I think I am here.

Rob looked ahead while Shana jumped in front, using the van as cover and speeding over. “She swore the second ideal,” Cup whispered a few moments later and Rob was happy, that was great. But his face remained like it always did and he huddled close to Ben, he’d be happy too. Shana took down an enhanced Voidbringer and Rob was reminded of his thigh. It ached terribly no matter how much stormlight he used, and he thought for a fleeting moment that something was seriously, seriously wrong. Shana was fighting up close. And with what Rob knew of the Void lightning, that was extremely dangerous. With the very last of the stormlight he had Rob looked to Shana, her clothes. He focused on the air between his hands and what she was wearing, and with the rest of his stormlight he channeled Tension, making her clothes as strong as armour, so even Void lightning couldn’t pierce it. However that meant there was less for the cloth shield and a subsequent lightning bolt ripped straight through it, setting it on fire. Throwing the flaming besdsheet towards the Voidbringers in distraction Rob picked up Ben and ran to the opposite side of the street, using a car parked on the side of the road for cover.

Cheh had no idea what the man meant. “I don’t know,” he said sarcastically and leaned back, smirking like how he used to smirk to the other kids around the farm. “As you said, I don’t know if I can trust you.” He looked around to their cell. It was metal, unfortunately, so no rock around. If he could metalbend, maybe he’d be able to escape. “But yeah,” he said, looking to John. “I’m innocent, don’t know about these other guys though. Why am I here?” @John Flamesinger

Price’s face lightened up. “So that’s a yes?” He said, getting out a ledger hidden within his coat. Taking out a pen that was secured to it he began to write something, organising his timetable immediately. Intensity Testing (Ta’e’ilo Subject) Finishing he looked up to Sagitta to answer her question. “Nothing dangerous,” he said, reading her face. “Remember, you’re a Ta’e’ilo citizen. Hurting you would be bad for politics.” Standing up, he heard soliders approaching, probably for their lunch. Training must have been over. “Come,” he said, gesturing to the door. “You’ll be briefed when we get to your staying quarters.”

“Hey,” Cheh called to Jessy, angling himself to get a better look at the person who’d awoken. “There’s another guy awake.” Then, he looked to Rydin. “Hi. Who are you?”

Rob’s thigh still ached. Wounds weren’t supposed to ache after they’d been stormlight healed. He peeked begind the shield again as more and more lightning bolts began rattling it, weakening it. The plant they used seemed to be growing, creeping over the road in veiny vines. One of the vines came near they were and Rob sunk it underneath some ground. There was only a couple options left. They were running out of stormlight, and sometimes you just had to do the normal thing. After sending an emergency message to the Radiant group chat, Rob called a familiar phone number. “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” A woman’s voice came out on the other side of the line. “Um, there are some people with guns, trying to shoot us,” Rob said. “Alright, don’t panic. Where are you?” Rob told them the street. Even if the cops couldn’t handle the Voidbringers, they’d probably still add pressure. Or they’d be a distraction. “What’s your name?” Rob hung up.

Price looked down at Sagitta, and when his glasses began to slide down he pushed them back up. “Well, to put it shortly, you’ll need to trust me.” He pulled over a stool and sat across from her. “There’s no way to guarantee it, except maybe the consolation that you’re not our enemy. Tühine would find it unwise to keep a Ta’e’ilo soldier within custody like a prisoner. It would raise a lot of questions we could do without. “Because this isn’t like a prison. It’s a... voluntary trade. Help us, and we can maybe disguise you, and send you to one of our ‘travelling merchant’ spy groups in Cahaya to get to your homeland. It’s difficult, but not impossible. You helping us just makes it worth the risk.” Price had to give credit though, this one was smart. He’d have to make sure not to reveal too many military secrets to her.

“Don’t say another word,” the woman, Jessy, said. “And sit down next to me.” Cheh got up, and hesitantly sat next to the woman. He made are to keep his distance, though, and kept his back away from her. Someone entered the room, a man. Maybe their captor. He introduced himself as ‘John’. Cheh has always pronounced it ‘Jaun’ or ‘Juan’ but who was he to judge names? “Why are we here, John?” Cheh asked. “I didn’t break any laws.” @John Flamesinger @Sorana

Price drew his lips to a thin line. “Food, water, a place to stay. Maybe train, when the soldiers aren’t practising. And of course, a ride back to your homeland. This is all, of course, if the knowledge is worth it.” He looked at her, trying to see her reaction. He didn’t want to get to threats, he rather liked the normal conversation he was having with Sagitta, but it wasn’t beyond him.

Cheh nodded. It wasn’t the woman’s fault her parents had chose a name like that. Looking down, he felt kind of bad about badgering her about her name. The woman probably got a lot of comments like that. “Sorry,” he said, looking back at her. “What was it you asked before? Skills?” Cheh gestured to himself. “I’m a farmer, and I can Earthbend.”

“No, no, not at all,” Price said, waving his hands as to swat the words from the air. Soldiers recruited from beyond Tühine... it wasn’t unheard of, but it was very, very rare. It was just agreed among all military recruiters that loyal soldiers were the best, and what was less loyal than someone not even from Tühine? Besides, Price didn’t have the authority to add someone to the army as a soldier. “Just that you’ll stay here for a while, and allow us to test your Instinct. Normal, scholarly research.” And of course, if it came down to it, testing the combat applications. Price had a few ideas for experiments involving the Intensity Instinct. “To get a better understanding of how Intensity works, see it’s useful applications, standard stuff.”

“‘Jessy?’” Cheh replied, bypassing the question. “What type of name is ‘Jessy’?” And her last name too. ‘Newman’. It wasn’t as odd as ‘Jessy’ but it definitely was weird. And all that stuff about ‘Alliance’ special forces. Special forces he could understand. The Dai Li, the Metalbending police, they were all special forces. Cheh shrugged. Maybe it was just another quirk of the Republic City. ‘Alliance of the elements’ or something like that. “You’re from the Air Nomads or something?” They had weird names. But no, she wasn’t bald and she didn’t have tattoos. “Water Tribes?”

The way she’d responded, back straight, proudly, Price envied it but he hid those thoughts behind a mask of indifference. He works only hope, one day he could say that. One day he could be proud of what he’d done, that he’d fought instead of sitting on the sidelines like a coward. She asked how to get back to her country and Price smiled, an idea forming in his head. “You see, Sagitta,” he said, walking to another barrel nearby. Opening it he found it was full of water. “Ta’e’ilo is far on the west coast. From Tühine, it’s impossible to get to without either passing through nomad land, which we’re not too fond to make enemies of, or through Cahayan land, our sworn enemies of war. As such, getting there might present it’s fair share of... difficulties.” Taking a leatherskin canteen from a table he filled it up with water and began to walk to where Sagitta was. “However, I’m sure in no time we’ll be able to figure something out, get you to your homeland safely.” He smiled, placing the canteen on the table she was sitting at. “As long as you’ll stay in the base for a couple days, heal up, stick around for some voluntary testing. We don’t have many Intensity Instincts to work with, you’d be especially helpful in helping us.”

A woman woke up and Cheh watched as she crouched, looked around, put an arm for hip — to search for a sword, probably — and finally looking to him. Judging by her weird armour, a metalbender maybe. “Who are you?” She asked him and Cheh shrugged. He would think asking where they were would be a better question to who he was. After all, it didn’t really matter who he was, did it? He was a farmer kid. “Cheh,” he said. “And you?”

“Intensity,” Price said and his eyebrows raised slightly, interest piquing. Intensity was fascinating, Price had always found its description vague. What did it mean exactly to control how much one force affected another? They didn’t have many Intensity Instincts in the base, and if Sagitta was Cahayan, Price might have found it informative to use her for the deadlier testing procedures. But, she’d said she was from Ta’e’ilo. And now that she’d said it Price could hear it, in the accent. It made sense, she’d said she’d been captured by nomads. Must have taken her a god-cursed amount of time to travel from Ta’e’ilo to Tühine through nomad territory, though. That explained the mal-nourishment. “I see,” Price said, and looked at her physique. Strong, well-built. And there were only a handful of positions were being captured by nomads was a risk. “And a soldier, I presume?”

The sudden lack of friction caught the Voidbringer’s off guard and all but one of them collapsed on their backs (and a few o their stomachs) to the ground. Quickly moving from behind the shield’s cover Rob slapped the ground with his open palm and quickly slapped it again, the Voidbringer’s who’d fallen sinking and then getting stuck in the solid ground. The one that hadn’t jogged and joined the group enhanced by the plant thing, and before Rob could get back behind the shield an enhanced lightning bolt sheared a jagged path into his thigh. Pain blossomed in his leg, a burning sensation and Rob crawled behind the shield before two more bolts pierced the ground where he’d been, obviously taking advantage of his injury. He kept his face neutral and breathed in some stormlight, though the wound took a worryingly long amount of time to heal, and even then it ached somewhat. The more stormlight they used, the less the shield had. As to prove the point an enhanced lightning bolt hit the piece of the cloth and the shield shuddered violently with the impact. If they kept using the surges the shield would be as useless as it had began out — a simple piece of cloth. “There’s only those ones left,” he said to Shana, pointing to the plant-enhanced Voidbringers. Whatever they were, they used that plant the Radiants had taken care of by that encounter weeks ago. That was good, it meant they knew how to remove of the plant. However, they hadn’t ever practised it with several powered-up enemies nearby.

Cheh was dreaming of crops when he woke up. He sat up from where he’d been laying, quickly looking around the room. There were some other people here, a man and a woman. And they were here, in some room. A prison? But Cheh hadn’t done anything, he was innocent! Turning to face the others and keeping his back to the wall, Cheh looked for anything he could bend. Wherever he was, it was unwise to go without some defence.

Wes looked at the woman travelling back down the elevator shaft, but it had been hard for Wes to even get up, no way he was going back down that way. He saw Mike and Seom and the DA lady and he followed the lady down the stairs, running as he looked at the window and saw the Phoenix. The Soothing had gone but he was still scared, he was smart enough to know the Phoenix was coming after the PlasmaCore building and the shields wouldn’t be strong enough to keep it out. Running to the bottom floor Wes tapped his bendalloy mind, reducing some of the hunger he’d gotten from the nervousness. Comfort food, he supposed. Looking to the PlasmaCore ground entrance doors he ran over to them, gesturing for the others to follow. “We need to go,” he said, looking up. The Phoenix looked much more intimating from the ground. “Why do you need to destroy the building?” He said to Mike. “It looks like the Vortex was the cause of the problems.” Wes gulped, wished he knew what to do. He hated being young. —- Lusk hated being old. The Soothing had left him and Lusk saw Freedom jump down the elevator shaft. He did too, and made himself younger to his childhood days climbing up trees and whatnot to traverse the elevator cables. However, being so agile at his young age came at a price. He was now terrified of adults — all except for that nice lady who’d saved him from drowning — but beyond that one, any adult terrified young Lusk. Something to do with his father, probably, but when he reached the ground floor Lusk aged to normal, the fear mentality leaving him as quickly as his baby face. Lusk walked over to the GB squadron that was at the ground floor. He didn’t need to use is earpiece because they were right next to him, and his voice was enough to gather their attention without needing it to be amplified. “The Phoenix is coming to destroy this building,” he said. “Now, as much as I’d wish to leave it alone, once it destroys the building it’ll work on the rest of the city. Once we get out of this building, I want an immediate tactical planning of how to deal with it. Understood?” He messaged the words to the GBs who weren’t present and he thought about the guild alliance. They’d need to plan for this. The Phoenix was a rogue variable. Lusk hoped whoever had released it was paying the price. —- Max was paying the price. He hit the ground with a thud and he looked towards Althea, currently being held by that psycho woman. His anger at her calling Althea a freak might have leaked through his voice, but he didn’t dare turn it to open insults, not with Althea so close and poisoned. Another day, when the psycho was behind bars and Max got to visit. It’s the Phoenix you think it is, he said to Althea. But I can make it go away, the AlleyStorm is close. “Look at it,” he said and pointed to the Phoenix, a shining spot in the sky, far brighter than a star and if you looked closely you could see its bird shape. “It’s moving towards the building, and fast. Just give it a couple of moments.” He heard some thunder and he saw the AlleyStorm approach. There it was. It was coming, and when it did, everything would be over. He and Althea would be able to escape. He just had to make sure they survived to that point. —- No one was surviving to any point, especially not the Enemy. Alask’s body looked at Max with a blank. Using the link the Phoenix had forged into his mind he sent a signal. The Enemy was here, and he was ready to be killed, ready for the Phoenix to turn his body to ash and then his ash to more ash. @Voidus

Price nodded and gestured to follow him inside the base. Past the initial entrance gates there was a small break room where some soldiers would normally hang out to eat, usually bread or anything else they had in stock. Judging by the large occupied fields of grass within the base, the coldies were currently occupied with other things. Indeed, when he opened the door he was greeted with an empty room, the sturdy wooden blocks they used as tables empty and the simple, smaller stools they used for chairs unoccupied. “First question,” Price said, gesturing for her — Sagitta — to sit and walking to a barrel on one side of the room. He took out a large loaf of bread and tried to rip it in half, but he was too physically weak and so he channeled his Instinct subtly, turning his back to Sagitta and using his weakened Entropy, half of the loaf disappearing in a surge of black flame. Turning around he threw the half-loaf to Sagitta. “Where are you from and what is your Instinct, if you have one?”

Rob looked back to Shana and quickly shook his head. “You’re injured,” he said simply. A bolt of red lightning cracked through the air and was blocked by the shield, the cloth taking up more stormlight to endure the blow. Rob took a peek from the side of the shield and quickly hid behind it again as another lightning bolt flashed where his head had been and made a smooth, sinuous cut within the asphalt of the road. “Can you make the ground frictionless for them?” He asked. Dustbringer. Shana was a dustbringer. That means she had the Abrasion surge, right? “If you can trip them over I can liquify the ground, stick them there.”

I think it was stated that changes would be undone to their original state, with the additional perk of being able to add things from the changed world (if you want). So, the GBs would be able to regain their power when the changes are undone, but any cool things that happened during the change (such as maybe the GBs began a petting zoo ) would be able to be added (so in the very end you’d have the original power of the guild in addition to the petting zoo). It seems more of a temporary depower to explore more options that will eventually be reversed than a permanent one.

Price frowned. Captured by the nomads? “You are in Renaji, the great capital city of Tühine.” He looked over the woman. The Research And Development at this base, he ranked somewhat high. If he wanted to he could bring her in, give her food and water and no one would question it. “I’d be willing to trade,” he said, turning to look back at the base. “Food and water in exchange for answers.”

“They must be sacrificed,” Alask’s possessed body told Tels in a flat tone. “The Enemy and their wife. The Phoenix will enjoy killing them.” He walked ahead, gesturing for Lena to follow, and he continued to carry Max all the way to the sewer exits. The AlleyStorm rumbled, close by and Alask threw Max down on the stone floor. —- A while had passed and Max could barely see what was going on. A moment passed, and Max oud feel more air hitting his face. Thea? He said. I think we’re on the surface. I think he wants the Phoenix to eat us.

Pryclin “Price” Evada had just received a ledger from the senior chief Tühine military researcher, asking about results about the new Instinct testing. It was a new venture the Tühine military had branched off to in researching, and Price had been placed in charge of the division, including access to all Instinct faculties. Soon, he thought. Soon he’d be the head senior researcher for the whole Tühine military. Every researcher would report to him. Maybe then, he’d prove himself to his nation. He was walking a steady stride out of the base, moving towards where some of the carriages were kept. However, a figure some distance away caught his eye and he turned to see them. It was a woman, walking towards the base. She looked like she’d just been mauled by a bear, or at least had spent a good couple nights in a forest, with all the dirt that came off her. Price narrowed his eyes and he walked towards the woman. Underneath all of that he couldn’t tell the nationality of the woman, but he still walked, adjusting his spectacles. “Woman,” he said, standing in front of her but out of striking range, should she happen to be an assassin. “What brings you to this national base of ours?”

Storms, there were more. “You prepared,” Cup whispered in his ear. “Remember? You prepared.” She was right. Rob reached into his pocket as the Voidbringers began closing in, and he took out a small piece of heavily folded up cloth. He quickly, frantically unfolded it, channeling his surge of tension along its surface, making it hard as a shield and snapping it to its full size. It was a piece of very large bedsheet, but it was very thin, which was why when it was folded it could fit in Rob’s pocket. However, thickness didn’t matter when the surge of Tension was channeled through it, and suddenly the large cloth expanded into a super large and very lightweight shield. Breathing in deeply Rob linked his stormlight pouch to the shield. As long as he applied stormlight to the shield it would remain strong. Running with the lightweight shield he moved to Ben and Shana and gave them the shield. “Keep this for defence,” he said, and hid behind it, using it for cover from the ensuing Void lightning bolts.

Alask shuddered and he felt his mind invaded by a thought, a thought that wormed its way into his mind and began controlling his body. He, or rather his body, stepped forward and images of the Enemy began to flash through his mind. Images of a man, images of a building, all invading his vision, as his body took another step forward. Shez, he asked. I’m not in control, what’s going on? “I’m not in control either,” Shez said with a growl that pulsed in Alask’s spikes. “It’s the other one, the monster. It’s strong.” Too strong for Shez to break control of, he implied. Alask mentally sighed and looked ahead as his body saw Max, lying against the cobblestone walls of the sewers, and recognised him. The Enemy. “The enemy,” his body said, in a flat tone. Stepping forward he grabbed Max by the shoulders and hauled him up. He was heavy, but he offered no resistance and Max was too injured to do anything. Alask’s body, using the connection the Phoenix had forged, sent a mental message. Enemy found. “You will be sacrificed to the Phoenix,” he said. He knew the way out of these sewers, and he would haul them up, take them to the surface where the Phoenix would execute them. Picking up Max he began to trudge to the exits. “Althea!” Max called, stretching his arm out. Alask’s body looked to the woman, the wife of the Enemy. “Yes, she will have to be sacrificed too.” And with that he turned to Lena. “Will you help me take these to the Phoenix?” @Sorana