Machines, Mythology and Magic
Madalyne was stretched outside under a nearby tree with a book out on her lap that she had borrowed from the library, she sometimes did like to spend her time just reading outside of Stark Hall to relax. And they day was pretty nice as well to, she had brought out a cup of tea next to her as well. It was the weekend and the weather was good to and a perfect time to just enjoy it. She occasionally would look up seeing a few other students walking past and going about their day as well too.
Leah hadnât been looking forward to involving more people into this. Talking about it with April and Sabine was only natural, and Vicky
did help her find theâŠ
thing inside her in the first place. But she never really talked to Madalyne that much. She was okay, but Leah just never got around to bonding with her like she did the few other friends she had. So approaching her today was a little awkward.
Vicky should be here any minute.
She walked up to the tree where Madalyne was, and tried to think of the best way to make her situation sound logical.
âHey, Madalyne. I know we donât talk very often, but thereâs something I could use your help with. Something that might have to do with magic.âAs Victoria headed out, she was considering the pros and cons of revealing herself to more people. Granted, she wanted to shed the human disguise, however, not all of her teammates were indifferent to the contest. Her robot nature was an ace in the hole to be played at a perilous moment. As such, telling anyone outside of her team was a little counterproductive in that regard.
Then again, Cassie knows, and that team is the biggest threat. The other threats are magicians, and having them know in order to not destroy me on accident is no small thing. And speaking off- she cut her train of thought short when she spotted a mess of black curls talking to someone parked under a tree.
"Greetings on this fine day, ladies."Madalyne stopped where she was in her book when she heard Leah's voice she turned to look up at her, asking for some of her she was more than willing to help and she knew that Leah was dating her best friend along with Sabine as well to. Other than that they hadn't really hung out with each other.
"Sure I don't mind helping out, whats the issue that you have?" Madalyne asked as she started to stand up putting her book away in her bag.
She then turned to look over Leah's shoulder hearing Victoria's voice, she remembered helping her out back at the dance to try and find her sister Cassie she seemed nice enough.
"Hi there Victoria, how are you doing today?" She asked her as she reached down to grab her cup of tea and her pack which she slung it over her shoulder.
Now that Leah had to actually articulate her predicament, she suddenly felt self-conscious. This was going to make Leah sound like she was batshit crazy or something...
"Okay, so... A while back, Usagi put us all in the Framework," she started from the beginning.
"She had us fight each other, and Zarina stabbed me wither her sword. Right over my spine. Normally, that would just, you know, paralyze someone. Except she hit something else, that was in the way of bone.""It... Did something to me," She continued.
"One minute I'm fine, the next I'm a lot taller, and my skin's turning grey, and my powers are acting crazy. She didn't know what it was, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. After that happened, me and Vicky were talking and we found something metal stuck inside of me." She still felt her skin crawl just thinking about it. It took a considerable effort not to walk into Vicky's lab and find whatever looked like an EMP emitter just to fry the fucking thing.
"We tried to get a good look at it with an MRI. But- Well..." Leah pulled her phone out, and pulled up a picture of the image. It was pixelated way beyond what any medical image should be, but only in one specific area. It was easy to tell that the device was rectangular, and has a circular base with lines radiating outwards, but the finer details were much too foggy.
She showed it to Madalyne, and then elaborated.
"Vicky thinks there's something magic going on, which is what's causing the glitchy stuff. Apparently she's seen it before," Leah didn't give any specific details about
how, since that wasn't her story to tell.
"I'm not exactly a wizard, so I've got no idea what it is. But I had no idea it was inside me until that happened. So, this sounds weird, but I'm asking if you can maybe help me figure out what the deal is with this thing. If it is actually magic."As Vicky saw Leah struggle to get going, she wanted to put a reassuring arm on her shoulder. Fortunately she remembered in time that getting entangled in Leah's deathly mane was not quite selubrious. Taking her hand might also send a wrong message. Instead she settled for a smile and a headnod to beckon her to continue.
Once Leah finished, she added on her reasoning.
"If you recall the haunted house, I can apparently see strong enough magic. And while I can't see any when I look at Leah myself, that-" she pointed at the medical scan,
"-Is too similar to what I've seen to ignore. Oh! Which reminds me, I would also like toask you to teach me the shield spell you used, if that would be possible?"Madalyne listened to Leah as she started to explain what was going on with her, and leaned in getting a good look at the medical image it felt similar to her current situation. She had found out that she was a half demon, after coming with direct contact with Andy when she touched her, she still regretted stabbing her fellow teammate.
"It could be some kind of magic item with an enchantment that someone put in you, why someone did that I don't know." She said as she started to think for a moment.
"There are some spells and enchantments that can be used on someone either to repress someone else's powers or magical abilities if they have a hard time controlling them. Or to seal away something else as well to." Madalyne explained hoping that she was making some sense.
"But I can take a look see if you want to go to my dorm or yours whichever is better for you." She said to Leah, her attention turned towards Vicky, she did remember that Vicky requested her help as well to back at the dance. She was kind of surprised that Victoria wanted to learn a little bit about magic, the shield spell was something that her mother had taught her when she was little. And it was a specialty that her father Edus used, though he had gone missing when she was three years old during Halloween.
"I can teach you it, though it might take some time and practice as well. But i'd be more than happy to help you with that." She said giving Vicky a friendly smile.
âMy dorm should be empty right now, itâll be easier without anyone else watching us,â She said, as if they were getting up to no good or committing acts of sin. She didnât know Vicky was interested in learning magic. Wouldnât that kill her?
âDidnât know you liked magic, Vick.âVictoria waited until they were alone in the dorm before answering either of her companions. Just to be sure, she did a sensor sweep for any listening devices.
"My body does not like some kinds of magic. You weren't there at the time, but Madie already shielded me at the monster mash and it worked well. It's either spatial or dimensional magic that is a danger, and even then it may need to be of some strength. Suffice to say, magic teleporting is probably not in my future, but the shield is fine. Personally I always wanted to take the class, but I didn't have the time in the schedule yet. That said-"She turned to Madalyne, taking a breath. According to her observations, Mads was one of the people less likely to react negatively to finding out about her not being human - Time to put her people reading skills to the test.
"- I would reserve enthusiasm. Agatha did tell me, and I quote, 'AIs are a pain in the ass to teach.'""Lead the way." Madalyne said as she started to head into Stark Hall and over towards where Leah's dorm was she turned to look at Victoria for a moment, listening to her as she spoke she the last bit caught her attention though.
"From what I know usually AI's tend to rely more on science, mathematics and other technologies over the mystic-arts." She said wondering how Victoria would react, before turning to look at Leah not wanting to be to bold.
"If you are alright could you lift up the back of your shirt a bit just to see what I might be working with?" Madalyne asked her.
Leah turned and shut the door, before pulling her shirt up in the back, and pulling away her absolute mess of curls. There were definitely a few markings here or there; Scars and other traces of past hardships that Leah had been through, with any number of them being related to her time at this school.
But nothing indicated that there was a magical device stuck to her. No stitching or neat surgical scars that suggested anything was done.
"Not really much to see."Well... almost no reaction was a good reaction in Vicky's books. She was curious and nearly picked Madalyne's brains about the issue with more questions, but she restricted herself. Leah's issue should take priority, because dad
was coming back with the milk and cigarettes.
"Well, you're not wrong on that account, but when faced with reality and one's own mortality, I'd rather my ego and need to analyze and explain it all did not stand in the way of survival." was the reaction she limited herself to, although she intended on resuming that conversation afterwards.
Looking over to Leah's back, she confirmed nothing changed.
"Nope, still not seeing any magic there. But we have done some testing, and sufficient blunt force is enough to break the gizmo. Tight about here." she pointed to the location.
Madalyne looked at Leah's back noting some of the scar that were there she knew that it wasn't really a good idea to ask unless Leah was willing to answer.
"I'd be fine with discussing the differences between science and the mystic arts sometime." She said to Victoria. It would be kind of cool to learn more about the android she turned her attention back to Leah.
"I'm just going to do a simple trace magic spell nothing to invasive." Madalyne said to Leah as she held out both of her hands and closed her eyes for a few seconds while chanting her spell which sounded like latin, a slight green glow came out of her hands when she opened her eyes again they had the same slight glow to them as well to her hands went up and down Leah's back.
She stopped the spell a few seconds later the glow from her hands and eyes fading getting a slight idea but it was hard to say.
"So it could possibly be Asgardian in nature but it's hard to tell, it's something like Ms. Bruunhilde one of the teachers at the school." Madalyne said to Leah hoping that would give her some answers.
"Bruun- What?" Leah turned around and looked at Madalyne as if she had grown a second head.
"Asgardian? You're- You're serious. What the hell. That just makes me more confused..." Were there runes on it? Did it have some kind of enchantment related to Nordic magic? Leah wasn't a wizard or a magician or a
whatever in terms of magic. She had runes but they didn't do a damn thing for her, so now Leah was out of her depth.
Why the hell would her old man have viking magic surgically implanted in his kid?
"I've got nothing for that."Vicky's brows furrowed at the information.
"Well... The gizmo does seem to have something to do with you turning into a giant version of yourself, and giants are a rather significant part of norse mythology... She also made another connection in her mind, but she wasn't sure she should say that one out loud in front of someone else. She would have to tell her afterwards though.
And last time, we established the gizmo was likely a power inhibitor. So, Leah... Are you a woman who turns into a giant... Or a giant who turns into a human? she thought, wondering how they could find out.
"Anyways... Any idea whether it can be turned on or off, and if it can run out of juice?" she asked Madalyne.
Madalyne looked at Leah who looked very confused at her, either she was somehow related to the Asgardians or some other part of the Norse mythology.
"Thats what i'm getting off of whatever it is. But my guess is that it's in place to disable some of your other abilities." She said to Leah as she looked at Victoria asking her if there was a way to disable it.
"I unfortunately don't specialize in Asgardian magic, I use whats called Eldritch magic some of my spells are powered through my father." She said keeping her father vague, she had never met her biological father.
"But it's possible, thats if Leah wants it removed, or disabled or to use it at will if she wanted, it would take time to research it however if you want it removed, or to be used at will." Madalyne said to Leah.
âI⊠Have no clue what itâs for. Zari busted it open in the Framework, and suddenly Iâm taller and feel like Iâm on fire. I didnât really have time to see if I had some sort of other mutant thing going on- And Iâve been pretty sure Iâm just a mutant for more of my life- Since we were fighting a big fuckoff hand thanks to the Alcoholic Cat. I wouldnât know what exactly it is that the thing is supposed to block.âVictoria sighed.
"Well... It's a piece of tech, that has something to do with Asgardians. I hate to suggest this, you know I do, Leah, but we kind of have a perfect teammate to help with that combination. Shoot, a couple more favors adked and I might as well give Raynordattir a contract to be her indentured servant.""Well if I had to guess you are more powerful than you think and whoever put it there probably did it so that you wouldn't loose control or anything. But if you need anymore help just let me know." Madalyne said to Leah it seemed that her services weren't really needed anymore either as she turned to look at Victoria. "If you want to learn some magic I'm free to teach you on either Saturdays or Sundays. Anyway I should get going now." She said offering to mentor Victoria as well to, usually the weekends were usually pretty free for her aside from training with The Huntresses training for the contest was every day pretty much now.
Diana Novikova
Location: Avenger's Academy, Stark Hall, Floor 3, Room 310.
Current Outfit: Workout Fit
Skills: N/A
After the Monster Mash Diana had spent a lot of her spare time out of classes training with her team the Uncanny Avenger's with their team mentor Usagi within the framework or whatever training areas that the talking cat person decided that they needed to use. On top of that Diana had her regular school work that she needed to do. Which was really difficult to juggle somedays and her grades were falling behind slightly, but she was still maintaining C's through A's though. Though the added fame was pretty nice after they had taken headshots to promote the Contest of Champions.
Diana had gone home and spent a few days with her mothers and her younger brother Percy at some point, and with the help of one of her moms made a few extra trick arrows to help with the contest she was looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving though. She had to admit though that the Young Avenger's were all getting the special treatment and they were going out on actual real missions as well on Fridays which made her jealous. Ed was actually smart enough to come up with the idea to help all of the other teams to catch up and told them to go to the gym for some training in the Framework. Diana turned to look at her roommate Zelda as she stretched slightly she had put on some of her workout clothes for tonights training.
"Are you ready lets get going Zelda." Diana said as she started to head out of their dorm and down the hallway towards the gym where the Framework was, hopefully none of the teachers were nearby to see what they were doing.
Madalyne Crane
Location: Avenger's Academy, Stark Hall, Floor 6, Room 603
Current Outfit: Workout Fit
Skills: N/A
Grimoire: N/A
Madalyne had spent the time since the Monster Mash if it wasn't training with the Huntresses, then it was also spent time doing her school work, keeping up with it all as much as possible. She was still able to maintain her grades as well to though she spent a lot of it studying and practicing her magic, she had offered to help Victoria learn some magic on the weekends since that was the part of the week where she didn't have classes aside from the four hours of training that was if Victoria wanted to on those days. She had been noticing that April wasn't doing all that well either and she had offered her best friend if she ever did need to talk about anything she was there for her always.
"Yep i'm ready now." Madalyne said as she slowly started to stand up closing up her binder that contained her homework for her cryptozoology class that she was taking. She was kind of surprised that Ed from the Uncanny Avenger's team had messaged her a few days ago to offer their team a way to try and help level the playing field against the Young Avenger's team. She didn't really care to much whether their team won or not she was there to have fun really but winning did mean a lot to April so she would do her best.
"Lets get going." Madalyne said to April as she headed out and gave Danni a slight wave.
"Ready?" She said as she started to head down towards the gym.
