[March 11th, 2045 - 14:15pm - Paradox - Undercity Region, Texas, USA]
Heavy boots crunched the rocky soil of the Outskirts as she followed the delicate tendrils of silver stretching Northward at a methodical walk. She tilted her head to the side curiously as a crackle of static tickled her ear. A momentary distraction, though her pace was not altered.
"I've done as you asked, Iridium Dragon. Halcyon is in a tizzy over the potential Crusade, and tearing up all of Undercity to find the Templar... Causing lots of distracting problems for the Rogue Collective as well.""Entangling the 'Collective should keep them too busy to interfere with your search for our missing Subject. I trust you will not require any further 'assistance' to complete your assignment?" Her eyes narrowed. She could hear him swallow his heart on the other end. The incompetence of some Agents never ceased to aggravate her.
"N-no, of course I can handle it from here..."ID neglected to sign off, and instead just ended the call. No doubt she would end up having to clean up his mess.
A dome of swirling [Mana] came into ID's view as she crested a hill, following the silver trail. She paused to squint at it and let her eyes adjust. Beyond the dome she could barely make out an array of Cairn stones, and a massive drain around which traces of the [Crimson] swirled lazily, resisting the process of natural diffusion back into the land. Within the array was a small settlement no more than a few miles across containing a zone of tranquilly elevated [Mana] circulating throughout the surrounding Earth. It trickled up through the plants, and suffused the wildlife in the area, taking the Haze through the Drain, filtering and De-Aspecting on a scale many times larger than she could with her Drain Crystal. A powerful enchantment... no wonder she lost the trail.
ID's eyes were attracted to the spectral light of a particularly large flock of Ravens in the distance, and she squinted, confirming the signature of the [Fire Crystal] that she'd entrusted to Weasel within the settlement.
So this was the Stoneworks. It seemed more and more likely that her investigation of the disturbance of the Manascape, and the missing
Subject were overlapping. No matter: she had a destination, and as long as she didn't draw attention to herself, it was highly likely she'd be left to her own devices. ID mused at the top of the hill for a long several minutes, running the silver thread idly through her fingers. She'd been watching the settlement for several minutes when something piqued her from behind: a chill wind from
The Graves. ID turned to face the disturbance, shielding her eyes from the flash which heralded the emanation ripping through the Manascape.
A peal of thunder without sound, a shockwave ripping through the world like a bomb that passed through physical matter harmlessly but incinerated spectral forms in a storm of psychic screaming. It would blunt against the ambience of the Mind-Aspect in populated areas, and the Stonework's robust barrier would shield all but the most vulnerable inhabitants. ID, though...
She was stuck in the outskirts literal miles away from anything that might shield her, and she could already feel the intensity of the disturbance clawing at her [Dreamself]. Her signature would probably get blasted away on the Astral Wind though... ID hesitated for what felt like a long moment to her, though to anyone else it would have been but a moment. She pulled the Silver Thread back to her, cancelling the Tracing script and closed her fist around it. Even that small amount threatened to make her body burst, and as it coursed through her the shockwave slowed to a crawl.
ID used that moment of
acceleration to pull the scant threads of mana in the Outskirts to form a barrier. She whispered words of [Fortification], pouring in her own mana and weaving a protective lattice just as the last mote of Silver evaporated. The
Scream slammed into her roughshod shield, nearly knocking her off her feet, ripping at the part of her which existed within the Manascape and threatening to tear her out of her own body. ID endured the deafening cries, and just as she thought her barrier would be shattered and herself along with it the storm passed, leaving tumultuous whispers in its wake.
W̵̩͆h̶̼̐e̵̟̋r̸͙͆e̵̟̕i̷͙̒s̴̭̈ȋ̴̹t̵̉͜ẅ̸̠h̷͖̑ē̶͕r̷̠͘e̴͘͜i̴̥̚s̸̘͒ĭ̶͍t̵̛̰w̵̺̐h̵̘͘e̵̖͐r̸̪̔e̴͎̽i̴͋͜s̷͚̈i̶̫̕ṯ̵̕w̶̦͌ḧ̴͕́e̸͙̅r̶͖͘e̸̛̲i̴̦͑s̴̳͂i̶͝ͅt̵͙̆w̶̝̾ḥ̵̃e̸̟͋r̶̠̉ë̷̳́ǐ̵̮ş̶̿į̸̀ṱ̸̚ẉ̷̐h̸̢͂e̷͎̐r̷̛͉ê̶͎i̷̜̚s̵̤̆i̵̢̕t̸͙͑?̷̊͜
ID exhaled, turning in time to watch the storm buffet the Stoneworks bubble, and stretch off into the distance towards the Forges. Seems the entire crater would be subject to the
Scream, though the areas closest to the Graves, and farthest from populated areas would endure the worst of it. On the bright side, the chaos of the disturbance might mask her arrival to the Stoneworks. ID mused, sliding herself carefully down the sheer hill towards her destination while sparing only a passing glance back towards
The Graves. The
Scream had originated from the direction of one of their Blacksites. She tamped down a wave of irritation as she made a mental note to check on the facility later: no doubt they'd be calling on her soon to clean up someone else's mess.
ID was lost in thought as she walked briskly towards the settlement, and with her ears and other [Senses] still ringing from the
Scream she almost didn't notice the rubble getting disturbed behind her. She flinched as a creature of chitin and sinew clawed its way to the surface from the rubble nearby. Its huge fibrous wings blasted dust off the rubble as it launched itself at her.
A flash of light and heat; the creature's chittering was drowned out by the shriek of superheated light flash-boiling all the moisture from the air. ID patted out the embers on her gloves as the creature crumpled to the dirt at her feat smoldering. She gazed at it for a long moment before turning her back and returning to her journey. A minor inconvenience.
Or so she thought... the creature's flesh started to sizzle, stretch, and bubble behind her. Its shifting weight resonated through the stone at her feet, causing ID to slow her pace. The sound of dozens of chitinous legs scrabbling against the rocks as its rapidly growing flesh and sinew popped and crackled. She felt a large shape loom over her, and its radiant energy on her back as she slowed to a stop. ID exhaled slowly.
"Apex..."
[March 11th, 2045 - 14:17pm - Paradox - Outskirts - Stoneworks Region, Texas, USA]
"M-maybe... Rat can dig too?" Ask Rat, muffled as he was pressed into tight chambers of the partially collapsed tunnel. J-3's massive, sinuous claws scraped methodically at the dirt and rock.
"No, Cat-Kitty? ... Okay...," Rat trailed off, seeming more and more uncomfortable with the oppressive silence. At least the cultists were busy with whatever monster was smashing its way through the lower levels.
"Sing a song then, Cat-Kitty? Everybody likes songs. Soothing soothing songs... Rat likes the classics, he does, yesyesyes," he informed, taking a deep breath.
"Baaaa-by... Sha-" Rat's voice was choked quiet by tendrils of inky sinew coiling around his neck.
"Rat will be quiet now," he squeaked.
They endured the coarse scraping of J-3's claws in the silent darkness for what felt like a long while before the creature stiffened, its flesh bristling unsettlingly like the inky fur of a cat standing on end.
"Cat-Kitty?""Cease its mewling," they hissed. Ink swirled over their skin, and they sloshed through the narrow gap to their south, roughly depositing Rat in front of the Templar. J-3 reconstituted, but didn't truly become solid again as they grasped manically at the tenuous motes of [Mana] in the tunnels. Their flesh shifted in swirls of ink as [Something] slammed into them, distant thunder held shakily at the entrance of their tunnel as the psychic storm ripped through the tunnels unfettered by the laws of matter or physicality.
Whatever defenses J-3 had erected failed suddenly, and the thunder of a thousand screaming furies erupted into their burrow. Rat crumpled to the floor, and though it felt as though it lasted hours, it faded as suddenly as it had set upon them, leaving tumultuous whispers in their wake. Rat wasn't moving, at first it seemed he may be dead, though after the tinnitus began to dim he could be heard muttering:
"Where is it? Where is it, Cat-Kitty?" over and over.
J-3 was deathly still for a long moment, and in the distance throughout the Labyrinth behind them the shrieks and cries of a legion of creatures driven to frenzy began to drift upwards towards them, slowly growing louder moment by moment. J-3 mirrored their shriek and surged past them, slashing and clawing at the rubble for ages until they burst through the surface and an oppressive wave of heat fell in through the gap. Their destination was in sight: the Cairn Stones marking the border of the Stoneworks not a hundred yards or so away.
Around the bend of the border, near the opposite side of the settlement the flash of fire and smoke roiled vigorously towards the Plate ceiling, and the nearby crackle of rapid explosions echoed loudly throughout the Outskirts. There was a lull in the turmoil, before a cloaked figure leapt high into the air... no, leap wasn't the right word: J-3 could see flares of tightly controlled [Sun-Quiet-Fire-Fury] quickly blinking in and out of existence as the figure used them as stepping stones to reach a lofty position before jumping and twisting, allowing her momentum to carry her backwards towards the settlement. She aimed, framing her target with her hands and then...
The air shrieked in protest as a wave of blistering heat washed over J-3, a streak of fire and light near as fast as a bullet lanced across the gap below her. Even from their relatively safe distance, the tectonic shift of the detonation was enough to throw J-3 to the ground, sending rubble and dust skipping down into their tunnel. There was a tangible pause before the clapping thunder of the explosion rolled over them as the figure splashed through the Stoneworks barrier. She landed roughly but found her balance quickly, thrusting the smoldering end of her cape behind her with one hand as the hot wind of the shockwave buffeted the Cairn Stones.
For a long minute she just stood and looked over the carnage she wrought, making sure her quarry would not get up a third time. She was still, though her breath came heavy, and the occasional wisp of gas would escape the mouth of the red dragon mask she wore before sparking and igniting in the heat. The mushroom cloud of fire and smoke began to billow over the crest... the final punctuation mark on the trail of molten glass and burning rock leading towards the Stoneworks from the Southwest. Illuminated by the flickering fire, ID's burgundy gaze slowly turned towards J-3.
Not a Sayan
Scrawl Banditta
