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What Happened in Salem


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The Borrower walked into the town known as Salem, seeing it once again with new eyes. This time, they were finally his own. He had been here for quite a while- posing as a vanilla or something similar- but had never shown the small town his true face. Learning and memorizing the full power set of every epic in the town was difficult, but worth it, and would be especially so in the place they called the arena. Borrower was in the form of a male above average in height and stature. However, he had connected by thin, but still strong, strands of muscle two females that he had created out of the excess body materials he had on him, quite literally. He had supplied them with vocal cords, organs, and the like, but they were lacking in what he couldn't create- that is, a brain. Borrower could still control them, but things became... difficult, especially when he tried to say multiple things at once. The girls were simply convenient ways to store excess mass. There was no way Borrower would let anyone know that. Better to let them think he had some sort of mind control. Never give up the element of surprise. As he finally walked through the gates, many of the vanillas stepped out of the way. Dressed in a suit and tie, he may not have looked imposing, but it was common sense that someone with followers would be someone important. He reached out with the left-most female and grabbed a vanilla who looked like they knew what they were doing, lifting them up by the throat. He didn't grab by the windpipe. He squeezed the veins on the sides of his neck, suffocating him but leaving him with the ability to talk. "Where is the place where I sign up for these fights," Borrower asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"The bar, my... lord," he replied, crumpling to the ground as Borrower released him.
"And where can I find this bar?" he asked, once again knowing the answer. A murmur of "that way" was enough that it wouldn't look as suspicious that he was able to find it with ease. He walked with his two shadows in tow, the crowd parting before him, and pushed into the bar. He looked around, and quickly walked to the table commonly inhabited by fellow epics, and boldly seated himself with his consorts. He stood by, waiting for the others reactions.
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IMG_0049.JPG  Steampunk was about to ask a question when he was interrupted by an epic with two girls following him. The man sat down at a nearby table and steampunk's ADD mind immediately brought to his attention the fact that there was a bright flashing light at the top of his plasma screen visor. "Ohhh" said steampunk " A flashing and obvious light!"  His readout told him that a nice luxury car- a jaguar- was about to be assimilated to make more clockwork soldiers. He needed to authorize the bots to take action, he considered for a moment... he hit decline. Interestingly there were three people standing near the car, a woman with short blond hair who was on all those posters a young women in a humble posture and an imposing man in the car who would probably disapprove of his car being disassembled. Also- and more importantly - Aphrodite had gotten some new pups- pugs - that were ADORABLE!!! But to other less important matters, "Do either of you want a mini-sun?" It was a logical question and who would say no? A mini-sun would be awesome!"If you throw it the stabilization field and heat moderator will break and a good size city could become a slag heap but no big deal right?"

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  • 2 weeks later...

Springer continued  hoping. he had been on his way to Seattle and ended up in Dallas (oops). He had been  chased for three days straight, and was getting tiered. his enhanced physical ability can only take him so far, and they knew his weakness. They had bullets made of the Fricken stuff, so he kept his distance. he saw a town approaching and sighed. he reached the edge and jumped 30 ft onto a near by house, whipped out an Uzi and took down 3 of his chasers. He hopped away and found cover. he remembered the time he destroyed the files on him in Dallas. It had nearly killed him. Lost in thought he didn't realize that he had a gun at his head. the man fired. Thankfully, these were regular bullets and didn't kill him. His self heal powers let the bullet sink out of his head and the wound healed. he shot the guy and made it out safely. He looked for his chasers and realized another epic had got to them. he passed out on the floor, finally safe.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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IronForge stared at the 'God king' epic, trying his best to emanate waves of raw disapproval. No-one could possibly dare to be so non-chalant about something that dangerous around his 'brother'; not while retaining an undamged cardiovascular system.

 

He allowed his eyes to narrow slightly before he spoke. "If anything you do puts sonny in danger, without his direct consent, to any degree, I will flood your veins with liquid iron and rip you to shreds from the inside out; are we clear?" He waited for a moment to make his point indisputable, then turned and addressed the new man, forming his coat into a kind of hammock that he slipped his brother into as he did so. 

 

The first thing he noticed was how high the iron content of the other mans blood was, despite being at naturally achievable levels; they were surprisingly high nonetheless. "Well hello sir, that's an interesting pair you have there; they almost seem... dead. Is it safe to assume your an epic? You have some interesting company if you are. Their faces are almost unnaturally expressionless; I would assume that you have some form of mental manipulation, correct?"

 

IronForge grinned and allowed iron dust to start appearing and falling from his palms at a noticeable rate. He intended to 'befriend' every one of the demons in this town, even if it was forced; Sonny would need an intelligence network in this town.

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A slight warping in one corner of the bar went unnoticed by most of its patrons as a bland, suited man walked calmly out of the shadows. Most glances slid right off his unremarkable appearance, though a few doubled back and stared wide eyed in recognition.

Soulcaster did not make a habit of appearing in the bar, or indeed in any part of the city other than the arena. While his appearance was no secret as he appeared in the Arena for all to see on a daily basis, it was still unexpected to see him anywhere other than the astral plane or his mansion.

Ignoring the assembled Epics completely, he stopped by one of the waiters who had recognized him, leaning in and muttering a few short sentences before shimmering into the air once more.

The waiter, visibly nervous, walked into the center of the room before clearing his throat.

"Ehm, h-his lordshlip -I mean er... Soulcaster would like to announce to the combatants of the Arena and to the people of Salem that the Sins have returned from their travels."

The few non-Epic citizens in the bar and some of the Epics who had lived in Salem for longer raised expressions of surprise, ranging from hasps of shock to raised eyebrows and a few grins of excitement.

"In celebration, todays pre-organized matches have been cancelled in favour of a tournament. All combatants willing to compete are to register their interest at the bar, prizes are to be announced at the tournaments opening but should any combatant demonstrate extreme skill and valour, the empty seats of the Sins may be appointed."

Even more interested murmuring came from the few older Epics. The matches of Envy and Greed had always been interesting to watch, but Wrath had attained near hero status in the city, an incredibly powerful High Epic, and prone to more showmanship than Showstopper was. This was going to be an interesting time for the Arena of Salem.

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Borrower was about to respond, when he heard a noise in the corner. He placed the man as Soulcaster. Borrower raised an eyebrow in surprise. Based on his current knowledge, Soulcaster rarely, if ever, made an appearance outside of the arena. A waiter walked into the center of the room, and announced something about the sins and then... this competition- it sounded as if the winners would become some kind of enforcer. At the very least, they would be spending time close to Soulcaster, as well as other powerful epics. He was very interested in Showstopper. She was a canceler. As an assumer himself, if Borrower could get close enough... there would be none in the world, epic or otherwise that could stop him. It would be amusing to see epics who were leaders of their towns crumple under there own powers, having nothing they could do to stop it. Borrower sent one of his shadows over to the registration table and had her fill out a packet. He then turned back to the metal manipulation epic who had been talking to him. "Yes, you could say I have some form of mental manipulation," Borrower said. The sort where I can manipulate your mental abilities, he thought to himself. "I can tell from the dust falling from your palms that you are a metal manipulator and/or creator. Do you have any other powers, or is that your only one," he said with a slight smile. This was one of the newer epics, one that he hadn't done intelligence on. Best to learn his powers now, just in case things got ugly later on.

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  • 2 months later...

Let's get the ball rolling, guys...

 

Aaron Lent prowled through the street, searching for a potential recruit. Or, preferably, potential recruits.

 

He despised the Epics. He hated how Soulcaster didn't rule properly. He strongly disliked the fact that he had lost all of his matches in the Arena.

His response? Create a team to ultimately cleanse Salem of the monsters who lived there. Save the vanillas. Be a hero.

Aaron absently continued on his course through the densely-packed street, late afternoon sun still shining. His mind frantically whirred, trying to figure out exactly how he would accomplish his goal. Turns out, you're much more ambitious and hopeful late at night. Well, he could work with that.

Some yells snapped him out of his reverie. Turning to pick out the disturbance, he spotted two people snarling at each other, standing barely three feet apart, a ring of curious vanillas in a ring around them. An Epic fight? Were they even allowed in Salem, still?

The couple engaged in a wild fisticuff, throwing carefully placed punches. This made details difficult for Aaron, but what he could distinguish was that they were both clearly angry at one another, for certain reasons unknown to him.

Male and female. Perhaps they were dating? Well, if that were the case, they clearly weren't any longer.

The struggle went on for a short time, concluding with the woman wrestling the man to the ground. Dude, her muscles were bulging. The guy on the floor's punching gradually subdued to a mild arm wave, before he finally completely collapsed.

Aaron slowly breathed out. Whew. That was intense. Neither of them were Epics, though.

Exactly what he wanted.

As enforcement approached, the woman noticed the band and began sprinting away. She suddenly stumbled in her haste to get away, however, which allowed Aaron to smoothly place a small piece of paper in her back pocket. He grinned to himself, noting the woman hadn't felt the brief tug, and moved towards the man as well. Once he'd reached the body, he picked him up as if to hand him over, but placed a copy of the first paper in to the guy's pocket too.

His calling card. On it, he'd written, 'Meet at the old cemetery at 9:00 sharp. You won't regret it.' Hopefully, the two vanillas would follow the instructions. Unless, of course, they were both exterminated for causing a disruption. Unlikely, however.

Aaron hummed a satisfied tune, placing the still form on the ground, and melted into the growing crowd.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Birds chirping. People chatting. Vendors bargaining. How could nature produce such beautiful scenery yet also shove into the mix crazy superhumans with killer intentions?

That was what Alex Hart, also known as Element, thought as he passed into Salem, an area famed for its gladiator battles. His recent escape had been caused by his house blowing up, so he sought shelter elsewhere. Sparking blowing up. They never discovered the convict, if there even was one. Shame. That could have been an interesting day for Alex...

"You there," he pointed at a passing vanilla, who swivelled around, eyes widening, "show me where I can sign up for the battles."

The vanilla pointed a suddenly shaky finger to a tavern, and replied, "It's in the bar over there. Go in and write down your powerset to sign up. That's all there is to know."

"Thank you kindly." Element strode towards the bar, his Grandmother in tow, glee stretching his lips. Once he reached it, he briefly hesitated, shrugged as if he didn't give a care in the world (which he didn't) and stepped inside. Instantly, he was met with the curious smell of alcohol and sweat from humidity. Then, Alex waited another moment, before clearing his throat and stating, "I am Element, and I would like to join the infamous warriors in battle. Where might I find the ability to do so?"

"Think Tank is over there, bud." Alex glared at the visitors, already furious to be addressed in such a way, but calmly assured himself they probably didn't know who he was. Still a slontze, though.

"Want to join, too, Grandmother?" he asked the elderly woman trailing behind him, who carefully shook her head. This wasn't due to her frailty, however. Alex's Grandmother went by the name of Supersonic, a Gifter who could grant super speed. She could definitely hold her own in a fight.

The fights just reminded her of her past. She never outright spoke of these things to Alex, although she mentioned them a couple of times, and Alex never pushed.

Alex instead scribbled on the sheet of paper, and once content, promptly headed to the exit of the tavern. Where he was faced with a loving couple holding each other, faint smiles on their faces, and huge headphones covering their ears.

Element decided now would be a great time to show off his powers. He shut his eyes, concentrating, and moved his arms around slightly. Wind. That seemed appropriate for the current situation. When he opened his eyes again, a tall, thin being hovered next to him. A Wind Elemental.

Move these people out of my way, he mentally commanded the creature. Obeying the orders, the Wind Elemental lifted its arms, creating a strong gust of wind, and used the wind to shove the couple away, and into a nearby table. Satisfied, Element reclaimed the creature and left the building, already hearing awed whispers.

This is gonna be a whole lotta fun.

Edited by Majestic
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  • 1 month later...

IronForge nodded his head, the grin remaining on his face. " I am indeed a manipulator of metals, iron specifically, and yes I can create iron; other than that, I can liquefy and solidify metal at will." He kept back his enhanced mental speed and ability to split his focus three ways; he needed to keep some secrets for myself. He Glanced at sonny and was about to discuss him and the girls at the new epics side when Some kind of weather manipulator entered with an old woman, signed up for the fights, and then brusquely left with a display of power. He sat still for a moment, contemplating the strangeness of the event, before turning his attention back to the epic in front of himself. "That was a thing that happened. May inquire after your name and the names of your pets?" 

Sonny began to stir and IronForge gently rocked him back to sleep, unwilling to have him awaken in a bar instead of the hotel. Sonny had told him to wake him when they arrived at their apartments after all, and they hadn't arrived there yet. 

Edited by ShadowLord_Lith
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Aaron continued his scan of the city; it wasn't 9:00 yet, not by a long shot, and he wanted to bring to life more opportunities. And it was so.

Occasionally, Aaron just slipped the sheet of paper into people's pockets, those whom he deemed worthy (he was a pickpocket before Calamity, and after its rise, he studied Epics rather closely). Epics were very distinguishable from the average guy.

The simple adventure went on and on. At some rare points in the day, a fight would break out, or a vanilla would show off an extreme display of power, and Aaron would actually go up to them and speak to them in person. Most accepted the offer. Some didn't. Some wouldn't show up later that evening - but some would. It was a human nature cycle, and Aaron was at the centre of it.

All he could hope now was nobody sold him out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nice, the match starts soon. Who am I up against?

Those were Element's thoughts as he strode towards the arena dominating Salem. He was ready. He was prepared.

He would win.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Savannah reopened his eyes, adjusting to the sudden shift in consciousness as he was transported, once again, to the arena of Salem.
This time he was, thankfully, not greeted by pink fairy floss or ice creams. Instead he stood in the center of an almost identical replica of the roman Colosseum, among a few dozen other challengers.

On all sides an explosive cheering could be heard, there were even more people present now than there had been during his last fight, were those sins of Salem really such a big deal? He'd heard some rumors since the announcement but for even the regular humans to turn up in such numbers, these must have been some real crowd-pleasing fights.

A sudden burst of light appeared in front of him, almost blinding in its radiance.

Amid this pillar of light, three figures stood proudly, raising their hands towards the stands. The cheering amongst the stands intensified even further, hoarse shouting and stamping of feet could be heard as the light dimmed steadily, making the three figures more recognizable.

Speak of the devil, or rather devils. The sins of Salem I presume?

To confirm his suspicions, one of the announcers nearby announced the three figures as Wrath, Envy and Greed.

Feeling an ominous pressure in the air, Savannah turned to both sides, observing his fellow competitors. Glares that were intense enough to be almost palpable came from every side, all directed towards the three Epics that had been placed in the spotlight.

"Hi!" A small, high pitched voice said, a young girl noticing Savannahs glance and returning it with a wave.

He feebly waved back, a slight expression of concern on his face at such a small child being here.

Then he saw that small child swinging a large scythe that must have easily weighed twice as much as her entire body.

Even as an Epic, I don't know if I'll ever be entirely comfortable with a post-Calamity society. Savannah mused wryly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

One second Element was happily walking through town, the next....

He discovered himself in an arena.

As a commentator addressed the masses of crowds surrounding him, Element adjusted to the circumstances. Was this the infamous Salem fight he had been anticipating for years? Had his time for glory finally arrived? He hoped so.

Opposite him and waving to the crowds was a young-ish bloke. No noteworthy powers he'd displayed so far. That was dangerous. How could Element win if he didn't know his enemy's powerset?
Stupid, stupid, stupid! he reminded himself. You are Element. You don't need to know!

The fight began in an instant. Element gasped as he faced down his opponent, who was racing towards him at breakneck speeds. Thankfully, Element had regained enough composure to summon an Earth Elemental, which proceeded to chuck boulders at the speed Epic. Which turned out unnecessary, as he crashed into a morphing dice that appeared through a portal, before running normally, going nowhere, and finally being knocked over by a huge rock.

Oooookayyyyyy.

Element stalked to the dazed Epic, creating a Fire Elemental to finish him off. "I'm sorry, little Epic," he breathed, "I'm so very sorry..."

Then the Epic transformed into a kangaroo and kicked Element 20 meters.

The shock was tremendous, and blocked most of the pain from attacking. He briefly summoned a Life Elemental to heal himself, but the Kangaroo Epic was already bounding towards him. Element caused his life Elemental to vanish and instead created a Wind one, prepared to throw a tornado. Kangaroo Epic eventually reached him and Element mentally hurled him through the air and into the ceiling, denting it. It slowly faded away, and Element celebrated the easy win.

But a writhing figure caught his eye. On the ceiling, but in a different position, was the Kangaroo Epic. But hadn't he vanished? What was going on?

A few words appeared in the air: Inter-Dimensional Sequence. Element curved around but they followed his eyes anywhere he went. Strange.

The other Epic wriggled enough to break free from his seemingly gravitational bonds, and lunged at Element, who - in return- ducked beneath and touched him.

Now to play some games.

The simple feel was all Element needed to form a new Sub-Elemental, a smaller version of his opponent. Element found the name Skippy was mentally attached to the being, which must've been the real Epic's alias.

Surprise showed clearly on Skippy's face, followed by confusion. They didn't last long, however, as the Sub-E pushed against the ground, cracking it, and leapt to Skippy. The two kangaroos wrestled for a few moments as Element whipped out a pair of deadly-looking sais he discovered on his belt, rushing to the fight. He proceeded to bound onto invisible platforms subconsciously and threw some sharpened playing cards at Skippy, who'd managed to dismantle his miniature double. The Joker card struck him in the eyes, blinding him, and allowing Element to sneak behind his back and draw the knives down the skin. The hardened fabric clearly wasn't enough as the blades penetrated and drew blood. Skippy collapsed to the floor, defeated and dead. The crowd roared.

Perspiration knitting on his brows, Element began his ascent on some spiralling staircases, eager to be out of this forsaken arena. So troubled in deep in thought was he, it took him a while to notice he wasn't making any progress. Cursing about illusions, he instead trudged through a redwood door, into the loving arms of real life.

Edited by Majestic
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