[center]
[h1]Mistakes and Messes[/h1]

[img]http://i65.tinypic.com/21o8tg4.png[/img]    [img]http://i.imgur.com/qObCsLJ.png[/img]    [img]http://i67.tinypic.com/2njvpci.png[/img]

[img]http://i68.tinypic.com/33p7a8k.png[/img]    [img]http://i68.tinypic.com/mhf02b.jpg[/img] 

[h2][color 33ec06]Marcus[/color] | [color 8A3DFF]Emma[/color] | [color ff57ff]Siena[/color]
[color 662d91]Kusari[/color] | [color a187be]Allison[/color][/h2]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img]
[hr][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟙𝟜, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝕎𝕚𝕤𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕕, 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕪𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕   / /   𝕋𝕠𝕨𝕟   / /   ~𝟙𝟟𝟝𝟝[/color][hr]
[sub]Collab with [@Chasers115] [@Diggerton] [@PapiTan] [@PiercingLight]  [@VarionusNW][/sub][/center]

A solid hit. The soft shuddering of the man's head seemed to reasonate up Marcus's weapon and into his arm, giving him a disturbing sense of the impact. He was cold, and he could see the crystalline structures starting to form on him. His body was freezing, growing stiffer as he looked the man in the face, preparing for another swing.

A crack of thunder, and a bolt of lightning traveled through his arm. He could already feel the warm blood starting to collect, doing its best to stave off the frost, but unsuccessful. Static again, as he found himself a few steps back, the bullet wound having closed itself completely. A strange emptiness filled his mind - he was defenseless for now, no safeguards if something happened.

The welcome sound of the heavy vehicle lurching forward, and proceeding to speed off. They were safe - he'd done his job. 

Everything after that happened so fast. The sound of bone crunching and flesh splitting again. By this point, he understood the implications. His head turned to find the source, immediately spotting the old man who'd come out with him.

[i]He hadn't even learned his name[/i]

He felt weightless again, there was screaming, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, as if they were underwater. The ice was beginning to crawl across his body, and he was ready for it. He spied another figure - Siena. This was wrong; she wasn't supposed to be here. Another one followed - Sander. He was supposed to be helping Callan take care of Factory.

Loud sounds, spikes, crunching, blood. Marcus floated helplessly as the frost disappeared. A monster had saved him...no...[i]Sander[/i] had saved him. Another person he'd dragged into this. Someone else at danger because of his failures.

Almost on cue, Marcus caught a floating body out of the corner of his eye. Lawrence, who he'd failed twice. He was bleeding to death, and there was nothing Marcus could do as he floated. He had to help...there had to be [i]something[/i]...

[hr][i]
Weightlessness. Fear.  A strange absence of pain again, despite his charred body. His bones were whole, his body burned, but not shredded. The world spun outside a cracked a windscreen. The horizon was different; none of the ruined mess he remembered. None of the destruction or devastation that so frequently plagued his nightmares. The only thing he saw were shadows, twisting, turning, always right-side up despite his tumbling. 

Constantly changing shapes, which seemed all too familiar to him. People? A person? A well-known stranger, a face that he recognized but forgot. It was big, whoever it was. So big he could barely see it. He knew what it meant, but the meaning was lost. A promise – a solution to the problem before him. 

The shapes shattered with the windshield, as if they’d been printed on the inside of it. It was all confusingly obvious, though the thoughts were lost as the ground rushed up to meet him.
[/i][hr] 
...Maybe there [i]was[/i] something he could do.

"[color 33ec06]Emma![/color]" he shouted, suddenly filled with a burning strength. "[color 33ec06]Push him over to me![/color]" he guestured to Lawrence as he shouted. Like a perverse balloon, he floated, but all Marcus had to do was get close enough...

Emma's world was spinning. She didn't want to move. She didn't want to fight. She just wanted this to be done with. She heard Marcus's words, perceived them, spinning around to face both him and the floating corpse of Lawrence... no, not quite a corpse, Emma realized. She'd thought he was dead but there was a faint sparkle of life in his eyes. It took her a moment, but she complied, pushing her dying roommate towards Marcus, in the same move floating away in the opposite direction. Maybe Marcus would be able to save him, but she didn't dare to hope.

Lawrence's body rotated slowly as it moved towards Marcus, the previously congealed and slowly freezing blood now streaming from the wound again and curling upwards in ribbons and rivulets.

Giving up on Siena at the moment, the blonde Aberration raised three spikes, one for each person within her focal point: Marcus, Emma, and Lawrence. The rising stakes of asphalt branched outwards into thinner, longer spikes as it grew, and even those branches extended further, the fine points becoming dangerously needle-thin as it approached their increasingly higher positions in the air.

There were a series of blessings that had managed to rescue Siena time and time again in a short period. The first of which was the mere presence of the Wishalloy when one of the unknowns had ended up trying to impale her with spikes. A few cuts, a few more stinging sensations that were dull compared to the pain she'd amplified in the ones already on her arm--far from it, really. They buzzed with an itch that was a step down from legitimate pain in comparison, far less than the pain of hitting the ground yet again. 

She was getting tired of being pushed around. 

But that thought was barely able to complete itself before she was acutely aware of the feeling of the earth trying to raise beneath her, only to suddenly cease as a series of events transpired in rapid succession. Movement, squealing tires, the burning from her own injuries cutting out to their original levels of pain as Vale's name faded from her. The expected spikes never came to pierce through her--another blessing (wasn't it...?). 

The end result of it all was...floating. Weightless floating that bode badly for most people. With her phone still clutched in a vice grip--[i]another sensation of discomfort a step below pain. She must have been gripping too hard[/i]--it was easy enough for the mage to work out her next plan of action...but with the hostile subnatural's ability, the risk of drawing a mark's name was too risky. Screaming into a megaphone would have been less obvious.

Again, the thought didn't get to fully clear before another few hidden blessings arrived. Sander first, giving Siena enough time to begin putting the wheels of her plan in motion. Enough time to pull up the source, enough time to begin drawing the name.

Fortunate for her, really, that there were evidently [i]bigger threats[/i] than her.

All he needed was a spark, one sign that his teammate was still breathing. A short glimmer of hope as he came spiraling towards Marcus like a lazy football throw. Time was the enemy here, but the burning feeling inside him told him that he had a weapon against such an enemy.

He reached out, and barely tapped Lawrence as his body approached. It was a slight touch, but it was enough. The blood stopped flowing. As a matter of fact, Lawrence stopped completely, his body shimmering and artifacting like a badly damaged DVD. Marcus's strength had left him, but it might have been enough to help at this moment. He'd stolen Lawrence's time, but if those paused seconds kept him from bleeding out, it was worth it.

While Lawrence was still, Marcus took the opportunity to grab him, using him as a makeshift anchor in the reversed gravity. It wasn't perfect, and he didn't have the most cover from the approaching thorns, but he held on anyway.

The spreading spikes reached them just as Marcus took cover behind Lawrence, tips shattering against the immovable student frozen in time. Meanwhile, the main spike narrowly missed Emma in her slow backwards trajectory, but its thin branches caught up her clothes and hair, reaching out with sharp point to pierce the unprotected skin of her face and upper neck. The wishalloy prevented any further damage, but that only made the spikes protrude around her like a cage.

By the time Siena managed to pull her mark, things had begun to quickly go downhill. Eyes now golden with a familiar name behind them, her mind began to fire a thousand thoughts a second. What should she do? Obviously, she had to help Emma and Marcus and...Lawrence--was that his name?--but with so many spikes, so little space to be precise...and even if she got them out of harm's way, the subnatural was only going to have more opportunities to create the deadly spires.

[i]'[color=ff57ff]So kill her.[/color]'[/i]

That...that wasn't her.

But Victor Vale had left his mark. Left it just like he had the first time, the second time...the fifteenth, the sixteenth. Blotted out the feel-good [i]bullshit[/i] with a black marker and left only the thoughts that mattered. No fear, no guilt, just a hollow sensation that craved to be filled with a goal, and it was easier to make that goal vengeance and frustration than anything else in the moment. Someone was going to do it in the end either way, right?

[color=8A3DFF]”Shit, shit, shit, shit…”[/color]

The words came out of her mouth in between strained breaths, panic setting in as the spikes suddenly forced her to turn her attention to the battle around her. Luckily the Wishalloy had prevented the brunt of the damage., although Emma was vaguely aware of the fact that Hazel’s armor wasn’t faring nearly as well, holes piercing through it and moving through to shred the clothing underneath. As she struggled to escape the grasp of the spike’s she realized that they’d formed a makeshift prison around her, digging slowly into her face. A series of screams escaped her mouth, franticaly hoping that one of the others would stop the enemy mage. 

A scream--it was hard to identify voices when they were in that state--tore through the air, brutally calling Siena's attention like a foghorn. If she didn't do it, someone else would...or perhaps she was concerned about her peers? Well...no, that wasn't exactly accurate either, was it? Wishing that she still had Vale's powers at her disposal to root her determination, the girl could do little more than feel a flicker of gratitude for how efficiently his name had muted the things that would have made her falter.

She didn't want to hear the screaming again.

The smell of sulfur assaulted her senses, punctuating the churning in her stomach that made her wish she had eaten something more substantial before they were shipped off to battle. Reappearing with a telltale [i]bamf[/i] behind the subnatural, Siena reached for anything she could grab hold of. Hair, clothing, skin, [i]anything[/i].

Her hand caught hold of a blonde ponytail and the Aberration spun around, ready to attack again as the spikes near Emma and Marcus receded slowly from the loss of concentration.

There was a part of her that was frightened. Not of the fact that she was engaging against a human being with intentions of physical harm, but of the fact that she was aware of the urge to crack a faint smile at succeeding in the first step. This...this wasn't her, right? With years of pulling on her own hair ruthlessly, Siena was more than aware of how to tighten her grip with a slight twist of her wrist and a brutal tug. It was harder to find satisfaction without feeling, [i]hearing[/i] the singing pops of some strands snapping under the duress. 

And knowing she had enough purchase, Siena dragged the blonde with her into her next jump, the brunette's focus bringing her toward the source of the earlier scream. No matter how the girl tried to explain it, that terrible noise had come from one of her teammates. 

[i]And she was going to make this [b]bitch[/b] pay.[/i]

(Not her...)

In the time since she'd first awakened to her power, so to speak, Siena had effectively taken the names of at least seven different teleporters. The one she'd always felt most at home with was Nightcrawler, Kurt, whatever iteration she took. That was why she'd...[i]practiced[/i], she supposed. Never anything as major as a jump to another continent--too scary, far too scary--but when the location could be seen...

[i]BAMF![/i]

All she had to do was get close enough to get the hostile stuck in her own creations.

The spikes shattered against Lawrence, the sudden makeshift shield being a pleasant side effect of his new power. He was safe for now, but the screams of someone nearby informed him that someone else wasn't.

[i]Emma[/i]

Another solution. Another idea that could go poorly if things went wrong. So many variables; so many outcomes that didn't look good to him. But he had to help. Emma meant more to him than he did, so he [i]had[/i] to try.

He squirmed around Lawrence, like a spider, positioning himself on Lawrence's back and steadying himself against the 'anchor'. Lawrence was his platform now, his shield against plunging into the clouds.

He readied himself, aiming carefully. [i]One shot[/i]. Aim a little lower on the spikes to account for pull.

He leaped, launching himself upside down towards Emma's spire. The ground above him seemed so far away, and missing this would mean a possibly infinite fall into the sky below.

[i]One shot.[/i]

Up until now the voices being transmitted to her had gone mostly unnoticed by Kusari. It seemed like someone's channel was constantly open, causing ambient sounds of conflict to reach her ears. While she couldn't make out what people were saying, there was one thing she understood, the screaming. Her pace quickened, she would reach the scene before Lily and Allison but that was probably for the best. Whatever was happening there must be dangerous, Lily could come in once things calmed down.

She rounded a corner, and her senses were overloaded. Spikes jutting out of the ground, people and everything else not attached to the ground floating in the air. As she was still moving forward she entered the anti-gravity field, before she floated away she slammed her right foot to the ground, anchoring herself in place. [color=662d91][i]Okay, okay, okay, what's happening? FOCUS.[/i][/color] She looked around frantically, trying to piece together the scene as quickly as she could. 

She recognized everyone here but three people, one was somehow not floating like the others. [color=662d91][i]So she's making everything float.[/i][/color] Zoe had managed to grab a hold of the girl, if she remembered Zoe's magic correctly that was basically checkmate. She couldn't hear what she was saying, but considering the girl wasn't melting like the wicked witch she had to assume Zoe was trying to get her to lower the others. There wasn't much she could do over there. Her eyes moved to a winged monster. For a moment she thought it was one of Dreamcatcher's creations, but looking closer it appeared to be a mage, and dead. Nothing to do there. Looking up at one of the spires she saw Emma trapped in a cage of thin spikes. Marcus was floating towards her, but could he do anything about the cage?

Kusari decided on her action. Wrapping her tentacle around the spire holding Emma she pulled herself closer to it. The surface felt like a cactus, but considering the pain she'd felt before, the pricks to her tentacle weren't too bothersome. Her right foot landed on it's surface, and her claws cut into it. Using her right hand as well she quickly climbed upwards until the cage around Emma was right in front of her. She carefully cut the thin spikes apart, and grabbed Emma by the arm. [color=662d91]"Hold onto me."[/color] Kusari said, placing Emma's arm around her shoulders. 

She then looked to Marcus, who was getting nearer.  It was simple enough to just grab him out of the air using her tentacle. As she started to climb back down she suddenly noticed the exact state the others were in. Sander seemed fine, but Lawrence was frozen in the air as if he were in some sort of stasis? Savannah was up in the air not moving, but she didn't see any blood so Kusari assumed she was simply unconscious  Callan was missing her damn arm. [color=662d91]"I would really like an explanation for all of this later."[/color] She said, as her feet touched the ground. She dug her right foot's sharp edges into the ground to keep from floating up again.

Another monster on the field. Marcus's heart nearly stopped in his chest as he  saw it climbing towards Emma. Although, after a shameful amount of time,  his heart slowed back to normal as he recognized the figure. Kusari, in  all her tentacled, raptor-leg glory.

Salvation, in the form of a giant tentacle snatching him out of the air. Perhaps  he'd been wrong about only having one shot - a thought process that was  redundant now that they were safely on the ground.

Emma winced as she was pulled from the cage. She had seen Marcus flying towards her, but it was Kusari that had freed her. Emma remained wordless as they floated down to the ground. She heard Brent’s words, but frowned in response. She was useless, again and the fact that Brent apparently believed in her despite everything stung.
 
Her hand found her phone. [color=8A3DFF]”Sorry, but…”[/color] 
 
[color=8A3DFF][i]Make up a lie, say something, don’t let them know[/i][/color] Emma hesitated for a moment, [color=8A3DFF]”I’m out of power. I can’t do anything.”[/color] the lie came out easy. Not exactly a lie, just an omission of a truth she didn’t want others to know.
 
Now she turned to Kusari. [color=8A3DFF]”Thanks, Kusari.”[/color] another uncomfortable moment of silence. [color=8A3DFF]”Like I told Brent, I can’t do anything anymore… I’m… I’m sorry I can’t help.”[/color]  

Kusari almost wanted to ignore Emma, she really was not fond of humoring self pity. [color=662d91]"If you have a working pair of arms and legs, then you aren't useless. Get your act together."[/color] She said.

[color=9e0b0f][i]Welcome to hell, Allison Revel.[/i][/color]

Allison Revel ran after Kusari as fast as she could, Lilliana close behind, the sounds of the battle becoming more clear as they aproached. Allison came to a halt at the edge of a glowing pillar of yellow light. Everything inside of it was floating, including a large number of her fellow students.

Kusari was bringing Marcus and Emma to the ground, Lawrence was seemingly frozen in time, Zoe was grabbing onto a girl who seemed to be the source of the yellow pillar, and Callan was missing an arm. Everything had gone to shit, as per usual. 

[color=a187be]"Lily,"[/color] Allison's voice came out cold and sharp, just loud enough to be heard over nearby screaming, [color=a187be]"Transfer Callan's wounds to the girl Zoe is with."[/color] The brunette didn't wait for Lilliana to respond, and instead dived into the anti-gravity field, floating towards Kusari. [color=a187be]"Kusari, we need to get everyone to the ground, they're going to fall any minute now!"[/color] Though still cold, there was more urgency in her voice now as she shouted at the tentacle-armed girl.

[color=662d91]"Hold on, we don't want her going into shock or bleeding out while they're still up there."[/color] Kusari said to Allison, who had jumped into the anti-gravity field without a thought. [color=662d91]"Lily, you can transfer the wound to me, we need to help Lawrence too, what's with his body anyway?"[/color] She asked, looking back at the boy's flickering form.

"[color 33ec06]He's frozen. I didn't know how else to help him...[/color]" Marcus softly stammered, clearing his throat and continuing with a little more confidence. "[color 33ec06]He's bleeding out pretty quickly, so as soon as that wears off, you're going to need to heal him too.[/color]" he said, turning to Lily and the girl he'd never seen before. A familiar face, one he'd try to remember a little harder after all was said and done.