What Happened In Astoria

[Edgedancer]

The Metal leisurely watched Finnegan do his methodical work of stocking up. His own contribution to the work was the vital kind that often didn’t get the gratitude it deserved, providing cometary. Finnegan up to usual fashion took it with a twitching eye and not much else. However, he managed to get an apple out of nagging him, while he was stocking them up, so that’s worth something.  

 

With his friend too busy with his attempts to ignore him and using the last shreds of his concentration on getting his work done the Metal instead did the next best thing and started to bother the attendants. In their favor he had to say that he got more of a raise out of them but they were too timid to actually give any proper responses, acting as if he’d just kill them on a wrong step. Bores.

 

Anyway, it could be worse but maybe next time he should wait until Finnegan finished his work. As if on cue Finnegan got rid of the list and proclaimed that he was done. Excellent, him doing what he wants could only mean one thing. The Metal finished his apple, jumped back to his feet and laid an arm around the other Epic’s shoulder, even if he wasn’t too thrilled about it.

 

“Alright then,” the Metal said, “if you say so that means it is cult time now. Let us depart!”

 

A bit of an eccentric gathering was just what he needed right now.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Blackwave always appreciated the shows caused by people trying to hit on Wandersail. The teleporter, Journey, was still scowling at her as his boss made introductions.

 

“You have already met Journey, and this right here with the handsome hair is Prescience,”

 

He didn’t look like much of a threat, but Blackwave was pretty sure his powers had something to do with the future. But seers were easy to take down. You just had to attack from all angles. Though the Sniper Rifle would be problematic.

 

“This tall guy is War,”

 

He actually looked the part, unlike Journey and Prescience. Taller than the rest, with a massive sword strapped to his back, and named after the best of Hell’s Angels. If it came to a fight, Blackwave would deal with him first. Or maybe recruit him.

 

“And Blight’s right over here, the one with the fancy cane.”

 

That was an actual Cane. Everyone else had a weapon, but this guy brought a cane? What exactly did the man think he was doing with it? He looked like the Winter Soldier trying to infiltrate a prom or something.

 

And I, of course, am Dragoon, Lord of Longbeach. Well, enough small talk. Let’s get down to business. What has Affinity already told you?”

 

The fat man himself would be the most dangerous, if he had five epics willing to follow him. But Seriously, all black and goggles? Dragoon was an Epic going through a mid-life crisis. “Your secretary told us the gist of it. You want to rule Astoria, but don’t want your hands dirty when it comes to killing Bloody Mary, since she’ll see you coming. And you don’t want us to pillage the city while we kill everyone.” He scowled at Dragoon. He wanted the man to know exactly how displeased he was by that. “Pay’s already been discussed. We just need to know your plan of attack. When and where do you want us?”

[Mailliw73]

 

Jag was impatient. The instant that the soldiers told him where Dragoon met with newcomers, he took off, bounding across the land towards a warehouse. The Australian pair followed behind the rest of the Destructors and met him there. Jag sheathed his machetes; no matter how angry he was right now, this was a time for good impressions. He could take his anger out on some civilians later. "Best behavior, guys. We need his help," Jag reminded the others. Smasher took the second position behind Jag. If any surprise attacks came, best for him and Jag to take the brunt of it. Metalmech stayed outside to keep guard along with Bangarang. Jag burst through the door, past the guards. "I am Black Jaguar, leader of the Destructors. I've heard of you, Dragoon, and would like to request some aid," Jag announced. He saw that he had burst into a conversation with a couple of pirates, one male, big, stereotypical pirate, and a thinner girl, probably a lover. Dragoon himself had his famous Horsemen assembled as well as Affinity, his liaison. Right now, Jag didn't care that the pirate was probably pissed to high Calamity. Dragoon wouldn't allow him to get in a brawl right here in his city, and Jag had had to wait and he had lost and he had rarely felt this angry and frustrated. He made sure he had a clear path to the door in case he needed to run and stared down Dragoon with all the kindness he could force out.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Mailliw73

[mail-mi]

"Your secretary told us the gist of it. You want to rule Astoria, but don’t want your hands dirty when it comes to killing Bloody Mary, since she’ll see you coming. And you don’t want us to pillage the city while we kill everyone." Blackwave didn't seem to like that very much, though Dragoon didn't see why. He got to kill everyone, wasn't that enough? If it were me, I'd be plenty happy with just killing the people. "Pay’s already been discussed," he continued. "We just need to know your plan of attack. When and where do you want us?" 

 

Dragoon considered his strategy. If he had his thoughts gathered right, they'd be able to take--

 

Someone burst through the doors. HEY! Dragoon thought. You interrupted my train of thought! The man, followed by two others, ran right through the guards that were supposed to prevent this sort of thing. I'll have to see to their punishment--probably execution, but I may save one and only cut off his arm or something. He filed it away to be dealt with later. 

 

"I am Black Jaguar, leader of the Destructors. I've heard of you, Dragoon, and would like to request some aid." The first one--"Black Jaguar"--seemed to be leader, and he was the main speaker of the group, apparently. He forced a smile at Dragoon, but Dragoon could tell he was as impatient and pissed as sparks. 

 

Too bad. You don't get to play if you break the rules. 

 

"RUDE!" Dragoon shouted out, shocking those who hadn't lived around him for the past few years. "Can't you see that we were in a meeting?! Simply and plainly rude." He shook his head in disapproval, then looked over at the pirates. "I'm sorry, I seem to have lost my train of thought. You see what barging in on a meeting does to a man?" he said, shooting a child-like glare at Black Jaguar. "Now, Blackwave was it? Yes, for our attack on Astoria! I want to pull of this attack as soon as possible, and you--being pirates--will take care of everything around the river."

[Mailliw73]

 

Dragoon yelled at Jag, then ignored him petulantly, as if a child. This man was nothing like Jag had been led to expect. But if he could lend the supplies and aid the Destructors needed, he'd be fine. When he mentioned Astoria, Jag broke into the conversation again. 

 

"Astoria? Coincidentally, that coincides perfectly with our plans. The Destructors and our new Aussie friends planned to attack the city as well. We came here to petition for supplies and find aid. These pirates should do nicely," Jag said. "There's six of us, we just need some weapon upgrades, criminals for our army, and vehicles. That's all we ask." Hawkwing would be impressed with Jag's diplomatic talk, instead of his typical threatening. As long as Smasher didn't speak, they should be fine. 

 

Black Jaguar looked over to the pirates for the first time since entering. The brute leader looked furious with Jag for bursting in on his discussion. Well, he could accept Jag or leave himself. His female counterpart was more attractive than Jag had first noticed. Her attitude proclaimed danger underneath a mask of an easygoing, freewilled, cheerful girl. He liked it. But, if she was the pirate's, then he'd leave her alone. He didn't need love or even pleasure. He was here to take over Astoria. Pleasures came after duty. 

[Edgedancer]

Before Dragoon had a chance to tell Blackwave of his strategy the meeting was interrupted by a group of landlubbers forcing their way in. All for a clumsy request for help, some people just don’t understand the way business works. With some luck Blackwave would get to see how much his allies were actually worth and how much of most of the work he and his crew would have to get done themselves.

 

Instead of any impressive display of power, or even a not embarrassing one, Dragoon only showed how loud he could scream. Proofing that that he wasn’t in his mid-life crisis after all, he was simply an Epic man-child. But he was an Epic man-child with money, meaning that the captain could suffer through it, as long as they got back to business. His fortune be blessed, along with the outbreak also came ignoring the Black Jaguar and Dragoon started with the explanation of his plan.

 

Said topic lead to Jaguar interjecting himself back into the conversation, modestly only asking to have his entire team funded in advance. Doing the same as Dragoon, Blackwave simply ignored the muscle head. It seemed like a fair amount of attention for the guy. The only thing he bothered to take note of was how he looked at Wandersail. She should be able to deal with him herself but he’d be sure to offer help with organizing a burial at sea.

 

“We can take the river, should be easy enough” Blackwave said to Dragoon. “Any resistance in particular my crew should be preparing for or is it just the obligatory first step before we can start going on land?”

[Voidus]

Collab post by Voidus and Aonar

After the third time that Sparkles had teleported right in front of him he gave up any hope of leaving her behind and continuing on alone.

Instead he turned the volume on his playlist up as loud as it would go and rearranged his ears around the buds until they sealed off all sound. If he was going to have to put up with it then he might as well at least get some silence while doing so.

The inside of the tower seemed completely surreal, the unanimous black rendered much of the towers detailing obsolete, all that could be seen everywhere was the same monotonous black.

He continued on, doing his best to ignore his shining companion until they reached an open room, near the top of the tower, readying his various weapons Bioterror made his best attempt at stealth as he slowly entered, the room was sparsely furnished, a smattering of chairs and a table, both of them dwarfed by the large man occupying the rest of the room, he stood facing the entrance as though expecting them.

This is why we don’t light up entire buildings like christmas trees. Bioterror silently scolded his companion. Well I assume this is one of the ones we’re supposed to take care of, might as well get on with it.

He eyed the man from the door, activating his ability as powerfully as he could he tried to destroy his nervous system but as expected the man did not instantly collapse.

Epic then, that’ll take a few minutes to work but in the meantime.

His arm-blades began to secrete a poisonous substance, it wasn’t any faster than his power was on an Epic but it’d guarantee the man’s death even if he got out of Bioterror’s range.

He charged for the Epic just as his playlist switched to Battle of the heroes.

 

Midnight waited calmly, hands in his pockets, as several more flashes of light came from below. A small smile played about his features.  While their go-to plan wasn’t as… personal, as he liked, it was always amusing to see what was left over.

 

Eventually, their unexpected guests showed themselves. A man and a woman, both obviously Epics. The man was strangely deformed, with reptilian features and razor-edged bone spurs in place of hands. The woman wore translucent golden armour, seemingly made from light itself.  A fleshwarper and a light manipulator? Sparks. The thoughts came over Nightshade’s mental link.

 

They paused a moment, and Midnight winced, a sudden headache coming on. The fleshwarper rushed forwards, bone blades at the ready. Raising a hand, Midnight snapped his fingers, and everything went black.

 

 

Nightshade spoke suddenly, breaking their tense silence. “One of them’s a light manipulator, certainly. Is the plan still going to work?”

 

A flicker of annoyance passed across Darkquake’s face. “It’ll have to. If we can catch them off guard, we should be able to slow them until Az arrives, even if we can’t kill them.”

 

“Then you’re on.” The inside of the tower went dark as he spoke.  Stretching out a hand, Darkquake touched the shadow’s surface. It instantly solidified under his fingers, before starting to buck and writhe like a living thing. A muffled crunching could be heard from within, and sweat started to bead on Darkquake’s face. Solidifying this volume of shadow was difficult at the best of times, and artificial darkness was always harder to effect. After another moment he pulled his hand away, breathing heavily.

 

The room slowly lightened as Midnight stepped outside, looking pale and drawn. Almost as one, they turned towards the door, trying to see what remained.

 

Bioterror cursed mentally as the room was suddenly blanketed in darkness. His eye-contact was broken which meant he lost his connection to the Epic he was trying to kill.

Stupid lightbulb-Epic can’t even keep the room lit.

He felt no feedback as he swung his arms through where the Epic had been standing. No matter, he’d have to wait til the Epic tried to attack him and go by his other senses.

Suddenly the air around him seemed to become almost solid as waves of energy began to pass through it, cascading against Bioterrors body, shattering some of his weaker bones and crushing his flesh.

The sudden pressure vanished as quickly as it had begun and the room began to lighten, he collapsed onto all fours as his bones and flesh began to rewind, one of his eyes had been forced out from the pressure but quickly soared back into its socket.

He stood up as he was made whole again before cracking his neck to one side.

“Ow.”

A subtle flash from behind announced the return of Sparkles who had presumably managed to teleport out before she got squished.

“Our turn then?” He asked, not bothering to turn around to address the irritating light manipulator.

 

He didn’t leave her a chance to respond either, he’d regained feeling in his limbs, that was enough.

He charged forwards once more, enhancing his hearing and sense of smell in case they knocked out the lights again.

 

A bright flash revealed the room. The light manipulator stood unharmed, as expected, and the bloody pulp that had been her companion slowly pulled itself together, not showing any sign of the damage it had underwent.

 

“Crap.” Darkquake blinked, trying to make sure of what he was seeing. “High Epics, then. We’ll just have to stall.”

 

Nightshade mumbled to himself momentarily, communicating something to Azrael. After a moment, he grimaced, his gaze refocusing.  “Az isn’t answering.”

 

The fleshwarper finished pulling himself back together, and charged again. A crack split the air, and a figure suddenly inhabited the door, wreathed in shadow.

[Edgedancer]

Collab post by Voidus, Edgedancer and Aonar

 

After her talk with the Metal, Bloody Mary withdrew herself into her chambers. Her main attention, at least for the morning, would be on the new newcomers attempt to retake the tower, as well as its new shadow duplicate. Instead of her usual pool used to overlook as much of the city as possible, she simply pulled a wall of blood in front of her to use her blood in Brightdeath to observe their situation. She also had multiple pillar mounted bowls arranged around her to at least keep a rudimentary overlook of the city, in case anything important happened.

 

The Epics that created the duplicate did manage to kill the group that inhabited the original one before; as such they would most likely be able to put up some amount of a fight, even if Bioterror and Brightdeath turned out to be competent. Preparations for a hopefully good show were in place. Given that Mary was not a popcorn person, she instead settled for chocolate crossies as her snack of choice.    

 

While the two made their way up the tower, Mary scanned the surroundings as best as she could. Interestingly enough she found another pair of newcomers making their way towards the tower. For now, Mary would keep tabs on them, in case they did anything suspicious.

 

Not long after came their first encounter with the enemy. Essentially, they stepped right into a trap. Not very surprising, given how Brightdeath announced their presence but also not exactly impressive as far as first outings go but their powers did manage to protect them, with Brightdeath simply creating more light to cancel the darkness that tried to surround her and Bioterror managing to pull himself back together, quite literally so, the way his eyeballs returned to its socket was actually fairly amusing.

 

Doing what a good little minion should do, the two high Epics gave chase to their opponents. Before they even managed to leave the room, a shadowy figure appeared in front of them. Seems like the entertaining part was about to start, Mary thought as she took a piece of her chocolate.

 

Azrael paused, taking in the scene. The light manipulator Nightshade had shown him stood off to the side, a smug smile on her face. The fleshwarper was charging towards him, bony swords extended. Azrael allowed his black wings to materialize, spreading from his back. A dark sword leapt into his hand, jagged and roughly formed, but wickedly sharp. “Stop.”

The fleshwarper continued, unfazed. Azrael flicked his sword through the air, sending bands of shadow flying, lifting the Epic into the air and pinning him against the far wall. “That was not a request. Name yourselves, and explain to me your purpose here.”

 

Bioterror was suddenly pinned against a wall by bands of darkness as this latest arrival addressed him cooly.

A full on shadow manipulator? Huh. Haven’t seen one of those before. Well I suppose this works to my advantage anyway.

Bioterror unfocussed his eyes somewhat, allowing him to see all the enemy Epics simultaneously, though not very clearly. But his ability didn’t require clear vision, just the knowledge of where his opponent was.

He activated his ability on all the Epics present other than Sparkles and began stalling for time as he slowly melted their brains.

“I go by Bioterror for now, the annoying brat I call Sparkles.”

Five seconds down, a few minutes to go.

He didn’t bother trying to struggle against his bonds, he could just cut himself up and slip out of them if needed but then he’d need to fight them and he might lose eye contact again.

“As for our purpose, well I saw a big dark evil tower and I just felt like checking it out. You know, take a tour and all.”

A box of light suddenly formed around the shadow manipulators head, cutting off Bioterrors direct line of sight to that Epic, which meant he needed to start all over again.

Bloody Sparkles.

 

Insolent fool. As Azrael was about to show Bioterror the price of his flippancy, his vision was obscured by a box, seemingly made of light. Instinctively, Azrael sent fine threads of shadow throughout the room, restoring a sense of his immediate surroundings. Outwardly, his gave no reaction, standing utterly calm and still. A few words coalesced in the air in front of him. Good try. Nowhere near good enough, however.

Forming a small amount of darkness inside his mouth, he threw it against the box, shattering it. “Now, back to business. It seems clear that the pair of you are either liars, or fools, and I tolerate neither.” Waving his sword again, he sent twin lances of shadow streaking towards the Epics. The light manipulator disappeared with a flash of light, the spear thudding harmlessly into the back wall. Bioterror was not so lucky. The lance struck him solidly in the midsection, burying itself in the wall behind him. Azrael clicked his fingers, and it broke apart, wires of shadow corkscrewing through his body, rending muscle and bone alike.

As the fleshwarper pulled himself back together, panting, Azrael spoke again. “Now, tell me the truth. Why are you here?”

“Well it’s not for the hospitality.” Bioterror replied scathingly.

For the third time he focussed his power on the Epic before him. This time he would not lose the connection. If he focussed on his knowledge of where the Epic was it should hold even if he was blinded or torn apart again.

“You want the truth? Fine, we were sent here to murder everyone in the tower, I intended to do this so I could have a safe position in the city where I didn’t have to murder a dozen people just to get what I wanted. You seem to stubbornly desire to keep on living so I guess that leaves us with a bit of a problem doesn’t it?”

Sparkles still hadn’t ported back it seemed. Bioterror hoped she stayed out of his way long enough that he could kill this shadowy slontze.

He allowed some flesh to ooze over his arm-swords as he slowly reformed the skeletal structure into something more resembling his normal arms. It didn’t seem that those crude weapons would suffice for this. He’d have to use one of his older tricks if things were going to get serious.

 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

“Alright then,” the Metal said, “if you say so that means it is cult time now. Let us depart!”

 

The Financier’s eye twitched at the Metal’s choice of words. Technically speaking, the Church of the Singularity was a cult. Pre-Calamity guidelines had made one million the bare minimum membership requirement before a belief system could be considered a religion, and the Church had one. But that was necessary. The closer membership numbers came to seven, the more suspicious the One would become. If only one member were reported, the Church of the Singularity could continue its mission.

 

His stomach rumbled, reminding him of what he’d forgotten.

 

“The Fragrant Blossoms! Come, we are needed elsewhere!”

 

--------------------

 

The holy site wasn’t a distant walk from the distribution center, but the Financier cursed every step. How could he have left his priestesses so long? What if the One had finally made good on his promise to dismantle every reminder of Savior Zero’s power and destroyed the site?

 

He saw it up ahead, still intact, and laughed in relief before hurrying to the door. He didn’t run, or jog, lest he lose his top hat.

 

Finally, he reached the doors, multiplied the locks by zero, and burst through. The aroma of frying chicken and mashed potatoes reached his nose immediately. 

 

“Greetings, my Fragrant Blossoms! The Savior smiles upon you and this most sacred of KFCs!"

[RippleGylf]

 

Sunlight shone on the former park, a patch of green now isolated amongst the shining city. The garden mumbled with the sounds of workers diligently harvesting the various foodstuffs.

Lightwood peered over the field of plants before her from her tall, home-grown wooden tower.  Bursts of color from more exotic varieties popped from the mass of green foliage. Regardless of colour, every plant was unique in this garden. Pink pomegranates and blood-red strawberries grew side by side. From here, the entire city’s food supply was made. At least, as far as plants go. No one had yet figured out how to grow hamburgers, as far as she was aware. Still, she provided as many sorts of fruits and vegetables as she knew.

A grand gathering like this happened only every week or so. Some plants she could grow in an instant, but getting a guava tree to grow in a week took a lot more concentration. Even with all of her efforts, there were a few of Astoria’s other epics who wondered why she grew so much tropical fruit. Alright, the durians may have been a bad idea, but why would anyone want pears instead of mangoes? Pears were absolute rubbish. Sure, she grew a couple varieties anyways, but only at the request of Lucentia. That, and according to the ever so wonderful Financier, they were evil. She could hardly resist growing them if it meant annoying the delusional mathematician.

 

Returning her thoughts to the task at hand, Lightwood looked over the plants, making sure that they were all ripened to perfection. Satisfied, she blankly watched all of the powerless workers painstakingly picking the fruit. None of them would dare to disappoint. She enjoyed these moments where she could just look into the distance and think of nothing whatsoever. Before too long, however, her wonderful moments of nothing turned to boredom, and her mind returned to the Financier. In this wonderful world that grew to her liking, for the most part, why did there have to be so many idiots? She didn’t need any stupid mathematicians to tell her how to organize a garden. If she wanted seven rows of plants, she was going to grow seven rows. Murmuring, her gaze turned into a glare at the very thought of the encounter.

One by one, the workers began to leave the garden, their work complete. Soon, Lightwood would have to oversee the shipment to the stocking center, which meant another pleasant meeting with the Financier. Sighing, she climbed down from her wooden throne and started toward the fruit truck.

[Citadel16]

 

 

Antimatter walked into a bar.

                Antimatter thought that was funny, because if antimatter had actually touched the bar it would have exploded into a twenty-three-ish megaton blast that would have leveled the entire countryside, killing millions in an instant and theoretically making the entire state of Oregon uninhabitable by humans.

                That was funny.

                Right?

                To phrase it differently an epic who called himself Antimatter walked into a rather respectable establishment that only watered down its drinks by about seventy percent. A Blasting miracle that was these days.

                The guy Antimatter was looking for was where he always was, at the counter, doing his best to flirt without using his powers. The guy was barely reliable half the time, and Antimatter was beginning to wonder if keeping him around was worth the trouble.

                Anyway, he said something offensive, and the girl he was chatting with stormed off, a look of disgust on her face. That was usually how a conversation with Harkness went.

                Harkness however wasn’t done for the evening. He turned to the women on his right and with a big grin began to say:

                “Hi! I’m Jack-“

                That was as far as he got.

                Antimatter grabbed Harkness’s head and a surge of light exploded in the air where he had been sitting.

                Just as fast as it had arrived, the light faded and neither Harkness nor the chair he’d been sitting on were anywhere to be seen. Which was a pity, it had been a fine looking chair.

                “Out,” Antimatter said in a loud voice, and the entire bar cleared, except the bartender, whom Antimatter had ordered to stay as he’d tried to leave.

                “Well that was well done now wasn’t it?”

                Antimatter turned around to see Harkness- yes, Harkness, whom he had removed from existence just moments ago-strutting towards him in his “swag” clothing. Which basically was his term for a fedora and dark sunglasses, which he claimed went with everything else he wore.

                “What’d you do this time? Roar like a lion? Or did your stench scare them away?”

                Antimatter resisted the urge to incinerate him again. He seemed to do that a lot these days. Better to avoid establishing habits.

                “What do you know,” Antimatter said through gritted teeth “about the Epics in this region?”

                “Well, Astoria is kinda’ a screwy place.” He said “Who do you want to know about?”

                Antimatter absently cracked his neck. Some people, or rather, some epics would have turned, looked at him creepily and smiled.

                Antimatter wasn’t one for smiling.

                “You know which one of them.”

 

                Lockheed. A rather dense slontze, or so Antimatter remembered. Both literally and figuratively. Unfortunately for Lockheed, he was on his list, the list Antimatter made once the group he was part of betrayed him and put a hollow point slug in his head.

                Antimatters list had fifteen people on it. Every last one an epic that had once followed and eventually betrayed him.

                For money, of all things under Calamity.

                Regardless, they were all scattered now, off to follow some poor fool or rule their own little fiefdom on the edge of hell. Lockheed however was a wanderer, moving around wherever the wind took him. Antimatter was hunting those types first, as they would be harder to find the more Antimatter lost track of them.

                Antimatter was sitting in a dark alley, one connected to a main road. The building next to him was another bar, one that Lockheed frequently visited in the evenings. So Antimatter sat, a rag sheet draped over his back that he had killed a beggar for. Not on purpose though, it had kinda’ just… happened.

                The details were not important. What was important was when Lockheed stepped in front of the alleyway, Antimatter was already lunging at him reaching for his throat with bare fingers, no epic powers, not yet. He needed to see his face first.

                “Yah!” he flung himself backwards, avoiding Antimatter’s grip, instead stumbling to the cold street at his feet. Antimatter raised his hand, palm upward. A small light flickered there, pulsating, almost the same rhythm as Antimatter’s heartbeat.

                It was a simple trick, really. Antimatter could change the size of the explosions he caused. Making them smaller also gave them a faster recharge rate. Enough for a steady light similar to the flickering of a candle.

                Thing was it illuminated Antimatter’s face.

                Lockheed’s eyes widened “You!” he climbed to his feet, “You’re dead!”

                “I am dead,” Antimatter said, twisting his palm out towards him. “You’ve just joined me.”

                Drama is so sparking useful when scaring the crap out of someone who had killed you before. Few people realized this.

                “The hell I am.” There was a buzz in the air, and the ground cracked as Lockheed shot into the air at sonic speeds.

                Antimatter grunted and activated his secondary power, immediately Lockheed’s flight path was lit up in yellow, along with a red line that was what Antimatter could calculate to be his next move.

                To dive into the ground at Mach speed a mere three feet from him.

                Lockheed’s powers came in two parts. One: he could fly at Mach speeds with an immediate acceleration to his top speed and two: the faster he went, the denser he becomes.

                Both literally and figuratively.

                Antimatter dove to the side just as Lockheed hit the ground with the force of a meteorite. Coming up in a roll, antimatter blocked pieces of rock from his face with the hem of his jacket. He spun to face the other epic.

                Lockheed looked around his little crater, as if he was wondering why there was no blood or Antimatter pancake lying on the ground.

                “Three years and you’re just as stupid as ever.” Antimatter thrust out his hand.

                The explosion was as deafening as it was blinding. It flared out from his outraised hand. Ripping in every direction at once except towards him. Then with a sound like rushing wind it snapped back into Antimatter’s hand.

                Then with another deafening roar, the trapped energy slammed into Lockheed in a torrent of energy.

                It was over in an instant.

                Antimatter blinked, everything was black from the flash. Normally he would be wearing sunglasses, and it would be brighter outside, but…

                Ouch.

                His eyes adjusted, slowly. The ground where Lockheed had been standing was bright red. Lockheed himself was nowhere to be found.

                Because he’d died.

                Nine names to go…

Edited January 21, 2016 by warriormark16

[Citadel16]

 

Ragnarok smashed through the wall at a speed he swore was Mach three.

 

                “Flip,” he said, climbing to his feet through the rubble. “This is unfortunate.”

 

                He turned as he saw the Epic charge for him like a rhino. A stupid rhino, with his head held low. Brute was just that, a Brute.

 

                Ragnarok shook himself free of some of the dust. This was ridiculous. He was restricted. His hand was tied behind his back. He couldn’t kill Brute at this moment. He had explicit orders not to.

 

                That didn’t mean he couldn’t rough him up a bit.

 

                Ragnarok threw his hand out towards the charging moron, a red net of fire-lightning-like energy twisting around his arm. His telekinesis was like that.

 

                Ragnarok grabbed the Epic from twenty feet away and smashed him into the ground, the concrete thoroughly smashed from the force of it. Then the building to his left with a similar force, then right, left, right, down, down, down.

 

                He raised the epic into the air, his clothing tattered from the beating. Ragnarok opened his mouth to speak.

 

                Then changed his mind and repeated the beating process. A few moments later, he raised the epic into the air again.

 

                “Hey, are you done struggling?” Ragnarok asked, “I’m getting bored,”

 

                “I refuse to take orders from a child,” Brute said.

 

                “I’m not a child!” he smashed the Epic down one more time. Brute was a strength Epic. Could lift a building off the ground and swing it like baseball bat, but like most Epics of his power type never realized, strength was nearly useless against a telekinetic- or TK as he liked to call it-holding them in the air.

 

                Brute was also invulnerable.

 

                Classic.

 

                “It’s not me the orders will be coming from, but the one whose orders I follow.” Ragnarok dropped the Epic, walking forward towards him until he stood above him, at the edge of the crater. “Stormeggeddon holds that position herself.”

 

                “Stormeggeddon can sparking go to-,” Rag never heard what was next, only the roar as Brute launched himself towards him with startling force. Ragnarok met him halfway, grabbing his arms with strength enhanced by his TK. The air cracked with the force of it, and Ragnarok was forced onto one knee.

 

                Crap. Ragnarok twisted his shoulders, using the other Epic’s own weight against him as he threw him to the ground. He couldn’t let this be a close quarters fight where Brute’s superior strength would be the more deciding factor.

 

                He leapt back as bright red threads of fire-lightning surged from his body, connecting from one limb to another like charged tesla coils. Mid-air, Ragnarok flipped once before coming to a stop flying a dozen or so feet above the ground.

 

                “This is your last chance, Brute!” Ragnarok shouted “Join or die!”

 

                With a shout, Brute leapt towards Ragnarok with a super-strength enhanced jump. Ragnarok moved to grab him out of the air with his TK, but he lost focus as Brute hit him with the force of a cannon.

 

                Ragnarok growled as they were both launched into the air at incredible speed. The ground flying away beneath their feet as they passed through clouds and into the coldness of the sky. He shoved Brute away with his enhanced TK strength and he shot away. Ragnarok grabbed the Epic with his external TK and yanked Brute towards him, he swung a fist and smashed it into Brute’s face.

 

                 Brute shouted in defiance and hit him in the chest, splitting the two of them apart.

 

                The wind roared passed Ragnarok’s ears, and he felt at once the lifting of some bond on his mind, he felt free to move. Free to act.

 

                Free to kill.

 

                He grabbed Brute again with his TK and threw him towards the ground, now hundreds if not a thousands of feet underneath them, with every last bit of his willpower. The Epic shot towards the ground like a rocket.

 

                With an enraged growl, Ragnarok blasted towards him, trailing threads of red energy behind him. He would not allow his prey to escape. Not this time.

 

                Soaring towards the ground, Ragnarok fired a shot of telekinetic energy, a punch of his will and mind, towards the falling Brute, accelerating his speed until he heard a deafening BOOM!

 

                They passed the barrier of the clouds, and saw the open water below them. He was going too fast and before he could react, he hit the water, hard.

 

 

 

 

                Antimatter popped his neck. He’d been up all night after his “battle” with Lockheed, and he sorely needed a bath, some sleep, and preferably a hot meal.

 

                He took a few steps to the bar that he and Harkness had been using as a base since his arrival. He yawned as he opened the door to the establishment.

 

                There was a resounding CRACK! That split the morning air and Antimatter spun to see what had caused it. It took him a moment to see the red streak fall from the sky.

 

                What the…

 

                “Damnation Epics,” he muttered. And entered the bar.

 

                Antimatter walked back into the bar.

 

                He still thought that was a little funny.

 

                Harkness was still where Antimatter had left him, seated on a replacement stool. Though instead of flirting he was in a rigid looking conversation with a familiar face.

 

                “Neutrality! You rascal,” Antimatter said, striding up to the counter wearing a scowl on his face. “What in the world are you doing here?” he held out his hand and Neutrality shook it.

 

                “I’m merely passing through.” He took a drink of his mug, then grunted.

 

                “How goes your hunt?”

 

                Antimatters scowl deepened. “What do you know about that?”

 

                “Just a rumor on the wind,” Neutrality said with a dismissive gesture, “Wouldn’t even be able to confirm it, if I hadn’t known an Epic with explosion powers who could take a grudge down to his grave.”

 

                “How extensive are these rumors?”

 

                “Not, just that Decisiveness was killed by someone with your power portfolio just west of Newcago.”

 

                “Crap,” Antimatter said “Why have you come here?”

 

                “Well,” Neutrality said thoughtfully. “Salem wasn’t really doing it for me, Soulcaster got on my nerves. That sort of thing.”

 

                “Really?”

 

                “Also,” Neutrality said slowly “I’ve received news that Renegade is coming to Astoria.”

 

                Antimatter blinked. “What?” he shoved Harkness, who was being uncharacteristically quiet, to the ground and took his chair.

 

                “Hey!” and immediately Antimatter felt a twinge of guilt. He immediately turned to Harkness.

 

                 “Stop it,” he said and the guilt faded.

 

                “What about Renegade?” Antimatter snapped.

 

                It was Neutrality’s turn to scowl. “Antimatter, you know how this works.” He said, “You need to do something for me first.”

 

                There was a long pause.

 

                “What. Do. You. Want,” Antimatter growled.

 

                “I haven’t decided. But I’ll give you a call.” Neutrality stood up. “Don’t bother telling me your number. I already know it. I also know however that I want something done here, in Astoria. So don’t wander off. It will also be quite some time before Renegade shows up. So keep yourself entertained,” Neutrality’s eyes lit up. “I know you’re good at that,”

 

                “I don’t enjoy killing, Neutrality.” Antimatter said softly, “Never have.”

 

                Neutrality chuckled. “Could have fooled me, you have as much blood on your hands as Steelheart and you know it.”

 

                Antimatter said nothing.

                Neutrality chuckled again. “I’ll keep in touch. I’m fairly certain there is going to be some good action around here. Lots of powerful Epics converging.” He turned to leave. “I’m sad I’ll miss it.”

 

                He left without another word.

 

                Harkness growled and began swearing like a sailor “What was that about! He could have permanently killed either of us without making much of a fuss about it. I’d rather stay returnable if you don’t mind.”

 

                Antimatter shook his head. “Neutrality doesn’t work that way. He prefers manipulation to brute force.”

 

                “The moron negated my powers, Matt. That’s not something you do in polite company.”

 

                “Don’t call me Matt!” he said lifting a hand and blowing off his head with a small blast of energy that sent Harkness reeling. Antimatter’s blasts were always more silent than he thought they should be. Something he thought was due to the fact that he redirected most of the sound in the explosion.

 

                ‘It must be deafening to be shot in the face for invulnerability Epics’ he thought for not the first time and as the bar emptied again because of him.

[Aonar]

Collaboration post by Voidus, Edgedancer, and myself.

 

“Who sent you?” Azrael prepared another spear of darkness, holding it lightly in his free hand, as something intruded on his consciousness. We have a problem, Azrael. Something’s happening; poison, maybe. Probably the fleshwarper. We need to get out.

 

Azrael sighed in irritation. Of course. “I’ll be back. Sit tight.” With a thought, he filled the room with darkness, expanding Bioterror’s bonds into a full body cast.

 

Stepping outside, he called enough shadow to cover the whole group, and shifted them to an outbuilding at the base of the tower, before sending himself back. Dismissing enough darkness for Bioterror to see and speak, he continued. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Who exactly sent you here, and why?”

 

Bloody Mary was right in her assumption that things would get interesting, even if it would have been preferable if Bioterror and Brightdeath were the ones tossing their opponent around. It still made for a nice show to watch while eating her snacks.

 

Given how Brightdeath had barely managed to stay in the room before her teleportation moved her to safety, Mary had to draw out a little bit of blood from her just before the shadow lance send her away.

 

She made it trickle towards the Epics working for the shadow manipulator, slowly as to avoid them noticing it. A bit too slow it turned out, as the Epic in charge managed to relocate them before she reached even one of them. Just to be save, Mary scanned across the city to see if they appeared anywhere she could tell but they had the sense to relocate to somewhere without any people around. Another thing to keep in mind but at the very least Mary should be able to tell if they tried to enter the tower again.

 

By the time the room was bright enough for Bioterror to see again the other Epics had disappeared. A teleporter as well as a shadow manipulator then. That could be somewhat difficult.

Even his enhanced muscles hadn’t managed to break free of the bonds that had encased his body, but there was always another way.

He reabsorbed his arm bones into his body, leaving two appendages which could do very little but he needed the extra material.

Solid matter like bones didn’t compress very well, which meant they could exert quite a lot of pressure if he directed it all into one place.

A bright flash lit the room as Sparkles appeared again, this time teleporting in right behind the shadow warper who she promptly stabbed in the back.

Well I would have preferred to do it but can’t argue with results I guess.
 

Azrael felt something tear through the cloak on his back, and prick his skin, before catching. Under his hood he grimaced, and swept his wings backwards, sending the light manipulator scurrying away again with the threat of razored feathers. “Once again, that was a fair attempt, but by no means enough. I begin to tire of these games. Do not draw this out longer than is necessary.”

The Epic continued on unfazed, swatting Brightdeath off as though she were nothing but a fly.

A healer? damnation it. Change of plans then.

Bioterror stopped the rush of calcium that was being directed to his ribs, he could feel the pressure on his bones and it seemed that he’d break his own ribs by the time he managed to burst the restraints placed on him.

But he had complete control over his body, there was no way that restraints like these could hold him.

His entire body began to reform under cover of the restraints, flesh sliding around as it restructured itself by his whims.

“Fine. No games, let’s get this over with quickly. Do you know how fast a Death Adder can strike?”

Bioterror grinned, his teeth sharpened to points gleamed in the darkened room.

In a bare fraction of a second his head suddenly leapt out, propelled by the coils of muscle he’d formed underneath. His jaw locked onto the epics arm just below his shoulder, venom dripping from the corners of his mouth as coils of flesh began to loop around the arm.

Because I can move even faster than they can.

 

Azrael looked down at the fleshwarper winding its way around his arm with cool disinterest. This has gone on too long.

 

“I must admit, the speed and versatility to your ability to change your body is quite impressive.” He winced slightly as Bioterror’s coils pulled tighter. His body was resilient enough to withstand hundreds of times more force without injury, but he still felt the pain.

 

“Healing, though, I have learned through painful experience, can only go so far, before it is overcome. Sure, you may not die. But you will wish you had.” Slivers of darkness forced their way through Bioterror’s body, cutting the Epic apart as much as prying it off. Even as he started to reform, Azrael prepared to strike again, wings and weapons shattering into fine needles of shadow. “Goodbye, Bioterror. Pray we do not meet again, else I may find a more permanent solution to you.”

 

The cloud of darkness leapt forwards, driving into Bioterror’s deformed flesh. Red mist filled the air, as scraps of meat went flying throughout the room. Partitions of shadow slammed down, preventing what was left from joining back into a whole.  

 

One problem solved. The light manipulator was still at large, but she seemed considerably less tenacious in her attempts to inconvenience him. If absolutely necessary, she could be banished for long enough relocate to a less conspicuous location.

 

The Adventurer watched the ensuing fight with interest, that one guy had some kind of skill to change his whole body which was pretty cool but the other one was some kind of high-level mage, he had a blink spell as well as a series of darkness-based attacks.

The fight had ended abruptly when one of them was blown into pieces, his body then getting separated even as it tried to join together again.

“Huh. One of them has some kind of infinite regeneration. Wonder if it’s a hack.” He said to Lockvault.

“Is it over yet?” His companion asked, the Adventurer had nearly forgotten that Lockvault couldn’t see the minimap like he could. But he almost felt like he could show it to him. Maybe if he…

“Ah. There we go how’s that?” The Adventurer asked as a small dimly lit hologram appeared before him, showing the scene taking place in the other room.

“What the? Was that a person exploding?” Lockvault asked as the Adventurer tried to recreate what he’d seen before.

“Yeah I think so, pretty cool wasn’t it? Still High level mage and I think he was in a party. Might be difficult to take with just the two of us.”

“Yeah maybe we should er.. fall back and try to get a party before we clear this boss.” Lockvault said.

“Yeah maybe. Still I’d better go check it out solo first, one life isn’t much of a loss and I’ll get to test his abilities up close.”

Before Lockvault could raise a hand to stop him the Adventurer placed a hand on the wall and phased through, entering the room with the two other players.

------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a while since someone had tried to blow Bioterror up. He’d almost forgotten how disorienting it was to suddenly have his consciousness spread throughout such a large area.

He could feel his body beginning to coalesce, though parts of it were now separated by some kind of solid construct. Likely the shadow manipulators doing.

A new presence suddenly entered the room, seeming to come right through the wall.

One of his other friends again? No matter, the timing is fortuitous.

Bioterror gathered what mass he could and began inching his way towards the new presence.

 

After a bit more scuffling, it seemed that Bioterror’s relentlessness finally managed drive the shadow Epic far enough and he concentrated all his effort on keeping the fleshwarper from reassembling himself. With him concentrating on his handiwork, Mary moved her blood in from behind him and tried to inject a little bit through his skin but the Epics healing was strong enough to push it out of his before she managed to reach blood.

 

One of the two Epics spectating from the next room teleported into the battle and just a moment later Mary noticed Brightdeath’s position shifting again. It was all the warning she got as the room exploded into light. Countless of small suns appeared all over the room and immediately shoot at the shadow manipulator from all directions, enveloping everything in a blinding light. With the brightness impairing her vision Mary needed a moment to recover, before she could access the damage done.

 

The room suddenly filled with light, near blinding to Azrael’s eyes. Then there was only pain. Small orbs of light came at him from all angles, some deflecting harmlessly while others struck true, breaking bone and shredding muscle. Azrael fell to his knees screaming, the sound dissonant, somehow inhuman. He didn’t think, couldn’t think, except to instinctively lash out against his attacker.

 

Shadow poured from his wounds and open mouth, filling the air around him with black mist.  Writhing tendrils of darkness exploded in all directions, blindly seeking out the light manipulator. Finding nothing, they eventually retracted, and the dark cloud spread, enveloping the room. Under the protective cover of darkness, Azrael replaced his shredded robes with dark armour, formfitting and featureless. There were no openings; within darkness this deep, there was no use for sight, and breathing was never something Azrael had found terribly necessary. Some of the wounds underneath his armour still burned where they hadn’t been properly cleaned of light, but the pain was fading fast.

 

Bioterror had just managed to latch on to the latest person to enter the room when a telltale flash announced Brightdeath’s return, this time she wasted no time before launching an all-out assault on the shadow-Epic.
Hopefully the light attack combined with Bioterrors continued assault on the Epics nerves would be enough to incapacitate him.

But Bioterror didn’t have time to find out, he’d barely registered the attack before a mass of shadows leapt through the room and he suddenly found himself outside the tower, his link to the shadow Epic now broken he tried to orient himself, he was still stuck to the leg of the new Epic, the one who’d seemed to come straight through the wall. A teleporter of some kind, perhaps one who could only transport through a solid object?

The two rapidly began falling, the teleporting Epic seeming almost as confused as Bioterror was at their sudden predicament. The Epic slapped a hand on a wall and he suddenly found himself back inside the tower, albeit on a lower floor than before.

Wasting no time he tore apart the fabric separating him from the Epics bare skin and tore into his flesh, the two flickered for a moment, his position on the Epic seeming to reverse as the Epic teleported to his other side but he could shift his body at a moments notice and he managed to tear open a gash in the Epics leg and inject him with a personal favourite poison.

Sorry little teleporter, I need your body for now.

The Epic gasped in surprise as pain flooded his body, but with such direct access Bioterror could produce an immense amount of toxin in a short time and the boy quickly fell to the floor, shaking before finally lying still.

Bioterror slipped over the corpse, thanking whatever gods still watched over the earth that he’d managed to find an Epic without any stronger defensive abilities. Though a normal human would have been better still.

He spread himself out as much as he could, covering the body before he began to release digestive enzymes, breaking down the cloth and skin of the body and allowing him to spread his own cells throughout it.

In a matter of seconds he felt a mental shift, he’d invaded the corpse enough that his power considered it a part of him rather than a separate body.

The body smiled as its face began to shift and change, morphing into a parody of Bioterrors own face, the muscles not quite sitting right on the skull.

Forgot how much work it takes. Ah well, with luck Sparkles took out the shadow.

He picked the body up off the ground, luckily some scraps of clothing had been left untouched when he’d consumed the body so there was a touch of modesty to it.

His blood still burned, a curious sensation of power and pain interwoven as he replaced the Epics old blood with his own. Two gifts from Calamity could not exist in the same body unfortunately, he’d eaten an Epic once before to see if he could gain their abilities but his powers weren’t compatible it seemed and he’d had to replace every blood cell in the body before it stopped burning him.

A form suddenly appeared before him, once more seeming to come up through the floor.

“You have a cannibal perk or something?” The Epic asked as he looked at his own former body.

Reincarnation? Sparks how many High Epics does this city have?

 

The brightness was replaced by darkness overlaying the room, leaving Bloody Mary for the most part only with the position of infected blood to tell what was going on. Brightdeath had again left the room and the Epic that had teleported into the room was gone as well, having moved just outside the tower.

 

Bioterror or at least the parts of him that were still moving she found along with the other Epic that had first moved them outside the tower and now back inside of it, moving through the wall a few floors lower. The piece of flesh that was Bioterror attacked the teleporter, quick and efficiently adding his victim’s flesh to his own.  

 

Deciding to their new employes at least a little bit of help, she contacted Brightdeath through a bit of blood she left in the cafe that Brightdeath had reappeared in after the last few times her danger sense was triggered, she’d have to organize the fool a more discrete place once this situation was dealt with.

 

Mary gave the light Epic directions on where to find her ally and shortly afterwards she was standing next to Bioterror and the resurrected Adventurer.  

 

Sparkles showed up soon after the other Epic had reincarnated and they both exchanged a quick glance of recognition.

“Someone you know then?” Bioterror asked, neither seemed too tense so they weren’t dire enemies at least but not exactly allies either.

“Met her in another quest.” The other Epic chimed in.

Quest?

Before he could clarify the situation movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, a dark mist descending down the stairs.

The unknown Epic stared at it for a moment before holding up one hand, which suddenly began to glow brightly as he held it up between him and the dark mist.

Two teleporting light manipulators? And a teleporting shadow manipulator, all in one city? Man what are the odds. Bioterror wondered idly

The Epic suddenly stopped, looking like he’d realized something and slapped a hand against a wall, vanishing once more.

“So what’s his deal?” Bioterror asked casually.

Brightdeath just shurgged. “No idea, some kind of crazy I met yesterday, said he was the Adventurer I think? But he was with someone el-”

The Adventurer reappeared again, this time accompanied by someone else, probably whoever Brightdeath had just been about to mention.

The mist had begun closing in on them and Bioterror had little desire to get stuck on it just now.

“Meet you on the ground.” He said before jumping out a nearby window, falling a few floors to the ground before feeling his legs snap.

Oh crap, forgot to enhance the bones when I took his body.

“So anyway.” Brightdeath said as she teleported next to him. “What’s with your face?”

“Shut up Sparkles.”

The Adventurer and his friend were a short distance away, having teleported down also it seemed. They were gesturing to each other rapidly with strange finger movements. Sign language?

“You guys here to help or do I need to eat you?” Bioterror threatened, allowing his teeth to become somewhat more pointed.

The two Epics looked darkly back at him, eyes threatening, seizing him up.

But finally the Adventurer’s companion shook his head and finger-signed back to his companion again.

“We won’t get in your way.” The Adventurer said. “We’re after the same boss and Lockvault says that he doesn’t mind partying up this once.”

This once? Someone not a fan of the government then. Bioterror mused. But that didn’t matter, he could crush them both later if needed, for now the shadow Epic was the more pressing issue, and if another light-manipulator was offering his assistance…

“Fine, I’m a healer so don’t worry about hitting me. If you help us take this guy out then I don’t care what you do after, if you turn on me then I’ll turn you into a soup.” Bioterror growled.

The two Epics both nodded.

Lockvault signed again for a few seconds before the Adventurer translated again.

 

“We’ll provide back up then.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
Be careful around these guys. Lockvault signed. They might turn on us if things go badly.

The Adventurer just shrugged back before replying. Don’t worry, just stick close and let me know if anything bad’s going to happen, I’ll travel us both out of there and we can just try again once we’ve leveled a few times.

Lockvault smiled at his new friend. His eccentricities were amusing but they also hid a sort of innocence that was rare in the Fractured States these days. The Adventurer was someone who he rarely had to worry about hiding hidden motivations. Not like these government Epics.

He narrowed his eyes at the two other Epics. Trying to guess their motivations. Brightdeath had seemed to be a new member of the government when they’d met yesterday, was this new Epic a mentor of some kind? Or was he new too? The Adventurer had said something about him having a cannibal perk, what was that supposed to mean? And that Epic they’d met the other day would be much better suited to hunting down Epics so why wasn’t he here?

Questions without answers but he’d have to leave them for now.

Brightdeath lightly touched Bioterror’s shoulder and the two vanished in a flash, back up to the room above.

Can you show me what’s happening again? Lockvault signed. We’ll wait and see what happens before we join in.

The Adventurer screwed up his eyes for a moment before a sudden light appeared between them, resolving into the room he’d seen before, though it was somewhat blurrier now, like a tv with bad reception.

 

Azrael stood still in the centre of the room, allowing his awareness slowly spread throughout the tower. He had encompassed the large majority of it without finding anything; hopefully that meant the insects bothering him had moved on to easier prey.

 

Almost in response to that thought, a pair a figures appeared a few feet behind him, roughly matching the profiles of Bioterror and the light manipulator. Azrael quickly ported himself a few meters away, and sealed all the entrances to the room. Alright. We’re done playing nice, now.

 

The light manipulator started gathering spheres of light to fling around the room. Azrael didn’t give her the chance. Twin rams made from darkness coalesced in an instant, one knocking Bioterror away from the woman, and the other banishing her from the room.

 

No sooner had Bioterror entered the room with the shadow manipulator than he’d been attacked with some form of blunt instrument. His flesh deformed around the solid shape, giving him an idea of its form before the force shattered his body. His cells scattered briefly before flying towards one of the pieces of himself that he’d been forced to leave earlier, creating a small eddy in the dark mist and allowing Bioterror to sense the room far more efficiently.

 

He gathered around a smooth black spear that had been placed around his eyeball when the Shadow Epic had blown him up earlier, with most of his mass gathered around it he felt the black sphere become a part of him, something his powers could affect.

Excellent.

He ripped a hole in the sphere to retrieve his eye, body already reforming. Suddenly though he felt the shadowy substance still itself once more, reforming into a sphere.

So he can still control it as well. That’s not exactly desirable.

 

A short moment later Bioterror felt not only the sphere beneath him but also those capturing all his other body parts weaken and dissipate.

Did he lose focus? Encounter his weakness?

Attaching his eye to his brain once more he saw that the mist in the rest of the room was still functioning, clogging  the room and shrouding it in near total darkness.

Either way it’s the last mistake he’s making.

The rest of his flesh flew from all corners of the room to join him, bones clattering along the floor, muscles and organs soaring towards him.

Within seconds he stood nearly twice as tall, his body immediately growing to inhuman proportions though it took some adjustments to support this new weight.

“You are done Shadow.” He growled, tensing his new body to leap through the mists and devour the Epic, shadows and all.

Before he could manage his first step however he felt the mists begin to solidify around him, growing thicker and thicker before he was finally shut off completely.

The Adventurer watched from far below as the room that the two Epics in suddenly became completely opaque to his minimap.

“What the? Some kind of anti-surveilance item or something?” He mused aloud to an equally bewildered Lockvault.

The two watched for a minute, seeing nothing but tiny pieces of static in the image that the Adventurer was projecting.

“We should go now, if either of them get out it’ll be bad news and if we can't see what we’re doing…” Lockvault left his sentence hanging ominously.

“Right you are.” The Adventurer said, surprising his ally. “First rule of PKing, if in doubt, run away.”

The two vanished into the ground, leaving the tower behind for another day.

Back at the top of the tower tiny cracks were beginning to form in the black substance that encase the entire floor that Bioterror had been fighting in. Inside the black prison Bioterror raged against his cage, steadily shredding the material apart while The Imperial March played through an earbud lying nearby.

[Blackhoof]

 

 

Winterspell was finishing off the last of his breakfast when suddenly he heard a loud splash. A gigantic one, as if a bridge had fallen into the river further downstream. "What on earth..." A quick glance out the window confirmed that yes, indeed, a gigantic geyser of water was rising out of the river. Winterspell and Lightwrought looked at each other, raised their eyebrows and walked out onto the balcony. The massive column of water finally fell back down, crashing thunderously back onto whatever caused it.

 

"Well..." Lightwrought said finally. "That certainly makes for an interesting morning."

Winterspell chuckled. "Indeed! Well, I might as well go myself to investigate. Send for Fish, Tag and Labyrinth to follow. I want to know exactly what sort of Epics have disturbed our breakfast."

 

Without another word, Winterspell lifted himself into the air on twin tentacles of water, and gently lowered himself to the river below. But as his feet touched the gently flowing water, patches of ice formed beneath them. He dismissed the tentacles, and stood firm and safe on the surface of the river. He took another step towards the disturbance, ice supporting him with a thought. He continued at a sedate pace, leaving a trail of ice behind him, and it wasn't long before he reached the place where... something had crashed into the water. 

 

And it had better be friendly.

[mail-mi]

Black Jaguar cut in again. "Astoria? Coincidentally, that coincides perfectly with our plans. The Destructors and our new Aussie friends planned to attack the city as well. We came here to petition for supplies and find aid. These pirates should do nicely. There's six of us, we just need some weapon upgrades, criminals for our army, and vehicles. That's all we ask."

Dragoon blinked. That's all you ask. Just a few thousand dollars worth of supplies so you can raid and take some of the winnings of MY target? Yeah, right.

Before he could say anything, Blackwave continued, ignoring the rude Epic. "We can take the river, should be easy enough. Any resistance in particular my crew should be preparing for or is it just the obligatory first step before we can start going on land?"

Dragoon also ignored Black Jaguar, for now. "I can't think of any big river-based threats that you need to watch out for. Just watch the river and the bay, and my men can attack from the land on the south." The Horsemen took a moment to look impressive when he said "my men."

Then, he turned to the Jaguar. "Now, as for you. You want me to give you a few thousand dollars worth of supplies--more, now, since Calamity's arrival--so you can take over part of my target and take some of my spoil? In what universe would I want that? I've got plenty of men, and with Blackwave and his crew, I've got more than enough help to take over the city. So," he stepped closer to the Jaguar and tilted his head. "You want to take part of my spoil? What can you give me in return?" Edited February 13, 2016 by mail-mi

[Citadel16]

 

 

Ragnarok burst from the water, wreathed in red energy. He twisted in the air a dozen or so feet outside the water. With a pull of his hand, Ragnarok yanked out Brute with a telekinetic pull.

                Ragnarok pulled the epic in an arc above his head, a minor headache throbbing in his head, and threw him back into the water at a high speed. Submerged, the epic tried to swim to the surface.

                “You should have listened,” Ragnarok and thrust his hand towards the water. The energy around his arm intensified as he grabbed hold of the epic with his TK and kept him under. Thirty seconds passed before the epic began struggling, but Ragnarok kept him a good four feet from the surface. Brute’s thrashing intensified, churning the water with his super strength. Ragnarok wouldn’t leave until long after the blasted epic stopped kicking.

                ‘This shouldn’t be that hard’ he thought, his head twinging from headache. ‘Just let go…’

                His mind fuzzed in and out.

                ‘Now?’ he thought. ‘Great.’

                His mind fuzzed again and the world around him disappeared. Replaced by blackness. A Notworld. A place of nothingness.

                YOU HAVE FAILED ME.

                “The fault is not my own,” Ragnarok said “Brute simply was not interested.”

                DO NOT GIVE ME YOUR EXCUSES, BOY!

                Ragnarok flinched inwardly. He very seldom let someone call him a child, but Stormeggedon could do as she pleased.

                And there was nothing Ragnarok could do about it.

                “Yes, my master,” he said as strongly as he could.

                The blackness shifted. Pooling together, becoming a figure in black. A dress of shadows adorning her. It was hard to say anything of her features, because her face and arms were merely visible as darker shadows and lighter shadows.

                THERE IS ANOTHER WHOM I HAVE BEEN WATCHING. HE IS NEAR TO YOU. YOU MUST RECRUIT HIM. FORCIBLY IF YOU MUST.

                “I do as commanded, great one,” he said.

                GOOD. THIS IS HE.

                An image flashed in Ragnarok’s mind. A tall man, a scowl on his face, dressed in a red and black shirt, jeans, and a pea coat that was open down the front.

                MAKE HASTE, SERVANT. AND TREAD CAREFULLY, HE IS NOT ONE WHO IS GENTLE WITH HIS ENEMIES.

                “It will be done.”

                The Notworld vanished, and he was placed back over the water, with Brute still struggling underneath. Ragnarok shook his head.

                “Just die already…”

Edited February 5, 2016 by warriormark16

[Blackhoof]

 

Winterspell approached the churning water, seeing a young teenager, wreathed in red energy, holding someone under the surface. He watched, bemused, as the Epic slowly drowned his struggling adversary.

 

A small portal opened up next to his head, and the Tag spoke through it. "Hmm.... this kid's a strong one! Telekinesis.. very, very strong telekinesis. Emotional manipulation, and some form of limited hydrokinesis. Be careful boss." 

"Don't worry men, I will be. Fish, you there?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Excellent. Dive down here and give me a good view from underwater. Stay submerged."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

 

Winterspell waited as the Epic continued effortlessly drowning his foe, completely absorbed in the fight, eyes distant. The King of Icesteel Keep coughed into his hand. "Ahem, mind if I interrupt? I do not appreciate disturbances to my morning." With a gesture, he froze the water around pair, and lifted up the struggling one.  The muscular man gasped for air, throwing up water. "Now," Winterspell continued "I would request that you both take your disagreement elsewhere. The north side of the river should do nicely. But you must leave my territory, immediately."

[Edgedancer]

Deathgale spend the time he spent waiting for Bioterror and Brightdeath in the Shining Diamond taking care of administrative work, the smoke of his cigarettes curling in the air around him. With the current attacks and the prospect of even more happening in the near future there was enough of it to be had and he was not in the mood to shoulder the blame for any mistakes an incapable official might make.

 

After a good amount of time had passed, enough for him to imagine that the opposition was putting up a fight but not enough for him to worry, a streak of blood glided out of the flask he was carrying and towards one of the chairs at the table, shortly after Bloody Mary emerged from it, taking a seat on the chair.

 

Given that she was supposed to observe the fight at the shadow column, he had not expected her to show up before the other two Epics. “How is the fight going?” Deathgale said, while laying down his pen.

 

“Our newcomers aren’t doing all that bad. The opposition’s leader is rather resilient but the worst case should be a stalemate,” Mary said and picked a bit of food from the table.

 

“Well enough then. So, what actually brings you to me then?”

 

“Ah yes, there is yet another Epic that made their way into the city. He caused some chaos, killed someone he apparently had a backstory with, not exactly a model introduction to the city but relatively minor with everything that’s going on right now. Originally, I planned to do a bit more research on him, as long nothing more happened.”

“And something did happen?” Deathgale asked.

 

“To the point. Effectively he agreed to help another suspect individual with something in exchange for information. It seems a discreet pointer towards not causing any significant trouble would be in place and that’s where you come into play. Don’t worry, in case our two newcomers need attention I’ll take care of them.”

 

In response to Mary’s unexpected willingness to meet the newcomers Deathgale simply raised an eyebrow, prompting her to go on, while he took another drag of his cigarette.  

 

“We can hardly ignore them and who would you prefer I interact with, the two we already have a good grasp on or the violent unknown with quite literally explosive powers? No deeper motivations behind it,” she said with a faint smile on her lips. Bloody liar.

 

Still, he led her do whatever she was planning. After exchanging the relevant information with her, he gave the servants instructions for his absence and let his body fall apart into smoke. He used the smoke of his cigarette to pull his formless body towards the bar where he would find Antimatter.

                                                                                                                               

 

As the battle on top of the shadow column neared its end, Bloody Mary prepared a room for their meeting. She could hardly bring them down into her own chambers. Instead she made a connection with a pool of blood stored away in another underground chamber. A simple room forced into the ground and enclosed with diamond, furnished plainly with not much more than a couple of exquisite chairs and a table. Artificial light playing faintly of the rooms crystal walls. Mary seated herself in a small throne fashioned out of diamond.

 

She noticed that the shadow Epic had left, be it out of fear or boredom. Mary waited a bit longer, until she could be reasonably certain that he wouldn’t simply return. Then she raised thin walls of blood in front of both Bioterror and Brightdeath, ordering two servants girls, masked and concealed by their uniform just as all the others, to step through the portals and give her invitations to the two Epics.

[Citadel16]

 

                Antimatter took another drink of his Whiskey, contemplating what to be doing for the next little while. He never intended to stay in Astoria for very long, just put down Lockheed and leave. This place was too full of High Epics to make a permanent residence. Most were trying, one way or another, to topple the government

                He took another drink of his Whiskey, draining the rest of the glass in one gulp.

                Out of the corner of his eye he saw coalescing smoke.

                “Damnation!” he jumped backwards and throwing up his hands and preparing to blast it, he also tapped his Intellect. Possibilities flashed across his eyes, searching out something to match whatever this was.

                After barely a second, a single name flashed across his memory.

                Deathgale.

 

                Startled, Ragnarok smacked Brute with his TK, hitting him with enough force to shatter the ice around them and sent him flying back into the air. He cursed and yanked him back and Brute crashed into the water just off to the side of him.

                Ragnarok spun on the newcomer, viewing the epic through a portal.

                ‘Ice epic’ he thought. ‘With portal powers? Definitely a High Epic, no one else would be stupid enough to challenge him.’

                What had he said? Something about territory. Where was he anyway? He was over a river. A big river. Ragnarok went over a map in his head, he had only been five or six miles from Astoria when Brute had jumped at him. That would make this the Columbia River.

                Lucentia’s territory.

                “I’m sorry for the trouble.” Ragnarok forced himself to say. “I’ll be out of your hair shortly if you’ll allow me to finish my work.” Being polite was a bit difficult, seeing how he’d been interrupted from his job. But, as Ragnarok always said, nothing replaces good manners.

                Except fast reflexes.

                Brute shot from the water like a bullet and Ragnarok smacked him down just as fast.

[Edgedancer]

Deathgale’s body regained its solid form out of the smoke once he reached the bar. Antimatter inside and, as Deathgale noticed surveying the room, smoke trailing behind him as he entered, setting heavy on the ground, only Antimatter inside.

 

Antimatter, who had jumped out of his seat and seemed like he had just barely managed to restrain himself from attacking Deathgale. Worried about someone coming for him or just easily startled? One way or another, he wasn’t foolish enough to actually throw an explosion at him. Small mercies.

 

“Please, sit down again, I’ll join you shortly,” Deathgale said, a polite tone taking the edge out of the order.

 

With that his attention turned away from the Epic and towards the liquors on display. They would suffice. Barely. He breathed out a tendril of smoke. It twisted through the air and split, one part of it reaching for bottle of liquor and the other for a matching glass.

 

Deathgale sat down at the table Antimatter occupied, the tendrils of smoke setting down the now filled glass and bottle before settling down and clinging to the table. Little curls of smoke trailing upwards, ready to snap up at any moment.

 

“How about I get to the point?” Deathwish said while looking directly into Antimatter’s eyes, before continuing, “Do you plan on killing anyone else in this city? Not that a couple of deaths in the lesser population would cause much of a ripple but we are not in the mood for someone going on an Epic hunt in the city.”

[Voidus]

 

It took Bioterror longer than he would have liked to smash his way out of the shadowy prison that he'd been trapped in. He'd even needed to eat some of the crumbling dark matter in order to break the rest properly, though he deposited it all outside his body as soon as he finally broke free.

"Disgusting stuff." He muttered, looking around to see if the Shadow Epic was still around.

Nothing. Not that he'd expected him to sit around for so long without doing anything.

Coward.

This was yet another reason he hated teleporters. When things got tough for them they just teleported away and you'd never know where they went. He'd need to think up a strategy for that.

He heard an odd noise coming from behind and immediately whirled, senses alert and hand already reaching out, twice the size of normal to grasp at the throat of the person who was sneaking up on him.

A woman, dressed and masked and standing in front of something. A wall of some kind, though it almost looked like it was made of...

"Blood?" He mused as he examined it. Releasing the woman as he strode towards it. If she was the Epic who'd made this wall she was slow enough that he'd caught her with ease which meant she wasn't much of a threat.

The woman greeted him as she subtly rubbed at her throat before inviting him through the blood which seemed to act as a portal.

Ugh, more teleporters? Well not quite but portals are basically the same.

Still, if this was a request from someone in Lucentias government he'd best comply.

Concentrating hard for a moment he folded in on himself, collapsing his matter down and making it denser, but even with his powers he could only do so much, he was still far bigger than most normal people. He opted to shift most of the flesh to his back, forming a misshapen hump their which would prove useful both psychologically and as a storage area for some of his nastier tricks.

"Lead the way then." He demanded with a gesture, following the woman through the dark red wall.

[Edgedancer]

Brightdeath was the first to enter the room. Not much of a surprise, given the predicament the shadow Epic had left him in. The Epic was now sitting at the table across her, the light-made helmet held in her arms instead of simply dismissed. Mary used the time before Bioterror joined them to explain her that she would be allowed to keep the room as a safe destination for her teleports and add some furniture, if she liked.

 

Just in time Bioterror also stepped into the chamber, a hump now resting on his back. From what she saw he did require to actually absorb material into his body to work with it, so it likely was there as a storage. Pity he didn’t go for something more aesthetical like a folding together a pair of wings, although she wouldn’t hold practicality against him. He took a seat on the empty chair. Meanwhile, the maid following him took position at near the wall, next to the other woman.

 

“Now that both of you are here,” Bloody Mary said, “congratulation on driving off the invaders. How about you first tell me how you think you performed, before I actually give your evaluation.”

Consider it a test of character. And maybe she would get to see them agonize a bit.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Edgedancer

[Blackhoof]

 

 

 “I’m sorry for the trouble.” The young boy said. “I’ll be out of your hair shortly if you’ll allow me to finish my work.” 

 

Art that moment, the large man leaped out of the water but was immediately knocked back down. Winterspell was still for a moment, wondering if the Epic was working his emotional manipulation on him. But still.... he would certainly act this way in any other situation. Winterspell nodded. "Very well. I value respect, and that is what you have shown me. You may proceed. Say.... would you be interested in employment, young man? You will find that I am a generous and magnanimous patron, for those who serve me well. And your powers certainly seem useful. What say you?"

[Voidus]

The new woman sat across from Bioterror and Brightdeath, all the confidence that an Epic could summon evident in her bearing. Evidently the one who had created the blood portal.

"How about you first tell me how you think you performed, before I actually give your evaluation.” She asked.

Bioterror scoffed loudly before Brightdeath could get a word out.

"He's still living? Then that's answer enough." He said. "we performed incredibly poorly given the circumstances, Sparkles here is a teleporter with a light attribute, battling a shadowmancer or whatever they're called should have been a piece of cake. Instead our cover was blown the second we were there and I didn't even have time to kill any of the servants before they were whisked away by the teleporter."

Fuming he let his anger out at his partner, refusing to admit his own shortcomings in the endeavor. Sparkles shot him a furious glare as he spoke and was about to interrupt when he began targeting her with his power, as expected she immediately vanished, appearing a short distance away but succesfully breaking his eye contact.

"And every time she tried to attack that happened, she ported out of there so often she deserves a frequent flyer card for it." He said sarcastically.

[Edgedancer]

The justification attempt of Bioterror was just slightly short of the amusement Mary had hoped for. Certainly enough to spread Mary’s smile just a little bit wider over her face. “Brightdeath, please sit down again and Bioterror,” Mary’s smile curved just the slightest little bit upwards as she fixed her gaze on the fleshwarper, “I’m not going to tell you to be friends with anyone but there will be no open aggressions while in my company.

 

“Concerning your actual performance, you’re correct; it wasn’t exactly the most impressive display. However, I’d say that you were competent enough that we’ll keep both of you, even if it would probably be better if you stay separated. You methods don’t seem to fit well together.” What Mary didn’t tell them was that their encounter set up everything she needed to get rid of the shadow manipulator if he ever decided to return, neither did she mention that making sure that new minions not posing too much of a threat may be better than them simply impressing with standout performances, assuming they didn't fail enough to turn themselves into an eyesore it mean less a chance of them requiring removal.

 

“If my understanding of the situation is right, then Deathgale did not yet inform you of the finer working of the city, yes?”