Voidus

The wall-that-wasn't stood firm in the face of the torrent of fire she unleashed towards it. She let out a short hiss of frustration before taking a calming breath of burning air. It seemed that this foe was beyond the strength of fire alone. But she was not only fire and heat. She was the wrath of the heavens. Her creators had told her that she could defeat anything. Even if those two squabling siblings of her put aside their endless argument and joined forces to fight her, she was sure she would be victorious. Wait. She thought-spoke to the flame kin. Or hide. Great pain is coming. She took her distance from the invisible wall, circling overhead. Se circled higher and higher, patiently building up speed and searching until she found something appropriate. Perhaps a dozen miles to the south, a mountain. Small as mountains go, barely more than a hill. But it suited her purpose fine. Darting forward at a speed dozens of times faster than could be natural, she flew towards it. The weight of her momentum, the strength of her talons, the surge of the storm that she hurled into the rock as she struck it. All of these things were needed as she pulled the large heart of it free. Hundreds of tons of stone tore free from the earth, held somehow weightless in her talons. In moments, the heat from her body had begun to seep into it. The stone under her claws began to feel warm against her skin. For a moment she almost contemplated leaving the hunt to enjoy this for longer. But the spirit of the hunt, the frenzy of the storm, and the fury of her flame, all drove her back. With the force of a falling meteorite, she hurled the stone, and herself, back to the forest of stone and all the prey who still hid within.

As she dove, she watched the stone-forest below. Keen eyes spotted the large group of humans clustered together, some fresh kills lying on the ground. But why do none of them collect the spoils? The meat will rot if they leave it long. Shaking her head, she scanned the crowd. Where was he? Where was the one who threw fear? Where was the hated one? She saw the flame-kin on the ground, fighting with a human. But no faces that resembled the one she sought. Could she have forgotten what it looked like? Most humans looked the same after all. Then they'll all have to burn. The flame-kin appeared nearby, asking her a question. What is your plan? It mind-whispered. Kill the prey. She replied. She stretched her talons before her, ready to begin to rend the humans apart until she found the one she was looking for. The air became solid underneath her, brittle bones snapped as they impacted the sudden dome of force that appeared, surrounding the stone-forest and its humans. Dimly she heard the sound of human words being spoken, they seemed to come from the wall-that-wasn't. She screeched at this barrier to her goal, directing a fraction of her fury at it, the rest she kept within, stoking the flames hotter and hotter. Her feathers birst into brilliant red-gold, the flames that they spread became white hot. She threw the flames towards the wall that wasn't, watching them impact and spread across it, revealing the edges of the barrier. Things that aren't need to disappear. Burn and vanish. She directed with a mental screech.

She broke through the cloud-cover, allowing her to see the city that had been the source of her fury. The dwelling of the hated one. She had moved slowly up until now, fear holding her back, however unnatural that fear may have been, it still slowed her. It stiffened her muscles, screamed at her to run. But now the fear was gone, and there was only the fury. She allowed herself to sink into it, amber eyes narrowing in a predatory look towards the city below. She dove.

Laurelai thought the problem over. It made sense of course, she'd only studied Hemalurgy briefly, but an unkeyed coppermind did a lot for speeding her progress along. A single spike could add something to a soul if it was charged, or if it was uncharged, could take something away. But it couldn't simply change one thing into another, that wasn't the purpose of Hemalurgy. But it was the purpose of Forgery. "What about using another stamp?" She asked. "An initial stamp on the pers- er.. subject. It wouldn't last long if it's generic, but we could then give permanency to it with the spike? Create an artificial hole in the spiritweb, then replace it with the spike, even when the stamp expires it won't be able to reassert itself since something has already replaced it and the identity of the subject has changed." She lowered her gaze to her notes again. Waiting to be chastised or corrected.

A swirl of raging emotions pushed back against the mental intrusion. Fear was still predominant, an icy grip of terror, but the rising fury was fighting against it. Help to kill it. Help to burn it. Help to crush the hated one. Return what was dead to the pyre. She recognizes this creature too. It had been there that day too, it was another creature of the flames. A fellow flame-kin would not have anything to do with this cold fear. It was natural that it should share her hatred of it. Accepted.

She moved slowly, steadily. The storm within drove her to action, but the day was peaceful. There were no enemies, no prey. She let the sunlight warm her, feeling stiff muscles from her long journey begin to relax. Fear. Her eyes snapped open, scanning beneath her, but all she could see was the unbroken cloud cover that hid her from view. So why then was her every nerve on edge? Why were her instincts screaming at her to flee? Dimly she recognized the source, she knew this power. The hated one had returned. A seed of anger burned within at the remembered enemy. She stoked the seed to a raging fire, a fury to rival her fear. She drew a deep breath, filling her substantial lungs with air. From far, far above the city, a tremendous screech could be heard. A screech that those who had survived the seven day war were unlikely to ever forget.

16 minutes has some nice cosmeric significance to it.

This may sound really stupid but what's the irony?

With a short bark, a low growl towards Max and a flash of golden-brown fur. The labrador vanished from the vicinity. EDIT: @I think I am here.

Get paid to yell at lawmakers? brb, need to change my face, voice and name. For reasons unrelated to this discussion.

Dark. Megan stumbled through the darkness, left hand stretched out in front of her, feeling for something solid to use to guide her way. Her right hand instinctively dropped to her side, searching for the matching warmth from Alisons hand. How many times had Alison helped her when they were younger and the power went out? How many times had she snuck into her sisters bed during a storm? But she didn't find the warmth. All she could feel was the cold, matching the cold that she'd seen behind her sisters eyes when they'd finally reunited. ---------------------------------- As her vision faded, Impact cursed softly to herself. She held one hand out to steady her body, ready to break her fall. But this wasn't a feinting spell. She still felt dizzy, but no more than she had a moment ago. Cursed Epic had another secondary power. Must have been scared when he saw Megan, thought she might be backup. She pulled herself back and up, making sure that she wasn't in the same place as the last time the Epic had seen her. Unless he was a complete idiot he'd probably have some way to see in this darkness but it didn't seem like he could fly. She hovered just out of arms reach, straining her ears for any sound, but it was her sense of touch that noticed the rapid movement of the Epic. The displaced air rushed past her, almost pulling her along in his wake. She shot after him, arms waiting for any slight feel that would indicate a body for her to crush. Light returned to the world just in time to alert her to the wall she was about to crash into. She forced herself to a stop mid-air, thanking Calamity for perhaps the thousandth time for the unique quirk of her ability that let her apply it uniformly across her body and prevent whiplash. Perhaps a hundred feet away she saw a huddled shape, Megan knelt on the ground and seemed to be crying. How can she do that in public? Impact marveled. Idiot girl. She glided towards her sister, roughly jerked her hand up and growled to her in an authoritative tone. "Come on. We need to talk." Neverthere watched from a distance as the darkness vanished from the city. She'd managed to jump outside of the range of it, but she hadn't had enough time to guage the epicenter. But still, there were only two likely candidates. Two blank spots on the map that she had yet to explore. "Now, Typhoon? Or the mystery man?" She wondered to herself. She projected into the sky above the city, looking down at it, towards the two locations. "Well, who doesn't love a little mystery?" She said, vanishing from the sky into a wisp of mist.