Brucenorris007

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce watched his swords fade out of existence, Yzeira's meta energy finally manifesting the pressure he'd felt when the leader of the Order had entered the chamber. Weapons gone, he reached his senses into Jenso's bag for the earth he'd smuggled into the tower, though he did nothing with it beyond familiarize himself with the material again.

His hands now empty, Bruce wondered with some humor how Yzeira's own thought process worked. Did he think Bruce and Alvios being Jenso's handlers? The man couldn't be dissuaded from hitting anything he deemed deserving punishment. It would take all of the guild members the length of time Jenso's journey had spanned to bring him back to a remotely neutral opinion on the issue.

Regardless, Bruce played off of Alvios.

"We'll find you once we've consulted with one another."

'And after we've taken your tower apart!' Sakki sang.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce blinked- the fact that the guild's ultimate target had taken a notepad out, of all things, only to scribble down notes by hand, seemed just a bit ill-fitting to the whole scene.

Although Bruce had been addressed maybe twice so far, he still didn't feel any inclination to act based on Yzeira's suggestion. Inevitably, he found himself adapting, if only slightly, to the pressure he'd felt when the patriarch had first appeared.

Like Alvios, Bruce was internally counseling himself to hedge on the side of caution and be patient, though for slightly different reasons. Sakki afforded Yzeira a recognition not given to others, and so Bruce held.

"Familiar as I am with him," Bruce said slowly. "I do not presume to know the thought processes of either Jenso or the Lightbringer."

Something between an exhalation and a huff of laughter escaped Bruce.

"All due respect and credence to your knowledge, memory and sight, Yzeira, I humbly advise you also avoid doing so."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's foot shifted to one side, lowering his center of gravity. He kept his gaze level on Yzeira, keeping his reactions to the masked... being minimal, only flexing his fingers on the hilt of his blades one by one.

He sensed Alvios' position relative to him and Yzeira. Not that it changed anything- he held his stance. If Yzeira chose to attack, he wouldn't have to bother circling Bruce again. He could tell that much.

'He whispers,' Sakki slurred. 'To make you listen.'

Finally, Bruce deigned to reply.

"Well met," Bruce said, though the greeting sounded forcedly formal, even to him. "The patriarch, I presume."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's nerves and muscles flared into tension. When did he get into the chamber?

He didn't move- more precisely, his instincts were shouting at him to remain still while his mind struggled to avoid going into shock at having his back taken so easily.

'Focus.' Bruce barked at himself, re-establishing his sense of awareness as the chill that had permeated his back finally faded. 'No sudden movements.'

Vale's own end seemed imminent- thinking on what he'd just been told, actually, silence or attempts to combat Yzeira with assassination techniques would be worthless, granted that he was as all-seeing as Vale claimed.

Sakki had quieted significantly, though Bruce felt seething in the back of his mind.

'He is a predator. The kind that can afford to eat only when hungry.'

Bruce slipped the hairband off his wrist, carefully gathering his hair into the ponytail he'd forsaken not days earlier. He'd spoken the truth for Vale- he wanted to earn his right to be alive. When his end came, he had his doubts about whether or not he'd go to the same place his Lucille did.

He was not going to take the chance that she didn't recognize him if they did meet again.

That done, he exhaled slowly, his breath matching the withdrawal of his blade from his sheath. Two fingers ran across the blade's edge, and a familiar red streak seeped into the golden Ki.

He flipped the blade in his hand so that the blunt end ran up his forearm, seeming to pull another identical sword out from an excess flow of Ki at its hilt that he wielded in his other hand.

It was only then that he heard Alvios.

"You."

Despite the sheer pressure of the situation and the gravitas attached to it, and maybe because of it- or perhaps having one of his allies there simply made him a bit braver, Bruce smiled a little.

"I appreciate you playing chaperone, Lightbringer."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce saw, for the first time, just how critical Vale's condition was. These were likely his final words, unless the blood he'd spilled could rejuvenate him. This, rather than any real consideration for his warnings, halted his progress, though the door was within a few sprinting strides.

He turned away from the sight of the vampire's wound, looking through the door rather than at it, seeing nothing. He scoffed.

"Death." he said. It seemed the draw to banter with the vampire was a temptation Bruce would rather not resist.

"Why do people fear it? It only does one thing. Dying can be unique, torturous, painful, swift, merciful. But no, we focus instead on death," Bruce said, idly feeling the elastic material of the hairband around his wrist.
"We waste time running from it, some by seeking it out. It comes all the same. Even the elements meet an end, in their own way."

Bruce looked at Vale again, his eyes lidded and gaze thoughtful though determined.

"What would you have us do? Mortality will catch up to all of us. You once wielded a blade that saw all futures- we turn back now, go home, wait for the fabric of reality to tear itself apart. Death. Some epiphany strikes upon this patriarch you refer to, and he retreats from this dimension without intervention on our part. Death will come. We barge inside, get picked off in some order, and we die. Or," Bruce paused, gripping the hilt of his sword with one hand. "We follow through on everything we've done, take back our part of the universe we were born to, and we succeed. Even then, we'll meet our end some other day."

"I do not fear death, Vale. I fear dying having not earned the right to live."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce's approach of the door didn't falter, but he did spare a glance toward the floor where the vial had shattered and the blood spilled.

Something in Vale's voice changed- subtle, but not impossible to detect. This gave Bruce momentary pause, if only because of Sakki's curiosity.

Bruce slowed his pace- he kept quiet, but he was giving Vale an allotment of time to give him an actual reason not to proceed immediately.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce regarded Vale silently for a moment before darting his eyes about the chamber, noticing how the layout seemed... illogical. Nonetheless, with no other clear exit, and given his experience trying to smash his way inside the tower, Bruce made his way toward the door. Sakki whined from within, but the protest was weak.

'I would hate for it to be easy,' Sakki hummed. 'He's not in the mood to play anyway. Maybe someone else will be.'

As entertaining as banter with the pale bloodsucker could be, Bruce had nothing to say to him. His pace wasn't breakneck nor a crawl, and his blade remained in his sheath ready in case Vale chose to try to detain him.

'Nothing worth changing is ever easy.' Bruce thought.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Entering the tower had been easier than Bruce would have thought- he supposed that might have been intentional, because he had followed the vampire inside on the instinct of Sakki.

Regardless of what had brought him inside, however, the high of turning his powers loose unto a massive stage was waning, and such was fortunate. He'd thus retracted his outward flow of Ki and returned Jeff's hover board to his bag. The real battles ahead would require the mindset of a cold-hearted, ruthless hunter rather than a raging, ferocious hound.

And, upon noticing Vale crouched near the one visible exit of the chamber, Sakki seemed only too happy to adapt to the subtle differences between those roles.

'I want both arms this time.' Sakki hissed.

Deciding that sneaking up from either side would be hoping for too much, even with his Ki output at zero and his sandals off, Bruce let a bit of his aura escape, highly concentrated, into his sheath, while he also formed a familiar shape- one of the spearheads he'd used in their last fight- in his hand. He sent the smaller form in an arcing motion that would bring it about into striking the vial Vale seemed so intent upon.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"The voice of God has ordered that we tone down our powers while we are in the tower." Bruce said aloud, uncertain whether or not the others were listening to him. He turned to see Yzeira lounging apathetically amidst a pile of ancient-looking tomes, many of them expanding as new text was added through his own psychic power.

"So, how should we-" Bruce began, before a single grenade went sailing past him. It exploded a bit early, and managed only to ruffle Yzeira's coat. He glanced back a Jeff, who blinked. Following suit, Bruce hurled his sheath, and Oz his hammer, both beaning Yzeira in the head. The first got him to work out a kink in his neck, while the hammer snapped his head backward before he brought it back to continue reading.

Alvios held his sword like a javelin shot it at Yzeira as Jenso looked from one to the other of his hands. Alvios' blade pierced Yzeira's jugular, and Jenso pointed at the bag he'd given Bruce.

"I've got nothing to throw."

The other four turned to stare at him simultaneously, just as the leader of the Order finally looked up. Jenso came rocketing toward him, his whole being on fire from the sheer friction of traveling through the air. With a massive explosion, the whole chamber was obliterated.

"I think that's how it works."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Bruce noted the oncoming goop and smoke with a lazy eye. He'd been briefly intrigued by Dacer, but he instead chose to aid Alvios in seeing his way to Ada. Noting the smokescreen's tendency to rise, he dove downward, past the clones jumping for him, to match Alvios' pace on his hover board.

The sound of steel resounding through the air caught Sakki's attention. Bruce couldn't help but reminisce at the faint cackle that pricked his ears.

'I remember him! He's fun!' Sakki cried.

Bruce momentarily pushed Sakki back again, rearranging the dirt surrounding him and Alvios into sand that began whirling about twenty feet above them. He couldn't manipulate the air directly, but enough motion and at a great speed, he could summon artificial wind to keep the smoke at bay till they found a way to handle it. As for the creatures-

"I'm ill equipped to permanently dismantle these things," Bruce confessed to Alvios. His familiar chains shot out from his robes, snaring five muk creatures and hurling them, without puncturing them, into the chasm. "Have you anything for that smoke, Lightbringer?"