Dusty

Wrath of Darkness

Ah okay, I missed that.

Wrath of Darkness

Are they up in the treehouse, or are they all staged down on the ground?

Animorphs: The Reckoning

“I don’t know if what happened to the natives is a great analogy to compare too.” Mason crossed his arms hugging them tight to his body as the horrible realization sank in. “Actually, it might be too perfect! Whether it seemed like magic to them or not they were soundly defeated in the end. I can’t believe this, we can presumably morph into animals. What good will that do us? Any old human could take us down with a gun, much less an advanced alien army!” He rounded on Adrian a lamented tone in his voice. He knew the other boy fairly well sharing several classes with him and meant no real disrespect. They’d never been close friends, at least not on a first name basis but Mason held Adrian, and Tammy and Stephanie and Emma in fairly high regard. And yet his fraying nerves and short temper set him on edge, eager to use his fists and regain some control over his life. Even if it was something as baseless as physical dominance.

Struggling to keep his temper in check Mason wheeled about ready to march off when Emma’s terrified cries and transformation caught his attention. Blanching the young man took a step back, morbidly fixated by the scene playing out before his very eyes. It was as if some great invisible hands of a mentally deranged god had descended from heaven and began molding Emma’s body into that of a deer. Her flush bubbled and writhed emerging into strange shapes, fur sprouted like weeds across her body, and her bones and joints crackled as they snapped into shape. Emma’s clothing, made for the human form stretched to its limit and then tore, falling forgotten onto the hiking trail. Mason recognized the shapeshifting from the previous night, when the menacing Vissor Three changed form to consume the andalite prince. However here, watching it occur to someone he knew, there was something terribly different and more terrifying about the morphing.

Then she bolted.

Seeing that the others were equally shocked by this occurrence Mason made an off the cuff and irrational choice. Leaving the others talking Mason ran in Emma/deer’s footsteps crashing through the close-nit trees and snatching brambles, brushing aside bushes and plant life that got in his way. For a moment he kept Emma’s upturned white tail in sight, but within seconds even Mason’s swift pace couldn’t compete and she vanished between the trees. Struggling on for another hundred meters more Mason finally gave up, leaning against a tree and huffing and puffing to catch his breath.

“Emma!” He yelled casting about for some sign that could direct him on. Mason was no tracker, and he’d never bothered wandering the woods out behind the school to any extent. Turning this way and that Mason realized in a heartbeat he’d gotten himself lost. “Emma where are you? It’s not safe out here, there’s wolves and hunters and God knows what else. Emma come back!” Two hours, that’s how much time they had before they became permanently entrapped. Sure Emma had only been in the morph for a few minutes, but why did she run away? She could be lost and killed out there on her own, an easy target for any predator. Setting his jaw Mason pressed on attempting every once in a while to call out her name, trying not to think about how much more lost he was becoming by the second.

Animorphs: The Reckoning

“You don’t know that for sure.” Mason said, arguing against Tammy’s reasoning and gesturing towards Lalna in a meaningful way. “Are you guys listening to yourselves? Aliens, invasions, and super powers? That’s crazy talk, that sort of thing doesn’t happen. But you know what does happen, freaks like him exposing kids to dangerous drugs because he’s wandering around free as you please and not locked up in the loony bin where he belongs!” For a moment Mason’s anger grew to the point where he felt like striking Lalna, and removing a few teeth from the egocentric man’s big mouth. Curling his hands into fists he took a step forward but was almost immediately halted by Emma’s sudden movement. Awestruck Mason watched in disbelief as the young girl stepped forward and laid a gentle hand upon the deer’s upturned head. The creature seemed frozen, as if turned to wax, not even blinking as an invisible energy passed between acquired and acquirer.

The spell was broken by the deer’s rapid exit. Mason sat down hard on the dirt path, clutching his head as a fresh migraine permeated his consciousness. Whatever he had just witnessed, it was real. There was power there, a power he’d never really imagined to be truly possible. No amount of rationalization could really allow for comprehension with this new reality and at last Mason accepted that there may be some truth in the unexplainable. Faith would have to accommodate where reason fail to provide.

“I – How – I don’t understand…” Mason moaned still somewhat unwilling to believe that, even though Emma could touch and hypnotize the deer, she could now morph into it. Although it only made sense that if one part of the equation fit, the second part should function properly as well. “Elfangor, he thought-spoke to us didn’t he. He told us to focus hard on the creature we acquired and we would change…” Mason sighed, squeezing at his skull to try and rid himself of the pain. “I’m not sure we should do this, if it is real. How much could five kids and a nut-job scientist really do against what we saw in that construction site? We’d end up getting killed, or worse getting our families killed. And I can’t lose another family, not again.”

Miraculous America

Unbeknownst to Serpentine the duo heroes had managed to lessen the tide of oncoming students with their ravenous assault upon the evil teacher. The small army suffered from a distinct weakness which the three heroes continued to exploit, as the bewitched kids reacted unanimously to their master’s commands, flowing like a powerful tide rather than cooperating entities. Even as Serpentine wavered at the mercy of her foes, they abandoned their attack, instead rushing to the aid of their commander and leaving Serpentine to her own devices.

Still dazed Serpentine staggered to her feet trying to focus on the situation playing out. Talon seemed to have successfully secured the teacher’s weapon, effectively disarming him of his most potent power. That being said the uniformed professor still posed a significant threat with his immense strength and speed, though he paled in comparison to Fruitta on the latter, as she was moving at incredible levels. But how long could she keep it up? Hopefully for an extended period, in the meantime Serpentine imagined it was up to Talon and her to figure out how to fix Mr. Johnson.

But what if he was like this permanently now? What if there was no way to change him back to his old self?

There was no time to think about that. They needed ideas, and fast. Serpentine wished Ossar was here to give some sort of advice, but he was trapped in her necklace until Serpentine deactivated the suit. Serpentine’s eyes widened. Of course, they had to destroy whatever was giving Mr. Johnsen his abilities and his suit and powers would vanish like smoke! Darting forward Serpentine waved her arms trying to get Fruitta’s attention.

“Hey, see if there’s any jewelry or charms or something on him! He must have a miraculous item like us that’s giving him power. We can break it to stop him for good!”

Animorphs: The Reckoning

Yeah, conflict early on!

Mason's gonna need some time to adjust, this is a big deal after all. And his life has been tumultuous enough without adding an alien invasion on top of it.

Animorphs: The Reckoning

For the first time in a long time, the seemingly endless hours of school passed in a daze. Mason spent the entire day trying to comprehend his dream he experienced the previous night. The one that seemed so real, like a memory, so much so that he could still recall the cool touch of the blue cube against his hand, the rush of power that flooded his body and sent ripples down his spine, and the scent of charred flesh and metal as the yeerk dracon beams destroyed the andalite and his ship.

An amazing, terrifying, and vivid dream. So unbelievable, but so real. The nagging worry that he was losing his mind, coupled with the brilliant detail that he could remember of the last night brought on a slight headache. And the pain only seemed to double when Mason received the note, stuffed into the vents of his locker.

Meet us at the trailhead behind the school at three.

Mason wasn’t sure what to make of the note, its quick scrawl indicated haste, and there could only be one reason for meeting some unknown person behind the school. Hit by a wave of nausea Mason decided to skip out on his next class, spending the afternoon in the boys’ room mentally debating whether to tear the note to shreds, or meet Tammy, Adrian, and whoever else had been with him that night in the abandoned construction site. Powers, responsibilities, alien invasions, mind control, he wanted no part in all of that.

In the end he did both.

Leaving the shredded remains of the note on the bathroom floor Mason hiked out around the school, cautiously approaching the place where he’d been asked to meet ‘Us’, cautious because he already had had bad occurrences in abandoned places. Already a small group had gathered, and with rising dread Mason recognized them all. Joining them Mason remained silent, trying to find some explanation which didn’t involve acceptance. Only once the deer appeared, and Emma excitedly indicated that she wanted to ‘acquire’ it did Mason speak up.

“You’ll never get any closer to that deer. It’ll run away” He said, almost cruelly. He didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but the confusing day had left him short of nerve. “You all know we just got pricked by… Some drug laced needle, or inhaled some toxin or something that gave as hallucinations right.” Grasping at straws Mason stared around at the others, trying to display a shield of seriousness to hide his anxiety. “That’s right, we all just happened to be there at the same time, and all saw similar things in our state. We probably need to go to the doctor or something. There’s no aliens, no yeerks, no powers.” He turned almost accusingly towards Lalna, pointing at the strange man in anger. “It was probably you wasn’t it. You’re kinda weird, what’d you give us that made us see all of that at the construction site? I ought to call the cops on you for giving kids some experimental and potentially dangerous narcotic!”

Miraculous America

I'm thinking our heroes should be in dire straights so they can show off their new powers.

Miraculous America

“Really cute girl.” Serpentine almost choked loosing focus for the merest of seconds. As if sensing her weakness a small army of the weirdos rushed forward trying to grab at her arms. Serpentine wrenched herself free from their grasp with shocking ease kicking away the closest one. Although supplemented by the suit’s powers Serpentine was still no trained combatant, she floundered about delivering weak blows with her battle fans only keeping the tide of zombiefied kids at bay thanks to her new abilities.

“I did, yeah she got away. Definitely, perfectly safe, really cute girl, uh huh.” Serpentine stammered to Talon once there was a lull in the fighting long enough to get a word in edgewise. The eagle hero didn’t give her much time to recover her breath however, laying out his plan to try and disarm the despotic teacher.

“Sure I can try but-“ It was too late, Talon launched himself forward trying to entangle his own weapon around Mr. Johnson’s. The plan seemed desperate to Serpentine but she couldn’t wait around to worry over the tactic. Rushing forward she bowled over a group of enslaved students reattaching her battle fans to her belt for safe keeping. Hoping Talon was successful Serpentine leapt like a surprised cat and snatched ahold of Mr. Johnson’s dominate hand before he could react, expecting to break the teacher’s weaker grip with ease.

“Off with you, you bad girl.” Mr. Johnson shouted, showing immense strength of his own as he raised Serpentine clear off the ground with one arm, leaving her dangling by his wrist. Before Serpentine could realize what was happening he shook her free of his arm and delivered a powerful kick to her face. Serpentine rocketed backwards into a crowd of the waiting students, dark spots clouding her vision as she struggled to comprehend what had just occurred. Disoriented and confused Serpentine thrashed about trying to rise, slowly succumbing to the weight of the enveloping horde of glassy-eyed students that crowded in on all sides.

Warhammer Fantasy: The Guild of Esteemed Sellswords - An adventure in the Warhammer Fantasy world!

The young Bretonnian flushed with pride at Volker’s words of his countrymen’s skill in cavalry. Frans Vou was a knight and nobleman after all and knew well the discipline and skill which the realm chevaliers possessed as they rode into battle. Frans Vou’s pleasure was short lived however as Volker continued, explaining his recent duties within the Guild. Guard duty and patrolling was the work of men-at-arms not professional warriors. Such tiresome duties did not sit well with Frans Vou and he stirred in his seat, glad once Volker changed the subject and answered him on his apprehensions with the Old Folks’ banter.

“Aye, zose zings do not concern moi. I too see no need to meddle in zair affairs. I zal take ou’s advice and leave old battles to rest in zair graves.” Frans Vou said in dismissal, waving away his earlier concerns like they were a stale scent on the breeze. Just then, a thin middle-aged man who had managed to enter unnoticed by Frans Vou spoke up from the corner of the room, announcing his purpose, and also the opportunity to speak with the Guild’s recruiter himself. Standing from his table Frans Vou nodded to Volker, utter a friendly. “Excuse moi for zee moment friend.” Turning away the knight proceeded across the tavern, his hand resting relaxed upon his sword hilt as he came before the recruiter, boldly introducing himself.

“Salutations good man, I am Sir Francois Vou Bluspereaux, and I am interested in joining zee Guild. For important duties only, of course.”