Everything was - she could see everything. From this core to the cave to the - Crispy was coming and she wanted, no needed him. She knew it. With him and maybe some others they could stop everything. They could learn and grow.
She needed more.
She could even see down into the depths of the central pool, down, down, down...through solid rock and packed earth, into a hollow chamber shimmering with the water’s reflection…
Something with blue eyes looked back at her.
She was taken aback, between knowing she could go higher, that something hidden was down there, and that this thing was looking at her.
And then it started. She was praised. It was hard to tell, but she knew it.
And then she was stuck, with this thing looking at her.
Nothing else to do, so she tried to look at it. Find out what it was. See anything she could of it. Inspect it, learn. What was it? Why was she being watched? How?
...and that cavern. The message had said she could borrow? Could she burrow down there? Was this thing down there?
Lillian watched on anxiously, very much aware that there wasn't anything she could do to help. She sat there, gently tugging on Alessa's hand when she stood up, avoiding looking at Ev. She couldn't help but connect her current mental state to that thing, especially after that Glow earlier.
She was ashamed to admit she was scared.
And then everything seemed to settle. The incident was over, the discussion ended, they were dismissed.
Lillian looked around a little dumbstruck. She hadn't expected it to end so soon. She leaned into Alessa, releasing breath she hadn't realized she was holding, and quietly whispered, "Meet up tomorrow?" It was a request, and she waited just long enough to get her answer before standing up and approaching the Director.
"I'm sorry for the trouble, sir. I was wandering and I didn't think before getting involved," she said quietly, glancing at Decoy. "I actually needed to talk to Decoy about something and I kinda got lost in thought. Do - Is there somewhere private or a meeting we could make or something, please?" She ended on a stressed note, emphasizing the please in her desperation. Decoy had worked with Ira. He would know what happened to make her leave, wouldn't she? And... Maybe Decoy could tell her she was crazy for her doubts.
Having taken note of the odd Stand, Blue opted to ignore the apparent lack of effect for the time being. Focusing on the user would do her more good.
Blue smiled easily, nodding at his initial question before glancing casually at the laughing man as she helped pick up the cards. "Y'know, I wouldn't worry about people so much. They're not worth it, I've learned. Heck my own family tried to make me something I'm not. They kinda succeeded, though, but I learned that people who don't help and understand themselves are the broken rocks from the cliff side that have fallen all the way down to the bottom. They're beneath people like us." Her words were light, genuine, but mildly firm. She handed him the last card, helping him stand straight again, and brushed off some dirt from his front. She stayed close for a moment, adding, "Now, with that said, can you be the bigger man? Will you be the cliff or the rock that falls down? I'd love to go sit and talk and maybe see some more of your tricks. But I need you to be the better here."
Unspent Skill Points: 12 Current Skills: Stun Fang II (2.225) Poison Spit I (1.6) Muffle II (2.75) Poison Glob I (1.35) Poison Breath I (1.3) <UNUSABLE SKILLS> Crafting (0.2) Alchemy (0.4) Alert (0.4) Stealth Kill (0.5) Fireball (0.325) Warcry (0.3) Poison Fang (0.1) Blunt Resistance (0.5) Smash (0.1) Rabid Fit (0.9) Scale Shift (0.2) Magic Break (0.1) Suppress Presence (0.2) Overwork (0.2) Curse Word (0.6) <UNUSABLE SKILLS>
Rain looked on at the corpse as the bastard finally died, breathing heavily.
Quickly. Quickly. No time.
7 points into Fireball, 5 into Stealth Kill, Rain thought quickly.
This gave her Fireball, finally, and what was the best way to test it?
Ideally she would burn the bastard body, but others were working at it. That wouldn't do. She turned, instead, looking up. At the ceiling, then.
She stood there, concentrating, before attempting a Fireball.
Regardless of success or not, she followed Jason and the rest. As they neared the... Thing... She moved to the safest spot in the little cavern area she could reasonably manage.
"I'm going to change." Simple words that she didn't feel needed more explaining.
Cici Appearance: Species: Horsea ♀ Type: Water Personality: Lax Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other: N/A Level: 6 Moves: Bubble Smokescreen Ability: Sniper Boosts power of Critical Hits Held Item: N/A
With a light wave to Rhyperior, Alice moved back to Vivia and Skylar with a smile on her face.
"Great! Traveling with friends is always better than walking alone," she said brightly. "Maybe we could start heading towards that gym the Professor mentioned, if no one else had any ideas. Maybe we'll find some new friends along the way?"
Assuming everyone was agreeable, Alice would set off with Cici in her arms. First stop, the Pokecenter! And then... Things could begin for real!
She was excited as she stoked Cici's head softly. This was everything she had wanted, and she couldn't hold herself back anymore! She was going on a real adventure with friends and there was nothing that was going to stop her from meeting that mysterious champion and seeing Rhyperior again as promised.
Caesar followed slowly, staring at the hole where the angry man had gone.
He should've tried. Maybe then all this wouldn't be happening.
Outside.... It was a maze? Of plants? How did that make a -
Oh. A hunting fight. Two hunters, one winner. He wouldn't have been useful here, didn't know how to aim a gun accurately. Cannons were easier.
Maybe there was a hand cannon out there?
Mhmm.
He was a little shocked at how the fight developed, though. He had believed in the little Jo's confidence, and she was as good as dead. Would've been, if it wasn't for the odd ammo they used.
Bonekid got excited and immediately regretted it, opting a small chuckle from the Mink, as he nodded in agreement at the call for Boone.
He was, really, the best shooter on the crew. If anyone would win from their crew, it would be him.
His eyes traveled to the cannon man. Alien magic. Could he have beat him, if he hadn't failed against Launcher?
Appearance: Ellie is naturally attractive, beautiful to those second glances, with a natural air of confidence accentuating her looks. Her skin is noticeably smooth, an exotic blend of caramel and tan, that contrast against the hunter green eyes that shine with a ravenous intelligence. The angle of her face, the jawline and cheekbones, there's an abundance of exotic features to the American populace. Her hair is cut short, laying straight and a rich raven black in color, framing her head in a way that seems to make her eyes more noticeable.
Beyond that, she generally can be found wearing relaxed clothing, though nothing that could ever get in the way of her 6’2” frame. She has a naturally expressive face that tends to stick to “Are you fucking seriously that idiotic?” and “Really?” Hidden to the unobservant, or shrouded by her hair, is a barely noticeable piece of tech in her left ear.
Her costume is fairly open, with no loose clothing, so that she can perform under optimal conditions. Black and dark blue materials, and a look not unlike Alexandria (minus the cape, of course). She has a helmet with Tinker tech visor that can retract with built in heads up display. Very heavily inspired by Alexandria.
”My body is a temple built in honor of all that I have achieved and will bring.”
History: Warning: FREAKING LONG
Ellie had a relatively ordinary childhood, growing up during the rise of the Capes and PRT, being three years old when Scion made his appearance. If you were to ask her about her childhood, all she'd really remember was awe and surprise…. And fear. From the very start of her life she'd struggled with being mute.
When Ellie was six her little sister was stricken with a rare degenerative disease. With no known cure outside of bone marrow transplant… There were little odds of survival.
Ellie didn't know how to deal with this news. Why couldn't she just be a donor? Why couldn't she just help? Why did the doctors and her parents keep telling her she wasn't a match? This was her sister! How was she not a match?
No. She couldn't accept this. She would become a compatible donor. She had to.
For the first few weeks it was soul grindingly horrible. Just… Doctor visits and appointments and nothing helping while she sat there healthy and fine.
On a particularly bad visit Ellie snuck out of the office and down the hall. There had to be something in this hospital that could fix her so she could help her sister. There had to be.
Through luck she stumbled across a room filled with medical supplies. She couldn't understand what most of it was, the labels looked like gibberish to her, but she knew what needles and the such were for.
Over the next year Ellie tried experiment after experiment, trying to make her compatible, stealing from the hospital a little at a time so she wouldn't get caught.
Blood injections that left her feeling sick after a few days. Weakness, weariness, tired. She could've sworn A was a good letter, but apparently not for blood.
Pills that caused a variety of effects. Vomiting, numbness, a horrible diarrhea that almost hospitalized her from the dehydration.
So many failures, her body betraying her and denying her her one wish. With each failure came a period of waiting until her parents attentions returned to her sister and she could resume.
Finally, not long after her 9th birthday, her desperation mounting as her body continued to decline she knew she needed to go for broke. Her sister was doing so terribly, almost always at the hospital now…. So Ellie stole some blood from her sister and injected it. This had to work. It had to.
But it didn't. Five days later and her sister was gone. Dead. She'd failed. Her body had failed her. That night her own health finally caught up with her, all the half assed attempts at medically changing her health finally combining to destroy her from the inside. The doctors said something about blood poisoning, her parents were crying, and everything hurt so much. Even now, at her greatest failure, her body was failing her.
She Triggered at the hopelessness, the horror that her decisions had led her to. The next few days she saw news of a group of four heroes calling themselves the Protectorate. Alexandria. Legend. Hero. Eidolon. Powers…. She knew she was like them, even if she'd failed. She could beat this.
Several months later and her health had returned through the careful administrations of her crafted liquids and the doctor's doing their limited work. Months studying through medical books, breathing through knowledge like it was air.
After two years she started going out, gathering materials and building blueprints. She knew what she wanted to do, but her body wasn't ready yet. She needed more time.
Here, at eleven, she met a street rat. Anastasia. And she knew, she knew what to do. This girl, she could help her. Adopt her as her own little sister. Not a replacement, no not a replacement, but an augmentation to her life to fix what was broken and destroyed.
It didn't take long for her to bring the girl home. Her parents never objected, but then they hardly saw her parents anymore. Everything had changed. She could fix it, she just needed time.
Ana was different. In a good way. She wasn't as science driven as Ellie, but she showed interest enough. And Ellie could take care of them, protect them.
And then he came. They called him Behemoth. Destruction, death, fire. It was terrifying and it was a push that she needed. It was time to act. She was fourteen now, and Ana was twelve. In the coming days the Protectorate formed proper alongside the PRT, a division of heroes and Civilians turned soldiers.
It emboldened Ellie. There was no official place for a fourteen year old alongside the Protectorate heroes, but they worked together when Ellie went out with a crude mask made from sheet metal and some devices filled with odd liquids. She helped people, gaining the name Crafter by the locals, and for a time things were okay.
But then one night everything went wrong, her body failing to be able to outrun some punks and defend herself properly. She came home to her workshop bloody, battered and broken. Collapsing near her workshop she vaguely noticed Ana running towards her secondary work area. Ignoring that oddity, she began the painstaking process of setting bones and sealing wounds before she blacked out.
Coming to, it seemed no time had passed. Moments, perhaps. But then Ana came back into view and Ellie knew she had gained powers. The blood, the look, she'd been changed.
It took weeks to heal, though only moments for Ana, and they began again. A team this time, Crafter and Slam, sister heroes! It went surprisingly well, the combination of tech and brawn being utilized in near perfect coordination.
Two years passed and the PRT started up the Wards program officially. Ellie convinced Anna to join up with her, taking on the mantle of Crafter and Newt. Two years passed relatively uneventfully, Ellie finishing her blueprints and plans and moving up into the Protectorate as the Tinker Manifold.
There she had access to the materials she needed, Tinkering away her own flesh and slowly, carefully replacing it with her designs. Fixing her body, ensuring it would never fail.
By the time Ana graduated into the Protectorate two years later Ellie had completed her augmentations, now more Tinker tech than flesh, and made a name for herself through her designs involving liquid systems for ammo and power. Ana, now known as Charm, took up beside her older sister, receiving her own -though admittedly more minor- augmentations from Ellie as they officially rekindled their partnership.
Years have passed and the duo participated in the Behemoth fight before transferring departments to help with the aftermath.
Personality
Motivations: To further her research and break the bonds limiting her, as well as protect her sister.
Sexuality: Asexual
Likes:
Technology
Experimentation
Conflict
Tinkering away the pain flesh
Solving problems
Silence
Great fucking pizza
Dislikes:
Romance
Innuendoes
Flirting
Idiots
Orders
Bitches
Being interrupted
Derangement: Very little regard for her own safety. This can be seen as reckless abandon in a fight to taking unnecessary risks. She's also obsessed with the concept of Failing, and will do anything to avoid failing, a result of the events leading up to her trigger event.
”Why worry about the flesh, when I can rebuild and replace it and make it better?”
Parahumanism
Skills:
Can play the piano like a master
Skilled enough with a Guitar
Can perform advanced mathematics in her head
One mean cook
Adept at Tiger style Kung Fu
Knows ASL
Classification: Tinker
Details: Ellie’s best work lies in her specialty when augmenting herself, relating to fluid dispersal and dynamics. In layman's terms, when operating on the circulatory system and other fluid-based systems. However, she can create from most every field.
Hacking away parts of herself to create something greater, better, more efficient. These augmentations have granted her the following abilities:
Enhanced reflexes
Enhanced hand-eye coordination
Enhanced strength / speed / endurance
Pain resistance
Disease / Poison resistance
Furthermore, she no longer requires breathing.
Internal gear:
Flamethrower built into the right wrist, projected distance of 30 feet streams.
An acidic chemical that ‘eats’ non-organic material that can be secreted through her pores at will.
Smoke projector in her left wrist, can create a cloud, steam up to 10 feet before spreading, or an oil-like liquid spray.
Limitations: Ellie works best on herself, and as such is hardly considered human anymore. While she can Tinker without using her body, it takes much longer, with more resources, to produce quality gear and improvements. It takes her time to swap out augmentations and to make adjustments / changes to herself.
Beyond that, if she's not working with something involving her specialty it's much harder for her to manage, and comes with a chance of not working.
For a fraction of a second all she knew was darkness. That damn notification about health again.
Fuck that.
Things devolved quickly as she opened her eyes. Rattle was being put on the defensive, even if he was too stupid to understand that.
She watched the odd magic as if in slow motion, already moving herself as she pushed through the pain, and hissed in pleasure as it tore through the armor and flesh of the bastard.
Weakness. Blood.
Power.
She had seen his muscles work, she had seen him pull out the leaf.
He was distracted.
He was her's.
She pushed herself to her limit, moving as fast as she could along his legs before he could stand. Stealth didn't matter, awareness of his actions did, he'd feel her anyways.
She snapped for the leaf, and if he made it impossible to steal then she'd just poison it with a Breath.
And then...
If she wasn't thrown off she'd continue the assault, attempt to put a Glob in his open wound, and bite and rip and tear at any skin she could reach, calling him every vile thing she could think of when her mouth wasn't busy.
Cici Appearance: Species: Horsea ♀ Type: Water Personality: Lax Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other: N/A Level: 6 Moves: Bubble Smokescreen Ability: Sniper Boosts power of Critical Hits Held Item: N/A
Alice smiled softly at Vivia, before turning to her Rotom. Putting on a Stern face she spoke slowly.
"You should be nicer! Listen! Maybe she wouldn't feel like she needs to just super kick you if you weren't being a brat." she stuck out her tongue, smiling a little. "Would you like to join us when we leave, Vivia? I don't know what we'll do, there's just so many possibilities..."
She held up a finger, distracted, before....[running off to do the events of previous post]
"Thanks, Professor," she said distractedly, leaning in to give an awkward hug to Rhyperior. "There's so much I want to see and do! I'll see you again, Rhyperior! Professor!" She cleaned up Cici carefully, smiling, before handing back the towel with a soft 'thank you'.
With that she returned to Vivia and Skylar, thinking. "I want to stop by the Pokecenter, maybe there'll be a good rumor or something. There's supposed to be the occasional Shuppet floating around town at night, that could be neat. But I do really want to find a Beldum, which is up in My Edge.... But there's also the Gym nearby off Route 1 the Professor mentioned.... Skylar, what do you think?"
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