall show you how much stronger we are without them,” she said, shifting the topic back over to Dani and her inherent liability.

As those final words exited her mouth, the mounted maid dashed forward atop her steed, first again firing at her bladed counterpart before lowering her rifle like a lance to try and impale Nadia on her admittedly fast ride. Two things then became fairly clear in this realm. The first was that the use of wavelength abilities was highly limited, perhaps a percent of their normal strength. The second was that some things still did not make sense, such as the mounted Nadia not needing to reload her flintlock.

”They are indeed weak. And we may indeed have been better off without them, but were we not once weak? If not for the dojo would we have been able to take anything as some random criminal? And what of those who are strong that we aimed to meet as equals? Dani tried to save us from this, you know? I ignored it as I wanted answers and for her not to be alone with that curse. But you two are as limited as I am. Hah.”

So she was weaker now, teaming up with the sword may have been a good idea, but still Nadia questioned if fighting and if killing them was the right choice… Dani had it easy, well, haunted by her dead brother aside. Dodging the initial attack from the onset, Nadia decided to run in head first, dodging and diving inwards to the horse, slashing at the inside of it’s right knee, aiming to unseat the noble rider, or cause the horse to buck her off, a dangerous gamble, but gun versus knife didn’t make for the best of odds.

Striking the horse that her mounted self was on was comparable to taking a butter knife to a lead pipe. The horse itself didn’t react. It didn’t need to. It was never in any danger. This in turn left Nadia wide open for a stab from that bayonet and that mounted rider had no qualms impaling her. Luck had it that her bladed counterpart was quick to leap in and parry that gun barrel, resulting in the blade edge only cutting Nadia across her left shoulder about a half-inch deep. It sucked, but it wasn’t lethal.

”<Fu! Bezmozglaya obez'yana!> (Ugh. Brainless monkey.)” her blade-wielding counterpart commented, shoving Nadia out of the way as she followed through with her parry by pulling her sword up and trying to slice at the mounted counterpart. ”You can’t hurt the horse. She gets off it for no one,” she added, taking a moment to explain only after her mounted variant ducked back to dodge the slash, then ran forward to escape the poor position.

”We will never be equals,” her mounted counterpart said as she ran forward, shouting so that the others could hear. Once she turned around to face Nadia and the bladed counterpart, she only continued her rant:

”Some may be stronger, but what of it? Starwulf is a <suka> (bitch.). He has spent his whole life in that little city avoiding real danger because of his family. We lived through the fall of half of Russia. We survived the ice and snow. We survived the virus,” she said, confidently cutting into the one she was sure Nadia meant with her initial reply.

”And, who would stand to be our equal? That pretty boy with the daddy issues? He wouldn’t be our equal if we laid him horizontal in bed where he is best. The werewolf that can’t control herself or keep a partner? Surely not the maiden. The criminal? She is probably too busy <sosat' chlen> (sucking dick) to even be a contender. I wouldn’t doubt the same about the boy close to the Mentor and maiden, either; he seems the type to give it a try,” said the mounted figure, ”we are the only ones to train hard enough, to have the strength needed to survive. The rest in this program are but fair weather flyers fated to fail the moment the winds turn cold and rough.”

With the unexpected help of the warrior, Nadia found herself saved. With a bit of a glare, she had hoped that that damnable horse could have been dealt with. She then heard the words of her alter egos, and some of what they said she could not argue with, and some she very damn well could, and so she brought up those technicalities before leaping backwards to ponder her next attack.

”That may be so in part, or so I would like to think. As much as I don’t like it, that arrogant prick of a trainer was partly correct, skill was not all that has kept us alive, luck as well played a part. And if you are truly me, then you know I respect strength. As the Doll Maker said, perfection is what a fool chases. As to equals, as to how they match up, as to our past and being in Russia, surviving what we did. Would we have kept surviving if not for the DWMA and the Americans? <Perestan’ bit dabayobom> (Stop being a dipshit). Countless fighters and foes have we broken, countless situations have we survived, and, honestly, good help is hard to find. But there is something else you both seen.”

“We have seen those without power or little of it stand aside us, we seen souls trapped within trees and for what? We have been outsmarted by a vampire, and we have seen all of those people, with all their faults, each of them had something we did not, strengths of their own to fill in where we cannot. We do not have the magic and crafting of Maria, she will long outlive us, Adrian, though I had my doubts, has been a loyal soldier, who fought for us past the point we, no, I, would have asked anyone to do. He has proven himself worthy of notice. The wolf I give you is a fool, but should she ever unfuck her situation, she will be stronger than we are without a weapon, maybe even with it. Dani endured our tests, family affections aside, she attempted to keep me from this. Shall I name them all? Even that Gauss has a strength of his own in that Charisma of his. And what of those before us? What of our Father? Was he weak because he did not live? Because he died in Defense of the Rodina? What of those who we left behind? They also survived that city.

I thought as you two did, for a long time, but in truth was it as we were strong, or as we did not wish to be hurt? Could we have gotten so far against that bastard just now on our own? I just hope the other fools do as I commanded, as I asked even. That is what was strong about Dani, I would have never dared ask those questions, though I feel as if another force was at play there. My desolate throne, in which only glory stood, and nothing else, now has a fire and seats, people that I choose to share the glory with, can now see what we have done, what I have done. I will never be like Gauss, or some others we have met, annoying they may be, but I will not dismiss their own existence or what strengths they have. That is why I don’t care much to kill either of you. For better or worse, you both are me.

”They are weak. Father was weak. If he were strong, he wouldn’t have died. He wouldn’t have left us. If anyone we left behind were truly strong, they would not die merely because we leave,” said her mounted counterpart, spitting back her opinion at Nadia like a forge spitting hot metal. Dangerous and searing.

”<Krasnorechivyy?> (Silver-tongue?) So what? Words will fail eventually and blades are all that is left. That little soldier of yours only listens because he chases the tail of the mad dog you call a weapon. All you do is make excuse after excuse for the weak. This is not who we are. This is not how we survived. This is not how we fought. There is no glory in heated seats beside us around some hearth, only the cold truth of the world and the strength to endure it. Their weakness will be our death, then the only song that shall be sung is of the Fool of Vladivostok that dreamed of more and settled for death,” she told her, responding to the lengthy spiel of Nadia with her own answers.

”<Mne nasrat’, chto ty dumaesh’, zakolebal.>” (I don’t care what you think, you’ve pissed me off.) She said at once to the pair of them.

”Then we die as warriors. Did you plan to die of old age? And he was the best of us. Let’s get this over with, I’m not going to keep saying the same words, I’ll just have to beat sense into you, even if all I have is a knife. We are the Vanguard of our people, what is a vanguard at the head of nothing?” This time Nadia increased her distance from the two, waiting for an opening of any sort.

”You will do no such thi–” the mounted counterpart replied, or began to at least, but was quickly and violently interrupted by the sword swinger. Back and forth the two went, slash and dodge, slash and dodge. The sword was large even for Nadia, and its arcs were wide. Given the horse couldn’t be hurt, the mounted maid was able to dodge and deflect with relative ease. There were only so many ways a sword could be slashed upward at a mounted enemy, and none of them were getting anywhere. Target the leg or thigh, it could be blocked by the stock of the gun, and any higher was fairly easy to dodge via pivot. The hips and saddle fell into the same type of blockable zone.

However, the mounted counterpart had next to no hopes of landing a counter-attack on the bladed variant. The bayonet had only such range and was limited, akin to a polearm in a sense, and nigh-impossible to aim as a gun up-close. It was a virtual stalemate between the two, back and forth with no development even if it was exciting.

”Back to our roots, back to battle! To hell with all those words you two spewed,” commented the sword wielder, ”why bother talking about strength if you don’t use it?! <Duraki.> (Fools.)”

”And what do you know of our roots?” Nadia said flatly in response. ”Since when has that been our roots? In school and later in life I physically excelled, I stole a lot after that, and just fought as much as I needed to be at the head of the pack. The Ice giant shit wasn’t known to us till some years later thanks to the DWMA. While you picture some grand slaughter or battle, had my life not been disrupted, I would have likely become an Officer in the Army or the MVD. A servant of Russia, even if heavy handed. And you on the horse should note that, A Servant of the people. Did you both forget the reason and purpose of the headdress? It is to remember our mother, and to know we came from lowly origins.

I fight to defeat the enemies of humanity. Unquestioningly, loyally have I served. I know of where I am, of what I am. But what of you, why do you two hate one another, and why are you not showing me the truth of this place and why you fight? This all reminds me of talking to that fool, even to those that are me, towards so much are you blind.” With that, Nadia eyed the mounted rider, what would happen if she unseated her, or if she shoved the two into one another? Maybe a test was in order.

”This is what I hate. You, her, everyone else–it doesn’t matter.. You all spew words like snow during a blizzard. You talk and talk and talk AND TALK AND TALK WITH NO END,” shouted the sword-wielding variant of Nadia, at this point giving up on her swings at the other Nadia and now just senselessly striking the horse, pointless though it may be.

”I say roots and mean that fighting is part of who we are in our soul,” she went on, panting, nearly seething at the mouth, staring daggers at her mounted counterpart. It was not possible for her to be taken aback. No, she was stalwart in all things. But, if she could have been, this would have been the moment.

”Then you have the audacity to take that as an invitation to explain how I know nothing about our history when I’ve lived every fucking second of it with you,” she said, her eyes switching from the mounted variant of herself now to the actual Nadia.

”<Chuzhaya dusha – potemki. (Another person’s soul is darkness.) But not to us. We know. We know what you think you might have become. We know what you regret. We know–we know–we know. Repeating it does nothing. We know and you just talk on and on as if we haven’t had the last twenty-two years to talk about it,” she told her, venting all her frustrations out at Nadia. The fact of the matter was that nearly every word Nadia said, both of these figures knew.

All knowledge was shared.

”We are you,” said the mounted variant. Calmly. Cool. Almost cold, even. A stark juxtaposition to her bladed counterpart. ”And, you are us. We know and acting like we don’t is only lying to yourself. Just like how you ask us why we fight. Why two halves of yourself feel the need to destroy the other,” she went on, further reinforcing the point she was making. A statement made only more concerning by how only moments prior she listed specifics about their life.

”Right this minute, you worry about choosing a side. About the consequences. I know because there is a part of me that wishes I could just curbstomp both of you and it be the end of this. If you were not worried about the consequences, you would have tried already,” said the swordsman, loosening her arms as she spoke these rare words of empathy, her sword clanking lightly against the grayscale concrete.

”Indeed.” Nadia said in a simple reply. ”You two are what I could become, or rather maybe the reflections born of another. You saw what we survived, and yet in light of it, you two would do this? There is also a third thing that the people see me, us as.” It may have been childish, but she had nothing else to go off of, as she thought of the Valkyrie title and person as the public had seen it for the events of April the First.

”However to be clear, my copies, there is one more thing you both have forgotten. I have never once given a damn what others thought of me. I let it show in my actions. I do not fight you two now seriously because I am waiting for a chance to strike on the one hand, which you should both know. These past couple of days fools have thought my orders to be something else and broke down without the slightest bit of trust, and a mercenary had the gall to try ordering me around.

The two images need not be something else. The three, does it matter? I will always fight for what I need to fight for, I will always be proud. I will always be a warrior. Neither half of you can hope to replace me. For there is a third path.” Sighing a bit, she got up and stared at the two, having been here for so long, or so it seemed. Much longer than the rest.

”Both of you are indeed parts of me. Or ways I could have gone, but I reject you. Now that I see my extremes, or how people think of me, makes me really wonder… I reject the individual parts of you. What you have become is not things that honor me, nor you, nor them. I chose to be the Hero and I will live up to that. I shall be that servant of the people, and while never fully rid of you, I will give them a third vision to see. And that shall be I.

You know, it took me years to face those I left, to even to consider it, but I think, I’ll never stop those nightmares, but I can choose where they take me, I can choose to carry on. I’m leaving here, I don’t much care what you two do. I will make use of part of what I have, to aid in the rebuilding of Vladivostok, I will face the ghosts you so fear. The DWMA has lost its roots and direction, so I have thought for a long time, rather than for strength alone and pride alone, to improve myself. I will carry forward, and climb up those ranks to carry out that fundamental mission and my family’s honor. I shall surpass both of you and correct those fools. I think there is another Russian General I’ll try and be more akin to than Zhukov” With that, Nadia seemed to be finished with words for now. Lengthy they may have been.

Words, words, and more words. An unending sea. The tendency to ramble, the lack of attention to time as she spoke. These were some of her sins. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” – famous words by Mark Twain. An author that Nadia might have respected, if she read him. More so, words that reflected her: she had not the time to condense what she meant and parse it into its most refined versions. She merely said what she meant in full, no matter how long it took. Unless, of course, she was interrupted.

Her counterparts were much the same, but there was a notable shift. Once Nadia set herself on rejecting what she thought were versions of herself, they took that personally. She had before almost teased them by accepting them. She was at times only a step away from burning herself alive. It was not until the end that her doppelganger saw it had failed to convince her, though it had tried various means.

The air cooled. In fact, it continued to grow colder and colder. Not the type of icy chill Nadia was so accustomed to. This was almost spiritual. Something that chilled the very soul, something that might even make an ice queen shiver. Meanwhile, her counterparts burst into flames, their skin giving way to black ash that solidified as coal. Their true nature came through in their transformation and their frustration and rage began to pour out.

For, while doppelgangers were born of the collective human consciousness, they were still beings with their very own desires. For Mikey, there was no world where Dani could not see him loving or protecting her. As almost all others had forgotten him, that meant his doppelganger became exactly that: her guardian. For Nadia, her doppelganger was complicated. The things that people saw in her, the vast majority of people, were often so different that it could not be contained in one being.

When the being turned infernal, however, those limitations changed. Her white hair is what connected the two beings and soon enough it reeled in the sword-wielder into the body of the mounted version, fusing them into one large being as her doppelganger turned into a demonic monstrosity. What stood before her was a centaur-like being with the bottom half of a horse, from the torso up appearing as a feminine figure that only vaguely resembled Nadia in her charred form, and with winged ears and spaulders, again vaguely resembling the appearance of a valkyrie, as if her armor were scorched by Hela herself. And, of course, she wielded the greatsword her other variant possessed, though in this new form, it seemed more size-appropriate.

This demonic creature was far closer to what Dani had described and in fact it was a fusion of all things that others saw Nadia as.

”There is but one truth of the matter. We are no hero. What you tasted in light of that festival was something you shall never be,” this new being told her, sharing this information in a warped, raspy voice, as if damaged from the very fires that burned her. ”If you were a hero, if that is how people saw you, this meeting would have gone very differently. What you see before you is a testament of who you really are to those around you,” she added, pointing out the fact that in two interpretations of her, neither was this Valkyrie-hero Nadia had suggested to exist.

Then, she charged. But, in this form, she was not like the mounted counterpart before her. No, she was a true demon, rushing at blinding speeds that Nadia had no hope of matching. Before she knew it, the Meister was caught, snatched up by the centaur demon, and held by the collar of her shirt before being rammed through one of the concrete walls of this burned city. Then another. Then another. Then another.

It was not enough to kill her. Hurt, sure. Break bones and crush ribs, probably. Daze? Of course. In fact, she may have even been concussed. But, she was not killed. Only brought to the brink.

After that fourth wall, this demonic version of herself pulled Nadia closer to her core body. There was no light behind those eyes. Nor any heat in her breath. It was that same spiritual chill. Yet, there was life in this being far beyond what existed in that of the dolls of Maria. It was an odd situation, especially given how unclear the mind would be after such a violent beating.

”We are you. This is the strength you could have if you only accepted who you are,” urged the demonic centaur, leveraging the massive disparity in power that existed between them.

”<Pizdets Kooshay govno sooka.>” (Fucked up, Eat shit bitch.) Nadia said defiantly. Coughing a bit, she looked at the demon before her and grinned. ”Is that the best… you can do?” Reaching up with the knife she coughed a bit more, then spit up a bit of blood, directly into the face of the other, before surprisingly dropping it, and then patting the cheek of the other with the same hand.

”I will always be–” she was not allowed to finish her comment. It was a rare moment where not only was Nadia interrupted, it was through force. And, in this case, brutally. The centaur in front of her could feel the direction this was going before Nadia even let it loose. It had had enough. Whatever Nadia was going to say, whatever long-winded spiel she had, it didn’t matter because it was not what the demon needed.

It resorted to the only option it had left: violence. It did not bash her through more walls or pummel her. No, instead, it lifted her up in a jerking motion only to catch her by the leg and with it slam her into the ground. In short, it made her a rag doll. It was a child throwing a tantrum, ready to break its toy.

Hollow eyes stared down at her. Nadia was desolate, half-shattered, but alive if not in some of the worst pain of her life. The demon knew this. It knew just how durable of an old bitch Nadia was and only used enough force to hurt her. It loomed over her, seething at not just Nadia but itself. It had gone too far. Even if there was a slim chance that Nadia would have fallen into the trap, chances were, her jaw couldn’t even move to say it.

Perhaps if this were later, it would have had a different outcome. Perhaps if the demon didn’t take this opportunity, it would have met Nadia at a time when the Rifts would allow them greater control. Such a time would come; it was promised. The demon now realized its mistake. It's impatience. Its impertinence, resulting in such violence.

Sullen at the realization, it held its greatsword above Nadia. For a moment, it dangled like the sword of Damocles. It could end Nadia here. Leave her a shell of a human, a mindless vegetable to remain in a bed the rest of her days. It could do that. But, fortunately for Nadia, one thing that the rest of the world did not see her as was a sore loser. She would not face the blade.

Instead, the world around her began to burn to ash. Given her face was still in the pavement, she likely didn’t see this immediately… but the Adolla Rift was falling apart. Nadia had won. Her counterpart put itself in an impossible situation where it could only kill Nadia or admit defeat. It would not betray its very core spirit as a warrior. It would not be dishonorable. It would burn with this world.

And, it did. Soon as the flames came towards the hole in the ground Nadia was in, the demonic centaur of a creature started falling away to ash. Its body broke down not entirely unlike that of Richard, burning in amber coals that crept along its body until there was nothing left. All that remained was a floating, black sphere: a core.

For a moment, all that existed was an infinite blackness. The only difference between and the core being that the core had an add shading of light as it was a sphere. That moment passed and the core cracked, with it releasing the final flame of the demon. It spurted out, black as the fires originally were, but quickly transitioning to two different colors: an orange and a blue. These flames swirled around Nadia, uplifting her body and washing away all of the damage done in her battle. If anything, she ultimately felt better than she had in her entire life. It was as if for a moment that her body was at its peak. As if she had never wasted energy on an opponent or taken damage that needed healed.

These flames swirled and danced before eventually terminating onto her palms. In the center of her left palm was now a small, blue crystal. In the center of her right, the small orange one. This was the final act of this world. No explanations, no epilogue, no convoluted answers. Just an abrupt end.

Nadia snapped back to reality, returning to the streets of Los Angeles, looming over what was once the body of Richard Ramirez. The black flame she once saw was gone. And, the only trace of her deluge being those dual-colored crystals now embedded in her hands.

”Kakogo chyorta!” coming too, Nadia’s heartbeat was rapid, her breath heavy as she went through the actions of calming herself. She had not won that one, she had only survived as the demons had more self preservation than wishing to dominate. Then there were these damn crystals in her hands. She hadn’t learned a single damn thing. If anything she learned less than Dani. So much for getting information… Shaking her head and letting out a list of profanities in her native tongue, figuring out this, or what it was, she would do that later, or as they went. How much time had passed? She was still here at least, as she got to her feet, going back to Dani where she knelt down. The question now was did she pick up Dani or not?

For now, what she had seen and dealt with had soured her mood, but there were lessons to take from it. She had meant those words, for now, she would remember the remark on another leadership, she would not immediately bite their heads off as she grabbed her communicator and spoke. “All of them had tainted souls, If they are not stopped now, the murders they commit will taint others as well. Consider this an outbreak. I know not all of you are so ready to kill, but now is not the time, the more we linger, the more actually innocent people will pay the price.”

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