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The Rift had been destroyed. The Red Phoenix was gone. The Dark Phoenix was calming. The Guilds were hiding. The timing was perfect. Lord Ajax waved his hands, and the ceiling opened, slowly. The flying members were into the sky within seconds. The rest waited impatiently as the floor slowly lifted up. They reached the ground, and they spilled out in a massive field of demons, people, spren, and other creatures. Dotted among the monstrosities was humans, Singers, Sleepless. They all wore uniforms, black and gold, emblazoned with a purple nightshade flowers, and the words Bureau of Villainy. But the creatures overshadowed them easily. Ranging from human sized to one the size of the Alleyzon skyscraper, they were all dangerous, destructive. And they all worked for Lord Ajax. They moved forward toward the city, some flying ahead, some sprinted, slowly lumbering. Around them, grass burnt, long tracks were carved through the dirt, massive chunks of earth and stone were turned to glass, crystal, steel. The landscape had the look of a terribly diseased man or woman. Mismatched colors, scars and pockmarks. It was all beautiful to him. The first arrived, and all the others were not far behind. Biggest, the large one, was shaped like a wheel, spiked and dark. Everything it touched was ripped to shreds by the spikes, which were actually thousands of clawed hands. It ripped apart a building as he watched. He would go soon, but he wanted to save the best for last. The Guilds could fight the monsters, barely. But him... they would be like mewling kittens as he took everything they had for himself. The Dark Phoenix was quickly not the only thing in the sky. It was surrounded by harpies, spren, dragons, and worse. But still it hovered. Fine with him. The Dark Horde was released. He cackled, mismatched eyes glowing bright.

Darkness shrouded the city. The mist had filled it, the demons had invaded it, and the citizens had destroyed it. Buildings burned, and so did people. Blood flowed through the streets, the sewers. The most mild mannered people had become raging murderers. Taverns, businesses, houses, destroyed by flaming skulls and mistwraiths. Dragons flew throughout the city, torching it. But there was hope. PlasmaCore was falling. The guilds were fighting them, sending in troopers. And dawn was rising. The mist faded as the sun rose, retreating from the city. And they had a clear view of the carnage, the destruction. Those not wrapped in the purple-red haze were disgusted, horrified. Bodies everywhere, man, woman, child. Building after building destroyed, the work the Traders Union had put so much effort into destroyed. And it kept going. The monsters were still there, animal and human.

The man walked forward quickly, ripping it out the dark pineapple from its position, throwing it through the window. He summoned gold from the air, ripping pieces apart, a flurry of motion reshaping the machine before their eyes. One scientist tried to stop him, but one glance from his mismatched eyes froze the woman in her tracks. Then he slammed his starry fist into a red button, and the rift closed. Three seconds later, a new rift opened, but this one was spiraling in a multitude of colors, all through a black that was a color, not an absence. Purple, red, an eerie green. But not the color of the Void. And this new rift, this new Vortex, grew, it was obvious it was a different thing entirely. As this happened, the blue haze spread out, leaving through the window. It spread out into the nighttime city, blotting out the stars throughout the entire city, and continued spreading. The reddish blob had pulled back into the corner, faces moving quickly. The man turned to Dark Phoenix, and she unfroze. "What did you do? Who do you think you are?" She stormed up to him, small sparks flying around her. The man's face was cold as he looked towards her. Or she thought it was. Dammit, this strange face is gonna be hard to interpret. She stepped right up to him, looking up. He must have been eight feet or more, his height towering over her by such a large amount. When he spoke, moments later, it was in a commanding voice, with no room for argument. She felt a strange tug on her emotions, telling her to listen to the man. "Voidus and Sudiov will come to this city, looking for war. Looking to see what happened here." He shook his head, and she found herself captivated by his every act. "We must replicate this experiment somewhere else, a block or two away, so that they find it there." She nodded, and gestured to an awestruck scientist standing there to write this down. He's so smart. So wise. This must be true, if he says so. Then she shook her head, grimacing. He was manipulating her, somehow. She glared at him, but he didn't seem to care. And that voice in her head, saying, if he is, it must be for a good reason. "Then we can continue this. And don't try to stop this machine." He gestured backwards, then walked out in long strides. The blob followed him, for some reason. The man resisted, but was quickly silenced. They took his corpse a few blocks away and dropped it in the gutter. No one would know. It was not uncommon to find such corpses. E.Z.R.A. 1 grinned. He led the E.Z.R.A. clones. He was the only one who had a full mind, and he had one power of his own. He supervised as soulcasters carved out a giant basement, and put in steel plating, replicating the experiment, dark pineapple at all. They reactivated it, and the rift opened. While they looked, E.Z.R.A. 1 slit their throats, one by one. No witnesses. He picked up the soulcasters, turning each corpse into air. It was done. He walked away. A cold voice came from the speaker of his room. "Damon. You have your mission." A holograph appeared in front of him. It showed a map of the Alleycity, three-dimensional. It highlighted a Black Crusade building within the city. Then another, lighting all of those within the city up. "Attack these bases, and leave no witnesses. Take their corpses and strew them out in the streets, armor still on them. Make it bloody, if you can." Five ones were turned red. "Ignore these for now. We have them covered." The hologram disappeared, leaving a small paper with the map, now two-dimensional, on it. @ElendVenture @Grey Knight The drones alighted on the ship, at last. The blobs began to eat into it, like a super acid. The drones flew away, blowing up in the air. The blobs glowed brighter, eating through the plating at a ridiculous rate. *** The blue haze had darkened the sky of the Alleycity, and made even the other side of the street near invisible. It was a terrible sight. *** The man stood there, receiving the information from the TUBA meeting, from the spies in lower alleys they had. The DA was at a giant meeting. This hadn't happened since long, long before the Seven Day War, or even the formation of TUBA and the Ghostbloods. This was dangerous. He would report it to someone higher up.