Golden Gate Empire: Dreams of Grandeur [IC | PG-16]

Tesability Black · June 11, 2017

~Rawal's POV~

It might be fortunate enough that no one had figured out his language except maybe whomever wrote that odd letter to him before he first left his world, because under his breath, the Shaper was swearing up one colorful storm.

Swearing about the events that led him to this backwards world.
Swearing about the various trials so far his aged body was forced to endure up to this point.
Swearing about the fact that his favored armoring was ripped beyond probable repair.
Swearing about how, even on this planet, there were beings like the one that ended the way of life he knew back home.

This last reason had him growling, feeling a sudden cooling feeling trying to sweep over him.

Hard to maintain an authorative aura when you're swearing about anything and everything, Lord Ra---

Silence,Talis-Eye. I'm not in the mood for the sass.

On the way back to the Golden Gate, Rawal had sat in the helicopter stewing while Talis-Eye flew behind them, retaining the illusion of invisibility around themselves. It was more out of nessessity than anythign else, there was no way they would fit in the helicoptor, anyway. Once they were finally back, Rawal wanted to return to his place of staying for the time being so he could see if he could remake the other creations he knew how to Shape to figure out stable variations that could deal with being on this world.

But, looking down at the massive rip down the front of his padded robes, he sighed before motioning for Talis-Eye to follow him towards where he hoped to be where they dealt with armor and similar.

~Talis-Eye's POV~

Step One, complete, Talis-Eye thought solely to themselves as they followed the elder. Now, on to Step Two...

Maeriberii Haan · June 12, 2017

"You don't even physically have balls-

Hey!"

Just as Angelica relished on the feeling of victory against the Administrator and trying to figure out how the hell did he figure out a lot about herself, Jack had launched her attack towards her - eager to continue their interrupted battle after the distraction was done and over with. Without room to dodge, Angelica used her tassels to help her left hand to turn into a protective surface to block the arrows from hitting herself. Of course, the nanites on the arrows would soon spread to that surface, and Angelica had to detach that arm from herself too, leaving her without any arms for the time being. Her Ohr was picked up by her tassels instead, serving as a remote drone of sort. Jack soon followed by slashes from her electric whip, and this time Angelica managed to stop herself from getting fried by it, avoiding direct hits by grazing the strikes.

"Ouch. Ouch. Ouch." The android said in a very mechanical and flat tone, before repeating it in louder and louder volume with the same deadpan tone. "That's what you want to hear from me, right? Now with that has been said...why don't you do the same? I bet you can scream better than I could ever hope to.

Now go, scream until you moan! Scream until the moment you draw your last breath!"

As she said it, she started to pepper Jack with beam shots from many different directions, primarily as a potentially lethal distraction while Angelica set up remote weapons to attack Jack with using her tassels and gathering more materials to reconstruct her arm.

"Just pick your choice on how should I utterly humiliate you!"

VCR_CAT · June 13, 2017

Jack

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZ-ikQ5VaQ

"Ouch. Ouch. Ouch." Angelica replied in as monotonous as a tone as you would expect from an android. Jack saw the arm fall away again, but felt no satisfaction knowing that there was no pain involved. "That's what you want to hear from me, right? Now with that has been said...why don't you do the same? I bet you can scream better than I could ever hope to. Now go, scream until you moan! Scream until the moment you draw your last breath!"

Angelica began to fire beams at Jack from a variety of angles, most of which were missing, but several of which Jack had to dodge by keeping herself moving. This wasn't meant to kill outright, this was to keep her busy. Jack retracted her tethers, and there was a loud bang. In an instant, the portion of the silo that Jack occupied and a good sized area around her was covered in a thick, red-tinged smoke with electricity sparking inside of it. The lasers continued to fire, but Angelica would find herself unable to detect anything inside of the smoke. From inside, Jack took her bow and fired three more arrows in the direction she last remembered Angelica to be in, but in the process one of the beams clipped her left arm.

WARNING. LEFT ARM SYSTEMS COMPROMISED. LEFT ARM TETHER SYSTEM INOPERABLE.

Jack's armor took most of the hit, as her leg had before, but this left her with even more limited options than what she had before. She had to end this quick. Putting her bow away, Jack fired off tethers from her right arm. These tethers would land at Angelica's feet, and would soon follow up with Jack speeding out of the red smoke and using force from her winch to propel her into a flying kick aimed right at Angelica.

"God, you're even more stupid than that alien!" Jack taunted, prepared to stick her landing in case she missed and going right into a melee brawl. "But I guess that's to be expected after your sheet performance earlier!"

Maeriberii Haan · June 14, 2017

"But I guess that's to be expected after your sheet performance earlier!"

"What, still mad after I steal your kill? Oh wait, that wasn't ever meant to be yours in the first place. Try harder next time."

Angelica was just finished in removing an arrow that managed to hit her abdomen when Jack tethered herself to the android's body. With a significantly big gaping hole on her stomach that revealed a bit of the outer layer of Paraiso, Angelica didn't let her insults slow down, and prepared herself for Jack's attacks. Jack went for a hard kick towards Angelica, and the android decided to not dodge it. Instead, she simply increase the gaping hole on her abdomen from removing the arrow and the infected part earlier, and let the kick went through before her nanomachine-composed body attempted it best to reconstruct said abdomen, trapping Jack's leg on her which would allow her nanites to start attempting its own takeover on Jack. The kick was still powerful enough to send both of them flying, but Angelica anchored herself as soon as she could, and as Jack was still trapped, she activated her remote weapons - three harpoons made by her tassels that were spread out earlier, each would fire projectiles composed on her nanomachines that had eaten some of the available mess here to grow itself. Those projectiles would roughly has the same effect as Jack's own arrows, although Angeica was still unsure about Jack's self defense system just yet to know how effective it would be.

If that failed, she still had Ohr and the two tassels finding materials to rebuild her arm...

Dad · June 14, 2017

The Network

. . .

Life. A hint of it glimmered inside of his brain. Just enough to make him blink. His helmet's optics crackled, fading in and out, giving him only slight glimpses of the battle being waged between Angelica and Jack. One of them would be defeated soon, meaning his ship, his technology, and his past were vulnerable. He couldn't allow these things--any of these things--to fall into the wrong hands. He had very little strength, and even less time to act. With Angelica and Jack engaged in battle, he was sure there were no eyes on him, and so, he tried to move.

The Pyrus Staff. He'd forgotten, it was still lodged in his abdomen. That would be difficult to work with. He would have to get off of the Pyrus Staff. Removing it was nearly impossible because it was anchored into the ground, out of his back. Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself upwards, blue blood and pink insides sliding along the Pyrus Staff, unwillingly being dragged along with him. Success. He had climbed off of the Pyrus Staff, but now he had fallen to the ground, barely holding what was left of him, together. With one hand, he held his intestines in place. How ironic it was to have the anatomy of a human, and yet be such a different creature. He dragged his feet, barely able to muscle his way to stand. With blood, pain, and regret, he slogged over to the Archburgh missile, where he fell once again.

They knew he was here. They wanted his work. It was why they kept sending subject after subject to try and find a way inside. A way to him. He had grown weary over a millennium, changing the Network's layout just to keep himself concealed. And along came two more. They were much stronger than the previous persons. And this Angelica. She was more human than her last dozen models. It was funny to see it again. With a sinister smile, and a loose grip, the Administrator placed his hand on the rear of the Archburgh missile, and an electronic panel appeared, rising from inside the missile's shell.

Two tendrils slid out of his shoulders, and locked themselves into the center of this panel, as the Administrator placed his hand at its center. A series of unintelligible letters appeared, before a succession of three beeps. Withdrawing the tendrils, the electronic panel disappeared, and the Admin removed his hand. The panel was replaced with a command console, which required only his hand to active. And so, in his final attempts to conceal the secrets of his world, he removed his glove. His insides fell to the cold metal floor beneath him, as he braced himself against the Archburgh missile. His talons long and untrimmed, it felt strange to remove his glove for the first time in so long. He placed a hand in the designated area on the command console, as he felt life slipping out of him.

Bloodied and defeated, he fell to his knees, as the command console disappeared inside of the Archburgh missile. He collapsed, rolling onto his back with a laugh.

"Flee . . . you fools." The Administrator's final words. Beside him, the Archburgh missile roared, it's warhead now fully armed. In a matter of minutes, it would launch, and collide with the sealing doors above. Above Angelica and Jack, there was barely enough space for a single person at a time to slip through the cracks of the sealing doors. But that was several hundred feet in which they would have to climb. They had to settle their fight now, so that they could both make it out alive.

Anything beneath the sealing doors when the Archburgh missile collided with it, would cease to exist. And the remaining Archburgh missiles were likely to detonate as a result of the heat and pressure that would surely follow the initial explosion.

It wasn't all bad. At least they were in the middle of New Mexico, in the desert. The chances of innocents being hurt was zero, thanks to Angelica. But now, the chances of Jack and Angelica dying, exceeded sixty percent.

Mr. Hyde · June 17, 2017

"Hey there," Out of the corner of his eye, he could see it again. He almost vomited into his drink. "You won't believe what happened! Your big win inspired the guys that made me with these pills they're going to mail me, and if they work, I won't need to keep covering myself in this sludge! I can wear normal clothes if they work, and touch living things without getting them sick! This is a huge step forward for the experiment I was made for! So I guess...thanks for almost killing me."

"Gross..." He said, with a hint of malice. "You're an eyesore...leave me alone, before I decide to finish the job." He took another drink of alcohol, not even looking directly at the creature.

"Brutal..." Basabt rang in his head. "She's just trying to be nice."

"I don't have time to be nice." Louis said, both in his mind, and out loud. With that, another figure entered the scene...the host of the very tournament he was in, Sergei. Louis didn't pay much attention to the man, rather he would treat him with the same respect he did the bartender. After all, he was making Sergei all the money here...he was putting his life on the line for this man...but that wasn't even the half of why Louis was even here in the first place.

"Your battle was quite something," he said with a smile. "Did you enjoy yourselves?"

"No." Louis leaned back in his stool. "As a matter of fact, I didn't. I held back...a lot. If I had run rampant, maybe I would have had a bit more fun. As it were...this thing was an extremely pathetic opponent, not worth my time." He corrected his posture and took another swig of bloody Mary. "Maybe I'll have fun next round...but I doubt it." And as soon as he came behind the bar counter, he had left to greet another bar customer.

"Uh...Louis..." Basabth echoed in his ear, "What's that thing doing here." Louis turned his back, avoiding Mango's gaze, to see that stretch zombie from their fight on Hotel property. Louis spat up some of his drink, before raising a glob of his shadow off of the ground, getting into a defensive stance.

"What's Dhalsim doing here?!" He shouted, almost knocking over his bar stool. The creature eyed him with a purpose, not bent on attacking like back at the pagoda. What was this place doing, recruiting creatures from places untouched by mortals...it was strange...and Louis made sure to make a mental note of the possible army that Sergei was trying to raise here.

VCR_CAT · June 17, 2017

Jack

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZ-ikQ5VaQ

"What, still mad after I steal your kill? Oh wait, that wasn't ever meant to be yours in the first place. Try harder next time." Angelica taunted. Jack's kick flew straight through Angelica's body, which closed in around her leg and trapped her in position. A warning on Jack's hud notified her of foreign intrusions attempting to take over her system; like the alien's technology, but not nearly as dangerous or effective. While Angelica's nanites spread, their spread was very slow thanks to Jack's own defensive systems. However, her leg wasn't her only concern. There were three sharp stabs into Jack's back, and three more notifications of foreign invaders.

Jack only laughed, discreetly generating arrows through her quiver and grabbing them with her right hand. The first she inserted into her own back, the same feed-back ringing in her head and system showing up again same as before, she thin grabbed the remaining three in her quiver and gripped them tightly as both her suit's defenses and her nanites fought of Angelica's invasion.

"You really think it's that easy?" Jack jammed her arrows into the center of Angelica's chest, her own nanites beginning to spread into Angelica's system at the same time. "I've got too many people to hurt to just let some glorified science-fare project stop me." Jack gripped Angelica's body with both hands, slowly forcing her leg out and damaging the hole further as she did so. Jack got her mask closer to Angelica's face, who could almost see Jack's eyes glaring through the thin visor.

Jack twisted the arrows, driving them into the scientist's chest slowly. Blood soaked into his shirt and dripped to the floor. The arrows had pierced through the sternum, and now she inched them closer and closer to the man's heart as he screamed for mercy. Jack's mouth twisted into a contorted smile, wide and toothy. "Now do me a favor," She snarled, her voice more animal than human. "and die."

Then there was a glint of light out the corner of her eyes, sunlight glinting down through the open silo doors and into the interior walls of the silo. The missile began to roar. Jack blinked and looked around the silo's interior, the walls, the roof, the missile, then the administrator.

"Flee . . . you fools," The alien sputtered out, before falling limp once more.

Jack ripped her leg out of Angelica, and almost the moment she did so several more beams were fired from Angelica's weapon directly at Jack. Jack only had a moment to leap as far from Angelica as fast as she could, the beams peppering the ground in her wake as she did so. If Jack's nanites remained in Angelica, all she would be doing with them is keeping the android motionless; mess with her ability to get herself out and keep her occupied.

"Sounds like this is my queue to leave. But please, stay as long as you like. I'm sure the alien won't mind," Jack taunted, firing out her remaining three tethers as high up the wall as she could, and zipping upwards. She only had the tethers on her right arm active and won't be able to ascend as fast as normal; she'd need to move upwards, let herself drop a small distance, and move upwards again. But, it looked like she could make it, and if she could, she won.

Dad · June 17, 2017

The Network

Alarms blared throughout the underground structure. The silo blast-doors had their security protocols lifted, as a missile launch was detected. The previous barriers which had blocked Jack and Angelica's way back through the Network, were now gone. The Network was ripe for the taking. If there was any feasible way to gather otherworldly technology in under five minutes, Jack or Angelica could come away with quite a few valuable upgrades. And of course, there was still quite a large stash of weaponry hidden away by the Administrator, somewhere in the control room. Travel time from the missile bay to the Administrator's Control Room was roughly one minute, and forty-five seconds at maximum speed. Getting back to the missile bay, and scaling the room to escape directly to the surface would take a minimum of two minutes and fifteen seconds. This left either Jack or Angelica an approximate window of one minute to snatch and grab their loot, without succumbing to a fiery death.

There was one slight problem, however. They would need the Administrator to unlock his weapon cache. The DNA scanner hidden in the back wall inside the Control Room, would activate only at his touch.

If the loot was that important to Angelica or Jack, it was possible to obtain it. But it put their lives at much greater risk. Now was the time to see if the contestants were as greedy as they were desperate to win the prize.

Stillwater, Oklahoma

"Tyson!" Jackson barked, his hands throttling the neck of a Wayward Spirit.

"Comin'!" Tyson slid past a dusty table, and arrived at Jackson's side. Placing his right palm on the spirit's head, his eyes turned solid white. "Do your thing, Mephisto."

"Right then," said the monster in Tyson's head. "Be cleansed, dark one! Return to your hellfire hobble, and leave this world!" it commanded of the Wayward Spirit. A shrill shriek filled the rickety cabin, as the spirit cried out in utter agony. It's soul was cleansed forcefully by Mephisto's dark power, forcing the demonic spirit back into the underworld. The possessed body of Officer Kendrick Draymund collapsed to the floor, unconscious, as Jackson let go of his throat.

Jackson let out a sigh, wiping his forehead of sweat. "Gettin' too God damn old for this."

Tyson let out a chuckle. "Not on your life, old man. We better get him to the hospital," Tyson said, nodding at Officer Draymund.

"Right. I'll bring the car around. You can carry 'im," Jackson said, making his way to the door.

"Leave me with the hard stuff, huh?"

"Last I checked, I was the one what wrangled that damn Spirit."

"Yeah, but I sent him back," Tyson called out to Jackson, who was already outside.

"Well. Technically, I sent him back, but you're right Ripper," Mephisto chimed in.

Tyson heaved Officer Draymund's body off of the floor, grunting. "I told you. . .not to call me that anymore."

"It's only a title, Tyson. Why this sudden change?"

"Because," Tyson began, opening the door to the old wooden shack. "It ain't a title I'm prou--OOF!"

From the west, Tyson and Jackson were both suddenly swept off their feet. A great, unknown wave of force caused them to topple over. It was like a sonic boom, shattering the age old windows on the shack beside them, and sending glass, dirt, and dust flying into the air. And they could both feel it. Behind this wave of force was something--or someone--most sinister. This was an evil that even Mephisto did not like. The dark lord could taste the impurity on his ethereal tongue. Unlike Tyson or Jackson, Mephisto could actually sense where it was coming from.

"What the hell was that?" Tyson asked, rubbing his head as he sat up in the dirt.

Jackson rolled over, snatching up his hat and getting to his feet. "I dunno kid. But it was nasty. Some kind of bomb or something maybe? Did we miss somethin'?"

"No," Mephisto said. "It came from the west. And whatever sent it this way was something powerful. Strong as any dark lord I've encountered. Stronger than some of your most dangerous enemies."

Jackson looked to Tyson, who's body was suddenly encased in hellfire. Something that had not occurred in a number of years. "I thought you had extinguished those flames."

Tyson balled his fists, and tensed his body, forcing the fire to subside. "I did. But whatever that was brought out the old me. And I don't like it."

"You have to get back to the West Coast. Get the human to a hospital, and go," Mephisto said, urgently. "Go! Go now!"

Tyson picked up Officer Draymund, as Jackson whistled for King. The Chevy Impala roared around the corner, covered in dirt and dust. Tyson laid Officer Draymund on the back seat, and hopped into the passenger's side. Jackson buckled his seat belt, and slammed down his foot on the gas pedal. What the hell was going on?

Yui · June 17, 2017

"Your battle was quite something. Did you enjoy yourselves?" Sergei Nikolaev. Major benefactor of Lab XRT, owner of the Golden Gate Hotel, and quite the wealthy figure. This was Mango's first...no, second time meeting him in person. However, she wasn't so keen on answering his question. To be totally honest, she didn't really enjoy herself at all. She was so occupied keeping Louis's attacks and Creepy Guy #1 at bay that she didn't really have the time to let her own strengths shine. Her speed, close-quarters prowess, and acid spit; tools that would have been great in the fight if she'd been able to actually get some sort of footing.

"No. As a matter of fact, I didn't. I held back...a lot. If I had run rampant, maybe I would have had a bit more fun. As it were...this thing was an extremely pathetic opponent, not worth my time."

"Maybe next time," Mango said encouragingly. "If we have a rematch, it might go better. For both of us."

"Oh, Mango. Your package from Dr. Stewart was delivered. There was one slight complication, however. Granted, we do not have reason to suspect you of any wrong doing. However, the package must be inspected for any illegal substances. If you go and see Rachel on the bottom third floor in the North Tower on tomorrow, she can return that package to you."

"Understood! Thank you sir!" The pills. Mango was getting all tingly just thinking about if they worked. Things would be so much better. She could take a nice long - and actual - shower. See her scales in better detail. Wash her hair out and learn what color it was. It was a pretty big deal to her.

A guest was then there at the bar. Mango didn't really turn to look, but froze when she heard the voice. She'd heard that voice just earlier.

"Yin. Yang. They are not at ends, at this time. Why is this?"

"What's Dhalsim doing here?!"

"Did he stalk us here!?" Mango followed. However, just as quick as Creepy Guy #1 had come, he was gone, being shown to his own room by Bradley. Why bring him here though? What was Sergei up to? Mango got her answer before long, as it so happened.

"The Jiangshi are an ancient race. They could open new doors for advancement in medicine, and better understanding of magic. They could bridge the world between man and the gifted, like yourselves. It really is quite something."

"Bridging the gap, huh? I like it! That guy still creeps me out though..."

LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow · June 19, 2017

Lace only realized that she hadn’t been speaking the entire time when Bethany pierced the thick silence with her question. “What am I fighting for…” Her voice repeated in a delicate whisper as she returned her long sword to its scabbard and allowed herself to fall from the roof. The drop that would have left any normal human with broken legs wasn’t even something that was taken into consideration by XIII, who barely seemed have to try when she stuck the landing.

“As I’m sure you can tell, I’m not like you.” Lace finally responded to Bethany as she studied the wound in her left palm. Though it hurt, she found herself more interested by the blood that surrounded the wound, rather than the pain. It would be unsanitary to leave it like that…

“”Lace,”” She continued whilst ripping her sleeve off to reveal more of a pale white skin. “The real Lace died quite some time ago…” Her tone seemed to grow distant. Quickly wrapping the fabric around her wound and tightening it, Lace returned her lavender gaze to Bethany. “I’m just what’s left. A second rate science project that they crammed her soul into.” She couldn’t help be feel a tinge of resentment towards her own words, and it almost seemed that she was more so reminding herself instead of enlightening Bethany.

“Actually, no.” She scoffed bitterly. “I’m just a copy the copy!” Lace felt her lips curl into a pained smirk as she grabbed the hilt of Beowulf and marveled in how pathetic her origin truly was. “My memories, this face, even my soul… they aren’t mine. None of them. They’re just echos… I wasn’t born with any part of myself, only fragments of what the real Lace was.”

“You called me a superhero early, right?” Her tone hardened as an image of XII burned it’s way into the back of her mind. “She would have liked that… I-I think I like the idea of it too.” An odd sensation tickled her spine as her memories stirred. “Unfortunately, there is another Lace out there that’s only interested in death. Someone with my capabilities and training, without restraint…” Lace tightened her grip on her blade. “I guess you’d call her a supervillain.”

Well Bethany certainly didn’t expect that one. Seems she fell right into a sci-fi thriller after all. She watched the girl approach, prepared for if she’d strike out...But Lace seemed intent on talking only for now. So Bethany listened.

Her frown grew as she took in the apparent science experiment’s words. That was a sad story, honestly, and Bethany could feel for the girl’s obvious pain…

But it wasn’t what she needed to hear. Bethany let out a deep, sincerely upset, sigh. “That’s it then? That’s the reason you’re here?...Sorry, Lace, I can’t let you win with that. There’s a lot of kids riding on me; I’ve got to give it my all.”

Bethany cracked her knuckles and her eyes took on a white-gleam. The hailstorm picked up as she pushed off towards Lace, going in for a swift jab to the girl’s chest. It was a test, a simple move, she’d try and follow it up as soon as she could.
It was time to go all out.

“No...” Lace responded as her eyes narrowed at the approaching storm. Was that it? Let her win?! Bethany’s world bubbled in her core, warming her despite the ice hail. “Finding XII is only the beginning!” Watching Bethany close the gap and let loose a quick jab towards her chest, Lace grit her teeth and tightened her muscles as she stepped into the attack, intent on using her superior physical prowess to her full advantage. She had been retraining herself for so long, and now this other girl had the nerve to underestimate her…

With Bethany at this range and having just struck her, the lowered visibility was a mute point. Ignoring the shards of ice that flew around and nipped at her skin and clothes, Lace swung her arm up towards the center of Bethany’s body in a full powered uppercut whilst yanking Beowulf free from the ground. “I can’t let you stop me,”

Bethany tried to brace for impact but...well, that wasn’t the smartest choice. This girl could hit HARD. The blow struck Bethany right in the solar plexus and she felt a combination of rather unfortunate things all at once. Her vision erupted into starbursts, her breathing slowed for a few seconds, and there was this unpleasant white-noise that was the only thing she could hear.

She couldn’t let this get her though. Not after all that she’s done. The girl grabbed Lace’s wrist with one of her hands. “It’s...not...a matter of...letting.” She gasped out. She then went to punch Lace in the face with her free hand.

In the meantime an ice spear formed several feet behind Lace.

As Bethany’s fist collided with her jaw, Lace couldn't help be marvel at just how hard this girl’s gloves were. In the instant that her head was twisted to the side by the blow, Lace’s first instinct was to retaliate by snapping back like a rubber band, using her strength to violently pivot her body in an attempt to pull Bethany off her footing whilst using Helter-Skelter.

Unaware of the icicle that had been original primed behind her, the world became a familiar blur of speed as Lace attempted to take Bethany on a high speed ride out of her storm to the far right wall of the room. Slamming the ice mage into the stone if her opponent had held on.

Bethany had never wished she was a masochist before.
That hurt. Again. Her back this time. At least her spine wasn’t broken but she wasn’t sure her body could keep up with so much abuse for much longer...Not that she had much of a choice at this point.

“Nice one, superhero.” Bethany said through gritted teeth. Her back was to the wall, yes, but something else was to Lace’s back.

Bethany brought the ice spear from before forward, though it wasn’t quite directly behind Lace anymore, towards the girl. It being in a slightly different position might actually work out for Bethany, given that she was now not in the path of a pointy object.

That wasn’t all. Bethany formed another icicle above Lace. Not to hit her with it, but in the hopes that it would catch Lace’s attention long enough for the other spear to hit its mark.
*******
Lace didn’t even flinch as she noticed the attack coming in from above her. “Do you really think I wouldn’t notice?”

Bethany said nothing in; an attempt not to take Lace’s focus off of the decoy spear.

Lace then spun around at startling speed, slashing her blade in the air and cutting the spear that was approaching from behind in twain.

In a hurry Bethany shot the other spear downward but that, too, was futile. Lace simply brought her sword up and let the ice crash against the blade.

Bethany rushed forward and rammed her shoulder into Lace’s back, knocking the girl down in the process.

However Lace was too agile to let that be an issue. She rolled as she landed and popped back up just in time to turn to the side and avoid another ice spear launched by Bethany.

“Okay this is just getting ridiculous.” Bethany muttered. Was this woman untouchable?
Wait.
Bethany let out a sigh. Lace kept dodging her magic. But Bethany had managed to land a few punches. “Guess it’s the good old fisticuffs then.”

Lace watched Bethany warily. Why was she saying all her plans out loud? Was she attempting to distract her again? Lace decided she’d be careful. Who knows what her opponent had up her sle-

Lace quickly dodged to the side as Bethany went for a punch. She didn’t quite get out of the way of the second, though, a clean hit to the jaw.
Lace blinked, surprised that she had let herself get hit. Is she over thinking it? Or is this too part of the plan. Lace had to decide quick.

Bethany kept going, taking swings at the other girl with a recklessness that bordered on suicidal. “Yeah great plan Bethany. Punch the sword wielding superhero. For your next trick gonna dump bacon grease on your head and stick it in a lion’s mouth?”

Surprisingly the assault seemed to be working. She had landed several hits on Lace and the girl was being pushed back towards the far wall.

“Enough.” Lace muttered. Bethany swung...and suddenly the other girl was not there. She had moved faster than Bethany could see and was now up in the air.

Bethany reacted as fast as she could and saw Lace’s large sword coming down upon her. Raising her gloved hands, Bethany caught the blade.

Lace’s eyes widened a fraction before resetting to default as she pushed down on Bethany.

The ice girl’s small victory was short lived as she felt her muscles screaming at her in pain. Just holding the blade in place was taking up all of Bethany’s strength and even at that she could feel the blade inching closer to her head.

What...could she do? Her punches did practically nothing. Her ice was too easy to dodge....she had to do more.

Bethany gritted her teeth, holding tight to the blade as Lace seemed intent on finishing this power struggle. And why not? She was easily the stronger of the two and even had the height advantage.

But Bethany wouldn’t just roll over and take it. An ice spear formed above the two of them.
She didn’t send it at the other girl.
She needed more.

Her feet began slipping and she struggled to keep upright. Lace was winning out. Her muscles were on fire. She didn’t have enough gas left to keep this going.
Another spear formed next to the first.
Not good enough.

Energy seemed to be radiating off of Lace as she pushed her body to its limits and Bethany was forced to a knee. She very nearly lost her grip, and her head, in that moment.
Trying to ignore the throbbing in her knee she let out a shout.

Her body became numb, the burning from before stopping abruptly, as three more spears formed rapidly in the air.

Bethany pushed upwards with what strength she had left. It wasn’t enough to beat out Lace but it did force Lace to redouble her efforts. And in that moment Bethany let loose her spears.

Dropping the larger of her two blades Lace pulled the shorter blade out in its stead. As she did she sent a shockwave of energy which cut through three of the spears. She then blocked another with said blade.

The fifth, though, struck her in the shoulder.

Bethany noticed that Lace barely seemed to react to this. Her body must be made of even sturdier stuff than Bethany had first thought.

Which just made what she had to do next much simpler.

Bethany tried to approach Lace again, going in for a punch, but Lace seemed even faster now. She dodged the attack and thrust her blade at Bethany’s body.

Bethany attempted to dodge and was partially successful. Instead of getting the blade through her chest it instead cut a gash across her side, over the ribs.

Hissing out in pain, Bethany hauled out and punched Lace once more across the face. Giving it as much force as she could muster. And the superhero flinched. Ever so slightly. But it was enough.

Bethany went in and swung several more times. But Lace dodged each one, backing away slowly from the girl as the experiment eyed Bethany for an opening. She was going to end this in one more...

Lace swung horizontally at Bethany, prepared to cut through the girl’s neck. She had enough holding back, if Bethany was going to fight to her fullest than Lace didn’t feel the need to avoid killing.

Bethany watched as the blade got closer. Had she screwed up? Was Lace that much faster than her? She watched, eyes widening, as her end approached...

Bethany ducked down hitting her knee hard against the floor in order to just barely avoid being decapitated. She sprung up immediately and delivered an upper-cut into Lace’s jaw, snapping the girl’s head back.

She didn’t stop it at that, though, and proceeded to raise her leg and kick Lace in the chest.

As Lace was knocked backwards she realized her mistake. Bethany hadn’t just been flailing at random. She was backing Lace up to a specific location.
A memory flashed in Lace’s mind. Of when the fight started. The unusual way that Bethany had avoided her attack...

She couldn’t react as the ice spear earlier thrust into the wall impaled her abdomen.

Bethany moved towards the girl, oddly hesitant, and spoke. “Please...just surrender.” She pleaded.

To no avail evidently as Lace put a hand on the wall and began to push herself off of the spear.

Bethany sighed and released another attack. Her freezing wind caught Lace full blast as she slowly moved along the ice stuck through her body. The wind began to slow her, making it harder to push off, and in turn causing her to be stuck in the icy wind longer.

It was mere moments before she realized that her joints were freezing up. She was finding it impossible to move more than slightly. And even that brief movement was fading.

She stopped. There was a bitter taste in her mouth. But also an odd feeling of excitement. “I know when I can’t go on.” She said. “I surrender.”

Bethany sighed in relief. Truth be told she wasn't sure she could keep it up for long. Had Lace kept fighting, who knows, maybe Bethany would have collapsed from exhaustion alone. Now, though... "So, guess uh...it's over? We can get out of creepsville?"

"Most likely." She had lost...it was over for her. What a way to end it...

"Hey. Lace? No, you said you weren't the actual Lace, right? We should get you a name of your own sometime." Bethany smiled at her opponent. "Anyway, superhero, after all this tournament is done with...How about I help you find this supervillain of yours?"

VCR_CAT · June 19, 2017

Jack

Jack was ready to latch onto the silo's wall when the alarms began to blare, and the blast doors around the silo began to open. Jack paused, and remembered the control room, the remains of Hack and Slash still in there, and perhaps any other goods that may still await her. Her suit took a beating, and she deserved some sort of compensation from this fight. Jack looked up at the silo doors, which were closing at an ant's pace, and down at Angelica, who was still trying to get back up. She could do this.

BGM: https://makeupandvanityset.bandcamp.com/track/you-will-not-survive

Jack released her tether and shot at a different part of the wall, swinging around, her cape billowing behind her. She found the blast door that she had entered from, and releasing the tethers, swung through its open door, tucked, rolled onto the floor, and landed on her feet, breaking into a sprint. The path to the control room was still fresh in her memory, and she knew exactly which corridors to turn down to get there as quickly as possible. Alarms were blaring everywhere, lights waving around and painting the metal corridors with flashes of yellow. The damage to the one leg of her suit made running feel off; her left leg lacked the strength assistance that the right was offered, but she was still able to move at a very quick pace and made it to the control room as fast as she could.

Jack burst into the control room, her boots clanging loudly against the floor. She glanced around the room quickly and found the broken remains of her two drones. She rushed off, and scooped up their frames, tying both to the belt of her suit. About to leave, Jack paused and saw one wall had opened that wasn't before. Behind it, a vault locked with an alien hand-print pad.

I still have time, Jack tried to assure herself, bounding over and generating several arrows as fast as she could. I still have time.

Jack practicallly slammed the arrows into the pad, too many for any normal security system, but Jack needed the job done fast. The density of so many nanites in a small place played hell on her sensors, and Jack could feel a pulsing headache begin to grow, fire spreading down her arms, her legs, every nerve and every ending.

"I don't understand why you're going through with this," a familiar voice spoke from behind Jack. Soft, yet clear over the blaring alarms.

"Because I need everything I can get," Jack growled. C'mon, work faster...

"Please, just stop, you're going to get yourself hurt."

"I'm already hurt."

"But we can help you," Jack's father said, his voice shaking. "Please Yu, just come home. We're sorry."

"Don't worry, I'm coming home," Jack muttered, the lock finally flashing green and the vault door opening. "And when I do, I'm going to kill you."

Jack didn't have much time to see what was inside the vault, but scooped up what she felt looked as interesting to her as possible; that she might use. Jack had an arm-full of technology at this point, and knew that she was already pushing her luck. Rounding another corner, Jack spotted the familiar blast doors to the missile silo. She fired her tethers at the door's frame, and used them to pull herself through and into the silo as fast as she could. Once inside, she looked up, not paying any attention to where Angelica might be. The doors were still open, but not for much longer.

Jack continued with her plan, firing her tether at the wall, pulling herself up, releasing, falling, then firing them up at the wall again. With her one arm full of alien technology and only one working tether, Jack struggled to make it up the silo as fast as she could. The missile's tube was gigantic, and moving upwards this quickly filled her with more anxiety than she had felt in a long time. The doors were getting closer, and Jack was running out of time. Eventually, Jack was close enough to fire her tethers at the inside of the silo door, and reel them in as fast as she could, pushing her suit to its limits.

She cleared through the opening, and found herself bathed in sunlight. Jack's HUD blared a warning, that the motor on her right tether system had burned out, but none of that mattered now. Jack dropped down, and landed on top of the silo door as it closed, stumbling a bit as she did so, and finally putting her pile of loot down at her feet. She did it, she made it out.

Dad · June 20, 2017

The Network

"Sir, I've spotted the Android! She's incapacitated!" said the co-pilot. "We cannot get the chopper through the sealing doors. I repeat, we cannot get the chopper through those doors!"

Geno squeezed the radio tightly in his hands, nearly crushing it. "Sergei gave you very specific instructions. You better save that damn Android. Your job is on the line!"

"But sir, the missile--!" replied the co-pilot.

"Save the Android, pilot. Find a way." Geno crushed the radio in his hands, frustrated that he wasn't allowed to tag along on the pick-up for Angelica and Jack. He'd wanted a closer look at the facility, but Sergei had forbid it. He made sure that Geno understood that his presence was "sorely needed" on hotel grounds. But Geno was a soldier. He wasn't meant to be cooked up inside a stuffy hotel babysitting civies. He needed to be in the middle of the action. It was a way of life that he craved.

Back on the front lines, the co-pilot unfastened his harness. "I'm gonna rope down!" he called over the helicopter's whirring blades. The pilot gave his co-pilot a thumb's up, locking the helicopter's winch securely in place. The co-pilot secured his helmet, and then pushed his way to the back of helicopter, where he tightened the end of the helicopter's winch to his waist. By remote, the pilot lowered his co-pilot down through the sealing doors at the surface of the Network. Slowly, the co-pilot was lowered several hundred feet into the ground. However, the winch had reached its limit, and could not be lowered all the way to the bottom of the missile bay. "T-EN4, can you hear me!?" the co-pilot called over the blares of the many alarms.

"T-EN--ugh. Angelica! Angelica, get up! That's your name, right!?"

Angelica stirred at last, her circuits still fighting back against Jack's viral assault. "Y-y-y-yes, I c-c-c-can," she said, her voice modulator struggling.

"Gimme your hand! We're returning to the hotel!" the co-pilot called out to Angelica again.

She rolled over, feeling her system being drained. With the last of her strength, Angelica climbed to her feet, and put her reserve power into her legs. With this reserve power, she leaped into the co-pilot's arms, where her energy faded to critical levels. Shutting down her core systems, Angelica went into an emergency repair state, where she would be unconscious for some time. The co-pilot tugged on the winch line, and the pilot responded in kind by remotely raising the line and the co-pilot, back up to the helicopter.

When they reached the surface, the co-pilot pulled himself and Angelica in, securing her to a seat.

"Have you seen the other one!?" asked the pilot.

The co-pilot shook his head. "No, not--wait! Right there, right there!"

There was movement near the sealing doors, and Jack could be seen tethering her way up out of the missile bay. The co-pilot signaled his pilot, and was lowered on the winch once more, to escort Jack. Picking her up and rising back into the helicopter, the co-pilot secured Jack in her own separate seat. Their battle had been finished, and Jack was about to return to the Golden Gate hotel, victorious.

"Bring us on home!" said the co-pilot to the pilot.

"Roger that!" the pilot replied.

As the helicopter pulled away, a bright flash of light behind them caused the co-pilot to examine his rear. Then, a deafening explosion rocked the helicopter, just enough to make the co-pilot turn around and grip the bars above his seat. He lurched forwards, as the pilot tried to regain control of the helicopter. It began to spin ever so slightly, as fire and smoke filled the air behind them. Regaining control, the pilot took the helicopter on a detour, to get out of the way of the devastation behind them. And just in time too. A subsequent series of explosions shook the earth beneath them, causing the very ground to ripple and wave like a blanket. Fire erupted into the earth above, as cracks appeared along its surface. When the explosions subsided, the ground began to collapse and sink, giving way. The Network was no more.

Sahill Cathedral

With Lady Merl dead, and Lace having admitted defeat, Bethany's ticket to the second round was secure. There was a single secure staircase with which two of the Secret Cup guards climbed down, to find and escort Lace and Bethany to the helicopters above ground. The guards assisted Lace in getting down from Bethany's ice spike, applying a special sealing package to the source of her wound. It was labeled as T.M.S. The package burst as it made contact with Lace's heaviest wound, a sticky gel like substance that began to spread to her artificial tissue. Slowly, the gel formed a capsule inside of Lace's body, keeping her stable temporarily until she could get accurate medical assistance.

"Ms. Bethany, if you'll follow me, please," said the first of two guards, who led the way with a large automatic weapon in his hands.

As they were escorted back throughout the castle, Lace and Bethany would notice most of the cultists were dead, but not by the hands of the guards. It seemed that Lady Merl's existence was the only thing keeping them alive. With her gone, the cultists dropped to the stone floor, and their hearts stopped beating.

The helicopters were waiting outside, and Lace was assisted to the first copter, and flown off immediately. Bethany was escorted to the second helicopter, where she was given a seat and a harness. She would receive any medical attention she desired after she returned to the hotel.

Their flight would be lengthy, and it would be dark by the time they returned. But for Bethany, her chances in this tournament were just a little bit brighter.

Golden Gate Hotel

Fireworks lit up the evening sky in the hotel theme park, as Bethany and Jack's victories were celebrated. But some of the staff weren't celebrating at all.

"Rachel, I need you to prepare your operation room immediately. Angelica will be escorted down to you once she lands," Sergei said over voice comms. "Bradley, assist Lace and get her down to Rachel as well. Mars will be able to take good care of her. We have all of her history on hand. Use whatever you need..

"Yes sir, I'll handle it."

"And Tiny, I want you to give Geno a hand with security. Please keep the crowds away from the rooftop elevators so that our contestants can return and get the medical attention they need," Sergei said, with a huff.

"Of course, Mr. Nikolaev."

"Thank you all for your help. I couldn't do this without you." Sergei removed the radio from his ear, admittedly stressed over the first round of competition. He was grateful that no more blood was spilled. Mango, Lace, and Angelica were really pushing that boundary, but it appeared that they would survive after all. Turning to Matilda, Sergei held his daughter's hand. "Thank you for supporting me."

She nodded. "Of course, dad. So what's left? Just to wrap up round one formally?" she asked.

"Yes. Tomorrow morning, the Golden Gates News will give out the round one results, as we prepare the locations for round two. It will hopefully go just as smoothly as round one did."

"Wait, how many locations do you need for round two? Only two?" Matilda asked.

Sergei nodded. "Yes. I'm thinking of using our personal facility out in Rio--"

"Wait, pop. Why don't you just use one arena? There's only four contestants, and they're a bunch of super-powered badasses. I think they can handle it."

Sergei scratched his head. "Are you referring to the rainforest?"

Matilda nodded. "It's perfect. There's lots of space. Plus, a big four-way brawl would give you a lot of viewers."

Sergei rubbed his chin now. "I--I dunno, sweetie. There's been sightings of militia in the area. This would be us exposing the contestants to much more threatening danger. I think that--"

"Dad. These guys literally just killed a bunch of monsters. One of which was a crazy three-headed serpent lady with magic, who wanted to send us back to the dark ages. I think they can handle a little heat and a few bullets." Matilda's smile grew wide, as she tried not to laugh.

Sergei chuckled first. "Alright, you convinced me. But the moment emergency response is required, I won't hesitate to send in Bradley."

Matilda nodded. "Keep him on standby, out of sight. He can intervene and put things to an end if necessary."

"Sounds good. For now, I want to ensure the contestants are fed, and taken care of for the evening." Sergei stood to his feet, and approached the door to his room.

"Okay. I'll leave you to it. See ya, dad." Matilda disappeared into the hallway, up through the staff elevator.

"Now what?" he thought to himself. He had to know what was coming. The Jiangshi was the only way. But it was sleeping. He didn't dare wake it. Sergei sighed to himself, planting his feet squarely at the door, before stopping and turning around. He sat back on his bed, and interlocked his fingers with his hands on his lap. "And now, Sergei, we wait," he said to himself. "I have to be patient. A lot of lives are at stake. But I have to get the information out! I can't just sit by and do nothing. Surely there must be someone can help me." Sergei's eyes wandered to the light of the large flat-screen television in his bedroom. He picked his head up, just slightly, and his eyes now rested on Jack and Angelica's helicopter.

"Of course. Why didn't I think of it sooner!?"

. . .

Jack would find a secure message sent through one hundred and thirty-seven million varying proxies, just to ensure it was sent to her, and her alone. It was heavily encrypted, and it would require Jack to use her real name to view it. Because this information was something only she had, it should have been evident that the contents of the message were vital to her. Thanks to the sounds of the helicopter, the pilot and co-pilot would be unable to hear Jack playing the recording.

VCR_CAT · June 20, 2017

Jack

The helicopter moved in, and Jack was quick to jump in as soon as she could. The co-pilot had gone down on a winch, presumably to retrieve Angelica. Jake made a sound in disappointment, but buckled herself in regardless. She had won, and had two more rounds until the prize money was her's.

The ride back was uneventful. Jack spent most of the time keeping herself busy, looking over her system's diagnostics and trying to find out what was all broken and what needed fixing. A lot of damage was done, and while many components made it out without a scratch, a lot of others would need significant repair. If the next round was tomorrow, Jack wouldn't have time to fix it herself and also implement the alien tech at the same time. If she was going to do that herself, she would need a lot of time to figure out how to work it all into her systems. Whether she liked it or not, she would need the help of that nerd Sergei hired.

When the hotel was in sight over the horizon, Jack received a notification. Flicking through her HUD, she discovered it to be an audio message, sent through... how many proxies?

"Looks like they don't want me digging into this," Jack muttered, opening the file. A window open, prompting her for her name. Jack entered "Jack", but was met with a rejection. She paused for a moment, then entered "Yu Yamauchi". The name was accepted and the audio message began to play. Jack growled under her breath.

BGM:https://makeupandvanityset.bandcamp.com/track/database

"Hello Yu, this is Sergei," Jack heard the voice of the man behind the whole tournament leak into her helmet. Her fists clenched tightly. "I need you to meet me in the North Tower. In the theme park there's a staff door into the bumper car maintenance room; you will meet me behind there. I'll explain the rest when you've been moved."

The audio message cut out once the helicopter touched down. Jack wasn't sure what made her more angry; the fact that he didn't give time to eat something, the fact that he had the gall to use her name like that, or the fact that she didn't have time to drop off her suit before meeting him. The best she could do was drop off the tech she stole in her hotel room, but getting out of her suit and changing into her disguise would take too long.

Jack made a quick stop to her room to drop off her goods, and then made her way to the north tower, still in her suit. Patrons kept gawking at her as she strode down the halls, and into the theme park, some giving her a wide berth, others looking like they wanted to ask for her autograph. Jack flashed her pass to get into the theme park, and made her way to the maintenance room that Sergei had described. There she saw Sergei and approached him.

"You better have a damn good reason to call me here now," Jack confronted. "I have a lot of things I need to do tonight; getting this suit ready for tomorrow being on the top of the list."

LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow · June 21, 2017

The guards coming down the stairs snapped Bethany back to reality. Having been fighting a creature such as Merl and a...woman such as Lace, Bethany had almost forgotten she was a part of the modern world. She was just a human girl way over her head.

Yet she had managed to win. What kind of joke was that? She began laughing a bit as she was led to the helicopter. She, some street rat, had managed to advance in what was apparently the most insane and dangerous tournament ever to exist. She wasn't the most religious but she couldn't help but wonder if someone wasn't looking out for her.

She sobered up quickly as she noted the dead cultists all around. "What kind of place was this anyway." She muttered, not expecting an answer. Bethany hadn't killed Lace which was her goal. Yet...all these people are dead because of her. Yes she realized she couldn't exactly just let that monster free but that didn't change the fact that, despite her best efforts, Bethany had killed people today.

She sat in the helicopter, head in her hands, and let out a groan of frustration. She was only part of the way done. There was more fighitng to be had. Could she really keep this up?

Her magic hadn't gone out of control this time but she could already feel the price she payed for using so much of it. Her entire body was numb. Even climbing into the helicopter had been difficult.
The thermal blanket that was thrown over her didn't do much to warm her. She knew it wouldn't. This chill was something from the inside, not the out, and it wouldn't go away so easily.

"Hey...is she going to be alright?" She asked the pilot. The only reason Lace had survived the wounds was because of what kind of being she was. Bethany had to keep that in mind. Some of her opponents, while strong, that could come next were still human. What would she do if she had to fight that kid, or the old man?

Her victory was closer than before. Her chances of bringing home the prize had increased dramatically.

Then why was it that she felt so empty?

Dad · June 22, 2017

Sergei Nikolaev

"You better have a damn good reason to call me here now," Jack confronted him. "I have a lot of things I need to do tonight; getting this suit ready for tomorrow being on the top of the list."

Sergei smiled, and gave a sigh. "Your temperament is refreshing. It's good to have someone angry with me for a change. Please, follow me."

Sergei opened the maintenance closet. The only things inside were a two mops, two buckets, two industrial sized brooms, and varying cleaning chemicals. "Come, step inside."

"No way old man. You're creeping me the hell out. I'm not gettin' inside a closet with you," Jack said, agitated.

"Jack, please. I have no reason to harm you. Everything will be clear within moments," Sergei said, cautiously.

Jack looked around carefully, but was still hesitant. Sergei sighed again, he knew this would be difficult, but he hadn't assumed it would be this difficult. He took one of the broom handles, and snapped it in half, handing it to Jack. "If you believe yourself in any danger, feel free to puncture my jugular," he said.

Jack took the broom handle, and moved closer to Sergei. "You think I won't?"

Sergei shook his head. "I'd rather you kill me, than for them to kill me. Close the door behind you."

Jack squeezed into the closet, her back against Sergei's now. "Now what?"

Sergei placed a hand against the back wall of the maintenance closet, and a series of electronic signatures ran down the wall. The floor beneath Sergei and Jack released, and they were slowly lowered underground. Above them, a temporary, identical floor replaced the one they were standing on. As the floor sank, Sergei and Jack were lowered into what appeared to be a massive shaft, that had been empty for some time. "An emergency escape tunnel. I had it put in some time ago. Today is the first day I'm using it." The floor expanded with a series of thunks and clicks, until it formed an elevator beneath their feet. Jack backed off from Sergei to get some breathing room, and leaned against the newly formed railings behind her.

"Well. If this ain't suspicious, I don't know what is. You said things would be clear," Jack began. "So what's this about, Sergei? You encrypted the sheet outta that message, and you made me use my real name. What's so super secret and important?"

The elevator reached the bottom of the shaft after a few short minutes. They were staring at the bottom of the stone shaft, and Sergei turned his attention to the northwest wall, where a small indent was carved into it. An eye scanner discretely recognized his retinal signature, and the northwest wall slid open, leading to Sergei's office. "Come. We don't have much time."

Jack and Sergei entered the office, and the wall slid back in place behind them. "Jack. You are possibly the only one capable of breaking into my servers. And I need you to do just that."

Jack looked around over her shoulder. She didn't have her gear, but she didn't see any cameras either. "Am I being punked? You funking with me, Sergei?"

Sergei shook his head. He made his way over to his personal computer, where he flicked a switch beneath his desk. A series of monitors lowered themselves from the ceiling, and were held in front of Jack and Sergei. "The information you will find is located in a single, unique folder. It's label is 'RETCON'. It is guarded with sextuple encryptions, a pin code, and a password. I can give you the password. But I need you to do the rest."

Jack laughed. "You lock yourself outta your own sheet? You're kidding, right!?"

"Jack!" Sergei said sternly.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You're serious."

"Very. Inside you will find two video files, as well as classified information based on a group of people I know only as 'F.A.L.L.' And I have reason to believe, they have been watching me." Sergei loaded his desktop and input his administrative password. He left a blank thumbdrive on his desk, for Jack to use. "The password is blueberry," he said with a chuckle. "It was my wife's favorite. The rest should be no trouble for you." Sergei backed away from his desktop, and made his way to his front office door. "I'm going to lock you inside. I will buy you as much time as I can. But once you've broken into that folder, you need to take both those video files, and use them. The world needs to know, Jack. And you're the only one who can do this."

Jack paused. She looked to the desktop, then to Sergei. "What the funk is going on, Sergei?"

"I'm counting on you, Ms. Yamauchi." Sergei disappeared behind the solid black doors, and a series of clicks could be heard behind him. He quickly made his way to the service elevator, where he bumped into Geno. "Geno!" he said with a smile. "How are you this afternoon?"

Geno sighed. "Stressed, Sergei. My boys are all over the place. We're stretched thin. From the park, to the rooftops, to the towers. I'm gonna need more hands."

Sergei rubbed his chin. "Why don't we discuss moving some more forces this way, to assist you? This event is pretty big. I will get you some more help. Let us discuss it in my of--er, with Ace. I'm sure he has some ideas."

Geno pressed the button for the top floor. "Sounds good."

Jack was sitting in Sergei's office chair, her mind doing a million flips. What was this about?

She punched the thumbdrive into Sergei's USB port. Sure enough, it was empty. Digging through his general files, she couldn't find the "RETCON" folder. "Is it hidden?" she whispered to herself. She moved to the User folder and un-hid all invisible folders. Sure enough, there it was. "RETCON". Double clicking the folder, she was met with an immediate response, as the firewall activated. "This would be a lot easier if I had my gear," she said through clenched teeth.

Slowly, Jack worked her magic. Finding every possible break, loophole, and forcing the firewall to feedback into itself. With a satisfied sigh, she had broken through. The encryption was then activated, and it required her to solve it six times. This would be less difficult than breaking the firewall, but still a "giant pain in the ass," Jack said as her fingers moved. "Triple DES? Really? Come on now," she said, shaking her head. That was one down.

"False? Is that one of them?"

Jack moved on to the second encryption. RSA. A bit stronger than the last. "sheet. What kinda processing power does he have to crack this sheet?"

Bingo. Second encryption cracked. "Alias. Okay, whatever."

Encryption three was increasingly more difficult. "A blowfish, huh? Jesus, this is more serious than I thought."

It took Jack an extra ten minutes, but she did it. Three of six encryptions were down. "Lives. I don't understand."

Twofish. Also stronger than a Blowfish encryption. Jack grinded her hands together, but after twelve minutes, she was in. Sweat was beading down her forehead, as she opened lock number four. "Lost. Wait. Wait, that's F.A.L.L."

The last two encryptions were both encoded with Government Class AES encryptions. The second best encryptions in the United States. Only the eighth best in the world. Jack breathed deep, and got to work. When she was able to break the first of the remaining two encryptions, she received the message. "Convention. They're putting something together."

The final encryption took her less time than the previous, thanks to working with AES previously. But at last, she broke through. "Francisco. Whatever they're doing, they're gonna be doing it here."

The final two steps were the easiest. A simple four digit pin, and Sergei's super duper, top secret, never-tell-anyone password, 'blueberry'. The pin, after all of two minutes, turned out to be 1-9-3-3. The year the Golden Gate bridge first began construction. Punching in Sergei's password, Jack was finally through. It took her well over forty-five minutes, but she did it. And the folder was enormous. It was holding more than two hundred gigs of data. All of it based on who or whatever F.A.L.L. was.

Jack flicked back to the thumbdrive. It was only big enough to hold 25 gigs. What the hell was she supposed to do with that!?

Jack moused back over the RETCON folder. The two smallest files were the video files. Each of them was a bit over 500 megs. The rest of these documents. . . she would have to be very careful in what she chose to take with her. But first, she had to know what exactly Sergei was so freaked out about. She opened the first video file, labeled "First Meet".

The date and time showed this to have taken place one year before Sergei sent out his letters to the most powerful supernatural persons on Earth. In fact, it was one year to the date, exactly. A brown haired European man stood before Sergei in a brown suit, with a black tie. They were talking, but Jack couldn't quite hear them. She increased the volume, and things were loud and clear.

"--mans are depending on us. Depending on you, Sergei." This man sounded like a pissant. His voice was deep, and he had an authoritative and arrogant air about him. Jack hated this guy.

"They are people too," Sergei responded. "They may not be simple humans like you and I, but they are humans. Do you honestly believe--"

"Sergei. These things are a problem. They are a clear and present danger to our entire species. The easiest way to protect the public, is to show them what they have to fear. Fear is control. Fear is protection."

"No. No! Fear is a tool used to manipulate. And I will not be a part of--"

"Sergei! They killed your wife!"

Sergei was silent.

"They took the person you valued most, from you. They robbed you of happiness. Can you not see that these things--metahumans, androids, cyborgs, all of them! They are here because of the Atlas. And they will be the end of mankind."

Sergei clenched his fist. "The Atlas. That's what this is about? You want to use them to find the Atlas? It needs to remain buried. And if it is found--"

"It will be destroyed. Of that, I assure you."

Sergei let out a heavy sigh. "I will organize the event. But there will be a lot of blood lost."

The other man nodded. "We will supply you with the necessary resources to ensure as much blood is lost as possible."

Sergei shook his head. "This is sickening."

"Sergei. If you do not act, or you betray our trust. We will go through you."

Sergei stormed off. "Do as you will."

The first video file ended. Jack sat back, wondering why she had never heard of F.A.L.L. before. And why did they have beef with metahumans? And what the hell was 'the Atlas'? Jack opened the second video file.

It was a series of short clips, rolled into one video. It looked like a number of interviews. Specifically for Sergei's personal staff. The first was with Rachel Charles. "Miss Charles. You're the brightest young mind in the world. Your technological expertise, your advancements in medicine and biology, and your work with the world's brightest minds on everything ranging from thermonuclear weaponry to bio-mechanical engineering are simply impeccable. This is less of a formal interview. I'd like to ask you to be on my staff."

Rachel swiveled in her chair. She turned around with a giggle. "Sure. I'll do it. On one condition."

Sergei grinned. "Name it."

"I'm gonna need a lab."

Sergei nodded. "Consider it done."

The interviews were mostly the same, until she got to Ace's.

"I must say, this is quite a risk I'm taking. But, your achievements are second to none, Mr. Austin."

"Thank you, Mr. Nikolaev. I understand my biology may be of some concern."

"I apologize. Bringing a metahuman on board is not something I am concerned with. Rather, my sponsors need not know anything you are capable of."

"Not to worry, sir. I assure you, I can be discreet. I've not had a need to use my abilities in more than twenty years."

Sergei extended a hand to Bradley. "Consider yourself hired."

Ace was the only metahuman in his staff, huh? Somehow Jack didn't believe that, but Geno, Rachel, and Tiny's interviews said otherwise. Jack copied both video files from the folder, and uploaded them to the thumbdrive. Whoever F.A.L.L. was, it was time to expose them. It was time to expose Sergei. The remaining files, Jack had no time to copy. There was now a red flaring light in Sergei's office. She had been detected at last. She would have to leave before she was caught. She had to get these videos broadcasted, and she had to do it now.

VCR_CAT · June 23, 2017

Jack

Jack launched herself from the desk, cursing Sergei for only having one way into and out of his office. There was only one way out of the office, and she needed to get out as soon as she could. In the meantime, she needed to get the word out before anyone stopped her.

Jack plugged the thumb drive into a port located on the wrist of her suit, downloading the data into her internal system. In the meantime, she searched for any sort of wireless network; any unsecured means to get online without raising any red flags. Once she was in, she accessed a URL that was less of a website's name and more of a series of numbers located behind a series of proxies. The site behind was extremely simple, amateurish even, to the plain eye. In fact, the design of the page was positively revolting; yellow, Times New Roman font with a series of word art filters placed on with a collection of gaudy, extremely outdated gifs rotating and flashing about the page. In chrome, three-dimensional letters, a logo spun in place that read "Jack Box Two". Jack had made a series of these online caches, each with a different purpose for her to fulfill. Jack Box Two's purpose was to follow through with blackmail, and to leak sensitive information in a manner that cannot be directly traced. Over a year ago, Jack had released a Botnet onto the deep web the spread like wildfire. It broke into any and every system it touched, and left backdoors into their system, but nothing too complex or sensitive. These viruses were discreet, and almost undetectable, and also mostly harmless. Jack Box Two was the control panel for these botnets; upload the files, and the system distributed copies to every internet-compatible device on the planet, and forced them to play them along with a little tag-on video Jack could manipulate to add any little flavor text she wanted.

The system was ingenious actually; an informational nuke that Jack could drop on the world whenever she wanted. Of course, there was a good chance it would only work once, then companies would find how it happened and updated anti-malware programs to hunt down her viruses. Because of that, Jack used it as a threat than a frequent weapon, and saved actually using it for a rainy day. That day was now. Jack uploaded the files to her server, and recorded her voice that play on a small, pre-rendered CG version of her disguised self in a chibi style that would repeat the audio with little animations on every desktop and phone background that Jack's virus had touched.

"'Sup nerds and welcome to Jack TV, live on your device of choice with the latest on your favorite trash celebrities," Jack began recording, making her way out of the office and frantically looking for the first place to hide. "Now we all love the Golden Gate Hotel, Sergei Nikolaev and his piece of shi-, ah, sorry kids, his horrible, horrible cronies. Now, for all you that are loving the big tournament he's holding, one that I'm going to win, there's some pretty juicy details you'll wanna hear, and I'm gonna play those vids for you in a second." Jack ducked around a corner, guards rushing down the hall that she had just come from. "But I want you to remember: none of these rich idiots are looking out for any of you. Take a look at what's behind the curtain, and know that we outnumber them, and we are going to break. Them. Down."

When the chibi version of Jack's disguised outfit was done playing back this audio, it would be replaced by a neon pink anarchy logo with Jack's own personal logo edited overtop, then the videos she got from Sergei would begin to play. Jack uploaded this audio along with the videos, and looked at the stock photograph of a red arcade machine's button that read "Fire!!". Jack hit the button, and soon every phone, tablet, computer, television screen, everything would be playing Jack's little interruption. No company in the world had the resources to perform damage control on such a monumental level; the secrets were out, and there was no getting them back. Jack smiled as she let the bomb drop, and could barely hold back her excitement for what was going to happen next. Finally, there was going to be some justice.

Dad · June 23, 2017

Touchdown

Bethany's helicopter was touching down, and Lace was rushed downstairs. "She'll be fine, ma'am," said the co-pilot. "Mr. Nikolaev will provide excellent medical care. Have a good evening," he said, extending a hand to allow Bethany to step-down out of the helicopter without tripping. And she was right on time for the night's festivities.

The Thing of Nightmares

Rawal was exhausted from such a wild battle. Having returned to his room, Talis-Eye kept him protected, as he lay down in an unfamiliar bed. "Rest while you can, Shaper. You've earned some. .hm? What is that? Lord Rawal! Wake up!"

"He can't hear you," she said, her face clouded in a literal shroud of shadow. Despite its hardest, Talis-Eye did not sense this creature. Yet here it stood in Rawal's room, looming over them both. "It's a light sleeping spell. I had to make sure it was strong enough to get past your magical defenses. You are quite interesting."

What also didn't make sense was that, Talis-Eye could not read her mind. Why? And further more, this woman was not speaking English, the Earthen tongue. She was speaking their language. How?

"It took me some time to figure out where you're from and how your tongue works. Tell me, how am I doing?"

Talis-Eye narrowed his . . . eye, at this woman. "Who are you?"

Her voice was also shrouded. He would not be able to recognize her voice should they encounter each other outside of Rawal's room. "That's not important. What is important, is that you--and your, what did you call him? Shaper? You have magic and knowledge that extend far beyond this world's. And I want it. All of it."

"Such was not an option."

She tilted her head, taking a step forwards. "I wasn't asking."

She placed a palm on Rawal's head, a sting of magic that Rawal could ignore, but that Talis-Eye could feel. "Don't worry. I'm not taking it away from him. That's not possible after all," she said as the magical shock temporarily stunned Talis-Eye. "I'm copying it. I plan to use it when it's time to shape somethings of my own. You see, once I have the Atlas," she removed her hand from Rawal's head. "I will have everything I need to reshape this world. And adding your magic to the Atlas, will change the course of everything in my favor."

When the paralysis wore off, Talis-Eye had blinked. She was gone.

". . . from what I've seen of your memories, Lord Rawal. . .that man that flipped your life on its head in Terrestria was just a warm-up."

Rawal would recall nothing when he awoke. But Talis-Eye would remember everything.

RC and MARS

"I've got it from here. Thanks guys," Rachel said to the escort team who brought Lace down to her laboratory. "Mars, I'm going to need your help. Lace's anatomy is strange, but from what I've gotten from Sergei, we should have everything we need here."

"Yes ma'am. Where would you like to begin?" MARS replied

"Let's get this out of the wound and restore her internal organs first. We'll focus on fixing her from the inside out," Rachel said, washing her hands. She put on gloves and a mask, with her surgeons' gown. "When you're ready."

MARS, despite being one hundred percent sterile all the time, was also washing his hands. He too wore gloves, a surgeons' gown, and a mask. "Ready, ma'am."

. . .

The news began to spread like wildfire. Every major news station, online and live broadcasting, was forcefully playing back the recorded videos between Sergei, his staff, and the man in the brown suit. Jack had successfully forced the organization known as F.A.L.L., into the light. Sergei too would be punished, but he didn't have a choice, now did he? The Golden Gate Hotel's every television was lit up with a broadcast from their own Golden Gate news, and Ace, who's abilities were still unknown, was also now known to be a metahuman.

"Sir," Geno said, dawning his mask. "I've got level three alarms. Looks like Jack broke into your office."

Sergei swore in Russian, cursing his own existence. "Get that footage off the air. I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

"I've got men working with Rachel right now. In the meantime, I'm gonna go secure our little problem." The service elevator reached the ground floor of the North Tower, and Sergei stormed out. Geno had cloaked himself, using his own methods to return to the lower levels and pursue Jack.

"Bradley, come back," Sergei said into his earpiece.

"I'm here, sir. I've just seen the footage. Seems we may be in a spot of trouble," Ace said, his voice still calm as ever.

"I apologize, Bradley. Jack was a bit more of a problem than I had forseen." Sergei was lying through his teeth.

"Not to worry sir. I'll cooperate fully. What would you like me to do?"

Sergei looked around. Tension was building, and there was sure to be a mess, soon. "Assist with security. Make sure our contestants and our guests are unharmed."

"And what about you, sir?"

Sergei remained silent for a moment.

"Sergei?"

"I will enlist Tiny's help. Any attempts on my life are warranted. Our contestants know the rules, but surely, we don't expect them to act on those rules now with such information being broadcasted."

"Be careful, Sergei."

"I will. Thank you, Bradley." Sergei changed a dial on his earpiece, as he continued walking towards the North Tower elevator. "Tiny."

"Mr. Nikolaev. Are you alright?" Tiny asked.

"Fine, Tiny. Thank you. I need you to find Matilda, and make sure she's safe. Geno and Bradley will have their hands full with security. Rachel is locked down and assisting Geno. Matilda, however, is still exposed. Please. Find her."

Tiny nodded on the other side of the earpiece, then replied. "Of course, sir. I will ensure she is protected. And you, sir?"

"I have one last piece of business I must tend to. Rest assured, I will be fine."

Their conversation ended on a whim. Sergei's mind was swimming, racing with thoughts. Jack had exposed F.A.L.L., but would they act on this? If so, who would they target? Himself, or Matilda? What about the hotel guests? They were in danger. He had to better draw F.A.L.L.'s attention, before they set their sights on hurting innocents. He was making his way up to the Golden Gate News broadcasting station in the top of the Northern Tower. With a swipe of his keycard, he was in. He locked the door behind him and shoved a news stand in front of it. He wouldn't be safe here for long if anyone had anything to say about it. For now, he had to get to work.

Somewhere Near the California and Oregon State Borders

"Mr. Faust," said one of the four men seated in the cathedral.

"Mr. Langley," Faust replied.

"Mr. Allen," said the second unidentified man.

"Mr. Lou," Allen replied. "Shall we begin?"

"Present your insignia, please," Faust said, politely. Each of the four men extended their open palms, an unsual symbol branded into their hands like the cattle they were. "Due to exposure of my conversation with Sergei, I believe now is the best time to act."

"Would you like to take down the broadcast?" asked Allen.

"No. It will be over in moments anyway. I will make a statement. We should proceed with the Operation."

"Firehawk is awaiting our orders," Lou said, sitting back in his chair.

"Let us proceed," Langley confirmed.

"Thank you for your time, gentlemen." Mr. Faust straightened his tie. "Contact our liaison. Let her know that we are about to move. I will handle the rest."

San Francisco, California

The evening's events had come to a close, but the night was far from over. The evening news broadcasts had been interrupted by a little animated girl, who lots of viewers recognized as Jack. They grew excited to see her on their television sets again. That is, until she played the videos from her thumbdrive. Sergei, the event's organizer, turned out not to be the one in charge. Some sat back in disgust, some unsure of what would become of the tournament, and some were unsure what to think. Were metahumans really a threat? They seemed to only be a threat to themselves. However, all of those questions were about to be answered.

Northern Tower Broadcast Room

Sergei had managed to get all the equipment online. He began recording, and made the broadcast live. With Jack's worldwide broadcast now over, Sergei was able to resume production. Though Jack's exposure of Sergei and company would be available online for as long as she pleased, Sergei had to make a statement.

His broadcast would not be global, but it would be local. All of San Francisco would see it tonight.

"Good evening, citizens of San Francisco," Sergei began. He let out a heavy sigh. "My name is Sergei Nikolaev. I am the host and organizer of the Golden Gate Hotel's Secret Cup tournament. Moments ago, you saw me standing with a former colleague of mine. He is a man of great influence. His statements regarding the metahuman populace are not my own. And I can assure you, that the deaths that have been had in this tournament, were not what I had hoped for. Many lives were lost, and families are distraught. However--what? No. Damn it!"

Sergei's broadcast had been cut.

Cedric Faust

"People of the world," Cedrick began. "My name is Cedric Faust. I am the CEO and founder of For All Lives Lost. You may not have heard of us, due to the nature of our operation. We work with Emergency Medical Teams, hospitals, doctors, and biological scientists around the world. We are a sanctioned organization, who's presence was hidden to protect the people who's lives we affect."

Cedric moved a finger towards the screen, as if he were trying to poke his audience. A snapshot displayed from the previous video before Sergei's broadcast, with he and Sergei speaking. "Moments ago, you saw me speaking with Sergei Nikolaev. What I said is both true, and accurate. For it, I will not apologize." He cleared his throat. "The reasons behind my statements are simple. The metahuman genes that have infected mankind, have become a grave threat."

Cedric flicked his finger again. On the displays of news headlines around the world featuring attacks by metahumans were displayed. "Bank robberies, serial arson, extortion, and murder. These are common place among humans. However, the great spike we have seen over the last decade is a result only of metahumans. A great example, is the disdain they display among each other. Over the course of Sergei's Secret Cup Tournament, more than five hundred metahumans participated. Three quarters of them slaughtered each other, leaving you with your current contestants. And I--we believe--they are dangerous."

Cedric removed the headlines from the main screen. "For all lives lost, at the hands of metahumans, we must act. We must find an antidote to negate and cure the effects of all metahumans' special abilities. Their unique counterparts--androids, experimental weapons, other worldly creatures--are equally dangerous. They must be shut down, returned to their own worlds, and never allowed to plague our world again. This is our goal. And I assure you, that as we speak, metahumans are plotting to hurt innocents. We will be fully cooperative with law enforcement officials to ensure the safety of innocent persons. But we cannot protect everyone. We need your help--the public's help--to prevent lives lost of our fellow man. Thank you for your cooperation."

Faust's global broadcast was over.

The Golden Gate Hotel

Sergei had elected not to continue with his previous broadcast. What exactly was Faust doing? He just made his entire organization public. What was the purpose of doing this? Their operations could be impeded upon much more easily now. They had to have another plan if they were making public statements. It only made sense. Sergei slammed his fist on the news desk. He was sure that having F.A.L.L. exposed would slow them down. What was he supposed to do now? Wait. Faust never mentioned anything about the Atlas in his broadcast. This melodramatic display was a distraction! They were still looking for it. Sergei sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He had to figure out their next move.

Sergei, began moving the news stand from in front of the entryway, when he heard an explosion. It would have been dull, if he weren't so close to the elevator in the Northern Tower. "What on earth--!?" He changed the dial on this ear piece, trying to reach Geno. "Geno! Geno, can you hear me!? What's going on!?"

Then, there were two more dull explosions. This time, Sergei could see them. At the window of the northern tower's top floor hallway, the entryways to the Western Tower and the Eastern Tower had just been blown off. The Golden Gate Hotel was under attack.

"о мой Бог. My God. Geno! I need you up here, now!"

But Geno was out of radio range. In fact, he was going to be very busy for quite some time.

Ghost

"You!" Geno said, as his radio crackled with static from underground interference. He snatched the piece from his ear, and tossed it behind him. He walked through a wall from behind Jack, catching her off guard. He grabbed her by her hair, and tossed her forwards onto the ground, as he de-cloaked.

"You just put a lot of people in danger. The people of this hotel, this staff. Sergei. Ace. Tiny. But most importantly, Rachel. Your reckless actions, your arrogance, and your need to cause chaos could get her killed! Thankfully, I considered that when I started following you. You think you're some kind of genius? We'll see how smart you are when you're unconscious."

BGM: Bring the Madness

Geno threw out a small orb, no bigger than a marble. It erupted into a screen of smoke, before settling around Jack and Geno. The smoke revealed an electronic dome that appeared to be some kind of bubble shield around Jack and Geno. It encompassed the lower level, barely leaving the ceiling above them accessible. It crackled, causing the lights on the underground floor to crackle. "Paradox Dome. I normally use it for trapping major threats. But I had this one made just for you."

Geno balled his fist, as he slowly began to cloak. "You think that alien gave you trouble? I'm gonna haunt you, Jack."

Inside his cloak, Geno marched towards Jack, his footsteps silent against the tile floor. He waited for Jack to stand, so that he could strike.

Northern, Western, and Eastern Towers

Somehow, beyond the range of impossibility, a single man, with the help of a small array of metahumans, managed to take down the six guards of the three entrances of each tower of the Golden Gate Hotel. This man, somehow, was also in all three locations, at the same time. His name was Copycat. And he was as annoying as he was deadly. He was covered in a heavy black cloak, his mouth obscured as his neon green hair and grey eyes lay upon all three towers at the same time.

"So this is what rich people do with all their money, huh?" Copycat shook his head. "You could've invested in supplying the world with tacos, but you built a hotel? BORING! Have at it lads!" said the Swiss International criminal. "Oh, and Brutus?"

A shorter, balding man, standing only five feet and seven inches tall, was removing bandages from his hands. He let them fall to his bare feet, They both bled heavily, as he looked up to Copycat. "Yeah?"

"We're looking for Sergei. See if you can't persuade some of the guests to tell you where he is."

Brutus squeezed the blood from his hands, as it ran down his arms and dripped at his feet. He began to grow in size, until he was standing ten feet tall, a hulking mass covered in his own blood. He bulged with power, as he grew a layer of his own crystalized blood over his body. He nodded to CopyCat, storming into the Western Tower.

"Now Janey, where are you de--oh. Sorry, keeping track of all my own thoughts across three axis' is still a touch difficult. Janey!" CopyCat said excitedly. He was speaking to their local explosives expert who had created the charges used to take down the doors to each Tower. She was wearing large goggles, and she was slightly singed around her nose, her blue eyes, and her arms. She raised her goggles, onto her head of hot pink hair.

"What's up?" she asked.

"According to boss man, Sergei's got himself a cute little undead powerhouse somewhere below the Northern Tower. Why don't you rescue our friend, and see if we can't bring him back home with us, hmm? Take a couple of these mooks with you." CopyCat dismissed Janey with a wave of his hand.

"Sure thing. But if you call me Janey again, I'm gonna stick a bomb up your ass."

She entered the Northern Tower with a few gun toting nobodies at her side. "We're going downstairs. Find me an elevator or something."

"Now then," Copycat said, recalling his self images and entering the entrance to the Eastern Tower. "Let's get our hands dirty, whatddya say boys?"

The gunmen behind CopyCat shrugged. He sighed with disappointment. "God, I really have to find better help. We're looking for a busty jabroni with dark hair and glasses. Goes by Matilda. Sergei's baby girl. Find her! I'll do the rest."

. . .

"sheet," he mumbled, putting down his drink. The explosives had just gone off at the Western tower. Then, a large creature covered in blood red crystals stormed inside. He slowly took off his hat, and removed his trench coat. "Well, that's not good." Standing up from the bar, he took a few dollars from his wallet, and paid the bartender, who was cowering behind the bar itself.

"Relax buddy. The world's greatest detective has got your back."

The bar tender whimpered. "Man are you crazy!? That thing is huge!" he said, backing into the very end of the bar.

He drew two guns from their holsters on his side, his blonde hair still fashioned into a pompadour. But these were no simple guns. They were huge. They were handcannons. He had acquired a second unique copy of his old Dust Rider. Electing to keep things simple, he named this one, Dusk Rider. "Well when you see what rocket propelled bullets do to crystal, I'm sure you'll be surprised."

He flashily flipped both revolvers and swapped hands. He whistled to the large blood monster, catching its attention. "Hey, big guy. Yoohoo, over here!"

It looked the detective up and down. Through a mouth of blood, it spoke to him. "Get out of my way."

"Sorry, can't do that. You're scaring everybody and tearing up the joint. C'mon now, that's not groovy. Gonna have to take you down to the station."

Brutus snorted, leaning down and getting in the detective's face. "And you are?"

He grinned from ear to ear. "Glad you asked. Name's Dirk. Dirk Rider."

"Are you ready to die, Dirk Rider?" Brutus asked.

"Die? Nah. But I mean, c'mon. I gave you my name, at least give me yours."

Brutus raised a crystallized fist. "I'll pass!" He threw it down at Dirk, attempting to crush him. Dirk rolled out of the way, and fired two enormous bullets at Brutus' back. "Oh come on! It's common courtesy, man!"

Tesability Black · June 23, 2017

~Talis-Eye's POV~

If they had legs, they would be kicking themselves right now.

That stranger, why hadn't they sent her flying out the room the moment a motion was made towards the Shaper? A snarl leaving their mouth, they floated over the elder, whom seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

The Eyebeast had some information-gathering to do.

Pulling through the various places where things could be held with their telekinesis while keeping it quiet enough to not disturb the sleeper, Talis-Eye found a writing instrument and paper. The writing instrument was odd, however.

They had expected an inkpen and inkwell, but the well was nowhere in sight and there seemed to be some form of covering over the tip of the thin black device.

How do these humans write with this, they thought to themselves before lowering the point to the paper to try to make a mark in the corner, the resulting line that showed after a moment surprising the creation. "They may be more clever than we gave them credit for." Looking around the building, the thought that the humans made buildings such as this by their own hands instead of those of a creation's caused them to nod. "Far more clever."

Shaking themselves back on task for a split, Talis-Eye wrote out their note in the Shaper's familiar language incase of prying and placed it on the desk beside the bed Rawal was laying on so that it would be seen.

"I'm out gathering information after recent events, focus on me if you wish for me to return after you wake.

The Art of Shaping is about to leak out into dangerous hands upon this world, just like with Terrestria and the Drakons of the Rebellion."

Taking to invisibility, Talis-Eye carefully opened the door and closed it behind themselves with their telekinesis before spreading their telepathic range as wide as they could, moving around while cloaked to catch what information they could.

Unfortunately, sheet was hitting the fan.

"...fully, I considered that when I started following you. You think you're some kind of genius? We'll see how smart you are when you're unconscious."

What was happening? A cursory glance between the two minds had alerted Talis-Eye to the presence of something known as the F.A.L.L., whom had caused the strange security guard...Ghost or Geno, they could not keep the two names straight with the figure, but knew both were linked to him...to jump onto one of the contestants and strike out.

They knew that they risked Rawal being forced out of the supposed contest with this action, but they hoped this would be understandable.

And so, without warning, prompt or indication, Geno suddenly went flying backwards despite being under cloaking, hitting the strange barrier around the pair before beginning to fly off themselves.

Get up before your foe does...Jack, they sent off telepathically before flying through the halls.

As they flew, they soon picked up a set of people panicking in one direction. Focusing on that as an indicator of direction, Talis-Eye soon found themselves stopped by something else.

"According to boss man, Sergei's got himself a cute little undead powerhouse somewhere below the Northern Tower."

Undead, Talis-Eye couldn't help but think in shock, thankful that unless they purposely project their thoughts, such random ones would never leave their mind.

"Why don't you rescue our friend, and see if we can't bring him back home with us, hmm? Take a couple of these mooks with you."

"Sure thing. But if you call me Janey again, I'm gonna stick a bomb up your ass."

A bomb? That is?

Keeping track of the minds they could, Talis-Eye trailed back a little bit as they moved forward, only daring to come back closer to hear the next part.

"God, I really have to find better help. We're looking for a busty jabroni with dark hair and glasses. Goes by Matilda. Sergei's baby girl. Find her! I'll do the rest."

Talis-Eye wanted to growl, but knew it wouldn't wise. Instead, they focused on the minds in the building they could before finding the one they were searching for, a mind they could sense but not read, a mind that was currently leaking with the emotion of fear.

Something must be wrong if an emotion's leaking out like this, Talis-Eye thought to themselves before focusing on that mind, on the one that resided over the tournament known as Sergei and projected one thought to him.

Matilda's in danger, people are hunting for her!

Praying that the message was recieved, Talis-Eye focused on another message, this time to their creator.

Lord Rawal, awaken! The area is under attack!

~Rawal's POV~

Lord Rawal, awaken! The area is under attack!

He felt groggy despite only feeling like having just laid down. Looking up at the sky outside of his window, he could tell how little time has passed since he laid down. The strange box in his room was blaring something, but he ignored it for the moment. Probably something that---

A bad feeling crept over him, the feeling that he was alone, without even Talis-Eye nearby. Rawal had his hands up in front of him in almost an instant, whispering as a grren glowing embryo began to appear while floating between them. The embryo quickly began to develop, form and grow, prompting Rawal to allow it to fall gently to the ground in front of him.

The sac around it finally popped, revealing one of the Ur-Ghlaaks he had made been seen making during his fight against Kai. This one, however, was considerably smaller, able to move through the doors of this place without getting stuck.

But what Rawal took from size, he moved to strength and agility.

It was at this moment that he noticed the note by the bed, the mention of the Rebellion netting a roar of rage out of his throat.

"The Rebellion...if it wasn't for those selfish humans and creations and the Drakons leading them with the stolen Shaping art, for that foul self-shaped creature that dared to still call himself human, I would not be the last to still carry on the art!"

With no spoken words, Rawal willed the creature to guard and follow him as the Shaper ran out of the room. With his armored robes gone, he wore only the black shirt and grey pants he wore under the robes in addition to the grey furred boots over his pants. Without the robes, he seemed fairly toned, which comes with wearing such weighted equipment almost all the time. His hair was free from his ponytail, revealing it to stretch down to a spot between his shoulders.

After this, he was finding a teacher for at least one of the Earthen languages here. One good thing about Shaper training was that they were taught how to learn new information quickly, efficiently and without forgetting...

LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow · June 23, 2017

Bethany grumbled as she stripped off the ruined clothing she had on, right she needed to return this to Lace sometime oops, and got out her only other set of clothing. Nearly identical to the first, but older and less well kept, it didn't do a whole lot to help the numbness. But it was something.

As she put it on she glanced down at her body and winced. She was covered in bruises. That was going to smart. Ah well, at least she had time to rest up now.

She only just glanced at the television when she realized it was on. And broadcasting...something....well that was unpleasant.

Bethany's hand clenched into fists as she leaned in to get a better look. What was this all about? They were sent here to die? All because of...being different? Bethany knew that she was a danger, she understood and accepted that, but all people with abilities? That seemed like a stretch.

Suddenly Sergei himself was on the air. Bethany wanted to just turn the television off right then and there. What was his issue? Did he really think he could save face after seeing that?

But she stopped herself. Something about this broadcast seemed...odd. Sure he sounded like he was attempting to cover his keister but...if that's what he was doing his word choice, and the timing, were really ill suited for that. He had seemed such a charismatic man surely he could've done better than that?

Then the man's words were cut out by the organization themselves. Which solidified the sense of "something's up" in Bethany's mind.

Bethany found herself grow angrier as he spoke. He was just showing the worst of it! Sure if you go by someone like her then it looked bad but there were plenty of innocent "metahumans". And wouldn't this include children too? Did they intend to wipe them out? That was sick...and not to mention bringing up that malarky about the tournament. THEY worked with Sergei to make this tournament happen. THEY made sure that there would be metahumans killing each other.

And then she heard it, the explosion. Something was up and she had a good idea what. "And I assure you, that as we speak, metahumans are plotting to hurt innocents".

"Yeah, I'm sure this is just a coincidence." Bethany said with venom in her voice.

Sergei. She had to get to Sergei. There might be others gunning for him but she had to get there first. She had to get answers and, even better, find a solution. She wasn't about to play war with whoever it was attacking. Her powers would only serve to make things look worse for...her kind. She grimaced at the thought.

Pulling on her gloves and flexing her fingers Bethany took off for the North Tower.

---

It was a chaotic trip but Bethany managed to make it there without much of a problem. Unfortunately as she entered the tower she found that people had gotten there before her. And they certainly didn't seem like innocent civilians trying to find a place to hide.

There was some girl with pink hair and googles who looked to be directing some gunmen. They were trying to break into a service elevator. It wasn't really where Bethany was heading but she couldn't very well just let this go on without doing something.

Hands in her pockets, Bethany strolled up closer to the group, trying to seem as relaxed as possible. "Hey you guys." She called out. Then muttered, "I can't believe I'm about to say this," before shouting "freeze!"

She didn't act quite yet but she was prepared to hit them with her freezing wind the moment they looked aggressive. Hopefully she could get out of here and get to Sergei as fast as possible.

It really disturbed Bethany how quickly she went to use her magic lately. She couldn't worry about that now with all this going on though.

Mr. Hyde · June 23, 2017

It was crazy how much time had passed in this bar...yet all the patrons remained. Time had passed long enough for Sergei to come, leave, and start a broadcast on the television, no doubt being screened on every television throughout the world. However, a strange signal seemed to interrupt Sergei's announcement, and a man took the limelight away from the hotel's master. He droned on and on about how metahumans were a danger to society, and how his operation would cease their numbers. Louis took a drink of his Bloody Mary yet again, and licked the rim of the glass that was filled with spicy salts.

"F.A.L.L, huh?" He smirked He had heard of them...French intelligence was good for something at least. They hadn't been an organization that Louis had kept a close eye on, but maybe he should've been on the lookout. After all, they were able to infiltrate the Golden Gate's broadcast signal. That couldn't be an easy safe to crack. While he was thinking to himself, an explosion rocked the entire bar, glasses falling from there shelves shattering on the floor. Louis couldn't help but let out a long sigh. He turned his head towards the entrance, where a giant monster cloaked in blood had let itself in.

"That guy looks tough..." Basabth said, nervously.

"It ain't our problem." Louis thought, taking another sip. After all, if metahumans were actually going to be killed by F.A.L.L., then they weren't even worth the time bringing them into this world. F.A.L.L. would never catch him...and if he were to be the last metahuman left, that meant he could just charge a higher price for his services. One of the cloaked patrons from before had finally gotten up from his chair, revealing himself to be Dirk Rider. An augmented cyborg detective. "Wow...they made robo-cop real. Shocker." Louis droned. The man actually decided to fight with the blood monster to his surprise. He certainly was a confident one. Louis could've finished that guy off in an instant, if he so choose. However, he wasn't getting payed for any of this sheet. Louis, begrudgingly, turned his head towards Mango.

"You should probably help that guy...maybe you'll actually die this time." He might have been a bit tipsy at this point, seeing as he let out a laugh for the first time in a while. He hadn't eaten anything before or after the match.

VCR_CAT · June 24, 2017

Jack

"You!" Jack heard from behind her, catching her by surprise. Before she could react, someone grabbed her by her cape and flung her to the ground with a loud crash. "You just put a lot of people in danger. The people of this hotel, this staff. Sergei. Ace. Tiny. But most importantly, Rachel. Your reckless actions, your arrogance, and your need to cause chaos could get her killed! Thankfully, I considered that when I started following you. You think you're some kind of genius? We'll see how smart you are when you're unconscious."

Jack rolled onto her hands and knees, laughing uncontrollably as who she now saw as Ghost trapped her within a barrier. Sergei trapped her with that little mission, but then again, why would he need an excuse to send his muscle after her?

"Paradox Dome. I normally use it for trapping major threats. But I had this one made just for you." Geno said.

"Please! Is this how you treat all invited guests?" Jack taunted, sliding her All-Access pass across the floor so that Ghost would catch a glimpse of it. Jack was only laughing to hide the stress; she was caught in another life or death fight, and her suit was still severely damaged. She managed to fix her tether and winch systems on the helicopter enough for use, as well as reload her smoke cartridges, but that was all she was able to do. She was otherwise on her own, and she left her bow in her room.

"You think that alien gave you trouble? I'm gonna haunt you, Jack." Geno retored, vanishing from sight. Jack stopped laughing.

BGM:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrEd1J_OWoQ

"You think your chicken-sheet ass is going to haunt me?" Jack growled back. Just then, there was a loud noise and Jack looked up to see the shape of Geno slam against the barrier. She wasn't sure what happened, but she wasn't about to question this gift-horse and leaped to her feet, generating three arrows to hold in her fists.

"You're either a funking idiot, or you have no idea who I really am if you think you're going to be enough to scare me," Jack's tone was completely off from her first hysterical laughing fit, dripping with malice and hate. "But judging by your sheet security, your boss must have gotten you on discount to save a penny, so I'm going to go with the former."

Jack outstretched both arms, and fired her tethers in a sort of wide shotgun blast to where she expected Geno to be. If two of them hit, Geno would be met with a nasty surprise. Otherwise, all six tethers were meant to pinpoint his location. Jack had enough with these idiots playing invisibility.

Dad · June 24, 2017

Underground Beat-down

Geno was tossed backwards by an unrecognizable force. That certainly wasn't something he had planned for. He slid into a wall, looking around carefully. Jack was still getting up, so it wasn't her. "It's rude to interfere in a man's fight," he thought to himself, unaware that he was not alone in his own thoughts. At last Jack was standing, and Geno was approaching, as if he were out for a stroll. She ranted something about how her tech was great, and then fired six tethers in his direction.

"Really?" he said aloud, walking through the tethers. "I can walk through walls Jack. You think I'm gonna take your tentacle fetish to the face? I'm not everyone else you've fought!"

He was literally standing in front of Jack, before he walked through her and stood behind her, visible again. "You're fast. Your tech is great. You're smarter than you look," he said, picking up the All Access Pass she had slid across the ground. He tucked it neatly into his uniform breast pocket. "But All Access Passes don't include breaking into high security files and putting this entire hotel in danger. So I don't care why you did it or how you got into Sergei's office. I care that you're a reckless brat, with nothing on her mind other than her own interests."

He grabbed Jack by her cape again, and tossed her over his shoulder. Geno stood on Jack's tethers, and pulled from his pocket what appeared to be a simple switch blade. He flicked it open, revealing a pitch black blade, which hummed and vibrated. He easily sliced through three of six tethers. To add insult to injury, he cut the cape from her neck too.

"You don't need the cape. It's gonna do nothing but slow you down. As for the tethers. Well, that's personal." He put the knife back in his pocket. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Jack. You can give up and tell me how the hell you got into Sergei's office. Or, I can beat you until you're unconscious. You'll still make round two either way. The only difference is, one way you'll remember what happened. The other, you'll have a headache when you wake up."

"So make the tactical decision," Geno said, as he became cloaked again. "What's it gonna be?"

Northern Tower: Lobby Floor

"Come on you idiots! Get the damn door open! If I blow it open, the cables might snap! Hurry up!" Janey demanded.

"Yes ma'am!" said a couple of gun wielding mooks. They had tried prying it open, but to no avail. The doors were magnetically locked. They would either have to blow them open or steal a key card. Neither of those options were exactly appealing. "Uh, ma'am?"

"WHAT!?" Janey said, stomping.

"We uh, ehem, we might need a key card to--"

"Hey you guys."

The gunmen turned around. They hadn't raised their weapons to point them at the new person who joined them, because they were as confused as they were uncertain. "Uh. H-hey?" said one of them.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but freeze!"

The gunmen looked to each other, then to Janey, then back to Bethany. They chuckled, stifling laughter. "Think she has a key card?" one gunman asked another. "I dunno, maybe. Let's tie her up and search her."

"Lady you got some brass balls. Gimme your key and you won't get hu--"

Janey gasped sharply, as she turned around at all the commotion. "NOBODY! TOUCH! HER!" said a wide-eyed Janey, as her gunmen went silent. She snatched her goggles from her head and tossed them over her shoulder to one of her lackeys. Janey fluffed her hair, took off her gauntlets, and double checked to make sure she hadn't broken a nail. She blushed, both excited and nervous. "Don't you brain-dead IDIOTS know who this is!?" She approached Bethany cautiously, a hand extended. "I'm so sorry, please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Janey Hu---uh, Janey Dynamite. And I'm a big, big fan of yours, Ms. Bethany."

The gunmen scratched their heads in unison. Janey turned around with a ferocious look on her face, as if she were ready to blow them all to pieces. "Ms. Bethany won her first round against an enhanced cyborg like chick I think they called Lace. GIVE HER A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR HER HARD WORK!"

The gunmen dropped their guns to the ground, and cheered for Bethany.

Janey turned back to Bethany, the cutest smile and rose flushed cheeks on her face. "Forgive my henchmen, please. They don't know quality, elegant power and beauty unless you point it out to them. It pays to be a meta," she said giggling. Janey sighed, standing up straight. "My, you're even more beautiful in person. OhmyGodI'msorry. That was totally unprofessional, I'm so sorry. God this is awkward. I've never geeked out this hard before," she said, blushing again. Janey cleared her throat. "Ms. Bethany," she began. "Forgive me. I know you must be incredibly busy preparing for round two, and I'm sure you need to urgently get to your room and get the beauty rest you deserve. Not that you need it, since you're so pretty. But I'm also on a big, super duper important mission right now for my own reasons. You can understand that, right?" Janey said, with big puppy dog eyes.

Northern Tower | Top Floor: The Broadcast Room

Sergei was in a panic. He had to figure out a next move. The staff, the guests, the contestants. They had to be safe. They had to be--

Matilda's in danger, people are hunting for her!

His head rang with a sharp pain as he received a telepathic message from an unknown. "Matilda!" he screamed aloud to himself. He was unable to reach Geno on the radio. He to check on Tiny and Matilda. He plugged the ear piece back into his ear, and flicked the dial on his walkie. "Tiny? Tiny, can you hear me!? Have you found Matilda!? Do you have my baby girl!?"

Northern Tower | Lower Level 3

Tiny was just barely able to receive Sergei's call. He wasn't as far underground as Geno. "Mr. Nikolaev. I have Matilda. She's right beside me."

"Dad!? What the hell is going on!?" she asked, panicked.

Over the radio, Sergei was breaking up. "--urity breach! --metahu--towers! --the bunker! Eastern Tow--!"

"Dad!?" Matilda said, snatching the walkie from Theo. "DAD!"

The signal was cut off. There was a lot of interference going on, and someone was probably jamming the signal. "Come," Tiny said, picking up an oversized sledge hammer, that was just right for him. "I must get you to safety, Matilda."

She nodded. Theo had hastily knocked on her door just as she was changing, only to tell Matilda the gist of what was happening above. She didn't want to believe a word of it, but she trusted Theo. "Where's Ace?" she asked, following closely behind Tiny.

"He was ordered to assist Geno's men with security measures. I believe he is in the Eastern Tower." Theo held the door to Matilda's room open, then escorted her to the service elevators. "Your father mentioned a bunker in the Eastern Tower. I will take you there."

Matilda sighed, as the elevator buzzed at their stop. "Who's doing this? What reason would anyone have to attack us?" she asked.

"They are a terrible organization of merely four men. They call themselves F.A.L.L. I know only minute details from your father. You will have to ask him for more information when you are reunited."

Matilda stepped into the elevator first, and Tiny entered behind her. "Thank you, Theo."

"Anything for you, ma'am," he said, as the doors closed.

Western Tower: Lobby Floor

Dirk danced around the big crystallized Brutus. He was really enjoying himself.

"I'm really enjoying myself," he thought aloud.

He hadn't fired on Brutus because it felt effortless. Brutus was big, and admittedly frightening. But if all he could do was swing those big red arms around, he was harmless. "C'mon Red, show some effort!" Dirk taunted him. Brutus slashed around his back, causing Dirk to roll.

"Enough screwin' around!" Brutus said. He balled a fist, and aimed it at Dirk. Crystals protruded from Brutus' fist, and two large spikes fired forwards. Dirk reacted with two bullets, causing both the large crystals to explode into minuscule shards of glass as they exploded on impact with the rocket propelled bullets.

"That's more like it. See, now you're showing you care about your job. If your boss was here, I'm sure he'd consider giving you a raise. Say, what are they paying you anyway? What was the job description? Walk in, be scary, tear the place up, maybe threaten a few civilians?"

Brutus stomped past Dirk, and walked over towards the bar. He spotted what he was sure to be a child, a slime monster, and the bartender. He snatched the bartender up, and Dirk fired two explosive bullets into Brutus' back. Brutus lost some blood shards, but he ignored Dirk.

"Where is Sergei Nikolaev?" he asked the bartender.

"Hey!" Dirk barked, as he reloaded. "Put him down! It's not nice to touch people without asking! Don't hurt him ya brute!"

Dirk loaded a special bullet type into Dusk, and blinked over invisibly so that he was standing on the bartop, at eye level with a hunched over Brutus. "Put. Him. Down," Dirk demanded, a gun to Brutus' eye. Brutus snorted, his fist already aimed at Dirk. Crystals were spiked and aimed at Dirk's stomach. They would impale him for sure if he did anything stupid. "Who do you think's faster? You or me? Don't do it big guy. You got a lot to lose."

Brutus dropped the bartender, before taking a big swipe at Dirk. He knocked over Louis' drink, and almost knocked over Mango as well. Dirk was already out of the way, and clinging to Brutus' back. He fired four shots into Brutus' back, causing him to roar in agony as he reached for Dirk. Brutus went flailing backwards, trying to shake Dirk off of his rear. His arms were too short to reach Dirk, so he would let his crystals do the work. Extending all of the crystals on his back, Brutus attempted to impale Dirk once more. But Dirk was still much too fast for Brutus.

"We're gonna have to work on your agility," Dirk taunted, as he fired on Brutus once more.

LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow · June 24, 2017

Bethany had expected the men to harass her. She wasn't surprised when they approached her; intent on checking her for this key they were looking for.

She didn't expect the woman, their leader it seemed, to stop them so suddenly. Bethany looked over in surprise that likely mirrored the gunmen's.

Glancing at the offered hand, Bethany could only gape. Fan? She...had...a fan? How'd that happen? Was there really someone out there who admired getting beaten up and flailing your way to a victory?

She jumped as Janey yelled at her lackey's. As they began to cheer Bethany, unexpectedly, felt her face begin to heat up.

Her numbness was still there but, at least around her face, it faded ever so slightly once her embarrassment hit her.

And then.
It got worse.

"My, you're even more beautiful in person. OhmyGodI'msorry. That was totally unprofessional, I'm so sorry. God this is awkward. I've never geeked out this hard before," she said, blushing again. Janey cleared her throat. "Ms. Bethany," she began. "Forgive me. I know you must be incredibly busy preparing for round two, and I'm sure you need to urgently get to your room and get the beauty rest you deserve. Not that you need it, since you're so pretty."

Eyes widening Bethany began to stammer out a rapid-fire stream of nonsense. "Whahuhwhomewhathuhhowwhywhat"

Her heart began hammering in her chest without her input, very annoying, as she registered what this girl was saying. Was she being flirted with? By a fan? By a girl? A girlfan? What was today, April 1st? What should she do? She wasn't into girls...was she? She didn't know. She didn't know if she was into boys either. Maybe? She hadn't ever had to think about...No, wait, stop Bethany. Stop right there.

The second part of this girl's words finally reached her brain. Important mission...She looked over at the elevator. Right, that was a thing.

Bethany put her hand on Janey's shoulder, as much to get her attention as to steady herself, leaned in a bit, and looked her in the eyes. "Janey Dynamite you said? I take it you were the one who.." she made a fist with her other hand and swiftly opened it up, making a explosion-like sound with her mouth. "What...do you think you're doing here? What are you trying to solve?" She looked over at the henchmen. "This goes for you too. You all seem like...nice people. But what you're doing here...people are gonna get hurt. And for what? Revenge? On who? Who are your enemies here? Do you even know what this...attack will do? There's a lot of people around here that you're gonna scare the tar out of. And out there too. While you guys play with your explosives here." Bethany took a deep breath, trying to keep the anger out of her voice. "Out there people are going to see this. And they're going to start attacking anyone slightly different. You said you were my f-fan." Bethany tried not to blush further and failed. "If that's so you have to have a reason, right? You saw what I did and it...inspired you somehow? What do you really think your actions here are going to inspire?"

VCR_CAT · June 25, 2017

Jack

BGM:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrEd1J_OWoQ

Jack's tethers passed right through Geno, giving Jack a better idea of how his suit worked and what he was capable of.

"Really?" he said aloud, walking through the tethers. "I can walk through walls Jack. You think I'm gonna take your tentacle fetish to the face? I'm not everyone else you've fought!"

"Oh c'mon babe, give it a couple drinks and I'm sure you'll come around to the freaky side," Jack retorted with a laugh. Geno kept walking forward and through Jack.

"You're fast. Your tech is great. You're smarter than you look," Geno said, picking up the All Access Pass she had slid across the ground. He tucked it neatly into his uniform breast pocket. "But All Access Passes don't include breaking into high security files and putting this entire hotel in danger. So I don't care why you did it or how you got into Sergei's office. I care that you're a reckless brat, with nothing on her mind other than her own interests."

"Not with that attitude they don't," Jack continued to sass back.

Geno grabbed Jack by her cape again, and tossed her over his shoulder. Jack slammed against the floor, her heads-up-display flickering from such a strong hit as the wind was knocked out of her. Geno took out what Jack could only assume was a knife, and she tension released from her back as her cape was cut, then there was a slight sparking noise as three of her tethers were severed completely.

"You don't need the cape. It's gonna do nothing but slow you down. As for the tethers. Well, that's personal." Geno put the knife back, and stood over Jack as she pushed herself up to her knees once more. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Jack. You can give up and tell me how the hell you got into Sergei's office. Or, I can beat you until you're unconscious. You'll still make round two either way. The only difference is, one way you'll remember what happened. The other, you'll have a headache when you wake up. So make the tactical decision," Geno said, as he became cloaked again. "What's it gonna be?"

"I told you, I was invited," Jack snarled, firing her remaining work tethers between her legs, behind her. The tethers would latch onto the far wall, and Jack would immediately reel them in, flipping her onto her back and pulling herself back onto her feet. "And to be abso-funking-lutely honest? I enjoyed doing that job. You rich, elitist fucks deserve to burn, and I'm going to be your angel of death." Jack circled around the room, waiting for the slightest hint of Geno's presence. "It's bastards like you that took everything from me, and now? Now I'm gonna return that favor."

Jack concluded that whatever system Geno was using, it must still be affected by energy and electricity; otherwise, how would it remain functional when activated? If she can't hit him, then she needed to use his first move and turn it into a mistake. While it wouldn't help with visibility, Jack would even the playing field be releasing a burst of bright red smoke, crackling with electricity, contained in the bubble. "You know, you're kinda stupid for keeping us in such a tight spot," Jack taunted. "So I'll let you make a tactical decision: Let me go, and I promise I'll give you a chance to actually protect the people you care about."

As Jack spoke, intentionally giving away her position. Once she was given even the slightest hit as to where Geno was, she would flip one of the arrows in her hands into a different position and throw it like a dart with surprising strength and accuracy in his direction.

Tesability Black · June 25, 2017

~Rawal's POV~

There was too much happening around him and he understood very little...correction, nothing about what was going on.

What was happening? why did Talis-Eye mention that the Rebellion may be repeated here when he had not began instructing a new generation of Shapers? Why was he hearing strange things nearby, including explosions?

With a deep sigh, Rawal recalled the path to the roof, where he was taken by the sky vessels he heard be called 'helicopters' to and from the place on this planet that reminded him most of home. He had to see from above what was going on.

Silently commanding the Ur-Ghlaak to follow after him, Rawal rushed ahead on his chosen path, causing the door to the roof to bang open before walking out towards the edge, looking out to see the damage already dealt.

BGM: Ashes of Eden - Breaking Benjamen

He saw people that had fallen, the splotches of red visible even from his distance on the various bodies. He saw rapidly-flashing lights that changed between red and blue with a pattern he didn't have the time to try to identify. He saw the damage to the outsides of some buildings, wondering how nothing had been toppled yet.

He didn't need to understand any of the earth languages to understand that something was happening, something big.

"It may wear another face...but it looks like the Rebellion begins again." Thinking on the types of beings that he had seen in the past while on this planet, the various abilities many seemed to have while seeing next to none that was just an ordinary person. Everyone that participated seemed to have some unique power or ability to them. "Those with power fight against those that don't. This time, the ones with power cannot easily surrender such if they..."

A sad groan came from the Ur-Ghaahk, sensing his sorrow. He looked back, gave it a nod and a pet between the tendrils on its head that acted as a form of sensor. Whispering words of comfort that were meant to calm the creation's nerves and steel his own, he inhaled deeply before sighing.

"This world's Trakovites will not be allowed to remove the balance of power in this world. They've already done it to mine."

With that, he swooped down the stairs, sickly-green light surrounding his hands. Shapers were meant to create life, even in places the world would otherwise refuse such. To see it be used in such destructive ways...

The Ur-Glaahk that followed him was an example of creation species that did not exist, did not need to exist, before the Rebellion's beginnings.

~Talis-Eye's POV~

Their many different-colored eyes scanned their surroundings, took in the madness around them as well as a sampling of the ones responsible for the attacks.

They knew not whom this 'F.A.L.L.' was, but it sounded they are a threat to all, no matter if they were with or without power.

Using the ones nearest them and apparently the cold-wielder among the competitors in this bloody contest, Talis-Eye spread out their telepathic network as wide as they could, the eleven smaller eyes magifying the power of the main eye to do so. Soon everyone within the Northern Tower was in their network, though the Eyebeast gritted their teeth at the strain.

Those whom had hostile intentions towards the residents and guests of the hotel soon found themselves with blackness over their eyes, an illusion that robbed them of their sense of sight as they projected a single message to those affected.

To those whom wish to erase the light of this world, I grant you darkness for as long as you stay.

Unfortunately, the strain forced Talis-Eye to become visible to those whom kept their sight...

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Golden Gate Empire: Dreams of Grandeur [IC | PG-16]

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