Dark Reign - Insurrection: Chapter 4 - Demand Dread

[Resonance]

Reson was already untangling herself from Metzli after she pulled them back, quickly regaining her feet. Aidan's mental shout urged her on and she snarled, flinging her arm forward to release a thick Block of Light that would slam into the Bot, sending it flying towards the hole Damien created. The dampener wave hit miliseconds after, smothering the Block from existance as she accelerated towards Ana, spear in hand and rage in her eyes. When she closed the gap, her spear shot forward low, then would arc diagonally up across Ana's chest.

"Do it," Mei nodded to Kapp. If Demandred and Mike were iced, they'd be free to join the fight without having to worry about being stabbed in the back or them escaping. She turned had just stepped back to give Kapp a clearer shot when the beam cut through the floor and she fell back in shock. She reached out for Kapp as the depressurization struck. "Kapp!!"

[Uberwulf X]

<Right.>

There was a mental nod of acknowledgement as Avatar immediately ran down the myriad ways 'stop it' could be achieved, and settled on reversing the field to put the Twilight Crystal back where it was. <Work with me to reverse this; the Crystal's seat of power has to be a point of stabilization for it and all the energy around it.>

As long as Nexus mentally agreed with that plan, Avatar would then go silent. She was still very available for communication as she was still in Nexus' system, but her focus was on connecting with the console, getting through the last protections that Nexus had set up. Honestly, she would rather Nexus be focused on keeping herself attached to the railing and fighting Anastasia's control, something that would have been much easier as that next dampening pulse went through. It was also perfect for Avatar as she could, and would, quickly take control of all relevant systems involved with reversing, or simply cutting off, the tractor beam.

The Harrowing ending rather unceremoniously, the column of light shrinking and leaving sparkles of illumination as it floated down into the gaping hole that Aidan ordered. Damien didn't worry too much about what Aidan was doing. The guy had a plan-- probably something like actually touching the Twilight Crystal and physically holding it in place while the others worked to disrupt the tractor beam, thus taking on as much Spirit and Chaos as Damien had-- and was moving to enact it. It would have been preferable to follow Aidan down, but Damien and Elyas were likely the ones at the forefront of giving others openings and protection, so he turned his focus to his next movements.

It was at that moment, with him still hovering in air, that a still-color-shifted Damien (Cephiros?) realized that he still had the energy to hover, to think. A quick glance at his fur showed that it was quickly darkening strand by strand from the root, tendrils of green and red and white zipping over his body like electric snakes. He was still tired, but he wasn't retching ichor and absolutely defenseless, so he'd take that small victory.

"Metzli, let me go, get Yuki!"

The moment he felt his sister's power release him, Damien moved forward, sword drawn as he swooped low. His wings folded at his sides and back after a hard beat, his body in a full dive. He very openly threatened Anastasia with a direct sword slash from low to high, and his eyes were on her torso. He expected her to ready an attack to meet him, so at the last second-- whether it was to dodge whatever defense was erected, or to avoid meeting her head-on at arm's distance-- he burned blood for a Celerity-boosted Aileron roll to her right, as well as whatever was needed for another single hard beat that would close the distance and allow him to make an earnest attempt at lopping her right arm off from the shoulder.

Ans the dampener pulse hit, a color-reverted Damien dropped down to the unsteady space next to Anastasia, bared fangs showing his exertion through new physical and magical fatigue as his clawed left hand reached for her neck.

The jaguar didn't verbally respond, her teeth grit as she untethered her brother's shadow from her ability. She was still focusing on all the others, being sure even Mike and Demandred weren't swept into the hole Aidan flew into. Her eyes were on the bot now taking rapid laser pistol fire, and the demonic-looking girl beyond. Unfortunately, Metzli's thoughts of dragging everyone up from the open hole were dashed when she felt the second dampener pulse hit, and stay.

"Shi-- my magic's gone!!" Which meant that she couldn't bring up Iron Maiden for protection and shoulder check Anastasia, or do much more to defend against a potential hammer blow. She'd drop her head and just absorb the hit as much as possible; even without her shadowy armor, Metzli was meaty and durable in her shifted form and should have been able to take the one strike. Whether or not she'd have to take that hit, Metzli turned and bounded to the bot moving to grab Yuki. Once she reached it, Metzli dove at the back of its ankles, seeking to throw off its balance and hopefully onto its back-- even if 'on its back' meant 'on her back.'

[Kyt]

Yuki was not a great frontline fighter. She could be quick, and clever, and did have enough power to back herself up in many situations, but straight might tended to beat her pretty well. Unless she could exploit it.

Seeing the pawn make a grab, she arced up and back, pushing off a stalagmite of ice that shot out from underneath her. Mid-air, she felt her connection sever; cursing, she tried to send one last pulse of energy to solidify the ice, but it was too late. She managed to land as Metzli bounded over, the pressure swirling across all of them, and no way to hold any of them, or even herself.

[Kokinyu]

"It takesss one to know one-" Grenadine shouted back in a rasp. Her voice was quickly drowned out by the sudden decompression, wind howling from below. Though her feet were locked in place upon the steel surface below her, the sudden pressure wave within the room caused her to stagger and twist. She fell back, planted herself against the nearby wall, and checked her gear. From there she could see Aidan swoop down to the first floor and out of the hole. That's when the wave struck.

The sensation was sudden, sickening, and were she not physically affixed to the wall using the natural adhesion of her skin she might have fallen to the ground then and there.
-------------------
Kapp nodded in solidarity, grinning at Mei for a moment. His silhouette was then darkened by the backdrop of harrowing. The air around them exploded, a blue of green bolted through the open hole, and both himself and Demandred were telekinetically? Spirikinetically? Trust some feet away from the hole in the ground.

Eyes wide, heart pounding, he tumbled across the ground for a moment before his prone form was dragged toward the hole. Mei, reaching out, drew his attention first even if the ringing in his ears left him half-deafened. He reached out, clasped her wrist with his own meaty paw, then thrust his other hand into the glass surface below and in a panic just started dumping his magic into it. Rimefrost built upwards from the cold surface, forming a wide barricade- and another. And another- short half-rings of jagged, half formed mounds. Something, anything to hold onto. "Hold on! Hold on- Hold on!"

He cried out and continued pounding his hand into the ground as the ice around his palm and fingers shattered. And again. And again as the magic began to fade.

[Aidan]

Resonance blasted the egg pawn in front of her with a block of light, driving it back several steps. When the dampener wave struck and dispersed the light, it revealed the egg pawn teetering, teetering, on the edge of of the jagged, sparking hole in the floor. It windmilled its arms helplessly for a moment, and then fell backward, vanishing into the hole.

Yuki, meanwhile, was able to summon a spike of ice from the ground and use it to flip herself back and away, the pointed end slamming into the side of the eggpawn - only for it to shatter under the robot’s weight as the dampener wave robbed the ice of its density. The robot staggered, the flames across its hull doused by the dampener robbing the magical conflagration of fuel.

The egg pawn planted its feet, wounded but still standing, between Yuki, Grenadine, and Metzli. The Raiders had lost their advantage. Small lascanons raised from its forearms as it raised its arms, one toward each group of adversaries, and opened fire.

But Metzli was already up and on her feet, the jaguar leaping over the rift Damien had carved through the gantry, throwing herself into the robot’s legs. The eggpawn was driven back into the edge of the doorframe, the arm pointing at Yuki and Grenadine swinging up and away, laser blasts tracing a line of flashing impacts across the ceiling, while the arm that had been pointed at Metzli swept down and across the gantry.

---

Nexus and Avatar came to an agreement at the speed of thought - conflict be damned, this wasn’t what Demandred wanted, and Nexus did not want to see him killed in an explosion caused by Anastasia’s backstabbing.

In that moment, Avatar glimpsed the love that lay under Nexus’ unswerving loyalty toward the leader of Argus.

Anastasia’s control over her slackened as the dampener wave struck. Avatar and Nexus aligned their purposes. Nexus’ body flung itself away from the rail, passing by Anastasia as the girl recovered from the silver bolts, and through itself at the control console. Fingers split open and began to swarm over the console as Avatar and Nexus worked in tandem to undo everything Argus had sought to accomplish.

---

Resonance bounded forward, spear driving toward anastasia in a rising diagonal slash. Anastasia swept her staff down to block. Reson’s Chah steel speartip could cleave through just about anything on Mobius, but when it struck the magical staff, the blade bit and angry red sparks flew from the point of impact.

Anastasia swept the spear to one side and brought the butt of her staff up in a jab at Resonance’s stomach. The demonic sigils and arcane runes etched onto her flesh were still glowing, contained magic seething beneath the pressure of the dampener wave. It seemed that she had taken precautions, building up enough arcane strength over the years to overwhelm the strength of the dampener field when she most needed to.

She had not spent that time, however, training to be a great fighter.

Her movements against Resonance were slower than the Takeshi’s daughter, more easily telegraphed. With Damien diving down at her, Anastasia cursed and did the only thing an inexperienced fighter could do against a pair of trained combatants - she retreated, throwing herself sideways against the guardrail encircling the raised command dais, rolling over it and dropping down into the command pit below.

She landed in an awkward crouch and hissed, then reached up with her free hand to pull one of the silver bolts free, gloved hands protected against the burn of the silver.

---

Elyas ceased firing as Resonance forced the eggpawn away and then scrambled forward, over the body of the fallen pawn so he could get eyes on the command deck. Resonance rushed past him and Damien dove, forcing Anastasia into retreat, but Nexus was back at the console.

“Nexus is making a move!” he shouted, unaware of Avatar’s actions. He moved forward into the room but kept his back to the wall as he moved down the steps, raising his pistol to keep pressure on Anastasia, the weapon barrel glowing as it approached its failure point.


Aidan dove through the hole Damien had melted through the viewport, wings spreading once he had cleared the gap and emerged into the blinding light and overwhelming heat beneath the ship.

And then the dampener wave struck.

Aidan felt his magic weaken immediately, smothered to embers. The light became brighter, the heat unbearable, the pressure of the ship’s beams - both tractor and whatever was siphoning power from the Twilight Crystal - smothering. He hadn’t expected the dampener wave to maintain as he had plunged through the hole in the ship, and now a part of him was rebelling at the decision he had made. But it didn’t matter. Right now, the only thing that mattered was reaching the Crystal.

Pain raced across his body as he plunged, the heat of the ship’s beams burning his wings, his body, his clothing starting to smoke as he dropped. The nexus of power he had thrown himself into was not meant to be endured by mobians, meta or otherwise.

Aidan fell, his eyes set upon the Twilight Crystal as his vision blurred. He reached forward toward it, trying desperately to call upon the connection Anastasia had smothered, in one final attempt to undue what she had done.

[Uberwulf X]

((Reaction))

"Agent Avatar, under command of Agent Ender responding: I'm with Nexus," came an immediate answer over comms; she was responding to Elyas' shout, but it probably would have been good to actually let the rest of the team know about aligned-but-hidden actions.

"I request you focus on your target, sir."

[Aidan]

((Reaction)) Well shit - that was a welcome relief. "Acknowledged, Raiders focus on primary target, Nexus is a non-combatant, repeat, Nexus is a non-com!"

[Resonance]

Res could feel Aidan's pain dancing along her nerve endings like electricity. But he was fully commited to what he was doing, so she trusted he was okay, or would be soon. His resolve echoed hers, and she was able to stay focused on Ana for the time being, feeding the sensations from her link with Aidan into her carefully honed rage.

Res hopped back to avoid Ana's jab, easily dodging it with a snarl. When Damien's attack forced Ana over the edge, there was zero hesitatiob - Res immediately lept over it, spear tip down, pointed directly at her target below. Death from above, baby.

When their hands clasped, Mei grabbed one of her metal fans from her belt and used her free hand to slam it repeatedly into the ground until it caught on something, similar to Kapp's ice tactic. Her eyes were wide with fear - an unusual emotion for her to show. "Kapp!" She tried to pull Shadow around her to help them, but as quickly as it came to her the quicker it was swept away by the final dampening blast. Having nothing but her fan to help them, she was terrified one or both of them were going to go through that hole.

[Uberwulf X]

Anastasia dropped and Damien scoffed, his claws grasping empty air. Resonance actually moved fasted than he did in her pursuit, which was fine; if Ana rolled out of the way of the down-stab, then Damien would adjust his fall with a beat of his wings, so he could land on her body boots-first. If Resonance's stab did land, then he'd land next to the young women. In either instance, he made another attempt at grabbing her by the neck.

She mentally groaned as the bot didn't crumple onto her, instead moving forward and shooting wildly. Rather than trying to leap up again, she rolled onto her stomach and shot forward and low, arms open to wrap about its legs that it would faceplant. Whether stumbling or floored, Metzli pounced forward again to whichever gun-hand looked like it couldn't immediately shoot her, and drove claws into whatever joints possible to sever the weapon.

While she did briefly consider trying to push it out and down the hole, she didn't want to make the bot anyone's problem but her own; if it managed to right itself, then it could start attacking Mei and Kapp, as well as Mike and Demandred.

[Kyt]

Yuki muttered angrily in Lhunran, eyes darted around rapidly, trying to figure out something, anything, she could use. It seemed much for naught, though: their martial combatants were occupied, and all the casters were stuck. She briefly regretted not having her bow, but they'd anticipated smaller spaces and needing to move quickly.

She at least didn't want to keep grouped up and make an easier group of targets for the pawn that Metzli was wrestling with, so she moved away from Gren, stumbling towards the railing.

[Kokinyu]

Frustration. Panic. A sudden sense of wrongness. Grenadine felt worse and worse as the moments passed- and yet, that tingling sensation and growing pain of Chaos reacting to her condition was growing dull by the second. Metzli's power was waning- she could see it, and Yuki's ice was all but spent. She, too, understood intuitively that Alchemy... Magic wasn't going to work here. For a second she felt a sense of powerlessness... But another part of her, a bigger part of her, fed into the frustration toward Anastasia. If not for her none of this would be happening. If not for her, that world they saw, Silver's world, wouldn't have died. Where Yuki looked for Cover, Grenadine searched inside for something different. Something older- A person she used to be.

Her left arm had gone slack- numb and disanimated. Despite it, she moved to the wall and, with bare feet and palm, scaled the wall with that natural adhesive quality her kind had. With the fluidity of a striking asp, and the dexterity perhaps borrowed from watching Hrist, she leapt from the wall to scurry up and cling to the Eggpawn's tiny head. It wasn't the best plan, but it was something. She wrapped her good arm around its eyes, hollaring in a hoarse, raspy voice that didn't quite carry as her tail thrashed. It was do or die. "Go for itsss legss!"
---------------
Kapp reached out for Mei and grasped her free hand while pushing against one of the stalagmites of ice he'd made. His hands were cold and damp as he pushed toward her- eyes wild. "I- I can't ice- I'm out, I'm out! Just hang on- we'll figure something out. We'll figure something-"

[Kokinyu]

From nearby Mei she heard a gurgling cough and saw some slight movement. A black cap flew by her field of vision as Anastasia's fixer shifted from his position near the Ascension machine. She could see him looking toward her. And though he said nothing, she could see him roll and flop onto his side in order to reach his arms out- cuffed as they were- toward her. His lower half hugged the ascension machine column, legs finding some purchase in the debris and damaged plating. The corners of his jowly mouth were wet with blood- Metzli had done a goddamned doozy on him.

And despite that...

These were kids. Magic kids, pains in the asses, but kids none the less.

[Aidan]

The ship began to tremble, the hole in the command deck flashed with electrical sparks as gouts of steam and oil spewed from burst pipes and ductwork. The displays that Nexus and Avatar flicked through showed a cascading failure across the airship’s power systems, their desperate attempts to reroute the power surges away from the ascension engine the only thing keeping the engine from exploding. Their attention then split, Avatar focusing on managing the power flooding up from the Twilight Crystal while Nexus strove to invert the metafrequency the ship had used to create the rapidly expanding dampener field. The code was devilishly complex - Nexus recognized her own handiwork, done under the long, quiet manipulation of Anastasia Darkholme.

Suddenly, they broke through the chaos, but found themselves facing a precarious choice. One that made Nexus hesitate.

To invert the dampener frequency, they would need to divert all the power they had kept from the ascension engine back toward it. The dampener field would go down, but the engine would overload, and the ship would explode. Or they could shut the engine down completely. Turn it all off, reroute to drive systems. Leave the dampener field up and save the ship - and everyone onboard.

The dampener field was creating a distortion spreading out from the ship. To undo it, the Raiders would have to sacrifice themselves. Or they could save themselves at the expense of dampening Tolaria.

There wasn’t time to stall, or find an alternate solution - they had to make a decision, now.

---

Metzli ducked under the eggpawn’s lascannons and slammed her bulk into its lower body, sending it into a stagger that made the lascannon on its opposite forearm chased wildly after Yuki as the other girl darted to the railing, lasbolts burning through the air just behind and over her. Metzli came up and drove its nearest arm up toward the ceiling, causing a shower of sparks to cascade down around them.

As it swung its free hand around to strike at Metzli, Grenadine, last seen at the bot’s feet, suddenly lurched up and over the back of its head to wrap her free arm across its optic sensors completely blinding it and forcing its swipe to miss Metzli completely.

---

Resonance came down at Anastasia and the girl did not have the balance to roll away. Instead she brought her staff up and around to divert Resonance’s strike to the side, but the weight of the kidajin drove her down into the deck floor, pinning her to the ground.

A moment later, Damien hit the deck beside them, one hand lashing out to grasp her neck, further pinning her to the ground.

Anatastasia bared her teeth in snarl, her eyes glowing red with hate, her expression twisted by the black sigils burned onto her skin. For a moment, her face seemed to reflect the demon she kept bound within her.

---

“Anastasia is down!” Elyas called out over the comms. “Repeat, Anastasia is down - Resonance and Damien have her subdued! Avatar, what’s the status of the ship and the dampener field?”

Elyas lifted his gun away from the trio in the sunken control pit and moved up the stairs. Upon seeing Metzli’s predicament, he darted forward and leapt over the broken trench burned through the control deck, lending his strength to dragging the eggpawn to the ground.


Pain. Fury. Desperation…

Relief.

---

A voice in Resonance’s mind, yet not direct to her. Thank you, my Guardian… Please… set things right…

[Resonance]

Mei held tight to Kapp's hand, "we can do this!" Now that the pressure had normalized in the room, the pull on them had eased somewhat. The gapping hole still pulled at them as the wind rushed by, but the explosive power of the decompression was now past. She looked up and saw Mike... and nodded. She was a bit closer to him than Kapp, so she pulled and heaved with all her might (and surely with Kapp's aid) to inch herself closer to him. As soon as she was close enough, she let go of her fan and reached out to grab Mike's hand. "Come on, Kapp, we've got you!"

Reson landed almost on top of Ana as she knocked her over, Ana narrowly blocking her strike with her staff. Thankfully, Damien slammed into the ground right beside them and grabbed Ana by the throat, making any further retaliation practically a suicide move. Reson barred her teeth at Ana and...

A wave of relief washed over her, and the sudden reduction in pain dancing along her nerve endings felt so good - coupled with the emotional relief as well - her fur fluffed and her quills raised as a shiver went down her spine. She heard the crystal's voice and she smiled. A genuine, happy smile, in the middle of a viscious takedown.

And then she grabbed Ana's staff while simultaneously stomping on her arm so she could rip it free from her grasp. Her spear was then quickly pointed at her gut, held just milimeters above Ana so that if she even took too deep a breath she'd feel the spear tip cutting into her. "Don't move, bitch, unless you want your insides to become your outsides." All said with that beautiful smile.

[Uberwulf X]

<<My mission is ultimately to save the island. Do as you wish, Nexus-- I hope you've got your thoughts backed up on a lone Spagonian server or a Dumb AI. As much as I'd like to continue working with you, and perhaps get to know you on a more personal level post-mission, you and I are of different factions, with hands on the controls. I have my orders, and will continue as such. Activating the Ghost Drive Protocol.>>

The two technopaths had the advantage of messages at the speed of electrical impulses, but even that was time that was being taken away from acting on a solution to the problem they faced. Nexus would know that the "choice" wasn't truly one-- she was staying, and saving the island. However, the others would know at least what to expect.

"Ascension Engine explosion imminent, evacuate ASAP or brace for impact. I'm sorry, Raiders."

"S-sorry, Yuki, I'm really trying here," she called as she tried to just... twist the arm out of socket or something, to make it stop being so godsdamned annoying.

And then came Avatar's report. "...What?" Metzli was a little occupied, unable to evacuate ASAP.

"What the fuck?!"

With Anastasia pinned, Damien grabbed her wrist and bit into it. He'd actually wanted to bite Mike or Demandred instead, but a Darkholme was fine too; it was certainly going to burn going down, but Diablerie would at least afford him a bit of power to help get them out, once they were out of the dampening field.

"Mm?!" Damien frowned at Avatar's report, wrist in mouth like a dog bothered from chewing on a bone. "Th' heu'?!" Getting out of here meant moving towards the gash in the ship, which meant moving towards the Engine that was apparently about to go up. He'd barely have the time to get a couple gulps before having to try and drag Anastasia up by wrist-in-mouth and neck. As nice an idea as leaving her here to blow was, Reson and others would probably be annoyed that she didn't face the world for her crimes.