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What Happened in Edmonton


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Jade and Nathan both looked like they'd been hit by a truck. Not literally, duh, that'd be silly, Kokichi didn't think that so it didn't actually pop up or anything. It was more the way they tightened their fists, lines of shaking around their body. Shadows extended down their face, and their actions were smoother, for a moment. 

"That part's boring."

Was it?

Was it really? 

"What matters is that we're here, you're here, you don't have any icky expired hot sauce, and there's cake. Everyone wins." 

Yeah. She was right. Whatever shared memory had bubbled to the surface in their minds, it didn't matter to Kokichi. As much as they were curious, there was cake to be eaten. Also, expired hot sauce was gross. 

Hot sauce in general was pretty gross. 

Nicroburst's movement sent the conversation back towards the Serious Business tree guy brought, not any of the Serious Baggage that Jade and Nathan were packing. 

"Here to claim this territory for ERA?  I didn't think you'd move this quickly.  Though I guess time bubbles would help with that." 

Time bubbles? Sounded like something that they should probably avoid. There were some Epic abilities theirs worked well with, like illusion making, and there were some that theirs did bad things to. Like, scary people. Scary people that weren't them. There were also Epic abilities that theirs did weird things to. 

Such as powers that directly controlled space or time. That got complicated, rather quickly. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

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Megan nodded, tucking her arms into her armpits as she stood up from the cold ground. But her carefully groomed brow, furrowed in concern and confusion twitched a little in surprise.

Now she's inviting me to her house? Well I guess she didn't technically deny being an angel.

She glanced sidelong at Indy as they walked towards the house.

"So not a hallucination. That leaves an angel then? I can only assume you're here to smite me or something. Calamity's arrival didn't really leave me particularly religious. At least hell will be warm I guess."

She tried to make herself laugh at her own terrible joke, but only managed to twist her wry mouth into something that probably more closely resembled a snarl.

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[should I put an image here?]

Still now

The more Karina thought about the world, the less sense it made.

To be fair, she'd mostly gotten used to it. She could handle there being reality-defying people with superpowers from comics and movies and really bad books. She could even accept that every single person with those powers was a sadistic murderer (well, if they could actually sadistically murder). It was a pattern. Easy to follow.

It was the exceptions that made Karina uneasy. The exceptions that made her wonder, Could it be that not all Epics are evil?

She was jarred out of her thoughts by the probably-(hopefully)-not-evil Epic beside her, who snarkily asked if she was an angel here to smite her. Karina laughed again, then replied, "Nope, not an angel. Just trying to help, because hell, I mean, you kinda look like you need it? You were sitting in the snow wearing a t-shirt crying. And here we are." Karina walked through the open door, then smiled. "Wait here, I think I can get some food."

She walked upstairs. First, she entered the bathroom and popped open the medicine cabinet, which had been completely unraided all these years. Cough medicine...Benedrill..."Yes!" she whispered quietly while snagging a half-full aspirin bottle. She popped two pills then left the bathroom and entered her bedroom, which, just like she'd remembered,  was completely empty. Well, unless you know where to look. She pulled up on a certain part of the carpet, revealing a small compartment, undisturbed for years. A weathered almost-unreadable cardboard box lay inside. Covered in dust and cobwebs and nearly full of plastic wrapped little cakes, she smiled and walked downstairs, looking for MV. When she found her, she smiled and tossed one of the packages towards her.

"Want a Twinkie? These things last forever."

Edited by breakingamber
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  • 2 weeks later...

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Starting a little, Megan fumbled her catch, the small package bounced off of her numb fingers and fell towards the floor, but a reflexive burst of power froze it in midair, the small momentum it had was transferred away into the ground.

She stared at the hovering package for a moment before picking it up out of the air. She hadn't used her powers much since Impact had left, only when she'd had to for protection. Usually Backtrack's protection, he did need a lot of it after all. But it still burst out of her on instinct from time to time. Something about the powers just wanted to be used.

Her tears had finally dried up, so she quickly wiped her face down and brushed her fingers through her hair, restoring it back to how it had been, how she'd seen impact wearing it earlier. With her other hand she held the twinkie up, looking it over quizzically for a moment before opening it up and taking a bite.

Oh wow, I'd kind of forgotten what real food tastes like. She mused, feeling a little more tension draining from her as she ate. All those trail rations and scavenged meals... next time I go on a long trip I'm bringing a truck of these with me instead.

She looked over towards Indy, trying to make sense of her still. What kind of person saw an Epic crying on the road and went up to talk to them? Megan was an Epic herself and even she would likely steer very wide of someone like that. Or maybe try to kill them while they were distracted, if they were an enemy.

Where did that come from? We don't kill people. Well, maybe Allis- Impact does now, but we didn't used to. Just harmless fun. Maybe break someone's arm if they get a bit handsy or something but...

She shook her head for a moment, trying to clear it. She felt a frown still creasing her brow, the way it did when she was really annoyed with someone, and tried to force her expression back to something calm.

"So, Indy." She started, trying to distract herself. "You from around here?"

Dumb question, she brought you into her house, of course she's from around here. Though she doesn't have the same accent as everyone else.

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Now

The Epic in front of her fumbled the catch, froze the plastic-wrapped Hostess treat in midair, and grabbed it, opening and eating it. Powers over wind, perhaps? That wouldn't account for how it just stopped though. Her face visibly relaxed as she swallowed, and she looked towards Karina curiously. MV frowned briefly, then asked, "So, Indy. You from around here?"

Karina shrugged. "Kind of? I haven't been here in years, but I was raised here, yes." Karina opened up another package, and nibbled one of the cakes inside. 

Karina had forgotten how good Twinkies tasted, wolfing down the two of them. damnation, wish I had more of these - oh wait, I do. She sat down on the stairs and dumped out the rest of the golden-yellow cake packages on the floor. There were seven left. I should probably save some of these for later... Eventually, Karina decided to just eat one more, and she reached out to grab another one.

Her gaze turned to the girl in front of her first, looking more closely this time. California? Maybe Oregon? Karina asked, "So, where do you come from?" She frowned. "And why does your hair look like a supermodel's?"

Edited by breakingamber
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Indy took another twinkie from a small pile as she responded, apparently she was from the area a while ago at least, which explained the house and why her accent was a little different from most of the others.

But still doesn't explain why she decided to try talking to an Epic.

Megan finished her own snack, almost choking on a few crumbs that got stuck in her throat. But after a small fit of coughing she recovered enough to answer.

"Oregon. Portland" She said, a touch of anger creeping back into her voice. "Right in the middle of all the turf wars, just managed to get out in time before everything really blew up."

Hopefully, the city took all those Slontzes with it when it exploded. She thought with satisfaction, taking a moment to enjoy the mental image of Nighthound and Lightwards both screaming as the museum erupted in a ball of flames around them. Then again, they were both High Epics right? So they're probably still stalking the ruins of the city trying to figure out who gets to rule the ashes.

Then she realized the second question Indy had asked. Her hair? She toyed absently with a loose strand for a moment, noting the silky sheen that it had regained that morning.

"I don't know about a supermodel, but it was a lot worse this morning. I met this weird Epic, he... I don't know really, but suddenly it was like this again. All clean and nice. Not tangled."

For a moment she considered tracking Kokichi down again, they had been really helpful. Maybe not exactly awe-inspiring as Epics go, but if they could keep doing that trick then she'd keep them around just for that if nothing else.

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Karina watched MV choke on a few crumbs as she swallowed the last of her Twinkie, which almost brought a smile to her face. Kinda funny to see that even Epics occasionally choke. Well, when they need to eat. And breathe. Her voice trembled slightly as she recalled, "Oregon. Portland. Right in the middle of all the turf wars, just managed to get out in time before everything really blew up."

Karina's mind whirred for a moment. Oregon... I've heard it is - was? - a volatile place. The turf wars were legendary. I can easily believe that it literally went up in a big ball of fire. In fact, in hindsight, that was probably the most likely outcome. She looked again at the Epic, and silently marvelled at the fact that this 19-20 year old girl had survived. Well, duh, she's an Epic. And she's clearly worried about someone, probably her sister?

MV continued talking. "I don't know about a supermodel, but it was a lot worse this morning. I met this weird Epic, he... I don't know really, but suddenly it was like this again. All clean and nice. Not tangled." Karina's eyebrows crept up a quarter inch. "A beauty Epic? Wonder what she looks like. I met this one unrealistically beautiful Epic once - think her name was Fantine or something - her waist was thinner than a needle and it looked like she had waaaay too much makeup on. She had some sort of strong illusion power, and she made everybody around her look real ugly - probably to hide the fact that she looked sparking ridiculous." She neglected to mention she'd helped kill her. Not sure if that would tick off this Epic or not, but what she doesn't know can't hurt me.

Karina resumed a more serious expression and asked, "Speaking of Epics, have you heard of the deaths of any Epics - any other Epics recently?" Reciting the line she'd said several times before, she continued, "I'd like to know what parts of town to stay away from, and if Epics are dying anywhere, that seems like a good place to stay away from."

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Nate pulled his car into an alley near the stadium, put it in park, and swung his legs out to the street, careful to retrieve his Mobile from the loose hold of the picture frame mounted to his dash. He didn't want his Aero damaged or stolen in the event that a fight broke out, and he still didn't know who had tipped him off about the missing Epics. Whoever it was had also sent him a location, which he had put into his Mobile to find the place.

"... Just close you..." he was saying to the Maps application as he slid it's window off the bottom of his Mobile screen.

He was about to say more, but his thirty-second "wonder who that was" came out as "wonder who tha-SPARKINGDEATHLEGS!!!" Instead.

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"Karabiner."

"Yes, Charles, they have arrived. I'm watching the feed too." Karabiner liked to be ahead of Charles on occasion, though it was generally too much work because Charles was perfect. He took a short sip of his fresh limeade before giving his order. "Alert Operative Nudge to the target's proximity, but see that he stays his hand until the Man with the Van can be removed or confirmed irrelevant." Boomerang, Conn, and Klutz were already securing the stadium, so Karabiner added "have security take care of that latter. And ready the Scottie."

"Presently, Master," Charles responded.

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"Operative Nudge, the target is approaching the stadium on foot, accompanied by a Man with a Van" came Charles' voice over the van's speakers.

"Roger that," Nudge confirmed. He nodded, too, but he still didn't totally trust the virtual assistant's gesture-recognition technology, and he wasn't even sure if there were camera's inside of the vehicle.

"Do not engage until his companion's relevance can be confirmed and accounted for. Other agents are seeing to him now. Wait for my word."

"Understood," Nudge replied. He glanced at Skeet, who nodded. His eyes were red, which was odd. Nudge had assumed that Calamity took the ability to cry away with the rest of man's inhibitions, but it appeared that Skeet had been doing just that. "Toughen up, Skeet. We've got a job to do."

"Yeah..." Skeet replied despondently, composing himself.

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Amanda rolled as the van stopped abruptly, her head striking the wall painfully. She heard Nudge and Charles talking, but she wasn't listening until he addressed Skeet.

"... We've got a job to do."

Then Skeet's voice: "Yeah..."

There was an odd sound to his voice, one that Amanda would have known from anyone. It was a mix of anger, grief, and despair.

She knew it, for it was the only way she ever spoke, the voice she thought in, even. Skeet, it seemed, felt the same way she did. About something. The same thing? But she knew that it was too much to hope for. Skeet was just like the rest of them. Skeet was an Epic. Skeet was... Wonderful, in his own way. He was all she had. Please don't hurt me anymore... PLEASE!

In that moment, Amanda knew. She knew that she wouldn't last through another mission. If Skeet didn't intervene this time, she would lose her mind.

It was almost a comforting thought. She had tried to slip out of the pains of sanity for years, but madness had eluded her. If she was right, then this mission would be a win-win for her. Either Skeet would save her from this living hell, or her mind would escape on it's own.

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Nate drew his weapon from his left hip and fired on the spider. Years fighting off Epics - and fighting for Epics - payed off, and the small arachnid's life was cut short by - as he put it:

".20 grams of plastic in a 6mm sphere at 360fps." He paused, then added "Sorry if that was one of your special ones, Celia. That would have hurt." He winced as he thought of the possibility. Celia shared full sensory connection to her "Spyders," so she would have felt the creature's death if that had been one.

He holstered his airsoft gun before turning to walk to the stadium.

***

"Cake? Why is there cake? May I have some?" Nate was both surprised and confused. "Is it somebody's birthday, or what?"

Before Kokichi, Jade, Nathan, or either of the others could respond - though Nate was far enough away and speaking quietly enough that it is uncertain whether they heard him at all and would have responded - he heard someone scream off to his left.

He didn't wait to see if they had heard him, just bolted in the direction of the scream, muttering.

"... have Celia, they are in for it. It's probably a trap. What can I do, though? How can I stand and just listen? And where's Liam? He's probably with the others. That is why he came here..."

 

(I'm going top assume Liam doesn't get involved at this point. I can fix it  if I'm wrong.)

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Nate followed the sound of her - someone's - voice, adjusting every time she - someone - screamed.

"Stop, you monster!" he heard. He was close. Rounding a corner, Nate finally saw what he was tracking. His blood boiled, and no words escaped his mouth for anger.

Then he caught a bullet in the shoulder, and the world turned red.

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Ice shot through Amanda's entire body as a blow to the head twisted her neck, pinching a nerve. It wouldn't be lethal, of course, or even cause lasting injury - Karabiner would see to that, because she was too useful to use up all at once - but it hurt. A lot. As every time before, she wished she had resisted screaming, bringing another element - in this case, the glowing red Epic running toward her at full speed - to the scene and, worst of all, giving Karabiner exactly what he wanted. But in the end, pain and despair won out. Every time.

She would have fallen to the ground, but the Monster was holding her wrist too tightly, so she just strained her shoulder as she went limp from the blow.

Amanda prepared herself for the violation that Epic-baitings always brought; there was nothing she could do to fight at this point, and it was pointless anyway. With her last moments of certain sanity, she turned her head to the left and took one last look at Skeet. Karabiner struck her, driving his fist into her gut. She let out a small gasp, and saw Skeet's expression change.

Whatever happened next was too fast for her to grasp.

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Bloodlight took it all in as quickly as he could. There was a girl - a young woman, anyway. There were two men in front of her. One was holding her down and the other appeared to be undoing his belt. That - and the faintest memory of someone screaming "stop, you monster!" - was all he needed to know, but there were also two men holding rifles.

"You're breaking the law!" He screamed as he ran headlong toward the two men by the victim, ignoring the armed ones. The intensity of his scream shredded his weakened vocal chords and seemed to shatter the air with them. Then he dove through the air over the victim and stabbed at the assaulters with his index fingers.

Both struck home, and each man flashed red as the finger poking his ribs broke.

Having thrown his arms out to the sides, Bloodlight was unable to break his fall, and instead crushed his weak skull against the pavement behind them. Particles of Bloodlight-head raced back to his neck and his head was restored. Bloodlight jumped to his feet and turned around to see the two perpetrators shaking at the phantom pains their brains thought they should be feeling. He walked over to the girl, who now lay helpless on the ground, intending to demand a favor, when the blond-haired, blue-eyed man with the unbuckled belt got up and grabbed Bloodlight's arm with his right hand and reached for that of the other man with his left.

Bloodlight felt a slight push as the shorter of the armed men - now the taller man's headlock - fired some sort of energy from his hand, which the taller man had pointed to the space between the girl and the downed man. The Aryan's hand twisted slightly in the air and brushed the girl's head, missing the other man entirely.

The girl glowed red. Just like Bloodlight.

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Nudge stared in disbelief as his blast - intended for Skeet's stupid nose - nudged Karabiner's hand into the bait. She glowed red, just like Bloodlight, and Karabiner ran for the van.

Nudge followed.

Skeet did not.

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"Scottie!" Karabiner screamed. He dove into the open bay of the van, and then the Scottie's violet light enveloped him and he - along with the van - was safe at the picket.

Edited by Sazedezas
Updated.
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  • 1 month later...

The stadium. What Taya had mentioned. Though he had never personally been to Edmonton, even before Calamity, all it had taken was a quick and quiet call with the Circle and the stadium’s location was now highlighted on the dashboard’s screen. According to Taya, Nate had known the stadium was where Kokichi had been teleported by Jade and Nathan. More than a little suspicious, Liam thought. Then why wasn’t Nate leading? He glanced at the side mirror at the red car tailing him. Perhaps Nate wanted the comfort of a big bulletproof shield between him and any danger they might encounter. That made sense to Liam.

It wasn’t terribly long before the Commonwealth stadium could be seen peeking over the trees. He heard Taya stirring in the backseat as they approached. He scanned the vacant parking lot. A terrible place to park. Instead, Liam pulled the van behind a house across the street and parked. With a tap, he locked the dash controls and activated Parallax mode. He glanced back at Taya as he grabbed the shotgun.

“We’ve arrived. You can stay here if you’d like--don’t bleed all over the place--but I’m leaving.”   

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This is a collab by Hemalurgic Headshot and Sazedezas

 

 

 

Lord Kelvin rested on his broom-crutch, basking in the sun. It was a fairly inefficient form of heat gain, but certainly reliable. The throbbing of his leg was only a dull ache, buried in the back of his mind under the guilty euphoria of power. He hadn’t realized the true potential of his abilities, but now… Olympia Polaris would watch its back.

He stood in the middle of a random suburban street, Arachnerd some distance away, looking around. Or perhaps communicating with her spiders. Kelvin didn’t know. Or care really, for that matter. He glanced around. Were there people living here? He wondered. These houses looked identical to the others: worn, poorly tended, darkened windows, overgrown lawn. He squinted, scanning for tiny signs of humanity, or a frightened shadow through a window. Nothing.

Arachnerd the Blackweb was awake. It had taken three cups of the blackest coffee available, but she was finally ready to… Whatever it was she had been planning. She was having a bit of trouble remembering at that moment, so she checked her Spyders.

Spyder had lost its target somehow, so she checked its memory - which for a spider included only the highlights - and found that the young cartoonish Epic of yet indeterminate gender had apparently teleported away with a couple from out-of-town. Odd, she thought. I didn’t think there were many teleporters left after what happened in Portland, Oregon. Just Obliteration and a few others who - according to probability - should be much farther away. Spyder 5 had followed her established procedures - or perhaps her subconscious mind had directed it, she was never sure which - and followed the Epic’s companion, the man with the van.

Arachnerd continued her inventory, and found Spyder 7 quite agitated. It had returned from ERA HQ with a letter, and Armageddon was walking away from the Webyrinth with that very letter. She sent the Spyder - one of her tarantula couriers - after him as quickly as she could, cursing the distance that kept her from giving new orders to the rest of her horde. The letter was still open in the Epic’s hand, however, and Arachnerd didn’t need to get Spyder 7 much closer to Armageddon before she could get the gist of it.

“Lord Kelvin” she called, using the Name Riley had adopted with the guy behind the coffee shop counter. She continued checking her Spyders “There’s a conference tonight at the stadium for Epics with an interest in the city’s rule. Thought you might want to know-IS THAT-WHO-I-THINK-IT-IS?!” She hadn’t meant to cut off like that, nor had she intended to think aloud, but the sight was so shocking, she couldn’t help it. She’d focused on Spyder five for just a moment, but it had been enough to reveal that following the impressively-armored van was a red car. Not just any red car, but a Saab 9000 Aero. And Nathaniel Snyder was driving.

“What?” Kelvin turned away from the houses at Arachnerd’s outburst. “Who? Wait, a conference?” An appropriate time to display his power, but if all of the city’s Epics were going…

“Yes. I think it will be the best place to establish my neutrality permanently, and you can make critical alliances.” Arachnerd was still reeling slightly that Nate was already in Olympia Polaris. She knew his car was fast - it was basically a Swedish snow race car - but he couldn’t have left Lost Vegans in time to be there already. Unless… He had left for Olympia Polaris the very day of their breakup. Interesting. Of course, they had always intended to move to Olympia Polaris if they couldn’t locate surviving members of the Survivors, with the hope that they could try to re-found the organization in Alberta, but Arachnerd had been sure that Nate would have taken longer to pack.

Kelvin nodded. “We’ll have to stop by then,” he said. “But… who was… the surprise…” He struggled to articulate what had made Arachnerd cry out. A tiny traitorous ball of fear coiled up in his chest. What if it was one of her enemies? Arachnerd seemed quite powerful to him with her army of spiders, but if this surprise person was dangerous… He had only one leg!

“Nevermind,” Kelvin declared, brushing aside his inhibitions. “What time is the conference starting?”

Arachnerd finished composing herself. “Bloodlight. [time]” was all she said. She knew that, considering the brevity of Nate’s Epic period and his lack of ambition made his name - both as an Epic and as a Hand or “Maple” as they called them here - was rather obscure. There were, of course, those who knew of the Snyders, as their organization - the Survivors - had maintained a surprising amount of sovereignty and security for [X] years, and if information about the goings-on in Lost Vegans ever got out, it could certainly have included the fact that the Epics Arachnerd the Blackweb and Bloodlight had destroyed the Survivors’ headquarters.

If nothing else, she thought, it will be interesting to see how much is known and how much by Lord Kelvin.

“How do we get to the stadium?”

Bloodlight. Kelvin filed that back in his mind. It was a cool name, but he had already picked his own. Based on Lord Kelvin of old, the namesake of the one true unit of temperature. He thought it had a nice ring to it.

“I honestly have no idea how to get to the stadium from here. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve been there ever… maybe when I was a kid…” Kelvin trailed off. “I suppose we’ll just poke around.”

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Posting for Mrake Darshall because he's not here.

Rook.jpg

Taya slowly sat up, barely processing what ‘Moose’ had just said. She was barely conscious, but she tried to stand up anyway. She half expected to simply slump down again, and she did. While her wound wasn’t necessarily life-threatening, it certainly wasn’t helping her accomplish anything.

Taya muttered something about meese, then slightly more clearly said, ‘If you don’t mind, I’ll just… stay here. Sorry about the mess.’ Unconsciousness overtook her.
 

Edited by breakingamber
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  • 1 year later...

The Meeting
Collaboration by: 
Winter HH The Young Pyromancer Kidpen Drake Kenod Weirdpersonx VanillaDCocoKing breakingamber

Kaitlin stood in the alley, watching the stadium, seeing guards walk around. “This was the place Neverthere told me about, right?” She thought to herself. Nervous, she looked around, trying to find a quiet place to enter the stadium. Spotting a smaller side entrance, she quickly started moving towards it.

“Halt!” the guard called out. It’s not like they actually have to stop though. “Do you have any permit or ticket?”

Kaitlin continued walking towards them. “We’re Epics, gods,” she could hear Marian say in her head. “We rule the mortals. They fear us. Show them, always.” Amethyst nodded to herself. She threw back her hoody, showing her face, giving the guard full view of the crystals embedded in her face. Walking closer to the guard, she summoned a small spike above her hand, letting it twirl about. “Well,” She said, smirking. “Is this enough of a ticket for you?”

The guard took a step back, his eyes trailing the spike. He set his jaw, “Ma’am, I must request that you show some form of pass. The Lord Epoch does not want just anyone arriving to the meeting.” Standing tall, he met her gaze.

Amethyst considered her options. Kill him? It would get rid of this nuisance, but she was supposed to meet with other epics, according to Neverthere. Starting a fight might make it impossible to enter. That made her think. Neverthere. She knew about this meeting. Wouldn’t it mean she had gotten a pass? Would she mind her name being used? Amethyst decided to risk it. “Neverthere send me in her place, since she felt this meeting wasn’t important enough for her. Is that enough for you?”

Neverthere...that’s a big name to toss around. Sparks, it’s not like security is really expected to be that tight. “Sure, sure. Right on through, Miss…? It would be best if you gave your name. For security reasons.” Right, slontze. She’ll buy that.

She looked at him. “Amethyst,” she said, and walked past him.

Viktor sat in a seat in the audience of the stadium. He had arrived quickly, of course. The time corridor had certainly helped get the others there. Transporting everyone was always a pain, but they had managed to get inside before security arrived. Not that getting past ERA wouldn’t have been laughably easy, even without the ability to turn invisible, but things were neater this way.

The person behind him shifted uncomfortably in their seat. Their name was… Michael, or was it Gregory? The illusion masking Viktor’s presence was being maintained by him. Whatever the maple’s name was, the man was clearly uncomfortable. After all, what noncombatant wouldn’t be? They were going all out on this one. Even Blank was here.

Viktor’s eyes flicked to where he knew the others were setting up. It was impossible to tell that anyone was there, even to his enhanced senses. Blank was one of the few whose skills Viktor respected. The illusionist had mastered the art of memorising a place’s appearance, then duplicating it with a shell of light, so that those inside could still see out. The person assigned to Viktor was one of the most talented after Blank, but were still only able to project a static image. Blank made that look like child’s play, though even they couldn’t form a convincing illusion of something they hadn’t seen themselves for long.

The skill vampire glanced at his rifle. It was, of course, polished to perfection. It wasn’t the most recent model, but that wasn’t the point. Viktor knew exactly how much recoil the gun would provide, exactly how far you had to pull the trigger to fire, and exactly how the shape of the barrel affected the trajectory of the shot. He could therefore compensate for these factors, making him a near-perfect marksman. The rifle was also fitted with a customized muffler, with settings that could change what type of gunshot was heard, as well as with a resonator that made it near-impossible to make out where the shot had come from. This was much more useful than it seemed. Viktor knew that the specific qualities of his muffler might prove invaluable tonight.

Casting another glance over the stadium, Viktor noticed a man approaching the group of five that had arrived around the same time as them. Invisible eyes swept over him, judging and quickly categorizing his appearance as that of Phytomagnet, one of Epoch’s overseers. The man was in charge of farming, though he mostly sat back and enjoyed the fruits of the labour of others. The whole organization reeked of corruption and exploitation, the ones in charge not protecting and guiding those who supported them, as was intended. No, these lords feasted upon misery and toil, upon sweat and blood, and sat placid in their thrones, smothering countless others under the weight of their gluttony. Rulers were permitted decadence, true, but to give nothing in return was-

Viktor shook his head, dislodging his train of thought. He was on guard duty. Watching and waiting for trouble to bare its fangs. That was his role, and he was content to be patient.

For now.

Armaggeddon walked up to the stadium, his bodyguards trailing behind him. This was an exciting opportunity for him. It seems that the vast majority of big powers here have the intent of getting a piece of Edmonton, but he had other goals. That bug epic would soon feel the full wrath of Armageddon’s armies, and perhaps those of some others as well, depending on how it goes. Smiling at the thought, he took his place among the stands, prepared to offer his services to whoever would be willing to offer theirs.

Stuff went down.

Later, Kokichi was in the stadium itself. Jade and Nathan were there too, probably. Lee might’ve been there yet. He might not have been. If there was any sort of camera angle, it totally would’ve been focused in a way to make it impossible to tell if/where they were.

But there were a bunch of other people who were definitely there.

There was a guy with a group of bodyguards around him. He was kinda smug and glared at people all rudelike.

Kokichi leaned to the side of their seat, resting their head on top of the armrest thingy mabobber. That was called armrest, right? How was arm rest even spelled? Anyway, they were probably there with Nathan and Jade at the very least.

The stadium. What Taya had mentioned. Though he had never personally been to Edmonton, even before Calamity, all it had taken was a quick and quiet call with the Circle and the stadium’s location was now highlighted on the dashboard’s screen. According to Taya, Nate had known the stadium was where Kokichi had been teleported by Jade and Nathan. More than a little suspicious, Liam thought. Then why wasn’t Nate leading? He glanced at the side mirror at the red car tailing him. Perhaps Nate wanted the comfort of a big bulletproof shield between him and any danger they might encounter. That made sense to Liam.

It wasn’t terribly long before the Commonwealth stadium could be seen peeking over the trees. He heard Taya stirring in the backseat as they approached. He scanned the vacant parking lot. A terrible place to park. Instead, Liam pulled the van behind a house across the street and parked. With a tap, he locked the dash controls and activated Parallax mode. He glanced back at Taya as he grabbed the shotgun.

“We’ve arrived. You can stay here if you’d like--don’t bleed all over the place--but I’m leaving.”

Taya slowly sat up, barely processing what ‘Moose’ had just said. She was barely conscious, but she tried to stand up anyway. She half expected to simply slump down again, and she did. While her wound wasn’t necessarily life-threatening, it certainly wasn’t helping her accomplish anything.

Taya muttered something about meese, then slightly more clearly said, ‘If you don’t mind, I’ll just… stay here. Sorry about the mess.`` Unconsciousness overtook her.

Quietus brushed past the guards and into the stadium, hovering on the perimeter and waiting for things to kick off. An epic he didn’t recognize had the poor judgement to approach him and try to make conversation. Quietus froze him out with his power, inspecting the blank jumbotron display with mild interest while the man flapped his mouth without any sound coming out, then retreated when the wave of vertigo got to him.

It should be starting very soon.

“Welcome.”

Epoch’s face appeared on the jumbotron, scanning the crowd of epics.

“Thanks for responding so promptly to my summons. I apologize for my own tardiness… It doesn’t usually happen.”

Summons, not invitation. By word choice, Epoch was claiming superiority.

“First, I now swear to protect to the best of my ability and take no action whatsoever against any attendant of this meeting for its duration, except in the case of self-defense.”

Several of the epics on the fringes of the meeting began to look expectantly at Justice. The promise-keeping epic. The ability to punish liars made her famous in some circles. Justice acknowledged the oath with a nod, and some of the tension went out of the gathering.

“Now that that’s over with, we have a lot to talk about. As you probably already know, we are gathered in the same site where less than a week ago, the most powerful epic in the city was found to be murdered. In the wake of her death, we are left with a few question marks to deal with, which is part of why I called you all here. I don’t think I’m the only one who’s curious about this, so I will start by opening up the floor for anybody to come forward with any information regarding the circumstances of Doubletake’s demise.”

Steering the conversation. Breaking down trust. Opening the door to interruptions, while setting it up to make anyone who tried to change the subject look like they were hiding something.

Lord Kelvin stepped through the sizzling hole in the chain link fence and onto the stadium parking lot. A rumbling sound emanated from the stadium speakers, but far enough away that only the jumbled bass tones could be heard. So, there really is something going on here, he thought. Behind him, Arachnerd stepped around the pooling metal with caution.

The silence dragged on. Quietus noticed a burst of radiated heat off in the distance and decided not to investigate.

Epoch waited for an uncomfortably long time before speaking up. “In that case, I will also ask if anybody knows anything about the darkness that blanketed the city earlier today.”

Again, silence.

“I see. Some of us have secrets to hold on to, then.” Epoch frowned at the gathering.

“Next order of business, Doubletake’s death has left a rather large slice of the city untended. I propose we divide it amongst ourselves. Negotiate who gets what pieces. I am staking a claim to the stadium and surrounding area as my piece, for the purposes of future gatherings.”

Ugh. Pointless posturing. Nicroburst hated pointless posturing. He knew that no matter what was ‘decided’ at this meeting, various Epics would still make plays for various areas.

“Dibs on the donut place!” Kokichi piped up, having absolutely no clue what the context was. They’d never stuck around in one place for long enough to actually take control of anything and probably wouldn’t, but hey, if they were just offering up stuff on the free, they’d take it.

Everyone turned to look at them, as they were suddenly the brightest and most visible person in the room. Someone facepalmed.

Kelvin peeked around the corner, scanning the vacant concession stands. A guard stood way down the hall, but he didn’t seem to be much of a threat. He only had an assault rifle. Kelvin glanced the other way. No one.

He snuck across to the opposite wall and checked around again. Much to his relief, the guard hadn’t noticed the clacking of his DIY crutch on the concrete. The stands were just to his right, so he poked his head around. The stadium was empty save for a gathering in the middle of the field. A dozen or so people, it looked like. The jumbotrons around the stands only showed a person’s face. As Kelvin scanned the rest of the stadium, he spotted about 20 armed guards, scattered around. He ducked back into the hall.

This must be the conference, Kelvin realized. Arachnerd was right. A twisting ball of emotion coiled in his gut. So many Epics… He was scared, excited, awed… mostly scared. No. He thought. I can’t be bullied by these Epics. I’m an Epic too. With that thought, Kelvin drew the heat from the air, felt that rush. The tips of his fingers steamed. Newly confident, Lord Kelvin walked down into the stands.

“Dibs on the donut place!” the Epic of indeterminate gender shouted out after a pause, drawing the attention of everyone in the stadium. Nicroburst facepalmed.

Aaand then someone noticed him. Sparks.

Phytomagnet knew Epoch’s plan for the unclaimed sector, but that infuriating epic piping up about a donut shop? That was unexpected--though now that he knew the epic a bit better, it wasn’t really that surprising.

Kaitlin listened to the conversation. It seemed a lot had happened in the city, more than she had thought. Dividing territories. She wondered why they even talked about that. Why didn’t they just take it? That was what Epics did right? If they wanted something, they took it, if anyone got in the way, get rid of them. The strongest ruled, and those weaker served them. At that point one Epic spoke up, claiming the donut shop. Kaitlin’s train of thought paused, face blank, trying to figure out what was going on.

Nobody was answering, and Epoch was working up the courage to just claim the lot, when somebody interrupted. An obscenely colorful figure, claiming a donut shop.

What?

Just, what. He blinked, at loss for words.

“Um. Okay. The donut shop goes to… What was your name?”

Wait, which donut shop? Surely there are more than one.

Epoch noticed another guest facepalming and suppressed the urge to follow his example. This day just got weirder.

It was about to get more weird, he thought to himself as he gave the timeline a metaphysical shove to set things in motion.

“Uh…” They looked around and had the brilliant idea to just lie cuz there was a whole bunch of people here, why give them more information than they had to? They looked around for a name and saw some lights so they went, “Bulb! I mean, Bob!”

Everyone’s face was skeptical, and they hid their face.

“Very well. The donut shop goes to--” Epoch struggled to find a suitable honorific and drew a blank “--Bulb,” he finished lamely. The name was almost definitely fake, but it was none of his concern.

“You are from out of town, yes? This touches on another reason for bringing you all here. A chance for newcomers to introduce themselves, and likewise for me to introduce myself to you.

First of all, welcome to Edmonton.” He offered a smile and an awkward wave. “The city is experiencing an influx of new powers, both literally and figuratively speaking, and the peace is understandably, er, strained. Makes sense, testing the limits, trying to figure how you fit into all this.

I can’t speak for any of my associates, but if any of you happen to be looking for a place to fit in, I’m offering. You came to Edmonton because it’s stable, at least compared to the surrounding cities, and I am a big part of why. So long as you are willing to maintain a minimum of compliance, I am offering a home in the nicest territory to live in outside of government-held lands, and a preferential position in one of the stronger powers that rule the city. It’s not a bad gig.”

Epoch shrugged. Hearing those terms, the really powerful and power-hungry epics would probably be less likely to throw it in with ERA. That was on purpose. Having very powerful subordinates was a risk.

Kaitlin looked up at that. A place to stay. And that leader didn’t seem that bad, not like some others she had come across. She thought about it and then looked up. Sound self-assured, a voice said in her head. Don’t let them think you’re weak.

“What should we do if we are interested in your offer?” She asked of Epoch. “Also, which conditions will be attached to joining?”

Epoch fixated on the stranger, taking in a heavy coat and long dark hair framing striking, violet eyes, and smiled.

“That depends on what you want from our bargain. If you merely wanted a place to live in peace and provision, I would request that you follow the laws for the most part, and would call upon you in times of crisis to defend what would be our mutual turf. If you desired a more active role, perhaps a territory of your own and underlings to do with as you please, I might ask for more in return.”

He eyed her thoughtfully. “I don’t want to presume what it is you want. If you wish to discuss the precise terms, we can do so once this meeting has wrapped up.”

“Like with, er… Bulb,” he shot the obnoxiously colored epic a look, “you have me at a disadvantage. I am Epoch, you may have heard of me. And you are?”

He glanced at Phyto and Ironwood, putting out the request to any who might supply an answer to his question.

“Awesome!”

They dabbed, and it was very awesome.

Kaitlin stared at the Epic again, wondering if there was something going on here that she had missed. Finally she just nodded at Epoch, remembering what he had said earlier. Meet up with him after the meeting is done, alright.

Thankfully, Epoch glanced away. Nicroburst shivered, then attempted to slowly back away. Coming here was a bad idea. He had spotted a hole in the fence, with a figure standing beside it. Probably not a guard, as she didn’t appear to be armed. He would have to make a break for it. Casually shuffling down to the field, Nicroburst turned to the effeminate figure, keeping his voice low. “Sooo... how’s it going?

Edited by DrakeMarshall
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Commonwealth Stadium - Twenty Six Minutes Before Detonation

Alder gazed upon Calamity.

The bloodstained light had come out early, peeking beyond the fog-shrouded horizon. Foreboding, right before the largest congregation of epics Edmonton had known was to come about. Jacklyn approached the stadium warily, and he followed.

A triad of armed and armored sentries held them up. Alder knew of the leader: Captain Fraser from the ninth unit. One of the ones who actually gave a damnation about helping most people, not a given in this outfit.

“Alder Moran, reporting in. And this’s Jacklyn. She’s a guest of Epoch right now.”

He made to produce the papers showing this to be true, but they just tiredly waved him along without a further word. He felt a twinge of sympathy for them; Calamity knew it was a rough job, playing the receptionist for a nonstop parade of arrogant and unstable demigods. He pressed onwards into the stadium, claiming a seat on the fringes, next to Jacklyn. She was holding up well, all things considered, despite Alder being crem at first-aid.

“...death has left a rather large slice of the city untended. I propose we divide it amongst ourselves. Negotiate who gets what pieces...”

Meeting was started, and that was definitely his boss talking. When he addressed his troops personally, Epoch liked to talk about “staking a claim”, which was a polite way of saying ERA was ruthlessly expansionist. Once he got started on that particular topic, it would be a while. The man hardly needed timey powers to drag something out.

He tuned out the meeting, gawking at the crowd of Edmonton’s most powerful. They were an outlandish bunch, it had to be said. In Alder’s humble opinion, being surrounded by people who were too frightened to give offense didn’t exactly work wonders for your fashion sense. Some were bedecked in bright costumes, in one case so colorful it physically pained Alder to look at under his increasingly tunneled vision. Folks from ERA learned to tune out the tunnel vision, as a rule. Just meant Epoch was doing his thing, in this case compressing the meeting to the span of a few minutes on the outside world.

Beyond the throng of rulers, there were the people on the outskirts. Most of them seated far apart from each other, most of them looking vaguely out of place. People like him, people who had a duty to one of the epics in the center or were roped into the meeting one way or another, but they weren’t participants. Some well-dressed servants. A number of enforcers, most of whom bore the ERA insignia. And a pair of dead black eyes fixated on Jacklyn, belonging to a tall and heavily built man with dirty blond hair and a black trenchcoat who leaned up against the back wall of the stadium.

Aw, sparks.

The man approached, shouldering his way past a pair of attendants that were intently focused on the meeting below.

“It’s Quietus,” Alder murmured to Jacklyn.

“It’s me,” Quietus agreed from behind them. Sparking speedsters, Alder cursed feelingly.

Jacklyn’s release had come down from higher up the chain of command than even Quietus, so they should be safe. But safety was relative, when it came to the terminally insane and powerful.

“Epoch said I was free to go,” Jacklyn spoke up, sounding much calmer than Alder felt.

“That’s right. Free to go the hell away. You were banished from ERA grounds!”

The last part carried. Epoch had apparently reached a pause in his discourse, and quite a few eyes were trained on the three of them.

“And what do you know, but the grounds of this meeting are a recent acquisition,” Quietus grinned nastily. “Which you are trespassing on.”

“Enough,” Epoch’s voice boomed from the jumbotron, cutting short Alder’s reply. “She is not to be harmed.”

“Are you saying you no longer wish to keep the borders of ERA secure?” Quietus inquired in a deadly smooth voice. “I am merely following my orders.”

“A technicality. This location was annexed not five minutes ago,” Epoch rejoined. He turned pensive eyes towards Jacklyn. “Although, given your particular… Propensities, I would still thank you to leave this meeting. You have my full protection to do so.”

“Sounds good, boss,” Quietus drawled. “I’ll just ‘escort’ her out, then. Safely, of course. I promise. You can leave it to me.”

“Somehow, I don’t trust you.”

“You have my word,” Quietus deadpanned.

Epoch made a sound of amusement.

“I will treat her as family,” Quietus tried.

“Do I even want to know what you did to your family?”

Quietus grinned savagely in answer.

“Look, this really isn’t the time for this crem,” Epoch’s tone hardened. “You stay out of this. Completely and permanently. I trust I won’t need to repeat myself.”

“Or what? I’m being good right now. You’re not untouchable like you used to be.”

Epoch laughed, loud and reverberating. “Nobody’s untouchable. Especially not you if you want to do this right now.”

“So I take it you don’t care if I tell all these good people that you’re lying to them?” Quietus snarled. “Hey chumps, Epoch’s stringing out the meeting so he can try to annex the city.”

Epoch sighed.

“So I am. And you brought this down on your own head. Enforcers, execute him. His weakness is--”

Quietus shot the speaker system.

Chaos erupted.

. . .
 

It was a shame the flying brick had used up all his grenades. Quietus moved behind cover with powers-fueled ease as the tide of lead swept over where he had been standing. He knifed whatshisname the enforcer standing next to Jacklyn on the way out for good measure. Back to the wall, he got out a small rag and started wiping the blood free of the blade.

“You mentioned you’ve had a fair few masters before,” he said conversationally. “Is this the part where you try to kill me?”

Quietus finally spared a glance for the scar-ridden epic who happened to be sharing his cover, and winked.

“It’s a bad habit, you know, to hesitate. We’re surrounded by armed soldiers and yet something in them holds back. Cringing behind fragile defenses, clutching tightly insignificant weapons, praying the next guy will charge out first. It’s the same all our kind. The normals always outnumbered us, they could always kill us off if they were willing to pay the heavy price. Fear, in the end, is how every epic stays alive.”

He slid his knife back into its sheath.

“And yet you haven’t acted. I’m flattered. Am I to presume you really do wish to serve, or do you believe you’re biding your time? You won’t get an opportunity like this again. You may act now, or become mine utterly. No takebacks.”

He eyed Red slyly.

“Of course, serving me does have its benefits. I prepared a little present, just for you. To show how much I care. You wouldn’t have known Vitriol, but you could say that the gift comes courtesy of him.”

Quietus held out a bracelet. It was a bulky and uncomfortable thing, fashioned from welded together bits of metal that intentionally pierced the wearer’s skin. The job had been rushed, but Karabiner had assured him that he could derive working technology from a live subject a good deal faster than what he could do with a sample gathered from a dead epic. Time to find out if it actually worked, he mused. He doubted it would be painless, if it did.

“So what’ll it be? I’m gonna teach these sheep why it is they fear us. Wanna come with?”

. . .
 

If Alder made it out alive today he’d count it a win.

The exits were choked with other maples and maybe even some epics, intent on fleeing the unfolding melee. He’d been separated from Jacklyn at some point. If not for the stranger who had taken pity on him, who was now helping him navigate the crowds, the knife wound running from Alder’s thigh to abdomen would probably have seen him trampled. His savior had introduced himself as Nathaniel.

“Thank you,” he got out over the general noise and chaos. “I’m Alder.”

They plodded along at an aggravatingly slow pace, but he was nearly out. Everything about this meeting had been a bad idea.

“Going somewhere?” a rough voice called out to him.

Speak of the devil. Alder froze, then forced himself to relax. Quietus didn’t respond well to weakness. Instead he raised his rifle and pointed it at Quietus.

“Don’t you have bigger things to worry about right now?”

“Nah.” Quietus grinned, advancing. Everything else went still. The noise of the crowd died around them, and it became harder to move or even breathe.

Alder grimaced and squeezed the trigger. One, two, three shots went off before Quietus ripped the weapon from his grasp and smashed him over the head with it hard enough to make Alder see stars.

“End of the road, kid.”

The barrel of his own gun pointed back at him.

 

Alder gazed upon Calamity.

Calamity gazed back.

He was aware of being seen, beyond words or description, and the offer implicit in it. The power was there. All he had to do was reach for it. And how could he not? Is this what it feels like to become epic?

He grasped at the still nebulous potential, and it responded. His awareness expanded in a kaleidoscope of revelations, the world painted in new colors, and Alder instinctively pushed outwards against those colors to do… Something.

Something broke.

Nathaniel’s offered arm of support burned like lightning against his skin. Calamity’s baleful light burned his eyes, somehow mocking. The offered power filled him up like a firehose funneled into a small water balloon.

The world shattered.

. . .
 

Epoch’s vision suddenly cut out, and he found himself sitting in his favorite plush armchair in a cold sweat. The skirmish had been unfolding acceptably well, which is to say it was doing a beautiful job of keeping everybody distracted while Epoch expanded his borders. But something had interrupted his viewing. He tried to refocus back on the stadium to no avail. He had never known his farsight to just fail like that, not in decades, and it felt vulnerable to be suddenly without it. Vulnerable was unacceptable at this point in time. It was some kind of explosion that shook the stadium, he was sure of it. He sent for footage of the last moments, tapping his finger impatiently until it arrived.

Frame by frame, he took stock of the horrific damage. The explosion was unlike anything he’d seen before, definitely powers-based. It expanded from a point outside the camera’s view, an invisible ripple that chewed up everything it touched, whether flesh or steel, but the spread of destruction was… Uneven. There might yet be survivors. He noted with grim satisfaction the presence of a dismembered arm clothed in Quietus’ uniform. The feed froze as it caught up to the present. The explosion was still creeping forwards in there, slowed to about a thousandth of the speed relative to the outside world. With dismay, he realized that it might yet escape the time bubble and desolate the surrounding city.

It was an epic. Had to be. An almost obscenely powerful one, with hostile designs towards Edmonton. With any luck at all, the threat would be stuck in the meeting time bubble. He could prepare, just like he would have prepared for the inevitable escape of the other epics in his “meeting”. But one didn’t play this game as long as he had by banking on luck. It was time to sound the alarms and go on high alert. Either it was a false alarm and his enforcers would get in some extra practice for the Calamity protocols, or the meeting was the spark in a much larger crisis. Epoch figured it was about fifty-fifty.

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