Blizz

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

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Aggro]

---

Amara blasted zombie after zombie, lining up her shots to hit more than one at a time with the Temple’s special ammunition. This was second nature to her, taking a shot and then spiraling around the green barriers to reposition and take another shot. Every battle came down to three things: Attrition, skill and power. The first two were Amara’s best fields, unlike the third that was often covered by Adepts. Methodical patience and precision won these types of wars, and often led to the enemy fumbling and nailing their own coffin shut.

So when the dragon appeared, and when the titan was nuked by Sycamore, she didn’t do much as flinch. She just adapted.

Fire rolled over the battlefield, and Amara was kept safe from most of it by cover. Her Kevlar armor was smoking like a bonfire, and she felt sweat start to build up under the vest she wore, but Amara was mostly fine. As was her nearest phantom, based on the fact that she didn’t feel any injuries get transferred.

Status.

Armor intact. One injured accounted for. The Cupbearer.

Amara’s head snapped around and she saw Sully crumbling on the forest floor. The fact that he was alive at all meant he must have gorged himself on the Chalice, she could barely see him between all the smoke and fire in the trees.

Help him. Now.

The phantom slung its shotgun over one shoulder and beelined towards the crispy man, smoke billowing off its armor like a meteor. It vaulted over falling trees and worked its way around the flames. Amara could feel a bullet just barely graze its waist just before it slide behind the barriers Sully was next to.

She pulled her radio out and made use of it before someone would come along and fucking melt the damn thing. She tuned it to the Aggro channel so she wouldn’t fuck anyone over on the artifact team. ”Who’s still alive out there?!” She asked, while the phantom tending to Sully pressed the Chalice into his hands and pushed him into an upright position.

”Drink deep, Cupbearer.” The phantom pressed Sully’s hand, with the Chalice in it, up against his face so all he had to do was ask it for the healing elixir.

Amara patted some embers off her arm and peaked back out to shoot again.

Veil]

---

The phantom raised its pistol and took shots at the undead guards immobilized by Rien’s minion. 45 ACP rounds directly to the head, which practically exploded due to the Temple’s handiwork making these bullets that much more deadly. Ruby’s suggestion was a good one, and Amara ordered it to comply from afar. So it walked over and smacked its fist against the glowing rune.

”The soldier agrees.”

The Eustis Veil went back up, ensuring the island was mostly untouched by the rain of ectoplasm.

And then the phantom topped off its shotgun, on orders to stand guard.

Artifacts]

---

When the monstrous dog reared its head, the phantoms already knew what they were going to do, because Amara was in their heads. One of them holstered a gun, drew an knife,
and then ran directly in front of the beast. Its intention was to distract the creature by launching itself directly onto its face and making itself the only thing there was to worry about. Like riding a bull, the phantom clambered up and made a commotion.

The other phantom fired its pistol at the beast’s foreleg.

”Move your asses, they’ll cover you.” The phantom spoke not in the usual ghostly voice, but in Amara’s. That was something she could do apparently, echoing as it was coming from an apparition. ”It gave you away, no more time for being-”

Amara’s voice cut out as there was clapping. The phantom turned and in the span of a moment, Cyrus as was gone and Adora was beating the god damn brakes off of a mobster. Taking a bit of initiative, the phantom aimed its pistol at him before he hit the ground and dropped the rest of its magazine into him.

Reloading, it carried on. ”We have taken control of the Eustis Veil. It remains until we are through, and then it is gone.”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Discord is exploding

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

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.”

To Ashes And Blood

”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.”

”EVERYBODY MOVE, NOW!!!”

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.

X-Men: GenetiX

”The thing in my brain isn’t your business, but it’s not a weapon for them to turn me on anyone else,” Ryder noted. ”That’s not how it works.”

She wasn’t about to explain how it gave her the technopathic powers she leaned on so much. Nor was she willing to let them figure it out. That just wasn’t their business, something she wanted to keep close. ”Once I’m down there in the sub-levels, the only thing that matters is that they’re not walking away. They won’t stop me, so when we do…”

---

The Blackbird soared over Germany, well into the areas that Ryder was no stranger to. The range of her psychic abilities was wide enough that they had at least another five minutes before they’d arrive there properly. In some proper combat gear that they managed to grab, Ryder used her powers to oscillate a power generation component of her improvised rifle, filling up a dense battery. Ryder felt it charging up to full capacity, through a microcontroller that had been planted into the “receiver.” With Cyclops up front and Ryder reluctantly connected to Xavier through a psychic link they set up, they were prepared.

”We’re getting close, so give me a minute.” Ryder shut her eyes, and worked her way into that network she lived in for so long. If a person could navigate the world with perfect familiarity, this part of the world was like her street. Everything she manipulated through her powers had its own feel and “imprint.” It made things easier when she came back to them.

The mansion quickly became muscle memory to her, and this?

This wasn’t even a conscious thought.

---

Down in the underside of the building, far from the light of day his brother never saw, Andrew Becker sat at a desk. He typed away at a computer, looking over data the intelligence wing had compiled on Xavier’s mansion. He had been going back and forth with Umbra about tapping Moira. She was useful in her own ways.

He sipped a mug of coffee, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

”I know. I’m trying.”

It was a nascent feeling of presence. Something not truly stimulating of the senses yet nevertheless felt.

”We know she hasn’t left. We’ll figure it out, okay. You’ll have your host some day, just not-“

The fluorescent lights above his head went out. The screen on his desk blinked off. His office was momentarily plunged into darkness.

And then the emergency lights came off. Shouting came down the hallway.

”…Today.”

Becker stood up, drawing a pistol from under his desk. ”I need to take care of this, you just sit tight. I bet it’s her.”

The response was not a human voice, nor that unexplainable presence. Rather, it was a wave of awareness that washed over the man; The feeling one got when they suspected someone was being watched, only beyond potent.

”No,” he warned. ”She’s not ready for you yet. Don’t ruin your chances by tipping her off.”

It became anxiety, paranoia, and impatience. Andrew didn’t feel it, but he couldn’t ignore the sensation of it.

”You’ve waited this long, you can wait a few more-“

BOOM!

Recollections: Primal Sinister

Raven's Rest

---

One of the two people in here hurled ash at "Bill." That wouldn't have been Varnan's first choice, but maybe it was magic?

This was not the first time Varnan had fought a shape-changing monster, in fact they weren't that uncommon in the world. Some apparitions were malleable and represented concepts, changing as the sentiments around those concepts did. Others lived through humanity by wearing common Glamour, but this one seemed to just wear Bill's skin and call it a day. When Elara was sent out the window, and it launched a hand at Varnan, he stood his ground. His watch released a wave of pink energy, cascading over the fist right before impact. The imposter was locked in place, separated from time and unable to perceive him sidestepping the arm and touching the creature on the hand as he backed away.

"Get back!"

Varnan flung himself out of the window, rolling over the snow and landing next to Elara. "Are you alright?" He asked, standing up seeing...

Someone else. Someone coming this way. Not good. "Just a fight! Go home!"

He readied his watch to trigger a Transversal, maybe it could get them a chance to hit the thing decisively.

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

---

Location: The Framework
Skills: No

Leah was not in a good mood right now. She Hulk didn’t seem to understand that mutants with powers like April’s needed space when things disturbed them. So if course they couldn’t just be left the fuck alone. They couldn’t just breathe and get their thoughts together. Leah was not, under any circumstances, about to just tell the Avengers that her dad was an outlandishly dangerous mercenary that used to regularly act like he could handle several of them at once.

”I don’t have anyone to call. No, I’m not going to elaborate on that, so don’t ask,” She said while Dorian and Dani were talking to what sounded like several people at once. ”It’s just me, and you already know about this.”

“Just you?” She-Hulk raised an eyebrow

”Just me. I pretty much live here year-round.”

“Seriously?” She-Hulk’s eyes narrowed, looking around the room, before focusing on a sight that Leah wouldn’t be able to see. “Do none of you know how a school works for minors? You can’t just not have a guardian.”

”You’d be surprised.”

“It’s not optional!”

”It’s not really a big deal,” Leah half-shrugged. ”Never has been. I’m perfectly capable of sorting things out myself when I need to.”

“Hold on, let me finish this,” She-Hulk said, before returning her attention to Leah. “It’s actually a huge deal. If you don’t have a guardian, then you’re a ward of the state. But something tells me if I were to call CPS, they’d never have heard of you. Am I right or am I right?”

”No. They wouldn’t. But I’m not really worried about that. I don’t have any reason to be worried about it.”

She had a feeling this was going to be a long and really pointless conversation. One that she couldn't get away from.

Shit.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Interactions: Veil Squad

Elysium Island

---

Soen - Monarch

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.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

A hero had to do many things. Not all of those things were combat.

Wiseman was on the ground for this one, he was already awake since no one really knew if he ever slept in the first damn place. He was multitasking like crazy, with holographic screen floating all around him as he took in every single scrap of data there was. Every news feed, every sound off on emergency radios, every text message sent over the internet. It was an ungodly amount of information for one man to take in, but his superhuman abilities made him the ideal person to which this responsibility would fall. And this freed up Alisa to coordinate in other places, allowing the machine to take care of different responsibilities.

He stood between the ambulances with Angel-5, in a checkpoint set up to treat injuries of anyone who had been hurt in the disaster. Every now and then, Wiseman would hand off a bit of information to people who were too distracted to notice it- Another wave of survivors coming in, the chances of another landslide about to happen based on a quick and easy algorithm he had put together with satellite data, and where to divert attention in order to stabilize the terrain.

"Wiseman coming in," Wiseman's voice cut through the radio channels and alerted the hero in the best position. "Terraformer, I'm sending you coordinates. That is the point the landslide originated from, and it is likely to cave in further. You have at least thirteen minutes before that becomes a possibility."

Angel-5 sweeped over a few injured bodies, taking over for hasty paramedics.

"Oracle, use your foresight to extrapolate based on that, when you are able."

"Wireframe, the house at the end of the street, three houses left of your current location, is crumbling slowly. A rescue team is attempting to get past the front door, your powers may help them. You have more than enough time to reach them."

"Stray, there is safe high ground away from the mud, one hundred feet away from you according to my map. A house already cleared out. If you require a vantage point to set your search runes, that may help."

He looked back at the civilians the paramedics were tending to. With a nod from one of them, Wiseman signaled for Angel-5 to regroup with the heroes.

"Angel-5 is moving into the town, it is keyed to my Lexicon and will know if any of you signal it with your watch. Evangeline, the drone is currently closest to your location if you need. Second closest is Wireframe, and then Fallout and Stray."

Millions of years have passed since the oldest mountains were ground from boulders into gravel, and then from gravel into soil. It was a process that took lifetimes more than an entire lineage of humans had. Living beings had yet to crawl forth from saltwater and by the time they did, it was fungus that had turned the world of stone into one of life.

And it was fungus that trudged through it now. The only tangible difference between mud and soil was how much water there was. Billions upon billions of hyphae strands wormed up through sediment and concrete. A heap of rubble rose up as if an explosion had appeared out of nowhere beneath it. And beneath it was the abomination of life that traced its history back to the first life to ever grace this planet, shielding a badly injured child caked in dust.

Right before Evangeline's eyes.

"Move!" They shouted in that horrific voice. The child shrieked at the sight of their body coalescing. If Mire had eyes, they'd roll them, as they had to stretch an arm out to nudge the hurt kid towards its mom and the sobbing human.

"And stop sobbing! If you can sit there and sob, you can run for your lives!" Mire barked, not seeming to grasp the fact that the mother thought her kid was dead.

"All this mud, I can move underneath it. That's what I am." Mire let the rubble fall before Eva and the bystanders. "Tell me where to go, so I can dig more of them out."

SPIRITUM

---

Morden hadn't said much during the trip to Dunbarton. It was one of the great cities of Rassvet' history, that the country they knew today had built itself upon and he knew this because he made a point of knowing the nation well- It was difficult to understand a universe if you only understood one planet. His dream was to one day the best WARDENs the world had ever seen, and he had to know things like the back of his hand for that. Dunbarton wasn't anything special now, but it was a place where the old world knew it could trade, and that meant it could be a place of trade in the future after the war was won.

Morden wasn't openly carrying his shotgun, and his ammunition was stored away as well, so he didn't get any fuss from the checkpoint's guards. There wasn't much to say either, and as long as the princess kept her head down...

"It was the easiest way to travel in a group," The titanic WARDEN said from the back seat. Another, lower-ranking guard had walked over and looked very on edge when Morden spoke. He was like a dinosaur that one only saw when its eyes opened, a warship that crept up on the horizon. And the poor lad didn't like his energy.

"How'd you get those scars?" The little shit pried.

"Fist fights."

"With who?"

"Eight foot tall metal men with giant swords, who fell from the sky and tried to kill me. I won."

The private chuckled. "Riiight. Let me guess, you know the princess of Vangar too," He joked.

Morden turned away from the window and gave the others a blank, deadpan stare. And then he rolled up his window.

Recollections: Primal Sinister

Raven's Rest

---

Bill seemed to completely gloss over the fact that Varnan had come in. He didn't comment on him walking in through the snow, or that he was glad Varnan made it. Maybe he wasn't that kind of man, but he didn't even react to Varnan's presence. And there was good reason for that, it seemed. These two people who walked in were reasonably put off by his presence. He wouldn't intrude normally, but he felt the situation over in Cloverfield called for that.

"And if you're here for somethin' else, we got it handled. Bill's one of ours."

Bryn

“Haven’t seen you since the cataclysm. What brings you round these parts here?”

Elara

"I don't mean to impose, I won't be staying long," he assured. "Werewolves are migrating east from here, into Cloverfield. Some are risking lives being there, and I know they've stopped through here first almost every time when they come down the mountain. I called Bill before coming this way, so I could ask if he knew anything about this."

And of course, not acknowledging Varnan's presence, a wrong smile spread over Bill's face. He remembered this man from the cataclysm, a stout and stern fighter who wasn't the type to smile. That grin on his face looked downright alien. And one of the two women caught on rather quickly. Good. The mockery of Bill started running its mouth about dreams, about Bill's memories and the cataclysm. It made Varnan stand on edge, so he reached into his pocket for his Timepiece, right around the same time that Elara summoned a magical bow. They were in the fight back then, it seems. Most people in this area who were paranormal at the time were down in the streets fighting Nyrah. It was good to see some were still around.

"You heard the lady," He warned as he stepped off to the side, not only to give Elara a clear shot if she decided to go for it, but to corner the imposter. In his hand, Varnan held a pocket watch made of tarnished silver, emblazoned with the symbol of the Butterfly. Coral pink light shimmered around his hands as he prepared to shut down any attacks it would make. "I asked Bill before driving here, and you didn't even recognize me, did you? Answer her, where is he?"