[h1][center]Voyager[/center][/h1] [center][u]In[/u][/center] [i][center]Beware the Depths[/center][/i] Someone was screaming. It took a while for Riley to realize it was her. She didn't know what had happened. She had been standing over the oddly dressed man one moment, and the next she was ripped off her feet as something grabbed her around the waist and lifted her into the air. She just caught the glimmer of the Knight Girl's sword before the battle in the hall was swept out of her sight, the cold rattling of a chain and the sounds of groaning metal flooding her ears. Colors and shapes blurred past her as she was thrown into the sky, and as she felt herself beginning to head towards the ground, she heard a voice. Deep and powerful, it echoed through her head as she caught sight of a pair of great glowing eyes, burning with a soulless anger. The words came to her, reverberating as though from the bottom of her heart as the great hooked weapon holding her like a vice swung down into the ground. "ALL....WILL....DROWN...." Then with a jolt, everything went dark. ---- Riley was floating through nothingness. She opened her eyes. Colors and shapes swam dimly in front of her, obscured in the dark mist. Sparks of purple creased through the blackness, echoing with strange unearthly sounds. Was she dead? If this was death, it didn't feel too bad. It felt...calm...warm...she felt safe here. She looked down at herself, and saw the purple sparks were coming from her, flowing around her like water. She could only see her body from the shape that the sparks made when they wrapped around her. Riley wondered why she wasn't scared. Maybe in this place, she reasoned, there wasn't any reason to be afraid. It was like...she belonged here. [i]"-Forethought-"[/i] [i][color=MediumOrchid]"Is someone there?"[/color][/i] Riley didn't open her mouth to speak, the words instead resounding from somewhere distant, yet close. Like she was projecting her thoughts on a speaker. The odd shapes seemed to intensify with the sound of every new voice, some in languages she never heard before. A few words jumped out from the mire at her, though... [i]"-change the world."[/i] [i]"-storm coming in."[/i] [i]"-killing us, send the-[/i] [i]"-no Zhanya don't-!"[/i] [i]"-who sends people a bleedin' alien--[/i] [i][color=MediumOrchid]"Miss Jordan? Is that you?"[/color][/i] The shapes began to move faster now, becoming more distinct as the whispers cascaded over one another into a dull roar. [i]"-never seen power like this-"[/i] [i]"-protect her-"[/i] [i]”-I’ve made it back-”[/i] "LOOK OUT, THE ANCHOR!" Riley opened her eyes with a start as the world rushed back to her. The darkness was gone, replaced by the blue-orange glow of the setting son. She was back in Pacific Point again, lying spread-eagled in an intent on the road. Realizing what was around her, and what woke her out of that state in the first place, she spun to her side and missed the heavy metal weapon coming down on her by mere inches. Rolling back to her feet, she watched the massive iron being drawn back by the chain, spotting people dotting the sides of the road, taking in the spectacle of Riley fighting whatever it was that wrenched her from the city hall. Some were in uniforms, some protected others with their bodies, some held up strange electronic devices she had never seen before. Any other day she would have been in a panic because she had been seen publicly, but as Jordan once said, she had bigger fries to fish. Or something to that effect. The ground shook violently as the great metal weapon was drawn back, its owner obscured by the settling cloud of dust and debris. Riley could see the town hall quite a distance away, with a great chunk of the wall missing after being cleaved by what must have been the hook thing, what she heard someone call an 'anchor'. Bracing herself for the fight of her life, Riley planted her feet and prepared to give it her all, fighting through the sharp pain resurfacing in her leg. A massive hand reached out from the cloud to grab the anchor as it stepped forward. Riley's heart sank as she recognized the hateful red eyes through the smog, and as they approached, a [url=http://img11.deviantart.net/538e/i/2014/203/5/4/nautilus_lol_wallpaper_by_77silentcrow-d7rromi.png]massive metal man[/url] emerged onto the street. Encased in rusted metal, it crushed a car underfoot as it approached her, hoisting the anchor into the air and planting on his shoulder as he lumbered forward. Riley faltered as the shadow of the rusted metal monster fell on her, daring her to try and fight back as it took one last great step to get into a fighting stance, its great red eyes peering from underneath the wrought iron brow. "YOU'RE IN THE DEEP END NOW," the great monster roared at her, the soulless rage in its voice slamming into her heart like a rusted iron spike. Riley's every instinct told her to run, to save herself. She couldn't beat something that could rip her from the inside of a building and throw her halfway down the street. Nothing could. But that wasn't going to stop her from trying, was it? [color=MediumOrchid]"You don't scare me," [/color]Riley cried out defiantly. [color=MediumOrchid]"Give me your best shot, leadhead!"[/color] --- "What do you mean 'you lost her'? How the bleedin' hell could you lose Riles!?!" Jordan Fletcher aimed a frustrated kick at a diminutive mage in a red robe to vent her anger, sending it flying across her street. "I'm not sure if you looked out your window today, but the entire city has been under attack by Atari rejects," Dr. Martel explained over the phone, sounding exhausted and irritable. "I couldn't exactly let the generator go up in flames, and since you weren't around-" "It's not my bleedin' fault if a bunch of Tetrinos barricade me in my own foockin' FLAT!" Jordan all but shouted into her cell phone, her accent becoming more and more pronounced the angrier she got. She considered aiming another kick at the group of little red minions flowing down her street for the hell of it. "Took me ages to clear enough lines to squeeze out the window. So you don't have any clue what happened to her?" "Well if she managed to get caught by the...oh bugger..." "What now?" Jordan demanded, hearing the sound of a television set having the volume turned up. "Our friend is making the six o'clock news." "WHAT!?!" Jordan's shout made a few of the minions jump and look at her nervously. "There's a report on a new superhuman fighting one of the characters this Game Genie is throwing around. I recognize the tentacles, it's definitely our mutual friend." Martel exposited in a hushed tone, clearly not wanting to reveal too much to the other Poseidon personnel nearby. "I don't recognize who she's fighting, but it's certainly....big." Jordan swallowed nervously. "Well, what does he look like?" "Well he was throwing an anchor on a chain around...oh, the camera zoomed in on him. He looks like he's wearing one of those old fashioned diver's suits..." Jordan glanced back at the parade of little minions, now flanking a tiny wooden tank that trundled along the street path. She recognized the game they came from, and that meant... "...it's Nautilus. Fuck me, she's fighting Nautilus." "The submarine?" "No, it's a character from a game called League of...never mind, too long to explain, where is Riley right now?" "The main road leading to City Hall, should be a couple minutes away. Fletcher, you aren't going to try and fight that thing, are you?" "No, but I have an idea of what to do," Jordan replied, hanging up before Martel could offer a rebuttal. If Riley was fighting Nautilus, that meant she must be considered a Champion. Jordan hadn't played recently, but she still remembered that the key to beating any opponent was using the right build. And for that Riley needed a good item. Something good against tanks. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an explosion. The minions that passed by her had bumped into something that exploded in a purple mist. As she watched them slow down and dissolve into pixels, a crazy stupid idea popped into her head. If Nautilus was around, that meant other Champions were running around Pacific Point, and that poisoned explosion could only have been the work of one of them. "Teemo?" Jordan called out, feeling both desperate and incredibly stupid. "Captain Teemo? Are you around here?" There was a little puff of smoke as a fuzzy little [url=http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Teemo_0.jpg]creature[/url] appeared in front of her, bedecked in scouting gear and wielding a blowpipe. Standing no taller then her waist, the yordle lowered his weapon upon seeing Jordan, looking up at her red hair through his squinted little eyes. "Miss Fortune?" Teemo piped up, sounding lost. "Why aren't you in your lane? Is Draven giving you trouble?" "No, Draven's fine, but our...mid laner is having trouble against Nautilus," Jordan explained, running with Teemo's misnaming and trying desperately to remember all of the jargon. "Do you have a...Liandry's Torment?"