---

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.

---

---

“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.

---

---

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.

---

---

---

---

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.

---

---

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.

---

---

---

---

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?”

---

---

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.

“Not a rich fuck. She was my cousin. Came to help her coven. Haven’t met Drake yet.”

Lila’s head tilted at the response. A cousin of Lyss? Come to help her coven? Currently located at a Diddy-like white party? Lila looked across her body, searching for any telltale signs of being a participant, but the more she looked, the more she could only see sunburn and pain. Lila's head tilted the other way and she smiled. It was good to see a family member of a dead friend. Did Lila go to her funeral? Was there a funeral? Should Lila ask if there was a funeral, and if so, whether or not she missed it? Lila paused the thought as she squinted her eyes. Would she need to buy something as a gift for the funeral?

“Tell me you guys have a healer? Or water. Either one first.”

Lila's head tilted in the other direction once again. “Water, healer,” Lila tapped her finger on her chin before she remembered that Sully was located nearby. Sully could give her water, and healing, and water that healed. Yes! Yes, that is what Lila needed to do. She needed to pick up this girl, take her to Sully, and not break her along the way. Lila scurried across the ground on all fours until she was next to the new friend. She leaned in really, really, really close to the girl until both faces were nearly pressed together. She held the spot for a prolonged second before she pulled her head back and smiled. “We have someone who can give you water that heals,” Lila paused as she effortlessly pulled the girl up from the ground and into her arms, “his name is Brosiden, Lord of the Brocean…..Sully. Sully is his name.” Lila coiled back again, spreading her wings outwards again, before she launched herself forward suddenly, and violently.

As she began to fly through the air, she heard the telltale whizz and crack of bullets passing close by. Lila instinctually began to swerve in the air, banking sharply and quickly to the left before flapping her wings as hard as she could to help redirect her to the right. She kept this zig zag going, but the more she did it the longer she became exposed to return fire. More and more near misses were heard just around her head before suddenly she felt a hot sting in her right butt cheek. She paid it no mind, but for a moment she thought it was weird that Trisha had decided that now was the time to attack her again. She’d need to repay this betrayal in kind later on. Lila looked ahead and saw where Sully was located. Lila could tell she was still a few seconds out, and in a moment the crack and whizz of the bullets fired at her increased at what felt like an exponential rate. Lila pulled the fake Lyss in even closer, wrapped her wings around her, turned her body, crashed into the ground below, and rolled the rest of the way across the battlefield. After several seconds the two came to a stop, but Lila was not out of the woods yet. Bullets kicked up dirt all around her, and with a single outstretched hand, Lila pulled herself and Liz behind one of Stormy’s shields. She pulled her wings in even closer as a torrent of bullets impacted the shield and the dirt around it. Lila saw a few feathers flying through the air which was also weird. Who else had wings around here?

What Lila did not see was that she had been shot three times, once in the butt cheek and twice in her right wing. The injuries were not serious, and Lila was blissfully unaware of the damage as the pain was minimal. Still, she would also need healing before she could get back in the fight. And get back in the fight she did not want. Lila hid it well but that was one of the scariest, dumbest things she’d ever done.

“SULLY” Lila shouted, “get your handsome face over here and heal this girl and get her some water. Her cousin was Lyss!”

_{Interactions: Britney (@Mixtape Ghost N), Sloane (@Atrophy), Artifact Group}

---

Layla could feel Autumn's gaze on her, and a flush crept over her cheeks as they walked.

Alizée simply stared back, red eyes cold. ”The hell is her problem?”

Layla grimaced, her thoughts mumbled. ”Probably still mad I caused that big argument…”

Alizée sneered in their direction, her own thoughts sharp and uncompromising. ”You were in the right. And, from what I read from your mind, you were only looking for justice, an explanation. Leave these weaklings; we're here to support the Sycamore, and that's it.”

”And get a leg up on Father Wolf.”

”And that.”

Aislin nudged Layla as they walked, “You got some glum look on your face - cheer up! This will be over before you know it.”

Layla forced a smile, nodding. ”Right.”

Layla, Alizée and Aislin were in a group after Luca, huddled in the blind spots as they shifted from one space in the hallway to the next. Until, eventually, they too were merely steps behind Autumn and the rest as they approached the T-section.

The Halloween dinosaur was an unexpected development, to be sure.

Layla pressed a hand over her mouth, muffling a surprised yelp. Alizée acted a little faster, chains circling around the monster's neck, and pulling tight. Did it breathe? Well, it wouldn't for long. Alizée purposefully didn't use her abilities to leech its physical essence, unwilling to be the one to "trip the alarms”.

Alizée ghosted to the side as the beast charged, yanking hard and trying to disturb its line of direction. This would also help tighten the chains, and cut off more air supply. If, that was, it needed to breathe.

Alizée's red eyes darted to Layla, ”Stay outta the way!” She hissed as quietly as she could.

Aislin had unzipped her backpack, pulling out her trusty Tec-9, the last memory she had of Luna. She aimed it towards the creature, eyes darting briefly to Britney and Sloane. She liked neither of them, but both were heading this operation.

“What’s the fucking plan, here?!” She said in a stage whisper.

---

---

Britney almost laughed.

In the blink of an eye, the entire plan went to shit, and they were now face to face with a mini-Kaiju with its red-hot dong out. The fact that she was proven so horribly right was drowned out by the fact that they were now in between a rock and a hard place: they could either use magic and alert the whole island, or get mauled by a monster and alert the entire island. Thankfully, Alizee was restraining the creature with her chains (which also didn't set off the alarm), and it thrashed as it choked - swinging its claws out at the group. Britney resisted the urge to just cut the damn thing's head off with the Noble Vow.

”What did ya'll do when you ran into a monster?” Adora asked Autumn.

"We avoided them all," Autumn nodded.

”Well, shit,” Adora hissed.

“What’s the fucking plan, here?!”

”Plan is to keep it cool, and not blow our load,” Britney said in a whisper. ”We can still turn this around. Just got to play our cards right.”

They needed a plan; thankfully, Aislin knew who would have one. Britney turned to Layla and quietly asked, ”How far can you separate from Alizee? She can't die; if she gets destroyed, she'll just get returned to your soul.” Hopefully, Layla, as ditsy as she is, would get the plan: Alizee holds the monster down while the rest of them proceed...

"... Adept en route!" Autumn spoke out loud, "Red and Purple!"

”Yoooooo, you gotta be fucking kid-” Adora spoke out loud before cutting herself off and going back to whispering. ”Sloane, tell them we're leaving. This is-”

”No,” Britney said, ”It's just one hiccup. We can handle this.”

The ground began to rock.

---

---

---

Rohan healed Jess with the spear, and Ruby let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't long until Ruby pulled the spear out.

"Holy shit!" Jess shouted as her eyes shot open, "So THAT'S what it feels like!" Then she laughed.

"Shit! I thought you'd be fireproof!" James said with a cocky grin.

"Why do I need to be fireproof?!" Jessica laughed as she gestured forward. "Usually I'm miles-"

The Magma Titan burst out of the mansion and began marching towards them with its shoulders out. Jessica's jaw dropped as Ruby narrowed her eyes and grinned. "The bigger the challenge!" Ruby confidently said, "The bigger the reward!"

Ruby began barraging the Apparition with a barrage of Spring Beams as Jordan punched the Apparition (One bold motherfucker, that one.). The two attacks caused the burning-hot Phantasm to stumble backward a few steps before it roared, shaking the earth.

"Wish we had Pearl here!" Ruby said as she kept unloading magic beams into the horror. Amelia stepped up, and began to pelt the Apparition with cooling winds that diverted its flames into different directions. She kept it up as Ruby kept pounding it.

"Hey! Battery girl!" Jessica said to Lily. "Juice me up!"

"Aren't you just going to make it hotter?" Lily asked.

"No, no, no! I got a kinetic beam just for motherfuckers like this!" Jessica laughed as Lily wrapped her arms around her bicep and charged her up.

"Don't get cooked like a chicken!" Lily shouted, laughing.

"Don't worry about me!" Jessica stepped up, with a grin on her face as she raised her hands into the air. The sun began glowing brighter and brighter as Jessica looked over her shoulder at Lily. "Because I got the suuuuuuuuuuuuun on my side!"

A massive beam of kinetic energy came down on the sky directly atop the Apparition. It slammed into the ground with an enormous boom, almost knocking everyone off their feet.

"Oh you thought I was finished!?" Jessica shouted as the sun gleamed brighter again, and another powerful beam of Kinetic light came down from the sky directly onto the Apparition. Then another, and another. The impact created a deep crater in the ground, sending dust and debris everywhere. Jessica let up, and tilted her head in surprise.

"... It's still in one piece?!" Jessica shouted, "Someone go seal- Ooooooooh..."

Her jaw dropped as her eyes drifted upward; everyone's eyes drifted upward. Dozens of blasts of cyan-blue Ectoplasm with screaming faces rained down on them.

"... TAKE COVER!"

Ruby shouted as she ducked behind a shield, and the ground began shaking. Every blast of Ectoplasm went off like an explosion as it came down wild and indiscriminate. Explosion after explosion came as Ruby had her back to Stormy's shields.

"Where are they coming from!?" Jessica shouted.

"Don't know!" Ruby shouted, "We gotta find it quick!"

"... Some plan," Jasmine said, rolling her eyes as she took cover.

The Magma behemoth forced its way back to its feet, then began marching towards them, ignoring the blasts of ectoplasm that started to rain on it.

---

---

---

Naomi swung from tree to tree... with Pearl's arms and legs wrapped around her.

Unlike Jack, Pearl didn't possess a mobility abstraction, and they had to improvise. Naomi had to carry her in a near-romantic swing, avoiding getting shot at by the zombies. But once Jack made it to the veil, it was gameday, and Naomi let go of Pearl. The plan was for Jack to yeet the Eustis Veil into the Void or for Rein to grab it so they can use it - then Naomi and Pearl go to the Support and Aggro groups, respectively. Though, the Eustis Veil was huge, about three stories tall! Naomi wondered how they were going to use it. However, the Veil was surrounded by armed zombie minions, and the apparent solution to that problem was to fight them. Naomi wasn't sure of Jack's capabilities, but a full-on attack would be suicide. However, Rien handled it with her summons, which restrained the zombies, and Pearl raised her hands and chanted. She summoned several icy spikes that cut through the air at lightning speeds and impaled the restrained zombies.

Then Naomi felt a bit useless, but they were...

She looked up and saw the Ectoplasm rain down on top of them.

"Oooooh, boy," Naomi's jaw dropped. "They ain't playin'..."

Pearl loudly chanted in Korean again before creating a dome of ice above them that tanked several of the blasts of Ectoplasm. Naomi reached down for the Radio and shouted,

"Weird ghost things are raining on us!" Naomi updated Ruby.

"Our position too!" Ruby responded. "Our shields are handling it, but are you okay?"

"Pearl's got us covered," Naomi responded. "Hopefully, these things will destroy the Veil for us."

"Someone's got eyes on us," Ruby responded, "Or they're just trying to blow up the island, not giving a fuck who they hit."

"What do you suggest we do?" Naomi asked.

"It's a crazy idea!" Ruby shouted, "... But turn the Veil back on!"

"I thought we were getting rid of it," Naomi snorted.

"Yeah, we were," Ruby responded, "But that was before the artillery started,"

There was a pause,

"They seem to be coming from way above the island," Ruby began, "If you keep the Veil secure, we can just turn it back off when we are ready to jet."

Naomi didn't respond.

"... Trust me on this one!" Ruby said.

Naomi looked up at the group to see what they thought.

---

---

---

The mansion was nearly burnt to a crisp by their opening attack but still solid. Those bastards hadn't breached it yet, and Phillis suspected they weren't trying to. They had another plan, probably going for their artifacts or something stupid. Maybe if they asked nicely. However, from her estimations, most of the Elite were still alive. She slowly rose from the ground; a pool of inky darkness heralded her arrival in their bar - where most of the Elite were hanging out. They looked at Phillis, and Phillis shrugged,

"Our various enemies are besieging us; we are leaving and letting our 'Security Force' and Mafia friends handle it," Phillis announced, then stepped forward and tapped the darkness-covered ground a few times. "Step into the darkness if you wish to leave."

"And leave this action?!" Angela said with a devilish grin on her face, "You must be-"

Phillis pulled another of her Apparitions out of the metal rods, which raised a hand at Angela and electrocuted her, bringing her eldest child to her knees. Phillis placed her hands on her hips and said, "Child, do not let Turbulence control you." Phillis said, "You will have your time to shine... some other time, but not today. Let's go, everyone!"

The various members of the Elite gathered in the pool of darkness in the center of the room... except for Jiao-Long and Chunhua.

"... But my daughters are still here!" Jiao-Long shouted, "I refuse to leave them behind!"

Phillis didn't even turn her full gaze onto Jiao-Long, "... Then go find them." She began to sink into the darkness of the floor. "They are not my problem."

Jiao-Long will have to hitch a ride with Berlioz. Then, right as she was gone, she said,

"... Toodles,"

Hopefully, Jiao-Long and his family die on this island and make her plan just a little bit easier.

_{Interactions:Aggro Group, specifically Sully (@Atrophy)}

---

Alexander swore he had been up and down this island, so it came as a surprise when he came across a small mound, bushes, and most importantly, movement. Was that the tail end of a Sycamore he saw?

He smirked, pressing his comms. ”Got ‘em. They've entered the tunnels.”

Valencia was quick to respond. ”And the status of the front?”

Alexander's head inclined towards the smoke rising in the distance, and shot forward on an electrical current. In a matter of seconds, he was hidden at the treeline of the iced over mansion, witnessing absolute chaos.

”Mum, you gotta see this. A massive apparition, headed straight for ‘em. Ghost projectiles too.” Alexander said through his comms.

There was a definitive pause before Valencia responded. ”...Let's use these opportunities. Jin, send your biggest to assist the apparition and attacks at the front. Zi, coordinate with Jin, and back Alex up. Alex, you know what to do...”

There was a chorus of affirmative voices over the comms, before the House of Cards made their move.

A portal opened in the sky over the mansion, and out came a glowing gold dragon. It took longer than one would think for it's entire body to twist out of the portal; it had to be at least fifty to sixty feet in length, rippled with muscles and thickly built with the width of at least ten feet.

As the portal closed behind it, the dragon screeched, eyes feasting on the Sycamore below. It twisted as it circled in the sky, opening its maw. A hot jet stream of fire exploded around the most densely packed group of the Sycamore, including Sully, Drake, and Lila, to name a few - burning the trees behind them and the grass in front of them, scorching a few Undead in the process (oops). It attempted to create a semi-circle of fire around the Sycamore, giving the magma apparition a clear way to attack them, and to cut off the Sycamore's ways of escape.

A slow breath in, and one more jet of fire was unleashed, this time unfurling directly on top of Sully's location.

All the while, the dragon kept twisting and moving in the sky, intentionally trying to be hard to hit.

At the same time, Alexander stood at the entrance of the tunnel, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, before he grinned, and disappeared in a streak of electricity into the tunnel.

---

Interactions: Artifact Group, specifically Clancy (@Zombiedude101), Luca (@Fernstone), and Britney (@Mixtape Ghost N)

---

”How far can you separate from Alizee? She can't die; if she gets destroyed, she'll just get returned to your soul.”

Layla's smile was contagious as she looked up at Britney, before it flattened into a wincing grimace. She whispered, ”Not very far. It's fine, though, I'll stay here with her.”

Aislin's panic subsided a bit at Britney’s words, though she still kept an anxious watch on the creepy monster. Alizée's chains seemed to be doing the trick, however, so Aislin lowered her gun just slightly.

At least, that was until Autumn let up a warning:

"... Adept en route! Red and Purple!”

Aislin half turned. “Red and… pur-?”

Slow clapping echoed off the tunnel walls as Alexander came forward from behind, a nasty smirk on his face. “And here I thought I'd get the jump on ya'll.”

A portal opened beside him, revealing Zi for a flash of a moment as he summoned an undead king into the tunnel. It was so massive it had to bow its head slightly to avoid scraping its crown against the ceiling. Then, the portal shut.

The undead king's hollow eyes stared through the Sycamore, before it raised a bony hand, and green fire burst forth, arcing over their heads and burning the T-section hallway, further entrapping them with enemies on both sides, and cutting them off from moving forward.

At the same moment, Alexander raised his own hand, and grinned.

“Ya'll fuckers killed Luna. That won't stand, no. So, enjoy.”

And a bolt of black electricity shot out in a wide range, aimed for Clancy, Luca, and Britney.

Stormy’s guardian barriers weren’t the largest shield. They were three feet across and circular, meaning there were gaps in them if one was trying to use them like cover. And this meant that Stormy had to throw them up in patterns, several stacked closely together to make quick walls which people could stand behind. Doing this wasn’t hard for him, in fact it was child’s play in a very literal sense. This was the same sort of thing he worked around on battlefields ten years ago; A rhythm, of sorts.

When people strayed too far, Stormy would flock his arm in their direction and hurl one of the circular shields outwards. Timing it the way he did, it intercepted the occasional bullet that someone was trying to plant in someone’s chest. And when someone was ducking behind cover to heal or reload a weapon, his walls would spread out slightly, until the shields were almost edge to edge so they could catch their breath. This was muscle memory to him, something he didn’t even have to consciously think about sometimes.

The trick, though, was keeping up with others. Protection was a burden, one that magically locked Stormy down. So, every few minutes when the Aggro group pressed on just outside his range, every single barrier would fall and he’d haul ass back into the center of the action. By then, the position he’d take would be exhausted, so he’d start all over again without breaking a sweat.

And all was going perfectly fine, rote and dangerous when that gigantic thing tore out through the trees.

”Damn… I can’t cast Phantombane like this,” He muttered. Too much magic being used, it wouldn’t even be felt.

Unless…

”STORMY,” Aryin shouted as they walked calmly through the falling ghosts as explosions erupted around them. The shockwaves began to quickly charge her energy reserves. While she did not know how to stop the falling bombs, or if they even could at this moment, the enemy finally unleashed their first strikes which meant it was time for Aryin to go on the offensive. ”Hallow Blast.”



”You read my mind!” More barriers went up, scattered at random with no rhyme or reason, to act as shade for the falling ectoplasm. ”I can’t move, just stay near me!”

He held out a fist, and reached down deep into his very soul, the place where all his magic truly came from. Vibrant, malachite green energy raced up his arm. He held it out to them.

Aryin continued to walk through the explosions, their durability pushed to their maximum. Each one added more and more of a charge to their stored power, and each one threatened to slow them down in this critical moment. As they walked through the chaos Jasper watched with a grin on his face. He knew all too well what the two were about to bring to the battle, and he knew that he might have a part to play in it. Even as his body was still recovering he needed to ensure that the two got that bomb off. He pulled up a canvas and his paintbrush and began to paint.

As they came with each of Stormy they swapped forms and reached out their one fist to Stormy and held his other hand up in the air, palm up.

The green swirled into their hands like water, tightening and spinning faster and and faster. It began to glow bright, an emerald sun upon the battlefield. Brighter, brighter and brighter still. Aaron’s energy mixed with it, a Spirit Bomb that dared anything inhuman to so much as exist in the aftermath.

As the energy mixed and combined the spirit bomb grew larger, and larger, and larger still. First it was nothing more than a baseball in size, but it quickly grew to a basketball, followed by an exercise ball and still more it grew. Aryin was putting as much of their stored energy into this attack as he could. As it approached his limit the weight of the bomb began to grow heavily on him but with Stormy helping it was bearable. Aaron looked up and saw a bomb falling right towards them. Aaron knew he couldn’t swap back in time and simply closed his eyes in acceptance.

The explosion rang out from above but it had a heavy metal ring to it. Aaron was spattered with paint spalling as Jaspers Paladin, complete with the durable shield Stormy taught him to make, had his shield raised as high as he could to intercept the ghostly bomb. It held its arm up for a second before it fell to the side and dissolved into paint once more.

A second later Aaron felt his own life force begin to deplete. He had used up all of his saved energy. ” Let’s do this.”



They both hurled it high into the air, and it served over the trees and down onto the head of the magma titan. It was like a small nuke went off, green smoke and raw power rippling down. It was Phantombane, but a dozen times stronger, backed by one of the heaviest hitting Adepts in the coven.

Lila saw the dragon come out of the portal and a command was sent to every last crow to fly as far away as they could from it. As the dragon approached Lila thought through her options. She could probably out fly it and the fire it breathed, but that would put her new friend in danger. She killed this new friend, they had been through so much already. Lila had been stung by bees for her, drew gunfire for her, and was currently the only one protecting her. The only one. Which Lila knew meant that if she left then she was likely going to die. Lila did not like her new friends dying, she never liked it when her old friends died.

But what could she do?

Her first thoughts were her transformation magic. Maybe she could transform into something bigger and stronger that could take the fire and fight the dragon. Yet Lila knew that if she did this she’d be practically inviting more permanent and potentially threatening changes to her body. The next thought was whether or not her curse magic could force the ground itself to transform around her to protect her. Lila also knew that this was very much untested and there was a possibility that she’d have to use so much magic that she’d be exhausted, and prime for a takeover from the bird bitch.

Which meant there was only one thing she could actually do.

“Don’t worry I got you,” Lila said as the dragon lined up its attack. She tightened her wings around herself and Liz, making a near completely enclosed bubble of feathers overtop. Stormy’s shield would need to take the brunt of the impact but her durability meant that if anything got past she’d be able to withstand it for a moment. She then her chest and arms overtop Liz a moment before impact to give her yet another layer just in case.

Lila felt the heat of the strike as it hit all around her. While the shield stopped most of the fire, a few stray bits still impacted her wings. If she were any less durable it would have been quite painful. But this new form was durable, and with the strong emotional field of The Maiden she was able to survive the fire. Still, as the seconds dragged on she felt the pain grow in intensity. Still, her wings were more or less out of action as the amount of feathers lost was enough to keep her grounded.

Lila’s vision was suddenly filled with different angles of a massive Spirit Bomb flying through the air and noticed it had a green glow. Hallow Blast. That meant that the Lava monster, and the dragon, were likely in a lot of trouble. You can’t dodge a nuclear-like explosion after all. Lila pulled her wings in even tighter and took a deep breath.

And then it hit.

---

---

The sound of a chainsaw revving filled the air, originating from behind Alexander.

It revved, and revved as Cyrus took a few steps towards Alexander. He had kept his distance from the rest of the artifact crew for precisely this reason. It was obvious to him that something would eventually go wrong with this plan, and he wanted to see how the chaos started before he made his move.

“Oh well done,” Cyrus said as he continued to walk forward. He revved the chainsaw again. “Your plan to draw us in was perfect down to the cocky slow clap reveal,” Cyrus paused as he revved the chainsaw again. Thus far he had not pumped any of his lux in the machine yet so he would not alert the veil yet. “But you forgot to check if anyone was laying a trap for you,” Cyrus paused as he summoned his purple lux and the Chainsaw of Ash began to pull at it eagerly.

In his mind he knew that the beacon was already lit by this trap being sprung so he did not mind being the one to trigger the veil. Suddenly an incredibly loud explosion was heard on the island and Cyrus felt the foundation of the building shake. Dust fell from the walls and the ceiling as the shaking continued. As it shook he revved the chainsaw, activating its ability, and he began to sprint down the hallway at an impossible speed thanks to this powerful artifact.

---

---

Lila’s shout for Sully cut through the battlefield and interrupted his jeers of, “Hey hey, you you!” He snapped his head in the direction of his little bird buddy, his mouth forming a wide-O as he saw her ruffled feathers matted with wet blood and fresh bullet holes. Then, catching the rest of what Lila said, Sully realized that the injured figure the corvid was carrying wasn’t an oversized and overcooked skunk but Lyss’s cousin. He felt a wave of sympathy for the badly sunburned woman. His pale, Irish family had sought out St. Portwell because of the opportunities it proved, with the biggest opportunity being that it was almost always overcast so they never had to worry about the sun immediately killing them. Lyss’s cousin must’ve been a local, the fright of seeing actual sunlight for the first time turning some of her hair white.

“Don’t worry, cuz! I got you both!” shouted Sully, glancing off to the treeline in case that jumpy bastard came back to snatch up his glory.

There was still some distance between Sully and the two wounded. Fortunately, he’d come packed just for such a thing. Sully picked up the SoakEm Mk V super soaker from where he’d dropped it on the ground and began pumping the cylinder as a battery-operated motor and lights started to flair up, a high-pitched whirring sound cutting through the actual gunfire peppering the barrier next to him. Sully shouldered the SoakEm Mk V and closed one eye, releasing his breath as he centered Lila and Liz in his sights. A shout to take cover from Ruby drew his eye up to the sky as he cursed and dove back behind the barrier, dirt peppering him as he landed roughly and tweaked his knee. Sully sucked in a pained breath as he grabbed at his leg and rolled onto his side, fumbling with his hand for the Chalice and took a sip. He felt something in the joint pop back in place as he wiped his lips dry.

Okay, round two. Nothing to come from the sky to stop him from hea-oly fucking shit!

“DRAGON!” yelled Sully, pointing at the portal that had just ripped open over the mansion.

The last thing anybody would see before the man disappeared behind a wave of fire and smoke was Sully coming up to one knee, tilting his head back, and lifting the Chalice up to his mouth. The flames tore across the ground as smoke filled the skies. It blackened the earth, vaporized the trees, and glassed the sand. Feasibly no man should have survived the blast of dragonfire, Emotional Fields be damned. However, in that moment Sully achieved his apotheosis, truly becoming the avatar of Broseidon, channeling the pure power of the popped collar and amplified by the feeling of having a true bro at his back in the form of Stormy’s shield that actually took the brunt of the attack.

Sully chugged from the Chalice hard and fast as the waves of flames licked around the shield. His cowboy hat was ripped from his head by the blast and sucked forward into the inferno, incinerating in an instant alongside the SoakEm Mk V, whose hard plastic shell and sick decaling turned out to surprisingly not be dragonproof. The smell of smoke and burning hair filled his nose along with what little air he could breathe in that didn’t become fuel for the fire. Sully smelled another strangely sweet aroma, like a pig roasting on a spit over an open flame, unaware that it was the smell of his skin being cracked and cooked by the heat, the Chalice out healing the burns, the elixir running down his cheeks and dripping down his neck as if he were basting himself.

Sully kept chugging until the metal of the Chalice became too hot to handle. The cup dropped from his hand. With the elixir no longer continuously healing him, the wave of the most insane pain he had ever experienced from the intensity of the heat was quick to get the best of Sully. He crumpled to the ground as the wave of fire cleared. His skin was like a burnt pie crust, incredibly dry, cracked, and oozing some kind of juice, with a nightmarish pattern of plastic and fabrics fused to his body from where his clothing and gear had melted from the heat. The world around him was nothing but ash. He convulsed as the red hot Chalice rapidly returned to its neutral silver, his eyes twitching, throat groaning, his hand just an inch away from salvation.

His eyes closed, he fell silent, and the convulsions stopped.

Then with an almost feral, Leon-like howl he opened his eyes. Sully pushed through the nuclear level of pain as he stretched his right hand towards the Chalice. Just an inch. He could make it just an inch. A centimeter. A millimeter. A couple of atoms. His burnt fingers felt the inexplicably cool metal of the Chalice, his lips cracking in a skeletal smile that became a terrified gasp as he nudged the Chalice ever so slightly. His eyes widened in horror as the goblet slowly rolled forward. An inhuman cry that was more like the moan of a zombie escaped from Sully’s throat as his fingers limply scratched at the ground, his strength rapidly fading, the Chalice just out of reach.