Megan rolled her eyes at her brother. She didn't believe in birthrights. She also didn't believe that skills and talents had any genetic basis. "I'm Megan first, not some stranger's daughter," she corrected her brother. She didn't regret being the first one to approach the stone and pull a sword from it. As far as she was aware, she was the only one experienced with swordplay. The others seemed to favor archery or kitchen equipment. Her eyes darted over towards the dramatic scene unfolding with two of the kids and she couldn't help but chuckle. "If you wish to kill him, I would recommend asphyxiation. You rival him in size so there is an advantage on your part," she called out to the girl. She wasn't too sure what the rules on murder were in Arcadia anyways.
She had no idea what Isabella meant with the title Captain Britain. The properties of the sword were interesting. She liked the fact that it could cut through just about anything. She was wary about people following her because of it. She wasn't the leadership sort. She liked to stay in the morgue and talk to corpses - she didn't fancy herself a politician or anything. She hoped that they'd be following the sword out of choice though and not from some magic enchantment. "I suppose excalibur has cell service..." she mused, since supposedly the Lady of the Lake could speak through it. The magic of it all boggled the mind.
Runa looked at Klara in confusion. She had to be mixing up squirrel with the word for some other sort of animal. There had to be other deadly predators who lived in trees and she had just misremembered the English word. "Squirrel? Like... the little bushy things that eat nuts?" Runa asked, hoping to receive clarification. Her education in Norway hadn't stressed the English words for animals. Most of what they learned had been the bare minimum needed in order to move around English speaking countries on vacations or for business trips. Ratatoskr hadn't been covered on any syllabus in English class.
Before she could answer Nadia's question though, the blind girl Elizabeth started talking about airing out grievances. Runa frowned slightly. She hadn't cared for Elizabeth, as her only real interaction had been the girl attempting to scare her to death - but Runa had thought it was handled. She had whacked Elizabeth with her new staff. The interaction had ended there. She got the sense that Elizabeth must have treated everyone like that and she frowned even more deeply. She didn't like bullies. She had spent her entire life being treated horribly by kids at school because she wasn't the same. She had the scars - quite literally - to prove it. "Erm, Elizabeth, yes? Please don't take this the wrong way, but this isn't about you," Runa said softly. "We should leave now, I think, in the two groups..." she then added.
Bethany's hand on her shoulder didn't feel comforting at all - mostly since Guin was in a full suit of armor so she couldn't feel the physical contact. She was too focused in on Pietro and his many injuries to even notice her friend's presence. As Edus started off talking and spatting about permission, she had to resist the urge to scream and shake him and demand that he work faster. She didn't care that he wasn't as good as his sister, that wasn't information she needed right now. All she needed was for him to do his job and heal Pietro! She clenched her fists in anger hearing Elizabeth request to be healed. Was she on death's door? No? Then she could wait!
It was a really good thing her helmet made it difficult for people to see her burst into tears as Pietro stood to his feet. She was facing him, away from everyone else, so only he could see her utter relief. Guin stepped out of her suit of armor and pulled him tightly into a hug, not caring that she was exposed to whatever danger Loki was going to send at them next. "D-don't you fucking dare scare me like that again, Pietro!"
"Guina, I didn't mean to... I'm sorry."
Guin blinked her eyes to get the tears to stop. The only problem was each time she blinked, she got a brief mental flashback to finding Muscles' battered corpse at the O.M.E.N. facility. She shuddered involuntarily and gasped a bit for air, like the wind had been knocked out of her. "You're not allowed to die, okay? It's forbidden, like dividing by zero."
"Alright alright, I get it... I don't plan on dying anytime soon."
"Good," she sniffled. She let go of him and looked at Edus for a moment. "Thanks, Battle Nurse." Annoying nickname aside, it was a heartfelt sentiment. Pietro could have died had Edus not been there. She was in his debt now.
Neil Spellman
Location: the Blackbird Hangar Skills: N/A
Neil was still a little bit red from Carolina's kiss on the cheek. The heat seemed to be lingering there like a localized fever. He was a bit worried about her "cat scratch," as his intuition told him it probably wasn't just a little house cat that had been responsible. People were being healed and he frowned slightly, noticing that Iris still wasn't back from wherever she had gone. He really hoped that Mira hadn't permanently damaged her hearing. He had firsthand experience with how difficult it was to adjust to being deaf. His hearing aids were the only thing making up for his horrible skill at ASL.
He glared a bit at Banner for his passive aggressive comment, before scooping up the dice and he rolled. The total was a nine. The orb swirled as the mist formed letters, giving them the latest challenge in this nightmarish game that they would have to overcome:
The jungle witch is filled with strife Be careful or you'll lose your life
"Uh..." Neil frowned slightly. He figured it had to be some sort of person appearing for them to fight - maybe the Runa person people had been mentioning? He wasn't shocked this time as the game spit out a person. She had long dark hair held up in intricate braids. She wore a ripped black dress, something that had once been elegant but had been ruined by months of use in the jungle to survive. Her eyes looked clouded over. Like she was some sort of snake charmer, she conjured up ripples of darkness and shot them towards Lance and Neil. They rushed into their throats and Neil felt like he could hardly breathe, gasping as the newcomer attempted to choke him to death. He was luckier than Lance - Lance didn't have any air in his lungs.
1. ALL SUPERHEROES MUST REGISTER WITH SHIELD AND REVEAL THEIR SECRET IDENTITY
2. SUPERHEROES MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD
3. SUPERHEROES MUST PASS SHIELD TRAINING - EXCEPTIONS INCLUDE TRAINING FROM THE X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, AND AVENGERS
4. ALL SUPERHEROES ARE SUBJECTED TO THE SUPERVISION OF SHIELD
VIOLATION OF THESE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION TO THE RAFT. MINIMUM SENTENCING IS THREE YEARS HOUSE ARREST. JUVENILE OFFENDERS WILL BE TRIED AS ADULTS. REPEAT OFFENDERS HAVE A RECOMMENDED SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT.
ALL VIGILANTE ACTIVITY KNOWN TO SHIELD PERSONNEL MUST BE REPORTED TO THEIR SUPERVISOR OR LEAD IMMEDIATELY.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
CAPTAIN AMERICA ON THE RUN?!?! IRON MAN TAKES CHARGE!
We here at the Daily Bugle just got a tip from an anonymous source that the Avengers have split up!
Iron Man has claimed leadership of the group - we haven't been able to get a quote from the Playboy Billionaire, but our plucky team is on the case!
We'll be updating this story once more details come in, but please if you know anything about this situation or have spotted Captain America, call us out our toll free hotline here: 1-800-SPIDER.
If you want to read about more Avengers news, check out our piece from last Thursday where we explored the affair between Iron Man and Black Widow!
J.J.J.
Braddock Academy - Cardiff: 12:30 A.M.
"Maybe?" Captain Britain said with a slight shrug. "It happened a while ago. Missions tend to blend together and even if they don't, things go so fast that I just can't say for sure... I wish you had asked me these things sooner, I would have been able to be more help." A perfect memory wasn't one of his powers sadly. The chilling appearance of the skrulls had been his defining recollection of that mission - he just couldn't recall for sure if they had been separated and if so, who had been on their own. It was entirely likely everyone had been alone at some point when they were escaping the skrulls.
"Hill's Laws? I haven't heard of those," Psylocke said, an eyebrow raised. "Brian and I can come with you to visit Xavier. We ought to see him anyways to find out more about Glimpse's disappearance."
The first detail Bonnie noticed about the apartment was an excessive pile of plums on the dining room table. The next things she noticed were the three Avengers and a man with a metal arm. Falcon, Hawkeye, and Captain America - all of them largely ordinary humans with extraordinary skills (and the super soldier serum in Cap's case). Her mind started cranking out ideas on how to fight. Her top priority would have to be keeping the shield away from Rogers, it defied the laws of physics and could easily take both her and Cass out. With the shield taken care of, Cass could conjure up some elemental might and hopefully subdue everyone in the room. It would have to be quick though - if their opponents made the first move, then that would be it. It would be game over.
"You're right, Cap. This neighborhood really is going to hell," the Falcon said, shaking his head.
"Reed, Chase - you two shouldn't be here," Barton warned. "You know this isn't right."
"What part of keeping kids from playing hero and getting themselves killed do you object to, Barton? What's so bad about keeping vigilantes from playing judge, jury, and executioner?" Bonnie posed. She shifted her weight and had her hands over her pockets, ready to grab her knives at a moment's notice. The tension in the air was palpable.
"The last time I was in a country where people blindly followed orders and those who were different were put on lists, it didn't go so well," Captain America argued, breaking his silence. "Now before we get started, I'm going to give you a chance to leave." Captain America then reached for his shield, it was resting on a chair, but a knife suddenly appeared in his hand before he could grab it.
Bonnie's heart was pounding. She'd never stabbed Captain America before.
"Whatever gave you that impression, Dr. Sparks?" Strange asked, his words dripping with sarcasm. His unexpected allies had turned Mephisto into a humanoid form, frozen the ground around the demon, and put an arrow through his cloven leg. The demon had been particularly active lately, even briefly possessing the Scarlet Witch and forcing her to attack the West Coast Avengers. Strange levitated a devil's cage in front of him, attempting to direct Mephisto's essence inside.
The demon growled, briefly featuring three heads, before shifting form once more. A gigantic red dragon was in front of them. Mephisto blew a gigantic cone of fire at all of them, Amelia's eyes widening. "It's like bloody Mushu on steroids!" she exclaimed. She twirled her staff rapidly, bending the air as she extinguished the flames before they reached them. Her air bending effectively had been a shield. "Will one of these old dusty things help us?" she asked Strange, looking a bit frantically around the various mystic relics on display.
"Do not touch anything!" Strange ordered. He flew across the room, carried by his cloak, before pulling a sword from a scabbard. The sword was clearly magical, but Amelia had no idea what sword it was. She didn't know if magic swords always had names or if that had just been something she picked up from Harry Potter and Narnia and stuff like that. Mephisto breathed another column of fire at them, with Amelia narrowly managing to dissipate it with her staff.
"What's that sword do, besides cutting stuff and all? It looks all bonkers!"
Leda snorted a bit as Demetri asked what he had missed. Mary asked the same question and Jason, despite being present, was similarly confused. "Oh, Sabrina the Teenage Witch decided to defect to the dark side, that's all. And I don't mean the one from the 90's show - I mean the Satanic one from Netflix," she answered. There was a hint of mischief in her voice, masking the bitter anger that was boiling inside of her. Rebecca hadn't even really properly said goodbye. She hadn't hesitated before abandoning them all on a quest to save the entire world, jumping through a portal at the chance to learn from an evil sorceress. She hoped that Circe would turn Rebecca into a pig. It would serve her right.
She put her hand on Kiera's, giving it a squeeze. "If we're lucky, we won't have to," she murmured. She didn't want to fight Rebecca. From a practical standpoint, magic users were incredibly challenging to face. They usually had elaborate spells and rituals that allowed them to summon armies and manipulate fundamental forces. Knowing Rebecca, it would likely be a legion of the undead they would need to fight through in order to stop a ritual sacrifice or something. She hoped that Rebecca would die before she got to that point. But Leda also recognized that the Rebecca she had once had a crush on wasn't there now - it was what had driven her to end their relationship. Rebecca didn't just flirt with darkness - she was darkness.
"Oi, this junk yard yeah? Any chance we can get it in writing from the H Bloke that it's all cool for us to go on through there?" Leda asked. The gods tended to be touchy about their things - even trash. For instance, Aphrodite still liked Ares even though he was objectively garbage. She didn't mind Demetri calling her Speedy - she was a huge DC comic fan and she loved the Green Arrow's sidekick.
☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️
Location: Base of Mount Othrys Skills: N/A
"If Atlas could've let go of the sky, he would've done it eons ago. So as long as you don't offer to take the weight from him, we're golden," Nancy explained to Waverley. She had turned around as she walked for a brief moment in order to make eye contact with the young legionnaire. She understood that being new to all of this, there was a lot of information to take in, but she was beginning to get a sneaking suspicion that Waverley might have been skipping some of the mandatory classes in order to play guitar. She couldn't really blame her. Nancy hadn't done well at sitting in a classroom at any point in her life.
Turning back around, she kept on walking in line with Madalyne. It wasn't too long until the ground felt like it was shaking and Nancy froze in her tracks, ready to belt a defense Joan Jett lyric to make anything that moved funny explode. She was as still and tense as she could be as Madalyne signaled for them all to halt. The gigantic scorpion that came into view sent a shiver down her spine. Its aura radiated danger and death. "How very," she commented as Madalyne explained that the pit scorpions were basically a death sentence. "If it comes back, I can pop it like a piñata."
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
So far, only two individuals have "cured" themselves from M-Pox. The first was S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Cassandra Reed. The second was Gabriel Summers A.K.A. Vulcan.
Outside the Mutant Underground HQ -
It was hard to gauge Magneto's expression due to his helmet. It casted shadow on the majority of his face. Toad and the well dressed gentleman seemed to have gone into some sort of quiet argument, as Toad leaned on him for balance and the gentleman tried to shake his fellow mutant off of him. Pyro was casually juggling fireballs and the last male member of the Brotherhood looked bored. Mystique had shifted back into her natural blue form.
"It's been five minutes. We should get started," she said.
"Yes. Avalanche, if you wouldn't mind," Magneto said, before looking back at the Brotherhood. The man wearing the steel armor knelt down to the ground. He splayed out his fingers and touched the earth covering the Mutant Underground. Suddenly, like a shockwave, a massive earthquake erupted. The Mutant Underground wasn't in horrible condition, but the seismic event was enough to bury anyone inside alive if they didn't evacuate soon. The trembling would knock Glimpse down to the ground completely, forcing her onto her stomach rather than her hands and knees.
Magneto didn't need to invade the Mutant Underground to find Polaris. He was going to force them to bring her to him.
Second Floor of the Mutant Underground HQ -
"I know that!" Havok snapped defensively, although if he were being honest, he hadn't really given it much thought. He had just been focused on keeping Polaris unconscious and safe, he hadn't considered whether or not his strategy could prove to be just as harmful. She seemed fine though. He discretely put a hand on her wrist to check her pulse, finding that it felt about normal. He wasn't a doctor, so he wasn't sure, but he was fairly certain. "She has a pulse, see? She's fine!" he complained, glaring daggers at Echo.
He didn't like Echo's line of reasoning at all. "One, I'm not pussywhipped. You wish that you'd have as much pussy as I do," he bragged. "Two, we don't negotiate with terrorists! If we give Polaris over to Magneto, he's going to make her into his puppet. He's a world class asshole and she'll be better off without him. And lastly, the plan is to kick Magneto's ass. He's getting old, he lost to the rookie X-Men team Xavier put together last year and they were basically untrained kids. We've got me, and I guess the rest of you aren't awful at combat."
The ceiling then collapsed like a cave in. Havok was quick on the draw, sending off a blast of energy at the largest chunk. Polaris was completely unscathed, but poor Echo ended up taking a large chunk of debris to the head. The entire building was shaking profusely, like the worst earthquake in history had descended on them. "Avalanche. Fuck."
Casper shook his head at Zarina. "Soooo many people assume you can't attack Magneto with metal, but Daddy Dear keeps Wolverine around so clearly it has to work at least once every now and then," he said. He wasn't really sure how Wolverine ended up doing in battles against Magneto. He probably just complained that his bones hurt. How did other heroes like Iron Man do? Did Magneto just turn them into giant fridge magnets? Casper couldn't help but snicker at the thought, imagining Iron Man being used to hold some kid's report card onto the fridge. Did Magneto save his kids' report cards? Did the Scarlet Witch outperform Quicksilver on spelling tests? Was Polaris a gifted math prodigy?
He looked around the room quickly for weapons they could use to fight with. He found three wooden serving spoons and he grabbed them. "Are you old enough to use one of these?" he asked. Andy had left the room, so he tossed one of the wooden spoons over to Zarina, before realizing that he had Ben. He didn't need a spoon to protect himself. He then tossed the other two at her, given her the option of having a spare and dual wielding. "The trick is to whack them in the balls. People hate being hit in the balls, but it's effective. Remember that for prom, okay?"
Suddenly, everything around them was shaking. The ceiling was slowly falling apart, bits of tile and whatnot plunging down towards them. The metallic objects in the room had fallen back down to the ground, so clearly Magneto must have shut off the magnetism for the moment. "Am I tripping or is this an earthquake?" Casper asked.
"It's real, you idiot!" Ben snapped. Casper was on his last nerve.
"Fuck," he groaned. Casper grabbed Zarina by the arm and went off at a run with her. Once he left the dining room, he bumped into Andy and he grabbed onto her with his other hand. "Come on, up we go, trust me it's better to fight Magneto than to be buried alive."
Veil
Location: Outside Jack's Office Building Skills: N/A
Veil was ill at ease with this entire situation. Something wasn't adding up here. Maybe her thoughts were just a bit clouded, as Jack had been a reliable and trustworthy person up to this point. It was like he was covered in slime - she just wasn't sure if it was his slime or someone else's. She regretted again not having Glimpse with them. They really could have used a telepath to sort things out and get the entire story. With Jack's family, things were so bizarre that she wouldn't have been surprised if the devil really had made him do it, for instance.
"I'm going to give you one last chance to tell us everything that happened last night," Veil decided, looking steadily at Jack. "I don't give second chances lightly, so I recommend talking." A few people from inside the building had pulled their curtains back, gawking down at the scene occurring outside. They must have seen Max's rip in the fabric of reality that had taken him and Sunshine away - that or the shimmering purple force of Veil's force field. They didn't have much time until the cops were called or worse, Purifiers would show up on the scene.
Veil was gambling that they'd be able to resolve this soon and fast. Otherwise, things could go south quickly.
Sunshine didn't know how to swim. She had lived in the city almost her entire life, aside from the one brief time she and her found family had lived in a summer camp during the winter season. She gasped for air, sucking in copious amounts of seawater into her lungs. She instinctively started trying to cough it out, to rid herself of the nauseating taste of saltwater. She flailed her limbs, kicking in a desperate attempt to get back above the water. She hardly registered Max grabbing her securely and pulling her out, as he floated them up into the air, dangling precariously over the ocean surface.
She was coughing profusely, water coming out of her mouth rapidly until her lungs were clear again. "There's something wrong with you, you just tried to drown me!" Sunshine snapped. She was clinging to Max for dear life however, knowing that her odds were horrible if he let her drop back into the ocean. The sun was blaring down on them and Sunshine scraped her teeth along her tongue, trying to get rid of the ocean taste.
About 300 meters away was an island. It was lush with vegetation, but what immediately stood out was what looked like an elaborate palace complex. Several statues, easily the size of the Statue of Liberty, depicted cryptid-looking monsters. Most of them had tentacles, reminiscent perhaps of the kraken. The entire island radiated evil and mystery, as if some ancient evil had transpired here. The veil between life and death was thinner as well.
1. ALL SUPERHEROES MUST REGISTER WITH SHIELD AND REVEAL THEIR SECRET IDENTITY
2. SUPERHEROES MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD
3. SUPERHEROES MUST PASS SHIELD TRAINING - EXCEPTIONS INCLUDE TRAINING FROM THE X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, AND AVENGERS
4. ALL SUPERHEROES ARE SUBJECTED TO THE SUPERVISION OF SHIELD
VIOLATION OF THESE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION TO THE RAFT. MINIMUM SENTENCING IS THREE YEARS HOUSE ARREST. JUVENILE OFFENDERS WILL BE TRIED AS ADULTS. REPEAT OFFENDERS HAVE A RECOMMENDED SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT.
ALL VIGILANTE ACTIVITY KNOWN TO SHIELD PERSONNEL MUST BE REPORTED TO THEIR SUPERVISOR OR LEAD IMMEDIATELY.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
CAPTAIN AMERICA ON THE RUN?!?! IRON MAN TAKES CHARGE!
We here at the Daily Bugle just got a tip from an anonymous source that the Avengers have split up!
Iron Man has claimed leadership of the group - we haven't been able to get a quote from the Playboy Billionaire, but our plucky team is on the case!
We'll be updating this story once more details come in, but please if you know anything about this situation or have spotted Captain America, call us out our toll free hotline here: 1-800-SPIDER.
If you want to read about more Avengers news, check out our piece from last Thursday where we explored the affair between Iron Man and Black Widow!
J.J.J.
Braddock Academy - Cardiff: 12:20 A.M.
"If you're worried my brother is a skrull, I can lay those concerns to rest. I'm sure you're aware mutant twins tend to have a telepathic link," Psylocke explained.
"I'm not a mutant though, Betsy," Brian pointed out.
"You're half-Otherworlder, it's close enough," she chastised him. Maybe they were both telling the truth or maybe they were both lying. Could skrulls duplicate mental connections? Would they be able to fake one via telepathy, for instance? There was, unfortunately, so much about skrulls that Oliver and Niah just didn't know.
"Fine, fine, Betsy, you win," Brian said. He looked tired as he sat down - maybe from the loss of his daughter or from the late hour. "The skrulls were fighting another race, the kree. We had gone to Tarnax IV, the skrull's world, to warn them not to let the fighting come into Earth's system again. Like most of our plans... It didn't end well. We ended up being captured. They took information on our physiology, our genetics, our technology, they studied our behavior."
He paused for a moment, trying to remember as much as he could for them. "Tony managed to use the arc reactor in his chest as some sort of beam or laser, to be honest the science was beyond me, I was just glad it worked. He took out the skrull guard, freed the rest of us, and we made a mad dash back to our ship. We were lucky to escape..."
"You should speak to Professor X," Psylocke recommended. "Unless these skrulls have telepathic cloaking, I bet Charles can identify them all. I'd do it for you, but without Cerebro my powers won't have enough range."
It had been almost five hours since they met with Director Hill in D.C. about Captain America. Bonnie didn't know whether or not to expect Captain America to still be at this address - he could have easily moved by now. Of course, they had the advantage that they had traveled by jet to make up for lost time. Even then, she knew that a train from DC to NYC only took about three hours. And what if it had all been a ruse? Was Captain America savvy enough to plant a false lead as to where he was going?
"I'm fine, Cass, really," Bonnie tried to reassure her. "Tout va bien," she added, dipping into French to make a point. Right in the entranceway there were the tenant mailboxes, identifying apartment number and the occupants. Bonnie scanned them quickly, not spotting Rogers anywhere. She didn't spot anything particularly obvious as being a fake name, until she reached the label on Apartment 107. BARNES, J. "This one, apartment 107."
"If I remember my Avengers trivia, that's the name of Captain America's best friend." She assumed that it was an alias Rogers was using, since any of his friends from the war had to be long dead by now. She looked at Cass for a moment, before Bonnie quietly went to the staircase and started going up. On the second floor, there were eight apartments, all of them looking fairly dingy. There were about three more floors up above them and the sounds of a dog barking echoed through the halls.
Apartment 107 was tucked away in the back corner, hard to spot from the stairs. Bonnie waited for Cass to make the first move - whether that was simply knocking or kicking the door down. She didn't envy the idea of fighting Captain America.
Amelia was incredibly surprised to see that Maria's first instinct was to try to blow down the door - but then again, maybe she shouldn't have been. Maria had been obsessed with doing trust falls from thousands of feet up in the air. Maybe she was on some sort of spectrum? It would have explained a lot of her behavior. Weren't people on the spectrum also usually hyper good at something? Was archery considered something like that? Amelia had no idea how any of it worked, never having even glanced at a Wikipedia page on the topic, so it was for the best that she kept her mouth shut before making an insensitive fool of herself. "No worries, cunt," Amelia told Astrad with a large smile. "Today's been such a rush. Hopefully this magician bloke will keep the good times rolling, yeah?"
The door opened ever so slightly, just enough so that way they could see a pair of glowing red eyes. "...Heh. Mortals," a teenage girl's voice said with some amusement. The door opened the rest of the way revealing a demon from Limbo. She had horns and red skin, wearing a collegiate style hoodie that said STRANGE ACADEMY - CLASS OF 2025 - HOME OF THE WEREWOLVES.
"Are you a demon or something? Or a... what's it called in that game? A tea leaf?" Amelia asked, looking at the kid with intense curiosity.
The teenage girl rolled her eyes. "Follow the blood and you'll find him. He's fighting Mephisto in the study." She then took a step forward and a red disc of light appeared in front of her. Once she stepped on it, it seemed to swallow her up and she vanished.
Runa frowned ever so slightly as the daughter of Heimdall explained that Hel had amassed an army - that was extremely worrying and didn't do anything to help her nerves. But she was also stressed and upset since the woman didn't tell her where Balder was anyways. She knew the answer though - he was in that cold nightmare she had seen earlier, right? She wished that she didn't have to go there, to be surrounded by other lost souls of the dead. Elizabeth, one of her least favorite people, confirmed that location - they had to go to Hel's throne room. She felt like they had a better chance of winning the lottery ten times in a row and marrying super models.
"Uh, giant squirrels? I... I don't think I understand you. I'm sorry. English isn't my first language..." Runa apologized, looking at Arnora with confusion. She was pretty sure that she couldn't have heard her right. Maybe she meant dogs or foxes or tigers? Runa went through a bunch of different animals she could imagine being a logical choice there, but then again, maybe it wasn't an animal at all. English was such a weird language and she hadn't learned it willingly. It had been required in school.
Location: the Blackbird Hangar Skills: Problem Solving, Battle Strategy, Telepathy
"Hmm, yeah, babe, that might actually work. It's worth a shot at the very least and you can't just nuke a tornado, no matter what the Cheeto thinks," Guin said. She wasn't really a weather scientist, but the idea seemed sound enough to her - if Pietro could match the speed of the tornado and run in the opposite direction, it could disperse the twister.
"Alright Guina if you say so," Pietro responded, before he took off running racing around the opposite direction of the tornado. However, his powers weren't wanting to work quite right yet again, and he wasn't able to get up to speed. Instead what happened was he got pulled into the tornado before it spun him around and sent him flying, slamming into the wall with a rather loud thud, and leaving a giant dent in the wall before he slid down to the ground.
PIETRO?!?!?! Guin screamed into his mind, flying over towards him - literally, thanks to her armor.
Oww... came his response, but he wasn't really moving, his silver hair had a hint of red starting to creep along it, plus she could see the bone sticking out of his left leg. I think I broke something...
Don't move!!!!! Guin stressed, internally panicking. This didn't look good at all. This wasn't good at all. His head apparently had cracked open and his bone was out of his leg. She really wished that she had healing powers. She didn't know if Edus could fix this with his powers on the fritz. But someone had to be able to fix this. Pietro wasn't allowed to die here. He - he wasn't - Guin was trying to keep her breaths steady and even as the panic attack came on, with images of Muscles' battered corpse morphing into the bloody scene in front of her.
Wasn't planning on it whole body is hurting at this point...
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., f-full scan, now," Guin stammered. Her A.I. only repeated the obvious - adding on that with a potential injury to his back, they couldn't move him. He was trapped in the room with the tornado and Guin only had herself to blame. She had been the one to tell him to give it a try. She hadn't thought it all the way through. Her mask hid the tears falling from her eyes. If he died...
"Edus, I need you to heal him, now!" Guin shouted. Luckily the tornado hadn't yanked anyone in.
Neil Spellman
Location: the Blackbird Hangar Skills: Telekinetic Combat
The twister was pulling at all of them and as annoying as he found Pietro, Neil didn't wish what had happened on him. He winced looking at the battered and broken mess of a speedster. His injuries didn't look good at all. He hoped that it wasn't enough to kill him, but at the same time, Neil knew there wasn't anything he could do to help Pietro. Instead, he tried to think of what they could do about the tornado. He was from New York - he didn't know anything about twisters or how to handle them. The speedster route was a dead end. He wished that Storm or someone was there, so they could dispel the tornado without a thought.
He bit his lip, not really knowing if this would work at well. He thought a brief word towards Tempestas, before he began to try to telekinetically rip the twister apart. He didn't really make it much smaller at first, but it was like trying to grip sand as it fell through his fingers. He got a bit of a firmer stance and tried again, this time managing to calm the air and pull the twister apart, causing the tornado to vanish. The room was safe - for now at least. "Erm, no one roll until our party member is okay."
"I just... remembered it," Megan explained to her brother quietly. She had been obsessed some with King Arthur when she was little - her therapist had claimed that it was just a way for her to cope with the trauma of being orphaned, a way to forget whatever terrible thing had happened to her parents. But now, Megan knew - or at least believed - that they really had just been memories, no psychoanalysis required to understand them. It was an odd thing to come to terms with, something Megan imagined would take a while. She had always been comfortable with the idea of meeting her birth parents one day - she just never imagined it like this.
At the lake itself, a woman came out of the water - Megan instantly identified her as the Lady of the Lake. She couldn't quite remember how the sword had got to be in the stone, but her question was answered before it was asked as the Lady of the Lake shoved the blade into the stone. Megan raised an eyebrow as she mentioned her birthright. "I don't believe in birthrights," she said. Being born wasn't an achievement as far as she was concerned. Still though, the sword was pretty cool and Megan set down her belongings. She walked up to the stone and gripped the blade with both hands, giving it a strong pull and it slid on out. The sword had markings on it that were glowing. "I'm guessing it's magic?"
Achronum
kittyluna45
Scrawl Banditta
Not a Sayan
KazAlkemi
Neziul
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