fate0013

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Why? Why the hell did the world feel like it was crashing down around him? Oils, blood replacements and cybernetic lubricants dripped from Alexander's jagged form in a display of cybernetic gore. The jagged spikes and scales of blue glass glowed eerily through the oil slick as it ground and cracked while he stumbled down a street he couldn't name in his current daze. He didn't appear to be all there mentally, looking confused but still searching for any Ripper they could see. It was a wonder how Alex still had the mental faculties to leave all of his "victims" both alive and in less then critical conditions. Their mental states from being crippled and dismembered was still more then questionable.

The Thunderdome glitched along with his armor. Red and green light cut through the blue tint that had bathed the whole of Shieldtown since the barrier formed. Spikes artifacted, cracked, and warped in any which way possible. Some buildings came centimeters from suddenly becoming pincushion by a dozen glitchy and flickering spikes of hardlight death.

Buildings over a block away were locked down and sealed. Not a single window was open, nobody so much as took a glance outside. Whether it was out of fear of the Ripper's or the Shieldtown rogue having seemingly gone mad was anyone's guess.
Alex paused, remembering something. He looked behind him, Looking at the street riddled with the moaning and `blubbering forms of Ripper's that couldn't get away in time. The one he had been dragging by their one remaining leg was pulled around and lifted into the air. Their fear stricken face dangling upside-down and forced to make eye contact with Alex.
There was a pregnant pause as Alex looked the cyborg up and down for a minute that dragged on far too long for anyone's comfort. most of their face looked like it had been carved away. Eye sockets replaced with an array of sensors and cracked optical lenses making them look like a scrapped together tactical spider. It was nearly impossible to read their expression if it wasn't for their quivering lip.

"Mmh." His grunt portrayed enough anger and frustration to make the Ripper flinch. Kind of impossible to empathize with people that willingly chopped people up for parts. Alex didn't show any sign that he was aware or cared that some of the people might have been kidnapped, forcibly augmented and hopped up on drugs until they were raving cyber psychos.

Alex dropped the poor soul and moved on at a trundling pace. He seemed fit to just continue hunting the fanatical cyborgs until he felt better at this point, Dove having been kidnapped was barely even in his thoughts at this point. He didn't even know the face of the Ripper that took them. Hell, Alex wasn't even trying to question anyone anymore. It was impossible to think straight anymore.
A glance down a side street caught his attention, spotting a group of Ripper's frozen stock still having realized they had been noticed. There was just a second stillness before Alex exploded forward.

He didn't even hear them surrender through his rekindled tunnel-visioned anger.

The dome flickered and glitched.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Tucked in one of the more dismal and out of the way corners of Northbridge was one of many hideaways found in some hole-in-the-wall or forgotten back-end alley. The ramshackle door would be easily missed, but shine as black light over it and you could see the paint and writings on the wall around it. Neon designs of organic Gigeresque imagery fused with street graffiti. All wrapped around lettering that constituted a sign for the hidden establishment.

Cortex

The paint and taggings were well kept, and the signal pheromone's some of the Cult of Flesh members used were strong here. It was definitely the place Kiran was looking for. He knocked on the door five times in a circle pattern and waited. Moments later, an eye slit was pulled to the side. A voice like someone who chained smoked all their life growled out in mild irritation.

"Password?" A pair of toad like eyes glared out from the slit.

Kiran smirked, pulling their hood back and giving the doorman a cheerful look. "Do I really need one?" He batted his eyelashes almost innocently before their tail whipped out from behind them, Its stinger extending and pointed at the doorman's exposed eyes.

"Shit!?" The eye slit was slammed shut as multiple locks were undone before the door was thrown open, revealing a large, almost literal toad of a bouncer stepping aside and bowing their head. "S-sorry boss. D-didn't know it was you." The man gulped loudly as Kiran walked past. The scorpion tail trailed behind, Its stinger gently tracing the whimpering bouncer's chin for an agonizing second as The mad tinker mad their way into the den.

Black lighting made the halls explode with colors. Some of the splatters on the walls and ceiling may of may not have been blood. The thumping music became louder and louder as he approached a second pair of double doors. Pulling their hood back on, Kiran let out a satisfied sigh as he pushed forward.

The air was thick with sickly sweet fumes and raging hormones.
Cortex was a gang hideout in some sense, but it was also equal parts a club, drug den, and underground fight ring. In the mass of bodies mingling and getting lost in the atmosphere, not a single one was unaugmented or mutated. There were a rare few that just barely looked human anymore, flesh twisted and sculpted Into beautiful and terrifying images one would normally only see in fiction or media. Some danced, some drank, others partook in the copious amounts of narcotics that were plentiful. Outside of the bar/dispensary that took up one side of the room and the dance floor space, a good chunk of the room was dominated by a roped off pit. Said pit was full of cultists in what could be best described as a bloody "bare fisted" brawl. Ironically one of the fighters did appear to have bear paws for hands.

Kiran Slipped past the crowds and mad it to the bare. One of the bartenders, a multi-armed woman with patches of iridescent scales on her skin That was in the process of making multiple drinks came to serve him.

"What can I get cha?"

"A Synapse Scorcher. On nitrogen, no ice."

The bartender faltered for a moment before quirking an eyebrow. "Got a death wish there buddy?"

Kiran Leaned over the counter, Still smiling. "I think i can handle my signature drink love. By the way, Is Finger's in? I have some business that requires his-" Kiran gave an amused snort. ",Delicate touch." "

The bartender's eyes widened. Her 'Primary" hands immediately going to work making an amber colored drink that looked like it had bursts of green static dancing inside the liquid. "He's down bellow. shouldn't be too busy for you." She kept herself professional, not even shaking as she poured the lethal cocktail.

Kiran took the glass, sniffed it before taking a sip. It trailed down the throat with a spicy and minty flavor. what came next was a pleasantly warm numbness. To anyone else though, the Synapse Scorcher would be an agonizing experience like swallowing ground up glass and being injected with some demented form of neurotoxin. Kiran liked to put their augmentations through their paces.

He left the woman a generous tip before moving on. The bartender took the two strings of clat, not sure anyone believe her if she said she made a drink the "God" of the cult approved of. Not that the club's boss would give her a raise for something like that.

---

Walking down a flight of stairs littered with electronic cables mounted on the walls and spilling on the steps, Kiran was careful not to trip before entering what looked like a server room from hell. Given the flesh growths on some of the tech and what looked like grown brain tissue plugged up to various computer towers.

A thin man sat in a chair in the back of the room. working on multiple keyboards and flicking their eyes between several screens. each of his hands had far too many fingers of varying lengths. Cyber plugs and various medical equipment were attached to him in almost asymmetrical placements that he didn't seem to care about.

Kiran walked up behind the man, taking in the various screens while sipping at their drink. "Fingers."

The man didn't even stop or look away. "Boss."

"I've got a job for you. one that I'm working on. Personally."

That put a pause to the man's work. He turned his head to regard the tinker. Large, unblinking compound eyes stared for minute before Fingers scared face split into a needle toothed grin. "I'm listening~"

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Dilemmas of the lazy and Powerful

Dean and Golem watched Raudd and Silver Fang leave. There was little need for further explanations when it came to the Templar's top first responder anyway. there was an emergency, she was gonna help. Raudd had been around for at least one thunderdome if memory served. There was not much to do but sit back and ride things out like always. . .

Accept something felt off.

Even with poor senses, Dean felt the roiling emotions that had passed over him with Alex's dome. Being able to feel it even for a second was concerning. One feeling stuck out more then anything else. Rage. An irrational, anticlimactic anger that was hair raising to put it mildly. Sure the big guy could get upset and irritated. But this . . . it concerned Dean. Not enough to really get him up out of his chair though.

That was the moment he caught Golem staring at him intently.

"What now?"

[SOMETHING IS WRONG. YOU KNOW IT. I KNOW IT.]

" . . . And? There's enough supers here to take care of it. Alex will be fi-" The earth spirit cut him off.

[SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH ALEXANDER. WOULD YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE ME SIT BY WHILE A COMMUNITY IS IN DANGER?]

Dean winced at that. Knowing the legend of the golem inside and out. He had banked on the inherent slowness of earth spirits to act and the general safety Alex had provided to this domicile and the territory surrounding it to keep Golem complicit. Sure he helped on occasion, but that was due to outside prodding. He leaned forward to look the spirit in the eyes. "And what about when Alex finds out? 'Hey buddy, I've been a ridiculously powerful geokinetic the whole time and been helping out behind your back. please don't get mad!' Because that's going to go SO well with all the other shit going on. Or did you forget the fact that even I can feel how pissed the fuck off he is right now?"

Golem remained motionless. His words ringing clear as ever. [WE CAN'T SIT ON THE SIDELINES FOREVER CLAY. THE CALL TO ACTION IS NOT EASILY IGNORED FOREVER.]

"You're sounding a little too much like my parents for my liking little dude." He glared at unblinking eyes before looking down at his hands. When had he pulled out his baseball? Rolling the ball from hand to hand, he took in the imperfections of the restitching he had done and the numerous doodles and sigils in sharpie that nearly covered up every centimeter of the white surface.

Yeah, His parents. The Locklear family wasn't terrible by any means. But boy were they a piece of work. An extensive family of Earth mages that had been the wardens of the Earth primal spirit for generations. Families like that unable to get big through marriages and birth would opt to find awoken children with traits and qualities that lined up enough with the families to bring into the fold. Dean had been one of those adopted kids. Taken from a reservation that nobody apparently had the mind to remember the name of. He always figured it was the Locklear way of keeping him from having any familial bonds outside of them. The fact he had never had such a drive to go and seek out his birth parents in the first place apparently wasn't assurance enough.

Magic aptitude testing and lessons since before one could even walk didn't make for the most perfect of childhoods. But it had been comfortable at least. But Dean had found ways to cut all of that short. "Sabotage" years of preparation and effort all because he really couldn't be bothered to give a damn. Yet despite his "efforts", He had still become the warden and partner of Golem. Ironic.
He would still get calls and letters every month or so.

The universe really liked to poke him around when all Dean wanted to do was not be bothered.

A thought that felt foreign came to the forefront all too suddenly. Part of Dean would almost expect it to have something to do with Golem. At what point did laziness turn into cowardice? Just how far could one claim something was too much of a bother to be involved with? How many times could he sidestep everything around him before something he could have prevented blew up in his face and shattered the life he had put together over the years.

That was when Golem chose to give out a nugget of wisdom that really did make it seem like the living pile of rocks was reading the mage's mind.

[EVIL PREVAILS WHEN GOOD MEN AND WOMEN DO NOTHING.]

And of course that was around the time the universe had to feel like it had slowed to a crawl. And for the first time in years, Dean Locklear had to make a hard decision that had no easy or comfortable outcome.

" . . . Fuck."

Glimpses of the Gorgon

Alex was beyond Angry at this point.

After having been knocked down to the ground. Alex remained faced down for some time. Probably no more then two minutes in actuality. This. This was it. He had had enough. Everything was going wrong. He felt like absolute shit. Everything and everyone was just ticking him off more at this point.

Alex clawed at the ground like a caged tiger. his "armor" of glitching glass scrapped and shattered across his skin. The sound was tortured.

With a shove, the man was back on his feet. His body stabilizing enough to its usual blue. That was when the noise got his attention. His head snapped up to take in the sight. Rippers. Augmented to hell and back. Flesh overtaken by chrome, alloy, and plastics. And they were trying to grab civilians. Everything came into focus suddenly.
His limbs no longer shook. His breathing steadied. Fingers curled into fists. He took a step forward. The ground rippled beneath him and glowed blue.

"N̺̻̔̆ͅO̖̼ͩ͌͐."

"The Fuck is tha-?!" One of the Ripper's that had the look somewhat resembling a demented, emaciated rabbit standing on its hind legs barely had the time to finish their sentence before Alex's boulder-like fist crushed into his face. The suddenness of the attack was jarring. whats more was the speed at which a man Alex's size seemed capable of. Just as quickly, panes of jagged glass tore into their cyber legs. The Ripper hadn't the chance to even drop to the ground and scream before their arms were grabbed in each of Alex's hands. It had all been so fast. There was little the Ripper could do but squeak out one word through their broken face. "What?"

"N̺̻̔̆ͅO̖̼ͩ͌͐ M͉̅ͮ͒ͤO̖̼ͩ͌͐R͉̜̎͡͠Ḛͭ̉̇͟."

The Ripper's arms were ripped from their ports mercilessly. The broken stump that had once been a man writhed and screamed on the ground. The other rippers and civilians alike stood on shock of the brutality. The Shiledtown residents however were quicker to escape their captors. leaving them to the Rogue's fury.

One took a single step back. only to find a new wall of sharp hardlight digging into their back. Alex lunged forward. Cyber limbs continued to be severed, crushed, ripped and torn free. Any that would try to run before Alex was done with one of their "friends" quickly had their legs taken out from under them. Bullets were shot at him. blades swung in desperation. Some used explosives. The horror grew more apparent by the second when the rogue didn't so much as flinch at any attempts to maim of impede his progress. One tried to stab him in the eye. the knife shattered on contact. The Ripper's wrist then splintered in Alex's grip.

Worst still. He didn't yell. Not a scream or curse escaped his lips. The only thing that could be heard from Aegis were growls and snarls. The lack of banter to anybody who knew the Rogue of Shieldtown was never a good sign.

All were left alive. Whether that could be a mercy for a cyber psycho was debatable, having their limbs taken from them and left alive at the mercy of others. Alex didn't care right now. They were just more monsters. these ones just walked and talked like people. The Dragon would deal with them when he was done anyway.

The blue hardlight bathed the street in an eerie glow as he stepped over the gibbering and whimpering stumps.

For the next few minutes, Alex hunted. Leaving nothing but damaged bodies in his wake. No attempt to negotiate was made. No demands. Nothing. Rippers that tried to take hostages soon found their prisoners safely contained in skin tight fields of barriers. Others that tried to make threats their jaws as broken as the first Ripper's had been. Sometimes, Alex let them attack him. Brushing through their weapons and augmented strikes, Just to give some measure of hope. Before breaking. Every. Single. Last. One. It wasn't out of cruelty. It was a message. A warning. Being made as loud and clear as Alex could make it outside of crossing that final line and putting heads on spikes.

Aegis wasn't fucking around anymore.

He was loosing himself in all the violence. Everything else didn't matter right now. Alex just barely held on to his restraint. Enough not to go any further. Not that anyone in Shieldtown would judge his treatment of the Ripper's. But he still would . . . He had enough sense to hold on to that much. The rest of him however, The rest wanted to rip them apart.

No Ripper was safe. And they were unwittingly trapping themselves in here with him. Despite how monstrous he appeared, everyone he saved still thanked Aegis under their breath. He was still a symbol of protection and hope to them. Some stayed to detain what remained of their would be assailants. As for the Ripper's. every one that saw him coming felt only one thing. Fear.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

The second the drone crashed and electronics in the vicinity sputtered out, Alex was already looking around and swearing under his breath.

Really?! Now of all times???!!!

A growl rumbled in the man’s throat as he pulled out his phone only to find the thing dead and bricked. Confirming his growing suspicions. ”Fuck. Someone set off an EMP.“

While there was a level of panic in nearby residences, there were already people gearing up for the worst like this was just the same shit as usual in Shieldtown. Thankfully not all the enforcer or hunting rigs seemed to be down, they had learned their lesson when an Apex with electro-magnetic abilities showed up not that long ago. Unfortunately, that still left a good amount of equipment down depending on how big the blast had been.

Alex however was already scanning the immediate vicinity for signs of trouble or hostility. Blue light flickering in his eyes as a hand began to creep towards his bag for his collapsed helmet. His features softened momentarily to assure Umbri. ”I don’t know who had the balls to pull shit like that here. But whoever they are, they’re soon going to wish they didn’t.“ There was an animalistic edge bleeding into his voice. Even his posture grew more rigid as steely muscles began to flex with anticipation.

Even with the growing frustration and irritation, he kept Umbri in sight and within arms reach. She noted that - the former, at least, and that it was cast away from her - as she joined his search. She swept her gaze over the skyline and came up with nothing. The second she determined she wasn’t in immediate danger, her thoughts jumped to the people who could be.

“Come on, we need to get back,” she urged Alex and jogged out in front.

Something was wrong when they turned that corner. A shrill voice beckoned them to move faster as they approached the Workshop, shouting for Alex’s help. It wasn’t like any of the requests Umbri had been privy to on their trip to the markets. It was panicked and desperate. The roller door was open, giving them a clear view of the crowd huddled within. They skittered and ducked out of the way of Alex as he came through, Umbri only just making it through sticking to his back.

At the center of the chaos was Koba, slumped by the wall, eyes barely staying open, right arm - gone. Completely, bloodlessly, spirited away. Graham was crouched in front of him, a little figure limp in his arms as he alternated between shouting orders, urging Koba to stay awake and firing questions, so many frantic questions, from him and everyone - “What happened to you! Your arm!” Koba could only feebly sign back, with one hand, and half the words he wanted to say, (“Dove. Don’t… blame.”) Ako’s cap laid by their feet, a dark patch of blood in it.

It was loud. And at the same time, quiet. Quiet of a presence that should have been here, screaming all the profanities for her. Umbri broke away from Alex to rush to the back of the workshop.

No Temujin on the workbench. No hovering Jemma ball. Just a vent cover laying under an op-table. Umbri looked back at Alex helplessly and shook her head.

Hardlight cracked into existence with the sound of grinding glass. Angry jagged shapes crept over Alex’s body but didn’t fully encase him. He moved around the room to try and get any clue of what had happened himself before speaking up. ” What happened and who did this?.“ His voice still a growl, leaning more towards a demand than a question.

There didn’t seem to be any reactions to the overt use of powers given the situation. Alex took deep breaths to retain some degree of composure. Tremors of anger now a lot more visible with the fractals of light shifting across his body.

Umbri searched around the workbenches, for a clue, or for the hope that Jemma at least had safely rolled under one. The alternative made her nauseous - "Was the Warden here?" She picked up a dented piece of Temujin's casing from the floor and clung to it.

Koba shivered, pushing against the pain to set himself upright. Margot reached out with a concerned arm, but Koba gently tucked it away as he held up his surviving hand. ("Rip come…") His fingers flexed with a tentative tremble. ("Look for Dove.") Koba whimpered, and his hand clenched into a fist that quelled his frustration with silence. Until he took a deep breath, and continued, ("Dove gone again…")

Ako laid in Graham's arms. Her eyes fluttered beneath her lashes. Her cheek was a swollen, lumpy purple, with bruises that stretched beneath her eye. Bandages twisted beneath her bangs to the back of her head. Graham drew his hand from beneath the apprentice and stared at the wet, damp colour that overtook his palm. It was red.

The smith shot a glare towards Alex, his eyes wet and his face flushed pink. "Where the hell were you?!" He was shaking. "You're Shieldtown's Rogue! You were supposed to protect us!" he hung his head, hiding the tears in favour of the teeth gritted beneath his unkempt beard as he muttered, "If Hardcase was still here…"

"Hey, back off," Umbri wedged herself firmly in the place between the Rogue, the grief-stricken mechanic, and their rising tempers. "That's not fair."

Graham turned his glare towards Umbri. "This ain't none of your business." He held Ako closer. "Why do you even care? You got what you came for."

Alex snapped in the direction of the smith. Oh that did it. He was not putting up with this after everything he had unloaded on Umbri. ”Get the FUCK off you’re high horse and pull your head out of your ass.“ In one step he loomed over the man. The next words that came out of his mouth were more of a growl than ever. ”I'm. Not. Hardcase. And don’t you dare act like he was everywhere at once. We still had people getting hurt when he was around.“

Not a moment was given for a response as Alex turned on his heel and stormed towards the door. ”If you’re all fucking done . . . I have a Ripper to hunt.“

There was no way trying to chase someone who already had a head start was going to work. That left only one real option.
Stepping outside, Alex wasted no time clapping his hands together violently. The sound was not too dissimilar to that of a shotgun going off. Blue light bloomed outwards from Alex at a rapid rate. Moving faster and faster the further it got from him. The light harmlessly passed over buildings and people, coalescing into a multiple layered jagged dome that effectively sealed Shieldtown off from the rest of the undercity. Sure, you could get it, but Alex had it so nothing could get out. To help emphasize the point, the inner walls began to sharpen and become riddled with spikes and spines all pointing inward.

If there was any sign that this feat of power was straining him, Alex certainly didn’t show it. Given how charged he had been feeling lately he felt like he had an over abundance of energy to spare.

With nothing left to do, Alex picked a direction and moved. Nearly 400.lbs of pissed off brute accelerating to roughly 60.mph might not seem impressive on paper. It was a lot more terrifying to witness in person. Especially when said brute was also covered head to toe in glowing blades and spikes.

Not long after the dome went up. Loudspeakers in areas that hadn’t been hit by the EMP blared to life.

”Attention Residents. Thunderdome procedures have been engaged. All non-combatants are advised to seek shelter immediately. Any sign of suspicious activity, Gangers, or unknown powers are to be reported to the nearest authorities available. This is not a drill.”

From there, warning lights began to flash down every street as thick blast doors and window coverings began to slam into place over every building.

Even without comms, Alex had effectively mobilized the Town.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

There was a pause of consideration before Alex gave an answer. ”Few do. Not all of them know the full story though. My friend Dean, he knows everything. Probably the only real emotional support I have.“ Alex smiled ever so slightly, it was ironic given how much he had to wrangle that man to live a more healthy lifestyle.

A hand reached up to touch the scar across his face that would have almost taken his eye. ”He was trying to kill me you know . . . The moment my powers came. That shitty excuse of a father was going to kill his own teenage son over some twisted delusions that his son was responsible for the accident that got his mother killed.“ Alex’s eyes began to look wet, but no tears fell.

God. Why was he doing this to a total stranger he barely even knew? ”Sorry, I shouldn’t be dropping this all on you. Some Rogue I must turn out to be huh.“ An apology followed by a very poor attempt at reflective self-deprecating humor. His gut twisted the moment those words left his mouth.

"I don’t think you’re so different from the rest of them," Umbri replied. The only Rogues she knew were a vengeful ex-slave cyborg and a vampire who didn't ask for permission to bite. He didn’t need to know that. She played with a buckle on her brace and thought about whether it was helpful to tell him.

‘My mother tried to kill me, too.’ But... ‘I didn't get powers from it.’

She knew about powers being triggered by trauma. It was one of the most common ways deviants and espers awakened their abilities. For every deviant unleashing their new strength on the brink of death, there had to be... thousands of people like her. Reaching to the sky with gashes opening their palms and receiving nothing. There must have been a hundred times she'd folded over a sink, not sure if she could keep going, daring the dormant spark in her to snap and christen her in strength and fire. But she just never had one there. If she'd had one like Alex that night, when she raised her hands against the blade that cut through them to get to her chest, like the way his hands must have raised against his father, if God or whatever force had granted her the power, would they have been...

The same?

She wriggled out of the thought.

“I don’t get this place,” she confessed. “I don’t really know anything about what it is to be a Rogue, either. But the world you came out of -” she held her breath. Tell him? Tell him? It hurt and was caught in her chest before it could even make it up her throat. “I understand.” Marionette took her hand and guided it up to lift a lock of her wig, exposing a rounded burn scar tucked right behind her ear. A cigarette burn, maybe. A carved pocket in the flesh with rough edges. She let the wig settle back after a moment, the breeze on her neck making her feel vulnerable. That was enough.

“And maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but watching you,” she gave a little shrug, “It looked like you were doing okay.”

He almost reflexively traced a finger across his facial scar again upon seeing It Umbri’s burn. It was such a small gesture. But to Alex it brought a level of comfort he wasn’t expecting.

Of all the people who could have come out of Northbridge, of course it’s somebody he could connect with. What was he complaining about earlier? Oh yeah, living in interesting times and all that.

Sliding back up the wall into a more natural position, Alex finally had his usual smile back. ”Thank you. I know this probably sounds rich coming from the guy that you just saw mutilate what seems like a helpless animal, but . . . (Umbri cringed at the memory and squinted at ‘but’) I try my best to be a good person around here. In and out of the mask.”

His smile faltered for a moment. In his head though, Alex struggled against himself. One last confrontation. For now. He didn’t hear his father though.

It was himself.

Why?

I-I Don’t

Why?!

I can’t-!

Why are we still doing any of this?!

I-

What?

I have to . . .

Spit it out! Why are we doing this?!

I need to be the hero! For everyone else that never had one. Like us.

. . . That's not fair.

I have to save them. Protect everyone. Someone has to.

. . . But who will save us?

I . . . I don’t know.

We’ll collapse if we keep going like this.

Then I’ll just get back up.

It will break us!

Then I’ll pull myself together.

This can’t go on forever!!

I can’t afford to break!

. . . I can’t afford to break . . . I can’t break.

I’m useful . . . I can protect them all.

I’m not-

I’m not broken.

I’m useful

. . .

I just . . . I just want to be kind.

There was a renewed resolve in Alexander’s eyes. It was hard to say if he was truly alright. But he did feel somewhat better. He remembered something his grandfather once said to him before having moved to Titan’s Fall. What was that saying? Right “Be strong enough to be gentle.” He wanted that. To just . . . Be kind.

Shaking the thoughts away, Alex turned to Umbri, leaning his shoulder into the wall. ”And hey, sorry if all of uh.“ He motioned to the market scene before him. ”Everyone here is pretty aware that Shieldtown is like stepping into another world compared to, well, everywhere else.“

“It’s fine,” she murmured, having just watched an entire war just play out behind the guy’s smile. “Some things stay the same no matter where I am. Come on.” She pushed herself off the wall.

“It wasn’t my story, by the way. My sister wrote it. I don’t know what it means either,” she spoke as they started tracing their steps back down the street, and their conversation melted in the bustle of everything around them. Umbri’s new clothes blended her in with the crowd they joined and despite being there she faded from Aegis’s side.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Willing to humor her, Dean made a show of pulling out a glasses case from one of his pockets and very methodically pulling out a pair of round lens sunglasses. Once pushed up on his nose the magic arrays layered over the lenses came to life and assisted in his Astral Nearsightedness. "Alright lets see what the hell you are talking about." He paused for a second and glared over his glasses at Yue and Raudd. "My [Sight] sucks, don't judge me."

The wavelengths in Yue's hand were the distinct [Blue] of Alex. Just like that weird esper energy he always flung around. This was one of those rare moments where Dean was kicking himself for not having looked into any of this sooner into his friendship. First Alex's Haze pretension, and now this. What intrigued him right away was how closely it resonated as [Force] when under scrutiny. Now he would have left it at that, but then he noticed the other two colors.

"Huh, well I'll be damned." There, almost entirely obscured by the blue were strands of crimson [Red] and verdant [Green]. There was just enough to be able to figure out that the red had Signatures related to [Heat] and [Energy]. The green was arguably more interesting given that it was force almost entirely focused into [velocity].

First off. Alex had never in Dean's entire time of knowing the guy never once turned red or green. He never fucked around with heat and energy outside of some creative uses of his blue fields. And Alex certainly never glowed green while going fast. If this was magic, Dean would just assume Alex had a disposition towards three focused fields of magic and assumed he just never cultivated two of the three.

But this was Esper/Deviant stuff. and superpowers were almost always more bullshit then magic was. Well, almost.

Taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. Dean let out a groan of annoyance. "You're right. It's all there. but fuck if i know what it means. I'd forgotten Alex's powers have a signature that can be mistaken for magic in the first place. Now there's two more to worry about. Spirits this on top of him sucking up haze for who knows how long is turning into more of a headache by the day, if not the hour."

He stopped suddenly. Eyes wide and lips thin. an almost universal expression that he had not meant to say most of that out loud. Oops.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

“You asshole,” slipped out under Umbri’s breath as she followed Alex, the shock of the situation trumping her own code of ‘careful what you say’. She impulsively shoved against his back. “How am I supposed to pay you back for that?!”

Alex didn’t so much as stumble from the shove. Simple shrugging his shoulders while looking back at her with that same genuine smile that went all the way up to his eyes. Said eyes flashed blue for just a moment. ”That’s the funny bit. You don’t have to.“ He motioned for her to follow along before holding a door open to a lovely establishment with a rather plain sign etched into an oversized cleaver in a monster skull just over the door that read “The Quality Cut.”

”I do hunting on the side for these guys so I get a nice discount. Just uh, don’t stare too much.“

Umbri scowled at him. She reached for the door’s handle, gave it a yank, lost the contest between her and Alex’s arm, and the door stayed open.

“Alright listen,” she hissed, leaning in and keeping her voice down, “Thank you. Let me get that out of the way. Thank you for doing that for me. But listen. I don’t leave Northbridge, and I don’t ask for help. But here I am, in this alien town, looking like I’m going to be thrown into a Colosseum, and I need help. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been freaking. The fuck. Out. So you have to let me pay you back. Because when you come at me with your whole -'' she shook her hands at him, “Your whole thing, all that’s in my head, is that the worst kind of help you can accept is the kind that parades itself as free.” She shifted back and folded her arms over herself protectively, glancing away. “It’s not that I don’t trust you -” She did, in fact, not trust him. “But you have to let me pay you back. It will scratch at me until I do.”

Alex’s face fell.

The smile he had the entire time they were out died on impact. ”Sure . . . Sorry.“ The door stayed open when he let go and went inside.

The large man behind the counter greeted Alex with a grunt. Well. Man might not have been an entirely accurate word. The gentleman behind the counter making fresh cuts of meat looked like someone had taken a large wild boar and fused it with an equally large man that almost made Alex look normal by comparison. That also was probably the reason the shop's dimensions were so large. ”Good to see you Alexander. What can I do for you?” a deep, rumbling bass voice came from the boar man as he barely took a moment to look up and see who came in.

Alex gave a somewhat forced, halfhearted smile. ”Good to see you too Mr. Houston. Lookin to get a large order. And that special request we talked about from my last hunt.“ He seemed a bit more . . . deflated now. Alex ignored it. Umbri didn’t need a guy like him to be personable and stuff. He was here to be useful. Do a service and get compensated for it. Wasn’t like he was expecting the one person he had met recently that knew nothing about him to accept a little kindness and not want anything in return.

It wasn’t like he wanted to do SOMETHING, literally anything that wasn’t expected of him or needed compensation to feel just a little bit better about himself. Was the world really so fucked up that wanting to be generous and charitable was an alien concept now? He could swear he could hear the faint sound of his fathers mutter yelling in the distance. His scars started to burn. The mounting frustration stopped at a sudden cracking sound that came from his pocket.

He had his back to Umbri currently and Mr.Houston didn’t seem to even flick an ear at the noise. Alex made no indication that he had heard it and moved closer to the counter.

Umbri had heard it. The hairs on her neck stood up and she just looked ahead, determined to not acknowledge it. There was an oppressive tension over them now that Alex’s mood dropped. She couldn’t help but feel that she was now in a room with an angry man.

This is why you keep your mouth shut, girl.

Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it. She walked to the only display of live beasts in the shop, some naked rodents rolling over each other in their cage. Her brow furrowed in sympathy. They didn’t shine, but there was a certain… spark, in each of them. She was in the right direction.

“How many of these would substitute for a human?” She murmured thoughtlessly. Definitely not just the ten available in front of her. She looked back around at the meat on display, vibrant and fresh and so unlike the scraps shipped off to Northbridge, but also… dead. “When Jemma was in my head, I saw things. I don’t know if it was real, but she sees it that way. Everything… shines there. This doesn’t.” She started, trying to soften the crazy-factor of her thought process. “None of this meat still has its soul.” Brighter the soul, the more tempting. Like his. She shook the unwanted thought away and leaned on the counter, craning her neck back to take in the massive boar man. “Have you got any Threshers still alive back there?”

Alex’s brow furrowed at Umbri’s explanation. Concerning was one way to look at it. Also apparently Jemma had some minor form of Trump power if Umbri apparently had one of her senses now. The idea that Jemma might have also been a Master did cross his mind, but those that could control people were almost as rare as thinkers. We’ll go with trump. The mention of souls is as ominous. Granted, if he had to guess it might have had something to do more with advanced synapses and developed brains. “Brighter” lights and all that. A built in ability to help facilitate Jemma’s “hunting” more than likely. Multiple Powers in an individual tended to daisy chain together to help one another, Jemma’s new biology probably needed that “Shine” to help fuel it outside of just calories and meat.

Mr.Houston finally came to a good stopping point with his cutting answer Umbri. ”As a matter of fact, I do. Bastard is still kicking something fierce. Things an Apex variant if you can believe it, Hazard rating two if I’m measuring it right.”

The idea of an Apex core potentially staving Jemma off from . . . accidentally eating someone for any amount of time was too good a chance to pass up. ”I’ll take it. Live.“

The boar man emoted for the first time since the two entered his shop. Which came out as a short lived grunt of surprise. ”I know your pretty strong Alexander but are you sur-“ he didn’t get to finish as a string of clatter was tossed down on the counter. Mr.Houston scratched at his chin hair, still looking somewhat concerned. ”Look, I know you're probably a bit irritated from not getting anything from the early hunt. But a live Apex is really hard to-“ Two more strings were tossed on the counter in response. Umbri’s eyes grew two sizes at the sight of them.

The two men stared each other down for a good moment before an understanding was met and the butcher opened up the counter and motioned the two to follow him to the back. Alex still showed none of the mirth he had before coming to the shop.

Umbri hesitated to follow after them. The thunderous roar and bone-shaking hiss of the Threshers she’d encountered whistled by her ears, like their ghosts were hovering right over her back. She looked back at the pile of clat left on the counter. Then she fished a smaller, lighter string from her pocket and laid it out beside them before jogging over to follow close to Alex’s back.

The light from the thing wasn’t intense. But the HEAVILY restrained beast struggling in its reinforced cage lit up like it was under a black light. It was like an iridescent black viber had been fused with a leopard and given spikes and barbs all across its spine. Its spots glowed a sickly green all across its body. Equally venomous eyes glared balefully at the three as they entered the larger holding pen.

Alex noted how the paws on its four limbs were still bloody. Probably from having its claws ripped out. Only thing to worry about besides its solidly muscular form was the jaws then. Mr.Houston hadn’t put up any of the power related ranger signs. So either it had no offensive powers or it was already neutralized. Well. At least one thing was going right today.

Not wanting to put it off. Alex strode up to the cage. In a snap, his fist flew forward at speeds only hyperdense muscles and superhuman tendons could feasibly achieve. Alex’s punch shattered enough for Umbri to hear. He made no attempts to interact with the woman further, but clearly didn’t seem bothered if she stuck around or left.

Umbri stood there a moment, looking at the door. The snuffling of the beast pulled at her heart and ear but she started to walk out. She spared it one last glance at it bashing against the cage before exiting and wiped under her eyes.

Alex didn’t bat an eye as the thing renewed it’s struggling, straining to roar in pain through its mangled jaws and the damaged muzzle biting into its flesh. ”There. Should be safer to transport now..“ he grabbed a rag nearby and cleaned the blood from his hand, none of which was his own.

Umbri’s gasp was just short of a scream as Alex’s fist connected. Her hands slapped over her mouth and she held back. This being still had its soul. She’d found Jemma’s ‘sandwich’. And her eyes were getting redder and damper as they looked between Alex’s bloody hand and its bleeding paws. Its pupils dilated frantically over the torn skin hanging from its jaw. She was ashamed to meet them.

“How are we - God - how will we do that?” she asked with a dry mouth.

”Can get the thing delivered where you need it in less than an hour. Mr.Houston spat on the floor and gave an indignant snort. ”Good riddance if you ask me. Damn thing almost killed five people. Two are in need of cyberware now if they want to walk again.

Glaring back at the Thresher, Alex gave a nod. ”Get it sent to Black Iron. Back entrance, and keep it somewhat discrete please.“ He looked over to Umbri, and the sharpness to his face softened somewhat. Clearly she was not ok with what she had just seen. He started to lift a hand and ask . . . Shit asking if she was ok was stupid. What could he say to comfort her right now anyway? Was she even going to be comfortable around a man that just showed off that he could probably kill the average man with a punch?

”I . . . I’ll be outside.“ he broke eye contact and quickly slipped past the two. The sound of the door's bell ringing could be faintly heard as he stepped out.

Umbri was met with the face of a boar showing very human concern as Mr.Houston looked between her and when Alex had just left. ”Guess I have a delivery to make.” The man lumbered to the cage and went about triple checking everything. ”Hope the big guy’s alright. Never seen him that out of it before.” he said mostly to himself, though it was clearly said loud enough for Umbri to hear. He made no attempts to interact with the woman further, but clearly didn’t seem bothered if she stuck around or left.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Ducking into the back while everyone else became busy, Alex went about doffing and collapsing his helmet and armor. Once his bag was exposed and all of his “costume” removed, each piece was carefully wrapped up and tucked into the bag with designed ease. The helmet was left on top in case he needed a “Mask” in an emergency. Finally, the top of his heavy duty jumpsuit he wore under everything was unzipped and tied around his waist, revealing his well fitted tank top as his final layer.

Satisfied, Alex shouldered his bag and snuck out a side door and looped around to meet up with Umbri. ”Sorry about the wait, it didn't feel appropriate to go shopping in costume. That and Tem name dropped in the heat of the moment.” He held a much more casual posture and offered a hand that could have almost been mistaken for a baseball mitt given how large it was. ”You can call me Alex. And sorry if we get stopped on our way to the market, I kinda have a habit of helping people in and out of costume.” An embarrassed but genuine chuckle escaped his lips.

Umbri gave her hand and openly stared at the way it was swallowed up when he shook it. Big… big guy. "That's fine," she replied absently, "It's Umbri, if you didn't catch it between the black ooze and psychic shit." She caught herself. "Sorry. I didn't mean - I'm grateful for what she did. I think the numb is wearing off, my skin feels like hair dragged under- you know when you get a hair caught on a chipped nail and have to pull it out?" Umbri did not often talk so much. Not about nothing. "Nice weather." What the fuck. “Not so much green smoke here.” What are you doing.

Alex’s smile got a little bigger as she accepted the handshake and reintroduced herself. ”Yeah I remember, good to meet you face to face.“ he pulled his hand back and chuckled. ”No no, psychic shit is an accurate way of putting it. Powers are bullshit and esper’s moreso.“ He made sure to give her space but stayed in arms reach just in case. Her attempt at smalltalk rewarded her with a smirk and wave of the hand in the general vicinity. ”Yeah, being just outside the city proper and being more eco friendly does wonders. We are almost entirely self-sufficient here. Key word being almost.“ He shoved his hands into his pockets, shrugging. ”But that's all been here way before I was. Least the airs fresher.”“

Umbri breathed a sigh of relief as he returned the small talk and didn’t catch her fluster. Oh thank God, he’s boring too.

”Anyways, Shopping? I know the best places. Should have some of my favorite stalls opening right around now too.“

Umbri just nodded and followed along. They’d been walking for a whopping five minutes before a little voice calling from the sky grew louder, louder, and she caught the word - ‘Help!’ Just exactly as the Shieldtown Rogue predicted.

“Hey, big guy!” The voice was coming from a rooftop, where a group of three were trying to haul an enormous sign (it looked like it was hammered together from car doors and… bones) to the top, with nothing but a hook, a chain, and manpower. “Sorry mate, d’you think we can get a hand here?”

At that, the sign groaned and dropped an inch, almost falling on somebody’s unfortunately positioned pot of marigolds on the windowsill.

”Just a sec!.“ Without missing a beat, Alex sprung up and scaled the side of the building. Seeming oblivious to how absurd it was for someone of his size and bulk to move like that. Granted, part of that was due to how durable and reinforced the local architecture was in the first place.

Taking the chain from the men, Alex wound the thing up and got the sign in place so it could be affixed . . . Using one hand. The workers present didn’t show any sign that this was out of the ordinary as they quickly got to work. “Thanks! Saved us a few sore muscles.”
Alex just waved them off with his free hand. ”Just happy to help is all. Hey, any of you guys know if Babushka is gonna be at the market today?“

There was a few seconds of drilling before he got a response. “Alright you can let go, we’re done here.” One of the older gentlemen got up and took the chain from Alex. “Last I heard she should be. Better be quick before she runs out of the good stuff again.”

”Cool, if that’s all ya needed I’m gonna head back down.“ Alex made sure to shake each of the men’s hands before jumping off the building. He landed with a loud thud far enough away from Umbri for it to be safe. There were only a few glances from other people on the street, further hammering home the fact that these sort of things were considered normal in Shieldtown. Alex dusted himself off and grinned. ”Sorry, might get a few of those on the way. Thankfully the market isn’t too far away.“ The man folded his arms behind his head. ”Super strength and being a naturally helpful person means everyone likes to ask for help and I rarely have a good excuse to say no. Not that I can complain.“

There was a whistle from above followed by a “Heads up!”. Alex jerked his head up and quickly caught an apple that had been tossed down before returning a wave from one of the packing up workers. ”Also when you live off the barter system a bit, no good deed goes totally unrewarded.“

He paused before giving Umbri a playful look. ”Unless it’s the town Rogue doing their job of course.“ Making it clear that he still did not expect payment.

Umbri looked back in bewilderment. As she walked after him, another whistle from the rooftop followed, and she didn’t even blink. But just a minute later, and a friendly "Hello!" had her flinch like she was about to be jumped.

"Good morning Alex! Do you have time to help me with something?"

Wh - again? Already? Umbri watched the exchange between the hero and a hardened, one-armed woman at a distance. Her focus narrowed in on the apple, as despite all of his insistence, a tick-tick-tick in her head reached an idea of how to pay him back for the debt she owed. So he wasn’t the kind to accept favours from her - but he valued extending that generosity to others. She pushed herself forward.

"What can I do?"

The journey to the markets was more of a meander, tugged and pulled this way and that by every request no matter how sympathetic the plight. First he was helping a woman string up the 50 foot hide of some beast for tanning between two giant stakes. Then Umbri was crouching beside him as he fixed up somebody's pet sweeper bot. Then he was 'pulling weeds', as the gardener put it, but was more literally fighting purple grass that took great offence to being cut and ensnared anyone who tried. Through every errand, Umbri tried to find some way to make it a two person job, generally by just holding something for him, and by the third person to flag them down, this was feeling like harassment. Does this guy single-handedly keep the entire town running? How can all of these people depend on him so much?!

"E-excuse me, sir..."

DO IT YOURSELF!

She was standing by with a critter-catching blanket as he rescued a mutant double-headed cat named Jellybeans from a gutter for a crowd of children before she knew it. At their joyful faces and exclamations of 'Thank you sir! You're the best! Why is she naked?' upon being reunited with their hissing demon, she thought, How can someone this powerful and this liked be insecure? Did she get the wrong read on him? It was rare she ever read a man wrong.

"How do you..." she started as they were back on their path to the markets, a bunch of different questions branching off from the words she spoke before she picked a road. Find time for yourself? Shoulder the responsibility of herodom? Reconcile with being in a co-dependent relationship with your settlement? "... keep your identity a secret? You just used your powers to help all those people."

Ah, he should have expected some questions like that. Given how casually he displayed what he could do physically, it made sense to wonder why the hell he would even bother with a costume. Spinning around to face her, Alex began walking backwards and held up a finger. ”Well there’s three points to that. One, it’s really hard to hide being a brute with super strength and durability.“ A second finger was held up. ”Two, I don’t use my other abilities outside of my costume if I can help it.“ He then stuck his thumb out. ”Third, it’s more of an open secret for a lot of people who I actually am. But there’s kinda an unspoken agreement for most Rogues and powered thugs that you really don’t go after people out of costume unless you have a death wish.“

He shrugged and spun back around. ”Given how few of us have ever died out of costume, it seems to hold up.“ Granted, most had some form of social life outside the costume. Alex was . . . very poor at balancing the whole costume and civilian life.

Umbri thought on it. It was odd to her that there was some kind of, for lack of a better term, chivalric code between the Rogues and their villains. She couldn’t be sure if it stood back in Northbridge. All the Rogues but the oni never lasted long enough. Then there was that other case she’d heard, that one clogging up all the news stations with that Uppercity crap while people were being shot and rippered right in front of the broadcasts. That supervillain offing those high-profile, corporate sponsored heroes, oftentimes targeting their civilian identities.

“Guess the Tragedy Killer topside didn’t get the memo…” she murmured, casting a glance to the plates, then continued with obvious distaste, “But you Rogues don’t lump yourselves with those Corpocapes and Templars, do you?”

Alex looked up towards the plates along with Umbri. ” There’s always going to be some crazies.“ He took a moment before giving her an answer. Most kinda made the assumption that the Rogue’s tried to distance themselves from the “Legal” Super’s found topside. Or at least that was what he would have assumed. ”Well, I mean the rogues are about as far from the Templar’s as you could get without being villains. And the only thing close to a corp down here is the damn horde, but that's not really a thing i want to get into right now.“ Especially since he was pretty sure he was going to have to make a deal with Halcyon tonight to smooth out all of this mess.

Luckily he didn’t have to dwell on THAT uncomfortable thought as the two turned a corner to Shieldtown’s main market street. The widest street in all of Shieldtown by a good margin. The space before them was host to a staggering number of stalls, carts, open vehicles, and camped venders. The most striking feature had to have been the upper stalls and walkways built above the street in a combination of heavy duty scaffolding and monster bones. All manner of goods and services were present. From food stuffs and spices, machine parts, butchered and preserved monster parts, and other sorts of odds and ends. Enforcers both in and out of exo-frames patrolled around to keep the peace.

Alex breathed in the smells wafting in from the open air kitchens and food carts before turning to Umbri with a grin and motioning to the feast for the senses. ”So, anything you wanted to look for first?“

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

A shiver ran through Dean as the bass note resonated. Eyes snapping open to see Silver Fang touching the spear.

Damn, That sure as hell was potent.

Spirits he really wished he wasn't astral-y nearsighted right now so he could see what she was doing with the thing. Granted, he could go and grab his enchanted spectacles to do that for him . . . eh, he didn't feel like getting up out of his chair right now. He gave an exaggerated groan and began to stretch and pop some of his knuckles. "That would be Alex's hunting spear. Ya know, for all the monsters and stuff.

There was a very satisfied sigh was let out after he cracked his neck in a motion uncomfortably similar to how one would try and snap a neck. He then leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand. "Not that he has used it in a hot minute but the big guy still insists on taking care of the thing." He yawned not to dissimilar to how a cat would, tongue and all, as he kept a relaxed demeanor. A mage was almost always most comfortable while in their own sanctum. Though he had made an effort to visually suppress the ungodly amount of enchantments and protections he had around the house given that Silver Fang was apparently incapable of not [seeing] everything constantly. Poor woman, that sounded like a headache and a half. Anyways~

Dean waved his other hand somewhat dismissively. "Lot of it was donated parts from other people, the head of the thing was made by Forgemaster. Leather wrapping the shaft was from some of Alex's first few kills, including from the one he have the skull from that's hanging outside the front door." Truth be told, even if the thing was made for Alex to be able to use, Dean was sure the reason the spear didn't see much use was out of fear of breaking it. That, or the guy just kept forgetting he had the damn thing. Out of sight and out of mind.

What was really interesting right now though was the fact that the Templar touching it made the thing sound like a note from Alex's bass guitar. He had felt something from it sure, probably due to the jade charm affixed to the thing, but the magic involved was too far outside his knowledge and focus to pars. [color=8dc73f][b]"You're doing . . . something to it by instinct I'm guessing. Best i can say in words you would understand is that so long as something is in your hands it is [enchanted] and has traits drawn out of it. Can't say I know much of the particulars though."[/color][/b]

Dean scratched his scalp under his hat and shrugged. "My not so professional opinion? Something that's hand made and well kept," Dean motioned to the spear for emphasis. "- Will be effected very acutely by your magic. More of a story there for your magic to make it [SING]. I don't know, that's the best I got."

Dean pulled his hat over his eyes and leaned back into his chair again. Hyper specialized magic always seemed to get way more esoteric then academic. A lot less of a student being taught by some professor at a school for wizards and witches and more like a jedi training a young padawan. The fact people were trying to sit her down with books seemed asinine given what he knew about Silver Fang. The woman was straightforward. Yeah, leaving a mage to learn on their own was usually a disaster waiting to happen but there wasn't a whole lot anyone present could do to teach her practically. Shit like this was why he had stepped back from the magic community in the first place.

Oh yeah, he had almost forgotten. he lifted his hat with a finger to look at Silver Fang with one eye. "Please be careful with that thing. Its apparently not the most balanced of weapons . . . . and its also rocket powered. Raudd would know. Alex accidentally sent it through his torso a while back. Funny? absolutely. But not everyone here is immune to the dangers of this mortal coil we call life." His words oozed sarcasm by the end. Very obviously directed at the viking.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

"That stupid, reckless, flaming bitch!" MG swore loudly through chattering teeth the moment ID's vitals dropped. She stopped exerting power and forced her dangerously numb body to move, assisted by the suit no longer stressing against the impossible cold. Her cocoon of permafrost shattered violently as her suit's systems screamed to equalize it and her own temperatures, the molecular stasis having faded in moments. The flashing medical scanner forced MG to recognize that she was going to need treatment to her extremities or risk some degree of nerve damage at minimum. That sounded like a problem for her employers doctors and not her right now. The neural link with her armor would suffice. Had to get ID and get the hell out of here.

Seeing the still standing rampart of ice blocking her path, MG opted for the big gun. A weapon that looked like it should be mounted on a vehicle rather then held by a person was pulled out and quickly unfolded. switches and safeties were flipped off in quick succession as the gun began to almost visible heat up before being cooled to an even temperature with MG's powers. With little fanfare, the very experimental Railgun fired and a tungsten alloy rod with a depleted uranium tip accelerated forward at blistering speeds, the rounds weight having been nullified right up until it left the weapons barrel. The round however did not stay solid on its way out the gun. With its alternate firing mode having been activated, What exited the gun barrel was a glob of magnetically contained plasma.

MG's helmet just barely compensated for the sudden flash of hypersonic plasma literally vaporizing the ice before her. She never took so much as a second to admire the weapons firepower before charging ahead.

Power sliding to a halt over ID's prone form, Nora steeled herself before removing her partner's mask to see for herself how bad it was.
What she saw was enough to give the mercenary pause. "Gods, what did that thing do to you?" ID was bleeding from the eyes. Not even that, she was bleeding from the ears, nose, and mouth as well. There was this . . . sickly black . . . almost like spiderwebs covering large parts of her skin, particularly around her eyes that reminded Nora painfully like sub-dermal burns. ID looked like death, but she was still alive if Nora was to believe her computers scans. Still hope then. "If you die on me now I swear I'll fucking kill you." ID's mask was returned to her face before Nora for all intense and purposes carried the woman bridal style and stormed back towards the exit.

The elevator was ignored. Explosive rounds blew it apparent for expedience sake. A pillar of ice was rapidly formed bellow the two woman to facilitate their rapid ascension. In all fairness there wasn't any time to check if any of the systems were still working or if Nora could fiddle with the thing to make it go faster. That did still left the doors leading back out into the Undercity.

. . . Sorry, what doors?

Once outside two things happened. First, Nora flipped on the emergancy channel and barked into her comm's. "This is Field agent Mithral Giant requesting immediate med-evac! We have a man down and I need that med-evac yesterday!!" Without waiting for a response, she hit her detonator. The thwump of multiple plastic explosives demolishing whatever remained of the facility gave Nora some satisfaction before moving back to her original encampment for hopefully a quick pickup given her "precious" cargo still in her arms.

---

Accepting the oversized fruit, Dean gave Raudd a sympathetic look. "We all wish things had gone differently," Realization quickly dawned on Dean. The date of Hardcase's death and Alex's impromptu promotion to Shieldtown's Rogue was the same fucking day as the Infamous Usurper incident that was a VERY significant point in Silver Fang's hero career. And he called himself a Superhero geek. "Way to go me." He grumbled before quickly jogging to get ahead of Yue. He still had to unlock the door and really wasn't in the mood to have Yue break something else in his house. Golem opted to sink into the earth and leave the corporeal's to their business.

With their increased pace it wasn't more then a couple of minutes before they made it back to Dean and Alex's house. Dean was quick to get the door open and lead the two inside. Yue's armor and equipment was neatly arranged in the living room at Alex's insistence before he had gone on patrol. it was out of the way enough that nobody would have been able to see any of it, granted all the shutters and curtains had been closed and pulled so it was a rather moot point, but one couldn't be too careful.

What did tick off Dean was the fact that Alex had forgotten to put his hunting spear away and left it across the living room table. "I swear that idiot was raised in a barn sometimes. He knows I can't lift that fucking thing without possibly breaking something."He was slightly less peeved when he noticed the jade charm still carefully tied near the front of the spearhead. A good luck charm he had gifted the big lug way back when he first started helping out during the hunts, to keep him safe. which was kinda ironic of course given . . . all of Alex.

Dean flopped bonelessly into his favorite chair and waved around to the other two. "Make yourselves at home. Just don't go touching any of my wards or jade please. either of you." He wasn't really in the mood to see what Swordsong could do to any of his shit right now, and Raudd was Raudd but it still had to be said. "Raudd, You can tell Zolya if she wants any of my rocks she can come get them herself. Not in the mood for deliveries this week."