[Other FULL] Λtlantis Λwakening [IC] [M]

[Quest]

Library of Souls

November 21-22nd, 2012


Prophecy? Thayne thought as he listened to the two Atlanteans speak their separate parts. Both seemed creepy in their own aspects, although having the name of Lucifer definitely didn't help any of it. The best thing about this dream (or whatever the hell this was) was the fact that he knew the majority of the people, or it was. Sooner than later, the 'prophecy,' along with a new tattoo (that he didn't feel form) to signify it, set them up as if they were in a contest. From what Thayne could tell of his surroundings, it seemed that the winner was the survivor. For the first time in his life, Thayne actually thought knowing more people was a bad thing. Sure, he hadn't seen half of them in a while, but the others he saw practically everyday. After the last week, he didn't really expect any of them to do much, but who knows when you're told something like this? What are the extremes that some people would go? He shivered at the thought of any of them trying to kill him. He couldn't help but hope going through the door would put space between them.

"Welcome to the Library of Souls, home of the Akashic Records!" Boomed a voice throughout the large, archaic room that Thayne walked into. He immediately began to look around the Library for the owner of the voice only to find a large, monkey-like beast with short black fur. It faces seemed to be featureless but for its bright orange slitted eyes and short horns. It had bright blue markings around its arms and legs. It looked almost as if it was a giant monkey. The creature crept towards him slowly before speaking once more in what seemed to be a telepathic fashion. "Or as many of you Erebokinetics call it, the Library of Shadows. Trust me halfling, this has nothing to do with your powers, but the sole fact that many believe this place to have insufficient lighting. You would think some of you would appreciate the time I've spent in adorning this Library."

Thayne attempted a smile at the creature, before looking around to see nothing but what you would actually expect in a library. There were the dozens of tall bookshelves, the various places to sit and read, and even the many patrons weaving between the aisles or sitting in the small areas. However, the patrons were what caught his surprise. They were shadowy, translucent in appearance. They all seemed to be in the shape of a human and yet they all lacked any identifying features. They moved around silently, although most seemed to be talking with the others. Many seemed to have ignored his arrival, while others appeared to be staring straight at him. Or maybe their backs are turned, Thayne thought to himself. What are they? What is the thing that introduced the Library?

"I am not a thing Mr. Clarke," Answered the creature next to him, its large feet taking a step closer. "I am a Lemurian. We are the original inhabitants of the place you call 'Earth'. The Atlanteans came long after us and were shortly followed by the Humans. As for these people, they are your predecessors. Each and every one of them is someone who has possessed your power,the manipulation of dark matter. Some of them died young, others old. Some of them were immensely powerful, others… Were not. They are here in order to be your mentors, as am I, and are fully open to any questions you may pose them. There is many of them and I'm sure you will want to hear their stories."

"Do you have a name?"

"Ah, wouldn't you want to know?" Answered the Lemurian. "My people did not possess such meaningless
titles before your Ancestors came. After that, I was known as Zaazenach, however to match these more modern times, I believe Zach would suit me. Now go off boy and learn what you can for now."

"But how exactly do I talk to them?" Thayne asked the creature hesitantly albeit he still attempted a smile. The large Lemurian was already a sight that would frighten most, let alone dozens of voiceless apparitions.

"Ah, I forget that you only see echoes. In time, these apparitions will begin to take on their original forms but for now you must rely on the books." Zaazenach pointed towards the shelves. "Look for the book labeled Nara. I believe that will be a great place for you to start."

Thayne thanked the Lemurian before making his way towards the shelves. Several of the apparitions turned to look at him as he walked by, seemingly eyeing him and his worth. They could be anyone, Thayne thought as made his way past them. Soldiers, butchers, parents, kids. Hell, there was probably a World Changer or two in the group. Shaking away the thoughts, the young man began to look at the shelves in his search for 'Nara.' Each shelf had its own book, complete with a single name on its cover, as well as various other trinkets. Thayne could only assume these were important items to the dead. He began looking through the names as he searched for 'Nara.'

It took awhile, but eventually the young man reached the 'n's. Nacar, Nagel, Nanning, Thayne read as he looked, only stopping when he reached the one he was looking for. The shelf seemed to be less decorated than the rest, its only occupants being the dark plain book and one brown-colored felt boater hat. Thayne couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. Nonetheless, he picked up the small tome. He had no idea how using the book would help him talk to the apparition of Nara, but it probably had something to do with reading it, right? Of course, that's too easy, he thought as he opened the blank book. He stared in surprise as he flipped through the white pages. How were these books supposed to help him?

"I hope you don't quit that easily," said a smooth feminine voice. Thayne immediately looked to his sides, only to see the voiceless echoes walk back and forth. Did one of them make the voice? "Look down Thayne."

Thayne did as he was told, only to see a woman's head rest atop the pages. Thayne jumped back in surprise, dropping the book as any sane person would. He watched as the woman took a step towards him, her form solidifying as she did. She was young, although a bit older than he was. She had a smooth complexion and pretty brown eyes. Her shoulder-length, wavy black hair framed her face. As for her outfit, Thayne could only compare it to 1920s cocktail dress, its black decorative lace being its main focal point. "It's not nice to react to a lady that way," the woman said with a smile.

"I… I'm sorry," Thayne apologized. "I just didn't expect you to come out of the book."

"Well, that's because we technically don't. I kinda wanted to play a joke on you." She gave another smile and crossed her arms, taking the time to look Thayne up and down.She focused on his face for a moment before continuing. "Ya know, you have the same expression on your face as the rest did. I've known several of you 'World Changers' and every single one of you seems so confused in the beginning. I guess it's a reasonable look though." She seemed to stress the World Changers part with sarcasm, her obvious doubts seemingly leaving an echo.

"What do you mean you've known several World Changers," asked Thayne curiously. "Were you one?"

"Me? Oh, of course not. I just knew the ones that were alive during my generation as well as the one that came before you, although he didn't last long if I remember right…"

Thayne frowned for a moment, not wanting to hear that one of his predecessors had failed. Of course, they weren't him. but that still didn't help the situation. "Who are you?"

"You're a very curious boy, aren't you Thayne?" She seemed to make it a point to use his name. "I'm Shika Nara and obviously, I'm your predecessor and thus a user of your unique Atlantean ability. For all intents and purposes, I will be your teacher. However, I think our time tonight has come to an end." As if on command, the girl slowly faded into her apparition state.

"But, I still have quest-" Thayne started to say before a tugging feeling took a hold of him. In a matter of seconds, Thayne awoke in his bed. Part of him hoped everything had been just been a dream. The first thought to prove it was the tattoo. Immediately, Thayne moved towards the bathroom. Flicking on the light, he scanned his body, easily finding the new intricate design. There the large tattoo started off around his navel, making its way around his stomach almost in the same fashion in the one on his back. It was something he could hide, or at least from most people.

Thayne left his room, quietly making his way through the hall and down the stairs . Hopefully, one of the others are open to talking about this, he thought. He turned the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. At first, he thought Del may have had the same thought as him. Unfortunately, the gun in her hand said otherwise. Thayne took a step back, making sure not to catch her attention before going back to his room. He should have expected her to be the one that would go bat-sh*t crazy.​

 

[Swolligator]

A.T.L.A.S. HQ, Chicago, United States

November 22nd, 2012

Jacques gently rubbed the tender skin beneath the bandages wrapped around the palm of his hand. In his mind he flashed back to that fateful night at the club when the Iceman had crucified him against the wall. The doctors had mentioned he was lucky; the ice spike that had gone through his left shoulder had damaged little muscle and, like the spike that went through his right thigh, missed all the main arterial vessels. Both spots had been heavily bandaged and he was still under heavy sedatives; not just to keep the pain at bay but to also minimalize his ability to use his extraordinary powers. He had lost count of the days he had spent within the padded white walls of this cell. Every day was the same process of waking up, eating and then falling back asleep again. He didn't even know if his pattern cycle coincided with the time outside and so he became lost in the recesses of his own mind.

"I'm still not talking to you," Hotaru spoke from the corner nearest the door, trying to look at something Jacques could not see. The door was metal and the only time it opened was when the small hatch popped open to deliver his meal or the doctor sedated him even further.

"It's 'kay, bro, you didn't kill me," Joey laughed, causing Jacques to winced at the man's horrible Australian accent. "We'll get us a piece of that son-of-a-" Hotaru hushed Joey who looked at her like he was trying to glare daggers.

Jacques heard the familiar thump of boots echoing down the hall; all three of them holding their breaths as the footsteps stopped. There was a metallic clang against the concrete floor outside and the food hatch opened long enough for the boot to kick the tray of food through.

Darting forward, Jacques lucked out as Hotaru made a grab for the stale bread roll; the one thing she knew he prized most of all. Grabbing the tray aggressively, he brought it to the opposite wall where he and Joey began eating the sloppy oatmeal that was left with their hands. Greedily he shoved the food in his mouth before pushing the plate back against the door one he had finished.

"Buta no Jacques," Hotaru muttered in Japanese as she gingerly picked at the stale roll.

Jacques felt the sting from her stab into his side like he was being pricked with a needle. Lifting up his shirt, he examined the yellow-tinged skin grafted to his pale waist. The tattoo looked like an Asian-styled winged creature drawn as if it used character strokes. It looked awkward and out of place to the rest of his body, much like the third tattoo that had been stitched behind it on his back. He placed his hand on his back, running his fingers over the swirls as he traced the outline of the tattoo. Both had belonged to his comrades who had died, and were currently with him in his cell. He would have blamed the hallucinations of them on the medication, but he knew well enough that they weren't medically induced.

He had taken their powers, so now they had taken his sanity.

He remembered back to the time him and Hotaru had been hiding out in the safe house following their failed attempt to destroy the Atlantean Relief Centre in London. Raguel had visited them after he had told her of Joey's demise and their failure. When she had arrived, she was carrying a medical kit in one hand and Joey's limp, lifeless body in the other. Dropping Joey to the floor, she ordered him first to end the life of Hotaru before they proceeded.

Having never killed someone before, Jacques had found it difficult at first to end Hotaru's life as she sat there muttering her prayers. But with Raguel's ability washing over him like a flood, he soon brought his hand around to the front of her throat, coating it with his signature shell before blowing it apart into fragments that burring deep into her throat. With a gargle she dropped to the floor as blood began seeping from the holes now torn in her throat.

"Now, pick up a fragment and cut around her tattoo." Raguel ordered from behind him, opening up her medical kit while he shakily pulled up Hotaru's shirt to reveal the tattoo spread across the side of her waist. He winced as he felt the fragment cut through her skin, hearing the horrible tear of skin as blood began forming following his desecration of her body.

After a horrible two minutes he had cut around her tattoo, pulling the epidermal layers of her skin from her body. The smell of flesh assailed his nostrils and he wanted to vomit, but in the background Raguel continued to urge him further and he separated the skin from flesh. It felt warm and soft in his hands, like one wrong move and he would tear the whole thing, so he carefully brought it over to Raguel. Lifting up his own shirt, he offered her the skin before closing his eyes. He felt the cringing warmth slap against his waist as Raguel held the tattoo in the same place where he had cut if off Hotaru, slipping a needle between the outside of her skin and his. More than once he cried out in pain and disgust but it did nothing to stop Raguel until she had finished her job.

Yet with Hotaru's tattoo sewn into his waist, it wasn't the end of it for Jacques. Picking up the same fragment he had used to cut away Hotaru's tattoo, he now moved over to the lifeless Joey whose shirt had been ripped enough in the fight with Iceman to reveal his tattoo swirling around on his back. Following the same procedure, he soon had both tattoos sewn into his skin where their previous owners had worn them. As Raguel stood up and dusted herself off, Jacques allowed himself to vomit as he sat on his knees, trying not to get it on anyone.

He felt a pain at his side, whereas Joey's tattoo was a dull throb, Hotaru's had erupted into a conflagration of pain. Pitching over into his own vomit, Jacques screamed in pain as he clutched his side. Lifting up his shirt, Raguel noticed that Hotaru's tattoo was beginning to bruise and wasn't attaching to Jacques' body as it should. Laying her hand on the tattoo, another wave of pain wracked Jacques body as Raguel grafted the skin to his body. He soon passed out from the pain.

Back in the Renegade's flat, Jacques soon awoke; the figures of Joey and Hotaru resting peacefully beside him. When he had tried to touch them, his hand simply drifted through them like ghosts. He had taken their powers like Raguel had instructed him to, but she had failed to mention the main drawback of doing so; he was going to be haunted buy his dead teammates for the rest of his life. Course, the rest of the Renegades thought he was crazy, and then he went out on that fateful mission with Nora…

"Rise and shine," light now swarmed through the door like a swarm of bees. For the past weeks he had been relying on his own, well Hotaru's, ability to generate light and this wave of artificial light almost blinded him. The lady's voice was sharp and authoritative, and having no time to bother with him, she sent in two guards whom each grabbed an arm and lifted him up, dragging him through the door and down the hall.

Mind still foggy from the medication, everything just seemed to be a blur until they took him through a set of double doors and into a room that looked like it belonged in a hospital. Several beds lines either side leading up to a large surgery area at the back of the lab. Waiting by the table stood a man dressed ready for surgery while beside him two nurses waited patiently. The guards simply dumped Jacques onto the operating table leaving him to stare up into the blind light.

"Hello, Jacques, my name is Doctor Tiberius," the man's face swam in front of Jacques' vision and then back out.

Lolling his head to the side, Jacques tried to concentrate on a large logo emblazoned on the concrete wall. "A…T…L…A…" Jacques never got to see the last letter as the anaesthesia flooded into his system knocking him back into dreamland.​

 

[Kikpanther]

Tower of Dragons

​

November 22nd, 2012​

Dom was disgusted.

It was bad enough being in the land of dead bodies, being touched by a strange little girl whose power seemed like it has something to do with seizures, and getting another god forsaken tattoo in a place he really didn't want to discuss right now, but now they had to fight each other? Dom didn't like this at all. Why two tattoos? He already hated having one tattoo, why did he have to have two? It wasn't as if he hadn't considered what was in a nutshell the freedom that Elpis provided. Clearly he didn't act fast enough because now it looked like he was stuck. Getting rid of his powers didn't seem like it would get rid of the death certificate coming his way. The question was who would deliver it? He'd only known them for a bit over a week, but Oakley and Thayne didn't look like the types to suddenly start killing people. Del... Dom sighed. Del.

Really, this whole thing was a burden. He had no interest--absolutely zero!--in participating in this "prophecy". Or should he say contest because that's what it sounded like. Dom had no reason or want to kill any of these people. Actually... Honestly... After today he was more than set to send James to the lowest pits of Hell, but everyone else? Not even the slightest desire. It made him angry more than anything that he was now supposed to set out for and kill people he may have actually had the chance of being friendly with in any other situation. And for what...? To "change the world"...? What kind of--he presumed--world saving change required him killing people he hardly even knew? And if so many people had failed before them then was this change even necessary? What about the world even needed to be changed? And on top of that... Was it a good change? That's what he thought--that's what he assumed--this whole thing was meant to do. Create a better world for all. Why wouldn't it be something like that? But... How would they actually know?

"Are you done complaining yet?" Excuse me? Dom turned around, ready to say some very choice words to whoever spoke to him, but he was dumbstruck by what he saw. It was a… A… A…? He didn't even know what to call it. It was some kind of weird monkey… Alien… Mistake. The weird creature jumped up and delivered a strong kick to Dom's chest. In less than a second Dom was flat on his back. "You don't look so pretty yourself, Rocky." Dom sat up and growled, his rage rising. "Calm down before you wake up and piss yourself," the mouthless creature scolded before turning away from him, "I've still got a few things to tell you." It spoke again once Dom had risen to his feet. "First off, it's Lemurian not weird, monkey, alien, mistake. Got it, buddy?"

"Don't call me bu--," Dom was cut short when the Lemurian whacked him in the face with its thick tail.

"Who's talking? I'm talking." The Lemurian faced him again, looking just as pissed as Dom felt. "Second, my name is Puriel not it. Do not call me it, never call me it. Or thing or creature or whatever other demeaning words you can think up. Got it, Dominique?" Dom opened his mouth to speak, but closed it quickly when Puriel raised their tail. "You're one of the ones that learn quickly. Good. You can speak now, but hurry up and make it something meaningful, I have more to tell you."

Dom bit back the urge to insult the brown and pink eyesore--Puriel frowned with their eyes; Dom smirked--and instead asked a question. "Where are we?"

"How good of you to ask, that was next on the agenda. This, Dominique, is The Library of Souls!" Puriel made sure to yell "The Library of Souls" extra loud. Even though it had all been in Dom's mind, Puriel's voice still managed to echo. They sighed pleasantly. "I love doing that." After the echo subsided, they continued. "Formally this is called the Akashic Records, but informally it's been called The Library of Flames, The Tower of Dragons, The--"

"Tower of Dragons?" When Dom looked around the "library" he saw nothing. It was just a big (huge, actually) circular room. The ceiling was up too high for him to see it, but he doubted there would be anything worth looking at. Save for windows, an odd bird cage, and a chest in the back the library was empty. Puriel was angry by Dom's sudden, interrupting outburst and they made it clear with his face. However instead of taking action they continued their speech.

"Yes, The Tower of Dragons, but before I show you why I have something to give you." Puriel walked to the back of the Tower (with Dom behind), opened the chest, and reached inside before pulling out a necklace. The thing was gaudy, Dom had to admit. The chain was made of large pearls and at its end was a small mirror about the size of an ovular hand mirror. It too was adorned in pearls and Dom was already wondering if there was a Lemurian without eyes that made this thing. Puriel frowned again. "It's yours." Puriel tossed the necklace to Dom who caught it before immediately regretting it. The mirror probably would have looked better if he'd let it break. "Ungrateful as always," Puriel commented.

It was Dom's turn to frown this time. "What's this for?"

"If you were paying attention to the prophecy," Puriel started, "you would know that this is a weapon of a Harbinger of Light."

"How is this a--" Dom was interrupted by another whack from Puriel's tail.

"Who's talking?" Dom growled and clenched his fists, but was otherwise silent. "Good. The mirror gives you the power to deflect any oncoming projectiles, as well as scry for anything you want--for a limited time of course. Plenty useful for battle, I know. There's two other weapons as well. A sword and a jewel. If you collect those other two items you will become the one True Harbinger."

"And then what…?"

"And then you'll just have to find out." Dom frowned even deeper. This was getting annoying. "But first come to the window." Dom complied, walking towards the small stone opening. Looking out he could see nothing but the expanse of sky. It wasn't clear, the entire landscape was cloudy and hard to see through, but it left Dom awestruck nonetheless. He put his hands on the window and leaned forward to look out. As he did a large, orange body flashed across the window, surprising Dom enough to pull away from the opening.

"What was…?"

"It isn't called the Tower of Dragons for nothing!" Puriel replied. "Look down, look all around the tower! There's more." Dom looked down just as he was told. Looking down into the cloudy sky he could seeing exactly what gave this library its name. Hundreds of dragons weaved in and out of the clouds, appearing and disappearing again. Some stayed far at the bottom where he could barely see, but others flew up the length of the spiral tower and disappeared into the clouds above them. It was an amazing sight to see. "These are all of your past lives, Dom. Generation after generation of fire manipulators just like yourself. They come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and even species of dragon depending on where they were from. When you die, Dominique, you too will come here as a dragon. Likely one imagined in the myths of France itself."

Dom put his hand on his head. "This… Can't all be real, can it?"

"Of course it can. And it is! You have hundreds of ancestors here, Dom. More than most, actually. High in the clouds and even far below on the ground there hundreds more. Some you may never even see!"

"So can I talk to these guys or do they just keep flying around like that?"

"You can talk to them any time you wish. Do you see those doors over there?" Puriel gestured behind Dom to two giant arched double doors. By the looks of it it had to be at least four stories high, maybe taller. "If you want to see one of your ancestors they'll come right through that door and speak with you. Do you have anyone in mind?"

"No, I just… This is all very sudden."

"Perfectly understandable, Dom. Do you have any other questions?" Dominique put the gaudy necklace around his neck and shook his head. In truth he had a lot of questions, but there was so much going on that Dom felt sick just trying to explore it all. "Then it's time for you to leave." Dom opened his mouth to ask Puriel what he meant by "leave". He had walked into a spiral tower with no foreseeable exits. How could he leave? It was after that thought though, that the tower began to crumble away and Dom woke up.

Dom's head jolted from the pillow and he blinked slowly, fatigue hanging over him. He didn't fully awaken until he heard the door to his room close. He sat up some and then went as still as possible until he heard the door next to his room close as well. Del. Had she just been in here?! Dom jumped out of bed and looked around his room. Had she moved something? Taken something? It didn't take him long to find out nothing had changed. But what could she have…? Had she done something to Him!? Dom checked his body for any injuries that he hadn't felt yet or new add-ons to his person. The only thing new he found was around his neck. Dom's eyes widened when he felt the pearls of the mirror and when he looked into the glass he couldn't believe his eyes. Had it been real? Had that dream really been real? The dead bodies, the tattoos, the contest, the prophecy, the curse…? Dom looked at the wall of his bedroom towards Del's own room. Did she really believe this!? And had she came in here to kill him? A chill ran down Dom's spin when the thought came to him and he looked back down at the mirror. They needed to talk about this.​

 

[Skymin]

Library of Souls

November 21st/22nd, 2012

Oakley bit her lip as the small girl's eyes clouded and she muttered words which felt like she had said a thousand times before. As Selephial touched her, she felt a burning sensation on her hip, a familiar feeling she had felt over a month ago. So, now she was branded 'World Changer'. What other labels could be placed on her?

Then, Lucifer appeared. Oakley shuddered, his name as ominous as his aura. He smiled at them as he spoke, but as he commented they were no longer friends, Oakley felt a lump rise into her throat. It sounded as if… as if this was a game to him. He wanted them to fight? For what purpose? Selephial said they were destined to change the world, but what exactly did that mean?

The scene changed around them with a wave of Lucifer's hand, and he continued.

"Before you go there is also something I have neglected to mention. As I said previously, one of the World Changers will become the victor and one of the Harbingers will become the true Sol. That final battle will occur in one month's time. I suggest you all train hard to make it a worthy fight." He smiled again. Oakley narrowed her eyes. She did not like this man.

"Wait, why do we have to fight?" She blurted out at him, but it was too late. He passed through the veil and disappeared from view. Surely the others couldn't agree, that fighting just because someone told you to was a good enough reason? She had never even met Lucifer before now. His tone suggested as if fighting was the only option, but he hadn't even given them a reason, other than the promise for more power. Was he even telling the truth? "Wait, guys!"

Her words went unheard, as one by one, the others stepped through the arch. She let out a sigh, following suite.

"Good evening, Ms. North." She was met with a large… thing. It stood on hind legs, balanced perfectly, with tan-like skin lined with pink fur. It had small horns protruding from its head, similar to a deer, and had red eyes, slits for a nose and no mouth. It even had a tail. She stared at it for a moment, feeling inclined to scream, or at least yelp, but she stayed silent. The thing got the general idea, frowning at her. "I am a Lemurian. As for where you are, this is your Library." What seemed to be the craziest thing about this Lemurian was that it had no mouth, yet it spoke. More Atlantean mumbo-jumbo she had to wrap her head around.

Her eyes were finally ripped away from the Lemurian to stare at her own Library which was literally… a library. Books lined shelves of all different shapes, sizes and colours. Fog clouded the end of the aisles, Oakley unsure of just how big this library was. She looked back at the Lemurian, her mind lighting up with so many questions. The Lemurian seemed to understand her before Oakley opened her mouth, but let her speak anyway.

"Do you have a name?"

"Not exactly. But you may call me Ariel. Not like the mermaid." Oakley's face of surprise returned.

"How did you know what I was thinking? Can you read my mind?"

"I am simply extension of your consciousness. I know what you know, and perhaps a little more. I am an echo from my life, passing down knowledge from student to student. As they learn, I live on." Oakley blinked, obviously confused and Ariel continued. "The Library of Souls contains information of the lives that have also carried the same ability you have. Some have led ordinary lives, some extraordinary but all are important. Like myself, they are echos and can communicate with you through this plane. I would encourage you to seek advice, or at least speak to one of them to experience the Library's purpose."

"This all seems so strange…" Oakley's eyes wandered again, her eyes trailing the books on the shelves. Was each book a past life? Each aisle? Each page?

"And the rest of your life isn't?"

Oakley smiled. "True." She head down the nearest aisle, taking a book of the shelf and carefully folding it open. As she read the first few sentences, it was as if she knew what was going to happen next, as if someone had spoiled the plot for her without her even knowing.

Suddenly, the words seemed to peel off the page and group together on the ground in front of her, forming a figure. A man, actually, who stood at almost twice the height of Oakley. Or at least it sure felt like it. From the words she had read, his name was Emerson Faber, a German from the 1600s. As terrifying as he looked, he smiled at her.

"Hello, how are you doing?" He said, in English no doubt. Oakley frowned at him and turned to Ariel. The Lemurian nodded.

"The language here is universal. Any and all languages can be spoken and understood."

"I see." Her gaze returned to the giant of a man. "My name's Oakley."

"Emerson. Pleasure to meet you." He held out a giant hand, to which Oakley automatically shook. The feeling was odd: his hand looked rough, but the texture she felt was just… that, a feeling. "What do you do, Oakley?"

"I'm a student. Well, I was. Now I don't know what I am. A world changer now, apparently." She shook her head sadly. Destined to be enemies with her friends, apparently. "What do you do?"

"I'm a farmer. I used my ability to work on my farm and protect my village from whatever I could. But it sounds like you've got yourself into a situation you'd rather not be in. Am I right?"

"Yeah." She looked at her shoes sadly. "Were you a world changer?"

"No." He smiled, shaking his head. "I knew not of Atlanteans until I died. I was just a farmer who came across a stone. Nothing more. But I had a purpose, all the same. I used my ability in a way I thought was right and I died with no regrets. What do you do, Oakley?" He repeated his last question. Oakley realised what he meant now. What did she do? What was she? What could she call herself? "What do you want to do?"

"I… don't know." He didn't seem disappointed with her answer. In fact, he smiled again.

"Next time you return here, we will try to find out. We all will." He gestured to the rest of the library. Oakley smiled back and went to thank Emerson, but her sight became blurry and darkened. Emerson disappeared back into words and the Lemurian came into view, nodding at her.

"Until next time."

Then, she woke.​

 

[SV]

Library of Souls

November 21/22, 2012

James continued to sit on the ground, staring wordlessly at his imaginary spot. He looked on in silent contemplation, where he waited for something to happen. He didn't know what, he wasn't sure if he cared what. He just knew the current situation as it was couldn't possibly be how things should be. A life without his powers wasn't a life worth living. In his short time with it, he had grown very attached to it. To see it all suddenly taken from him was unacceptable. Unbelievable. In fact, he could not believe it. He knew there had to be something else at play here. So he waited.

Then came the little girl and the talk of World Changers. James perked up, bringing his eyes to the girl as she spoke. She briefly explained what she meant by the term. James stood up, figuring he would give the girl a chance to explain more. Then came the tattoos, the prophecy, and the Harbingers. Lucas appeared again, which meant he was possibly in with some shady Atlanteans once more, which really was nothing new. Everything else came at him fast, and a lot of what they were saying he wasn't liking. At all. The only positive that he could take away was the extra juice he would be getting from the extra tattoo. Everything else was simply too much to take in at once. Or at least, he didn't know what to make of it. Talk of prophecy was definitely something he was detesting. Someone or something else holding his fate in their hands? No way.Yet even so, James proceeded forward through the arch, taking one last look at the rest of the group as he went inside.

The very first thing that greeted him on the other side was a noise, a strange, loud buzzing noise. It seemed to be coming from all around him, and it wasn't until he saw the sight in front of him that he understood why. James opened his eyes wide, observing the large room, which had in it dozens upon dozens of lightning strikes charging at separate corners of the room. It was as if each one of them had just struck at that moment onto the ground, but now some invisible force was keeping them all locked in place. It was noisy, with lightning particles bouncing off across the walls nearby these larger charges. Yet James felt entirely comfortable here. He could feel his power stir deep inside him, the first sign that everything was right again.

"Comfortable now, I hope?" A deep, low voice uttered to James through the buzzing, crackling sounds of the lightning. James turned and visibly flinched to see the monstrocity behind him, the humanoid-looking creature without a mouth.

"Holy f*ck!" James yelled out loud, backing away a few steps from the 'thing'.

"Relax, James," He creature spoke, though through no mouth to do it from. "I mean you no harm. I am merely your guide through the Library."

"Oh..." James replied, looking up and down the creature still in disgust, though the shock had worn off. "Well now I know why all those other guys were dead," he added, pointing back through the archway he had come from. "Library, you say?"

"Correct, Halfling. The Library of Souls, it is called. Though some have elected to name this particular sect of the Library by another name...The Library of Storms. It is a record of all of the electrokinetics before you. I am its caretaker, your counsel through its vast array of knowledge."

James gazed across the...library. Was it even right to call this place that? He saw no books or pads of any kind. Perhaps it was a special Atlantean library. When it referenced itself again, James turned back to the 'caretaker' and crossed his arms. "And you are...?"

"You may, if you wish, refer to me as Barakiel. I have been called that in the past, though we Lemurians have no proper names." Before James could ask more, as if knowing he would already do so, Barakiel began to delve into the answers. "It is the Lemurians who had bestowed upon Atlanteans the gift of their abilities. We were called 'The ones who came before', arriving and living on your planet long before your time, or the time of the Atlanteans."

"Riiight," James replied in a somewhat skeptical, somewhat uncaring manner. Whether or not what Barakiel said was true or not didn't matter. He wanted to get more into the bottom of the library, and everything else said before. "Not like any library I know of."

"Indeed," Barakiel replied, his voice echoing even through the buzzing of the lightning. "Quite unlike any library you've seen, I'm sure. In fact, very dissimilar from the many I have seen as well. The libraries adapt to the users. In this case, the library has formed into the only way in which it though you could learn...through combat." Barakiel lifted one of his disfigured arms and pointed toward one of the buzzing lightning charged. "You step toward the energy and unlock the essence and power of one who had come before you. Thereby, you can use the knowledge and power of the past kinetics to establish your future."

"My future," James repeated with a scoff and a slight chuckle. "And what future is that exactly? The prophecy and the harbinger bullsh*t and the end times? Do I just go ahead and do what they asked? Why should I? Why should I play their game?"

"I am not here to tell you what to do, Halfling, merely to show you the path. It is your decision to decide where to take it."

James chuckled again, dropping to his behind and sitting on the ground, with his arms wrapped around his knees. "It's all a bunch of bullsh*t to me."

The Lemurian came beside James now, staring at him from its awkward positioning, before once more speaking from its unknown origin, having no apparent mouth to do it from.

"I have watched you for quite some time now, halfling James. You are very much unlike many of your predecessors. Or perhaps you are a strand of yarn among strings. Unique in their design, but at the core, still fulfilling a similar function. Of this, I am yet unsure. Mostly because you are yet unsure." James cocked his head up and raised an eyebrow. "You are so close now, so close to discovering your true nature. As part of your subconscious mind, I find myself compelled to urge you to it now. To see."

"See what? What the f*ck are you on about?" He asked, somewhat annoyed at the creepy f*ker now.

"James...what is it that you want? Why is it that you do the things that you want to do? What is your motivation?"

James eyed the Lemurian in a perplexed manner. He didn't know how to immediately respond, so all he offered in response was a simple shrug.

"Oh, come now. You must know your motivation. Why did you cause havoc in the streets of San Diego, firing your ability into everyone and everything you could?" James shrugged again. "Why did you attack the Atlantean called Nix, having decided to leave the Royal Family?" Again, James silently responded with another shrug. "Why did you revel in the burning of Paris? And in your fight with the flamed Atlantean? And in the dispatching of the smoke Atlantean?" James brought his hands to his face, then began to clutch his head. "Why did you decide to murder that family? Even the children, even the infant, without a second thought? Why James, did you go with Henry that day into the taxi?"

"SHUT THE F*CK UP!" James yelled at the top of his lungs, standing back up to his feet. The library instantly reacted to his raised voice, the strands of lightning nearest him acting up and enlarging, before agitating and pulsating across the room. Barakiel did not move an inch, nor show any signs that anything was amiss. He continued calmly as James panted angrily.

"I am not trying to agitate you, halfling. I am trying to ascertain your motivations. Why, James?"

"BECAUSE!" James yelled back, before a jolt of electricty seemed to surge toward his brain. His eyes were wide open as his revelation began to process. "Because. Just because. Because I wanted it. I wanted change."

"You wanted change," Barakiel repeated. "And here, I thought all these outburts may have simply been random acts of incoherence." It seemed somehow that Barakiel was in tune with James' revelation at the same time he was.

"I wanted change," James repeated again with a smile. He stared down at his hands. "I needed to do all of it because each one was a step. Just like getting power is a step, and enacting the prophecy." James saw it now. Everything was a means to an end. The prophecy, the world changers, all of them weren't chains, they were opportunity. Something he could use to get what he wanted. His own way.

In front of James, the three items of the Harbinger appeared. James proceeded forward without a moments hesitation, grasping the sword and watching the other two items disappear from sight. "Sweep out the old and bring about the new," He stated, admiring the new bronze weapon in his hand.

"Then what of the prophecy and the other world changers? You will kill them?"

"Heh...not if I can help it, no," James explained eagerly. He stepped toward one of the large lightning tomes, admiring the way the electricity continuously alternated in form. Never permanent, ever-changing. "Atlanteans aren't the problem, they're apart of the new. I'll need to convince them. If not to join me, then to help me. And if they won't...then they'll be the necessary sacrifices to the new age."

"I see," Barakiel said. "Touch the energy to begin," he stated, to which James did. Immediately it lit up in a burst of light, causing James to visualize a thousand images at once, before one formed of another man, with a large black beard and clothing resembling that of an upscale man of the early 20th century. The man drew lightning from his palms. James drew back. Atlanteans were never the problem, they were the solution. The problem was simply the alternative.

After a while, James woke up in a startling fright. He was panting heavily, and his entire body was covered in sweat. Immediately, he felt a stinging sensation across his shoulder, remembering his eventful evening the night before. His body felt like sh*t, but as he reached to the side of his bed to find the sword he encountered in the dream world with him, he had never felt more alive. James controlled his breathing after a few more moments, sighed deeply, and then smirked.

"Humanity ends."

​

 

[Legend]

Library of Souls

November 22nd, 2012

"Hello?"

The words echoed in the dimly lit icy chamber that Nathaniel found himself in. His footsteps pounded into the sky as he walked in a circle on the ground floor, trying to make sense of where he was. The room was grand in scope with a bluish tint to the ice that decorated the walls and floor in an elaborate, weaving design. Statues and mirrors lined the outer rim of the room and a twisted pillar marked the center. Everything had an opulent, decorative feel to it. And while he could see his breath, the room hardly felt cold. Then again, it never did anymore.

"Hellooo?"

Again, the words just bounced back and dwindling silence responded. Nathaniel was left to the thoughts in his head. A scattered mess, Nathaniel did not necessarily struggle to sort everything out. He understood well enough what was said, and by this point he had almost grown used to everything. Yet, a second tattoo? Another prophecy? World Changers? Harbingers? And only one can be the victor? Much like before, he was struggling to make everything fit into the grander scheme of things and find the meaning behind it all. Yet, he was beginning to think that it wasn't supposed to make sense and simply accept it at face value. It certainly would make everything easier, but it didn't sit with him. For some reason, it felt uneasy. Nathaniel gritted his teeth together and rubbed his face with his hands trying to calm himself down. As he opened his eyes, a strange creature towered before him. With grey skin, frog like legs, and flexible tail, Nathaniel could have sworn a monkey fused with a frog before making an alien child. Yet it's bright blue eyes told a different story. Something about the eyes held wisdom in them, the creature moved slowly around Nathaniel, as if examining him. There was no hostility felt by Nathaniel as soon the creature walked away from Nathaniel and inspected the pillar at the center of the chamber.

"I take it you are the caretaker of the library?" Nathaniel asked.

"I personally never enjoyed calling this place a library," the creature said, shaking his head. "In a library, all the knowledge is ripe for the picking. All you must do is read and learn. I prefer to call this place a museum. It offers a glimpse into the past. You learn what you choose to see."

Nathaniel smiled at the creature and nodded his head, understanding what he meant. For whatever reason, he sensed the creature was old. Not even relatively speaking, but even old for what he was. "Who are you?"

"We Lemurians never really bothered with names. And I know you are feeling a small desire to ask what is a Lemurian, possibly in some attempt to polite, but yes, we even predate you Atlanteans and humans. In fact, we taught the Atlanteans almost everything they know, hence why they called us 'The Ones that Came Before.' Now what was my Atlantean name again? Oh, yes. Nuriel. You may call me that if it pleases you."

"Nice to meet you, Nuriel. I am N-"

"Nathaniel Calaway."

"How did y-"

"You know? I know many things, Nathaniel Calaway. I know that your favorite color is green which is why your favorite film is Star Wars Episode VI. Your best friend Nicolas hates you for it, but you ignore him because you find Episode IV to be quite boring," Nuriel said walking around the pillar as Nathaniel stood in place, watching intently. "I know that you miss your family, even if you were never close to your mother. I know that you are tired of hearing about prophecies. I know that the lives you believe you took haunt you. And I know that your greatest fear is not being strong enough for the trials ahead." Nathaniel eyes widened as the Lemurian listed fact after fact. "Welcome to the Library of the North."

"Library of the North…?"

"Housed here is a chronicle of every single, what's the word you people use, cyrokinetic before you. Some were good. Some were bad. Some treaded between both. Others were successful, where others failed. And a few did nothing with their gifts."

"And this is including me?" Nathaniel said, gesturing to himself.

"In due time, of course. You could say that your book is currently being written. I've read better ones, but you will fit right in. Of that, I am sure," Nuriel said, looking down at the young Atlantean.

"And what makes you say that, Nuriel?" Nathaniel asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

Nuriel flicked his head over to one statues that lined the wall, and halted before a statue of a seemingly tall man. The ice sculpture was finely crafted and Nathaniel could make it, long wavy hair, hardened facial features and a thick beard. The clothing reminded him of a cartoon character with a patterned kilt and a large, hulking sword. "Alpin the Cold. Born 1281 and died in 1302 in Scotland during its first war of independence against the British. Come, look at the mirror beside him."

Nathaniel didn't question Nuriel and peered into the mirror. "I just see myself."

"Do you?" Nuriel questioned with a strange expression glistening in his eyes.

"I-" And suddenly the reflection of Nathaniel warped into something new. Red locks replaced Nathaniel kempt dark hair. A furry beard consumed the face and the clothing became torn and battleworn. A large claymore was held overhead and the image panned out to an epic battle in what Nathaniel assumed was the Scottish countryside.
"Alpin was a great warrior fighting Scottish independence in a time where only a few bravely defended those ideals. He was proud, but in many ways noble and just. He wanted the best for his people and did what he could to protect his vision of an ideal future. He fought alongside a close friend in Ivor. The two fought bravely in many battles, until Alpin's true potential was unlocked. He earned his epithet due to his sword, which legends state that it froze other blades and men in their place. In due time, the battles grew nastier and tensions rose. Alpin believed that his vision was to soon become a reality. Until one day, Ivor had betrayed them. In the heat of a battle between the British, Ivor and his battalion of men failed to provide the reinforcements necessary to change the tides of war. Alpin managed to break through the enemy ranks, using his cold sword better than ever. The battlefield was said to be covered in ice at the end. Ivor and his closest lieutenants approached the weary Alpin. As per honor between Scotsmen at the time, Ivor engaged Alpin in single combat. Despite fatigue and a valiant effort on the part of Ivor, Alpin proved victorious. Yet he could not kill his friend. Ivor, in the end, slew Alpin in cold blood, ending the Scottish heroes life." As Nuriel narrated the story, matching images played in the mirror and Nathaniel witnessed every moment. The intense war. The cold sword. The betrayal. The single combat. And the death.

"Why did Ivor betray Alpin?" Nathaniel asked, looking away from the mirror. "What did he gain from it?"

"Perhaps it was jealousy? Alpin had gifts he did not. Or perhaps it was pride? Alpin was a greater man than he. Or perhaps there is no reason? Ivor was a man whose actions may have had no logic driving them," Nuriel answered, seemingly smiling in his own way.

"Why didn't Alpin finish him when he had the chance then?" Nathaniel persisted.

Nuriel smiled wider. "We both know the reason for that."

Nathaniel looked down solemnly, understanding exactly what he meant. "Are you saying that I am going to end up like Alpin if I can't bring myself to kill? That I am going to lose in the coming battles because I don't want to take more lives than I already have? I have come to terms with those acts but I-"

Nuriel halted the man's rant. "I am not as to be so cliché to tell you that I can only show you the door and tell you that you are the one to open it. No. That would imply that I intend for you to do something according to my intentions. Instead, I will give you the knowledge, skills and abilities to help you find your own door. It is your path to find and your destiny to forge."

Before Nathaniel could muster any sort of reaction, a large hand placed itself on his shoulder. He shifted to face the hand and his eyes set themselves on a man of comparable size and stature. He wore a dark suit, with a white waistcoat and a dotted tie with a small top hat placed upon his head, with brown hairs peeking out ever so slightly due to his well-trimmed hair. He sported a well-trimmed moustache, though Nathaniel felt it was a bit bushy to be at all comfortable on the face. "Oh, Nate my boy, I didn't think I was going to see you so soon after our fight!"

"Who? What?" Nathaniel stumbled back, terribly confused as he felt the library drift away from him.

"Oh, well. I'll be seeing you soon then!" The man said, tipping his hat to Nathaniel.

And then he woke up.



​

 

[Quest]

Atlantean Royal Mansion, Boston, England

November 22nd, 2012

"Ugh," Ruby moaned as she lay upside down on her bed, head lolling backwards down the side of her bed as she waited for Roxxy to finish choosing her revealing attire for the day. It was like this almost everyday for Ruby, waiting for Roxxy to get changed, she didn't even understand why she hung around considering Roxxy's ability to make friends with just about anyone in the mansion. In her mind Ruby figured that hanging out with Roxxy wouldn't do her too much harm; she certainly met a lot of the other students in the mansion and it wasted time between classes and training.

Roxana quickly went about choosing her outfit for the day. It seemed that in the month that she'd been there, all Genevieve seemed to do was complain about the time it took her to do so. In truth, she was probably right, but she never did leave without her. Roxxy merely attributed Ruby's complaints to being bored, but it wasn't her problem anyway. In a matter of minutes though, she was dressed in a full outfit, perfect for the cold day. With her signature black jean jacket, she wore a stunning navy blue blouse with skinny jeans and silver buckled boots. Grabbing a nice, line-patterned peach scarf to top it all off, she turned towards her roommate. "So, what is we're supposed to do today?" Hopefully, I won't after to answer questions like yesterday, she thought.

"You should really keep a track of classes, Roxxy," to be honest Ruby didn't even know the class schedule herself but kept a copy of one another student had copied for her. Still hanging her head upside down, she brought the scrap of paper from her pocket and in front of her vision. "Ummm," she scanned the paper for today, shifting her eyes down the column until she spotted their first class for today, "looks like we have Combination Class with Mister Evans out on the field." From what she knew of the class, Justin took it and everyone did it once a week.

"Combination class, huh?"

Placing her hands on the floor below her head, Ruby pushed herself in a handstand off her bed, ignoring her skirt which fluttered down her body to reveal her red underwear. She pushed her blood forward within her body as she almost toppled back over, causing her to continue her handstand and land her feet on the floor."Yeah y'know, that class where we learn to fight together." Slipping her feet into shoes at the end of her bed, she motioned for Roxxy to go ahead of her out the door.

"Oh, I know the class," the brown-haired girl replied as she walked out. "It just doesn't mean that I want to go. I do have to say though, that headstand worked well for you." She smiled as she walked down the hall beside the girl. It was a short ways to the field, but luckily there was enough distance for the two to have somewhat of a conversation. "So who is the teacher supposed to be today?" She asked. The Royal mansion had plenty of teachers and to say the least, some were a lot more likeable than the others.

"Justin Evans, the guy who controls "wood"." Ruby brought her hands up signalling quotation marks in the air to insinuate he obvious sexual connotation. "He looks like that hot actor, Breckin Meyer." Surely Roxxy had been around the mansion and ARF long enough to know who the leaders were, but Ruby just assumed the girl couldn't be bothered remembering. Her mind soon drifted off as she pictured Justin in her mind, except that the Justin in her head didn't quite have a shirt on...

"The 'wood' joke has kinda gotten old, hasn't it? Anyways, I've never really thought that Breckin isn't that hot of an actor. There is definitely others who I would take any day." She gave a look towards the black-haired girl. She never knew how frequent these day dreams were, but to say the least, the odds were they were about most guys. Or girls... There's something to ask when we have the time, she thought. "So Ruby. How long have you been here with the Family. We've been roommates for awhile and yet, we really haven't talked about each other." It was true. She herself had been there for a matter of weeks and yet she seemed to know nothing about the people in the school. She knew that the Family sucked at running the place, but nothing else.

"Yeah, true that," Ruby mused, mulling the thought over. As much as the two had shared a room and hung out within the same group of people, she barely knew anything of Roxxy's life outside of the mansion. "I've been here since mid-August, I came in with a couple of others after the Family rescued us. Do you..." Ruby paused, unsure of whether or not it was a good subject to broach, "do you still have family out there?" To her it sounded like 'out there' was an entirely different planet altogether.

"No one important." Looking back on her life, she only ever knew her parents. They themselves has kept apart from her extended family and the reasons had never quite been explained. She honestly wondered how they were doing, but at the same time, she couldn't help but not care. Two years was enough time to get over them. "I left a couple years ago and I haven't looked back. How about you? A lot of the kids talk about their parents or siblings at one point or another. Yet, I've never heard you mention them once?" She could tell it was a hard topic to touch, but if she asked it, what could it hurt?

"Never met them, my biological parents that is. I was in foster homes till what I think was my 14th birthday, then I ran away." Despite her hardship, Ruby didn't find it hard to talk about her life before the ARF; as far as she was concerned this was as much her home now as anything else. It wasn't like she was proud of not having a family, more so that it just didn't bother her all that much. "When did you find out about your ability?" She asked Roxxy, knowing full well that asking about someone's ability was a private thing to do, but then again they had both just opened up about their families.

Roxana laughed. She had forgotten some member of the Royal Family obtained their powers before the reveal, not that she was one of those cases. "Me?" She gave a smirk as she talked. "I found out when these all-powerful 'leaders' of ours revealed us to the world. Luckily, I was at one of the malls in Barcelona. I had just entered one of changing rooms when that damn tattoo shot up my back." She knew the girl had seen her tattoo a million times, not that she could recall seeing Ruby's. "How about you? The same time as me, or did you suffer with it before all of this mess?"

"It happened just before I came here. This old, blind man came along and touched me with this weird, blue crystal. Told me I was Atlantean. Of course, didn't believe a word he said until I cut myself on a piece of tin and the blood stopped flowing out and back in. Then this kid nearby went total psycho with his ability and yeah, the Family brought me back here." Ruby shivered as she recalled the boy's metamorphosis and how he had almost gutted her like a fish. "Back then there were only about fifteen or twenty students. After the reveal though, this place slowly filled."

"A random blind man?" The girl shivered at thought. "I honestly would've hit anyone who did that. It sounds like some perv would have just been attempting to fondle you or something." No matter the case, it was weird. Some way, that man knew she was an Atlantean before she did. How? "Did you ever see him again? Ever hear about him?"

"No, no I didn't..." Ruby trailed off as she saw a figure making their way down the hall. The last time she remembered seeing the guy was when they had all bailed before the cops arrived at the bar fight, was it... Austin? "Hey!" She called out to him as he drew near, "where are you off to in a hurry?"

"Oh, I was just uh...going to see Nate, have you seen him today?"

Ruby cracked up laughing, "Honey, you don't go and see Nate, at least in the mornings. Him and Antonia are an item now, they need their privacy." Ruby flicked her long black hair behind her shoulder, "why don't you come join us for Combo Class?"

Austin blinked, not really seeing the problem with visiting Nate, and anyway it was important. But it was pretty early, and Nate was most likely still dreaming.

"Yeah, sure!" Austin said with a smile. Roxxy was pretty hot now that he thought about it. Combination class might not be a bad idea after all if I'm going to be fighting anyone... He had a flashback to his training sessions with Antonia and twinged with regret at his missed opportunity.

Roxxy merely shrugged at Austin coming with. She hadn't talked to him much and he honestly didn't seem like the best company, especially after hearing Garrett and Kaido talk about his... Outbursts. Of course, they were just going to class, how could having him tag along hurt? "So Austin, it's nice to meet you. I'm Roxana." Her Spanish accent stood out when compared to their two different kinds.

"Oh right, you two have never met before, Austin, this is Roxxy. Roxxy, Austin." She signalled between the two, introducing them despite Roxxy having introduced herself before hand.

Austin waved hello to Roxxy when she was introduced to him. Luckily he wasn't awkwardly following the girls for too long. They made it to class shortly after.

It seemed like only a few students decided to turn up today; twelve in total and the three of them raised the number to fifteen. Ruby briefly greeted some of the other students she knew before moving into a spare space with Roxxy and Austin. All the students were set up in groups of two, and Ruby counted herself unlucky for having come with both Roxxy and Austin.

But just then, Austin caught a glimpse of Antonia walking down the hallway through a window. He turned to the girls and frowned.

"Uh, hey, I just remembered I have to uh, go do something. Err, see you later. Or not," he said. Without an answer, he quickly turned and left to go back inside after Antonia, and through her Nate.

"Good Morning," Ruby could see Justin's breath escaping his lips in a cloud of smoke as he spoke, "Since everyone has partners we can get straight into it. The idea of today's class is to work together with each other; sometimes you may not have your team-mates nearby and being able to adapt to other's fighting styles and abilities may be the difference between life and death." Justin almost sounded like Garrett during their 'Royal Guard' training sessions, and both seemed to be taking this 'world on the brink of change' think too serious. "First half of the lesson, you'll be required to convene in your teams and figure out how you'll all fight and start training to do so. Second half will require you to team up against another team."

Ruby nodded in agreement before looking across at Roxxy standing next to her. She wasn't quite sure how the two of them were going to compliment each other in a fight but they must be able to do something.

While Ruby had no idea on what to do, Roxana had already began to think up a plan. Luckily for her, many of the students here weren't kinetics (Or at least from what she could tell). This really gave her the opportunity to use her power to it's full ability, but how would Ruby's and her own complement each other? "Ruby, you can control blood right? What is the extent of your ability?"

"Uh, what do you have in mind?" She asked Roxana cautiously looking over her shoulder at the other pairs looking more confident in their partner choices.

"I can more or less absorb damage and use it to enhance my own abilities," she explained quickly. From the looks of it, most teams seemed sure of their plans. "Anytime, I'm hit or cut, I get stronger. Sometimes, it can take more time to reach a good point. Often enough, it takes longer with elemental powers. It seems that we lucked out in that department. I may need you to cover for me while I build up, but it also really depends on what you can do."

"Could we like, super charge you before the fight? If I attack you now, could you hold onto that damage enhancement till we fight? or would it just like, drain away?" Ruby looked down at her hands, feeling the blood pulse through her veins. Her body could produce more at a moments notice when she needed it, but use too much blood and she could faint.

"Typically, the enhancement lasts awhile. It depends on how much damage I take though. I can absorb damage, but not all of it. Right now, I can only take in about fifty percent of the attack, but nothing. You hitting me a few times could easily help, but the question is, is it enough?"

"We'll only know if we try. Where would you like me to hit?" Ruby smiled, she never had the chance to properly hit someone before.

"I'm telling you now, it probably won't do much." Ruby wasn't the best of partners for a physical attacker, but she would make due somehow. With a sigh, she pointed towards her arm. She partly knew it wouldn't help too much, but why not give her a try?

Feeling the girl hit her, however, put a sour look on Roxxy's otherwise pretty face. Just as expected, Ruby's punches did barely anything. There wasn't even a chance that it would help at all. "We may have to rely on me taking a few hits during the exercise," she told her. She had fought long enough beside Nix and Antonia to know a few tricks here and there. It looks like she knew what she needed to rely on.

"Okay, I think I have an idea." Ruby ran the idea through her mind, hoping that it would work. "If you let me, I could create a kind of 'second skin' from your coagulate blood. I would only need enough to cover the top of your hands which would allow you to punch harder." Ruby was unsure if it meant Roxxy was going to take less damage and then be less likely to power up. "What do you think?"

"I don't think that will help." She told her bluntly. There was no way clotting up blood over her hands would make her "punch harder." Well, I guess there was a reason she lost so quickly to Nate, she thought. Ruby was pretty and nice, but to be entirely honest, she may be useless in a fight.

"Alright everyone," Justin summoned them in closer Ruby feeling bad for dragging Roxxy down, "the first half of our class is over, so let's get to it. The fight will be over when either team calls 'truce' or I decide the fight has gone on longer than necessary. Ruby and Roxxy, you two will be up first against Jake and Chrysta."

Ruby watched as Jake and Chrysta walked up confidently to stand opposite her and Roxxy. From what she had seen during their training Jake could control paper and Chrysta's spinning was deadly. Looking behind her at Roxxy, Ruby pleaded with her eyes that Roxxy forgive her for being so bad. "If I can get close, I might be able to take out Jake." They had no time to plan out their attack now; all they could do was improvise. Biting down on her tongue, Ruby winced as the pain jolted her system, yet she kept on biting until she felt the warm flow of blood in her mouth.

"Good, because we need to go for Paperboy over there," Roxxy told her partner as she looked at her opponents. Had she been with her teammates, things would've already been going smoothly. "He can get us from this far. The closer we get, the better." Without warning, Chrysta began rotating, slowly at first and using her foot to build up momentum, until she was spinning like a spinning top. Then the onslaught started. From behind her paper began firing into her back, only to be picked up by the momentum and spun, arcing around Chrysta's body and flying directly towards the two girls.

Pulling the blood from her mouth, Ruby soon had a decent handful of it before willing the wound on her tongue to coagulate with blood. If she ever needed it again, she could easily utilise it again. From her hand, small balls slightly bigger than a marble began forming until she had a dozen coagulated balls of blood resting in her hand. "Roxxy, get me as close as you can!" she spoke over the paper whistling around them, "I can use their own tactics against them."

Roxana laughed at the thought of Ruby attempting to tell her what to do, but got in front of the weaker girl, putting her arms in front of her face. If they were going to do this right, they needed to do it smart. Of course, the paper did nothing major. Here and there she felt a scratch, but for the most part, none of it even ripped her clothes. Or at least until it hit her leg, where she easily felt the cold air against her skin as she ran. He's going down.

As they got closer, Ruby peaked out the side of Roxxy's body, if her view of Jake was obscured by both Chrysta and Roxxy, then his view of her was the same. Leaning out, a dart skipped past her, nipping at her ear and causing a small amount of blood to trickle out. Ignoring the throbbing pain, she began picking each ball up one by one having them hover in her hand before carefulling making them fly towards Chrysta. The balls were small enough that they would have beep tiny blips on her radar, and so she let them fly, arcing around Chrysta and pelting Jake with the hard, condensed balls of coagulated blood.

When she heard Jake cry out in pain, she took that as her cue to leave Roxxy to dispatch Chrysta while she secured Jake. Running around the otherside of Roxxy, Ruby edged around Chrysta's rotating body and on towards where Jake was now sprawled on his knees. By the looks of it, her balls had hit him below the belt. Gathering the balls back into her hand and summoning more blood from her mouth, Ruby fashioned two small spikes, kicking Jake backwards and effectively pinning him to the ground through his shirt.

Letting Ruby do her own thing, Roxxy took the time to tackle the spinning girl, who wasn't moving fast enough to do any real damage. Taking a few hits before being sent back, she began looking for any opening. She could easily keep tackling her, but that would get old fast. Instead, she let herself tackle one more time. Quickly, she received the same results, but as she was sent back, she smoothly positioned herself on the ground and let a foot head towards the Chrysta in a sweeping motion. The girl had no idea what hit her as she fell to the ground.

"Fight over," Justin called from the side lines, the rest of the class clapping as Ruby broke her spears off, leaving what blood was buried in the ground there and feeling the blood return to her body.

Roxxy smiled and put a hand out towards Chrysta, who politely accepted.

Ruby did the same, holding a hand out she offered to help Jake up off the ground, which he seemed all too happy to accept. Only it backfired on her, Jake pulling Ruby to the ground before pushing himself up off the ground. "Don't you ever touch me with your filthy power again!" he spat before storming off towards the mansion.

Almost immediately, Roxana walked after him. "Jake," She called once with no answer. "Paperboy!"

This time, the boy turned around with a wide smirk on his face. "And what do you want pretty girl?" It sounded like he was trying to act tougher than he was and for a moment Roxana laughed, clenching her fist.

"Pretty girl," she said with a sarcastic smirk just before catching up to him. "Is that really all you can come up with?" Her fist connected with his stomach before even finishing her sentence. Watching as he clutched his stomach, she lifted his chin slightly. "That one was for being rude and this one'll be for my outfit that I put so much time into this morning." Not even moving her hand, she slapped him as hard as she could with the other. He was probably unconscious before he hit the ground.​

 

[Retro Bug]

Renegades Flat, London, England

November 22th, 2012

Light crept into the room and made its way to the collection of pillows, blankets, papers, and paint, which stirred upon feeling its touch. Previously, the windows had been boarded up with wooden panels, most likely for this reason alone. It bothered Marwa very little, she rose from the floor, also known as the place where she had a tendency to fall asleep, covered in her various art supplies and research materials. Flecks of dried paint dotted the corners of her face, that, and every bit of clothing she wore over the past nine days. Her ability worked no matter what artistic style she utilized to create the image, as of late she had an overwhelming urge to paint and so that is what Marwa did day in and day out. Raguel had generously supplied a lot, if she were to run out Marwa was confident that Scott and Enrique could be recruited into doing this favor. There was doubt that they would hesitant to gather her more as it gave them an excuse to cause ruckus out in the world, not that they needed one. However, there wasn't a need to do that, Marwa hadn't become wasteful with her paint. In fact, she had become so meticulous that every stroke was noted, and, yes, she counted all eight thousand four hundred and ninety-three of them. Perfection wasn't an easy task by any means yet somehow Marwa had achieved it.

Outside the door was howling and screaming and ability use, a daily occurrence. None of those that occupied the house got along that well, especially when they were all in the same room. Amazingly everything still ran smoothly and not one to want to risk changing the house dynamics Marwa kept to the background. A simple task indeed, sometimes the others would want her to weigh in on their disagreement(s) but Marwa would smile and decline. On her fingers she could count the number of words she had spoken since that embarrassing incident with Andre… His presence was still the most difficult to be around. She did everything in her power to stay away from him, which turned out to be easier than expected. Many of the days she spent in her room where no one bothered her.

Budapest would be an entirely different ballgame than Qatar. Plenty of research had gone into this attack on Marwa's part, whatever Andre or Pietr's plans were she knew very little. Beasts lurked on the pages of her canvas, soon they would be able to paint a city red. Marwa picked at the dried paint until she stood in front of the mirror to properly wash it off. With the bathroom clear Marwa suspected that everyone else had already sat down for breakfast, a meal she had successfully avoided since she had gotten there. Constant companionship was something she hadn't fond of just yet and there were just too many things happening for Marwa to keep up with.

Marwa bent over and shuffled together the seemingly random pieces of paper, they were research on the Atlantean activity that had happened for the past month. Once that task had been completed she scrubbed the paint off of her face until the area was raw. Marwa rolled up her prayer mat that she had left out after Fajr, a last minute thought persuaded her to take it with. She supposed that she didn't have to hide her religious side, but Marwa wasn't willing to present anything that might cause a rift between her and the more liberal Renegade members. A shrug was all she had left to give on that matter and Marwa proceeded downstairs where the rest of the team waited. Slung over her right shoulder was a backpack where several of her paintings and scrolls were contained, the larger rolled paintings stuck out of the largest potion as their length was too long to fit.

Eventually conversations naturally ceased, everyone was aware of their individual and group missions, Raguel would not be pleased if they failed. Scott opened a portal, Nora and Enrique stepped through it together after the obligatory goodbyes and good lucks, and they were off to ravage the Vatican. Another portal was summoned for Pietr, Andre, and Marwa, Budapest was their city to pillage. The second time through the portal wasn't much better than the first time, it still made her feel dizzy afterwards.

~ ~ ~​

Andre shivered as he stepped through the doorway. Going from the warmth of the flat straight into the freezing cold morning air of Budapest was a little shock to the system. Shoving his gloved hands in his armpits, Andre watched his breath escape his mouth and float up into the air while he waited for Pietr and Marwa to make their way through. Looking around, Andre noted that Scott had opened the door to what appeared to be the Central Business District of Budapest; looking across to a twin building, he was sure that Scott had hit his mark and delivered them to the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest.

With only a nod of his head, Pietr ran towards the lip of the building, not slowing down before he jumped from the edge. As soon as he was airborne, his BASE-jumping wing-suit flew into action; the material unfurling as he spread his arms wide during the jump. Andre watched him disappear beyond the lip of the building and appear gliding down towards the street in the distance.

"Pietr will give us the signal, then you can start." He turned to address Marwa whom had been the last to arrive through the portal, "are you nervous?"

The coldness nipped at Marwa's face forcing her to adjust her hijab, this was one of her favorites, it was striped and two-toned, yellow and gold. By nervous she knew he meant about the mission and the answer to that was, "No." But there was nervousness lingering inside her except it had nothing to do with the mission and everything about her current companion. What if he brought up their last conversation... Her only resort was to keep him talking about other subjects. "How are you alive?" Marwa tried not to fixate on the injured side of his face, but if what the papers had recorded about Andre's supposed death were to be believed he should've suffered far worse than that.

"It was luck," Andre figured she must have been a bit at ease with half his face not to mention half his body was one giant burn. "I was at a prearranged meeting with Pietr, we needed to fake my death to the point where no one would ask questions. My brother and his friends knew nothing of my second ability, so before Pietr exploded, I turned myself into glass." Holding his hand out in the air between them, Andre pulled off his glove and showed Marwa the scared hand that turned briefly into glass then back. Replacing the glove he returned his hand to his armpit before continuing, "When Pietr exploded I was blasted apart and scattered throughout the shop. It took me a while, but I managed to piece myself back together, shard-by-shard, before anyone was able to make their way to the epicentre. Pietr and I escaped back to the flat, but as we made our way out a car exploded to my left, burning half my body." His skin tingled as the feeling of the fire burning off his skin was etched into his memory.

"Oh," Marwa replied. She felt as if it was a bit excessive that Andre faked his own death instead of just leaving like that girl, Rose (she believed?), he had mentioned. She could've questioned that but instead she felt that was minimal compared to the rest of the story that he told her. Such as the second ability part, as far as Marwa knew no Atlantean was able to have more than one, right? That's what all her research had told her. "Second ability...?" Marwa watched as his hands shifted from burnt flesh into glass proving that he indeed had another power beside his known Felinae Morphology. "If you were glass, shouldn't you have melted?" Marwa questioned, an explosion like that would've reached a dangerously high temperature, definitely enough to liquefy glass.

"I should have," Andre definitely counted himself lucky after that day, "Pietr's explosions are what is called 'Entropic Explosions'; in which there is a large change in volume without the typical release of a large amount of heat." Andre had trusted that Pietr was right about his own ability, after all the man was a scientist, but just hearing the word 'explosion' brought flames and heat to mind. In the end, he was alive now, and that's what really mattered.

"Any other questions?" Andre let out a nervous laugh, after retelling the story, still unsure how to feel about the event that happened over a month ago.

"How do you have two abilities?" Marwa asked her next pressing question, slowly she went down the mental checklist of questions that had arisen while Andre spoke. "Everything I've read said Atlanteans only have access to one."

"I'll show you," he motioned for her to extend to him her arm. When she had, he gasped the inside of her arm, up near the elbow, "It's done skin-on-skin, with both participants holding each other like so." He referenced how he was holding her before letting go. "The party giving the ability has to want to give it away; and act of full commitment otherwise it won't work. However, the person taking it only has to accept the ability being given to them. It takes a minute or two, but you'll feel the power, the energy racing through your arm and soon you'll have a new tattoo and ability." He pulled the neck of his jacket down to reveal a circle tattoo that looked like it had been shattered.

Andre tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck in the process, "It's not a well known process; only a few people outside of the Renegades know how to do so. The book I got it from was in some old section of the library back at the Mansion."

Thankfully, her intense interest for this subject didn't allow her to dwell long on his touch. This was definitely something she wanted to do more studying on. Was there a limit to how many powers one could have? Was this the only way to transfer abilities? There were so many questions yet she knew she didn't want to barrage Andre with all of them. If only she could get her hands on that book...

"Who gave you that ability?" Marwa hoped that was an innocent question, hopefully not too prying. Another one dawned on her that she should've asked prior to the one she just stated, regardless Marwa still spoke it, "Are those the only abilities you have?"

"Yeah, haha," he laughed at the line of questioning she had directed at him, not that he minded much, "those are the only two I have. The Glass ability; that was a gift from a friend. It's a long story, too long for today I'm afraid." As he turned around to the waking city, Andre noticed the explosion over the Danube River as the iconic Chain Bridge fell into the freezing water below. "Alright, you're up, Marwa."

For the first time Marwa looked out onto the city that stood before them, it would never be the same after today, but that wasn't a bad thing. Its inhabitants were just raising for the day, not yet the bustling city that it could be. Soon the bridge collapsed as a signal from Pietr, Marwa knew it was no longer the Pearl of the Danube. How many would suffer the river's wrath? The number would never be enough to make up for what the world was doing to Atlanteans. It was a start, however. Marwa slid the backpack off of her shoulders and moved it to the ground in front of her where she had begun to kneel. Then she took out a few medium-sized stones and gently placed them on the edges of the painting. Qatar had made headlines, but Budapest would dominate them. In the EU it had the most Atlantean Centers, was one of the largest cities, and one of the most popular tourist destination. There was nothing more the world loved than a good show and Marwa was about to give them one the size of Paris.

Faith was instrumental in hauling Marwa through the start of this process and inevitably a prayer was necessary before continuing on to such a pivotal moment in history. Whatever today resulted in she would need Allah's blessing and forgiveness. Though, it wasn't restricted to her faith in Allah and all that he stood for, but also her faith in Atlanteans. That they would take in this circumstance with open arms and mold it to better equip themselves against those that would do them harm. Humans needed to know that Atlanteans will not be subjected to the anymore of the vile abuse and their reign of dictatorship was over.

The breath that she held in was released along with a prolonged sigh. All of her concentration must be firmly focused on the three paintings she had laid in front of her. Her clothes ruffled in the slight breeze, the cold eager to touch her bare skin. To summon these creatures would drain a lot of her energy. Ever since Qatar this is the very moment Marwa had been waiting on, all of the practice had to pay off now. The middle painting began to react first, it was by far the biggest of the trio and had the most exotic coloring. Blues, Reds, Greens, and Oranges were the most prominent on the page. A set of ivory white claws lifted from the paper they were painted on. The rest of the painting ripped itself from its former home and disappeared into the skies above, the only trace of it was an echoing roar.

Both paintings that remained followed suit and leapt off their respective papers and fled into the clouds above. Anxious to see her masterpieces animated and fully functioning Marwa stood at the edge of the building they were on and watched them create absolute chaos. Her first conjured painting was by far the largest and certainly the most likely to instill fear in the hearts of the citizens of Budapest. The winged-beast was truly a magnificent sight to marvel at as the sunlight highlighted the hues of green and blue in its iridescent scales. Not all parts of the monster were gifted with the scales such as its underbelly, which extended to the inner most parts of its legs and tail, underneath its feet, and wings. The body of the reptilian creation was bulky, so much so that its forelimbs resembled a trunk of a giant sequoia tree. Its wingspan was proportional to the length of its body and that was about 10 meters. Spikes that were black in color ran rampant on the beast, small ones covered the outermost portions of its wings and the much larger ones travelled down from head to tail.

It was a creature designed to be capable of mass destruction and it had immediately begun to do so once it had grounded itself. Each time it moved its legs they smashed into nearby building decimating them in seconds. Debris flew in every direction when it flapped its wing and so did chunks of human flesh. Restless was its tail as it swiped back and forth crashing into anything and everything within range. It didn't take long for the beast to bulldoze through shops, homes, Atlantean Centers, and anything that was erected in its path. From time to time a concentrated stream of intense, bright orange flames erupted from its mouth, drowning the entire block in flames. How would the citizens of Budapest deal with their very own dragon?

One of Marwa's other creations caught her attention with the ruckus it was creating near the fallen Chain Bridge. It was a combination of two kings, the king of the beasts and the king of the birds. The head, wings, and talons attached to its front legs were that of an eagle while its body, tail, and hind legs were that of a lion. Griffins were majestic yet ferocious creatures and this one wasn't an exception. A last minute influence had changed the color scheme of this creature, instead of golden lion parts she had decided upon shades of deep purples and colored its eagle feathers a slate gray. Unfortunately for those that resided in Budapest it hadn't been feed breakfast so it hunted down and devoured those who dared to lurk outside.

Another creature flew right in front of Marwa; it had the haunches of a lion, the wings of a bird, and the face of a human. Out of the three this one would received the most media attention, well, Marwa sure hoped. This part of the plan she hadn't run passed Raguel or any of the Renegades for that matter. Humans would need to put a face to this incident and here she was giving them one on a silver platter. She had spent an entire day on the face; the amount of paparazzi images she went through to get the perfect compilation of features was exasperating. In the end all three hundred and fifty seven strokes were worth it. Marwa wondered how Andre would react seeing his brother's face flying around the city. Leo the Sphinx, it didn't have the nicest ring to it but Marwa was far from caring about that aspect. Half a body lingered in Leo's mouth and blood smeared the edges of it. It landed on one of the newest Atlantean Centers and let out a blood-curdling screech, Marwa watched as her other two creatures stopped what they were doing and responded with their own gut-wrenching screams.

Budapest was being slathered with the blood of those within. Marwa casted her thoughts to three separate locations in the city, all ones she had done extensive research on. First was the largest church in Budapest, St. Stephen's Basilica that was only a few blocks from their location. Its pillars were noticeable from where she stood. Off flew her first creature with flames spewing from its mouth the entire way. The destination for her most regal monster was to attend to the Central European University, she watched as it soared through the air. Danube Promenade was the final place where terror was to take place and her second hybrid creature took off toward it. After this incident Budapest would never be recognizable as each of its landmarks were to be stripped from it and crushed into non-existence.

From her bag Marwa retrieved several smaller scrolls, which allowed her to call forth the pawns of this army, zombies, knights, vampires, werewolves, and other fictitious humanoid creatures that sprung into action. As soon as she was done Marwa knew she had overstepped her safety boundaries, blood poured from her nose and with each cough she spat out more. Her body was racked with pain prior to it all going numb. Before she became more familiar with the stone streets beneath her something stopped her descent, Andre. Marwa felt comforted as he laid her backwards, she turned toward his face and watched as his lips moved but a trio in the sky above caught her attention. They circled each other like some sort of ritualistic dance before diving downward to finish the destruction they had started.​

 

[Skymin]

Atlantean Unification Project Headquarters, Toulouse, France

November 22nd, 2012

Oakley woke, consciousness hitting her like a tonne of bricks. At first, she forgot where she was, expecting to wake up in her old room back in her father's house, or perhaps even back in the large, warm bed of the Librarian's "house". The white walls of her room at the AUP didn't make her feel comfortable like her other homes of the past month had been. Atticus had told her she could do what she wanted with the room (other than completely destroy it), it was her own space now. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't. Despite the length of time she had been with the AUP (just over a week), her stay here still felt temporary. Like anything could happen, and she would have to get up and leave at any moment.

It was then when the previous night fell on her, remembering the "World Changers", Selephial, Lucifer and the Library. It felt so real, as if she had really been there with all of the others, but knowing she had only woken up moments before made her brain feel hazy and confused. Or perhaps that was just because she was confused in the first place.

A quick question or statement to either Dom, Thayne or Del would confirm if the night before was just her brain's subconscious reflecting her anxiety or if it did actually happen, but honestly… she didn't want to believe it was true. That she had been "chosen" or some garbage. To be forced against some who she considered her friends, plus her brother (which was another thought for another day), for a reason that hadn't been mentioned or specified… She just wanted it to all go away. For the world to return to what it had been, or at least a peaceful Atlantean world… that's what she wanted.

Well, it wasn't like she was going to get it anytime soon, anyway. She'd have to stick with what she had.

She pulled off her pyjamas, pulling on some red sweater and a pair of jeans somebody had given to her. When she felt presentable enough, she poked her head out the door into the long hallway, only to be surprised by an amount of ruckus. A few other members, none that she had met entirely, quickly stepped down the hallway to the elevator as if they were in a rush. Oakley stared at them, hoping to get some clue on what was going on, but a familiar face seemed to solve that issue. She called out to him.

"Atticus!" She stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. He stopped, looking back at her. He was frowning, perhaps nervous or just impatient, but waited for Oakley to ask her question. "What's going on?"

"Trouble." He said, but elaborated. "There was an explosion in Budapest. It looks like someone's attacking."

"Like Paris?!"

"Yeah, kinda." He looked to the end of the hallway, then back at Oakley, his impatience growing higher. He shook his head and beckoned her. "Just come to the brief. Everything will be explained there."

Oakley nodded and followed him, down the hall, into the elevator with other AUP members and down into the briefing room. Oakley recognised this room from when they had when they had briefed for the mission on the boat. Where Thayne had been found. Instead of Atticus at the front, it was Emil, with Cooper standing by his side. The Librarian was also there, looking chipper, sitting behind the two with a cup of tea in his hands.

It looked as if they were the last to enter the room, though the room itself was pretty empty. Thirty to forty AUP members were seated, eyes on Emil. Oakley recognised a few of them -- Freddie and Julian next to each other (Atticus taking his seat next to them), Natalia, as serious as usual with a red-headed girl next to her and Misha next to her, as well as Imogen looking rather disgruntled on the back wall, leaning against it. There were a few newer faces Oakley recognised from Lindholm, looking attentive and excited (at least Simon was), as well as Delta, Dom, Thayne and Elpis as they wandered in.

Oakley noticed Devon, sitting towards the back and took her seat next to him. He still had a difference that Oakley couldn't put her finger on, but didn't mention it, silently waving to him. He acknowledged her with a nod, but turned back towards his father as he began to speak.

"Just before nine o'clock this morning, there was an attack on Budapest. First, the Chain Bridge was destroyed, and soon after, attacks of… beasts of Atlantean nature, hostile against anything in the city." Devon glanced at his watch, Oakley following his eyes. It was around 9:15am. "Unfortunately, there are not as many members here to engage as there were in Paris, but those nearby have been contacted and are on their way if their own mission is not an emergency. Due to travel time, the Librarian has offered to teleport us to Budapest."

"It's on my way." He smiled, standing and taking his place next to Emil and nodding at the group. "It's the least I can do for you lovely people." Cooper narrowed his eyes at him, unimpressed.

"An incident of this size could very quickly escalate to that of Paris, but luckily we have time on our side. We will be split up into groups and attempt to apprehend and capture the thread, and if possible," his eyes glanced over Elpis, "remove their ability. But capture is indeed the priority. Now, gear up and head to the plane. We will teleport the plane, then fly back as the Librarian is previously engaged. Be ready as soon as you can." The Librarian earned another set of narrowed eyes from Cooper, though Emil himself seemed grateful for the help. The members started to move, shuffling from their seats.

"Are you going?" She turned to Devon. He nodded back. "Your Dad isn't bothered?"

"He doesn't seem to care much nowadays." Devon shrugged. It didn't seem to worry him. Not on the outside anyway. "Besides, I got my rock. Let's get going."​

 

[Swolligator]

Presidential Suite, Hilton Hotel, San Diego, California, United States

November 22nd, 2012

Lucas' eyes had clouded over as he stood overtop James' resting head; his fingers lightly hovering over the boy's temple. Once each of the World Changers had stepped through the dreamscape portal into the Library of Souls, he said goodbye to his sister before pulling the dreamscape from her head. He had to take a step back as his vision returned to normal and his soul returned to his body. Bringing his fingers up to his own temples he began massaging it trying to reduce the throbbing that had started there. Lately he had been experiencing these minor headaches following the use of his power despite his millennia spent learning its every facet. Perhaps this child Atlantean's electrical prowess was messing with his own brain. Nether less, he stepped away from James' sleeping body in one of the guest bedrooms and headed to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

After his late night call, Mitchell had honed onto James' whereabouts via the GPS in the phone Lucas had gifted him; picking the comatose boy up from his hiding spot on the roof of a nearby apartment building. He had little injuries that Mitchell couldn't repair with their limited medical supplies in the Presidential Suite. While Mitchell had set to work repairing the boy's torn and battered body, which would heal eventually due to his Atlantean heritage, Lucas used him as a fulcrum to tether the other World Changers to his dreamscape. For years he had been playing this role while his brothers and sisters fought amongst themselves, but this year was going to be different. Finally he had a World Changer in his own pocket.

Drinking deeply from the glass, he finished it all in one go, filling the glass up again and taking another swig of water. Manipulating peoples dream states somehow always made him thirsty and he had yet to find the connection between the two. Even Gabriel whom had every power under the universe still could not explain it. Regardless, he had just set the timer on a bomb that had been two thousand years in the making. He wasn't sure the others knew exactly what Gabriel was planning or even how long he had been planning such an event; they were too caught up in their petty fights with one another to see the bigger picture.

"Mitchell, bring me the dossier on the World Changers, would you?" Each member of their Atlantean family had received this folder of dossiers from Gabriel with information outlining each of the World Changers.

"Yessir," Mitchell nodded to his employer before returning with a thick manila folder.

Opening up the folder, Lucas began spreading out the pages one by one so that each file was next to one another. On the front page of each dossier was a candid photo taken of each person followed by their names, height, weight, anything at all they needed to know about them was all contained within. Austin, Charlotte, Delta, Dom, James, Nate, Oakley, Thayne, Wyatt; certainly each one of them was a force to be recognised. Placing both Charlotte and Wyatt's dossiers back into the folder, Lucas concentrated on the seven remaining; four World Changers and three Harbingers of Light. His eyes shifted from each file until finally resting on James' which he had marked the header of with his name.

"Gabriel has definitely done his research this time around; these chosen ones seem like they'll make for a good fight. Don't you think, Mitchell?" Lucas asked without moving his gaze from the file.

"Certainly sir, I think you've chosen wisely with this one." Mitchell obviously meaning the unconscious James lying in the guest bedroom.

Lucas pondered the thought for a moment, "I'm not too sure about that. He's powerful; don't get me wrong, but others like Mayor or Calaway or example are just as powerful. James is a loose cannon which makes him a lot more dangerous and a lot more unstable. He'll do what he wants, how he wants and there is little I can do to guide that process."

"So then why this one, sir?" Mitchell asked hesitantly.

"Firstly he fell into my hands; Gabriel mentioned that this generation would be held in Europe but somehow Hazen made his way back to America. Secondly, as dangerous and as unstable as Hazen is, it makes him the most willing to take out his opponents in any way possible." Lucas flicked through the file on James; reading through the boy's past and present.

"That sounds like a dangerous plan, sir. Who do you think the others will be the benefactors of?"

"Good question," Lucas responded as he filed each dossier back into the manila folder; his dream based ability alerting him to the fact that James was now on the verge of waking. "Michael has a soft spot for his children, always has, so no doubt he'll choose daddy's little girl. I'm not so sure on the others."

Handing the folder back to Mitchell, Lucas nodded at him to return it to the hidden draw beneath his desk. If James ever saw the files it would be considered a breach of their long standing rules. Even though they had never let him play before and now he was pushing his way into the game, he still had to adhere to the rules no matter how much he disliked them. There was a distinct honour between them when it came to sibling rivalries like these, and everyone stuck to this system. He stretched his arms in the air, enjoying the feeling of his muscles stretching out after not having used them for so long. He could feel his heart beat racing inside his chest, the excitement of joining this battle of the siblings firing him up. He knew just what he needed to do in order to get James to the final battle, and was more than happy to support James with whatever funds he would need.

"Aah, so nice to see you again, Mr. Hazen, how was your sleep?"​

Vatican City State, Rome, Italy

November 22nd, 2012

Unlike Enrique, Nora didn't have an infinite supply of wind at her disposal to call up on whenever she needed it. Over the previous week she had spent several excursions a day with Scott in tow to places like Hong Kong, Osaka, and Seattle. There she would intake as much Neon from the signs hanging around the place until she was practically brimming with it only to come back to England and release it during her training. Each day she could intake a little more Neon than the previous as she forced herself to hold in more until last night when she filled up for the last time. Now stepping through the magical door Scott had opened up between them and the back streets of the Vatican.

It was a lot warmer in the Vatican than had been in London, but the two of them had still wrapped up warm to evade the chill in the air. Like London, it was still the early hours of the evening but as the pair made their way towards the heart of the city they were surprised by the amount of tourists milling about.

"I don't know about you, but this looks like it could be a lot of blood on our hands," Enrique shivered as a cool breeze swept over them, envying Nora's resistance to the draft.

"We're here to wreak havoc, not murder people." She commented on his sudden act of compassion, "if people get caught in the crossfire then they're just unavoidable losses." Nora wasn't exactly cold-hearted, she was just doing her job that needed to be done.

"That's one way to look at it," Enrique summoned a small gust that picked up a lollipod from the hands of a small child and brought it over to himself. Smiling, he unwrapped the wrapper and popped the cherry candy in his mouth. "I dunno, juss not sure thisis wha she wan."

Nora cringed in disgust at Enrique's lack of manners, "Sounds like you're ready to defect, wouldn't wanna do that now when you're so close to these…" taunting Enrique, Nora pulled on the hem of her top, revealing more of her already revealed chest.

"Nora, you tempt me too much, make me go muy loco!" He let out a laugh that seemed to come from his stomach.

"I do what I can to keep you boys in line. Now, I'm pretty sure this is it."

The road soon opened up into a large square; monolith rising to the sky in the middle of a fountain while a large building surrounded them on three sides. Tour guides and guards waited at entrances as people milled about in the courtyard looking like a flock of lost birds; all around they chattered in different languages and grouped together with one another. Both Enrique and Nora took a couple of minutes to stare at the beauty of the place before Nora's phone interrupted their peace.

Checking the screen, she nodded at Enrique that indeed they had arrived at the right place; St Peters Square and that now it was time for them to get into action. Nora watched as Enrique summoned the wind around his body; at first lifting him so his toes just touched the ground and soon propelling him up into the sky. Nora retreated from the epicentre as the wind began to pick up and loose material started to become circling projectiles. From her safety undercover she watched people point and stare as Enrique hovered in the air, pointing with one hand while holding their belongings close to their bodies with the other. When his eyes began to glow that Godly golden colour the winds picked up more furiously as a tornado enveloped itself around Enrique's glowing body.

Nora darted away from Enrique and his tornado, using some of her ability to hasten her dash across the city and away from his path of destruction. His main goal was to tear through the Vatican City before ripping apart the northern municipals of Rome as a distraction. As long as his conscience didn't get the better of him, it would give Nora the time to find where the Librarian hid and secret out a particular book Raguel was after. Of course Raguel didn't know where exactly her brother's library was situated aside from somewhere in or around the Vatican otherwise she would have stormed it already.

Now standing atop the Basilica, Nora felt her hair, clothes and body all being pulled towards the rapidly advancing tornado. She looked down from her position at the gardens that layout behind her as people ran for their lives all through the gardens looking for sanctuary while the tornado began ripping through the Apostolic Palace just north of where Nora stood. She was so focussed on looking for some hidden entrance way that when the glass behind her shattered, she almost lost her balance and toppled through. Recovering quickly though, she ducked around the other side of the glass dome before tentatively peaking around for her assailant. With the amount of Atlanteans popping up all over the world, Nora figured that the Vatican must have had at least one or two not to mention the possible others in the surrounding Roman municipals.

Poking her head around the dome she caught sight of a man full dressed in his Cardinal outfit standing in the gardens before another projectile came sailing towards her head. Nora felt the cold metal shallowly slice her cheek as it went past, watching the wrought iron pole lose momentum as soon as it neared the tornado. Nora figured the man was using some sort of Kinetic manipulation to use the wrought iron fence behind him as deadly spears. Turning this exchange into a game, Nora summoned up three small bolts of her reserve neon between her palms strafing to her left to fire them at the cardinal before moving to her right, around the dome and sending three more in his general direction. Their sniper like duel last a few minutes before Nora took the man down with a large powered bolt of neon through his chest. Once the man had slumped to the ground, she resumed her initial task. With Enrique now heading out towards the nearest Roman municipal, Nora too her chance and darted behind him and into the wake of destruction that had previously been the Vatican Museum. If there was one thing the Librarian supposedly enjoyed, it was old things and a museum would be the perfect cover for a secret entrance.​

 

[SV]

San Diego, California, United States

November 22nd, 2012

"Hey," James greeted Lucifer with a small wave of his hand and a yawn. He stretched out a bit as he did this, still feeling a slight stinging sensation in the area where he was shot. Surprisingly though, it hurt a lot less than he anticipated it would. James wandered over to Lucas, proceeding to answer his question. "You know what, surprisingly pretty damn well considering the night before," He smirked at Lucifer, sitting down across from him at the table. He stared at the man for a moment, confirming to himself that he was indeed the one he saw in the dream. He had to make sure of one thing.

"That...wasn't just a dream? That did actually happen...right?"

"Correct." Lucas drunk deeply from his glass, eyeing James.

"Good, good," James replied happily. He allowed a small smile to come across his face for a moment, before once more eyeing Lucifer. He brought his elbows onto the table and crossed the fingers on each hand. From what he remembered in the dream, Lucifer encouraged them all to participate in the 'game'. "So me being here with you, what does that mean? Are ya betting on me?"

Lucas smiled widely, this boy was sharp, much sharper than he had previously anticipated. "Not quite betting, James. To put it simply, I am your Benefactor." Lucas couldn't reveal too much, that was part of the fun, but in the same token the boy would want to know more.

"Uh huh," James eyed the man skeptically. In truth, he had gotten the answer he was looking for. The man would back him in the World Changer game. That was all he wanted to confirm, and move on from there, but he was still curious about what Lucifer had to gain from that. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Why?"

"Why?" Lucas let out a laugh, "Why because you're the strongest, of course. You hold the highest potential out of all nine candidates and so, I chose you to support." Lucas certainly had a lot of money at his disposal; his siblings had been fighting for centuries, millennia, and being on the outside of it gave him the advantage of knowing when and where he needed to put his money to reap the highest rewards.

James continued to stare at the man with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. James wasn't sure if the man was telling the truth. Hell, he wasn't sure himself if he was the strongest Atlantean out of the bunch. But then, he didn't have to be. All he had to do was have the right resources, which he may very well have with Lucas. The goal for James, after all, wasn't to kill the others as they were probably fixing to kill him. He only needed them with him, or out of the way. The real target was what lay beyond. "I'm not really sure if you know what you're doing, or if you even know what I'm doing. And really, I don't care. You say you'll help so I'll accept your help. But you get in my way and I'll use every bit of resource you give me on you if I have to."

Lucas eyed James, seeing the malicious intent in his eyes; he may have been threatening Lucas but he meant every word. "Is that meant to be a threat, Hazen? I would caution you not to threaten a being such as myself. A being who could just as easily tear you down as could build you up." He may be giving James what he wanted, but in the end James needed him more than he did James. "This is a mutually beneficial partnership; you help me and I help you. But don't think that gives you the prerogative to think you're above me. You should be lucky to have me as your Benefactor. Got it?" Lucas slammed his hand against the table in anger, causing his glass to jolt to the side.

"Oh, I hear ya," James began, lifting his hands in the air in an apparent attempt to appease Lucas into calming down. "Don't think for a second I don't understand what you're doing for me. Even if I don't fully know what I'm doing for you. Probably something big I'm guessing, right?" James put his hands behind his head and rocked slowly on the two hind legs of his chair. "But waking up today...I feel..." James sighed deeply, trying to find the right words to explain his current state of mine. "...clarity. This is it right here," He declared, pointing to some imaginary spot along the table for emphasis. "No one's getting in the way of me now. Not that I'm guessing you will."

And if it does, the big will have to move aside for the bigger.

"That's good to hear. Nice to see your head is in the right place." Lucas walked around the bench so he was no longer opposite James and now standing a metre away leaning on the bench with his elbow. "Now do we need a repeat of last night or are you ready to get down to business?"

James shook his head and smirked back at the man besides him. "I need their names, their locations. I needa know who's backing them, and if possible, where they're gonna likely be." James stood up, pacing back and forth down the aisle as he went from scratching his chin to rubbing his shaved head. "If you can't get me that, I need you to find me an Atlantean that can. Oh!" He exclaimed, as he remembered another thing. "If I give you a list of others, can you could find them?"

"Woah woah," Lucas brought his hands up to his chest in a gesture trying to get James to settle down, "settle down there, cowboy, first things first, what is your plan? You can't just go full throttle without some sort of plan. You may fight without thinking but you have a month; plenty of time to organise yourself." He was glad that James was eager to get into it but if there was anything Lucas learnt from watching his siblings was that there was a time and place for everything.

"Pshh, we don't need to plan, we got the strongest Atlantean, right?" James asked teasingly. He then shook his head to let Lucas know he was joking, and continued. "That's why I wanna find the other guys. Other Atlanteans. I learned something a while back that's probably true no matter what ability you have," James turned down to observe his hand, watching a few sparks fly across his fingertips. "When I was...'training' in the Royal Family. No matter what you do, how hard you train, there's always gonna be some Atlantean that has your number one way or another. Even if I train my hardest this next month, which I will, someone's gonna have an advantage over me," James' eyes darted from his hands and traveled back up to Lucas. "But not if I have others with me. We Atlanteans gotta look out for each other."

James intended that statement for the others he would hopefully bring with him, but he also applied it to the other World Changers. He didn't have to kill them if he could help it. They weren't the problem. James walked over to Lucas, slapping him on the shoulder hard. "So you bet your damn ass I'm goin' full throttle. I need training, I need people, and I need some damn food. We only got a month to change the world, Lu! Let's f*ckin' get to it!"

"Okay!' Lucas cheered in excitement, somewhat encouraged by James' rousing speech. "Feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge or pantry, Mitchell keeps it stocked up. As for the others, according to my sources everything is going down in Europe so the majority of them will be scattered there. If you're going to try and recruit them, you'll need to make sure you're ready to deal with them. You'll have time to do so, but for now we might as well stick around here until we have enough information."

"Excuse me sir, sorry for interrupting," Mitchell presented both Lucas and James with this mornings newspaper.

"ELECTRICAL MASSACRE IN SAN DIEGO" The title of the paper read; James' efforts last night having not gone unnoticed. Most of the page was taken up but this singular article with a picture of bodies lying in a residential street past police cordons. Below it was another picture of the back of someone's vest with the word 'ATLAS' in large letters emblazoned. It recounted the heroic actions of a new Atlantean team to counteract Atlantean terrorism.

"If you're after some practice and training, reckon you could entice these guys to visit us?" Lucas turned the paper around to show James, pointing at the picture with the ATLAS guy in it.

James leaned into the paper, reading what the ATLAS guys were about. His gazed traveled from the paper then back to Lucas. "ATLAS, huh? Are they Atlantean?"

"Far from it. They're a division of Homeland Security who deal with Atlantean threats within the United States. They're mostly humans except for the Atlanteans they employ to fight other Atlanteans; fire against fire tactics. They'll be good practice for fighting the others, and if you can take out their crack team of misfits, you'll cripple their main fighting system." Lucas looked James in the eyes, "You up for the challenge?"

James chuckled lightly. "Challenge? It won't be a challenge. Count me in."​

 

[Swolligator]

Syndicate HQ, Birmingham, England

November 22nd, 2012

"I can't, they'll kill me for doing it. Or worse!" As the elevator door opened Wyatt noticed Jeremy had his back turned to him whispering in a heated discussion with someone on the other end of the line. Wyatt wondered who Jeremy was calling at this time of the morning; like himself he shouldn't be up for another twenty minutes.

Another minutes silence as the person on the other end spoke, Wyatt creeping quietly off to the side and into the kitchen in the corner. "Alright, fine then! You owe me big time for this, right? I swear if the Directive sends me down to R 'n' D I'll scream your name at the top of my lungs." Jeremy closed the phone, cancelling the call. Running his hands through his hair he jumped as he turned around to see Wyatt standing in the kitchen, a glass of water in hand.

"You all right there?" Wyatt asked trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"Sh*t Wyatt, don't sneak up on people like that!" He started walking off towards the bedrooms, pausing for a moment before turning on his heels, "Don't you say a word to anyone or I'll teleport you outside the window."

Wyatt's jaw must have hit the floor; luckily it wasn't his glass. He could see the bags forming under the guy's eyes and knew that ever since they rescued him, Jeremy had been sleeping little. Whatever had happened to him back on the boat certainly did a number on the kid; his threat completely out of left field. Chucking back his glass of water, Wyatt headed towards the bedrooms; if he was already awake he should at least get a head start on the day. As he walked down the hall something felt different; glancing ahead he noticed Fletcher's door ajar. Curious, he approached the door cautiously listening to the hushed voices and sound of drawers opening.

When he caught up, he saw Jeremy holding Fletcher close to the side of his body with one hand and a hurriedly packed bag in the other. Fletcher looked up at Wyatt, a glint of fear striking the corners of his eyes as he clutched onto Jeremy event tighter. Jeremy on the other hand stared daggers at Wyatt, his nostrils flaring as Wyatt realised whom Jeremy had been talking to on the phone just before. He tried to apologise and start to profess his lack of knowledge and deniability only to see the two boys disappear with the all too familiar 'pop'. He was stunned for a moment, why had Kieran, the boy whom Fletcher had told him was his brother be asking Jeremy to kidnap Fletcher let alone calling him at such an early hour. Then a shocking realisation hit him, what if Kieran was one of the others in the dream? Recalling the dream he scratched out the only male he knew in that dream; the infamous James Hazen who looked more like a psychopath than a World Changer and began calling to mind the others. At first he thought it could have been the large biker dude, he seemed pretty protective, but then again James Hazen had called him 'Nate', unless Nate was just a cover? The other three guys however, none of them said their names nor were spoken to by name, perhaps one of them was this Kieran guy?

Shaking his head, Wyatt turned to leave the room, heading further down the hall towards his own bedroom and giving up on trying to decipher who Kieran was. He was almost to his door when Jeremy's familiar 'pop' sounded in the hall. Wyatt had just enough time to turn around to apologise to the kid before Jeremy's body collide with his own, sending them sprawling backwards. Only, they never hit the ground. Wind now whistled in his airs as the frigid outside temperature chilled him even more with the wind. Opening his eyes all he could see was blue sky and the anger-contorted face of Jeremy as the kid gripped his shoulders so tight his knuckles were going red.

"I swear, you will die on the pavement below!" Jeremy screamed through the rush of air before teleporting Wyatt back into the hallway, falling a couple of feet to the ground as the air rushed out of Wyatt's lungs. Jeremy pushed himself up off of Wyatt before turning around and heading to his own room; slamming the door shut.

Lying there on the floor, Wyatt stared up at the ceiling for a few moments trying to collect his thoughts after Jeremy's murderous threat. He hadn't meant to tick the guy off; the reaction just a product of being in the wrong place in the wrong time. Then again, even the amount of stress Jeremy was under was little reason to do such a thing. When he had been on the phone Jeremy had been fearful of what the Syndicate would do to him if they ever found out what he had done. Just how bad was this 'R and D' section of the Syndicate?

"I swear you must be mentally retarded or something." Tilting his head towards the voice he noticed October standing above his head. Stretching further he tried to look up her skirt but she was obviously standing temptingly close so that she could catch him trying to steal a look and punish him so. Smiling, he flicked visions only to have a boot fall flat on his face.

"Geez, goddamnit!" he cried out in pain, cradling his bruising face.

"Wow, get a life, creep." She uttered as she stepped over his hunched body.

Staggering to his feet, Wyatt managed to find his way back to his room through teary eyes. Stripping his clothes off he stepped into the shower, feeling the warm embrace of hot water soothe his aching face. In all honesty he deserved every bit of pain for trying that stunt but why did October have to tempt him like that? She was always acting like a massive tease whenever Adrian wasn't around and Wyatt figured she must get off on it somehow. Finishing his shower, Wyatt reached for his Syndicate uniform rather than the mufti clothes he had worn before. No doubt today would be another day of training and missions, and he would especially have to keep an eye out for Jeremy so as not to anger him again. Once dressed he slung his quiver over his shoulder and with bow in hand, made his way out to the lounge to join the others for breakfast.​

 

[Kikpanther]

AUP HQ, Toulouse, France

November 22nd, 2012

Dom didn't hear much of the short briefing, not after Budapest was mentioned. He'd been to the beautiful city once on vacation with his father. Instead of enjoying the rich history and architecture of Budapest, Dom and his dad spent the larger half of their vacation in casinos and enjoying the nightlife. Sure, they went on a tour or two, but Dom couldn't really remember which ones they actually finished instead of leaving for another casino. Dom had the names of those buildings memorized, especially the ones he lost the most money in and Dom lost a lot of money that year. It hadn't been all bad losing left and right. He learned how to count cards somewhat proficiently then and it was fun of course. Still, the memories of Budapest weren't the only things that took Dom's mind away. It was the memories of Paris. Last night had been the only night since then that he didn't have to relive the devastation. It made him tired most days and after their second visit yesterday he didn't think it would get any better. Dom had had no intentions of leaving his room today. If the briefing hadn't been so urgent he wouldn't have come at all. Now it looked like he would be faced with something similar to what he was trying to avoid. Dom wanted desperately to go back to his room.

Delta hadn't heard about the briefing until it had already begun, her and Elpis were in the training rooms. There were open seats in the row behind Dom and Thayne, as well as some of the more familiar faces. It was easy enough to piece together the information she had missed due to the amount of chatter that had erupted after the briefing was finished. The way Emil hinted toward Elpis made Delta extremely uneasy, she wasn't their tool and if Emil or anyone else tried to use her as such there would hell to pay. With such a large scale attack all the members of the Atlantean Unification, or at least the vast majority, would accompany them, leaving no one behind Delta trusted to watch Elpis. This entire World Changer situation needed to be put on hold, especially if Elpis was coming with them to Budapest.

A moment came where the room was mostly cleared out and the three members Delta was most eager to speak to, Oakley, Thayne, and Dom, remained. Those with lingering ears would have to be in arm length's distance to hear what Delta spoke, "Elpis is my main priority right now." Delta affectionately looked down at the girl seated beside her, who flashed her a toothy smile upon hearing her name. Her English lessons were going along smoothly, but she still had a long while to go before she was close to being able to speak proper sentences. "I don't like the way Emil looked at her like she was their toy and I won't allow that to become a thing. She's a child, one that barely understands the language we speak no less, she has no business being involved in this Atlantean stuff."

"So, this is a cease fire, a temporary truce, whatever you want to call it." Delta looked at them all, hoping that she had made her point crystal clear.

"Well... I wasn't planning on... firing in the first place." Oakley made a face, the bitter truth that last night wasn't just a dream now was quite apparent. "I just want to find out what it all means."

"Truce about what? Firing what?" Devon butted in, but Oakley shook her head and waved him out of the conversation. He frowned and crossed his arms, but Oakley ignored him. He hated being out of the loop (a trait he had obtained from the way his father had treated him over the years) but Oakley had to admit to herself that none of this was his problem nor his business. "Oh, I see how it is."

"Shh." Oakley waved another hand at him as if she was on the phone and he was rudely interrupting her. His face only soured even more and he wandered off, making some kind of 'tch!' noise with his mouth.

"As weak as it may seem," Thayne started, immediately thinking of the dream. "I agree with her. I was sort of hoping none of us would fire." Ignoring Devon and his badgering, he tried to keep everything as low key as possible. "For all we know, none of what we learned is actually true." He kinda hoped he could hear the others' responses but continued on anyways. That was a topic for another time.

"As for Elpis, what do you have in mind? There is no way any of us want her near the battlefield. Those cities are no place for a child, let alone one who would be forced into the midst of it." He flashed a smile towards the small girl. He hadn't been there for much of her tutoring in English and didn't know quite how much she understood. However, the girl was far from stupid and if anything, she'd know before long.

"If none of it were true, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Delta retorted, she still wasn't fond of Thayne no matter how close he was to Elpis and now there was this entire World Changer business. She turned to Devon was or used to be, annoyed that he had been there in the first place, "Did he have a chew toy to go fetch?" Whatever his response was she hoped that it involved leaving to the nearest kennel and he did just that. He heard her as he exited the room, flipping the bird off at her before he disappeared around the door frame. Turning her attention back to the group she continued on, "I said temporary for a reason."

"As for Elpis, I have a feeling that if we don't take her with us she'll find a way. I can protect her," Delta made sure to emphasize the last 'I' with force. Elpis, at the sound of her name, looked up and smiled. There was a twinkle in her eye -- it wasn't easy to tell if she could understand the conversation or not.

"Do you really thing Mr. Bernot wants to bring Elpis?" Oakley turned, expecting to see Devon behind her with an answer and blinked at his absence. She turned back, frowning. "I mean, she's just a little girl. He used to worry about Devon going on missions. But now he doesn't care about a 8 year old girl?" She shook her head. "Used to worry. Maybe he's desperate or something."

Dom ignored the earlier dream-related conversation, more so out of disbelief that Del was so convinced in going through with it that she called for a cease fire. Still, they could have all been trying to kill each other. He decided to focus his time on the Elpis issue instead. "Was he keeping Devon out of missions so he wouldn't get killed or so he wouldn't kill us?" As Dom remembered it, Devon ended up being a bigger threat than the hundred or so guards they had to fight on a boat not too long ago. "If it's the one I think it is he might not even care in the first place. Besides, do we have to take her? They can't force her onto the plane, right?"

"No, but who's going to stop her? Half the people are scared of her and the Librarian is fascinated by her," Delta said and shifted in her sit. Elpis was a handful, it didn't help that Delta had the tendency of letting her do whatever she wanted. "What are we going to do lock her up like she's been for like a million years?"

"He said his dad didn't know about his... thing." Oakley responded to the only question she knew the answer to, being Dom's first one.

"It seems like the only thing we can do is protect her. We can't just lock her up, no one would be keen to watch her, and if they were, would we even want them too?" Thayne sighed as he thought about the situation. "Could one of us stay here with her?"

"I could," Dom offered. Keeping Elpis safe gave him an excuse not stay here rather than go on another mission. There was terror going on in Budapest, but that alone could hardly move him now.

"That's if she doesn't want to come. I'm not sure she ever wants to be away from you, Del," Oakley gave a little laugh, looked down and smiled at Elpis. She was alert and listening by the look of it, exchanging a look with Oakley before turning away back to Delta. Oakley looked back at Dom. "You don't want to come to Budapest?"

"No," Dom answered simply, though was truthfully upset that his ticket out was going to get snatched away from him on account of Del's (apparent) good parenting. Now his time with Julian had not made him expert at control, but it did help him from getting immediately angry at the prospect of being dragged onto this plane and to this mission despite how he felt. Then again, he didn't have the will to be angry. Besides, it would have been best if he didn't go. Doing anything with his power had been a roller coaster ride. Either him being very (surprisingly!) successful or downright horrible on any given day. Assuming he even wanted to go training which was becoming less likely as the days passed.

"But," Oakley started, feeling that she may regret saying this later, "there's so many people that we could help. So many families in their homes that are trapped. I mean, I know Paris showed us that one Atlantean destroy thousands of lives, but how many lives could an Atlantean change, for the better?" She felt a little corny after saying that, but it was what she believed. "Y'know?" She gave Dom a hopeful smile.

"No, I don't. What Atlantean has done anything for the better?"

Oakley frowned. "What about everyone apart of the AUP? You don't think they helped people for the better?"

Dom shrugged. "As I see it the part of the AUP I've been the most concerned with has to call a ceasefire. How much better can it get from here?"

"Lindholm? What about how they helped people in Paris? Including you? You don't think they're trying to make a difference?"

"We wouldn't need those things if it weren't for Atlanteans in the first place!" The conversation was making Dom more frustrated by the second. Visibly so. There had been very little "good" that any Atlantean had done since the reveal. Not that he'd seen and definitely not on the news. Anything that could be seen as positive was only a result of something negative right after. They only had Atlanteans help in Paris because Atlanteans were destroying it. The same was for Budapest. "That's not making much of a difference."

"Dom, will you just listen?" Thayne replied. He didn't tend to be the one who would speak up, but he couldn't listen to this nonsense. Dom's attitude seemed to only anger him at this point. "You know exactly what happened in Paris and yet you don't want to try and help these people? You even found your father there, so why can't you see that the same thing can happen here? For all you know, tons of kids could have lost their parents by now, do we need anymore?"

Thayne cutting into conversations was one of Dom's least favorite traits about him. He had no business butting into his conversation with Oakley (even if he was getting tired of it). Dom wanted nothing to do with Budapest and he wasn't hesitant to tell Thayne that. The problem was, what he said had truth in it. The effects of Paris's devastation had affected all of France. Being so close by it was hard for Dom not to be reminded of the day when he left the HQ. It was something that haunted him both day and night. The attack on Budapest would be no different and it was that sameness that aided in making Dom hesitant to go. The incident in Lindholm made him nervous for an actual battle, especially of this caliber, but there were innocent people in Budapest. Could he really justify not going?

"No," Dom replied simply. Resolved in going, but still feeling reluctant.

"Have you girls finished chit-chatting yet? We've got places to be, people to kill." Imogen stood at the door, a smug look on her face. Devon returned to the room and brushed passed her, hardly noticing Imogen as he went back to his seat to fetch his coat or whatever else he left behind when he left earlier. Imogen narrowed her eyes at him, looking disgusted that he had touched her, even slightly. "Watch it, kid."

"Whatever." He scooped up his coat, pulling it on. "The plane's packed. Thanks for helping." He didn't look up, so it was hard to tell if he was talking to Imogen or the junior members. He exited the room, sliding past Imogen again as she replicated her disgusted look from before. She huffed and without another word, left as well.

Oakley, giving a hopeful smile to her peers, picked up her own things and followed Imogen through the door. The hallway wasn't long and led them right out into the hanger, the familiar plane stationed towards the hanger doors. It seemed most of the people from the meeting were out here, geared up and ready to go. The Librarian's eyes lit up when he spotted Oakley, giving her an enthusiastic wave. Oakley waved back, walking up to him.

"Are you coming back to Toulouse afterwards?" Oakley asked. The Librarian's smile faltered and he shook his head.

"Not for a little while, dear Oakley. As much as I've enjoyed yours and your comrades' company, but I've got some things to do. I'm sure we'll see each other very soon though!" He gave her a warm smile. "I do have to ask one thing of you though... the crystals. I did tell you when I gave it to you that it did not belong to me. And now, I must return it to its owner."

Oakley made a face, but nodded, unhooking the pendant from the back and handing it to the Librarian. She could feel her grip on her ability sliding, but she only had to concentrate a little more to stop the armour from moving up her arm. "Will I be okay?"

"You'll be more than okay. You've grown so much since we met in London such a short time ago." He waved his hand over the pendant, the crystals plopping into his hand. He handed the silver pendant back, its surface now smooth. "You can hang onto this. You never know when it might be useful."

"Thanks." She smiled at the Librarian, who nodded back and turned to the other juniors.

"It was a pleasure meeting you all. I'm sure we'll see each other again very soon. I trust you'll take excellent care of Elpis." He grinned at the little girl, saying a few words to her in what Oakley had recognised as Atlantean. She smiled back, nodding. "And good luck with your world changing endeavours. I'm sure that's a heavy burden to carry, but you four carry it so well." Oakley's eyes widened, remembering that she wanted to speak with him about it.

"Oh, but--" She started, but was cut off by his raised hand and a smile.

"As much as I hate to interrupt you, Oakley, I'm afraid your questions will have to wait. We will speak more about it next time we meet. Besides, I don't want to spoil the ending for you, do I?" He gave them a cheeky smile and bowed, excusing himself to make his way to the plane.

"All aboard!" Oakley heard Cooper yell and the AUP members began to enter the plane one by one, Oakley herself joining the line. Once they were all inside and seated, there was a shout from outside. The Librarian floated next to them, looking at them from a side window.

"Hold on to your hats!" He said and with a flash and a pop, they disappeared.

​

 

[SV]

San Diego, California, United States

November 22, 2012


Drawing out ATLAS wasn't going to be too difficult of a task. James could go to any street corner, shoot some lightning at people, and they would likely come running. But if he was going to slaughter humans anyway, he might as well be classy about it. That's why James chose Coronado as his target. Coronado, as he researched earlier, was an island in the San Diego region. It was considered to be an expensive place, and quite visually appealing too. It was also a military town, with one of the largest Naval Bases on the west coast of the United States occupying about half of the island. To James, that sealed the deal. The human military, particularly that of the United States, was thought to be one of the most powerful in the world. By defaming the storied military, whether they actually get involved in the altercation or not, he could take his first step toward replacing the old human power struggle with the new Atlantean one.

Pretty grandiose of him, but James knew in his mind that every great beginning began with one large step forward. There were still many who had a lot more power than him. Heads of the ARF, likely those in the AUP, Lucas and whoever the Syndicate was, to name a few. But right now, it was his image posted in newspapers. It was his name people were talking about in news outlets. It would be his face other Atlanteans would be watching. This was his time to shine.

The main street of Coronado looked pretty busy. Lot's of shops open and awaiting business, people walking around casually, going about their business. There was some congestion on the roads, but nothing too unsteady. James walked fairly casually across the street. In front of him, he could see close to the end of the street where the beach began and the famous famous Hotel del Coronado. That seemed like a pretty nice target to hit. He strolled along the sidewalk without a care in the world and with no trace of malicious intent. To the outside world, he was just another random citizen. It was only when he was recognized as something more that he became that.

Largely, he passed unnoticed by mostly everyone. Along the side of the road, however, was an italian restaurant, with a young lady waiting in the front who was greeting potential customers. She was fairly easy on the eyes, with medium-length blond hair, striking blue eyes and a nice tan. As each person passed her, she offered a hello, or a brief introduction of the restaurant or some of the courses that were being offered. She did this to each person who passed by. As James passed by her, she was about to do the same, but she as he got closer, she squinted her eyes, widened them, then abruptly looked passed him, as if to suggest that she had missed seeing him entirely. James wasn't fooled. He could tell she recognized him from the TV or newspapers. But he also knew she probably wasn't entirely sure. He hadn't planned to stop anywhere on the way to the hotel, but he couldn't resist now.

"You guys serving now?" James asked the girl with a smile. The girl, who looked directly back at James, smiled and nodded.

"Uhm...Yes we are!" She replied in an upbeat attitude, though it may have seemed a bit forced. "Party of one, sir?"

"Yeah," James replied with a nod. "Go ahead and sit me outside right here," He stated as he gestured to a chair and table right on the outside seating area.

"Sure thing!" She said, as he walked over and sat himself. The greeter passed along a menu, and spoke once more to James.

"Here's a menu for you, anything to drink to start off?" She asked merrily.

"I'm good for now," James replied back with a small grin. She nodded.

"Alright, someone will be with you shortly to take your order! If you have any questions, let me know!"

"Sure thing," James said, and with that, the greeter went back in front of the restaurant, continuing to greet people along the street. James watched her silently while pretending to read through his menu. A minute passed. Then two. Then five. Then close to ten. Nothing happened. James sighed and spoke up to the greeter again. "Excuse me, miss? Can you come over here for a sec?" He asked her. The waitress looked around the outside area of the restaurant somewhat nervously, and saw that no other waiter was around. She looked around the street, once more, before walking up to James and smiling brightly at him.

"What can I do for you?" She asked him.

"Sit down for a sec," James stated, pointing to the chair opposite him.

"Oh, sorry I really can't! I have to get back to the front!" She said apologetically.

"It'll only take a second," He replied quickly after, still gesturing to the seat. "I insist," He added somewhat coldly and demanding. She looked at him in a somewhat anxious way, and did so, slowly. James watched her the entire time, and when she sat, he leaned in a bit to talk with her more privately.

"So it's obvious you recognized me before," He began, causing her to immediately widen her eyes in shock and fear. She looked around for someone to help her, but no one was around in the immediate area. Tears began to form a the corner of her eyes. "Don't cry," He ordered. "I was watching you for a bit, wondering what you would do. Maybe you'd run, maybe you'd scream for help or something, but you kinda just went about your business like everything was normal. I was sitting here thinking to myself...why would she do that? Why isn't she doing anything?" James leaned back in his seat, smirking to the horrified, almost at tears girl. "Stop crying, don't cry," He ordered again. "Hear this for a sec, it's good stuff," James ordered. He tapped the side of his temple with his index finger lightly.

"Then it kinda hit me. You weren't sure it was me. So what do you do? Ignore it, keep going about your business, be polite. Hope to god it's not me. But really by the time you got here, you knew it was me, and you sat down anyway," James snorted, and shook his head. "Humans are so...so...stupid. It's like they're more afraid of being impolite, of offending, than they are of getting hurt or dying."

"I-I'm so sorry," She muttered softly, crying as she did so. She was so frightened and pleading now. "P-please don't kill me. I'll do anything. I didn't see your face, I won't tell anyone you're here, just please."

James rolled his eyes, and charged up electricity. "I told you to stop crying," James said again, bringing one hand in front of him and releasing his built up lightning into one blast from his arm. The electrical blast hit the woman straight in her chest, sending her from the seat and off to the other side of the restaurant. Instantly, cries and yells from other patrons, employees and other people around the street began to fill the air. "So f*ckin' annoying," He cursed as he walked over to the dead girl and shook his head, before proceeding out of the semi-enclosed outside seating area of the restaurant and back onto the streets. He proceeded again toward the hotel, once more casually walking across the street as he did moment before. However, unlike before where no one paid him any attention, everyone now ran from James Hazen.

James began to shoot lightning to all random points along his path. At signs, street lights, cars, random buildings. He shot at the occasional person too, but not quite without prejudice as he did before. They would all get their time eventually, but shooting at them all now would just be a waste of energy. He decided to conserve his 'ammunition' for the remainder of the trip, absorbing from any electrical outlets he saw along the way before finally reaching his destination at the hotel. James walked through the front door, where he approached the front desk. The concierge and most of the guests inside didn't seem to be completely aware of the situation outside yet. He decided to play human again, walking up to the front desk, where an older gentleman smiled at him. "Hello sir, how are you doing today?"

"You know, not too bad at all," James said with a smirk, leaning over the front desk. "How much do rooms go for here?"

"Oh, do you have a reservation? May I have your name?"

"I-It's that crazy Atlantean! James Hazen!" Another guest to the right of the two yelled. He began to run away, while any color in the face of the old man seemed to disappear as he turned as pale as a white sheet. James stuck up a hand and pointed it at the man who announced his name.

"Not quite," James said, releasing a charged burst of energy from his hand and striking right at the man's back. The concierge and the other guests began to scream and run away.

"It's...Havoc now."

​

 

[Swolligator]

ATLAS HQ, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

November 22nd, 2012

The road erupted in a cloud of dust as Victory covered himself with his arms in a futile attempt to shield himself from and debris. It only succeeded in pushing him out of the way and sending dust back into the source. When it all settled down the naked figure of Tank could be seen in the centre of the rubble; his knees digging into the back of a Hispanic boy slightly older than Tank. Unlike Tank however, the Hispanic boy had scraps of clothes still attached to his body.

"Well done, Tank," Amanda walked into the scene, a swarm of ATLAS tactical units spread out from behind her and secured both rogue Atlanteans. She watched them ship each Atlantean off in their Anti-Atlantite handcuffs and into the back of trucks; headed back to their holding facility in New York.

"And as for you, Victory, charging in recklessly like that was completely out of order." With face contorted in disappointment rather than anger, she scared Victory. "We do things a certain way to minimalize casualties and you going in half-cocked like that is outright dangerous."

Victory felt stung, after he had handled the situation she was telling him off for breaking protocol? It seemed absurd that she would tell him off for saving the day, "But I took him down! I saved the day and you're telling me off?"

"Silence!" The firmness in her voice immediately made him fall silent, "Your insubordination has cost you a month of training."

Victory watched the replay of the Colorado fight as Amanda debriefed them all in the conference room. Even as she told him off in the video he could feel the anger radiating from her sitting in this very room. From what he could remember there were no video cameras at the scene aside from the news crews who were nowhere near. Looking across the table, he could see Gamer staring intently at the TV and wondered if her powers over Video made this viewing possible. Around him, Tank, Harpy and Gamer all looked pretty beaten still from yesterday's fray and he felt bad looking bruise-less.

"So Team, what do we need to work on?" Amanda now stood strikingly at the head of the table, eying them all intently.

"Teamwork?" Tank asked sounding unsure of himself.

"Communication." Gamer was a lot more direct with her answer, as if she was trying to make a point to the others.

"Reaction and adaption?" Harpy spoke up, her voice quivering slighty.

"Exactly, Harpy," Amanda sounded like she was trying to praise Harpy yet to Victory it just sounded like she was scolding the lot of them, "Reaction and adaption. When there is a rogue Atlantean out there, we react to the situation by confronting them, adapting to their ability and dispatching them as quickly as possible while minimising damage to the surrounding area. Now tell me Harpy, why do we need to work on these two beneficial actions?"

All eyes turned to Harpy as she suddenly looked paler from the attention, "Uhm, because…" she trailed off, her fingers visibly shaking as she nervously pulled at her lip, "…because we failed to adapt to the Rogue's ability and our reactions were too slow?"

"Precisely! Well done, Harpy. Yes, your reaction to the Rogue and adaption to his ability and fighting style was incredibly poor. I would suggest you all go and train to prepare for the next instance, but it looks like there won't be time." Victory had spied three manila folders lying on the glass table, wondering why they were there only to see the dished out to the other three. "Victory will be sitting this one out. We have a Class 5 Rogue Atlantean devastating San Diego." On the big screen, presumably all the information on the Atlantean and their destruction was projected and some of the pictures made Victor want to vomit. "James Anthony Hazen, 21, is a Hawaiian born American whom has previously escaped following charges of murder. His whereabouts were unknown, presumed to be with the ARF but they deny his presence, until yesterday when he appeared out of thin air. Media outlets are naming him 'Havoc' after the death and destruction that follows in his wake. From what our sources can tell us, he is an Electrokinetic; capable of manipulating electrical energy and very unstable. His victims show no signs of commonality except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and he has no gender, age or ethnic concerns when it comes to victims."

Victory couldn't help but be impressed and frightened. This guy seemed like a complete lunatic but his control over his ability and devastation he could produce with it were just awe inspiring. Only the other day Amanda had told him of how destructive the potential of his power could be but compared to this guy Victory seemed like a child playing with matches. Inside his stomach knotted as if he wanted more than anything else in the world to meet this guy but was at the same time happy to stay away from the destruction he caused.

"Gamer, Harpy, Tank, we move out in one hour. I want you all prepped and ready waiting by the air hangers. Victor you will report downstairs to training and will follow the normal day-to-day schedule. Everyone is dismissed." Amanda collated all her information together before heading out the door and down the hallway out of sight.

"I'm not gonna lie, but I'm hella scared guys." Tank was visibly shaking, and Victor had learnt that the boy was rarely scared of anything, "He's got a murder list the length of my arm!"

"Chill, Tank, we can do this. I admit, I would love to have Victory there as support but we've trained for this. It's one guy against the three of us and if you listen to me we can take him out." Gamer was trying to talk confident but Victor could hear the faltering in her voice that meant she didn't believe a word she had just said.

As the four of them left the conference room, Victor bid goodbye and good luck as they headed off back to their rooms to suit up while he headed downstairs to the training facility. One floor below and the training facility was massive; about the size of a football field, the ceiling stretched up two stories high and at one end a mezzanine level protected by thick glass protruded out over the field. The lead scientists, Doctor Joseph MacIntyre, had informed him previously that the layout, design and functionality of the training facility had been created by a brilliant man Doctor Meier. Unfortunately the Doctor no longer worked there yet everyone still held him with great esteem.

He had only been here a couple of times during his stay and each of those times had been with his teammates as they had practiced together. Now however, he was all alone. Walking in, he approached Doctor MacIntyre, "Victory reporting for training," he spoke very formally to the Doctor.

"Ah, Victory! I heard about your 'insubordination' in Colorado. It's a shame Amanda is so uptight but she does run a very well organised ship. I digress, it looks like we'll have your for the next week, so did you want to start where we left off?" Victory smiled at the Doctor, at least one person was friendly in this place where he felt almost everyone was eyeing him with disdain.

"Sure thing, Doc. What is today's simulation?" Taping furiously at the keyboard, streams of words and numbers began racing along the screen too fast for Victory to read as the Doctor entered a series of code to initialise the procedure.

"Evasion seems like an easy task to start with." The Doctor smiled at him before attaching the wireless patches to key areas of his body which would monitor his vital signs and stress on his muscles.

Once all patched up, Victory felt awkward having the weird, circular bandages taped to his body but tried his best to ignore them. Moving to the elevator, he took it down to the ground floor of the training facility, coming out at the start of what looked like a maze. The walls would have sprung up from the floor while he was in the elevator as to not give him an advantage. Taking a deep breath Victory tried to calm his nerves; in the back of his mind he knew that the others would be leaving to San Diego soon enough and was hoping and praying that they all came back alive.​

 

[Skymin]

Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, Budapest, Hungary

November 22nd, 2012

It was so strange and perhaps a little nauseating to travel so many miles in a matter of seconds. As soon as Cooper released the doors of the plane, Oakley was in line to get out, her stomach churning a little. She had travelled like this with the Librarian only a few times before but each time felt just as weird as the last.

It seemed that not only had the AUP Headquarters disappeared from around them, but the Librarian had left after his job was done as well. He had teleported them to what seemed like an airport (Oakley assumed in Budapest). There were large cars waiting for them and they quickly began to move gear from the plane to the cars before climbing into them. Oakley could see the smoke rising from the city close by and apparently, so could Emil.

"Perhaps we should leave Elpis here with somebody. A place like is much too dangerous for a young girl." Emil turned to Cooper, looking worried. This was much different to the frustrated worry that Oakley had seen him wearing before in regards to Devon. "I can see this ending very badly if she separates from us, or misunderstands us. What if this reminds her of... her home? What if--"

"Our mission it to apprehend the target." Cooper said plainly, his voice felt void of emotion. Oakley felt a strange ringing in her ears and turned to Cooper, suddenly feeling as if his words were of utmost importance. "If Elpis is there, we can negate the target immediately. Without doing so could cause further chaos."

"Right. No, you're right." Emil nodded his head, I'm just worried for her safety." Oakley turned back to Devon behind her, who was staring at his father. He was frowning and gave a little pout, looking a little confused. Was he... jealous that his father wasn't worrying about him or paying any attention to him anymore?

"As you should be." He gave the frenchman a smile, something Oakley did not see from Cooper often. "Do not worry, she will be fine with us."

"Don't expect me to babysit the kid." Imogen strode past them, dumping a bag into the back of the car and slamming it shut. Cooper stared back at her.

"We will do whatever is necessary to protect the girl." Imogen turned back to him, crossing her arms and looking at him from over her glasses.

"Don't order me to do anything, Cooper. I'll do what I want." She her eyes remained locked on his for a moment before she flicked her hair and got into the car, taking the driver's seat.

Oakley then turned to Elpis, who was staring at the smoke billowing from the city. She looked... worried. Not hysterical, but as worried as an eight year old girl would be if she saw a city with smoke coming from it. Oakley had to wonder -- had she been there at the fall of Atlantis? Had she been placed into that box before or during whatever happened all those years ago?

Elpis turned to Oakley, her face appeared the same but her eyes seemed far away. Oakley gave the girl a reassuring smile. It wasn't returned. Instead, Elpis found Delta's hand and took it with her own.

It was time to head off, and everyone found themselves into a car and they were on the road, the city of Budapest in view and growing dangerously closer and the giant dragon coming into view.

Emilio, Cooper, Delta, Elpis, Oakley and Aiofe in one car, Imogen, Julian, Henri, Mel, Dom and Thayne in the next, Natalia, Devon, Misha, Atticus, Simon and Freddie in the one after and a bunch of people Oakley had never met before in the last. A radio communicator connected the cars, but for the present time it had been used for not much more than chit chat.

"What an imagination this one has. Really." Imogen laughed from the radio, her voice full of static but still with that obnoxious tone. "If it's a fat white kid with a neckbeard, I won't even try to not kill him. Dragons. What a joke."

"This Atlantean could be controlled by another user," came Julian's voice. "It could be anyone."

"Or it could be some f*cking nerd who's been playing video games for far too long." Oakley could see the sneer behind Imogen's radioed voice. "This is what happens when antisocial losers complain that girls don't love them. They go and destroy a cit--" There was a smash from behind them and the radio cut out. Oakley, as well as the rest of those inside the car turned around as Cooper stamped on the brakes. Through the back window a... if Oakley could describe it, a sphinx standing in the middle of the road where the car was meant to be. Oakley followed the tire marks, the car now smashed into the side of a building with those inside it unable to be seen.

"Is that... meant to be Leo Cabrillo?" Emil squinted, through the glass, then turned back to the front. "Watch out!" Oakley turned her head catching sight of feathers just as she felt the car go upwards, nose first and flip over onto its back. They were in the air for just a few moments and Oakley closed her eyes and threw her arms over her head, the armour automatically growing over both as she felt her life was in danger. The smash underneath their heads never came and Oakley moved her arms to see Emil pushing his hands down, slowly lowering the car with his gravity manipulation. There was an angry noise from outside and the beating of wings from behind Oakley as one creature flew off but the one in front of them remained. It gave the car a shove, Emil holding it still as best he could before it took off as well.

"What was that?" Oakley wheezed.

"I think... it's a griffin." Emil replied, unbuckling his seatbelt and falling to the roof. He turned to them, eyes wide and alert. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm okay." Oakley answered for herself, nodding then turning to Elpis. She seemed frightened, but unharmed, struggling with her own belt, muttering some things in Atlantean with a few broken English words in between. She yelped as she got free, Oakley's arms underneath her as she fell into them. Once she made contact though, her arms returned to their unprotected and unstrengthened selves and she winced as they hit the cold roof below them. "Sorry."

"I knew we should have left her behind. This is my fault, I'm so sorry, Elpis." Emil shook his head, Cooper appearing from around his seat next to him. He looked alright, aside from a cut on his eyebrow from the glass shattering in front of them.

"No. If anything, this gives us more reason for her to be here. This is a powerful Atlantean who needs to be stopped." Cooper coughed, waving away some of the dust and dirt around them.

"In any case, let's get out of here." Emil said, kicking his foot against the door. It didn't budge, caught against a cement block beside him. "Oakley, Delta, if you could, please."

There was another loud screech, a smash and the skidding of tires on the road as one of the other cars took off and the other smashed into a poll and rolled onto its side. Another smash alerted them that the griffin was back on the ground. And not happy at all.

"Hurry!" Emil stressed.​

 

[SV]

Coronado Island, San Diego, California, United States

November 22nd, 2012

The plane touched down on the runaway that led into the military base. From up in the air they could see little going on down below but once they reached the ground the entire military base was in fervor. The control tower had tried to divert their plane to the city but their pilot had persisted they land, using DoD protocols to override the control tower and land their plane. When they got off military personnel rushed up to them, telling them that the island was no place for kids but Amanda simply brushed them off. They tried to reason with her that they had the situation under control and didn't need any help from A.T.L.A.S. but all three of them could tell that they didn't.

"Harpy, Gamer, you two take aerial recon, Tank and I will follow with the rest below. Do not engage the target until we're there." Both nodded before heading off into the air as Amanda requisitioned a vehicle from the base.

Like always, Tank felt a bit left out not being able to fly, but after the previous week battling the Pterosaur-mimicking Atlantean in Colorado, he had had his fill of flying. At any rate he enjoyed traveling along the road; despite Amanda helming the vehicle. It took them about eight minutes to finally reach the town portion of Coronado Island, the streets into town well cleared of cars as everyone had tried to leave following the arrival of James Hazen. Even thinking the name put chills up his spine and Tank hoped that the three of them were enough to take him out.

For the past two minutes Harpy and Gamer had been whispering into their microphones as they surveyed James from the sky; relaying his every action to the whole contingent of armoured personnel as well as Amanda and himself. Instead of going directly to the source of the disturbance, where Tank had heard gunfire and yelling from the soldiers whom had assaulted James prior to them getting there, they set up a command station within a couple of blocks.

An arsenal of gunshots was heard from inside the hotel. Furniture and decorations were tossed around the rooms and destroyed. The walls had a combination of bullet holes and scorch marks, and across the floor there were bodies of both hotel employees and guests, as well as a few military personnel that had arrived on the scene. James had destroyed most of the lights inside the hotel, and covered up most of the windows, meaning that the soldiers they had been sent in were coming in blind, while James hid and waited.

He heard the soldiers whispering something in the distance, something about formation and the dark, so he expected they would soon try to split up and see where he was. Each group that came in, whether security, police, or soon the military after, however, were coming in blind and because it was broad daylight outside, didn't expect to bring any sort of night vision. So James' strategy was to basically take out each new group that came in before they had a chance to signal about the situation to the outside. Eventually they would keep moving up the power food chain until the real prizes would show up.

Inhaling deeply, James lifted his upper body from his hiding spot to the side of the room, and fired a bolt at them. The initial bolt didn't hit any of them, whizzing past two soldiers who immediately began shooting around in surprise. Although the shot missed, it did give James a relative position on where they were before they began to spread out. He prepared multiple more bolts of electricity, harnessing from deep within his body, and shot at them from both of his hands. Each hit struck the two soldiers in their chests, pushing them back and causing them to collapse on the ground. The three remaining soldiers began to fire in the position they believed the shots came from, although the lightning came too fast for them to get a definitive position.

James meanwhile had already begun to make his way to the other side of the room, slowly crawling across the ground to avoid being seen. If any sudden eyes or movements were thought to be heading in his direction, he would lie still and act like he was amongst the dead, the the soldiers would continue forward to where they believe his position was. When they had proceeded enough forward, hiding behind furniture that was toppled over, James jumped up from behind them, delivering multiple shots of surging power at each of them. The first was dropped quickly. The last two managed to turn around. James dropped the third with almost half a dozen small bolts to his face and chest, while the third managed to get a few shots from his assault rifle off. James momentarily retreated, feeling a small stinging sensation across his hip as he believe he had been grazed by a bullet. He quickly came out again, firing a larger, more powerful single bolt straight at the soldier. It had failed to directly hit the target, whizzing by the side of his face, but definitely getting a piece of it. He heard the screams of the soldier as he fell to the ground clutching the side of his face.

Quickly, James ran over to the last soldier, favoring his right side just a bit over his left, and stood tall over him. The man below him continued to struggled, but saw his attacker above him and panicked. "Please, I've got kids!" The soldier implored James, clutching the side of his face in anguish. James dropped to one knee, lifted two fingers directly at the man's forehead, and fired a precision bolt right through his skull.

"So did they," He replied, pointing to the other bodies scattered across the hotel floor.

"He's holed up in the Hotel, we can't get a fix on his position," Gamer voice over the microphones.

Standing there doing nothing, Tank started to feel edgy and wanted to get to fighting already yet Amanda held him back. "Fly around the back, enter as low as you can without making noise. They've cut the power to the hotel so you'll be going in blind. Be careful."

Nodding to each other, Gamer and Harpy began their flighty around the side of the building and around the back. They each found an open window, on the third and fourth floor respectively and made their way inside. The rooms were quite well lit from the sun but making their way into the hallways and there was very little light. Harpy had the easier time as her eyes were able to adjust to the darkness thanks to her bird mimicry, but the two soon met up and began descending down the nearest stairwell. Without any electricity, Gamer was reliant on the reserves she had.

"We've arrived on the lobby floor," Gamer again took charge, the two of them glancing warily through the small glass window in the door that separated them from the target. As they watched the latest contingency of soldiers taken out, they tried their best to spot James but the flashes of electricity blinded them. They finally saw him when he bent over a soldier, both girls turning away as he delivered the final blow. "What do we do now?" She asked.

"Try and draw him out into the street. We'll take it from there."

"Gank em." Was all Gamer said, but Harpy knew exactly what she meant.

Opening the door, Gamer was the first to go through, making her way opposite James while hiding behind furniture. On occasion she would make noises; knock a plant so the leaves scratched against the wall, push a table a couple of millimeters; small things to gather the man's attention. When she was sure she had him in her sights, she sent a stream of pixels flying from her hiding spot behind an overturned couch.

James heard the door unlock, and quickly dropped out of sight from the soldier and into the nearest hiding spot he could find, a broken up wooden table, which was lying on its side. He expected it to be more military reinforcements, but as the person moved, he could hear her making sounds. He didn't expect the military to do that, although it could be someone who was simply panicking. What came next was some sort of attack, energy-based of some sort. He was almost positive now. It wasn't the military this time. It was an Atlantean! An Atlantean with some sort of projectile-based ability, like his.

"Who are you?" James asked, quickly firing off a small bolt of electricity at the direction of the other Atlantean, before moving from his first hiding spot across the side of the room to a more larger, half-torn couch.

Gamer followed his movement with her eyes as they struggled to adjust to the changing of light before firing off another stream of pixels in his general direction. "Zoe, who are you?" She asked, summoning up the fear she currently felt as her voice shook. She knew all about him, but he knew nothing of her. The more disinformation he knew the better upper hand she had.

"Havoc," James replied back, crouching under the furniture to avoid the strange energy wave that came at him. He fired off another round of lightning in the direction where she fired from, though with less intent to harm more than to keep occupied. "You're Atlantean, who're you working for?"

"I don't work for anyone! I was staying in the hotel with my boyfriend!" She called over the couch, firing another bolt his way to keep him distracted and occupied. She had to be careful though because she was slowly running out of built up power and didn't know how much he had in reserve either. "Why are you here?"

"Waiting for someone to show up!" James called out from his own spot, waiting for her to fire her shots before he looked up and fired his. Once he did, he roamed across the room and positioned himself behind another piece of turned-over furniture, this time a wooden table of some sort. "But if you're serious about just being a guest and turning out to be Atlantean, this is my lucky day!" He called out. He doubted she was simply a guest. He was pretty sure she was one of the ones that came in through the door. Though that didn't mean he could try to recruit her.

"Sh*t!" She cursed, louder than she had meant to. She had tried to conjure up another stream but failed to do so; she was out of ammunition and she could hear him moving about. "Why is it your lucky day then?" She asked hesitantly, this time refusing to fire a stream and hoping that he didn't connect the dots.

"Come on, we're on the same side here," James responded, choosing not to fire another round since apparently the woman stopped firing as well. Maybe she was curious about what he was talking about. He peeked over the table to ensure she wasn't aiming for him at that moment. He then place his whole upper body on the table and leaned over it. "We shouldn't be fighting. See? I'm putting down my hands," He added, showing that he was dropping his hands down to his sides.

Unsure whether or not to trust this guy, it took Gamer a few seconds to make up her mind. He seemed like he was raising a white flag and calling truce, but she knew from his profile that he could easily charge a bolt and hit her before she even had a chance to move. "I'm coming out! Don't fire." From behind the couch Gamer came, standing upright with both her hands at head height. She slowly walked forward, shortening the distance between them until she was at the halfway point. "You wanted to talk, so let's talk." She took a gulp, her heart racing in the tense situation.

James came out right as the girl did. He walked toward her direction in the dark hallway, and stopped a few meters away from her. "Right," James began, offered the girl a small smile to let her know he wasn't going to fire at her, yet. "So I'm Havoc, or James as you probably heard. Was with a man named Henry for a while. Then I went to the Atlantean Royal Family, then to a group called the Renegades. I'm now technically not with anyone, although I'm backed by a man named Lucas," He stated, still keeping his hands down and in plain sight.

"I'm telling you this because I'm letting it all out. No bullsh*t. So Zoe, who're you?"

Gamer grinned at James, happy that he had let his guard down. "Zoe, Zoe Pearson. I live in San Francisco with my boyfriend. He brought me here on holiday-" Gamer's sentence was cut short as harpy launched from the shadows. With a flap of wings the half-woman, half-bird Atlantean slammed into James' body, gripping his midsection tightly as she propelled them both towards the front door. Summoning up the reserves she had pretended to be exhausted of, Gamer send a large stream of pixels flying towards the door; blowing both off of it's hinges.

"F*ck!" James yelled, struggling to try and break free from the bird-woman's strong grip. He should have known that there were others hiding around, but he acted recklessly. As Zoe broke the door and the harpy girl brought them outside, James slowly tried to concentrated and make something happen. He controlled his breathing, trying to focus his energy not just on his hands but on other parts of his body, which he hadn't had much practice in doing. Sparks began along his fingertips and traveled along his arms, up to his shoulders and down to his stomach region. The sparks seemed to work, so he tried again, this time with more energy.

He once more let the energy flow from around his torso, to and down his arms, then back up. All at once, he released the shockwave across his body, trying to focus precisely where the harpy was holding him so that it would hopefully shock her.

As the electricity coursed through her body, Harpy's claws dug deeper into the skin and muscle of James' body as her feathers began to singe. After a couple of seconds her grip receded, wings stopped flapping and the two fell to the ground. Her body limp and smoldering with no pulse to be found. Gamer now stood in the doorway of the hotel, her hands clasped over her mouth in horror.

"Harpy!" The yell from down the street erupted into a roar as Tank began pelting down the street. Blue fur started to sprout all over his body as he grew slightly larger, his arms now significantly larger than his legs as, in his place, a large Silverback Gorrilla was now bounding towards James.

"Stupid b*tch," James cursed, holding his side where some blood was seen seeping through his shirt from the harpy's claws. Having no time to lick his wounds, he could see another apparent Atlantean, one that could transform into a gorilla suddenly spring onto him. James backed away a few steps, bringing his hands up and gathering energy into the palms of both of his hands. He felt the tingling sensation of energy passing through his nerves toward his hands, and watched as the electricity formed at the base. He then shot out the two lightning bolts directed at the gorilla. Afterwards, he prepared two more bolts, but instead of firing combined them together into one large one, and fired that as well. He could feel the tingling intensify in his arms after he fired those shots.

As Tank dodged one bolt, the other hit him in the flank, but whether it was the rage, adrenaline or simply his Atlantean heritage, he continued forward until he was mere meters from James. He definitely wasn't prepared for the second larger bolt which caught his arm, sending him pummeling into the ground. Picking himself up, he tried to shake the pins and needles from his arm as he huffed at James. Pulling his large, hairy arm in close to his chest, he roared that primal, animalistic roar before grasping a table with his other hand and flinging it at James. As each table, chair, and whatever else wasn't bolted to the ground left his grasp, Tank grabbed another and another; sending as many as possible flying towards James.

"F*cking f*ck!" James cursed again, surprised that his bolts did nothing but slow down the large ape. He opened his eyes in shock as a table was flung directly at him. With no time to move out of the way, James was hit square on by the table thrown at tremendous force, and knocked back onto the hard concrete. He groaned on the ground, coughing once or twice from the hit, which seemed to have knocked the wind right out of him. He could feel the throbbing pain on his ribs, but forced himself up, whether through adrenaline or sheer will. Another chair came soon after, which James was able to avoid just in time, hearing it crash behind him. The beast was relentless, continuing to throw more and more items.

Behind her the power to the hotel sprang back on and Gamer could hear the television in the foyer blaring with static. Taking it as her chance, she pelted back inside, holding her hands up at the television and draining as much pixelated energy from it as she could. No doubt the would shut the power off soon to leave James Hazen dry; which annoyed her since her ability relied on electricity as well. She finished draining the TV and stepped back outside in time to see the furniture and rubbish bins start flying at James.

James started backing up, hoping that if he increased the distance between them, he could be able to dodge more effectively. However, because he was constantly moving and dodging, he had no time to prepare any more powerful lightning attacks which could take down the gorilla. He continued to move left and right, trying his best to dodge every item, although occasionally he would get chipped or knocked back by a chair to his arms or side. Eventually, he began to grow tired of it. "F*cking piece of sh*t!" He cursed, as he slowly was losing the energy to keep moving around. Deciding to take a chance, James powered up as much energy as he could into his left hand. He stopped dodging, this time focusing as much energy as he could to the tips of his fingers. He aimed directly for the gorilla's chest, standing in place to gain better footing and precision, and fired a large bolt, which drained a sizable chunk of his power. However, he was unable to dodge the incoming table that was thrown at him, which hit him once more right onto his body and flung him onto the ground.

The bolt of electricity struck Tank, if he hadn't had his arm hanging limply in front of his chest it would have struck him cold. Piercing through his arm, Tank roared as the shock sent him flying backwards; his gorilla ability waning until eventually he was lying on his back a few meters behind. His arm still had the hole where the bolt had pierced.

Seeing Tank struck, Gamer leaped into action, heading towards James who had been flung to the ground. One after the other she fired streams of pixels from each hand, alternating as she stepped closer. She aimed for his hands, legs, joints, anything that would stop him casting electricity at her or allow any movement. She needed to keep him down and out of control.

James couldn't catch a break. Immediately after he had appeared to finally bring down the gorilla Atlantean for the moment, he started to be fired upon by the same Atlantean from inside. Luckily, there was a broken up table on top of him, which he tried to use as a shield from her attacks. However, as she kept alternating locations on where she was striking, James lay there, unable to strike back. He was hit multiple times across his arms and legs, though he did prevent a few bolts from reaching him thanks to the table piece he used.

He still felt the pain of being struck by the large table, which further slowed his movements. However, he was finally able to get a few smaller bolts of electricity out from his hands toward the girl, hopefully distracting her enough so that James could find some cover. As the lightning strikes left his body, he could feel his energy depleting. He looked around, trying to find a source, taking what he could from lamp posts and cell phones.

"Not so fast, Mister Hazen." Amanda Tell stepped out from the alleyway followed by an ensemble of guards all decked out in riot gear with serious weapons pointed at him. In front of them, Amanda stood with a pair of what looked like gloved handcuffs in her grip. "You are under arrest as given to me by the jurisdiction of A.T.L.A.S and the United States Government. There is nowhere to run, you're coming with me so you either cooperate and put your hands behind your back or we choose the hard way." She approached James, all the guns pointed at him as well as Gamer standing behind him.

James looked around, seeing that he was in fact cornered and probably with nowhere to run. He chuckled nervously to himself, glancing at each one of them and shaking his head. On one hand, he detested the thought of being a captive of humans. On the other, he preferred not to be dead. Maybe a while ago, he would have instantly tried to fight his way out in order to avoid such a fate. Now, he was playing in something where he needed to be sensible about things. Right now, he valued his own life more. James stood up slowly, raising his hands together to be put in the handcuffs. He looked directly at Gamer.

"I took out three of you," He said to her plainly. "If I didn't step out to talk to you, I could have done more. Think about that." He added with a smile, hoping she would understand what he was saying.

Slipping his hands into the cuffs and tightening them, Amanda signaled to two guards to take him to the holding van. While she stayed here and cleaned up the mess, the van would drive back as part of a contingency to store James on their plane before leaving. While one guard opened the door to the metal box that was to be his seat back to HQ, the other stepped in with him, locking James' cuffs into a small looped bar so he couldn't move before taking a seat opposite him. As soon as the door closed, the van roared into gear and proceeded towards the airport.

"My my my, in a bit of a pickle now aren't we?" The soldier that had entered the van with him pulled off his mask, revealing himself to be none other than the Librarian. "Long time no see, Mister Hazen." He grinned at the chained James.

"Oh, God, not you again," James said as a wave of shock and dismay swept over him. "What the f*ck are you doing here, Henry?"

Henry laughed, "For two things really. First of all, I must retrieve a gift I left in your possession," Henry stretched his arm forward, picking up the necklace around James' neck and spiriting away the small blue crystal embedded in it. "Secondly, I'm here to return you to your caregiver. Can't have someone of your stature rot away in prison now, can we?" With Crystal safely tucked away, Henry then procured a key from his jacket, brandishing it to James before unlocking the handcuffs and allowing James to slip free before grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. "And off we go!"

The next moment Henry was in the living room of Lucas' suite. "I believe this belongs to you, Lucy." He shoved James forward before spiriting himself away leaving James to his own devices with Lucas.

Detesting the nickname his brother has given him, Lucas ignored his sudden appearance and instead turned his attention to James. "I'm guessing your little spectacle wasn't quite spectacular? What happened?"

"Well..." James began, not quite sure where to begin. First everything was going well. James was there, doing what he did best. Then came some Atlanteans, which was a nice surprise. Then came A.T.L.A.S. Then Henry. Overall it was a whirlwind of events in the small span of time, ultimately ending with James managing to take out a large amount of humans, civilians and armed alike, and also some Atlanteans. It was some nice publicity, even if it ended somewhat anti-climatically. How could he really describe the entire ordeal.

"I did get hit by a flying table. Twice. Which is new. So I'll put this in the not-too-bad-of-a-day column."

​

 

[Retro Bug]

Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, Budapest, Hungary

November 22nd, 2012

In mere seconds they were off to Budapest. There was nothing stronger than how Delta abhorred flying, except, maybe, her crystallized skin. The Librarian's method of traveling was far preferred even if it did leave her stomach in knots. She graciously made her way off the plane with Elpis in tow and made sure to keep a keen eye on her movements. When Elpis wanted to be, which was all the time as of late, she was quite the handful. Several different conversations lulled on around Delta yet oddly she didn't care to listen in on any of them. Her mind had travelled to a conversation she was actually interested in and had been replaying ever since it had happened. Right before they boarded the plane Aoife had come up to her and, well, their short conversation ended with both parties having malice toward one another. It made Delta so angry that Aoife hadn't listened to her. She knew she was right. How many times had Aoife done this? None. Delta was trying to protect her from harm but clearly Aoife had put on her rose-tinted glasses. Anger started to influence Delta's thoughts; she was just so enraged at it all. A small hand slipped into hers - Elpis.

The small girl had a knack for bringing Delta back down to Earth, here all she had done was selfishly think about herself when Elpis had came from the destruction of her home to the scene of another. How had she been so stupid? She should've made Elpis stay in Toulouse because this was no place for her. It was too late for that; everyone was already getting into separate cars. The passengers in Delta's vehicle weren't so bad, Emil, Cooper, Oakley, and Elpis. Then there was Aoife... who by some twisted act of fate ended up sitting next to her of all people. Outside of the window is where Delta kept her eyes glued not wanting to give into her urges to look at Aoife. She had previously visited Budapest, strangely that felt like a lifetime ago. Nathan had taken her here as some sort of romantic gesture, and it was. A smile graced her face as she recalled him getting down on one knee right in the middle of a mud puddle in vivid detail. When he slipped the ring onto her finger it was the happiest she had ever felt in her life. That was before all their talks erupted into arguments, and before the bruises and pain...

Imogen's voice pierced through her memories just in time, "If it's a fat white kid with a neckbeard, I won't even try to not kill him. Dragons. What a joke."

A dragon that had to be some sort of a joke, but it wasn't. She saw the rather large fictitious creature flying through the air far ahead of their current position and (what Delta could only assume was) fire flew from its mouth. At least Delta knew what they meant by beasts now. They all were assuming that these beasts were being controlled by someone, but what if these beasts were Atlanteans? Delta had taken to reading some Atlantean literature - yeah, it surprised her as well - Atlanteans with morphology-related powers were fully capable of doing this.

It didn't take long before something went wrong. Imogen's constant talking had ceased (not that Delta minded) and when the brakes were slammed on Delta instinctively thrust her arm out in front of Aoife. Goddammit, she just momed Aoife. A loud crash from behind them gathered all of passengers' attention. An oversized monster stood on the road and from what Delta could tell it was a mixture of a bird, a lion, and a person, more specifically, Leo Cabrillo. Its feathered wings were outstretched and it pounced (or glided?) from place to place, swiping its paws at the AUP's vehicles. Dom and Thayne were in one of the cars that had found itself halfway buried inside of a building. There was barely enough time to think before the car she was in flew up and flipped on its back. In no time at all Delta's skin had crystallized and she grabbed ahold of Aoife to absorb all the damage they would take on impact. She prayed that Oakley was doing the same with Elpis. Fortunately, they were in a car full of Atlanteans and when she opened her eyes she saw Emil using his power to slow their descent.

Now, there were two winged-beasts, and the second one was responsible for flipping over the car. It was a hybrid like the first one except this one was darker in color and seemed a bit more agitated. The first one took off and the second one came back for seconds, a griffin, that's what Emil called it, and crashed into the car before it flew off into the smoke-filled sky. After everyone confirmed their safety they started unbuckling their seats belts. Falling to the roof wasn't Delta's idea of a good time, but she eagerly helped Aoife out of hers, though neither said a word to one another. Aoife joined Delta on the roof and tried her best to avoid the glass. Delta doubled checked that Elpis was alright and safe before looking over everyone else to make sure there weren't any serious injuries.

Emil struggled to open his door, Delta could see that there was a chunk of cement pressed against it, "Oakley, Delta, if you could, please." Her hands reached forward to the side door and slid it open a crack with all her crystallized might. Noise from behind them caused her to look backwards to see that the griffin was going on another rampage attacking all of their cars. She waited while Oakley touched Elpis again and watched as her armor instantaneously started covering her arm again. Elpis had little control over her power, so any skin-to-skin contact automatically activated her ability to take (or give back) ones Atlantean ability. It didn't take them long to push the cement block backwards and off of Emil's door. Everyone inside of the van trickled out, one by one they made their way onto the road. A small layer of dust and debris covered Delta's clothing. They weren't safe here; the griffin wasn't done with its reign of terror. She saw a car positioned in the same upside down manner of the one she had just exited. Who knew who had survived the attack of this beast? She wasn't sure if this was an Atlantean or a monster created by one, but one thing was for certain they needed to stop whoever was responsible for it. They needed a concrete plan, one that would minimize casualties.

Almost like a bullet, Aoife took off toward one of the severely damaged cars. Simon! Delta managed to grab hold of her fellow AUP member's hand before she ran too far, "Aoife!" A fury of red hair and anger turned toward her trying to yank her hand free, but in Delta's crystallized state it was completely useless for Aoife to attempt such a tactic. Delta saw the tears sliding down Aoife's face and wanted nothing more then to wipe them all away. She pulled Aoife into her arms so that her head rested on Delta's shoulders. All the pain Aoife was feeling Delta wanted to take away, she didn't deserve it. As a reminder that it was still there, the griffin flapped its powerful wings and shrieked, which sounded like thousands of people dying in a truly gruesome manner. A whimper came from beside her, Delta turned toward it only to see Elpis frightened with her eyes brimmed with tears and her hands brought up to face. The young Atlantean shook her head and ran away. She watched as Oakley tried to outstretch her hand to get the girl, but Elpis had predicted Oakley's move and successfully dodged it. Did Delta do too good of a job at secretly giving Elpis lessons in combat?

"Elpis!" Delta loudly screamed after the girl who had taken off.

"Go," said Aoife firmly, she nodded and stepped back from Delta.

Lacking any hesitation Delta separated herself from Aoife and went into the debris filled area where Elpis had fled. A few steps into her run Delta stopped herself, if she didn't make it back for some reason there was something she had meant to do. She found herself back in front of Aoife. Even with the dirt smudges, tears, and hair stuck to her face Delta had never seen a more beautiful sight. Was she really about to do this? What the hell... Delta cupped Aoife's face in one of hands and tucked away the strains of hair that clung to her face behind her ear. She leaned in and pressed her forehead against Aoife's.

"I know, you don-" Aoife started, but Delta didn't care what she had to say at that moment and slowly parted Aoife's lips with her own. For a fleeting second everything didn't feel like a mess, she felt those same fireworks she felt with Nathan but with greater intensity. Delta broke away from Aoife and cursed, upset with what she had just done. This wasn't some crappy action movie where the hero kisses the love of their life in the midst of an active battlefield, especially when they had someone that they cared for who needed to be rescued.

The only thing on Delta's mind as she ran was Elpis safety, that girl had a special place in her heart and she wasn't ready to lose her. The destruction around her was astonishing, could this even be considered Budapest anymore? Most of the buildings had chunks taken out of them or were completed decimated and fire was burning anything that was left. One couldn't even see the streets, not only due to the extensive amount of smoke but it was buried under rumble and litter. The frequent amount of severed body parts she had seen was more than enough to make her stomach churn, that and the smell that emanated from them. A group of people stood ahead of her, they were all... bending over?

"Excuse me, have you seen a little girl with wavy hair?" Delta called out to them, wary of the situation and thus not wanting to get too close. Delta noticed how they all wore the same outfit, tattered black robes and lacked footwear. The second after she finished her question they all turned toward her in unison. How creepy, but not as disturbing as the fact that their eyes resembled miniature coals and lacked visible irises. Blood splatter was the only pigment on their stark white faces. Suddenly, they all hissed and showcased their teeth, no... fangs? "F-ck." These were definitely not allies. There were five of them versus Delta who was already in a race against time. Crap.

Her dominant hand had already found its way to her gun and removed it from its holster; Delta pointed the barrel at the targets. Visibility was low but she took two shoots anyway, the bullets pierced the skull of one of the creatures and it went down. One of the bullets passed straight through the skull and found itself lodged in the eye of another; its damaged eye ruptured and bled. The others dissembled; they surrounded Delta, one on and for each of the cardinal directions. If they simultaneously decided to rush her she would only be able to take out one or two before she succumbed to the others. She had practiced this situation too many times in training for this to turn out any other way than her walking away with maybe a few scratches, if she was being generous.

Trying to gather herself Delta sharply inhaled then let loose one giant breath. There was only one way to win this so she lowered her arms and sheathed her gun. A burst of speed sent her flying forward toward the creature she nicknamed West. The creature stood still until she got close enough for it to swipe at her with fingers that resembled talons, sharp and hooked. Delta halted to a stop to avoid its fury of attacks by leaning her upper body backwards. Successful in evasion she brought herself forward then reared up a kick to the creature's abdominal region. She promptly went into guard position, she turned her body sideways by bringing her right foot back, lowered her chin, brought her right hand up to eye level, brought left hand up the same way only it was positioned slightly further ahead, and with elbows tucked into her sides as closely as possible. The thought of Elpis meeting her fate pressed Delta on, she smashed her crystallized fist through its skull, blood and brain matter covering her arm.

The other creatures briskly moved toward her location. Effortlessly, Delta swung her body 45 degrees to the left with her hand still caught in the creature's skull. Delta hoisted the body up as a shield while her free hand removed her gun once more and fired three bullets through the creature's neck, down fell South. Quickly she yanked her arm free from West's skull, sheathed her weapon, obtained the small dagger from her leg, once in hand she slammed the blade of the knife into East's throat, ducked to avoid North's swipes of fury from behind, and turned 180 degrees. She retrieved her gun from its holster, rose up, and pulled the trigger twice, one bullet for North's skull and the other for its heart. East predictably lunged forward, which allowed for Delta to simply step backwards to evade its obvious attack. It tripped over Delta's foot and she double tapped it in the back of the skull, its blood painted the ground.

She moved on, not allowing herself to gloat over the dead bodies of what seemed to be vampires or a moments rest. Smoke poured from the windows of the surrounding burning buildings making it harder to see much of anything. Delta kept her nose and mouth inside the antecubital space of her arm. Her eyes kept scanning the area ahead of her for any surprises, once and awhile she would have to fire a bullet at something trying to attack her. Finding Elpis in this situation was like finding a needle in a house that was burning down and had already started to collapse. Delta wouldn't give up, point blank period. She kept walking, and eventually she heard the sound of fighting to her left. Through the smoke Delta could only make out a woman taller than her with dark brown hair who stood facing off against three humanoid creatures. One reminded Delta of Devon when he was in his Atlantean form, it looked more like a beast of nature than human, another was a knight in metal armor (noticeably lacking a helmet) brandishing a steel sword, and the last was a female whose feathered arms turned into wings halfway down yet still had hands that ended in sharp claws. Delta swore she saw the woman smirk before she disappeared in cloud of purple... smoke? Gas? Tortured screams were the only thing that reached Delta's ears. A glimpse of a hand here and an arc of a blade was all she saw, but after a minute the ruckus ceased and the area became eerily silent.

"It's a delight to meet your acquaintance," the voice came from behind Delta, she felt coldness nip at her neck and when she looked down she saw the sword the knight held pressed at her neck. The dark-haired woman stood there holding the handle. "I'm glad you ran into me rather than Lev or Branko." Far into the smoke sailed the blade and with more grace and agility than Delta had ever seen before she moved into sight. Her brown eyes were as cold as the blade itself and betrayed very little. "I saw you fighting earlier, you have a knack for it. Though, your movements are sloppy, any highly-trained Atlantean could beat you in combat, and your marksmanship is almost spot on except you lower your gun right before you shoot."

"Are you Atlantean?" Delta asked, trying to place the accent the lady let slip before she hid it behind a generic American one. A simple touch to her neck where the sword had been held told her it wasn't only the coldness that nipped her skin. She wanted to know why the woman was watching her but there were more pressing concerns, "Are you here to help? Have you seen a small girl in a white dress with wavy hair around here?" Not one of her questions seemed to have an effect on the lady's reticent disposition. She turned her back to Delta and started to disappear into the smoke. No, Delta wasn't going to allow her to get away from her that easily.

"I'm Alesina, we will meet again." She spoke with absolute certainty, and did so without turning around. A bird came from out of nowhere and landed on the lady's shoulder and cawed twice before taking off again. "I must be on my way now. The Atlantean you seek is on that building, she is not alone so be careful and do try to stop being so reckless."

"Wait! Why are you here?" Delta coughed, she advanced several steps toward the fading woman. The world seemed to fall away in an instant and that's when she noticed the purple fog that emitted from the lady. She dropped to her knees and then fell forward landing on rumble, she saw the lady disappear before everything turned black.

~ ~ ~​

When Delta recovered she sat up and rubbed her head, how long had she been out? Five minutes? An hour? There was no telling the exact amount of time, as she wasn't carrying anything on her that told time. She practically leapt to her feet, dusted herself off, and sprinted in the general direction she was heading before she had encountered that peculiar woman... Alesina. Who was she? What was her deal? And her ability... Anesthesia Manipulation? Morphology? Delta trudged on knowing that these questions would remain unanswered until she met that woman again and next time she wouldn't let her get away. Was Elpis really on some building? Her foot ran into something that made a clanging noise, Delta bent over and picked it up. The sword the woman threw... Delta kept it in one hand as she carried on. The area she stumbled upon lacked smoke but, unfortunately, made up for that in monsters. Most of them were similar to the ones Delta had already met. She watched as a group of people tried to hold off a mob of creatures. One of them wielded a torch, another a broken chair, and one had an actual weapon, an axe. They swung around their weapons with inexperience, but it kept the mob mostly at bay. Delta noticed how the group was circled around something, no, someone. She walked closer to them and squinted her eyes, she saw a brief flash of long, wavy brown hair on white material.

Two loud bangs exploded from her gun. An extra magazine was all she had, which meant she couldn't waste her bullets on the likes of these things. She achieved the reaction she wanted; the entire horde of fiendish creatures diverted their attention to her. Handling a sword felt weird, thankfully she had done some minor training with swords but Delta had opted to spend more time with daggers. In actual combat she liked to stick to guns (and her fists) so she had not officially tested either of them. There was a first time for everything, right? She gripped the hilt tighter and threw herself into the throng of soon-to-be victims. One-handedly Delta swung the sword in a semicircle, the blade itself and Delta's clothing was moisten with blood. She took hold of the nearest creature within her range and slit its throat from ear to ear, blood squirted from its neck as it collapsed. A warning that was not well received. Anything that moved she sloppily slashed and sliced, blood flew every which way.

Delta stuck the sword in the belly of a near dead creature and used her brute strength to heave the blade all the way upward to the base of its skull. Its bloody entrails fell out on the ground. Swearing had become Delta's favorite thing (not that it wasn't already her favorite thing to do), she cursed left and right as the creatures swiped, stabbed, and poked various things at her. Her crystallization had developed significantly since she had been involved in combat of this caliber. The stinging scratches she had acquired on her face were the only foreseeable downside. Twenty minutes passed before a heap of bodies and severed limbs laid scattered at Delta's feet. She huffed and puffed, her shoulders rising and falling with every breath she took, and boy did Delta take a lot. Once she had composed herself she wiped off the bloodstained sword on the body of a dead gutted harpy. She was coated head to toe in blood and guts, she couldn't tell what was her blood and what wasn't. Parts of her clothing were shredded, such as her pants and the backside of her jacket (she hadn't worn her favorite leather jacket, thank god!) Delta dropped the sword and went toward the humans who had watched her this entire time, stepping over the bodies of those she had killed.

"Elpis," Delta said, almost in tears. She watched as the people closed rank and raised their weapons, blocking the one person on Earth Delta wanted to see. "I just saved your sorry as-es, you f-cktards. Elpis is my..." Delta paused, she hadn't actually thought of what her and Elpis's relationship would or should be called. It seemed weird to call Elpis her friend; they were closer than that... "My family." She watched as the men and woman exchanged approving looks and nods before eventually parting and lowering their weapons to reveal Elpis. The dress she was wearing was no longer white but covered in dust and red speckles. Delta scooped up the girl in her arms in a tight embrace and spun her around in a circle.

"Promise me, you won't leave us, me, again, okay?" Delta said sternly, by her tone of voice she knew that Elpis would be able to tell she wasn't happy. Elpis understood enough of what Delta said to nod and smile. In a less perilous situation Delta would've easily stood there and held onto Elpis for quite some time.

English wasn't well spoken amongst the group, but Delta still did her best to thank them all individually. As a group Delta led them toward where she believed the AUP was located. From time to time she would hear one of the three terrors - that's what Delta had taken to calling the griffin, dragon, and sphinx - and signaled for the group to hide low amongst the rubble. About every five minutes or so this happened and when the coast was clear they would continue on their way. Occasionally they would encounter a civilian that would need their help. At the top of the list was freeing someone trapped underneath wreckage, saving people from burning buildings, and protecting a person from getting savagely beaten to death by murderous beings. Strangely enough it felt nice to assist these people, though, Delta wasn't going to make a habit of it.

The one thing that she had an urge to fulfill was to find the Atlantean(s) responsible for the decimation of this once beautiful and lively city and the countless amount of lives that were taken. Only one fate was accepted for that type of person and it was Delta putting a bullet through their skull. These Atlanteans were cowards, hiding behind their creatures and refusing to face her. Regardless of their craven tactics Delta would deliver their punishment first-hand. Even thinking about it made her twist her face in disgust. One of the buildings they passed Delta recognized, she turned to face the group in order to deliver this bit of information.

"We're almost there," Delta said. Each one of them nodded, except one. His eyes were bulged out like he was in shock and blood trickled down the side of his mouth. That's when she saw the sword protruding from his neck.

The sheer look of horror on Delta's face must have alerted everyone because one by one they all let out frighten wails. It was too late for them; Delta couldn't help but watch the slaughter unfold before her very eyes. Screams were cut short by blades and fangs. From up above a seemingly endless stream of vampires, knights, and harpies descended from the building, this was an ambush. Instinctively Delta stepped in front of Elpis and removed her gun from its holster to fire three shots. Two of the shots killed two of the creatures and the last round was a mercy killing for the man they had mutilated beyond recognition. How had she not seen this coming? She had given her word to them she'd led them to safety but instead she had led them to their graves. There were too many for Delta to take on and still watch over Elpis to make sure she didn't run away again. Her gun kept flaring to life; she disposed of one magazine and inserted another, hoping there was enough rounds inside to take down this swarm. Usually she brought two guns and four magazines with her minimum, but her fight with Aoife had distracted her from grabbing the second gun and extra ammunition. The number of foes dwindled but Delta was still on the defensive. They were incoming and in seconds Delta knew they would be on top of her.

"Get down!" Delta preferred to not yell at Elpis but the moment called for it and Elpis made herself as small as possible. After Delta holstered her weapon she crystallized her fists and ran at the group head on, wanting to keep their sole attention on her and not on the small girl that was crouching on the ground behind her. Her fists found themselves colliding with the skulls of many. On top of a mound of rumble Delta spotted the axe that belonged to one of her fallen comrades. A punch here and there allowed for Delta to clear a path toward the weapon. She ducked down to retrieve it but before her fingers could wrap around its wooden handle she was blindsided by a being with claws and feathers.

Picking herself up was easier said than done, especially when a mass of creatures was trying to rip her throat out. Her forehead throbbed with pain, she pressed her fingers up against it only for it to come away covered in blood. If she could fully crystallize this wouldn't be a problem, these things would've been dealt with by now. The only good thing about being knocked down was that she was closer to the axe. A prickling sensation on her shoulder caused her to curse as looked back and saw one of the beings with serrated teeth feasting on her flesh. Wrapping her gloved hand around the handle of the bladed weapon Delta swung it at its neck with all the vigor her crystallized arm could muster and cleaved the head clean off its shoulder. An inhumane scream focused Delta's attention and heaved her onto her feet. She lashed out with a foot to kick the nearest fiend down and brought her weapon wielding hand backwards and flung it as hard as she could. The axe sunk into the head of an armored knight that loomed over Elpis, she would have to thank Natalia for the sessions of target practice later. Not many remained after Delta snapped the neck of one very pissed off werewolf.

An overwhelming feeling of pleasure had firmly settled in. Something she hadn't felt since that time on the boat, the passion to kill. If she had the time she would have reveled in each of her kills before she moved on to the next one and made sure their blood painted a masterpiece. The gash on the left side of her forehead after some time bled enough to reach her eye, leaving her unable to properly use it. In a fit of rage she took out the rest but not without acquiring more superficial wounds.

"We did it," Delta grunted, and lowered herself to Elpis's level. In her hand Delta took Elpis's and beamed a forced smile to try and show that everything was going to be okay now. "I couldn't have done it without your bravery, okay?" Elpis stared deeply in Delta's green eyes and wiped away some of the blood that was stopping her from fully opening her left eye. "Lets go," Delta murmured softly, she rose from the ground and turned around to lead them away from the massacre that had occurred.

A bloodied knight stood directly in front her, the axe protruded from the side of his head and the need for vengeance was written all over his bruised and bloodied face. With a smug smile he sank his jagged blade smoothly between her ribs. In an attempt to minimize the damage done Delta tried to crystallize her body but to no avail. Again, she tried. Nothing. Her attempts were futile. Goddammit. She looked down to see her blood staining the sword. Elpis's touch had taken her ability. The knight retrieved his weapon by yanking the sword out. Delta placed her hands on her injury, but the pressure alone wasn't going to stop the bleeding. Taking a step forward she immediately fell to her knees. Damn. She had always imagined her going out in a blaze of glory not by some pathetic stab wound in the middle of a ruined city. Wouldn't it be funny if this were the exact spot where Nathan had proposed so that the happiest moment of her life and the lowest were all in one spot?

Delta lingered her gazed over her shoulder for just a moment, she wanted to see Elpis one last time. If there was one final act she must do it prior to dying it was to tell Elpis, "Run." Elpis stood there frozen in place, her voice had not reached the girl's ears. This was Delta's fault, she made Elpis promise not to leave her side and even at the worst possible time she was still fulfilling it. The ragged knight brought his weapon straight down for what seemed like one last strike. Delta shielded herself with her forearm, and laughed until she started coughing up blood, it was certainly going to take a better move than that to kill her. She saw the flames from the lit fires glinting off the blade as it came down for a second and, this time, final blow. Unlike others Delta had no plans on shutting her eyes and embracing death, she would see life until the very end. The sword stopped mid-swung, before it had the opportunity to finish her. A vast amount of blood started pouring profusely from the knight's neck and, much to Delta's surprise, his head slid straight off of his shoulder. He fell forward, right on top of Delta. Delta turned her head to the side and noticed a swirl of purple haze that lingered in the air. A silhouette was visible for a brief moment then it disappeared from sight. Delta swore she heard the wings of a bird flapping. Against her will her eyes fluttered shutter, she felt her consciousness slipping but still Delta reached out for Elpis.​

 

[Swolligator]

Coronado Island, San Diego, California, United States

November 22nd, 2012

"I took out three of you," He said to her plainly. "If I didn't step out to talk to you, I could have done more. Think about that." Gamer watched as he smiled that evil grin at her; she fully understood what he meant and she could see in his eyes that he was banking on it. The words chilled her to the bones as she watched him carted off to the truck where he would be secure for their travel back to headquarters.

"He's right, you know," Amanda stepped up next to Gamer, her striking pose making Gamer feel small and insignificant in comparison. "With Harpy dead and Tank grievously injured he easily dispatched the three of you and could have easily come after the rest of us." Gamer could hear the disappointment in Amanda's voice; she wanted nothing more than to make everything better but Harpy was dead and there was no way she could bring her back.

"But your quick thinking and deception meant that he couldn't do more. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the greater good and you did an amazing job. Well done." Every word of praise Amanda spoke simply hammered the nail further into her heart as she dreaded more than ever the actions she had taken. If only she had ganked instead of Harpy…

"We're just pawns to you, aren't we? Some disposable tool you can discard and replace." Gamer felt sick to her stomach for the fate she had caused for Harpy, but she felt disgust towards Amanda for treating her death like nothing.

Amanda looked furious at Gamer, "I'm sorry, did you actually think you had any value? If it weren't for me you would be holed up in a federal prison, or don't you remember those hacking charges I had the FBI drop? I will gladly send you back there."

When Gamer had first discovered her abilities, she had been elbow deep in code hacking into her school's records to change a student's grades; something she did for a little cash on the side. She was almost finished when her screen started to fritz; grabbing it by the sides she shook the monitor knowing full well that it wouldn't do much but allow her to vent her anger. What happened next stopped her in her tracks. As her fingers pushed into the cool LCD screen, pixels began streaming out from the screen, twisting around either thumb until it was a constant stream revolving around her hands and arms. Pulling her hands away from the monitor stopped the stream of pixels from the source but failed to extinguish the pixels now shimmering around her hands like some technological aura.

The itching of her tattoo had begun crawling up her left forearm; this causing Gamer's hand twitched and a bolt of pixels flew from her outstretched hand and smashed through the window glass only to dissipate in the cool night air. From then on, she found things a lot easier to hack and started the brazen act of hacking into government files; which alerted the FBI to her. Several days later and she had found herself in a cell with four concrete walls and a metal door. It was a week after that when Amanda walked into her life.

"No, I haven't forgotten," She replied rather dejectedly.

"Good," Amanda started to walk off in a huff, "the get your sh*t together and follow me back to the convoy." Gamer was surprised to hear Amanda swear like that; the woman had always used harsh words to scold them with but nothing so profane.

"No." Gamer was stalwart; she was fed up with Amanda's orders.

"That was an order, not a question." Amanda turned on her heels, her face contorted in range and anger, voice adamant.

She knew that she was rage quitting, practically on the verge of QQ-ing, but Gamer wasn't having a bar of it; this woman wasn't pro enough to order her around. Casting her arms wide, brilliant, sparkling pixel wings spread from her back and past her arms. "I'm out. GG, Amanda, well played." Gazing upwards with a gleeful smile Gamer launched herself up into the air above Coronado Island, angling her descent to glide towards the large city of San Diego before flapping her wings to take her higher.

"Get her! Shoot her down! Do not let her escape!" Amanda cried out to the army personnel that had swarmed around her as Gamer had taken off, but their bullets failed to even nick Gamer as she soared across the water. "Get Tank back to the plane, I want him sedated and secured. Even if we have to comb the entire city, we'll find her." Amanda screamed furiously.

-----​

Exhausted and elated, Gamer finally landed on the top of the Symphony Towers. She was finally free of Amanda and her tyrannical ATLAS organisation and it felt great to do so. But now as she stood above the skyline of San Diego she suddenly realised she wasn't sure what to do next. The whole plan up till now had been to run away and escape, and now with that accomplished, she was unsure what to do next.

Spying a satellite dish a few feet from her position on the roof, she suddenly had an idea. As James' words rung in her head she knew that he was the right person to contact. Sidling over to the disk, she place her palm on the base console, feeling her ability tap her into the endless stream of data and pixels that emanated from the modern fixture. Willing her mind into it, she used it as a central hub to take over any and all television screens within the Downtown and surrounding areas.

"James Hazen," a pixelated projection of her face took up the television screen, its lips moving albeit slightly laggy, "You could have done more, but you didn't. I thought you were the enemy but it turns out I was working for the enemy. Meet me on top of the One America Plaza in half an hour, I want a truce."

When she had finished her little display of rebellion, Gamer staggered away from the dish breathing heavily. It had taken a lot of her ability and energy just to do that so she was banking on Hazen making their last fight water under the bridge. From her position she could clearly see the One America Plaza and, once he arrive at the top, she would make her way over to give her some time to recouperate.​

 

[Retro Bug]

Budapest, Hungary

November 22nd, 2012

Unconsciousness was a state that Marwa couldn't afford. The consequences were too severe for her to drift away into darkness even if her body was begging to. She had to reject it like Raguel had taught her. A strong will and a good focus point was all that was necessary. It didn't take long for her eyes to land on something, actually, it was someone. He knelt beside her the instant she had fallen over, Marwa had no doubts that his mission here was mostly to oversee hers and protect her. That's why Andre hadn't left her side yet and for that Marwa was thankful. It wasn't easy pushing herself passed the pain into a state of mild consciousness. Sounds burst forward suddenly and loudly, sirens, gun shots, screams, roars, all signs of chaos. Perfect.

A frown was planted on her face as she struggled to sit upright. Shakily she got to back up on two legs after sternly refusing Andre's help. Looking down at all, the view was extraordinary. Fires raged all around, buildings were left in ruins, and her beings had ravaged this city to the point of decimation. She could feel each and everyone of their existents, the creatures she had summoned were tethered to her like stings that she could pluck and strum. When they were destroyed Marwa could also feel them go and, right now, someone or something was taking out a group of her creations. With all of her strength she pulled on one particular string with force and waited. Sometimes it was easy to control them, but with the amount Marwa had conjured up there was no way she could work in tandem with them all. That's why she only set her sight on the terror trio, her precious masterpieces. Her eyes grew wide as one approached, the largest of the three, and definitely the most stunning piece of work she had worked on in awhile. Its ferocious roar brought forth a wave of flames as it neared. It was a bit of an obvious choice, Marwa had always found dragons to be the most fascinating mythical beasts of fiction. Due to its sheer size the reptilian creature did not land on the building where Marwa and Andre were located but floated beside it.

A joyous Marwa ran her hands over its smooth multi-colored scales at a leisurely pace. Often times she was left astounded by how her creations came to life in such rich detail that it left her mouth agape. Now was one of those times. Marwa felt another string being separated. That meant there were actual people here that were trying to stop their attack. It also meant that Marwa could do some first hand research on those that opposed the Renegades. Without opening her mouth she beckoned the creature closer and once it had she found herself on its back. When drawing this one she had knew it was a possibility to ride it and so Marwa drew in a saddle of sorts. It would allow her and another person to ride comfortably on its backside without worrying of falling off as long as they held onto the appropriate places and the dragon didn't do any unexpected stunts in midair.

"Coming?" Marwa inquired, she prayed the answer to that would be a yes. How many times did one get to ride a dragon through the air?

"Are you sure this is wise, Marwa?" Andre had his specific orders to watch over her; Raguel certainly had her eye on this one, grooming her like a successor. Grabbing onto the handles of the saddle, Andre hoisted himself up to sit behind Marwa, feeling a little anxious at being so high off the ground up in the air. People often said cats landed on their feet, but did that work for Atlantean Morphs too?

The ride began off a bit rocky, she felt the dragon's urge to do what it wanted to do, and that was to assert its dominance over this place and all that dwelled in it. Marwa subdued its feeling to do such things and made it clear that it was to show them those that were causing trouble. The first scene they stumbled upon was a set of destroyed cars and then a group of Atlanteans. Just who were these individuals? Marwa asked Andre just that.

"They're not the ARF, that is for sure and they seem too disorganised to be A.T.L.A.S." Andre continued to survey the scene but failed to assess whom exactly these people fighting back were. He had been hoping that Leo and his students would have come to Budapest; it had been a while since he had last fought his brother.

"There certainly are a lot of organizations," Marwa stated, it was a subject she gotten interested as of late. There, of course, was the Atlantean Royal Family as known as the ARF and the Atlantean Threat Logistics and Assessment Section or A.T.L.A.S. for those who never wanted to repeat that again. Rumors of others were just that, rumors. A lack of evidence only resulted in speculation on the online forums Marwa browsed. As they sailed above the group of Atlanteans she kept her eyes glued to them. It would take effort but she could send pawns their way in an attempt to see them demonstrate their unique set of abilities. "We could just ask them...Politely?"

Andre squinted his eyes, not entirely sure if she was being sarcastic or not, "I'm pretty sure greeting and asking them from the back of a dragon would be a tad intimidating. But we might as well go say 'hi'." He wasn't overly confident in this plan but his main goal was to keep Marwa safe no matter what.

"Okay," Marwa smiled brightly, she was testing the waters with Andre. So far, he was a lot more lax with his boundaries than she thought he would be. She tuned into the dragon's mind and willed that they fly closer to the ground. It was easier for them to see the individuals and to fit now that a majority of the buildings were in shambles. Mentally she started recording the appearances of the individuals below, she had to be able to regurgitate it later. When she was sure that she had committed enough of it to memory Marwa steered them on their way.

One might not think it, but it felt nice. They were going at a speed that allowed them to get a nice breeze going, not too fast or not too slow. Even though Marwa had never been on one she threw her hands up in the air as they descended like she had seen so many people do in movies or television shows when they went on rollercoasters. She let out a fit of laughter. This was a better day then she imagined it was going to be. Hell, Marwa thought she would be dead at this point. Okay, maybe not dead but something extremely close to it.

"Look!" She pointed at a lone girl who was taking on a mob of pawns. Marwa admired the girl's moxie and how she was involved in some heavy physical combat and was pretty good at it from what Marwa could tell. Wait... A realization popped into her head, she knew who that was! Like in Paris she was dressed from head to toe in black. "That's Krystal! Or Killer Krystal." At least that's what the people on the social media sites tacked onto the name because of her supposed nature. It felt like meeting an Atlantean celebrity, it wasn't everyday one met someone who had a hand in the Parisian Incident. Another realization caused Marwa to slouch her shoulders, "Aw, this means we might have to kill her. She was involved in Paris as well. Were you there?"

"Paris? no." Andre had been too busy trying to hold on to whatever he could rather than listen to Marwa's mumbling as the dragon rippled through the air while Marwa seemed to be having the time of her life. As for Paris, it hadn't been long after his 'death' in Berlin and he had still been recovering when the band headed out for Paris. Andre continued to focus on keeping them both alive, scanning the ground far below for any sign of any other Atlanteans. "That one below," Andre refused to relinquish his grip on the saddle, trying to point out a figure below them, "the older guy floating in the air, his name is Emilio Bernot, he can control gravity so watch out for him!" Andre had met the man on a few occasions and knew his father had disliked the man immensely. So if Emilio was here, then it must mean, "These guys are the AUP: Atlantean Unification Project. Emilio is their leader!" He yelled out to Marwa over the roar of wind and sound of destruction filling his ears.

Marwa pulled her attention from Krystal and looked over to where she saw Andre divert his attention. In the air was a man! Whoa, gravity control? That was beyond awesome! Wait, did that mean Krystal was apart of this Atlantean Unification Project? Hmmm. She watched this Emil character manipulate gravity until her attention was grabbed by something else, a jet of fire. For once it hadn't come from the dragon. She watched the Atlantean admiration.

It was, "Pyromaniac!" Marwa had read in The Daily Telegraph about how he had almost burned an entire family alive while fighting another Atlantean. "Cool! I mean, you know what I mean," she said with excitement. She had hit the jackpot today or something. Krystal... Pyromaniac. They had arrived because of her? That was enough to make Marwa's day and make her smile. Where were Coldsnap or Shocker? What about Ultra? Oh well. She returned her mind to what Andre had said about the AUP.

"Who are the AUP? What do they do? What are their goals?" Marwa questioned, she assumed that unifying was a major part of it. Did Andre know more? All those wrecked cars must have belonged to them. If she had to guess she would have to say that her griffin had something to do with it. Oh man, there were so many questions she had that would have to go unquestioned simply because she would need an AUP member to answer them.

"I would say the name says it all. They're Atlanteans trying to unify Atlanteans with the goal of unifying all Atlanteans." Andre felt a bit silly spilling out that sentence but it was the best he could come up with. Even during is time at the ARF mansion he never had anything to do with Emil save for him showing up at their makeshift funeral. Likewise he knew very little on the AUP. "How long are we going to stay here observing? We should be meeting up with Pietr on Csepel Island soon."

Andre wasn't any fun. Why didn't he understand how awesome this was? Marwa was sure this might be the best day of her entire life and all he wanted to do was meet Pietr. That sounded so boring. Though, if she grew up knowing about Atlanteans or having knowledge about it prior to the reveal she supposed it wouldn't be as marvelous as it was. In Marwa's book she was still going to label him as boring. She wanted to get into trouble, do something dangerous, make more memories, etc. The Renegades was still all new to her and she was all new to it. Everyone else had done something cool, most likely a multitude of cool things and Marwa was in the midst of her first real impactful mission. Not that Qatar should be swept under the rug, but Budapest would be on the news cycle for weeks.

A teenager only slightly older than her caught Marwa's focus. He created weapons with some sort of dark energy. She couldn't help but wonder what that was and how it worked. Her mood influenced the direction that the dragon was going, it made a sharp curve back toward where the boy was. That ability was one of the most intriguing ones she seen all day. Granted she had only seen like three... The dragon stalled itself until the Atlantean displayed his ability again. Wheels began to turn in Marwa's head to try and understand what exactly he was manipulating here. Whatever it was Marwa eventually gave up and hoped one day she'd be able to figure it out. She sighed and gave the back of the dragon a pat who then took off toward the largest island of the River Danube. On the way she caught sight of a man sneaking around, clearly trying not to be seen but noticeable from where Marwa sat. Just who was that?

On the way to the island it didn't take long before they flew over another group of Atlanteans. These ones were not like the others, they were ruthless. Two adult males fought side by side, they looked quite muscular from what Marwa could tell and guys with muscles might be her weakness. One of them had a sword one moment, an axe the next, and some weapon that Marwa knew not the name of, whoa. A magical weapon? That was impressive. There didn't seem to be anything special about the other one however. His ability must have been something that was outwardly noticeable or he wasn't an Atlantean, but Marwa doubted that as soon as she thought it. Almost as if it were instinctively the duo looked upwards and Marwa waved eagerly, but they did not return her gesture and instead carried on their way. The way they took care on the pawns with ease and efficiency said that they had done this before, they weren't newbies to the Atlantean life. Two more appearances to commit to memory.

The dragon made its way to Csepel Island. Marwa wasn't ready for it to be over. She didn't even get a nifty battle scar... The information she had gotten was good for her research and writing, but that didn't make for a story to tell the others. By "the others" she did not mean the other Renegades, no, she wasn't ready to engage them yet. People that visited the same social media sites that she did, the people she discussed Atlantean-related issues and rumors with. It sounded childish, online friends, but it wasn't. They were her only friends.

"Something's wrong..." Andre mused as he got off the dragon's back when it had landed, "Pietr should have been here already." Casting his gaze around he tried looking for the German Atlantean but could see hide nor hair of the man.
​