---

Good lord, these kids knew how to set things on fire.

The sun struck the mansion, and Rohan couldn't help but turn his eyes away to avoid going blind. It was just a sea of white through the eye slits of his mask, like a big flashbang going off. And now the mansion was a crumbling wreck that they were going to have to fight through. That was a good way to start off, and a good way to get attention. But that seemed to be the plan. But, it didn't take long for the security in this place to start returning fire.

Unfortunately, Jess wasn't looking very okay, and she got swarmed by her people. Rohan skidded across the ground like he was skating on ice, slipping behind one of the glowing green shields Sycamore's defense put up, and grabbed the Briar Spear from his back. He pulled a rubber bit off the sharp end and flung it at Jess's burnt body. It wouldn't have hurt, in fact Jess would just feel cold where it impaled her. Upon making contact with her, her wounds were quite literally going up in smoke, as bone-white fumes rolled up her arm as her injuries were replaced with healthy skin. She'd feel like she had just woken up from an oddly restful nap, and the "wound" where the artifact struck her was replaced with the smoke as well.

Trying to pull it out would just look like it wasn't even stuck in her at all. It was a matter of seconds before the pain started to recede, as well.

"Save your one time use healing emergencies!" Rohan shouted over the gunfire. "Just remove that when you're fine, and hold onto it! I'm going up, I'll pick them off!"

Rohan's Mask of the Antelope started to give off red smoke from the eye slits. He ran forward, and jumped higher than anyone could physically jump without magic. His feet his the bark of a tree, twenty feet off of the ground, and then he rebounded higher into the canopy above. With the hail of bullets focused down there, the old man didn't have to worry much. Leaping from tree to tree with supernatural agility, he let loose a volley of arrows from Steelfeather. His bow was enchanted by his curse, in such a way that the arrows flew straight now matter how far it took to hit something. And then, when they did hit something, they hit with the force of a bullet. The arrows themselves were cut and processed by his hands to be able to withstand that strain, so they'd hit nice and hard.

A rain of these arrows fell upon the Elite's distracted gunmen with no rhyme or reason. One minute, they were raining down from their left, then behind them, then directly overhead. By the time anyone had a bead on where the arrows came from, Rohan already vaulted into another tree, circling around like a vulture.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

_{Interactions: No one, yet…}

---

Alexander only showed mild annoyance when a golem hand was vaporized instead of the girl. Her running off was a nuisance, to be sure. No one could outrun him, after all. But before he could pursue her, heat prickled across his skin.

”Dive, dive, dive!” He heard Zi roar over the comms, giving him the split second heads up before light burst through the ceiling.

A streak of black lightning escaped through the back of the building, wood and ignited shrapnel exploding around him as the mansion became incinerated. He looked back from the treeline, smoke curling off his suit. He was, otherwise, unharmed.

Not the same could be said about the rooftop team. As the beam of light hit, Jin, Zi, and fifteen men made a mad scramble after Zi's desperate command. Styx portals opened up at the roof edge, men jumping in and rolling out at the eastern treeline. Jin took a dragon down. However, as the men took cover behind sparse trees, firing on Greenwood and Sycamore, Zi did a headcount.

He clicked his tongue, and reported in the comms. “Five men have died in the assault. The mansion is ablaze. The Elite’s Undead are going toe-to-toe with the bastards. Sycamore is here, as well as Greenwood and 317.”

”Who can you see?” Valencia's voice could be heard on the other end of the line.

“That Temple bastard, Murakin, Blackmore, fuck- there's a lot. The heavy-hitters!” Zi said, peeking out from behind the tree.

”Retreat, we take this to the tunnels if the mansion is lost.”

A portal opened up behind Zi with a wave of his hand just as a volley of arrows showered on the Undead nearby. The Sycamore and their friends were advancing. Time to reset the playing field.

In the next instant, the House of Cards frontal and rooftop teams had retreated to the untouched depths of the tunnels running below the Elite mansion. Only Alexander stayed topside, paused at the treeline at the southern side of the mansion.

”If Sycamore is here, you'd better damn well bet the rest are somewhere else. Find them, Alex.” Valencia commanded.

“On it, mum.” Alexander said with a grin, before he disappeared in a flash of black electricity into the trees. He appeared once along the beach, before he disappeared again, zipping through the trees and brush, intent on finding the rest of Sycamore.

”The remainder of the rooftop and frontal teams, I want you to be in the tunnels adjacent to the Vault. See if you can ambush anyone headed to it. That's the only other goal they could possibly have, unless they want full-on murder. I'm renaming you to the Vault Ambush team.”

“Got it.” Zi said over the comms, before he opened another portal in the tunnels. Soon, Jin, Zi and ten House of Cards men lurked in the tunnels around the Vault, waiting on a report from Alexander, and waiting for unaware prey to walk past them on the way to the Vault, staying out of view as they were.

”Lab team, keep your eyes open, we could have guests at any point.” Valencia growled out over the comms.

Kai sighed, and kicked off the wall. With a side eye to Demos, and a glance to the shut lab door behind them, he began his summoning. Midnight foot soldiers, about four feet high each, began to patrol the tunnels, spreading their influence outward to cover all the tunnels. They totalled about twenty-five, each armed with a pisol made of darkness.

“I've got my minions patrolling the tunnels. It will give the newly christened Vault Ambush team heads up if anyone tries to take them out noisily. Those bullets they got are loud, after all.”

”Good work, Kai. Keep me updated.” Valencia said.

Now, they would wait for an unsuspecting insect to fall into their spider's parlor - the tunnels underneath the mansion…

As soon as they arrived on the island Lila pulled several pieces of jewelry, treats, and various other knickknacks from the black jacket that hid most of the feathers on her chest and her arms. “Be my eyes and be safe,” Lila said as she offered the treats and goodies to her murder who quickly swarmed her hand and flew high into the sky. Lila was nervous, if there was anyone listening they would hear the sound of her leg vibrating and her foot tapping on the ground. She knew she would be a big target, and as such she dressed in all black and kept her wings tucked in as close as she could.

She listened to the others prepare, and began to subtly count down the seconds until all would go to hell. Lila knew that she’d need to focus on not doing too much. If she tried to transform she’d be inviting the bird bitch in more, and she knew if she used too much curse magic she’d be weakening the ability to keep the monster suppressed. It would be a balancing act like a single wire between two buildings.

And then someone started blasting. The gunfire quickly caused all her eyes to fixate on the direction it came from and instantly her vision was filled with different angles of the same sight. A golem holding a machine gun firing wildly at something inside. Lila gasped. It wasn’t because it was a literal golem holding a machine gun looking like something out of a Rambo movie. No, the golem itself looked familiar. It looked like one that someone in their coven used to summon.

“Lyss?”

A moment later the sun coated the entire mansion in light and an inferno broke out. Several of Lila’s crows were blinded by the bright light, and Lila nearly screamed at the pain of experiencing it. The crows that were impacted began to fly erratically, and Lila barred her teeth as she placed her hands on her head once again. While she wanted to vent her frustration at the one who caused it that thought of the golem entered her mind and focused her. The crows that were not blinded quickly returned their eyes to the front of the mansion and caught a really sun burnt woman who, if you squinted, looked different from Lyss but at the same time she reminded Lila of her.

“I think whomever started the party just walked out and passed out,” Lila paused as she stretched a clawed finger and pointed towards the entrance to the mansion, “I think they need help but there’s so many fucking zombies between us and them. We need something to clear a path so someone from Aggro can get to her.”

---

---

Jasper grinned as he finished his painting. He looked it over one final time. The details were perfect. The art was stylized unlike anything else he’s summoned before. It was dull, life like, and looked like any normal machine that could theoretically be summoned into a conflict or created beforehand. He hoped that it would not link this conflict back to him and his covens, nor did he want it to draw attention to the 317. It’s red eyes and blazing skull insignia painted on its shield would hopefully help. “I got something coming,” Jasper spoke calmly as he pressed his back into the shield from Stormy, “while it is active i will be dead weight. Cover me please.”

Jasper pressed his paintbrush to the canvas, activated the spell, and pulled his latest monstrosity out. As it hit the ground everyone nearby would feel a noticeable shake. It was a six foot tall metal looking monstrosity. In its left hand it had a giant flat shield that was at least four inches thick and enchanted to be more durable than otherwise. Its face was small, and simply looked to be two red triangles that made it look more robotic than not. On its back was a large backpack that gave it a very top heavy and bulky look. In its right hand was a long weapon with six barrels that stretched out four feet. Connecting the weapon to the backpack was a belt that fed it the magical ammunition. Everyone would see that it was a big robotic monster. It began to take steps towards the mansion and away from the group, each step looked labored and difficult and each one left a footprint deep into the grass betraying the true weight of it.

A soft whirl filled the air as the barrels began to spin. For three seconds they sped up, faster and faster, with the whirl getting louder and louder. The sound of its own steps were soon eclipsed by the whirl before the monstrosity slowed its walk to a crawl before stopping all together. The shield was raised up and covered most of its body, save for a small rectangular section cut out of the top right corner for the eyes to see and a square section on the left side to allow the gun to poke out from.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt

Jasper listened as his construct fired off its first the second burst into the approaching hoard and smiled. It worked. It actually worked. He had tried to summon it once before but he could not figure out how to make the gun itself work. He had spent two sleepless nights reviewing the manuals for real life chain guns and auto cannons and infused the spell with that functioning knowledge and it fucking worked. The monstrosity began to fire again. This time, it held down the trigger. Red tracer rounds dashed across the battle, impacting and shredding through the zombie hoard that stood between it and the girl Lila mentioned. It kept its aim at the upper chest level, careful to not aim too low to threaten the girl. It continued firing as it followed its two commands, protecting the girl and clearing a path to get to her. Spent casings littered the ground and if it continued at its pace it would soon have a mound of casings.

Jasper, meanwhile, was coughing up blood. Not only did it stain the black bandana that covered his mouth, but it also began to drip down to the black turtleneck sweater he wore. Similarly, his nose became a faucet and began to spill blood downwards, blood could be seen in his ears and his eyes went bloodshot. The sheer draw on his life force meant that his internal organs were in a terrible state. His heart began to skip beats, his lungs grew tired and his breath grew shallow, and his whole body felt cold. An eerie paleness fell across his whole body. He knew he could keep this summon up for a single minute and not a second more. Jasper hoped that nothing had changed from the last time he tried this. Regardless, he’d need a healer not long after his life force was returned.

---

Clancy had quietly listened as they finalised and formulated their plan for the job, studying the map that had been set before them, the warnings of the obstacles and dangers they would face, and the division of the groups.

He was no stranger to getting into places where he wasn't welcome, but could not have said he'd ever pulled off a heist on purpose. Like it or not, his vice was prey.

Stumbling into poison and loose change were sometimes a consequence of what he did - especially in the cities, but he never hung onto them, usually holding onto a few spare bills as his allowance, while tossing baggies and bricks were thrown in the furnace or, given the former's scarcity, into the nearest body of water, more often than not. No doubt the fish had probably not thanked him for that, but it was better than leaving it for other assholes to find.

Whatever their mutual doubt of one another, he could recognise that Britney was right about the plan - or specifically, the lack of a backup. If the Greenwood people weren't around to get them off, what was the plan?

Swim for the shore? Clancy, for his part, was not so bothered about getting off the island this way.

He had forded streams, rivers, even lakes. Why did an ocean matter?

The first time, when he had refused to accept his situation, when he was in denial, had been the worst. A dark, cold plunge that he thought - hoped could've stopped him, except it didn't, as he found himself tearing at the entrails of a fresh carcass less than an hour later, his clothes sodden, his face and fingers caked in mud, grit and blood.

When you didn't need to breath or worry about the stuff flooding down your airway, water was just another environmental presence, like thicker air that moved over and around you. When you didn't need to care about the cold washing over your body, weighing down your clothes and holding you back from surfacing for air, or worry about feeling any pain from where the water would normally sting at your eyes and burn through your lungs, it was just another aspect to the world, like the difference between walking over snow, ice, grass, asphalt.

Clancy could swim, but often times he found himself sinking like a stone, walking or wading close to the solid ground beneath, clawing at the silty bed for a better foothold here and a lunge there. It was how he'd left the Halloween Festival when the old man had driven the cane through his eye.

But there were others here, and they were a mixed bag. Britney didn't like him, nor he her. Enough said. Sloane and Adora were okay. Aislan, he knew less of, but he had no problms with her at this point. The Greenwood people were strangers, and probably saw him the same. Layla and Alizee had made their bed, and would now have to lay in it.

That left Luca, probably the only one of them, apart from Adora, who he could trust to the furthest point he had trusted anyone in his unnatural existence. Although they were all - Clancy aside - technically adults, he suspected Luca would benefit from a helping hand. He knew how fragile the skinny latino was, and how he was more at risk than most of the others on those benefits. The rest could, as far as he understood, look after themselves.

For that he hoped they wouldn't need another way out, because he didn't rate his chances of trying to drag their fragile bodies back to shore in the middle of the fall - hypothermia would do a faster job of killing most of them than any parasite could.

The others were dressed for the occasion. The Greenwood Maidens in their sports gear, the others similarly garbed in caps, hoodies and masks. Some were armed for the occasion, like the Ghost Woman - Amara - in her riot gear, complete with phantom figures stood beside her. Where had she got that? He put it out of mind, that didn't matter - only that two of the phantoms were going to accompany them.

As far as disguises went, Clancy's had worked for him. There was no cutting or styling the hair, but he could hide his face and make it less obvious who he was. He'd traded the grey hoodie for a navy one, this time with some dull faded sports branding across the side, and slipped on a yellow balaclava with the likeness of some stupid kid's character called Jimbob Squareshorts or something stupid like that, swiped from the post-Halloween bargain bin of a thrift store. The only part of him he didn't cover were his hands or eyes, and that because amything he did was likely to be torn off if they got into a scuffle.

Even if he didn't particularly care if some saw his face, he didn't want to make it so obvious by association. He'd spent a long time keeping under the radar, avoiding the supposed magic feds and their like, even after surveillance cameras started showing up on every other street corner. He didn't want to risk that now, or the slim chance of the same people they were taking these magic items from would make the connection between him, Luca and the others who'd hosted him

Not to mention the hitwoman the old man had probably sent after him. For all he knew, these people might have had connections to her, as everyone in this town seemed to have with one another. A few fleeting words and thoughts passed through his mind, thinking back to what he'd learned at the club what must've been over a month back.

Dollhouse. Judas' connections to them. Who were Shayton's bosses? He put the thoughts out of his mind for the moment, focused on the matter of artifacts.

By his understanding, the axe he'd taken from the nazi had been such a thing. It had felt powerful, in its way, although the only thing he'd found it good for was cutting things in two a little more efficiently than with a butter knife. Perhaps it was the source of the tattooed nazi's strength, but for him - his existence a different kind of strength - it seemed only to serve as a sharp tool, and even then it had been lost to him when the 8th Street assholes had turned the scene outside the cabin to mud.

Still, the axe would've been helpful for the stone dog, for the eventuality that it turned up. For now, he'd have to manage without. The artifact group were going with minimal baggage, and he was about as best as they could get for-

The veil fell. His train of thought interrupted, their assembled groups were moving. Within moments, he found old ground disappearing beneath him in one moment and new ground apparating in the next.

Teleportation? They were here. No time to think on it.

---

Elysium Island - Artifact Group
Luca @FernStone, Sloane @Atrophy, Artifact Group

---

As they progressed, gunfire and other panicked noises crackled in the background. He was no stranger to such things, although perhaps not on this scale. Usually it was closer, directed at, above or beneath him, rather than being on the score of half an island away. It was rare to run into assholes with the kind of power on display here. A distant thunderclap underpinned that musing.

And not usually with explosions.

Clancy wondered if this was what his old man and Uncle Gerry had been through in their wars of long ago. What Frank had been unable to escape. Except there was a clear difference; Clancy didn't care so much about getting through it alive. He wasn't living, had nothing to lose except the prospect of failing, and while they were still trying to get back home, the only thing that he could hope for was the end of the line.

There wasn't a home left to which he could return, either way.

Luca had volunteered to demolish whatever doors sat between them, but Clancy was inclined to agree with Sloane on letting her or one of the others try it first. Using the Rot was a double-ended sword, with no safe way to use it.

As for the 'Starving Dog'...

"If the dog comes, I'll buy you time," he put the notion forward, then continued, "Focus on getting whatever you'll need to find Father Wolf. It can't hurt me."

Unless it happened to have teeth that were made from the same crystalline material that had pained him so. [i]Nothing[i] would've surprised him at this stage, and it was a chance he was willing to take if would get them a shot at Father Wolf. For Ashley.

Perhap to undermine the point about something being unlikely to hurt him, there was a blinding light off somewhere on the horizon, as though the sun itself were bearing down on the island, centered on the mansion. Clancy's attention had been directed towards Luca and Sloane, but even so the light had briefly flashed through the fabric of his hoodie and mask.

He stopped in his tracks, almost blinded for a few seconds, fingers tightening into half-fists as he raised one to shield the half of his face until he could adjust. Off in the distance, he could smell what could've only been described as ozone and charcoal mingled together, along with something else closer.

Meat he thought at first.

No, he corrected himself. It was rotting.

Dead.

Clancy threw a hand up in a silent gesture to the others, still half-balled into a fist, then approached a clearing amidst the trees they'd pushed through. There, where the daylight bored down, he spotted a pair of silhouettes lurching over tree roots, barely avoiding getting thei footing tangled in some of the oversized root systems that cut through the ground.

The boy veered off to the left, leaning against one tree, then pounced, slamming a foot into the hamstring of one undead guard that had been faced away from him to break their footing, and brusquely grasping and mashing their head into the tree trunk aside in a mangled smear of dark viscera.

.
The other wight, half-turned, was subsequently shoved at waist-height over a thick patch of moss and overgrowth, and the boy soon concluded its existence by driving his knee into the undead creature's skull before it could wheeze out another strangled roar.

Useless, rotting meat. The base instinct at the back of his consciousness would've recoiled more out of disappointment than disgust.

The others no doubt were catching up, as fast as they could go given their limitations. There was no time to be annoyed or disoriented. "Few more nearby. Can smell them."

---

---

"Blackmore! Doomsday!"

Drake grinned from behind the barrier as he quickly closed the distance between Kenshiro and himself using electricity. He was barely processing the chaos around him (from that old dude shooting arrows at everyone to Jasper pulling out a whole ass gun) as he was striking down undead minion after undead minion. He glanced over his shoulder as he raised Sloane's stick and said,

”If ya'll wanna stay alive! Get back!” Drake screamed as an orb of plasma formed around them that glew several different shades of blue. It grew larger and larger as it pulled in the undead minions and burned them to ashes in seconds. The orb grew as it tore apart the undead horde-

That was when something straight out of the Hercules movie burst through the front of the building. It swelled to massive sizes, standing over them like a titan as he stood several times as large as the mansion. He stuck his hand out and fired at the treeline and the offensive group. He was so hot that he began to cause the flowers and trees to burst into flames.

And what was worse was that Doomsday was pulling him towards the group.

---

---

Britney was not happy to be here.

Britney didn't trust Ruby or Greenwood that much (Ironically, she trusted them more than Sycamore). She didn't trust Ruby's plan—mainly because when it inevitably went south, it was basically, 'Hope the teleporters are still alive, ya'll!'. Nor did she trust the likes of Sloane, Clancy, Aislin, or Amara not to throw her under the bus at the earliest opportunity. Jack should be here after he's done yeeting the Veil into the Void, so that was a plus.

Naturally, Sloane was pushing her buttons immediately, demanding the radio. That little control freak has to be in charge, or she would throw a fit. Ruby gave Britney the radio because she attempted to touch bases with Greenwood rather than sit around in the corner pouting with Anya or screaming when things weren't going her way. Britney had every reason to tell Sloane to kiss her ass, but Britney knew when to pick her battles.

And this just wasn't one of them.

Britney silently handed off the radio without a word (Don't lose it!) and turned to see Clancy dart off. She hoped he knew precisely where he was going because she wouldn't make a rescue mission for the bastard. Everyone was so concerned with the Starving Dog that they completely forgot the monsters, security checkpoints, and probably traps in there... which was typical for Sycamore. Always overlooking the little things!

Britney just followed the Greenwood lady (Autumn? The quiet one) as she led them into the mansion.

---

---

---

Autumn kept her mouth shut.

All she had to say was how if anything, Greenwood should be the ones getting the radio. Not just because Autumn could man the radio while keeping her hands free. Not just because Autumn knew the way but also because she probably had a better idea of what she was doing. Not just because she doubted Sycamore seemed constantly at each other's throats (given the tension spike between Sloane and Britney that even a blind man could notice). But because this was a Greenwood operation - given how little Sycamore contributed to the planning - they should leave things to those with experience with these things and not the fake coven. However, Autumn kept her mouth shut because tensions were already high between the two Covens, and she knew with a one-off comment that things would erupt when they didn't need them to.

Britney just handed off the radio, and things returned to normal.

However, that didn't help with the creeping anxiety that Layla provided just by being there. Autumn glanced in her direction. She knew that she had issues with Naomi, but Ruby also had a feeling that she might try to pull something on her or Kashmira. Then Autumn glanced in Kashmira's direction - who was gleaming with positivity and kindness. Autumn doubted Layla was dumb enough to pick a fight here, of all places, but Autumn couldn't let anything happen to Kasmira. However, things would be fine if she kept Layla in her view at all times. Autumn could spawn a second set of eyes, after all. The Apparition of Geneva Benard appeared right next to her and floated behind her.

Before she could get a chance to tell them to follow her lead, the weird kid ran off. Autumn narrowed her eyes at him, which was the only part of her not hidden underneath her grey face mask. Ruby didn't want the kid there, but it was ultimately Sycamore's choice - and their problem in case he got hurt. Autumn could hear the chaos in the distance before realizing they had to get a move on before they caught on. With the power of Geneva Benard's apparition, Autumn floated a few inches off the ground - high enough so that she wouldn't break any branches or set off any traps but low enough so that she wouldn't be that much more noticeable than before.

"No Adept will be able to sneak up on us," Autumn spoke. "I can't do much about anything else, but..."

She glanced at the mansion.

"... Let's go. I know the way."

Autumn began floating towards the first entrance. However, she remembered that the Eye of Ankhara was active, so she deactivated the Apparition she had used as a minion and started walking. She eventually made it to Clancy and nodded at him,

"Few more nearby. Can smell them."

"... And we don't need to kill every zombie we come across," Autumn said, in a vague, fleeting hope that Clancy would remember the part where Ruby noted the artifact group would not have to pick a fight with everyone they come across. That was when Autumn kept going. Some distance away from the mansion was a hill covered by bushes, and Autumn pushed past it to reveal a slightly ajar door.

Those idiot still haven't fixed the lock.

Autumn glanced in the direction of the burning - oh, it was now suddenly iced over, that was something - mansion, listening to the barrage of gunfire and other magic in the distance. Autumn sighed as Ruby’s voice echoed: “Once y’all get past that, you'll hit the first security checkpoint. Cameras, motion sensors, the whole nine yards...”

With a sharp glance behind her, she gestured for the others to fall in line. She whispered, “Remember, this side entrance was our safest way in, but we’re on camera from here on out. No lights, no loud noises, and most importantly, no magic. Stick to shadows.”

They crept down the narrow corridor, Autumn's heart pounding as they approached the first security checkpoint. Sure enough, the faint glow of red sensor lights pulsed from the corners of the room ahead. Autumn stopped, raising her hand to halt the others.

“We’re close to the cameras,” She whispered. "We’ll need to time this right, or we’ll trip every alarm in this place."

Autumn surveyed the room, noting the slow sweep of the camera. It moved in a predictable pattern, pivoting from left to right and back again, with only a few seconds of blind spots in between. She turned towards it and said,

"We can easily slip past it; there are a few blind spots. Just remember we are in radius of the Eye of Ankhara, so we can't go too fast or else we'll trigger it and reveal ourselves to the whole island."

---

---

---

The subhumans had little idea that they were poised to rain holy hell on top of them.

Berlioz stood on the edge of the ghostly pirate ship meant to be Kaiser Draeger's weapon for securing the city. Too bad that it never came to fruition - for him. Berlioz watched them from his binoculars before glancing at , the artifact on the ship's deck that rendered them completely invisible as they floated high above Elysium Island. Berlioz merely shook his head as he lowered the binoculars from his head and walked onto the deck.

"Shit, what the hell was that?!" Benjamin asked. "Almost hit us if I didn't get us out of the way in time!"

"The Subhumans are attacking the island," Berlioz said before he reached for the walkie-talkie. "Paige, are you okay?"

"Yes! The blast hit the mansion! Barely went underground!" Paige answered. "They are going all out, though!"

Berlioz sighed.

"All employees," He began. "Priority one,"

Ensure the safety of all New Thule Society members.

"And priority two,"

Ensure the safety of Blake Schmidt and his family to keep the money flowing.

"Copy," Paige and William said in unison.

"Am I going to rain holy hell on them?" Benjamin said, "I'm in the perfect position to do so."

"Right now, that would only cause us to lose the element of surprise,"

Berlioz nodded his head.

"I have a better idea," Berlioz began, "One that can rid all our subhuman enemies in one fell swoop. Or, at the very least, bluff them off the island."

Berlioz then shoved the walkie-talkie into Benjamin's hands as he walked toward the ship's edge. A portal opened off the edge.

"Hold this for me; I will be right back."

He hopped off, going through the portal that was closed behind him.

---

---

---

Ah, those savage Covens are here.

Who could have seen that coming?

What Phillis didn't see coming was the orbital nuke that damn near burnt the whole mansion down. It would have killed most of them if it was more substantial, but Phillis was thankful she was alive. She forced herself to her feet as smoke filled the room. Attacking them head-on while they were at their highest security measure was something... They must have found a way to get the Veil down. Phillis knew she should have tried harder to convince Blake not to over-rely on the Veil. Yet, it didn't matter now. She hoped that Berlioz could back up his tough talk and kill all members of Sycamore for them. Which would have been perfect for her plans.

For now, Phillis had to ensure that the Coven didn't wipe them out in one fell swoop - the last thing she wanted to do was get eliminated by a group of manchildren who called themselves "witches." She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a keyring with several metal rods. She methodically went through them until she found just the right one. She placed her fingertips at the very end of it, slid it down, and pulled a frozen spirit out of it. It floated next to her as she placed her hand on her chin.

Suddenly, the burning mansion was wrapped in a raging blizzard as the fires were extinguished by the winds, which dropped the temperature substantially. She stuck the rod back out, and it hopped back inside on command. Then she glanced at the horde of zombies up front that might as well have been cannon fodder. Phillis went back to the keychain with all of the metal rods. She needed a few moments to get to her children, so she had to sacrifice one of her (many) tools to buy her a couple of minutes - maybe kill a few of them.

Volcanis.

Ah, perfect. She pulled himout of the metal rod and launched him through the front of the mansion as he swelled to titanic size. He let out a roar as he pointed his hand at the offensive line and unleashed a stream of fire at the treeline as he marched toward them.

While that was going on, Phillis pulled another Apparition out of a metal rod that hovered behind her. Suddenly, inky black darkness pooled underneath her feet as she sunk into the ground...

---

A blur of black smoke raced through the trees, slinging black projectiles of red Lux at armed zombies as it passed by. Jack danced around the gunfire of the undead with the downright unholy speed of his Night Terror spell, never giving them a clear shot as the Shroud orbs stuck to their faces like glue. He was no fool, guns beat magic in a head-on fight, and so he opted to avoid getting too close. Jack wasn't in a position to simply teleport into the crowd and windmill them with his scythe, it was too bright to even attempt.

So one a few zombies were blinded by magic, Jack dashed through them and marked their guns with purple Lux. By the time he was gone, their weapons were stolen away to a place where they wouldn't be easily found. As the Veil squad advanced forward behind him, he took to systematically clearing the way so they didn't waste any time blitzing the mansion. There was no need to stand and fight the foot soldiers.

"Press forward!" Jack circled back around to a ghostly soldier watching their flanks, as well as Naomi and Pearl, one of them being pretty damn mobile herself. They were making decent enough ground that they might just be finished before anyone else, and free to regroup with the others soon. If they didn't get waylaid.

Jack saw the Veil in the distance, sitting in the sand. He could have just charged it, blinding the guards and then hiding behind it to cast the Voidwalk spell, but that was the stupid route. He had a squad with him for a reason.

"There!" He signaled.

---

---

Luca just inclined his head towards Sloane with a slight smile, enough of an agreement that he wouldn’t use the Rot to get through the door unless necessary. Her way through would be less dangerous - not that he was worried about losing control, more if he was hurt enough he couldn’t get back then someone would have to get close enough to heal him… or worse, try carrying him.

He just concentrated on walking, keeping his breathing as even as possible. Though it was made difficult by the smell of undead killed by Clancy. Luca grimaced, covering his nose. Sure, it was a smell he was used to… but the undead themselves was just worse in a different way. A slightly different rotting to his own flesh.

By the time they got into the tunnel, Luca was panting heavily, but he was still near the front. Keeping a careful distance from everyone, taking deep breaths as they shuffled through the side entrance. He was able to calm his breathing down a bit at least…

”I’ll go first,” Luca said quietly, carefully moving himself to the front. ”I can’t go fast, and I can’t go with anyone else. I’ll just hurt you. Plus, my magic’s all passive… so it shouldn’t trigger the eye at all.”

He then looked at Clancy. ”I guess you could come with me?”

Even though it was a question, he didn’t actually wait for an answer. A few moments of watching the slow sweep of the camera, its predictability… but there wasn’t much time to get from blind spot to blind spot. But it was fine. It was better for him to keep moving than to stop, and struggle to start again.

Carefully, Luca stepped out as the camera swept away. Cautious, not too fast but still fast enough steps to the first blind spot. Then the second, third… he made it to the other side, hand coming up with an ok symbol just about visible as he pressed against the wall and hid himself in the shadows over there.

---

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“This guy sure is full of himself,” Rien commented to Alex as they followed behind Jack, who’d taken lead of the relatively small Veil group. There was something irritating about the way he said so few words - just expecting them to be followed. It just irritated Rien… then again, a lot of things irritated them. Press forward, there, was he their fucking boss?

Whatever.

Panoptes floated beside Rien, ethereal eyes spread out to catch anything coming at them. But she didn’t inform Rien of anything yet… and they didn’t care about things just moving past. Only anything they alerted.

But they got to the beach pretty easily.

“I got this.” Rien didn’t even step forward as Jack pointed to the Veil. They pulled a small painting from the front pocket of their dungarees, swiftly reaching in to pull out something close to a short girl: with a mushroom cap for a head, and milky skin. Her lips pulled up into an eerie smile as she looked up at Rien.

“Can I?” she asked, voice a soft rasp. Rien snorted, and just nodded.

Amanita’s dark eyes glowed white for a moment, white thread like mycelia coming from her feet and pushing into the ground. They rapidly, and invisibly, travelled through the soil and the sand. Once they reached everyone around the veil they pushed through the sand, snaking their way around ankles and attempting to penetrate skin.

Then would come immediate paralysis.

---

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Sully cracked his knuckles as the squad was teleported onto Elysium Island. He had given more preparation for this one moment right here than anything in his life, like, upwards to two and a half hours of planning. Sully righted his cowboy hat, cleared his throat, and…he needed a quick refresher. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and reread through the spiel, mumbling under his breath as the other teams grouped up and marched off. He tucked the paper away. Right. Now was his time to shine. Sully cleared his throat, pointed a finger in the air, and—“Alright, no speech,” said Ruby. A little croak eked out of Sully’s throat as his finger fell limp, Ruby inadvertently clamping down on the rousing speech he had prepared for the troops, his shoulders dropping as he deflated. He had transcribed that whole speech off of Youtube. It had taken multiple rewatches. All of his data, wasted.

And then machine guns started popping, shit started exploding, and he ducked for cover.

Little bits of mansion rained down on his back like the fragments of artillery shells as the high pitched ringing in Sully’s ears began to balance out. He blinked rapidly, the blindness from Jess calling down the fucking sun to nuke the mansion slowly fading away and revealing the destruction before them, spots of colorful lights still dancing in his vision as his stomach dropped. Sully had heard about Greenwood’s past run-in with the haters around St. Portwell since joining them, but his experiences with them had mostly been kicking it around a campfire, getting stoned, and listening to bad music from the nineties. Even in his one actual altercation with Greenwood at his back Sully had been too busy getting his ass kicked to ever really pay attention to how they operated, but he’d always assumed it was a little more…plucky, lighthearted hijinxs.

Like, even with Das Sonnerad he’d been under the idea that, with the exception of James defending himself against a neonazi prick, 8th Street had done the wetwork while Greenwood had been going around putting bananas in tailpipes and little sleeping nazi hands in glasses of warm water. Sully blinked away the stars, thinking that the mostly destroyed mansion would suddenly be rebuilt as he stopped imagining things. He wiped his eyes. Nope, still fucked. His breath quickened. Okay, okay, okay, so Jess had just orbital striked a building full of rich people eating cocktail shrimp and playing hide the sausage. Cool, cool, cool, okay, they were probably all bad and working with neonazis and child soldier mafias and there definitely wasn’t, like, a single, innocent cleaning lady or cook in the bunch. Sully gave a sniffled grunt as he stifled the urge to cry.

“Whaddafuckkkk, whaddafuckkkkkk…” hissed Sully. What the fuck was he doing here? He was just some dumbass with a sippy cup. He couldn’t drop nukes. "Come on, Aggro! You bastards wanna live forever?" Yeah, Leon, man, actually that sounded great! Sully watched as Kenshiro and Drake did some supercombo and dusted a whole buncha zombies. Sully couldn’t do that shit, man! He could toss water on somebody’s crotch and make it look like they pissed themselves, maybe splash a little lava around and oh great there’s a fucking lava giant so he’s even useless there COME ON, MAN! WHADDAFUCK!!

"Sully! Olivia! Somebody! Bring your asses over here!"

Hearing his name pulled Sully out of his shock, his head whipping over towards Ruby’s voice to see that Jess was half-cooked. HIs brain chalked up its hands, grabbed ahold of the still rings, and did a couple of backflips to draw up the conclusion that, nah, Greenwood weren’t actually way too extreme for him after all and that the mansion was just a monster closet full of zombies, primordials, and Wish dot com mobsters. Jess was his friend, she needed help, and only Sully could help her. Well, only Sully or Olivia. Nobody else. Well, one of the Amara clones probably knew first aid. So only Sully, Olivia, Amara clone, plus maybe Ken had a weird frog that could also heal. Okay, so only Sully, Olivia, Amara clone with a medkit, anime frog, oh, and Leon had some goop too, so really, it was only Sully, Olvia, Medkit Amara, Nurse Frog, Leon’s Hot Mom’s Goop, and that was it.

That was all that could save Jess.

Nothing else.

Not one more thing.

Sully grabbed the Soakem Mk V , rolled onto his back, and started pumping hard, building up the pressure needed to deliver the perfect sniper blast of heal juice straight to Jess. He rolled back onto his stomach, tucked the massive super soaker around one of Stormy’s barriers, and steadied his aim. Locked in. He squeezed the trigger and a fart of air came out. Sully cursed, realizing the elixir had disappeared, and rolled back over. In one sloppy motion that got his shirt drenched with elixir he filled the chamber back up with the Chalice, pressed in the plastic stopper, rolled over once again, and—

“Oh come the fuck on!” bellowed Sully.

He punched Stormy’s barrier as some nerd in—what was that, a bunny mask or some shit?—jumped out of nowhere, chucked a healing stick into Jess, and then jumped back into nowhere after firing off a bunch of sick shots from a bow and arrow. Utterly defeated, was about to roll behind his barrier as a cobwebbed covered light bulb flicked on in his head. If video games had taught him one thing, it was that the undead were allergic to health potions. Shifting up to a knee, Sully unleashed a streaming, high powered torrent of elixir over the killing fields, letting out a feral yell as zombie after zombie after zombie got a little wet. The yell died off into a whimper as Sully, utterly defeated, rolled back behind his barrier. Was he just cursed to wait for someone to almost die before being useful?

No! He had one more hidden technique! Clapping his hands loudly, Sully started up a cheer for his boy. Nothing made another man push harder than the fighting spirit given to him by a pack of cheerleaders rooting him on and, well, with all of Sycamore’s cheerleaders dead or missing in action it fell on Sully to carry on the legacy of the pom pom.

“L! E! Ooooooouhh,” Sully realized they were wearing masks for a reason. He pivoted with a clap clap, stick ducked safely behind his barrier as he cheered. “F! F-U! Eff who!? Zombie nazis! F! F-U! Eff who!? Magma bitches! F! F-U! Eff who…”

And so on until, hopefully, someone got shot or third-degree lava burns, utterly unaware that in all of the chaos someone already needed him, a small path cut clear between Sully and Liz by Jasper's painted automaton.

---

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Alex watched as the group approached where the veil was and pouted. Their ingenious plan to get rid of the veil was to trap it in the art dimension and to have it available for use ifif ever needed again. The elite must’ve known they specifically were going to try this because why else would they put it outside where their magic didn’t work? Alex scanned the area looking for anything they could use to establish a rudimentary frame around the device but they sighed. By the time they found something to do that someone else will have either gotten rid of it or destroyed it. Instead they looked towards Rien and watched as they pulled one of their monsters out and they frowned. At least they got to do something cool.

As they ran they turned their head and caught sight of Riley. In front of him he held out one hand that created an ice path, and behind him he held the other as he summoned a jet of fire. As he rocketed across the battlefield he used his ice magic to create a ramp and launched himself into the air. As he flew across the sky Alex watched with a pained look as he brought both hands around to the front and launch a barrage of ice daggers at the guards around the veil. Alex sighed. That was also so cool.

Alex groaned loudly as they hopped that the other groups weren’t having as much fun as everyone else in this group.

---

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Thomas used his magic to form a barrier of telekinetic power between the zombie horde and the support group. Its goal was to simply slow, or stop any bullets that pass through it. Olivia slid to a stop next to Jasper, her book open and ready to heal him once the machine was ended. Meanwhile, Jordan pushed his way over to Octavia who had a can of spray paint in her hand. Jordan turned around and the sound of the can shaking filled the air before the hiss of it being used replaced it. Octavia painted her solid support Glyph onto his back, and activated it a moment later coated Jordan in a dull yellow glow that covered his body.

“You see that lava monster thing,” Octavia asked Jordan with a hushed voice.

“I do,” Jordan responded as he pumped magic to his muscles, growing three inches in height and his muscles threatened to rip through his clothes as he narrowed his eyes.

“Fuck it,” Octavia paused as a bullet whizzed past her face, ducking out of instinct, “up.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jordan said as he mentally thanked the lord that Octavia finished the thought. He squatted down before rocketing upwards and across the battlefield. Fist cocked back, as Jordan approached the monster he struck out with every last bit of strength that he had.

As Jordan was leading the fight against the lava monster Leah decided to bring her summons to bear. Literally. She pulled two stuffed bears from a black cloth bag that she brought, filled to the brim with various stuffed animals, and tossed them on the ground. She pressed play on her Walkman and as her music began to play she pressed her magic onto the beats forcing them to come alive. As they did, they quickly surged in size until they were both six feet tall. The stitching grew with the stuffed animal but struggled under the stress, and the stuffing inside began to float outwards. They charged forth at once and began to tear their way through the remaining zombie horde that had thus far survived Doomsday. Leah smiled for just a moment before she saw a zombie raise a gun and fire.

Leah closed her eyes but only heard a soft thud in front of her. As she opened her eyes she saw Aryin standing in front of them. A few bullets impacted their back and the flattened metal simply bounced downwards. ”So you’re going to want to be careful, Leah. Bullets beat magic,” Aryin grinned as they turned around. They looked at the zombies, seeing that the Doomsday was clearing them out, the monsters, and lastly back to Jordan. They knew that they needed to enter the fray sooner rather than later but they also felt like something was still amiss. They crouched behind a shield from Stormy and waited for their enemies to make their next move.

Jason slid next to Aryin as he summoned the plasma into his hand. He formed a ball and lobbed it like a grenade into some of the zombies, it exploded outward and took out a small squad of the zombies. He wanted to wait until the cattle was cleared for the rest of the board to come on the table before he pressed too far ahead.

---

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Jasper felt himself start to slip away. Each breath became more labored, more drawn out, and his vision more narrow with each one. He knew he had to pull back his life force and get healed and he did so, but not before the construct got a two second burst off aimed at the lava monster before Jordan’s hit connected. It melted in an instant, forming a giant puddle of the paint. Jasper tried to take a deep breath as he felt the life force return but his body refused to obey. The light faded more and more as his breathing became even more irregular. As he felt everything begin to stop, and a cold wave rush outward from his chest, he felt some form of impact all across his body.

Sypha had pushed Olivia out of the way and had her blood tendrils pumping Jasper full of her healing magic. She let it linger for three seconds before she pulled her tendrils back out. “That would’ve killed your Olivia, you can take it from here.”

Jasper coughed up some remaining blood, took several long labored breaths, before he spread out on the ground exhausted. His organs were healing but they were still hurt, and he would need further healing to get back to one hundred percent. He looked over to Lila, seeing her eyes narrow on the girl that she spotted earlier. He watched her dig her feet into the ground and coil back like a snake ready to strike. Her wings flapped open to their full position. Jasper realized what Lila was about to do and he tried to tell her no but the words refused to escape his lips as his body still struggled to bring in oxygen.

And with a single motion Lila shot forward like she shot out of a cannon. She crossed half the distance between the support group and the girl in only a matter of seconds. She kept her body close to the ground to avoid drawing as much fire as she could but she expected there to be some retaliation if she lingered for more than a few seconds. There was something about this girl that Lila knew went further than just an uncanny resemblance to a dead friend, and this meant that Lila needed to get her out of the way of danger. Not only to protect her, but to also allow their back line more ability to fight back. As her momentum slowed Lila flapped her wings as hard as she could to gain some altitude before she dove down like a bird of prey aiming for the ground next to the girl. She impacted it hard, but her clawed hands and feet dug into the ground pulling her to a stop a few feet away from the girl.

As she looked up she examined her face in more detail. It wasn’t her friend, but she could tell there was a similarity to her. Almost as if they were related.

“Hi! I hope your battle is going well. Are you with the rich fucks? If you are, I'd have to kill you,” Lila laughed a little too hard at the joke, “If you’re not a rich prick I can get you out of here. One strange follow up question. Are you related to Lyss Burns?”

---

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Sloane maintained a face of neutrality as Britney did the right thing and passed her the radio. If being on what essentially felt like a suicide mission wasn’t nervewrecking enough, having to potentially spend her final day on this earth with someone like Britney who was so petty she could barely even acknowledge Sloane spiked her anxiety. She held the radio up to her lips, masking the vicious sneer that she involuntarily threw Britney’s way as the woman turned her back on Sloane. She took a second to collect herself and then pressed the button on the radio to respond to Anya, drifting to the back of the group as they followed after Clancy and Autumn.

“Not far enough. Who jumped the…” Sloane made a pained expression as a sunbeam came crashing from the sky and rocked the island as it struck the distant mansion. How their collaborators had managed to completely botch a plan that was so uncomplicated it could fit on half of a post-it note was besides Sloane. “We’re on the move.”

Sloane shuffled past the zombies that Clancy had dispatched, the undead sparking unhappy memories about the fiasco at Kari’s house. She found herself surprisingly grateful that Clancy had come along with their crew, even if his nearly luminescent yellow James Roberts Rectangularslacks ski mask made him pop out through the foliage. If anyone should be made to tango with the Starving Dog, there was no better candidate than the seemingly unkillable kid. She gave Autumn a side-eye as she chastised Clancy for splintering off to finish a few undead, slowly sidling up to him as Autumn moved out of earshot.

“Personally, I’d feel more comfortable knowing there were less ghouls to potentially block our only known exit,” said Sloane quietly to Clancy as Autumn revealed the side entrance. Before dipping through the secret door, Sloane pulled out the radio and informed Anya, “We’re heading in so we’re going silent.”

Sloane muted the radio. With the Eye highlighting the auras of the other teams, there were other means of telling if things went south for the alliance. She knew Anya was smart enough not to message them first in case the noise alerted any of the guards still remaining in the compound, but Sloane fully anticipated one of the other teams flicking to the wrong channel and accidentally blowing their cover. Sloane quietly closed the door behind them once everyone had entered the small corridor, hoping to make it less obvious to any patrols that had been ignoring the fighting that a group had slipped inside. She ducked into cover behind the others, patiently awaited her turn, and slinked past the camera with ease to join the others in the safety of the shadows.

The sealed gate, with whatever additions the Elite had added to it since Greenwood’s failed excursion last time, would be up next as the group continued to follow Autumn down the web of corridors. Ruby had implied that there would be some kind of nasty creatures guarding the gate as well as the halls beyond it. She pulled her Hexmarked knife out of her coat pocket, frowning as her finger brushed her channeler. The knife wasn’t useless without magic, but it would be nice if they were forced into a fight to have something with a little more substance.

Sloane’s eyes fell on the silhouette of the Noble Vow carried by Britney as her face, hidden by shadow, soured. As long as the Eye of Ankhara was up Britney wouldn’t be able to harness the power of the blade without pinging their location to the whole island. Sloane, meanwhile, had been training in anticipation of Ashley finally breaking and handing over the Apparition Killer to somebody who could make use of it. Plus, Sloane doubted that the Noble Vow would even accept Britney as a host. For the second time that evening Britney would feel a tap on her shoulder.

“You don’t actually know how to really use that, do you?” said Sloane with a hushed voice to not alert anything that might be around the corner as her hand reached out and flicked the hilt of the Noble Vow. “I’m trained. Could keep us from blowing our cover if a conflict arises. Actually protect the group.”

Once again, Sloane held out her hand expectantly, not budging as a shush came from Autumn up ahead in an attempt to slice through the bubbling tension. The corridor ended in a T-section up ahead. Autumn tiptoed to the edge of the hall, pressed her back against the wall, and leaned out just enough to get a glance of what was around the corner. The sealed security gate, a pair of metallic doors accented with yellow caution paint, an intercom, and a small screen that might be a kind of badge scanner was to the right. If there were any kind of magical traps or triggers then they were impossible to see with the naked eye. However, the most concerning thing wasn't the sealed gate at the right side of the T-section, but the padding of footfalls coming from around the corner down the left side. Autumn ducked her head back as, rounding the corner, was a giant quadrupedal reptile that loudly gurgled as it took every step - which was heavy.

The creature poked its head around, and for a moment, it was completely silent as both parties stared at each other, before it loudly screeched and charged forward.

With its dick out.