Blizz

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

yes

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

Terraformer's handshake was returned by Wiseman. He had heard much about the kid from his earlier days as a hero, mostly from Oracle. His powers were supposedly something to behold, and there was a good person behind the bandana mask. "I've heard good things about you. It is always good to meet another tinkering her-"

The introduction was cut short by Powers finally deciding to grace the lot of them with his presence. He didn't look very happy at the group that had shown up today, as if every hero in Castleburg would even be available during a parade. In his hands, Powers held a spider-like drone with a camera that shattered as he tossed it to the floor with all the grace of a potato sack. That was certainly more interesting than whatever Wiseman had taken into account, and immediately knocked off over a dozen possibilities as to who this drone could belong to.

"I want you all to remain low-profile, keep an eye on the area, and make sure nothing suspicious gets inside. If you need to fight something, take it as far away from here as possible. Wiseman, try and figure out who built that thing and why it's here. I tried not to damage any of the important components too much."

Wiseman reached to his belt and withdrew the Indra Blade, and kicked the machine upwards with his foot to catch it in his free hand. He tapped a fist against his visor and then felt around for a seam. He found one between the legs and swiftly pried a panel of metal and chromafoil away. The Lasereye Visor revealed its internals in clear detail, and told Wiseman exactly how this thing worked. It wasn't anything fancy, certainly not on the level of anything he could have built...

"Overcompensating power supply, nonexistent intellectual capabilities," Wiseman raised his electrified knife and thrusted it into a seam between two more panels, eliciting a twitch of its legs and a puff of black smoke. "Live transmission feed, likely accompanied by a microphone- Now definitely disabled. I know this work."

Wiseman sat the drone back down, with the Indra Blade still stuck between the panels, in front of Terraformer. Just in case the other tech-minded hero felt like taking a crack at it. He brought up his Lexicon computer and pulled up a small mote of blue light,, expanding into a holographic screen and and moving it out in front of him. Five individual ICOSA files were on display for the other heroes around him to see as he then relayed his findings to everyone that was on their way to follow Powers' orders. Villains, all of them.

"Heroes, this is Wiseman. This drone that Powers found is the work of Professor Jon Gholem, a current member of the Fiendish Five. Just in case any of you haven't kept up to date, or haven't had the chance to dig through ICOSA databases yet," He began, mostly for Oracle and Terraformer's sake. "Gholem himself is not a superhuman by any definition, but his robotic creations put him on the level of one. The Fiendish Five are mercenaries, they take payment from a buyer and waste no time in doing their "job" or escaping once it is completed. The remaining four of them are as follows. Lady Blade, a master assassin with an unknown superpower- Do not get within CQC range of her under any circumstances. Doc Holiday, a glorified mascot with an equally deadly talent for ranged weapons, and a superhuman ability to measure distance and angles flawlessly. Of the heroes present, Blast and Bastion have the highest chance of surviving a ranged battle against him. But the rest of us should avoid that as much as possible, as he has killed at least twenty heroes to date."

He continued his rapid fire exposition while pulling up another holographic screen. This one had layouts of the building they were all in, maps the group could use to their advantage. "Albino, a violent ambush villain who teleports into unobserved blindspots. Stay in groups, and ensure you don't focus too much on one area. Keep walls to your backs as best you can. Lastly, Jellyfish. A Leftover-adjacent villain whose powers are not fully understood. ICOSA suspects he sticks to water, but there is no evidence he can't act on land. Stay at a distance, and stay far away from bodies of water."

"The fact that they have sent drones to scout means someone has undoubtedly paid them to ruin this parade for some purpose."

With that out of the way, he quickly sent a copy of the information he just read off to the others' smartwatches. They probably wouldn't be able to read it extensively, but it was there if they needed it. "This is my recommendation for countering them. Director, if this drone was following you for two hours, it is safe to assume that the Five know your schedule, and expect you to be on stage. Your powers and the crowd should protect you against Holiday, Lady Blade and Albino. Gholem's drones are not likely to harm you, but he may have sent other models to pack weapons that can harm the civilians. Terraformer, Oracle, under no circumstances should you be alone. At least one of you should stay with me or Bastion once he arrives. Bastion, if you haven't turned your watch off, you and Blast are in the best positions to respond to Doc Holiday, should he appear. Terraformer's abilities will likely be foiled by explosive bullets, or bullets that ricochet, which he is very much prone to using, so I suggest he walls off Lady Blades escape, if and only if he is not directly engaged by any of the Five. Alternatively, it would be beneficial for him to create walls that can be used to slow down Albino in a low-population area."

"As for Albino, he is most easily countered by Oracle and Ardent, but keep in mind that if these drones have been following the Director, they have likely been following us as well. No matter what we do, we should assume that the Five will not act individually. Doc Holiday can and surely will shoot Ardent out of the sky to make space for Albino to attack on the ground. They are more than capable of that coordination, and will no doubt attempt to exploit this to force an advantage." He pressed a button on his Lexicon, signalling Angel-5 to make its way over. "And lastly, we should act as if we are being watched at all times by these drones. I can find none of them in this room with us using my visor right now, but it would not be impossible for Gholem to swarm the parade with them. Be discreet when you are able."

Wiseman had a pretty good idea of where he'd be in the next few minutes. "Ask your questions now, they could strike at any moment."

---

Most of these humans, surprisingly, didn't freak out that much at Mire's presence. The one calling herself Emily Duff managed to hide the nervousness pretty well, but Mire could just tell that they still freaked these people out... They would've lectured the ratty guy to hell and back about the difference between fungus and fruit if it weren't for the conversation being changed quickly. All these humans gathering around didn't seem to be particularly thrilled about being here either, which was kind of funny to Mire, and made them wonder what the point of having so much fanfare for these heroes if their lives were clearly boring enough that they didn't look forward to it.

The conversation turned through a lot of words that meant next to nothing to Mire. "Rupa," "Colleagues," and "scavenger hunt." Though that last one made more sense as Duff pulled out some weirdly shaped object.

"I've placed a bunch of little pyramids all around the island, and all of them have little fun facts written in them! "Most of them are more interesting than that. But there's a bunch scattered across the island, which makes for a great bonding activity! You guys can pair up however you want and try and collect as many as you can. Ooh, and here's the fun part, whoever gets the most collects this prize, which I picked special!"

"This is what I was hunted and kidnapped for? Looking for... "Fortune cookies?" They snarled, not having to facial muscles to express why this little game irritated them. "Is this one of those human jokes I hear so much about? Just so you can give us those little formless sprigs? I'm made of things such as that. They aren't pets. Did humans forget the difference between those and dogs?" Their mildew-ridden body shuddered in annoyance, clumps of otherworldly spores fell to the ground like snow from a car.

"Is this what you do? Play games all day? I thought you helped people."

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

The parade was going well so far, the people were enjoying themselves, and Austin didn’t even need to step out of his lab to tell. Every news outlet from across the state of New York was talking about Castleburg and HERO’s big day. People had come from out of town, schedules vacations and drove hundreds of miles for this day.

But unlike all of them, Austin was more content to sit back and observe. In his lab, a maze of esoteric machines and dangerous weapons, he sat in a leather chair with his one eye glued to an array of screens, arranged in a honeycomb pattern. One of the screens showed the collective footage of a dozen security cameras overlooking the orientation for the newest heroes. Another broadcast a live news coverage of the parade itself. A screen for real time data on an experiment he was running in the back of his lab, a screen for schedules of active heroes… Screens, screens, and more screens. To anyone other than Austin, it would’ve just been a useless cacophony of sensory overload. But this was simple to him, all the information being thrown at him felt like watching paint dry as he took everything in.

Austin was never one for parades or the spotlight that came with being a hero. People looked up to heroes that defeated evil and served as beacons of hope, and Austin defeated evil with weapons and showing no more than the legally bare minimum about of mercy they were to be given. That just wasn’t his scene.

Austin was hoping today would just be a relatively lazy day, but then his Lexicon- which was way cooler than those smartwatches- sent him a message.

"Attention, heroes. I need a group of you to assist me at the Johnstone Convention Center. If you are available, please come and meet behind the stage. You will be rewarded for your time."

That, unfortunately, included him.

He tapped a button on the wrist computer’s interface, opening up a channel. ”Wiseman here, give me ten minutes. On my way.”

He switched the screen setup off, and got ready.

---

Eight and a half minutes later, Wiseman walked up to the Johnstone Convention Center, in his full armor and strapped with all of his weapons. A red and white suit of combat armor, and a helmet fitted with a complicated visor. On his back was a rifle that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, and there was an equally high-tech looking knife holstered at his belt. Wiseman had a feeling he knew exactly why Powers was dragging heroes out here, there were two realistic possibilities.

Either a villain was attempting to make use of crowded area to sow uncontrollable chaos by attacking the center of the parade, or the Director was just looking for an excuse to put the rest of them in the same position as him. If the second happened, Wiseman would probably just walk off the stage and go about his business.

So when he found others present, Blast, Amune, Ardent and Terra… He considered leaving before even approaching them.

Oh well. He walked up to them regardless, hearing bits of their conversation. ”The most likely reason for calling us here is that Director Powers wants to show us off to the public. He doesn’t like giving speeches, and he has a sense of humor,” Wiseman commented, explaining his guess as to why Powers wasn’t even here at the moment.

”He might not show up at all.”

Mire did not want to be here. Only a week after getting free from that lifeless box, and they were shipped across the land to this city of metal and concrete. And they could stand all this noise. They had been escorted to island called “Savior,” by those creepy humans in the suits, and told to look for the assistant director. Mire felt like they were a grain of sand in a desert, without the millions of eyes and ears they had in the woods… They couldn’t even hear where to go, so they had to use their “eyes” to properly get around.

This “hero orientation” thing was grating to them, they never wanted to be this close to humans or be a “hero” at all. It pissed them off, being in this city what stank of trash and wasted nutrients, almost as much as being held against their will like a prisoner of war. But according to the humans, they were simply too interesting to be left alone, so now they were a slave.

More trudged along the grass of the Savior Island in the closest thing to quiet they had gotten in a while. The humans had encouraged them to not mind the looks of abject horror at other humans who grew pale in the face when Mire walked by, even when they started dialing numbers in their phones and shouted, ”Call the heroes! There’s a monster on the loose!” Unfortunately, some innocent bystanders who were simply enjoying their day had gotten a snarl, a loud warning to leave Mire alone and a profound scare for their troubles… If telling people to fuck off and leave them alone was all it took to be a “hero,” then maybe they’d be fine.

Eventually, the fungal horror caught a glimpse of several humans having a conversation. One of them looked to be vaguely dressed like the suited humans that Mire had been brought to this island by, so they hobbled closer, appearing only a few feet behind Emily Duff and speaking in a disgusting voice. Like a person trying not to choke on hot candle wax, filtered through a broken ham radio.

”Are you the human I was made to talk to?” They asked, in brazen disregard for all of the other humans present.

SPIRITUM

---

In the aftermath of yesterday's incident, Morden had elected to stay in the vehicle the entire time. While he certainly didn't expect their prisoner of war to be able to operate the tattered truck, he also didn't trust Vangar royalty as far as he could throw them. And Morden could throw them pretty damn far if he wanted. So he watched Colette like a hawk until he was sure, without question, she had fallen asleep. Then, he traded watch shifts among his fellow WARDENs, and eventually got some sleep himself, waking up slightly later than the others.

By the time he had reached the group, he was wide awake and giving the princess a stoic glare. She was capable of using magic, the kind of magic with combat applications. However weak or potent it was, that was enough of a reason to treat her as if she were always armed. Morden leaned over Gerard's shoulder and tuned into the conversation with Veld. He caught the man's instructions, and then gave Gerard a look at his comment about the road trip.

"No," that is the opposite of what this means, Gerard," He said. "It means we are doing what we are meant to do, following orders. When we are done, then perhaps we'll be able to continue. We are WARDENs for a reason."

And then, over the telekinetic spell, he added, And do not forget she's armed.

Morden turned back to the screen, addressing Veld. He kept his voice quiet, in case someone was spying on them right now. "In case the others have not informed you yet, the "Palatine" was armed with mechanical soldiers. Not the same ones that Vangar uses on a regular basis, but ones that are fully capable of replacing power armored soldiers entirely. Among the wreckage of that airship, many of them were still intact, with only superficial damage. They were armed with built-in weapons. Grenade launchers, gunblades... That was not a level of force one brought for diplomacy, Vangar royalty notwithstanding."

Nothing on the overly serious WARDEN's face, or in his grim tone of voice implied he was thrilled about this. "I personally engaged one, standard infantry would not stand a chance against them. They may have intended to spring a Trojan Horse upon arriving at their destination."

"I'm sure you will put that information to better use than us, sir."

Recollections: The Compendium

ELYSIUM.
| The Beacon in the Night | “When we think of the darkness, we imagine horror lurking in the shadows, and fear that which we cannot understand. But there is safety in the dark, in the act of walking with the unknowable things of this world. For once you step into that darkness, all that is known will not dare to harm you. With this weapon, I will show all of you the way to sanctuary.” ORIGINS & CREATIONS: | Crafted by Goro Hatanaka and Jack Hawthorne, it was made to fight back against the darkness of the Stygian Snake, and parallel the creature's absolute dominion over the shadows with the coven's own umbramancer. | TYPE: | Umbramantic Scythe | LOCATION: | Returned to the Hatanaka Sanctuary, after Jack gave it to Goro before his journey into the Void. | NOTABLE OWNERS: | Jack Hawthorne: The person for which it was originally created, who used it during the battle against the Stygian Snake to make the most of his magic. Goro Hatanaka: The original creator, who it was returned to after Jack no longer needed it. | ABSTRACTION-GRANTING: | No | .............................................................................	During the old days of the Sycamore Tree Coven, Goro Hatanaka created many artifacts with the help of Adepts such as Drake Blackmore and Stormy Carson. Jack Hawthorne had grown well accustomed to weaponizing his shadowy Lux in the form of a scythe, which could cut through Apparitions like they were corporeal. And though it had its uses, Goro realized he could do far, far better if he worked together with another intelligent Adept. And so, the two did research into the disciplines of Umbramancy and purple Lux, and devised a way to channel Jack's particular Abstraction into a weapon made from the oldest oakwood found at the foot of Mount Fuji, and a blade of dark steel that became a vessel for the shadows. As the newly crafted artifact rested in his hands, he felt his Lux grow stronger. The shadows moved more quickly, and he found his ability to keep them persistent was much, much stronger. And thus, the Elysium scythe became a staple of Jack's antics during their shared childhood. The weapon is enchanted to multiply the power of any red Lux that involves control over darkness, to a point that one can overpower and distort darkness created by beings of immense power, like the Stygian Snake. Limitations and flaws that come with one's unique form of shadow magic, such as Jack's tendency to go blind after prolonged use, are mitigated by Elysium to ensure no harm is brought down on the wielder. Elysium also embodies Jack's affinity for magical navigation. It reflects this by granting the ability to remove larges swathes of space to distort the distance between two points. Like cutting away from a tree, space affected by Elysium is simply removed for approximately six seconds unless consciously kept separated by the user, before snapping back into reality. This allows its wielder to quickly navigate vast expanses in record time, and temporarily sever defenseless paranormal beings from reality itself by banishing them along with the affected space. Those who have an emotional field will simply be tossed out of the affected area as if pushed by a strong telekinetic force, which can be quite unpleasant if used right. Jack returned Elysium to Goro Hatanaka before he left the All-Verse behind in the aftermath of the Sycamore's victory. When Goro returned to Japan, he left Elysium in the Hatanaka Sanctuary, should it be needed again.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

@Mintz

We’re closed chief

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

Mire

---

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MIRE

"I helped build the Earth you depend on today, before it was green. You think I have something to prove?"

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[ NAME ]

Subject LMA-93593 "Undergrowth Dweller"

[ HERO IDENTITY ]

Mire

[ NICKNAME/ALIAS ]

Freak, Mushy, Shroomer, etc.

[ AGE ]

Unquantifiable

[ GENDER ]

N/A, they/them

[ AFFILIATION ]

HERO, full time

[ APPEARANCE ]

Mire is not a human being in any way. They are a Leftover, an amalgamation of biology given superpowers by the meteor that spawned them. They were once a network of mundane, uninteresting fungi scattered across a forest, which has coalesced into something vaguely resembling a mockery of the human form. Mire's "bones" are extremely dense mycelical structures that formed around dead trees. Extra material came together to form legs and limbs, but Mire is ultimately a walking incarnation of the role that fungus has on earth. Dozens of molds, mushrooms and other forms of fungus just out from their body like battle scars, blooming and withering eternally. They stand at roughly four feet tall, and atop Mire's "skull" is a huge hymenophore, or the "cap" of a mushroom. Four gaunt limbs jut out from their torso, which seem to constantly be changing shape. They would look beautiful if they didn't appear to be rotting.

[ PERSONALITY TRAITS ]

• Fearless: Fear is a human emotion, and Mire doesn't have an amygdala telling them to preserve their wellbeing. They have a habit of brazenly disregarding the threat something poses to themself, as is self-preservation is something they can't understand.
• Bitter: Mire isn't a very pleasant hero to be around, and it's easy to see why. Over 90% of their kind are murdered for existing, and while they understand why, they absolutely hate it when people look at them and expect that HERO is just debating whether or not to euthanize them. They're used to being sneered at, and it taught them to not be very empathetic. Humans don't like them, why shouldn't the feeling be mutual?
• Thoughtful: Mire displays an odd ability to connect with people and understand what they're going through that should be scientifically impossible for an entity without a brain. Whether it's just Mire mimicking human nature, or the fact that Mire has a genuine personality is unknown, since they refuse to allow a HERO psychologist to study them. But there is some kindness under that prickly exterior.
• Terrifying: When you're a mass of millions of different fungi acting as one in the vague shape of a person, you tend to give off a scary vibe. Mire has found that they're naturally gifted at scaring people straight, which isn't the ideal trait in a hero, but it definitely makes villains think twice.
• Distant: For obvious reasons, Mire has a hard time making friends. Most people don't want to be friends with a fungus monster, so they're a bit on the lonely side, not prone to being the center of attention when a party happens, or during a big gathering.

[ BIO ]

When the X-200 meteor broke apart in the planet's atmosphere, it changed more than just human beings. It changed animals and plants. It made them monsters beneath the awareness of a human being, and above the feral nature of something like a starving animal. One of these monsters rose up from the largest organism on Earth, a colony of fungus found beneath the soil of Oregon, said to be as old as over eight thousand years by some scientists. The fungus was nourished by the particles that flaked off of X-200, stirred to evolve and mutate past its biological programming. No one had the faintest idea this was happening for well over two centuries, since the growth was slow. But overtime, the colony grew aware of itself, its surroundings and what it was. Things below the ground which humans walked picked up little things like the sounds of footsteps one day, and then the mushrooms growing in the forests of Oregon began to listen to things.

Roughly one century ago, the colony began to writhe and shape into things that it had seen, as if it had been watching humanity for the last few hundred years. It evolved the ability to think on the level of humans, and thus a creature of hyphae and mycellium sprouted from the dirt. It grew legs, it grew arms, and like wet clay, it reformed itself over and over again to match what it had witnessed throughout the state of Oregon. This creature did not have a name, it did not truly understand why it existed or what to do with itself, and so it simply wandered the forests. Everywhere it went, it heard a hundred billion voices echoing through the tall trees, among the undergrowth of dead and decaying matter. Mold on rocks, mushrooms growing from dead wood, it all spoke through the walking colony, and it came to understand things about humanity through this.

The creature spied on humans from the edge of its forest, watching them through the mushrooms and the mold that they overlooked. No one knows just how long it did this for, but the fact that it picked up human speech is a clear indicator that it is old. In the dead of night, sometimes the colony would sneak into a nearby town and leave behind figments of its body to hear the whispers of humanity, and understand what was going on in the world. Through this, it learned of events happening in the world, that "heroes" fought "villains," and made the world a better place. To exist as it had was a strange thing, it wasn't meant to exist in this world. But for years, it lived in that forest like a ghost, going from one end of a forest to the other, listening to the world.

But eventually, the Leftover actually encountered humans. Superheroes dressed in their bright costumes intruded on its domain, tracked it to a pit of mold that it had taken to call home. They tried to speak with it, and for the first time in the last century, it spoke back. The words just made sense to it, having watched others use them for so long. They said they meant it no harm, and it told them it wanted to be left alone, but the heroes insisted on taking it from its home. It said no, over and over again, and then they used force.

One of them trapped it in a bubble of energy, another lifted it into the sky and they began to soar over its home. They took it somewhere made not of soil and rocks, but of steel and plastic. There, it stayed for months, where people calling themselves scientists tried to reason with it. They took to calling the Leftover "Mire," and managed to have conversations with it. Of course, Mire was prickly from the moment they trapped it, so these conversations didn't last long, even if they were coherent enough to mistake them for a human. Some of the scientists got brave enough to enter the chamber with Mire. The first ones were reasonable and just sat with them. They gave Mire books that they somehow managed to read, which baffled and intrigued everyone. But then they started talking about running tests on Mire. They mentioned examining the cells of its body, to try and understand why it was so intelligent. Mire refused, and they pressed, eventually coming in with hazmat suits to take samples by force.

Four of the five researchers who attempted this were hospitalized, the fifth transferred to a different department out of fear. No one managed to get anything from the incident, and it was determined that Mire only attacked them out of self-preservation. They didn't trust humans, even if they were sentient like one. Who could blame them? They were taken from their home, and prodded at with instruments nonstop.

Eventually, someone at ICOSA decided that Mire was too unique to simply let loose, so they sent diplomats and experts to speak with Mire in person. They were told, in no uncertain terms, that the only way they'd leave that containment cell was if they used their gifts for the benefit of others. If a human had been impressed into service like that, someone would've faced charges on a national level. But Mire wasn't human, and didn't enjoy the same rights as humans. But they were smart enough to understand that steel and plastic wasn't pleasant. So they relented, and let themself be enslaved.

Mire was transferred to New York, where HERO could monitor their new heroic career in an environment that put them at a disadvantage. After all, Castleburg wasn't known for its lush woods and untamed wilderness.

| MISCELLANEOUS |

Any details you would like the Director to see.

Abilities

[ RANKING ]

Leftover

[ Fungal Incarnation ]

Mire is the walking embodiment of the fungus kingdom. Their body is composed of literal thousands of molds and mushrooms that have never occurred naturally on the planet. They are a colony without beginning or end, never truly done forming. This has many benefits that make them extremely unusual. As a Leftover, their powers are unlike anything a superhuman can demonstrate. They are capable of shapeshifting, reforming limbs and the general shape of their body into whatever state it needs to be in order to navigate terrain or get their new "job" done. The upper limit of this seems to be completely liquifying their body into a thick sludge of fungus and enzymes.

Undying Kingdom: Being composed of mycellium, Mire is also capable of extreme regeneration. If an arm is cut off, or if they are set on fire, they only need to consume organic matter to regain what they lost. This can be anything from food to a villain's arm. Their consciousness exists in every individual strand of hyphae that they are made of. As long as a single piece of it exists, even if it's only a few atoms thick, then Mire is not dead.

One with the Colony: Due to Mire's nature as an infinite colony of fungus, they can rapidly grow entire mushrooms from their body. These mushrooms vary in their exact type, and it is unclear if they are even remotely edible, but Mire could grow them by spreading spores in secretive areas such as a back alley or in a villain's lair. Mire is connected to fungus that isn't directly apart of their body, like a hivemind. This is mostly benign in a city like Castleburg, but it means they can grow patches of mushrooms in an area and keep a constant eye on things that happen, as the mushrooms would "hear" what is going on, in much the same way they learned all they know of humanity.

Cycle of Life: Many mushroom species rely on enzymes to break down dead things for consumption. Mire can secrete a similar, slurry-like substance that resembles chunky glue, to melt any form of matter they need. It acts similar to acid, able to eat through bricks and rocks like normal fungus turning stone into soil. The only known way of neutralizing this substance is either having Mire soak it up, or soak it with water.

For the below-listed rankings, please rank yourself using the colored and uncolored boxes on a scale of 0-10, with a 2 corresponding to what an average, non-powered human can put out, and provide a brief explanation for the reasoning of said ranking. See "Power Rankings" hider below for more guidance.

[ PHYSICAL STRENGTH ]
■■■■■□□□□□

Mire's body is composed up incredibly dense mycellium that could eat bullets from most guns. They are by no means a Superman analogue, but they are definitely sturdier than most heroes.

[ AGILITY ]
■■■□□□□□□□

Mushrooms don't move, so much as grow, and this means that Mire is not very fast. Most heroes can outrun them, even without flight or teleportation. They're slow, build like a fleshy, spore-laced brick.

[ INTELLIGENCE ]
■■■□□□□□□□

Mankind forgets, but the oldest kingdom of life remembers. Mire is a one-in-a-million case of a Leftover that isn't only somewhat benign, but actually sentient, and capable of human speech. They are on par with a particularly smart human being, who might be good at strategy games or research.

[ DESTRUCTIVENESS ]
■■■□□□□□□□

They could smash things with their fleshy limbs, and crash through a brick wall with enough force, but Mire's destructive capabilities don't include summoning mushroom monsters to ransack a city... As far as they know.

[ LETHALITY ]
■■■■■□□□□□

All it would take is one wrong move, and that villain in Mire's face is getting slapped with a fist covered in enzymes. And then, their villain friends would watch their skin melt off like hot butter, before they scream in agony as their muscles and organs go next. On a rainy day, or against someone in thicker armor, Mire isn't that fatal to go up against, but it's still not pleasant.

[ ENDURANCE ]
■■■■■■■■■■

Mire is a monster, in every possible way the word can be used. Explosives that could take out a city block would be needed to scour the battlefield of their presence. And even then, there's a good chance a stray bit of hyphae flaked off of them on their way to the fight. Mold is an infestation, mushrooms will sprout whether you want them to or not. You cannot eradicate fungus, you can only keep it at bay for so long.

[ STAMINA ]
■■■■■□□□□□

Mire doesn't get tired in the way humans do. They don't need to breathe, they don't have muscles. But enough exertion could result in their hyphae structures growing frail and frayed, like a rope under friction. Eventually, they would need a break, but most people wouldn't last long enough to see it.

[ EFFICACY ]
■■■■■□□□□□

Mire’s powers do not line up with the traditional standard of superhuman abilities. Most superhumans have to learn how their powers work, and discover themselves in the process. But Mire’s “powers” are an extension of what they are. Meaning they don’t have to discover much of anything, rather than do it. This is only a five out of ten because ICOSA knows very little about Mire, due to their cagey attitude towards researchers.

[ SURVEILLANCE LEVEL ]
■■■■■■■□□□

Mire has shown a capacity for reason and restraint, on par with humans. A month long effort to spy on them from a distance showed that they only observe humans out of curiosity, rather than malice. And they never asked to be a hero in the first place, so it is no secret that Mire at least has an inclination to leave humans be. But with that in mind, they are an absurd statistical anomaly, an exception to a centuries old rule that their kind is to be shot on sight. Their very existence means that many people in ICOSA want to study Mire, and find out what makes them tick. Unfortunately, ICOSA has learned what can happen if Mire is forced into that situation, meaning their powers are not yet fully known either. For these reasons, HERO has been advised to find a way to make Mire “warm up” to them, and convince the Leftover to trust them enough for study. They are to be watched closely, not necessarily because they are dangerous, but because of what the world might be able to learn from them if their new life as a hero is a success.

[ SKILLS ]

Gardening: Surprise, the fungus monster knows a thing or two about plants.

Stealth: Mire is used to going undetected, dissolving into the ground to avoid being spotted by humans and making absolutely no noise. They are more comfortable with it, anyway.

[ EQUIPMENT ]

N/A

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Nomad Adventures Part 1: Path to Victory

---

Jack walked through the woods, taking his time as his eyes scanned across the old trees. It was familiar wilderness, with an early evening sky overhead with just the right amount of clouds to be comfortable. The beaten path he followed was one that he had used many times as a kid as a meeting place for other members of the coven. It led to the old “neutral ground” of Mellon Collie hill. Just a few days ago, he came here with Britney to discuss plans for helping Luca. But now, he had a plan that he could act on. Jack walked past the stone altar, and into the old temple behind it. Jack would’ve simply teleported here to arrive earlier, but he had a feeling that 8th Street- or heaven forbid, the PRA- would keep a closer eye on the Sycamore in the near future. And they would likely expect him to teleport here immediately rather than make the trip on foot.

He stepped through the entrance of the temple, and his footsteps echoed off the old stone walls. This was where he had planned to meet Kenshiro, to get their operations underway. The coven’s members were busy, and they could look after themselves for now. This place was familiar to them both, they knew where to go if they needed to hide, in the eventuality that purple Lux failed them. They’d need the seclusion this temple offered.

Ken intended to be tremendously busy with the hunt for Kari now ablaze in his heart. He’d found new motivation to keep up, and to match the energy of his peers. Chief among them was Jack Hawthorne, who had made an initial agreement with him to begin the classic hunt for power: The Artifact Snatch-and-Grab.

It’d been a long time since he’d bothered to come to Mellon Collie Hill, and whether or not it was a reasonable place to start their work together, he wasn’t so sure. It’d been quite the popular place in their youth, and he worried that it may not be as abandoned as they said. However, as he ascended the pathway, Jack would’ve been bidden by the familiar sound of croaking that echoed on and on until he ultimately knew he was no longer alone.

Within the run down temple, hundreds of tiny tree frogs stared up at Jack. Their united croaking ceased, and Ken was broken from his meditation.
"You… Walked? Is there something wrong, or are you just feeling under the weather?” he looked up, surrounded still by every amphibian the forest around them could muster up from hibernation.

”I thought I’d surprise anyone who might be spying on us,” Jack leaned back against the wall, looking around at all the familiar toads of the Emperor’s dynasty. ”We can’t be predictable, right now.”

Especially if they were going through with this. ”We have the entire day to make progress on this. I’m surprised we haven’t tried to do this sooner.”

Ken nodded, lifting himself up to stand before getting close to Jack and embracing him.
"I know you don't hug, but I certainly needed one.”
He cleared his throat, thinking about their coming goal.

Pocket Realm Manipulation. Of course it was a Purple Lux technique, and the entire premise of the Ten Sage's Pathways. It was the same kind of magic that allowed him to make a hole in Kari's basement wall into a secret lockbox.
But unlike Jack, Ken's strictly regimented list of spells meant actual magical improvisation had to be left to the more creative Adepts.

Just like Jack.
As Ken pulled away, he patted his kindred brother's shoulder and nodded.
"Lynn Serenelight says Kari's still alive. I believe her, and it gets my blood warm just thinking about it.”
He grinned.

"So, whatever this takes. For her, and the chance I may see her again.”
Only, for what they had planned, Ken had no bright ideas. He would just assume base them directly in another Realm. But Jack had seen more of the spaghetti between worlds. He knew what the insulation and the inner walls looked like.

"For now, I'm your horse. Though, I brought-”
From under his hoodie, he produced a tanto blade with its sheath. The thing looked ancient, far beyond old, and even without examining it closely, one could feel the radiating power.

Ken flashed the blade with Gold Lux, and for a split second, the Great Toad Emperor stood with them. His eyes crossed over Jack, and he gave a deep, approving croak.
"-Tennogama! When I spoke of your plan, he offered a fraction of his primal energy to convert into Lux. In case we need a bit more oomph.” he grinned.

Jack gently bowed his head in the direction of the Toad Emperor, grateful for the assistance. ”The three of us on one task, this will be a sight to see once we are finished.” He reached into the inner pockets of his coat, and withdrew his channeler, a literal spellbook. ”This is, on principle, a simple thing. We are carving through the bounds of existence, establishing substance in a place where substance was not found.”

He flipped through the pages, looking for one specific section. ”But the difficulty lies in the complex nature of creating a pocket reality,” he continued. ”We are navigating a blank canvas. As with any spell created by any Adept, we’ll be investing time and energy to establish this realm. Firstly, we must secure the medium with which we will mold our creation. And for that, I will supply us both with the proverbial soil of the All-Verse, spacetime itself.”

Ken nodded, listening to the principles. He’d manipulated the Paths; but if it was as Jack said, he quickly gleaned some base insight into the process that the great Sage had gone through so many thousands of years ago. The bending and twisting of Spacetime, the manipulation of the very building blocks around them.
He stared down at the book, then back at Jack.

"Well, Telekinetic Principle works in the same basic vein as Gravity… Are you thinking, like, Black Holes? Or…-” he questioned, this new method of thinking filling his mind slowly.

”In a way, yes,” Jack nodded. ”Thing of space- Matter and reality itself- as clay. The All-Verse is a work of masterfully crafted art, in that sense. But it was nonetheless created with something of substance. Only the substance, for our purpose, is the very axiom that allows us to be. We are taking that clay from a place where it remains malleable, between the seams of every realm in the All-Verse.”

Ken’s brow furrowed as Jack seemed to dance around the ideas until it was finally fleshed out.
"So you’re telling me we’re going to carve a hole in some expanding sealant foam?” he asked with a grin.
"Sure, fine. I’m almost certain there’s a hundred blasphemes against this type of thing in the Pathwalker’s Oath, but my wife died and the Council of Ten laughed at me. So, I think the days of oaths to my people are over.”

Jack would be able to feel the Purple Lux slowly gathering around Ken as it began to pool and saturate the area around him. Raw anticipation.
"So, how do we start?”

”This is how we start.”

Jack faced the stone walls of the temple, and drew a black circle with his magic, which expanded into the portal of his Voidwalk spell. ”To make this doorway into the Void, I reach through the All-Verse and peel away every single layer, creating a hole through all conceivable reality. The “clay,” or the foam, in our analogy, is being pulled away to form a gap.”
He reached through the inky black portal with one hand, and pulled against the edge between reality and total nothingness. It was like grabbing the edge of an open window, the ledge of a tall building.

”So, rather than part the waters, I propose we harvest the spacetime that bleeds between the realms. Like gathering brush from the forest, or shells from a beach.”

Ken stared, trying to wrap his relatively simple mind around the concepts that Jack was trying to teach. His grimace was accompanied by a motion toward his pocket, from which he pulled a single gold coin.
"So you mean to tell me-”

He dropped the coin, and as if it were gripped by a machine, it slipped into the corner of nothingness. Bubbling Purple Lux gave solid form to a small wooden windowpane covered by a wood hatch. He pushed the hatch open, feeling the other side of the Paths rushing back toward him.
Having never bothered to look at the absolute bleeding edge of one of these little portals, he was surprised to see the same bleeding, leaking essence at the wooden-slatted edges.

Ken’s eyes widened.
"There’s… There’s no way…”
His hand gripped the wooden edge. This entire time, he believed that the actual structural parts of these safe boxes were just for show. It didn’t take much effort to crush and rip it away, revealing the roughly hewn edge of the little portal absolutely gushing with the Stuff Between.
"Oh my God! He was… He was awful at making portals!? So he… He enchanted wood! To keep it from bleeding out!” he barked.

”So it would seem,” Jack said, feeling around between the layers of reality. ”There is no formal term for “essence of all that ever existed,” but it has a way of stabilizing. Perhaps the old master of your spells simply used enchanted wood to prevent leakages. Here, on the bleeding edge of cosmology, things become unpredictable.”

He wasn’t personally experienced in this sort of realm-based magic. Jack was trying to grab something that was fundamentally formless. Water was fluid and air was malleable, but to hold sheer reality in his hands felt like trying to hold a slippery animal.

”This is why I feel we will need to create a joint spell for our goal. I know what to do, but you have the knowledge of other pocket realms already.”

Ken wasn’t entirely impressed, at least not by what he saw of the Sage’s work. He was a farmer by trade, but farming was a lot more than just tilling some dirt and spreading seeds. No, he’d learned enough to trap his own Caches. He’d opened portals into the Paths without opening any premade portal.
He’d done it for Her. And it wasn’t so shoddy.
"If it’s liquid, can it be…”
He did his best to telekinetically manipulate some of the material, but it wasn’t easy. Even if it was a little more effective than a normal hand or Jack’s phantom hand, it was still only so much better. The stuff seemed to leak from holes that didn’t exist.

But it was fun to play with.
"Alright… Fine. What kind of spell? What’s it take to organize this shit?”

Jack blinked slowly, feeling the way the Bull’s work flowed and stretched. ”This is the domain of purple Lux. We are creating a realm that we would open a gateway into. Just as you do with the Paths, and I with the Void. Using what is already present is a shortcut, but it means we will be carving a space out through it, and rearranging it to our liking. So we will need to work our spell into that, shaping the structure of reality on a localized level.”

Ken would be able to feel Jack’s Lux surging around them as he violently ripped something from the edge of the Void portal. A strange fluid with a lilac tint to it, that drifted through the air and faded away as it made contact with Shimmer.

”Hmm. Easier said than done, I will admit,” He said, allowing the portal to close.

"Well, it’s… Elemental, isn’t it? Have you tried your Aka?”
Mura, Aka, Ao, Kin… Ken still called the Luxes by what he was taught, and their “true names” as far as he was concerned.
"I would imagine the Kin uses something similar to make a temporary passage for the souls and spirits. It’s the math, I fear, that escapes me. Or, in so much that this shit is math, I mean…”

Ken looked a bit deeper at Jack’s book. It certainly wasn’t math. But his train of thought was cut by a deep, throaty intonation.
"Eat it.”
"Sensei, I hate to say so but that’s almost always your first answer.” Ken retorted to the spirit of the great Toad Emperor, whose wispy form still stared from among his throne of frogs and toads.
"It is what we are. But, this is the Gama way.”

Jack thought about that for a second. Eat it…

”Emperor… In your empire of toads, do you have builders that can construct things of this scale? Kenshiro and I could infuse the material with our Lux, and provide it to them to process,” Jack said. ”And we could instruct them, so they can assist us in constructing this Path.”

Tennogama’s unopening eyes seemed to shift in their ethereal sockets for a moment. Small slits split the lids, and a deep inhale seemed to suck all the moisture around them out of the air. It was uncharacteristically warm due to the Great Beast Lord’s presence, but as his chest reached its apex, it was cold around them again.
The exhale was like being shoved into a sauna. The opposite, warm dampness filled the area once more, creating such steam outside his radius that it looked like an industrial machine was running atop Mellon Collie Hill.

"Kenshiro…”
Ken tensed slightly.
"Sensei?”
"He doesn’t know?”
"Jack has been away longer than I have.”

Ken’s face was a little sad.
"Lord Tennogama has… Issues. Well, really, we both do. See, I told you about what happened to my Clan. My people, my… Wife…”
He cleared his throat.
"But I left out the part about the curse. The Lord of Fiends knew I would attempt to claim Tennogama. And for touching the sacred blade, I was cursed. Now, using Kin is dangerous for me past a certain level. And using a great deal of it here puts Lord Tennogama at risk.”

A look of concern spread over Jack’s face. ”…I had no idea.”

A throaty croak came from Tennogama, and a slight shifting in his throne.
"You ask of us, Jack Hawthorne, to risk invasion. To put our lives at risk, and the six thousand year bond.”
Speaking in the tongues of the Shimmer was strenuous, incredibly. It was the presence of thought to project his thoughts into a completely different mindstate before being able to speak that put the most tension on the system.
"But I cannot deny that, in my own hubris, I wish to see the work of my Builders be done in this world, and the Spaces Between. And your Nin is the correct shade.”

Ken’s eyebrows raised high, and he shot a look back at the great Toad.
"N-nani?”
Tennogama cleared his massive throat and smacked its lips… And then, for once, it laughed. It wasn’t loud or long, but Ken felt it rattle through his chest.
"I shall grant you my strength, Kenshiro. And should we need to fight over this decision, we will do so together. A King must stretch his legs.”

Ken’s eyes were ablaze with excitement and anticipation. The influx of Purple Lux from his body was palpable.
"A-alright! What do we need!?”
"What we all desire: A contract.”

”I will not ask you to risk your well-being without meeting you halfway,” Jack said. ”If this Lord of Fiends intercepts us while we make progress, then they will have to go through me if they wish to harm you, or your Builders.”

Ken and Tennogama nodded in unison.
"I knew you would, Jack.”
There was an old, half rotted table. With the tanto in his hand, he began to carve the ancient kanji into the wood. At first it was just a few symbols, but like all scroll work, each board became more thickly filled with text.
"A lot of this is just clerical work. Wording things the right way so they don’t feel as though they’re being cheated or slighted. There are benefits they get from doing work like this on the other side, so it all needs to be detailed clearly.”

"For jobs like this, it isn’t money. It’s usually miracles. Wishes granted. Favor. Specifically, another period of long term placement in a particularly wealthy Temple.
With a final flourish, Ken pulled the dagger away and lifted the wood table up to place it against a wall. Like a door. Sheathing the knife, Ken’s head nodded toward it.
"I haven’t had the chance to do this.”
"And so, I am with you both. Kenshiro, please-”

Kenshiro sheathed the Tanto, and at once the image of Tennogama was gone.
"Alright, so y’know how when we summon the Moonfoot? How you make the shadow happen and they, like, grow out of the surface like mushrooms?” he asked.
"This isn’t gonna be that. First, it’s gonna be all Murasaki… Purple… Because we need to send the contract. It’s kind of the easy part? Just focus on my signal, and push as much purple into it as you can.”

”Of course.” Black smoke curled off of Jack’s palms, filled with the power of his magic as he awaited the signal.

Ken stood in front of Jack, adjusting the man’s posture to match his before nodding to confirm. He lifted his arm, his Lux curling around the Contract and slowly lifting it into the air. It would give Jack a clear target to focus his own energy on.

Jack pointed both hands in the direction of the Contract, and funneled the black energy forward as indicated by his friend’s work. He let it flow like water from a fire hose, content to give as much as was needed.

As the energy flowed, the feed between Ken and Jack became like a unified stream. That stream became a river, and boiled over into a torrent of purple.
All at once, the contract disappeared from view. Just pure gone. Like it’d never even been.

Ken released the control, and the whole thing washed out into nothing, save for a tiny pinprick in reality. He took a deep breath.
"Alright. Easy part over. Tennogama has transplaced the tablet. Now, uh… I’d muster up. Because chances are we’re only gonna have a couple of minutes after the summon before there’s something big and gross to deal with.”

Ken personally stepped away for a moment as he held tight to the Tanto containing Tennogama. Gold Lux slowly began to surge at his hands, filling the blade. There was the faint sound of drums.
Purple began to crawl through the pure gold, filling the grip and the sheath, and altogether there was a burst. Louder drums, the sound of a Kabuki singer. Ken’s clothing rippled and his hood flew up as his energy commingled with the essence of Tennogama.

Turning back to face his friend, it was clear that Ken had done more than combine their energy; his eyes were big, wide opened toad eyes of a deep gold with purple lights flashing within. His face had grown wider, body slightly thicker. He smiled, and released a deep croak from inside his body.
”What do you think? The Emperor’s Tanto… Another kind of harmony.” his voice was different as well, deeper and more rumbling like Tennogama’s was.

”Impressive,” Jack grinned, raising a hand to manifest his scythe from the dark. ”Let the Fiends come, and the three of us will cut them down.”

The shadows curled into thin wisps of smoke at the edges of their vision, red Lux permeating the air along with purple and gold. This dim temple was the perfect place for him to stage a fight like this. And he was ready.

Motioning for Jack to meet him in the center, he squared up into a sheath-slash stance. In his hand, he held the Emperor’s Tanto at the ready.
”Alright. Match my pose, then feed your energy into the Tanto. Focus on the anticipation of our… New free digs.” he grinned widely.

Jack did as he was told, walking up to Ken and holding out a hand just before the Tanto. His Lux fumed out and into the blade, as he put his mind to the task. Their work was beginning, he could feel it in the air, and channeled that to light the fuse.

”So it shall be.”

As Jack channeled himself into the blade, Ken’s headband tied to his arm beneath his sleeve seared red hot on his flesh. There was a searing noise, and the scent of meat cooking, the Gold Lux bubbling out from his being passing through the Curse of Natural Order. It sent ripples through existence and the fabric of it, and every place between where the beasts and creatures of Dark Order lurked.

An ancient evil stirred.

With so much energy traveling into the blade, Ken’s form and figure swelled up until he could barely maintain his posture. The sheer effort had him grunting in pain as the curse damaged his body and stole his own personal vitality.
But it was to be given and filtered back through Tennogama, his primal form converting Lux back into his own Amphibious magic. Energy pulsed from the duo, threatening to bring the ancient walls down from their stone foundations, and for every moment they pushed themselves further, the drums of the summoning became louder in their ears.

[color=7b81b3][b]”Al-r-ight… Draw with me! One swift motion. Ah?!”[/color] he grunted at the end as if asking Jack’s assurance.
But he didn’t wait for an answer. Four hands all pulled in unison against the tanto’s grip. Only, a tanto isn’t what was pulled out. Much like Ken’s own preferred blade, the Emperor’s Tanto continued to unsheath itself long after it should’ve been over.
The blade had to be six feet long, and as its tip split the air, so too did it split the reality before them.

Shredding paper wasn’t the apt noise. It was like an explosion ripping through a tank, the noise and force that occurred from the moment of the spell’s casting causing every bit of dust remaining to leap into the air.
They were both still holding onto the sword, but Ken’s clammy hands patted Jack’s, his breath heavy and slightly ragged from the strain and effort. Then he pulled away.

Before them was a portal. At twelve feet wide and eight high, the box was a perfect window between their world and the world of the Toad Emperor. Ken couldn’t help but stare longingly at its grandeur, Tennogama’s memories mixing with his for the moment.
Standing there, on the other side, were figures who looked to be in a great rush. A wooden bridge rolled out from Gama, slapping onto the wooden floor in Shimmer. Two small frogs with wooden mallets leapt through after it, hitting the floor of the temple and staking the ends of the bridge directly through the wood. In unison, their bodies swung forward, the weight of their mallets swinging them into the air to perch upon.

From within, various sized and shaped amphibians from the Realm of Gama began to shuffle through. They had a bevy of construction tools and materials, different supplies necessary for whatever they may need. Among them, dressed in a beautiful satin blue kimono and sat upon a palanquin carried by four Pacman Frogs, a little Salamander priestess sat. Not the typical priestess, this one’s wig was massive, and rather than the usual face paint and gentle styling, she smoked a pipe and had sunglasses on.

As she made it out into the room, the frogs brought her directly to Ken and Jack. Her little frame stood up and bowed to them both.
”Ma Kiki, my Lord. At your service. Your contract was explicit about your requirements: My men are used to dangerous conditions. You protect, and we work.”

Jack returned the bow, unsure if it was expected or not for one to be formal towards the Salamanders as one would Gama royalty. ”We will provide protection and an ample supply of material as your workers deem necessary,” He said, holding his scythe upright against the floor. ”The danger is soon upon us, and we stand ready to uphold our end of the Contract.”

”Indeed… I can feel it. Kiki, please, secure the temple here as best you can for your men, and we’ll lead the beast as far away as our summoning will allow us.”
”Ma Kiki is no wallflower! You will remain where I can assist you, and not ask questions!” the feisty Salamander barked, a jet of flame shooting from her mouth.
”This is for the honor of our God Emperor, and the Gama Pact! We’ll do what needs to be done and nothing less!”

Ken put his hands up as if he were being admonished by his mother.
”Well, you heard her, Jack.”

He nodded, nothing more needed to be said about that.

As the boisterous Salamander Priestess began to bark out orders to her followers in their native tongue, there was a streak that flashed in the sky.
”A cool thing? Since there’s a Greater Fiend on the horizon, the curse can’t actually pull any more Kin from me. So, with Tennogama giving me help, I can use it freely like I use-”

The streak in the sky seemed to be getting closer and closer, hurtling toward them like a smart missile locked onto a target. The eerie shades of blue and purple and pink it made gave Ken a good idea about what exactly was coming. The Fiends seemed to be somewhat disparate groups, each discipline taking on something of a different appearance.
He judged it by its own entrance into this world, from whence it came and what it did when it first arrived.

”A Phoenix!?”

All at once, the streak of light broke apart into a million different pieces, and they were all hurtling down toward the earth. Toward them.

”That is your Curse?” Jack asked, raising his weapon aloft and pulling the shadows inwards. A phoenix implied light, and he could play tricks on a creature of light.

”If they have an army, what do you suggest we counter them with? Moonfoots? Path warfare?” He looked into the sky and memorized the dispersal pattern of the falling debris, knowing they’d likely be surrounded.

Classically, he had to regain form. Ken let the massive blade slip back into the tiny sheath bit by bit.
”I’ll be honest with you, Brother; Usually if I find one of these? I run.”
His legs split wide open, his torso getting as low to the ground as he could get without breaking his sheathed stance. With a swift twist, the entire blade flicked out from its sheath. The boards beneath Ken’s feet shattered from the weight.

The roof of the temple, or what was left of it, blew off the frame with a loud clamor as the shockwave erupted from the tip of the blade. The many lights continued to scream down toward them, but a pattern among the light wavered and pulled off out of the storm.
His golden eyes, enhanced with the sense of Tennogama, tracked the massive bird through the illusory flames.

”Ah! It’s a screen! Jack, they’re not real, the-”
A massive beak ripped through space and time, leaving a gash in reality as it tried to peck at them with its massive tooth-filled beak.

Jack lunged for Kenshiro, enveloping both of them in a swirling cloak of darkness, and quickly Gloomy Stepped them both out of the temple, roughly a hundred feet from the stone altar outside.

It got them away from the phoenix, but it left the toads defenseless. ”If we keep its attention long enough, then what?! Will it tire of chasing you?!”

As he asked this, he picked up a rock with his shadowy hand, and hurled it with blinding speed in the direction of the Phoenix to alert it to their presence. It was like a baseball being thrown by an Olympic athlete, uncharacteristically strong for someone like Jack.

”No chance, my Brother! It dies, or we cross into another realm and hope to trap it in the confusion! And today? I’d like to say we slayed it like warriors!”

The Phoenix’s trajectory spun immediately. It looked like it was flying, like it was trying to fly from an unfathomable distance toward them. But, if it was, it was so far away and moving so slowly that it certainly wasn’t making any quick progress.
Ken stared up, watching the rock hurdle toward it only for it to pass through some kind of shimmering barrier and disappear.
”The beast obfuscates its position! It wishes for us to be confused and caught off guard!”

He pointed up to the sky.
”I think… We need to take the fight-”
The creature’s proclivity for the creation of snapping portals gave it a great deal of effectiveness when fighting at a range. It could stay as far away, or as close as it could get, and rattle off spells and physical attacks from impossible angles. Ken barely managed to block the talon strike that forced itself through reality, the massive sword radiating an incredible noise as it smashed against the sharpened claw.
”Grab it!”

Jack leapt forward, grabbing onto the beast’s claw with his magic hand. His fingers sunk deep into it, changing shape such that if the Phoenix wanted to shake him off, it would need to rip its claw out.

”I have it!” He shouted, swinging the scythe overhead and down into the closest thing to a leg that he could.

The beast screamed on the other side of the portal, promptly closing it and letting the limb be severed in return. It withered away almost instantly, crumbling to ash that floated into the air around them.
”Damn damn! Damn it all! Fuck this bird!”

There was a strong burst of Purple Lux that engulfed Jack. Ken’s voice wobbled through the TK field.
”Baseball, take two! Be careful, and steer with your hands!
As Ken pressed himself in a low squat, the bubble holding Jack began to rotate faster and faster, orbiting around Ken until he became a blur in the center of an otherwise gyro-stabilized orb of high pressure energy.

”What in the-“

Then, all at once, Jack was launched at an incredible speed high into the air. As he was, Ken took off behind him like a rocket blast. He surged ahead of Jack’s sphere, gripping it with his magic and using the even more extreme force to slingshot him into the sky at a greater speed. The two of them broke the sound barrier within moments, yet the bird seemed no closer to them.

The illusion of a never ending hallway stretched out before the two high speed magic missiles. Reality collapsed around them on all sides, the endless void of space peeling away to stretch reality far into the sky. It was like being in between the fold of a wormhole.

He wasn’t accustomed to flying, but this was incredible. Jack felt like he was being flung through a thousand different doors, chasing behind the creature alongside Ken. But the Phoenix was faster than them. Damn.

Jack studied the illusion they were passing through. If this was a real hallway, they may have been in another dimension right now. But if this was just fake, they were probably flying through the air and away from the Hill. They needed a way to get out ahead of this. If they were just in an illusion, Jack couldn’t teleport. But if he let Kenshiro take the wheel…

”Take over!” He shouted. ”I have a solution!” Jack began to draw a Void portal out in front of himself and Kenshiro, focusing on where to put the entrance more than the exit.

Kenshiro pulled out in front of Jack just as the Cursefire was starting to rain down. Not just down, however, but from their sides as well, as the molten balls of blue flames rocketed at them at high speeds. He used strong bursts of TK to push them both out of the way of incoming projectiles, occasionally having to dodge one that was coming from behind them as it circled back along its path.

A dozen of them collapsed in tandem, forcing Ken to break momentum slightly. With the empowered Emperor’s Tanto, he spun around Jack like a whirlwind to split the spheres as they surged toward them. A small flame clipped Ken’s shoulder, instantly boring a hole through the layers of cloth, skin, flesh and bone until it burst from the other side like a bullet. He grunted at the pain, but by the will of Tennogama, he pushed through the pain to align Jack for the perfect spot.

Jack’s focus was unshaken by the chaos happening around him, and he reached through the All-Verse to cut open a path. A black portal opened in front of them both, swallowing them whole and whisking them away into an endless ocean of dark nothingness. They had crossed over into the Void.

And just as soon as the two of them left the All-Verse, they were shunted back into it through another portal, the Void itself nothing more than a frame in a scene. Only this time, they were traveling in the opposite direction, in front of the phoenix and towards it.

”NOW!”

The giant bird’s freakish face registered shock and horror as the two of them collided with it like two cannonballs hitting a wall of sand. It’s unnatural physiology and incredible durability caused it to ragdoll about its personal space in the same way a pinball gets caught in a bouncing hazard.

Ken couldn’t fully control it, but still he reared back as all the momentum bled off into the impact.
”I need speed portals! Underneath me!”
Ken threw a few hand signs across his chest, and as he lashed forward there was a great golden frog’s tongue that snapped from his mouth. It grabbed the oversized chicken around it’s neck, crushing it tight. As it tried to teleport away, a backlash of Purple Lux kept it from going anywhere.

The tongue dragged him back to the bird at breakneck speed, and he did his best to hold it for what could only be described as the greatest piledriver of all time.

Jack ripped open another set of portals, under both of them for a quick escape.

”Move, now!”

Ken held tight to the bird’s neck. There was a great, howling screech that echoed from the Fiend as the portal collapsed.

---

Ma Kiki could feel the Gama Pact in her veins as she waited for the Emperor and his companion to return. So long as her heart still beat, and her connection to the other side was strong, she was sure that her God was still out there somewhere in that dense woodland. Last she saw, they were in the sky, and she was cursing with all her fury as they left her out of the fight.

She wasn’t frail. She wasn’t a wallflower. She was the great and powerful Ma Kiki, and she expected to be treated as such.
“Ma? The entryway is complete!”
”So? Did you stop?”
“N-no Ma!”
”Then keep bloody building! I don’t think the contract has ended yet, do you?”
There was a loud popping noise as the signal to the Pactholder grew stronger. Ken’s audio signature as he flung himself and his companion through the sky. Though their trophy had mostly burned away, the young warrior clung to a single shimmering feather that managed to linger on after the Phoenix’s demise.

He settled himself and Jack in a joint bubble, having given them both time to talk about the beast and what they’d do next. Now they were touching down outside the ancient structure, and both came to a gentle landing. Ken had returned to normal, and other than looking exhausted he showed no signs of lingering damage. The hole in his shoulder had already been cauterized by the flame that caused it.

Ma Kiki ran out the front door, her short stature making her anything but threatening despite the fire spitting from her lips in a very literal sense.
”You boys! You heard what I said before, right!? Stick with me and you’ll be safe! But nooooooooo, y’all had to get fancy immediately! Damn you both? What if something were to happen to you, Pactkeeper!? Or worse, our Lord!?”

She gripped Ken’s pant leg.
”Get down here, young man, and let me fix your damn shoulder… That’s a Cursefire burn!”
"Well, we did it regardless… So, you guys are free to keep working as long as we have you.”
The steely salamander priestess eyed Ken with big, dark eyes. Then those same eyes turned over to Jack.
”Was it… Fun?” she asked quietly, her tongue smacking against her lips in anticipation.

”That depends on if your definition of “fun” includes banishing yourself in and out of reality just to keep pace with spatial tunnels.”

Jack wasn’t any less worse for wear than Ken, but his eyes were a pair of murky, dark orbs rather than their usual appearance. He was mostly blind, having used his red Lux extensively to wound the beast.

”It certainly was not dull.”

The little salamander woman spouted off in ancient Japanese for a solid forty-five seconds as her hands worked the meat of Ken’s arm like puddy. Every little bit of flesh filled back in with a great, agonizing pain to accompany it.

”Baaah, I am jealous! So jealous… Kenshiro-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!”
Her little hands started smacking his shoulder, and he laughed.

"Enough, enough… What work’s been done?”
Kiki finally pulled away, a slight dejection on her face. She took them back up the steps and back toward the board. The same table top that had been their contract had been carved into a door with black metal enforcements.

”You’re both attuned to the door, since both of you contributed your Nin. It’s not static to this location; you want to move the door, simply grab it by both sides with your energy, and you will be able to move it. Is that understood?

Out of curiosity, Jack reached forward and channeled his purple Lux, and sure enough, a heavy metal door snapped into existence before them.

”…Excellent.” He grinned, feeling pleased with this work.

”Now, to open it, you'll provide a personalized passcode. It's complex, it's individualized, it's a passcode that cannot be taken from your brain because even you won't actually know what it is. Simply put, the door has a whitelist and a blacklist, and we're responsible for it! The weight of Me-Gama City could collapse around our temple, but your citadel's security is insured!

Ken nodded for a long set of seconds before his face turned between Jack and Kiki with some confusion.
"So… Are you actually gonna tell us how t-”

”It's. A. Fucking. Door. You push? It opens. Someone else pushes, it's not there. Simple enough!?”
Ken grimaced.
"Why talk about pa-”

A little pink portal opened up, and Kiki shoved her little fist through it to clock Ken in the jaw.
”Do you want to know how it works or *not*!? Hey, Gloomy…-” she yapped upward at Jack.
”-Do the honors, would'ja? So Dickhead over here quits interruptin’ me!”

Jack nodded, not fully able to see where Ma Kiki even was, and swung the magical door open.

Access All Worlds

He then stepped inside to take in the scene around him. It was difficult to appreciate everything, his eyesight being what it is for the moment. Everything looked like a late evening to him, but he saw he was standing atop a cliff, before the entrance to a building constructed like an old Japanese estate. He stood on the steps, and to his right was a wall of banded rock draped in lush ivy. And brush from overhanging trees. Down the steps, he saw the pathway away from this building, but it was difficult to make out what was at the end.

Warm air, fit for amphibians of the Toad Empire to frolic and thrive.

He looked into the blue sky above, and saw everything. The All-Verse was above him, splayed out before their space like an aurora, universes blurring together on a canvas of watercolor. He could not see Shimmer, but Jack knew it was somewhere up there, beyond this gap between the breadth of creation.

It was beautiful, even to his hindered sight.

”This- This is incredible. Pocket realms of this size take months of tireless time and energy to create. But your men have done it in a day. The Toad Emperor chooses his Priesthood well.”

Ma Kiki stepped forward, her blue kimono a flash of color among the green and gray. Ken made his way in front of them, walking completely upside down on essentially nothingness.

”This is crazy. Look, Jack, I can no-clip.”
As he said that, his feet moved forward and “up” as if he were ascending an upside-down set of stairs pointed toward Hell.

One, two, three steps of ascension and Ken's head went through the stone of the ground. As he reversed his motion, his head re-emerged from the floor, and he had a wide smile.
"So cooooooool!”

Ma Kiki scoffed at the shenanigans, shaking her head while trying to focus on Jack.
”Few among you have mastered the art of Inceptual Growth. Is it so hard to imagine that the space here isn't so big? You're deceived by the scale.” she attempted to weakly explain.

”Ah, I see,” He realized. ”This space is built as a tesseract, and we are only perceiving the center?”

Ma Kiki simply nodded, stepping forward and onward toward the Estate.
”Mostly. But, the structure repeats. So, it's got plenty of room for expansion without putting extra strain on the Algebraic Warding.

Jack nodded. ”Expansion will be easy, we only need to saturate the cosmoplasm and parallel it to the foundation.” He was saying that just to fuck with Ken, it meant absolutely nothing.

The enigmatic salamander woman crooned slightly, the long thin cigarette holder fixed between her lips dipping down.
”Indeed… And because of our work along the Stellar Marbling, you’ll not be finding any cosmoplasm leakage or shoddy craftsmanship.”
Either Jack had unwittingly intuited celestial pocket dimension theory, or she was in on it.

The inflection that carried her comment along was so flat and cold that there was no question in Ken’s mind that it was the same phenomena he’d experienced when pulling the wood away from the portal previously.
"Oh! Like the stuff that Sage Kai tried to cover up with his carpentry!”

Ma Kiki’s fist slammed down against an invisible force, smashing it like one would smash their hand off of a desk. Simultaneously, a burst of energy crackled around Ken’s head, clobbering him.
"Heyyyy! What did I say!?” he groaned, rubbing his head in pain.

”Feeble of mind… The Gods blessed you with a hearty constitution for no reason beyond your brain being made half of mush!”
There was a pause, and a small chuckle left her mouth along with a puff of smoke. Kiki’s weathered face turned up toward Jack, and a genuine smile formed.
”You’re a funny one… Maybe one day you’ll come to Gama, and we’ll teach you the ways.”

”Perhaps,” Jack acknowledged. ”But we have business that demands our attention. We cannot be away for long, not until the murder of our coven is behind us.”

Ma Kiki waved him off. At the same time, a portal opened from her hand to the top of Jack’s head. She patted him gently for a moment.
”That… Was the point of one day, my blunted friend. Oh, you young ones…”

As she pulled away, the doors to the structure opened wide. The crew -covered in sweat and slicked in the essence of creation as it splattered across their uniforms to make universes for the brief time between work and wash- carried their tools from the platform down to meet the two tenants. Hitting the bottom step, they bowed in unison before their Boss and their Clients.

Ken raised his hand in salute to them, bowing low as well. Ma Kiki cleared her throat.
”Shall we? It’s… finished but, requiring your will and input. A space made from your ego.”

”Of course.” He turned and followed her.

Leading the two of them up the stairs, sconces of purple fire lit themselves as the latent energy produced by the two Adepts filled their miniscule fueling requirements.
”You’ll be happy to hear that the entire compound is lit by Shadowflame; A light in which you are safe to use your unique skills, Jack. And entirely powered by your presence. Per the contract, it is such that only Mura Nin-” she paused, grumbling something to herself.
”Purple Lux is the only way one may access this realm in the first place. In order to interact, one must either be of such, or must come as a guest. And those guests who are not of the Purple may not linger here without the presence of one such as yourselves. That is per your agreement as Tenants under the forbidden articles of the Gama Pact. This is your stronghold, but our property. Do you both understand that?”

Ken, having felt Kiki’s serious energy return, was focused on her like a hawk once again.
"Yes, Ma Kiki.” he replied.

Jack nodded. ”I do. We will both follow these conditions to the letter. Though, I doubt anyone who is not a purple Adept will find their way here regardless…” As he said this, he thought back to that time the Temple’s Adepts ambushed him in the Void. ”If we are lucky.”

Jack looked from left to right, pondering the curious torches of purple flame. He held up his hands and formed a mass of darkness in it, and sure enough, there was no difficulty in doing so. And with his eyesight slowly clearing up, he didn’t have any trouble at all. He didn’t expect that to be included in the construction, but he wasn’t at all going to complain.

”Good, good. Now, of the interior.”
She led them over the threshold of the door and into the hard wooden floor of the main common area. There was a large fire pit inside, and a chimney led up and out to the sky. As they approached, it lit with the same fire as the sconces and warmed the room evenly across the span of a few moments before holding steady. She pointed her hand around aimlessly.

”Now, this and all the space on the first floor are static. It needed a base structure, so this is the footprint. You have four side chambers, use them how you like. As you get more adept at manipulating your spaces, you’ll be able to do just about anything to them except change their dimensions to be larger than that space.”

But her little legs didn’t stop moving, rather continuing their ascent of a set of stairs at the opposite side of the common area from the entry.
”Up these stairs, you come into the last big bit of solid structure. It’s the Outer Ring. Think of it like a hitchin’ post; you secure your own space onto it, since it doesn’t actually exist structurally you need to have it connected.”

She led them to one of the dozens of tatami sliding doors that lined the walls of the “Outer Ring”. With one swift motion, she slid it open to a swirling, hellish pit of purple energy going absolutely chaotic on the other side.
Seeing it, she simply grinned.
”Each room has a finite amount of material. You’ll find clever ways of saving it. For now, how about you try reaching in there, Jack? Show us that big brain, and your design skills. Whatever comes to mind, you simply put that thought into your energy, and let the room have what you’re thinkin’.”

”By all means.” Without missing so much as a beat, Jack walked up to the purple inferno, rolled up his sleeves and stuck his hands through it. He thought of something practical, the kind of thing he appreciated having in a place where he intended to spend significant time. The purple flames spiraled into the shape of a tornado, Jack twisted his hands like he was turning the wheel of a ship, and held that position for a moment.

”We will likely be here for days at a time, in the future. So…”

Jack brought his hands together, and then spread them apart. The purple fire exploded outwards, rippling through the door and behind them to leave behind the room he had just created: A fully decorated study room, built like a small library and furnished with chairs and tables for people to rest. The shelves appeared to have books, but upon further examination, Ken and Ma Kiki would find that they were simply flickering illusions, a byproduct of the image Jack had in mind.

”There will be plenty of time to fill the shelves with books and other resources. But for now, I think that will do.”

Ma Kiki and Ken both trailed behind him into the regal and pristine repository of illusory knowledge. Hearing him say several days, Kiki piped up.
”I would certainly be careful about that… Time in here is strangely distorted, and while you may enter and remain at the same speed, it will slowly begin to stretch your seconds out into real world minutes. Before you know, you may be lost to time. Ken? Do you understand yet?”

He was starting to understand, yes. The places he’d lived in all his life. They were caught out of time, and traveling was always done through the paths created by Sage Kai. He was already well accustomed to the temporal shifting of traveling between realms, as his entire life had overall spanned less time than his Sycamore Tree counterparts.
But it went further than that.

"Your branch of the Priesthood built the Villages…”
She grinned up at him. His face was lost in thought.
”Ah, so… Not entirely empty up there.”

Ken rushed out of the room and down the hall, ripping one of the doors near the end open before he practically stuffed himself through the purple hellscape. It flashed a series of bright colors from the entrance until it finally ceased.
There was a gasp, followed by a loud cheer.
"YATTA!

Making way to see his creation, passing into view would reveal a peculiarly modern-furnishedminka estate, with a lush and warm air blowing through. Ken was outside, technically, and staring back up at the building and into the room which the entrance had fit into. He had both of his hands dragging through his hair, and he was on his knees.

Ma Kiki took a deep breath, recognizing the construction of the building that Ken had made. With the man himself having blasted his own brain with some more mental damage, she looked up at Jack to explain.
”This was, I believe, his home. In his village. Albeit, furnished like he robbed an Ikea…” she chuckled.

Jack walked in, observing the space. ”It seems comfortable. This suits you, Kenshiro. It reminds me of that time when I fell through a tree on my way to visit you, years ago.”

If Ken heard what Jack was saying, he didn't respond. He seemed to be lost in his own little world, tears falling from his face. Jack would know Ken's propensity for wearing his heart on his sleeve well, but it was never this bad.

”We are not done yet, young man. Come back here and leave your sorrow to your personal time.”
After a few minutes of them passively checking around the room, Ma Kiki's voice cut across the room and out into the fake yard.
Sad as he was, reminiscent as he was, he knew she was right. Time was still limited.

So he stood, and did his best to make it look like he wanted to leave, and to see whatever else the crew cooked up.
"I apologize… Thank you for your compliments, Jack. I was… Always fond of my family home.”
He wrapped an arm around Jack, hugging into him by the shoulders despite knowing that he wasn't going to get anything back.

It was a brotherly embrace. He was just looking for a grounding connection.

But Ma Kiki led them back down the stairs to the main common room, and back to the large purple fire pit in the center.
”Ken, please channel the Gama Pact into this fireplace.” Kiki directed, even throwing in a bit of politeness for the quietly depressed Pact Keeper.

He was leery of the curse, but channeling his gold lux into the fire pit made its mechanisms clear. It only needed the connection, the mere suggestion that he was the Pact Keeper was enough to cause its shifting and morphing.
It lifted up from the floor, separating into several segments that still burned bright with Shadowflames.

What was in its place was a hewn stone staircase.
”This is the sole reason we of the Celestials are so keen on this structure existing, and why we're happy to front the costs.”
Walking down the stairs, one could hear the moisture building up as shoes began to splash more and more. It was unbelievably hot and muggy, and before long the ribbits of lesser frogs could be heard.

The entryway was arched with a red wood Torii that had frogs carved into it and frogs hanging out on top of it. Ahead were dozens of hot spring pools separated by stretches of moss-carpeted stone. The surface was a slice of swiss cheese, the pools placed naturally with little concern for symmetry, but everything led to the rear of the massive cave.
Toward the back, a Shrine was carved directly into the solid stone wall, and Ma Kiki continued toward it despite her primal inclination to abandon her kimono and descend into the pools herself.

The shrine was identical to the one that existed in Kenshiro's childhood village, apparently ripped directly from there considering the thousands of names still carved into the outer walls. He found his class, and his fingers gently rubbed across his wife's name.

But he knew what this was for. The Emperor's Tanto slipped from his belt, and he laid the weapon upon the stand within. Tennogama's ethereal form wasted no time releasing itself into the magically saturated grotto lair, taking a few steps to emerge from the wall.
He went right for the biggest pool, diving in and taking a deep breath as his head resurfaced. As if on queue, the shades of a thousand amphibians began to fill the other pools.

”Souls of Gama will gather here in reverence of Tennogama. And he will remain here, where the prayers of our people can reach him.”
The massive toad spirit was already seemingly holding court with the froggy phantoms, his deep rumbling croaks causing the pools to vibrate in turn.

”A place for him to rest…” Jack had been following behind, quiet as a mouse in a library. There were things in Kenshiro’s past he did not know, and that was obvious from the structures around him. They were a product of Ken’s energy, the reflection of his soul made solid by this place. This grotto was a reminder of all that he had experienced, and Jack was just the passenger in this moment.

It was beautiful. Every square inch of this realm was.

”Does this mean that Tennogama will regain his lost strength more easily here?” He asked.

Ken turned, a frown still crossing his face. He shook his head. Even Ma Kiki turned her head in vague remorse.
”Ah… No. Tennogama is… Well, not in a position where he's able to heal and restore himself anymore. He has vast energies still remaining, but…”

He tried to think of a tactful way of putting it.
"The Lord's physical form can no longer house his spirit. Long ago, it passed on. His chamber is private, and only the Celestials enter to tend to his mummified remains. But, it is a tomb.” he finally said.

”Then… He cannot be helped?”

”What is there to help? Look at him…”
The massive toad was surrounded by his lesser subjects, small frogs and toads adorning his head and shoulders as their souls commingled with that of their Heavenly Emperor. It was more than he'd had the chance for in many years, and for what it was worth, he looked thrilled.

Not even Ken could deny it.
”I will miss his closeness, and he will miss adventuring. But, he can still rest, and maybe that is healing enough. He can feel safe here.”

Ma Kiki turned to face them both.
”Do as you both see fit. When a new person comes along to add to your little group, your consent will register them. They'll be able to manipulate the rooms on the second floor, and do just as you both do. But only Ken's connection as Pact Keeper will open this place up. It's secure as can be, and I would encourage keeping valuables under Tennogama's watchful eye.”

She could no longer deny her nature. She began to divest herself of her robes, but paused.
She cleared her throat.
”Prithee, any further questions before I relish in my own hard work?” she questioned.

Jack looked off into Tennogama’s direction. He did look happy. And for some, that was enough.

”None,” He said, at last. ”Your work is appreciated. Thank you.”

Ma Kiki nodded in acceptance.
”Repairs will be made as necessary. If you need to find me directly, you can find me with Him.”

As she pulled the Kimono fully from her tiny frame, she gave up any pretense of a physical form. She burst apart in a confetti of universal material, her radiant spirit resembling a giant axolotl whose gills were red hot.

As the ethereal giant slithered into the pool with Tennogama, the entire thing began to bubble madly, then settled down to a rolling boil. Ken nodded.
”Oh… They really hide a lot of soul in those little bodies.”
He took a deep breath and bobbed his head back toward the entrance.

”Come on, Jack. We'll get some pizza or something…”

He nodded. ”We accomplished something wonderful today, Kenshiro.” After Ma Kiki had left, Jack swung an arm over Ken’s shoulder.

”Where would the Sycamore be without us?”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

DREADNAUGHT.

??? | Dreadnaught | He/It

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"Down deep, there slumbers him who marred the sky.

Harbinger, Dross-Drowned Angel, we mourn.

We weep for the anchor upon your lungs, for we know it will rust when you awake."

- Songs of the Calamites, Verses of the Salt-Eater

Description:

The Dreadnaught is one of the Three Calamities, nigh-unstoppable incarnations of destruction that have terrorized distant worlds for a long, long time. Among them, the Dreadnaught is the biggest and most powerful, dwarfing its sibling like ants dwarfed by a mountain. It stands at exactly one thousand feet tall, in the shape of a human being with emancipated muscles racing uo and down skeletal limbs. Crags of corroded metals jut out from its body fused together with bones like armor. Blades in the shape of axes shear through its chest, and crown the monsters head like a crown. One cannot tell where uncanny flesh ends and twisted metal begins, but when he rises, someone dies. Throughout human history, the Calamities have brought ruin and despair to every place they stumbled upon, and the Dreadnaught is no different.

In a world known as Sparkle, all thee of the Calamities were worshipped as gods, revered by a now-dead doomsday cult. Many believed that the Calamities, true to their name, would be the end of all things material in this world, that they would shatter Heaven and Earth alike, and build a new world for the scarce few they showed mercy on. Of course, this prophecy never came true, but the Dreadnaught and its siblings are still out there, laying waste to places that none will hear the screams of.

Abstraction:

Abominable - The Long Flood.
The Dreadnaught rises from the deepest recesses of an ocean, and draws on the power of stolen magic to lay waste to all that oppose it. His Abstraction is the ability to devour artifacts, and absorb their Abstractions to permanently become stronger. Every artifact that it comes across is eaten alive, and part of the Dreadnaught. Having devoured millions of them, he is far beyond the level of most paranormal entities. The countless Abstractions that it has taken coalesce and solidify into each other, based on how similar they are, and making wholly new Abstractions out of them.

The Dreadnaught’s first and most feared ability is the Siren’s Light. When he opens his jaws to howl, the air fills with a sound like an air raid siren, loud enough to vibrate organs and induce nausea. A sickly yellow light manifests in its jaws, and fires out in a beam of energy that can strike a target from miles away. The Siren’s Light vaporizes everything that it comes into contact with, from mundane matter to the most powerful defenses in the All-Verse, and it permanently ruins the Emotional-Field of anything that somehow has the misfortune of surviving. The Siren’s Light spreads once it is used, leaking into the environment like nuclear fallout and poising all that tries to live off of the land. Nothing can survive in the wake of the Siren’s Light.

The Dreadnaught’s second power is the Cold Iron, a magic substance that grows from its body and represents ordinary iron. Bitter cold to anyone who makes physical contact with the Dreadnaught, the Cold Iron is what consumes the Abstractions of artifacts, draining them of all paranormal influence and corroding them like saltwater. This does not work quite the same way on Adepts or Aberrants, but it does weaken them, escalating to a point that their Abstraction may never recover if they are affected too long. This is a problem because the Cold Iron flakes off of Dreadnaught like dead skin, and carries on the wind like leaves. Any paranormal entity who touches the Cold Iron will suffer its effect.

Its third power is the Abstraction Eternal Wrath. The Dreadnought’s body consists of thousands of artifacts, many of them would have granted a wielded some form of physical Abstraction, and all of them commingled into one inside the Calamity’s body. The Dreadnaught can survive at the bottom of an ocean, under crushing pressure that no living thing could normally withstand, where it rests and lies dormant. Some scholars over the last few centuries have theorized that the Dreadnaught can open portals into other worlds by flooding them. Aside from this, its body can survive damage from many of the most powerful Abstractions in the All-Verse, from a direct hit with Punishment itself to a blow to the face from the Hero’s Gauntlet. These things will simply bounce right off its face as if they never happened, and if something can do any significant damage, the Dreadnaught will simply draw from its countless plunder of Abstractions to heal itself.

《 Super H.E.R.O. 》

Wiseman

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WISEMAN

"There's more than one way to be a superhero. When you come to terms with that, you'll be glad I'm right."

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[ NAME ]
???

[ HERO IDENTITY ]
Wiseman

[ NICKNAME/ALIAS ]
Austin Barrow, Scarface, Barry, Patchy the Pirate

[ AGE ]
21

[ GENDER ]
Male, He/Him

[ AFFILIATION ]
HERO, Full time

[ APPEARANCE ]
A somewhat scruffy guy who barely passes as a professional sometimes, Austin stands at a not-so-staggering 5'7", weighs around 180lbs, and has a mess of hair he always says he'll do something about. He often prefers muted colors and clothes that are comfortable over formal or practical when off the job. The most notable thing about Austin's appearance is the eyepatch and the scarring across his face. Despite being a hero and therefore having the ability to easily contact healers, he has never done anything about this and simply says he got hit in the face by a fireball as a kid. As Wiseman, he wears a modified flak suit colored white and dark red, which he has outfitted further with his tech to look more like a supersoldier from a movie than a hero.

[ PERSONALITY TRAITS ]

• Stoic: It’s very difficult to get under Wiseman’s skin. The job comes first, and the decompression from stress that comes with the job comes after. He’s good under pressure, though maybe not so good above it.
• Tired: Wiseman has perpetual “I work 87 hours a day” energy. When he’s not on the job, he’s Just as likely to sleep in until noon as he is to attend a HERO meeting in sweatpants… And he’s very likely to do that.
• Smartass: Of course he’s smart. He’s Wiseman. He always has something pedantic to say about something, much to the detriment of his relationship with the higherups that expect a blindly loyal soldier.
• Rational: Austin Barrow is a simple man. His emotional straightforwardness comes from dedication to his job, a self-awareness that comes from his superhero AI-level brainpower, and a mix of other things he buried a long time ago. You’ll never see him acting recklessly, because he always thinks it through.
• Affable: It’s easy to get along with Austin once you get past his everbusy, mastermind exterior. He’s not one of those super geniuses that can’t understand people, he’s just a very reserved man when it comes to more intimidate subjects. Grief, trauma, and anger are things that he doesn’t tend to show much of.
• Confident: When you can outthink an AI like ALISA, you tend to pick up an ego. Though, Wiseman isn’t the type to brag. He simply knows he’s a damn fine hero, and doesn’t need to be told so to believe it.

[ BIO ]
At the age of sixteen, an eyepatch-wearing superhuman showed up to AJH in Castleburg with legal documents identifying himself as Austin Barrow, an emancipated minor born on January 9th. He was in a weird position, but demonstrated his powers by solving some of the most complicated mathematical equations and puzzles that anyone but him could name in sixty seconds at the most. For good measure, they ran three separate IQ tests on him for good measure, averaging four digits in the end. He was enrolled and then blended into the background of many other students with ease. No one is sure for certain where Wiseman came from, and he has made enough of a name for himself among HERO's ranks that those in power don't feel the need to ask. It is unlikely that even the Director has any idea whether or not his story was true, but it all began three years prior with a trail of cyber crimes that ultimately led to a trail without a lead.

During his days at the academy, Austin demonstrated an uncharacteristically well-developed grasp of his powers and their capabilities. Teachers noted his lack of engagement with the more normal subjects such as mathematics or history, even though he was psychologically unable to be anything less than perfect at them. In more practical classes, such as power training and superhuman combat, Austin demonstrated a natural inclination towards outsmarting opponents and an aversion to upfront fighting. Unless he was truly backed into a corner with no way out, he'd always find a way to trip people up, make them screw each other over, or use some gadget he was able to slip into the training room undetected to catch people off guard. Austin sat somewhere between a troublemaker and a gold star student, and no one doubted he'd be a damn good superhero once he was ready.

And sure enough, he became a proper member of HERO upon graduation, taking the name Wiseman and immediately setting to work on things he was sure would make the city a better place. As Wiseman, he developed a reputation as a strategist, flexible fighter and inventive supporter of other heroes. Anyone who needed a second opinion on some big move they were making, such as a raid on a compound of supervillains or some excessive stunt to build the next big innovation that helps heroes do their job, might be inclined to pick his brain, or throw him into a room together with ALISA to do what neither of them them could achieve alone. His record up to the current day has been exemplary, barring the occasional snide comment to authority figures he really should have more respect for.

And everyone is none the wiser...

| MISCELLANEOUS |
No one can find out who Wiseman was before that day he walked into the Academy of Junior Superheroes. But if they did, they would find that "Austin Barrow" doesn't have any parents, or any family members he was ever actually related to at all.

Abilities

[ RANKING ]

Theta Class

[ Perfect Mind ]

Befitting his name, Wiseman’s brain operates on a level that puts a supercomputer to shame. Austin’s power allows him to think faster than most people, form strategies in seconds, do advanced calculus in his head and understand topics that would otherwise be exhausting to learn. He cannot forget anything, as his memory is infallible, and as long as his body is still capable, Austin will never get rusty at anything he learns.

[ PHYSICAL STRENGTH ]
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Wiseman is in decent shape, but is my no means able to match up against the heavy-hitting superheroes of HERO. He can handle himself in a straight up fight, but prefers to be smart about things and avoid a fair fight as much as possible. Against someone more inclined towards upfront combat, he’s shit out of luck.

[ AGILITY ]
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Wiseman is slippery when he wants to be, good at ducking under things, slipping over high walls and leaping considerable distances to keep out of some meat-headed villain's grasp. But these are things done in the context of a well-trained human body, easily beat by heroes more agile than him, or by heroes with movement-based powers.

[ INTELLIGENCE ]
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Austin goes by Wiseman for a reason. Where other highly intelligent heroes play checkers, he plays chess. Wiseman is capable of memorizing entire languages in a week, and could cheat a world class magician out of a poker game if he really wanted. Even ALISA tends to struggle to keep up with him sometimes, and he has gone back and forth in chess games with her repeatedly. She still thinks he cheated that one time.

[ DESTRUCTIVENESS ]
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Wiseman’s destructive capabilities lie in the arsenal of gadgets he has built for himself. Technically speaking, he could build whatever he wanted as long as he had the resources, but HERO isn’t going to give him an MSR to power his workshop, so he tends to stick to things like weapons, computer algorithms that manage data or make other heroes do their job easier. His weapons can cause some above average destruction, by their very nature as weapons, but are outclassed by most offense powers.

[ LETHALITY ]
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If Wiseman really wanted to, he could get into a knife fight with someone and hit them in just the right spot to open an artery, or tune up the waveband on one of his weapons to incinerate flesh. Wiseman knows enough about infrastructure of buildings that he could smoke out an entire bank by tampering with the HVAC system, or rig someone’s car to explode. Most of these things, however, require time or setup to pull off and aren’t very feasible compared to a hero that can crush skulls like paper bags.

[ ENDURANCE ]
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Beyond getting occasionally roughed up by villains in a fight, Wiseman is no more or less sturdy than a normal human being that is well-accustomed to a scrap.

[ STAMINA ]
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Wiseman prioritizes running from, and avoiding a fair fight over getting in one. So he tends to keep his body in good enough shape that he can run, jump, hide and climb his way out of scuffles to keep himself unharmed. Though, some heroes have powers that make them machines on legs, and they could outlast him easily.

[ EFFICACY ]
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Efficacy isn't a concern for Wiseman, since his power is more of a mutation that is always on then something he uses. But Austin does put it to good use in the form of constantly picking up new skills and learning new branches of applied science that he hasn't tried his hand at yet. This makes Austin the designated renaissance man of his hero company, who people go to when they just can't seem to get that one inconvenient problem taken care of. The only reason he never claims to have outright "mastered" his power is that Wiseman believes he will never run out of things to learn.

[ SURVEILLANCE LEVEL ]
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Wiseman has an effectively spotless reputation in his hero company. Though, the very nature of his highly skilled power usage and the fact that he firmly believes in being less fair towards villains means that it is necessary to keep an eye on him. The man literally has an entire lab full of energy weapons, supercomputers, diagrams of information that seem like mad ramblings, and unfinished gadgets for himself and other heroes that he works in. It would be bad practice to not check in every now and then. With that in mind, Wiseman has never given HERO or ICOSA a reason to turn his lab upside down, so they tend to be somewhat lax in what he can get away with, but they still do their job nonetheless.

[ SKILLS ]
Hacking
Wiseman has demonstrated a phenomenal ability to dismantle security systems used by villains and incoming cyberterrorists. Often, he simply uses this as a way to retrace the footsteps of some villain who thought they were clever enough with their hacking skills. In the field, he'll use this to usurp a villain's control over something. Though, he has also been known to quietly hack into public systems, such as a bank's camera network, to catch the bad guys in the act more quickly.

Advanced Technology
Wiseman's most well-used skill is his ability to work with technology that baffles some of the world's best engineers. There is no physics-breaking element to any of his devices, but the sheer sophistication he demonstrates in his work outclasses things done by most people in the world of non-powered science. He could reverse engineer an enemy AI similar to ALISA in construction or assist tech-central heroes with their more esoteric projects like it's nothing.

Chess
Austin is a monumental nerd when it comes to chess. He claims to have memorized every possible move that has ever been used by anyone since the game's first match in human history. Whether this is simply a batshit crazy claim that is tangentially plausible due to Austin's powers or the honest truth, he's pretty damn good. ALISA has played eight games with him so far, and lost only half of them. _{I'm telling you, Director. I can't prove it but he CHEATS!}

Strategy
Lay out the battlefield before him, give him enough variables, and Wiseman can come up with a compelling plan that works for everyone involved. He likes to think of himself as something of a mastermind, able to look at a situation like it's a game, and has no trouble thinking on his feet when in a fast-paced situation.

Weapons Combat
Wiseman does not, under any circumstances, believe in fighting fair when it comes to villains who could kill someone the day after an encounter with them. To compensate for this, he's trained himself to fight with non-lethal weapons to take down the villains who fly or can move things with their mind. His personal favorite fighting method, though, is knife fighting. Where other weapons are just a tool for the job to him, fighting is more like an art to him, one that he has a deep appreciation for.

Research
If there's something Wiseman doesn't know, he'll figure it out. He knows how to dig up information, where to find it and how to verify it. Usually, this just involves looking for dusty old patents or looking for evidence to crimes that was buried deeper than a nuclear waste container.

Worldly Knowledge
Wiseman is one of those people that just know too many god damn things. He's the type of person who sits in a chair and glues his eyes to ten different screens at once, processing more information than most people can tolerate with glazed-over eyes and a migraine. He always has some random fact loaded for any situation, that might provide some insight or might be completely fucking useless.

First Aid
It turns out that being a hero means getting hurt, so Wiseman learned to stitch his coworkers up early on.

Multilingual
Russian, Mandarin, French, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, German, Spanish... Austin is also a bit of a language nerd, if it wasn't obvious.

[ EQUIPMENT ]
Stasis Blaster
A photonic wavecrest inverter fires a stabilized lepton cluster into a type-9 hadron chamber to create the effect of a freeze ray. Wiseman rigged this into the shape of a rifle, and uses it to give villains a nasty chill just shy of hypothermia. Its purpose is to debilitate someone and take away their motivation to fight back. Because of its ability to halt molecular movement, the Stasis Blaster also does a good job of scrambling electronics

Lasereye Visor
A special set of optical functions built into Wiseman's helmet allow him to see up to five hundred feet away with crystal clear detail, access infrared and UV vision, and see electricity moving through wires. Thanks to a sodium ion power cell lined with neon particulate-infused casing, the visor as a battery life of 18 hours.

Indra Blade
A little known fact about the planet's weather is that less than 5% of the lightning strikes that occur yearly are positive instead of negative. Wiseman uses a similar device to the power source of his Stasis Blaster to provide a positive electric current to a dagger. For all intents and purposes, it's little more than a very strong shock baton, but its shape allows Wiseman to use it more effectively.

Lexicon
A wristmounted computer using quantum computing to process as much information as Wiseman could possibly need. It can project holographic interfaces for ease access, backs up to a computer in Wiseman's lab, and interface with most devices that Wiseman could feasibly access. The programming of the Lexicon also has special provisions that allow ALISA to access it remotely, in case of an emergency or if there is no other way to reach Wiseman.

Angel-5
The fifth iteration of a sub-Vertias AI powered drone that Wiseman employs in areas hit by a crisis. Angel-5 is roughly 3x3x3 feet in size, and is equipped with a robust array of medical resources to provide first aid to civilians or other heroes that are wounded. Everything from ionic cautery blades to foreign object removal kits are packed into its shell. The drone is semi-autonomous by design, as its limited intelligence allows ALISA to access an internal storage device that records all medical attention that Angel-5 provides. This data is also backed up to HERO’s database for the purpose of reports and cross referencing.

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Mire

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MIRE

"I helped build the Earth you depend on today, before it was green. You think I have something to prove?"

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[ NAME ]

Subject LMA-93593 "Undergrowth Dweller"

[ HERO IDENTITY ]

Mire

[ NICKNAME/ALIAS ]

Freak, Mushy, Shroomer, etc.

[ AGE ]

Unquantifiable

[ GENDER ]

N/A, they/them

[ AFFILIATION ]

HERO, full time

[ APPEARANCE ]

Mire is not a human being in any way. They are a Leftover, an amalgamation of biology given superpowers by the meteor that spawned them. They were once a network of mundane, uninteresting fungi scattered across a forest, which has coalesced into something vaguely resembling a mockery of the human form. Mire's "bones" are extremely dense mycelical structures that formed around dead trees. Extra material came together to form legs and limbs, but Mire is ultimately a walking incarnation of the role that fungus has on earth. Dozens of molds, mushrooms and other forms of fungus just out from their body like battle scars, blooming and withering eternally. They stand at roughly four feet tall, and atop Mire's "skull" is a huge hymenophore, or the "cap" of a mushroom. Four gaunt limbs jut out from their torso, which seem to constantly be changing shape. They would look beautiful if they didn't appear to be rotting.

[ PERSONALITY TRAITS ]

• Fearless: Fear is a human emotion, and Mire doesn't have an amygdala telling them to preserve their wellbeing. They have a habit of brazenly disregarding the threat something poses to themself, as is self-preservation is something they can't understand.
• Bitter: Mire isn't a very pleasant hero to be around, and it's easy to see why. Over 90% of their kind are murdered for existing, and while they understand why, they absolutely hate it when people look at them and expect that HERO is just debating whether or not to euthanize them. They're used to being sneered at, and it taught them to not be very empathetic. Humans don't like them, why shouldn't the feeling be mutual?
• Thoughtful: Mire displays an odd ability to connect with people and understand what they're going through that should be scientifically impossible for an entity without a brain. Whether it's just Mire mimicking human nature, or the fact that Mire has a genuine personality is unknown, since they refuse to allow a HERO psychologist to study them. But there is some kindness under that prickly exterior.
• Terrifying: When you're a mass of millions of different fungi acting as one in the vague shape of a person, you tend to give off a scary vibe. Mire has found that they're naturally gifted at scaring people straight, which isn't the ideal trait in a hero, but it definitely makes villains think twice.
• Distant: For obvious reasons, Mire has a hard time making friends. Most people don't want to be friends with a fungus monster, so they're a bit on the lonely side, not prone to being the center of attention when a party happens, or during a big gathering.

[ BIO ]

When the X-200 meteor broke apart in the planet's atmosphere, it changed more than just human beings. It changed animals and plants. It made them monsters beneath the awareness of a human being, and above the feral nature of something like a starving animal. One of these monsters rose up from the largest organism on Earth, a colony of fungus found beneath the soil of Oregon, said to be as old as over eight thousand years by some scientists. The fungus was nourished by the particles that flaked off of X-200, stirred to evolve and mutate past its biological programming. No one had the faintest idea this was happening for well over two centuries, since the growth was slow. But overtime, the colony grew aware of itself, its surroundings and what it was. Things below the ground which humans walked picked up little things like the sounds of footsteps one day, and then the mushrooms growing in the forests of Oregon began to listen to things.

Roughly one century ago, the colony began to writhe and shape into things that it had seen, as if it had been watching humanity for the last few hundred years. It evolved the ability to think on the level of humans, and thus a creature of hyphae and mycellium sprouted from the dirt. It grew legs, it grew arms, and like wet clay, it reformed itself over and over again to match what it had witnessed throughout the state of Oregon. This creature did not have a name, it did not truly understand why it existed or what to do with itself, and so it simply wandered the forests. Everywhere it went, it heard a hundred billion voices echoing through the tall trees, among the undergrowth of dead and decaying matter. Mold on rocks, mushrooms growing from dead wood, it all spoke through the walking colony, and it came to understand things about humanity through this.

The creature spied on humans from the edge of its forest, watching them through the mushrooms and the mold that they overlooked. No one knows just how long it did this for, but the fact that it picked up human speech is a clear indicator that it is old. In the dead of night, sometimes the colony would sneak into a nearby town and leave behind figments of its body to hear the whispers of humanity, and understand what was going on in the world. Through this, it learned of events happening in the world, that "heroes" fought "villains," and made the world a better place. To exist as it had was a strange thing, it wasn't meant to exist in this world. But for years, it lived in that forest like a ghost, going from one end of a forest to the other, listening to the world.

But eventually, the Leftover actually encountered humans. Superheroes dressed in their bright costumes intruded on its domain, tracked it to a pit of mold that it had taken to call home. They tried to speak with it, and for the first time in the last century, it spoke back. The words just made sense to it, having watched others use them for so long. They said they meant it no harm, and it told them it wanted to be left alone, but the heroes insisted on taking it from its home. It said no, over and over again, and then they used force.

One of them trapped it in a bubble of energy, another lifted it into the sky and they began to soar over its home. They took it somewhere made not of soil and rocks, but of steel and plastic. There, it stayed for months, where people calling themselves scientists tried to reason with it. They took to calling the Leftover "Mire," and managed to have conversations with it. Of course, Mire was prickly from the moment they trapped it, so these conversations didn't last long, even if they were coherent enough to mistake them for a human. Some of the scientists got brave enough to enter the chamber with Mire. The first ones were reasonable and just sat with them. They gave Mire books that they somehow managed to read, which baffled and intrigued everyone. But then they started talking about running tests on Mire. They mentioned examining the cells of its body, to try and understand why it was so intelligent. Mire refused, and they pressed, eventually coming in with hazmat suits to take samples by force.

Four of the five researchers who attempted this were hospitalized, the fifth transferred to a different department out of fear. No one managed to get anything from the incident, and it was determined that Mire only attacked them out of self-preservation. They didn't trust humans, even if they were sentient like one. Who could blame them? They were taken from their home, and prodded at with instruments nonstop.

Eventually, someone at ICOSA decided that Mire was too unique to simply let loose, so they sent diplomats and experts to speak with Mire in person. They were told, in no uncertain terms, that the only way they'd leave that containment cell was if they used their gifts for the benefit of others. If a human had been impressed into service like that, someone would've faced charges on a national level. But Mire wasn't human, and didn't enjoy the same rights as humans. But they were smart enough to understand that steel and plastic wasn't pleasant. So they relented, and let themself be enslaved.

Mire was transferred to New York, where HERO could monitor their new heroic career in an environment that put them at a disadvantage. After all, Castleburg wasn't known for its lush woods and untamed wilderness.

| MISCELLANEOUS |

Any details you would like the Director to see.

Abilities

[ RANKING ]

Leftover

[ Fungal Incarnation ]

Mire is the walking embodiment of the fungus kingdom. Their body is composed of literal thousands of molds and mushrooms that have never occurred naturally on the planet. They are a colony without beginning or end, never truly done forming. This has many benefits that make them extremely unusual. As a Leftover, their powers are unlike anything a superhuman can demonstrate. They are capable of shapeshifting, reforming limbs and the general shape of their body into whatever state it needs to be in order to navigate terrain or get their new "job" done. The upper limit of this seems to be completely liquifying their body into a thick sludge of fungus and enzymes.

Undying Kingdom: Being composed of mycellium, Mire is also capable of extreme regeneration. If an arm is cut off, or if they are set on fire, they only need to consume organic matter to regain what they lost. This can be anything from food to a villain's arm. Their consciousness exists in every individual strand of hyphae that they are made of. As long as a single piece of it exists, even if it's only a few atoms thick, then Mire is not dead.

One with the Colony: Due to Mire's nature as an infinite colony of fungus, they can rapidly grow entire mushrooms from their body. These mushrooms vary in their exact type, and it is unclear if they are even remotely edible, but Mire could grow them by spreading spores in secretive areas such as a back alley or in a villain's lair. Mire is connected to fungus that isn't directly apart of their body, like a hivemind. This is mostly benign in a city like Castleburg, but it means they can grow patches of mushrooms in an area and keep a constant eye on things that happen, as the mushrooms would "hear" what is going on, in much the same way they learned all they know of humanity.

Cycle of Life: Many mushroom species rely on enzymes to break down dead things for consumption. Mire can secrete a similar, slurry-like substance that resembles chunky glue, to melt any form of matter they need. It acts similar to acid, able to eat through bricks and rocks like normal fungus turning stone into soil. The only known way of neutralizing this substance is either having Mire soak it up, or soak it with water.

For the below-listed rankings, please rank yourself using the colored and uncolored boxes on a scale of 0-10, with a 2 corresponding to what an average, non-powered human can put out, and provide a brief explanation for the reasoning of said ranking. See "Power Rankings" hider below for more guidance.

[ PHYSICAL STRENGTH ]
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Mire's body is composed up incredibly dense mycellium that could eat bullets from most guns. They are by no means a Superman analogue, but they are definitely sturdier than most heroes.

[ AGILITY ]
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Mushrooms don't move, so much as grow, and this means that Mire is not very fast. Most heroes can outrun them, even without flight or teleportation. They're slow, build like a fleshy, spore-laced brick.

[ INTELLIGENCE ]
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Mankind forgets, but the oldest kingdom of life remembers. Mire is a one-in-a-million case of a Leftover that isn't only somewhat benign, but actually sentient, and capable of human speech. They are on par with a particularly smart human being, who might be good at strategy games or research.

[ DESTRUCTIVENESS ]
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They could smash things with their fleshy limbs, and crash through a brick wall with enough force, but Mire's destructive capabilities don't include summoning mushroom monsters to ransack a city... As far as they know.

[ LETHALITY ]
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All it would take is one wrong move, and that villain in Mire's face is getting slapped with a fist covered in enzymes. And then, their villain friends would watch their skin melt off like hot butter, before they scream in agony as their muscles and organs go next. On a rainy day, or against someone in thicker armor, Mire isn't that fatal to go up against, but it's still not pleasant.

[ ENDURANCE ]
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Mire is a monster, in every possible way the word can be used. Explosives that could take out a city block would be needed to scour the battlefield of their presence. And even then, there's a good chance a stray bit of hyphae flaked off of them on their way to the fight. Mold is an infestation, mushrooms will sprout whether you want them to or not. You cannot eradicate fungus, you can only keep it at bay for so long.

[ STAMINA ]
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Mire doesn't get tired in the way humans do. They don't need to breathe, they don't have muscles. But enough exertion could result in their hyphae structures growing frail and frayed, like a rope under friction. Eventually, they would need a break, but most people wouldn't last long enough to see it.

[ EFFICACY ]
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Mire’s powers do not line up with the traditional standard of superhuman abilities. Most superhumans have to learn how their powers work, and discover themselves in the process. But Mire’s “powers” are an extension of what they are. Meaning they don’t have to discover much of anything, rather than do it. This is only a five out of ten because ICOSA knows very little about Mire, due to their cagey attitude towards researchers.

[ SURVEILLANCE LEVEL ]
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Mire has shown a capacity for reason and restraint, on par with humans. A month long effort to spy on them from a distance showed that they only observe humans out of curiosity, rather than malice. And they never asked to be a hero in the first place, so it is no secret that Mire at least has an inclination to leave humans be. But with that in mind, they are an absurd statistical anomaly, an exception to a centuries old rule that their kind is to be shot on sight. Their very existence means that many people in ICOSA want to study Mire, and find out what makes them tick. Unfortunately, ICOSA has learned what can happen if Mire is forced into that situation, meaning their powers are not yet fully known either. For these reasons, HERO has been advised to find a way to make Mire “warm up” to them, and convince the Leftover to trust them enough for study. They are to be watched closely, not necessarily because they are dangerous, but because of what the world might be able to learn from them if their new life as a hero is a success.

[ SKILLS ]

Gardening: Surprise, the fungus monster knows a thing or two about plants.

Stealth: Mire is used to going undetected, dissolving into the ground to avoid being spotted by humans and making absolutely no noise. They are more comfortable with it, anyway.

[ EQUIPMENT ]

N/A