Dave was still running when the thing reached over to him, but when it did and it inserted three talons into his head, he tripped, stumbled, and fell. The piercing pain his mind told him he was experiencing made him cry out, a not exactly flattering noise. Then he heard the fizz.
"I'm going to explode," Dave babbled. "Like Valk. Ohmygod I'm going to explode!" In his panic, he sent out a strong psychic shockwave, the mental equivalent of hitting someone with a baseball bat. He didn't really mean to do it, but it was more of an instinct. In any case, anyone caught in the shockwave would feel a strong mental pain of sorts, not an actual, physical pain in the body, but a sort of temporary 'glitch' in their head. However, this left him very drained, and he could only struggle weakly against the talons of the thing and the pain it was causing. He rolled over onto his side and felt a sharp pain where some shrapnel from the explosion had cut through his clothes and hit him in the waist. He cried out again, this time with a smaller, weaker shockwave, more like a wave lapping against a dam then breaking it, and finally curled up, hands on his head.
Charlotte was already preparing for another spell after their bombardment her hands still glowed with a gentle blue light. She stood up as Rose and Mini disappeared from the stage and with a single raising motion of her right arm a large wall of water erected between her and the creature's attacks. Her spells were well timed enough that if it was a second later the attacks would have passed through with ease. The attack that went for Dave, however, was too quick for her to stop. The wall couldn't finish it time for that to be disrupted but it before she could maneuver the wall a bit more the slashes crashed into the wall causing an explosion of water. It came crashing down from all sides but it had absorbed the attack. Charlotte could feel the intensity of the attack and winces as the wall came down. The water scattered around the stage began to draw towards charlotte's but that was it, her defenses were shattered she needed a good few minutes to pull the water for another effective shield. She needed to stabilize the water's residual mana that has been brutally disrupted until then all it can do is wrapped around Charlotte's leg.
At the edge of her vision, she sees Katrina and could feel what she was attempting. Charlotte would like nothing more than to rip through whatever that thing was but she needed to know where it's other attack went. She turned around just in time to see Dave panicking as the claws grabbed onto his head. Physical attacks were useless her natural talent at water spells was useless against it but she had other talents. Without another thought, light begins to emit from her palms but this time it was dark and cold. Not the cold that would send a shiver down your spine but your soul. A spectral sickle with a chain was quickly formed, the weapon could only be felt by others and seen by those with the same gifts. She spins the sickle and swiftly threw at the phantom's claws, a chain extends from her palms connecting the sickle to her. The chain was extended from and through her right palm. She was going to use it to pry or at the very least constrict its movement.
Her vision blurred, her knees weak, her control over her body wavered. Charlotte's knees collapsed and she fell to the ground. The defensive water spell she was preparing was fizzled, the water that was around her spilled to all directions. However, her spectral sickle was still in full effect. She tries to wrestle command of her body but between the dull ringing pain she felt in her head and her body refusing to move she lay on the wet floor staring at the sickle she threw at the claw. Even in Charlotte's state, if the sickle lands it would latch onto the claw and the chains will retract into Charlotte pulling the claw out.
"This is bad." was Raiyen's first thought about the situation. A dimension slash would normally be more than sufficient to kill or at least wound normal creatures. Raiyen started to look around for escape points incase things went REALLY bad. Instead of an exit he spotted a peculiar looking teenager with glowing red eyes. It didn't take long for him to put two and two together. "Perhaps he is the summoner for whatever this being is."Raiyen thought to himself as he saw rose already eye-balling the guy. Besides that he also noticed that the entity had launched its own onslaught towards the group which prompted Charlotte to raise her barrier to defend the grouo from the attack. "I guess I'll let her deal with him. Rose should be more than capable of dealing with him."Raiyen thought to himself shortly before Rose teleported away. "Physical attacks are no good, let's try something else." he said as a angelic like figure materialized in front of him while he stabs the ground with his sword. At first it was shadow, but after a short delay it completely materialized.
It was a replica of the captain variant of the Angelo armor worn by the mercenaries known as the "Hell's Angels". Said armor specialized against magic casters and had some resistance towards most magical based attacks. Besides that, the armor also greatly enhanced the physical capabilities. Besides that, its equipped with a runic sword that is able to swift its element and magical properties much faster than other weapons.
The armor then quickly splits itself apart and attached themselves onto Raiyen. Raiyen once more ran his hand across his new blade causing it to glow with a bright holy light before grabbing his other sword tapping them together before causing the bright glow to transfer to his other blade. Holy energy specialized on dealing with not only darkness-based entities but also the ethereal and spectral entities.
And with that, the armor spreads it's wings shortly before dashing forward towards his advesary at blinding speeds to launch a repeated onslaught of slashes all across its extended arm to save Dave before moving on the to its main body. Raiyen could feel a minor migraine due to Dave's shockwave attack, but due to the armor's magical resistance was able to mitigate to a more bearable level.
Once he had completed his attack on the entity's long arm, he would attack its main body at melee range with one slash from each sword before flying backwards and crossing his blades to launch an X-shaped ranged attack to expend the remaining energy contained within both blades and hopefully end the battle.
Fantasy of all kinds★★!! Here's a list: modern/urban, magic and swords, otherworldly/fish out of water, faeries and unicorns, sometimes dark, sometimes superhero-ish, sometimes mixed with sci-fi. The Boo Girlie's always down for weird, wild or whimsical! Yayuh!! :3 Oh! And Sky Pirates too~~!!
'Mini' - Minaerva Black from The 81st Street Mission
<~~~★~~~>
From the look of a hero done good to a look of being utterly gutted in the span of a heartbeat...
All attacks culminated into a most impressive and powerful unified detonation. And yet there it still stood; fresh as the moment they saw it, the target came away unscathed. 'Know not a thing about your enemy then know all about defeat....' one of her mentors had told her. And they knew nothing about this searing red-eyed invader. And so no wonder they had failed in their combined efforts to take it out. But most of all it was no wonder to Minaerva herself that Minaerva herself had failed.
"Some hero..." she muttered as the invader merely step out from the wreckage, no worse for wear. Understandable self-deprication, but the thoughts in her head cut very deep, re-opening old wounds, and yet even more sinister; those thoughts put her upon a downward spiralling path ~Minaerva, you suck. You loser, you never get things right, you waste of breath, you waste of time and space, you should just crawl into a hole, shrivel up and die, you know no one would miss you, you know Mommy didn't, you know Mommy gave your little ass away cuz you destroyed your home, you destroyed half of Mommy's body, you murd--
And yet again, it was by co-incidence that Davey who tore her away from a terrible, terrible spot of blackness and utter negativity. The psychic shockwave struck her-- not as a glitch in her head but as pressing emotions of swirling colours; pain, anguish, fear, desperation. It was her pal's cry for help.
"D-man...!" her head snapped towards the direction of the source of the distress signal, knees bent and set to launch her self with her Wind Font and fly over to aid her Mer-pal, "Don't worry, bruh! We gots ya! We soooooo gots your back--"
Oh, but she should have been watching her own back. The glowing crimson energy missiles were going to strike her and lay her flat. In all her desperation, in all her valiant effort, the best she would do would be to just kneel there, struggling to rise. The force of the blow would keep her pinned to the ground. Arms heavy, she would not be able to generate her power without the ability to make those rythmic gestures. Again, she would be useless, a waste of--
Something happened and her world shattered.
no-lightbox
Mini came to and promptly proceeded to wonder what that big blur rushing towards her, right in front of her was, and, wonder just what the hell that increasing wave of sound was. Oh wait. The little green-skinned girl just realized what had happened. It was just the stampede of all reality being instantly returned to her upon 'breaking through to the other side.' Rose had teleported her and for all those times during training excercises she had loved the immersive sensation of reality returning to her, but the one thing she never did quite get used to...? The gut-churning nausea.
Minaerva fell to her knees and promptly tossed up her lunch all over the concrete. Hey, is that corn?
When she finally settled, she could hear the screams and shouting of the panicked crowd around her. But somewhere within that chaos, she could hear Jero valiantly trying to calm and direct the crowd to safety.
"Now that's a hero..." she muttered. The little thing was over the sudden bout of nausea, but her face looked as if she had swallowed a bitter pill. Not because she was jealous of J's actions, no, it was because she realized the result of an earlier action she had taken. Yes, Rose had saved Mini but the soured look on her face was because Mini knew Mini herself had set her own self up that way for self-preservation. ~Minaerva, you, coward...
The negativity retreated some as she was startled. A heavy thud presented itself in front of her and she quickly jumped up, uncovering her eyes which were now wide and glistening. The body of an odd-expressioned teen boy lay out in front of her, probably still disoriented by Rose's teleportation.
A punch to his gut did Rose give him. "I think he's the conduit!" said her redheaded friend.
It took a second or two for Mini to process this train of thought, then that 'ooooohhh yeah... right! I get it now' light sparked up in those big emerald-like eyes of hers. It was time to make it right. Time to make up for her short-comings. Time to show Rose that she was worth it. ~Rosée... my hero... yayuh...!
That second sparkling light of admiration and gratitude in her eyes shone bright and she nodded once in affirmation. Once more the rhythmic gestures of her hands started up and when she was ready, she brought both hands downward, fingers spread wide, yet with thumb-tips touching. A sudden gust of wind forcibly blew downward at the teen increasing in force and focussing on the boy's wrists and ankles, effectively pinning him to the ground. "Oh you ain't going nowhere till we get some things straight, son..."
Mini's head turned this way and that, bobbing about till she spied Jero, Raiyen, Charlotte and Faelon. The wind would carry her voice and attempt to relay a message, "Alright guys, me n' Rosée gots a boy here all dopey eyed looking. Rosée thinks he's a 'conduit...?' Any o' yous see any other in the crowd all dopey eyed like?"
Perhaps they may be too pre-occupied with trying to save Davey or take down the intruder, but still it was worth a shot. One final look to see how the teen was reacting now, then Mini tilted up her chin and tossed an upward chinbob at Rose.
"Soooooo... like hey, Rosée, ya think we can question him now or like what?" a lone eyebrow rose, curiosity piqued now. Soon thereafter, Mini offered Rose a light smile followed up with a wink and nod, "...and thanks for the save back there, girl. Owes ya one. Fo'sho...!"
These words...names and titles gave some insight as to what this entity was. Or at least what he thought himself to be. During his time with the police...with the cult even...Would he have heard of this Unseen King? Jero was frantically searching his mind for references but found nothing. Granted Rose might have found the key to having their questions answered. A teenager with glazed eyes? Or as Mini put it, dopey. "A Conduit? Haven't heard much about that type of Font or Gift." The man shouted over the sound of wind and chaos.
In his attempt to direct the crowd there was a momentary lapse of judgment. His Font was weakened as his eyes and mind shifted towards the girls and the general direction of the boy they spotted. "Rose, Mini! Secure the suspect but do not injure! Make sure he is a prop-." What followed was a loud and painful yell. "Gah!" Through Hell Gate, the red tendril-like appendage of light shot towards Jero. It wiggled it's way through the flames and grappled his body.
The Gensie's display of magic vanished as his arms and legs gave out. The reason was unknown to him but he assumed it was a result of this Unseen King's tendril. Falling limp to the side, Jero shivered from the sensation. Damn it, if not bronze or silver than what is this thing?
The creature again was unaffected by the attacks of Yen, Katalina or Charolette, although through their attempts the two death Gifted were made aware that no life energy existed in the space the creature occupied. Dave's psychic blasts actually seemed to push away the creature's hand, although it returned after the second to restart the mental piercing. The teen had black hair and a orange 'My Alchemical Romance' shirt, he couldn't have been over sixteen years old and gave Rose no struggle in teleporting him. Mini's wind sent him slamming into the ground, face first.
With the smack of his forehead against the ground, the glow in his eyes vanished. The creature thinned into nothing, the fizzing ended. The eye began to fade, as did the letters. A booming voice sounded from the kid, although he did not open his mouth. "You didn't figure it out... It will be so easy for me next time... I'll kill you so easily..." About at that time the feeling in Jero's arms returned and the stadium had nearly been fully evacuated. Quickly after, the guards regained their footing and immediately split up: A few went backstage to ask what the hell happened, a few hustled over to the teen, and a small number simply stood there, staring at the biggest remaining chunk of Valk.
The boy soon seemed to return to reality from a daydream. He looked around frantically and tried to pull himself up, when it didn't work he started shaking. "Oh, no. Please. I just- I just want to go home. Please." The guards all started taking notes, one of them scanned the team for shrapnel, removing and stitching as required. They had the physic font and checked Dave for any mental damage, "Nothing unexpected," they joked with a sour laugh. The police were arriving, some of the suits went to explain things to them. One, a man with a scar diving from his ear to his chin, waved for the team to gather where Rose and Mini were.
Watching as her channeling had no effect on the individual, Katalina began to rethink her approach. It existed, it meant she could transmute it into nothing... or into something it couldn't control. Before she could do it the entity began to dissipate. Hissing she pulled back from shifting the area. With the scene calming.. at least in the form of violence she began to take in everything. Not having been out here when everything began she was amazed just how much destruction there was.
Blinking a few times she began to count everything around them that was barely intact. Pursing her lips she began to smirk. They did an absolute number on everything. Seeing them all being waved over she hesitated but decided to go over. Looking at all of them as they gathered she looked back at the stage "I think we did more damage to the structure than to it. I don't know about all you but I think we should watch the collateral damage. Being crushed by the building collapsing isn't high on my list." Katalina spoke unable to keep from laughing.
Dave stood up, now free from the monster's hands but with another serious issue on hand. He had abandoned the team in their first real scenario, then panicked when he came in the line of fire. This was.... not a good sign. Guiltily he thought of Ethan.
You know, if you can't protect these people, even while you're under fire, then trying to protect them will just hurt them, really. That's what Ethan had said. And it looks like he had been proven right. He had failed to protect these people, and he was lucky that the team had covered his ass. If he had been alone he would be dead, splattered across the stage like Valk. I'm a goddamn coward, Dave thought sourly. And the rest of the team is going to think that, too. I gotta pull my weight from here on out, if there even is a here on out. For all I know the team is officially disbanded after the death of its founder and its lackluster performance. Dave sighed, then stood straight. Who am I fooling? I'll be kicked off for my cowardice in the field. I'll go back to doing odd jobs while Ethan supports us both until he eventually gets rid of me too. I screwed up, big time.
But he didn't want to admit that. By the time he walked over to the man gesturing for the team (and, at this time, Dave was still bleeding slightly from a hole in his shirt he had gotten from some shrapnel in the explosion), he was projecting a furious, sulking anger (mostly at himself) that the people around him could almost feel due to his psychic font. He eyed Katalina sourly, who was apparently in a good mood despite Valk exploding and the subsequent fiasco with the babbling monster. He crossed his arms, pointedly ignoring the pain in his waist, and this time eyed Rose, who he was sure would have some comment about his frankly embarassing performance. Mini would of course be sympathetic, he was pretty certain. He wasn't sure about the others, but he was sure they wouldn't be happy.
In a blink of an eye, the battle was over. Charlotte slowly stood up still reeling from the psychic friendly fire. A few moments passed, a couple of medics comes to aid her. However, as soon as they try to check if she's okay Charlotte slaps their hands away. Those medics weren't human she would never allow them to touch her. "Don't touch me!" She snapped at them. Both the medics was a bit shocked but nods and moves elsewhere. With one impetuous motion with her arm, her soaked suit was dry and the water that was on her suit splatters to the ground.
A man gestured towards her to come over, together with her team. Her knuckles were white. The moment Katalina finishes her joke. Charlotte walks over to Dave. She was about to grab Dave's collar and was about to give him a solid knocking on his face. Her cuffs slid back revealing the pink bracelet and she immediately rescinded. Instead, she jabs him with her finger "Attack me again and I'll make sure next time, I'll turn you into an empty husk." She loudly warns. Her eyes still fixed on Dave before turning to everyone.
"Valk was stupid enough to trust all of us and now he's dead." Charlotte clicks her tongue and steps back from Dave.
Fantasy of all kinds★★!! Here's a list: modern/urban, magic and swords, otherworldly/fish out of water, faeries and unicorns, sometimes dark, sometimes superhero-ish, sometimes mixed with sci-fi. The Boo Girlie's always down for weird, wild or whimsical! Yayuh!! :3 Oh! And Sky Pirates too~~!!
'Mini' - Minaerva Black from The 81st Street Mission
<~~~★~~~>
Mini shuddered as the words of the phantom speaker shook her to her core. It dared to utter a threat against them. It teased them. It mocked them. It was going to kill them.
Mini looked around wildly, checking to see if everyone on the team was still there... and still in one piece. And of course her eyes drifted past the destruction they had caused on stage and over to where the guards were inspecting what was left of Valk Moradin. Suddenly the little thing felt the urge to hurl and cry up a like a wailing storm once more. But that ceased once more by the sight of Davey returning to them.
"D-man! Hey you okay, bruh? Where'd ya go--"a huge grin beamed out from that little bigmouth, and, she rushed over to jump on him an give him one hell of a glomping hug, but suddenly her Merperson pal was rushed by medics-- psychic Font ones by the looks of it. And the teen and Mini herself were swarmed by medical personel.
As she was receiving her medical exam, she whipped out her giant phone and began to record the happenings of the aftermath; man, was her vid post ever going to go viral!! After her check up and clean up, they had found some metal lodged in her hair and Minaerva promptly scooped it up and took some pics of it before the snatched it away from her. A pondering look held upon that little green face even after the medics were done with her and moved on to the next of her teammates.
The pondering look was broken by the sound of laughter coming from Katalina. The heaviness of the situation just lightened up a touch for her."Hey, at least we're still okay right? And I don't think ain't nobody in the crowd got all busted up by us right? But yeah... I'm sure they have insurance, Lady K... like they would be covered if a bunch of Font-weilders did something like that right? Riiiiight? And like besides, that red-eyed guy, he should be held responsible here. Cuz like he was the one that did... ooooohhhh... Mr. Moradin... oh gosh.... oh gosh, he's... h-he's oh gosh... he was all like there one second and then like... oh gosh... he's dead... he's dead! Hey. Wait. Lady K, did you get a sense if this red-eyed phantom was like... like in on it...? Like maybe from 'the other side' kinda' dealie-o? Know wut I'm sayin'? So like Rosée was sayin' the teen boy was like a conduit right? Sooooo... was he like, y'know 'possessed?' By like a ghost or spirit or sumptin' cuz like, YO! I saw this show once where this little girl was taken over by a demon-thingie, and no lie, I almost pissed my undies when like her head started spinning around--"
Charlotte just shot Davey some serious threat. Bigtime. Minaerva's gem-like eyes shot open wide. Miss C, the child-looking twenty-something year old, seemed to not gravitate to anyone in the group save for Raiyen. Maybe she had a crush on that dude or perhaps even she felt sorry for the other loner-types, but whatever the case, she always seemed to spite everyone else on the team and Mini could never figure out why. The Water-Font weilder may be in her twenties, but boy, did she ever act like she looked sometimes; just like a moody preteen. "Hey... heeeeeey.... c'mon now, Miss C! C'mon now, giiiirl!" Mini's face held a very unfamiliar and uncommon frown, "it's not our fault! It isn't! Really! So like maybe we aren't the Revengers or the Ex-Gen or the Fantabulous Force, but we're something good too. We were chosen and put together cuz they saw something in us-- all of us and like they thought we could make a difference; we could be heroes, Little Miss C! And like inside us they saw... wait. Hey, just wait. Soooo... like with Mr. Moradin... oh gosh...but like he had a lot of metal inside him. Cuz like look. This was in my hair and-- oh DUDE!! I saw this show once! Like this guy was from the future and he looked like a human male but he was actually like made of metal inside! Like robot-assassin from the future, err'body! And he sooooooo totes sounded like part-Orc, like my pops! He's like all: "Are. You. Lara. Donner?! Are. You. Lara. Donner--"
Mini cut herself off when she saw the glowering look that Davey shot Katalina." Awwww... D-man...! C'mon bro... it's cool okay? People react all differently in different sitch's okay? Like Lady K gunna laugh after all this bow-shiets happenings happens alright? That's just her-- "Mini just paused and gave Davey a level, yet sympathetic look before continuing. She did not have to even mention about how David reacted with the appearance of the searing-red -eyed phantom "-- okay? So we all act out differently bruh. But like we still gots to stick together. We do. And I know ya knows... why else ya came back then, D-man? This thing... this red-king guy. Ya think he wants us to stick together? Awww hell naw...! This is exactly what he or it wants! It wants us to get all negative on ourselves when we take the L. And know wut? News flash bro: we soooooo did not take the L okay? We didn't lose, right? We chased that sucker away! He or it wants to kick our ass now and is like all: "I'mma kill your asses!" But we got him. We got to him. Now we just gots to know just how he gunna try to gets back at us, right? AmIrite...? It's like what Mr. Moradin said: "What does not kill ya can only make ya stronger!" You remember right , Davey? You too, Rosée! We were in the water doin' up training exercises. And like I was so tired and struggling and wanted to get out of the water, but I just kept on swimming, and the both of you were swimming behind me to make sure I wasn't gunna drown or nothing and then like later you both said that you felt the water get all warm. And remember like I admitted that the real reason I was struggling was cuz I had to go use the bathroom and so like the reeeeal reason the water got all warm was cuz I--"
The little bigmouth ceased its torrential downpour of words. Whether someone called out her name loudly, or nudged her with an elbow or even just flat out covered her mouth muffliing her smokey-sounding voice, she would be none the wiser. What she did notice next however was more important. There was a mysterious scar faced male fast approaching and his demeanour did not seem like he was about to give them trophies or awards. This male waved over the rest of the team and Mini looked over to Jero and Faelon; these were the ones she looked up to as older and more wise than she.
"Ummmmm... hey, um, J? Mel'o? What's going on now? You know this guy? Hey wait... are we...? Are we in trouble...?! Cuz not our fault, right? It's sooooo not our fault...!"
And just like that the battle was over. Raiyen was enraged not only because he was caught flat-footed but was on ther receiving end of one of his teammates attacks. After the medics were finished examining Dave, Raiyen jumped off the staged and flew towards the fishman before landing a few feet behind him with causing the surface of the floor to crack.
"Dave." He uttered as he placed his hand on the merman's shoulder."I would like you to probe the mind of that suspicious teenager from earlier. Perhaps we can find some clues regarding who or what was attacking us in his memories." Raiyen said as his armor began glowing brightly.
"Also..." Raiyen said as his grip tightened on Dave's shoulders. Shortly after that, the armor slowly dissapeared revealing Raiyen in his civilian clothing. "Would you kindly not do that again?" Raiyen said to him with a smile. People didn't need to be mind readers to know that Raiyen was not all too happy about getting hit by friendly fire.
"What do you have for us, sir?" Raiyen said to the scarred man while completely ignoring Mini's long speech. This behaviour wasn't unusual for Raiyen as he always focused on the most pressing matters first which in this case is "The Unseen King". He is quite selfish for the most part but he's also shown to care for his subordinates and have a sense of honor, even if he tries hard to deny it by believing that the "assets" must be in top condition. Valk may be an important "asset" to him, but much more than that, he was his friend.
When the first aid showed up Rose simply tore off the sleeves of her shirt which was already tattered and ruined in the blast. Rubbing off the stray shrapnel from the surface of her arms she allowed them to clean up the wounds. It was just a number of scratches really and as soon as it was disinfected, she teleported away. The entire engagement between Dave and rest of her teammates went uninterrupted by her but at the same time, she didn't add to it despite being angry at how easily he was scared away. When she teleported back she had her headphones on. Loud music escaped in between her ears and she had a serious look on her face. She was biting her lower lip deep in thought, something was absorbing her mind taking away all her attention. With torn sleeves and ruined pants and vest, she seemed more in her usual style of fashion, especially now that her hair was undone and free-flowing.
When the Scarface appeared and Mini asked if they were in trouble Rose simply shook her head. "Maybe. Maybe not. One way to find out." Oddly enough she seemed able to hear everything through the incredibly loud music that was coming from her headphones. She smirked at the amount of damage they managed to cause not even trying. The only downside was that she wasn't responsible for it. Somehow she expected this scarred guy to be really problematic for them the sort to be overly critical and overall a real git. "There's nothing wrong with a little collateral," Rose said to Katalina loud music still blaring from her headphones. "Shows people not to fuck with us next time. Besides, it was just the stage, nothing and no one important." As she approached the man she placed her hand on Yen's shoulder and teleported him right above Dave and Charlotte making him fall down on the two. "Mind your manners people!" She shouted at them over the shoulder. "We're teammates, we fight for each other and never leave the others behind!" There was no side in any of their arguments, well perhaps there was but Rose didn't care to involve herself in that, choosing instead to chastise all of them at the same time by dropping Yen on top of the others.
"As yes. Thank you." Jero nodded to the guard and medic who had come his way. The men aided the half-djinn to his feet, which he had the luxury of feeling once more. He gave a quick flex of the limbs before sighing in and out. A once-over of the area proved to Jero that the area had indeed been dealt some collateral. Signs of fire licking the walls, crushed platforms, and shrapnel lodged in the walls. "And here I thought we ran a simulation similar to this." The Mastermind of Magic flicked his thumb to mimic a lighter, creating a flame to ignite his pipe.
Into his lungs a long draft went, causing a calmer expression to appear on his face. For a moment Jero wished to go towards the spot Valk had died at. Another moment later he was going to assist in inspecting the teenager who had been caught in the crossfire. If he had been used to conduct a Font, or some sort of Gift, then there might be some signs left over. Perhaps residue or an aura. Sadly he was kinda far away at this point and Jero didn't want to walk that far. Instead, he went to his favorite green-girl and leaned down to her. A chuckle came out as he pointed to Rose and her attempts to punish the other party members. "This is why I don't fucks with purebloods. They are always so hotheaded. But she does have a point. We are a unit and everyone must have each other's backs." Jero patted Minaerva's head before moving away. "Good work, Min."
"Sir, I'm sorry for this outcome." Standing before the scared individual, Jero lowered his head a little. His eyes, a moment ago playful, turned back to a very real sadness. He pulled his pipe out and placed it at his side. "Valk was a good guy. Didn't deserve to ever get booped like that. Don't know if he had kids. But if so he was probably a good father." Jero paused for a quick beat before examining the spot where Valk was once standing. "It happened too fast for me to I-D the cause. Do your boys know if it were an explosive or a font?"
The bodyguard now known as Scarface was built like a old statue, imposing and grim. He made a grunt of vague irritation when Katalina started laughing, but he seemed to be focusing on whatever he was hearing from the bud in his ear. Every so often a depressed, "Yes Sir." "As we speak Sir." "I'll get on it Sir," Slipped from the crack in his face that was his mouth. When the words 'Valk was stupid' came from Charlotte a military "HEY." launched from his throat. He then watched Yen warp and collapse on the two, and gave Rose a small nod. Scarface then looked lightly down at Jero as whoever was on the other side of the earbud seemed to finish talking. "None that I know of Sir. We don't have any information yet, but it seems like he was killed before the lights hit him. The staff member controlling the lights claims he blacked out at that molment, nothing was wrong with the stage molments before, and the nature of the unindenified figure leads us to suspect a cross of psychic and illusion fonts, Sir."
His voice was inundated with trained stiffness, yet exhaustion dripped from it. "Sirs and Madams, the Vice-" ,Scarface stiffened, "Excuse me, the Minister of Defence asks you return to your homes as soon as available. Whomever among you with a license will take you all home with one of the vans." He promptly held out the keys for said van, of which you knew were enchanted to blend in with traffic. "You will return to the Center of Defense building with the van at nine o' clock tomorrow. We will have more information for you then. We can allow you a small amount of time here for your own investigation but only that."
Jero sighed while the scarred agent made it clear that the group was at a loss. The event seemed far more coordinated than Jero first thought. Whoever planned this event had thought of not just the initial actions and reactions. They also planned so that no evidence could be run back via cameras nor the operators. If the use of illusions or physic attacks where used, then no evidence would be left behind. At the very least it would be extremely hard for the evidence to be found. "Okay. If you can, mind leaving some Psychics to scan the area for residual energies? At least scan anyone still around that didn't run off. See if there are any alterations to their memories?"
Jero would then take hold of the van keys and jingle them around. "I guess I'll drive. It'll give me a while to smoke." The dark-blue haired man turned to his company, spinning the keys around his finger. As he cast his vision upon them a sudden realization came to his mind.
Any single one of these people, including himself. Could be annihilated.
It was a grisly reality but the truth was just that. They might have been Gifted individuals of a number of races, (mostly humans but whatever ignore that) but they were not able to stop that thing in time. They did not understand it nor was it something that Jero could really remember learning about. Perhaps a combination of powers was the result. The more he thought about it, the more real it seemed to be.
"Alright, who lives closest? You all do your thing but get to the van soon. I'll be having a smoke in the parking lot." Jero inhaled a deep breath before walking off the stage and towards the back. He was heading towards the dressing rooms where he had placed a hat, pair of shades, and leather jacket. Once he grabbed those and put them on Jero would walk outside, igniting more tobacco in his pipe. A small puff of smoke lingering in the air before disappearing. Much like his friend and all the things he ever loved.
Turn me into an empty husk? Dave thought after Charlotte's threat. I'll hollow out your brain, dimbulb. But he didn't say these things out loud. Instead he took a deep, calming breath. To Raiyen he nodded respectfully. "I'll do my best next time," he said quietly, now less angry. "I'll go probe the boy right away. And I'm good," he said to Mini, ignoring some parts of that long speech, especially about the swimming part, mostly cause he didn't want to remember that.
Then someone fell on Dave.
Dave struggled back up. It was Yen. And the obvious culprit was Rose.
"Thanks for the reminder," he muttered under his breath, though he made sure to keep hostility out of his voice. He pointedly ignored Yen and shot Charlotte another look, though he visibly calmed himself down.
"I live sorta close to here," Dave said to Jero. At this point his voice had taken on a more calm, relaxed tone, but his eyes still had an angry look to them. "I'll be done in a jiffy. Remind me before we leave to call my roommate." And Dave strolled off in the direction of the teen boy.
Dave flexed his fingers as he approached, a dead set look of determination in his eyes. This... boy humiliated him. He wasn't in this for vengeance - he just wanted to probe his mind - but if some small amount of damage was done, he would only be slightly guilty. Dave closed his eyes, concentrated, and reached out for the boy's mind.
Katalina stared and looked around. Listening to everyone she focused in on Rose. "Yes, well destroying that which we are to protect is counter productive." Katalina spoke resuming her normal serious mindset. With the man speaking she looked at the others. They were truly a motley crew. But, they did manage to not kill each other. When they all spoke about the boy she thought on it and began to wonder if Dave was a good person to charge with going into the kids mind. Opening her mouth she thought on it but decided it was best to keep her mouth shut on that topic. It didn't harm her at all so it didn't require her to worry about it.
When the mode of transportation was mentioned Katalina's stomach turned. She hated being in a car without driving. Ever since she was brought back she couldn't deal with the car sickness that plagued her. Glancing over at rose she moved slightly closer to the teleporting music lover. Nudging her with her shoulder she motioned like she was making a portal with her hands. "I'm going home with you. I can't do cars if I am not the one driving. So... I will go through a portal with you. Hope you don't mind." Katalina finished.
Charlotte skips backward just in time to dodge an incoming body. Instinctively she gave Rose a sharp look "What the fuck!? I don't need your shit or your bull but don't you dare say that thing is part of any team." She retorted. Before turning to Dave "What are you looking at, scum." Her eyes narrowed at him. Then snapping at Mini and pointing at her "And You should shut up before I shut you up." She takes even more steps away from the group. Her eyes were wild.
She looks at everyone on her team "All of you make me sick to my stomach." Her mouth moved as if she wanted to spit on the ground but didn't something stopped her "I'll make my own way back, these people are more poison than anything." She told Scarface. She turns to towards the entrance. As she walked, she digs her nails into her right arm and began breathing deeply and exhaling. Her breath was shaky as if she had been running a marathon. Sweat trickles down her forehead. Damn, Damn, Stupid, Imbecilic, all the curses she could think of courses through her mind.
Just as Rose was about to touch Raiyen's shoulder, he instinctively performed the doppelwalk technique whereby he momentarily becomes invisible while a doppleganger seamlessly takes his place. While the doppelganger was dusting himself off after recovering from the fall, the real Yen was already behind Rose. "Rose. When I chose to join this organization, I made a promise to Valk that no harm would come to this team..." the doppelganger said as he took out a coin from his pocket and began fidgeting with it. "You wanna know what would happen if I hadn't made that promise?" as the doppelganger finished asking the question, he quickly flings the coin towards Rose which causes it to accelerate to a speed that is comparable to that of a bullet fired from a high powered rifle. Said coin was one of Raiyen's bullet coins which had the ability to greatly multiply their velocity after being launched. He knows for a fact that Rose's teleportation could only help her against threats that happen at a speed that she can react to. Her reaction time was something that Raiyen has secretly monitored throughout their time training together. Whether or not she has been holding back remains a mystery to him. But one thing is for sure, the bullet coin's speed far exceeds anything she has faced in training so far.
As the coin got closer and closer to Rose's face, it suddenly stops moving and appears to be suspended in mid-air just a few inches from Rose's face. Even though the coin had stopped moving, the shockwave of air caused by the speed of the projectile would still blow over her face. Raiyen's body begins to uncloak, starting from the two fingers he used to stop the coin and onwards to the rest of his body revealing that he was the one who stopped it. "You'd be dead where you stand." he said, while maintaining his signature smile before giving a light chuckle as the doppelganger disappeared. "Just kidding. Anyways, Dave I'll leave you in charge of gathering the information. You can share with us your findings when we get back to homebase. As much I would love to share a van with you guys, I heard that traffic is bad at this time, so I'll just stick to the skies." Raiyen said as the angel armor manifested itself around him once more. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. Let's hope we will get some answers by then." and with that, he spreads his wings and left the area headed to his hideout to decide what was the next move for him.
"Sure, but my room is kinda small so we'll have to share a bed." Rose said with a wink and a tone that wasn't quite clear on whether or not that was a joke or an attempt at flirting. She closed her eyes shutting off the rest of the world and focusing on her living room. Specifically, the space behind the sofa so that she doesn't accidentally open a portal in a place where her parents are likely to stand and freak out. For something that needed to last long enough for two of them to pass through it was about fifteen seconds of focus as the very air itself started to spark with embers and arcana in swirling motion and a window, a hole, in space appeared giving people a clear view of the wall of Rose's living room and front door if observed from the other side. She grabbed Katalina by the wrist and pulled her along the portal closing as soon as they were in.
The Livingroom was spacious, much more than the portal would imply as it had a large flat screen TV on one end with a sizable couch and a fancy glass coffee table in front. There were numerous shelves and cupboard around holding all sorts of books, souvenirs from trips around the world and family photos. The TV was hooked up to a HiFi system and a BluRay player with dozens of movies and music CDs all around the system. From the living room and behind the couch one could go into the dining room which had a few paintings on the wall and a few cupboards with crystal glasses and some fancy china. The kitchen that connected to the dining room seemed brand new with a large silver fridge that could produce its own ice cubes.
Of course, as the two girls popped out of the portal Rose's parents watched, surprise and relief on their face. They were watching the broadcast but when the creature appeared the feed was cut so they had no idea what happened. They were both middle-aged people with about as stereotypical wardrobe as a suburban family could have. Mother had a nice dull blue dress and father a white shirt and khaki pants. "I'm home, this is Kat, she'll be staying for the night." Rose teleported to her room dropping off her music player and headphones while also taking the time to clean up some of her discarded clothing such as socks, panties and bras. A few more zips to the bathroom to drop off the laundry and then to get a sleeping bag for her guest and she was back in the living room. "Oh, you were watching the broadcast? Yeah, Valk blew up," She said with a frown, unsure herself what exactly that meant. "We're fine, well, most of us. I think Faelon might quit." The parents seemed to be in utter shock and incapable of responding to any of that.
