[IC] TFW Chapter 1: Sloth

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone
 

Her left arm was more than useless now, in such a state of damage that she couldn't even feel the pain from it. Her nerves were dead up most of her "arm" if it could really be called that anymore. lt wasn't much more than a useless lump of charred flesh and bone. She reached out for her focus, she'd let go of it in the blast and she was going to need it.

She stood still just staring down the cannon and Ansuz, with her smoldering purple eyes. She'd not lost her grip on her power despite the barrier failing... she began to store her magic for another purpose. She concentrated all her efforts, and she bode her time before the cannon fired. She should use what time she had to begin working on magic. She made an effort to access the scene as it went on, something she was used to doing. Bartek running forward scared her, she wasn't sure if any of the others would continue attacking and he may be in the line of fire if such was the case. lce was... well quite beyond her help. With but one arm she'd not be able to help her much under this threat of fire. Her mind calmy telling her "Getting out of here would probably be a good idea."

 

lt seemed the cannon wouldn't be able to readjust it's fire while it was doing so... however, the previous attempts were to block it. The Lens were gone, perhaps making the next blasts weaker but Anemone felt with how easily two barriers fell, it'd still be too much firepower for her to be able to block. She'd not be able to muster a defense quickly enough so... she had to do what no mage ever expected another to do. Use their body rather than their magic. She was relatively certain she could duck out of the way fast enough to avoid the shot given the range. She'd dodge off to the side hopefully avoiding any shrapnel from the blast. She knew this fight probably wasn't one they could outright win, so staying alive to figure a way out of it was of the utmost importance at the moment. She'd already lost an arm... probably for good. She didn't want to lose more.

[Empiricist]

Exile 

 

Well that was unexpected. How exciting~

 

Hmm... field could be weakened, it had to take two of Ice's attacks, and if it's a mech field like the firepower and cannon suggests, it's completely failed. Unless he turned it off? Ooh, that's a thought, interesting, but probably not something he'd think of. Not in this state. How dissapointing. If they could just shatter that arm, shock should set in quickly, though the damage is done already - Anemone's wounded, Ice is crippled, Merlin looks kinda dead, Charity is probably going to be the center of a lot of friction later, and Fedora guy's still missing. Possibly a hostage, wouldn't that be neat~? 

 

First thing's first though, can't solve a puzzle without all the pieces, and someone's firing a death ray at one piece in particular. Exile generates a wave of shimmering force, one right up against Anemone's side. It's not too intense, that'd be too risky, but it should be enough. When the beam comes, she phase-shifts it, aiming to assist Anemone's dodge.

[Shamitako]

Ansuz Fight

 

Ansuz dispensed a rune from his unfrozen arm into his palm. He held it up and unleashed a powerful telekinetic blast that knocked even the massive Bartek away. The cannon unleashed another blast, but Anemone had been correct in assuming that the cannon's aim was fixed while it fired. With a little help from Exile she was able to dodge it unscathed. The cannon dug a hole deep into the ground, but harmed no one. Ice's attacks all hit their marks. They pierced Ansuz's heart and eyes, causing the boy to scream in agony. He reached up and desperately tore the frozen needles from his eyes. The one through his chest had pierced all the way, there was no way he could remove it so he would have to bear the pain.

 

The cannon was already selecting a new target, charging up to fire a blast at Ice, who was now completely crippled. It seemed it would be ready to fire before anyone was in position to stop it. But just in time, a black and orange blur shot out from behind Those Guys. A stream of fireballs launched out from it, knocking the cannon off-course. Ansuz fractically tried to adjust his aim to deal with this. The blur resolved itself into a recognizable form. A red haired woman in a short black dress and a needlessly large hat sat floating atop a broomstick, glaring down at Ansuz. All color drained from the boys face. "How?" He asked, his voice a mix of terror and relief.

"Sacrifice." Merlin responded with tearful eyes. She fired another barrage, which Ansuz attempted to block with his frozen arm. The attack shattered the ice that encased it. But it didn't stop everything. Several fireballs snuck through and hit his torso. He stumbled, tripping over bits of ice and snow on the ground around him (the attack that froze his arm had frozen some of the moisture in the air as well). He managed to keep his footing, but the next barrage was already on the way. He took it head-on and it flung him into the wall. The cannon faded away and his outfit faded back to its normal state. He coughed a few times and blood spilled out. Now that his mech was gone, the frozen spike through his chest was fatal. It hadn't completely destroyed his heart, but the damage to that and his lungs was more than he could recover from.

 

"And that death looked so promising too. How unfortunate." A man's voice echoed through the room in a sing-song tone. "Oh well. The girl is a promising subject, so I'll be taking her with me." A green ribbon spun into existence around Ansuz, vanishing along with the wounded boy. "You can keep the building. The subjects we left as well. Not that you'll have them for very long. Seeing as you'll all be dead momentarily." A bright red rune began to glow on the ceiling, it menacing light filling the room. "Goodbye."

 

Bear

 

Bear had been trapped outside by the walls Ansuz had constructed at the start of the encounter. He'd been trying to blast his way through the entire time, but had only just broken through. Seeing the red symbol, he immediately flew his bees up to cover as much of it as he could. He didn't expect much. He wasn't sure what all had happened in his absence, but the massive holes suggested cannon girl. He hoped that whatever the symbol did, he could delay it long enough for the rest to get away.

 

Genie

 

"I'm Blink, God of-"

"You're Blink?" Genie cut her off, "But you're so..." The tiny, itty-bitty, flat, petite, little girl glared at her, causing her to rethink using any of the previous descriptors. "Young and beautiful?"

Blink rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm Blink. And yes, I am aware of my stature."

"I've never met a goddess before. That's so cool!"

This conversation was cut off by another explosion and more shelf rattling. Although no one could hear the shelves over Genie's ear-shattering scream. Slow as always, didn't think to stop until her lungs started screaming themselves that she needed air. When she finally calmed down she bowed her head sheepishly and whispered, "So, was there anything else you wanted to ask me, My Esteemed Lady Miss Goddess Blink-sama Ma'am, Miss Chernobyl?"

Blink poked Genie's cheek. "Oi, screamo. Just call me Blink or Mel, short for Amelia, whatever that shit you just babbled out was a million times to formal."

"R-right. Did you have any more questions, Lady Mel?"

Blink rolled her eyes again but accepted that was as informal as she was getting.

[Strider]

"Bartek. Help me get Ice." Sense carefully held her under one shoulder so that Bartek could hold her on the other side. Bartek could probably lift the girl all on his own, and Sense would let him if he tried. The only reason Sense didn't just let Bartek do it himself was for speed, and for a method of carry that might be less harmful to Ice's leg. "We can't forget Feardorcha." To be entirely honest, Sense had almost forgotten him himself as he moved to get out of the room.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Strider

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

".... yeh anyway..." Cheryn broke the silence, "Judging by that second explosion, I think that's enough questions for now, we need to find Tallow and get back to Merlin... or whoever we can find. Watcher knows what the hell is happening out there." She turned to look Mint Tea directly in the eyes "Now are you absolutely positive you don't have a clue where he might be hiding? You heard that explosion, a few more of them, and this place ain't gonna be standing much longer. The less time we spend having to find him, the more time we have to get back to the others, round up any of the remaining kids we can, and get out. I don't know about you, but I'd like to not die under the collapsed rubble of some workshop of genetic horrors."

[Chevaleresse]

"Mer. . .lin. . ?" Ice's voice was. . . oddly still clear, except for her words. If one didn't know better, one would think she was simply confused and hadn't inflicted an agonizing amount of injury upon herself a few seconds ago. The young woman was doing her best to not pass out or vomit from the amount of pain she was currently experiencing. "I need. . . instructions," she said, not even appearing to acknowledge the fact that she was currently being lifted up by Sense.

[ElfCollaborator]

Bartek

"Understood, friend! Hold still!"

Bartek springs back up from the blast with a groan, and immediately runs over to hoist Ice over the other shoulder to help Sense, crouching to help Sense do so. Right now, the priority was to exit before the whole place crashed on top of them, and getting everyone who could be hoisted out away from the building.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

Anemone managed to land on her feet and not crash into anything from the unexpected boost of speed. She figured one of her allies nudged her with some form of magic but she wasn't really sure of who as she'd not seen the force that did so. Now that the immediate fighting was over, her body started to ache all over. Other than her arm. She couldn't feel it at all. All she felt was a weight at the end of her shoulder. Her nerves in her arm were entirely shot to the point she couldn't even move it lower than the elbow. She knew this was the case because she tried. No response. She could move it at the shoulder but she knew it was definitely dislocated. She didn't feel the pain of it earlier due to the adrenaline she imagined, but it was the only pain she felt from her arm. The rest of it, no sensation at all. lt just hung at her side, dead.

lt'd not really interfere with her casting if she had to for now. She'd casted through worse pain before. Her concentration was her strong point. A bit of pain wasn't about to stop her. However she was going to need help getting her arm back into socket... so it'd stop hurting. She poked around looking for someone free, "Hey! Can somebody help me push my shoulder back into socket? Be muuuch appreciated~" she said pointing to the smouldering pile of slag that was now her arm. Rather chipper for one that more or less had their arm blasted off.

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

"I'll help, but we really should get moving." Forge walks over, and none too gently sets Anemone's arm in place - it could be done properly later, and Forge was trying not to look at the mess because vomiting would really not be a good use of time -, and then grabs her by the working arm and dragging her to follow Bartek.

[Yours Truly]

Feardorcha stared at the group as literally everything went to shit for a long and terrifying few moments, but moments after realizing that Anzus was in fact dead and that Merlin was not going to discover his position in the increasingly unsafe pod, he shrugged his shoulders before breaking the fuck out in a mad dash to try and get to the exit. He made damn sure to remove whatever it was that made his speech unintelligible from his lips before casting as many illusion spells he thought he would need and could maintain in an attempt to get out of the building without being detected.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

"Ooooo, that hurts!!!" Anemone shouted as a mage she wasn't as familiar came to assist her. And damn did it ever. An immense amount of pain shot up into her arm as the woman firmly jammed her shoulder back into it's rightful place. Decently tall, least in comparison to her... whitish silvery hair, p...purple eyes? Was she dreaming? She was a bit out of it from the pain and just everything happening so quickly that she almost believed for a moment a silver haired, purple eyed Valkyrie had come to whisk her away. However, Anemone knew she was still alive so that clearly couldn't be the case. 

ln this moment of getting lost she realized that suddenly they were moving. The woman pulling her along against her will. Not that Anemone minded a pretty lady doing so. Her inhabitions weren't exactly holding her back at the moment so she just started talking. "Oh, whisk me away to safety pretty angel.~ And touch me with some more of that healing magic of yours.... does that even exist? l thought it didn't. You've got... really nice hands...though. Maybe you can." she said giggling a bit to herself.

[Shamitako]

Genie

 

"If he's not hooked up to his machine then I don't know." Genie said. But then she thought of something. "Oh, but I know someone who might be able to find him." She activated her mech, its lush vines growing out of her back and surrounding her. Like tentacles, some of them reached out and grabbed a stasis pod from one of the shelves, carefully setting on the ground in front of her. Inside was a young girl, probably six or seven years old, with short brown hair in a mix of dark and light tones. Genie pressed some keys on the side of the pod and it opened up. She turned her mech off, returning to her normal outfit and being trapped in her own labcoat. Although not for long, because Blink went ahead and untied her, for which she whispered her thanks. The girl in the pod shifted in discomfort and let out a soft moan. Genie reached down and touched her shoulder. "Hey, Chip, it's time to wake up." she cooed. The girl, Chip, shifted again and rubbed open her eyes. She sat herself up, her face the undisguised scowl of one just awoken from a comfortable sleep. She looked at Cheryn and Blink for a moment, then back to Genie. Her scowl softened slightly. "Morning kiddo, did you sleep okay?" Genie asked softly.

Chip responded by shoving her thumb into her mouth.

Genie continued talking to her softly. "So hey listen, you remember Tallow?"

Chip nodded.

"He ran away again, can you try to find him?"

Chip shook her head.

"Are you sure? We really need to find him."

Chip didn't do anything.

"Why can't you find him, Chip?"

Chip pointed at Cheryn and then turned her back to Genie.

Genie sighed. "Chip's really shy." She explained, "I think the 'glowing red eyes' thing is scaring her. Would you mind hiding yourself for a little bit, Miss Chernobyl?"

[Empiricist]

Exile 

 

For once, Exile was actually sprinting like a normal person, well a normal person with all the benefits of mobility spells at least. If Charity's still looking exhausted, she makes sure to drag her along for the ride if possible.

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

"Huh- oh...." In all honesty, she hadn't even really noticed up till now. Guess with... all the stuff they'd heard, things had gotten a bit heated whether she knew it or not, but sure enough when Cheryn held up a palm to her face... the entire thing was bathed in crimson light. Taking a breath, she steadied herself, willing the Favor to die back down to reasonable levels; there was really no need for any spell right now anyway... didn't seem likely she was gonna have to create a barrier inside someone's heart right now or throw up a shield to block something so...

 

"yeah, sure....sorry." she said, "just try and make this quick, ok?" Though the glow had dimmed considerably upon being called on it, there was still just the slightest bit of illumination cast from her eyes as she nodded, turned and walked a few paces away, keeping her back to Chip so the girl could do her work.

[Shamitako]

Spoiler

 

 

Charity

 

Charity was, in fact, still looking quite exhausted. She was also more than a little shocked. She had been the sole witness to all the events that had transpired. She had saved Ansuz, she knew it was a bad idea, but killing him--especially while he lay there crying like he did--just felt wrong. But then he'd turned that huge cannon on Merlin, and everyone had tried to save her. There had been just enough time... Gypsy was already so weak, he couldn't move Merlin out of the way. But he had enough energy to do something much simpler. He had swapped places with her. Gypsy had vanished from his place next to charity, and Merlin had appeared in his place. That corpse that had been there, it was Gypsy. He was dead. Charity couldn't help but blame herself. If she'd just let Ansuz die...

 

Merlin

 

Merlin stared down the corridor that Ansuz's massive cannon blast has created, looking at the body of her friend. She hadn't wanted anyone else to suffer for the things she had done. She'd tried to resist, she really had, but even in his weakened state he'd overpowered him. Perhaps it was her own fear of death that had brought about this outcome. Some part of her had wanted to live, and was willing to give up his life to survive. Through the corner of her eye she spotted the last of her students escape through the opening Bear had made. She landed and walked towards it, stealing one last glance at Gypsy's remains before breaking into a run. She didn't get far before the room behind her lit up in a silent beam of red light. She didn't have to look back to realize that it was many times more powerful than the blast that had killed Gypsy, it must have taken hours to set up. She was glad everyone had escaped. She hoped Cheryn and Amelia were alright and that they'd found the boy.

 

Eventually she and the others made it to the entrance where team Those Guys had entered not long before. So much had happened that it felt like days had gone by, yet it had really only been a few hours. And standing outside was a face that brought tears to Merlin's eyes. She pushed past the students in front of her and ran up to meet him. "Gypsy!" She exclaimed happily, "you're alive!"

But Gypsy shook his head. "I'm not." He said, "I died in there. Right now I'm just travelling into the future, I don't have much longer before I have to return and go through the events you just experienced."

Merlin hugged him, crying into his shoulder. "When you go back, you have to live. Let me die instead."

"You know I can't do that. And even if I could, I wouldn't."

"No, you can't die like that. Not for me" Merlin sobbed.

"I'll die for whoever I damn well please." He lifted her her up and looked into her eyes through her stream of tears. "Look, Mackenzie... I'm going to go back, and I'm going to die. I'd like to go without any regrets."

Merlin sniffled and nodded. "Of course."

Gypsy leaned into her and kissed her. It was a gentle kiss, one full of caring and a hint of goodbye. Their lips stayed locked together for some time before Gypsy finally pulled back. "It's time for me to go." He said, pushing Merlin away.

She wiped her eyes and smiled at him. "I'll miss you."

"I love you." He vanished into thin air, several tarot cards appearing in his place. The floated softly to the ground. The first two landed face down and the third face up atop them. Merlin looked down at it and her tears began to flow again. The card on top was Death.

[ElfCollaborator]

Bartek

Bartek witnesses the whole thing, still helping carry Sense's burden, as Gypsy faded, having sacrificed his life for Merlin. So that had been how she survived. Bartek presumed someone had had to had died for her if she was still alive; even Bartek himself, as strong as he was, didn't believe he could've taken such an attack, barrier or no barrier. Though perhaps Grandmother would've; she'd survived worse, or so Bartek believed, from all the tall tales she told. A whimsical thought, to distract him a little bit.

 

A single tear rolls down his masculine visage as he bows his head in honour of their fallen comrade. He wasn't the type to mourn for long or very heavily; death wasn't unknown even to the cheery man that was Bartek, but as Mother had taught him, "try not to give up".

"Bartek will miss friend. He was credit to team. We will toast goat milk for you in honor."

Edited August 11, 2017 by ElfCollaborator

[Empiricist]

Exile

 

A touch, a tap. A girl's hand pats Merlin on the shoulder before offering her a freshly shifted handkerchief. For once, the look on Exile's face was tired, weary, forlorn. She'd probably know better than to believe it, she'd probably know better to think much was going on behind that mask. After all, Exile was hollow, empty. Sorrow, at least sorrow as others would know it, was beyond her, as were most things. She had lost a game piece. A valuable one at that, and perhaps one she considered as valuable as her own life, but a piece is a piece, and her life too was nothing more than a piece, a token on some great gameboard that existed only in her mind. And if anyone was going to understand that, then it'd be her teacher. Still, to Exile's credit, it wasn't an unconvincing act.

 

If it weren't too much a strain, if it weren't too difficult, she leaves an illusory rose by where Gypsy had departed, and left Merlin's side without a word, eyes scanning over across her allies and the facility behind them.

[Shamitako]

Genie

 

With Cheryn momentarily out of the way, Genie once again attempted to coax Chip into helping. "Hey, Chip." She said, gently touching the girl on the shoulder. "I made Miss Chernobyl go away, can you help find Tallow now?" Chip turned around, she looked over Genie's shoulder at Cheryn and saw that the red-eyed girl was looking away. She seemed to consider Genie's offer for a bit before nodding. This was when the facility began to shake again. There had been no sound of explosion to signal it coming this time. everything had simply started rattling. Chip's eyes went wide and she grabbed Genie, latching on tightly.

"Yeah, it's scary, isn't it?" This time it was blink who was speaking. "So, shorty, here's the thing. If we don't find Tallow, that scary shaking might hurt him, that's why we need your help."

"The shaking isn't scaring me. I'm not a baby." Chip said, her soft voice surprisingly indignant, "There's a big energy that's making it."

"Well, we're worried that Tallow might get hurt by a big energy like that." Genie explained.

"The big energy won't get him. It's far away." Chip said with certainty.

"But what if Tallow's far away too?" Genie said.

Chip sat back in the pod. By the look on her face, she hadn't thought of that.

"Look, kid." Blink said, "You seem pretty smart. But you gotta understand, Genie here has a labcoat, so she's way smarter than you. You should listen to her."

Chip nodded, "Okay. I'll help." She closed her eyes and concentrated. After a short while, she opened them again and pointed. "Tallow is over there, not far."

"Thanks Chip. You can rest for now, okay?"

Chip didn't need to be told twice. she laid down on the hard metal of the pod, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and shut her eyes.

 

Genie brought Cheryn back over and told here what had happened. "Chip said he's close, so he's likely still in this room, and we've got a general direction. If we had some way to completely encase him in energy then we might be able to catch him. Otherwise we'll have to convince him to trust us." she explained, "Any ideas?"

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

 

She snapped her fingers in response to the question, and immediately before them a perfect cube of crimson, crackling light formed, hovering there in the air. With a mere thought, she dismissed the barrier cage, turning to Mint "Restraining his movement won't be a problem. Barriers are my specialty, besides, we don't have the time to sit down and chat anymore, judging by that surge of power just now. We can explain shit later, for now, getting him and the others out safely is all that matters. So...."

 

She wasted no time, clapping both palms together as crimson static erupted from them, before slapping her hands upon the cold floor of the room. There was a crackle, a pop, a brilliant flash, and from her palms a shimmering field of crimson spread out over the floor in the general direction the boy had been located in. And as they did, two solid walls of similar light began to expand outwards from cheryn as well, until finally even the ceiling and a section of the back wall was cloaked in a rad barrier as well, and the containment zone was complete. The end result was a structure resembling that of a triangular prism, cutting off a small section of the room from all the others, hopefully with Tallow caught somewhere in the middle of it. She made a conscious effort to keep the ambient radiation as low as she could though- the whole point was to restrain the kid so they could get out after all, not to try and make him glow in the dark.

 

Cheryn watched the interior of the enclosed space all the while, looking for even the slightest hint of movement, or something actively trying to push against the shields... "C'mon, where are ya?"

[Chevaleresse]

Ice was still struggling to stay conscious. Being carried wasn't actually conducive to that end, as it wasn't humanly possible to be steady enough to stop her bloody, limp, and twisted legs from moving about. She was also fighting to come up with a suitable response to the situation; Merlin was quite obviously bereaved, but handling emotion had never been something she was good at. She felt a twinge of guilt over not being able to help Merlin at the moment - it's not as if she could resurrect Gypsy. There was also the matter of Charity; she was obviously a threat and needed to be disposed of, but Ice had neither the energy to do so nor the will to cause Merlin further grief at the moment. With that, she elected to speak simply, as she always did.

 

"Merlin." A pause, longer than normal. "I'm sorry."

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

Forge was quiet as the interaction with Gypsy went on - she had nothing she could say to make it easier, although she felt bad - if she'd reacted faster, made a stronger wall, maybe just shoved them out of the way or threw off Anzus' aim, she could have- she stopped herself. Blaming herself wouldn't accomplish anything. Seeing Ice and Exile trying to help, she turned to Anemone. "...Probably a stupid question, but are you alright? Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked, a bit awkwardly - she wasn't really a talky sort most times.

[ElfCollaborator]

Bartek

"Bartek thinks we should get anyone we can and go. Then Bartek make nice warm meal for everyone. Mother always said it helps, when people feeling sad, to eat warm food."

Edited August 11, 2017 by ElfCollaborator

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

 

Anemone sorta spaced out just watching what was unfolding... "Damnit Gypsy... you idiot. You made her cry. Didn't anyone tell you that is the last thing you're supposed to do to the one you love? And you have twice... You should've let me die instead. She'd not have anything to cry about that way." she thought to herself as she watched what was unfolding.

She was snapped out of herself by Forge talking to her again. Though that caused the end of her relatively short span of sobriety. "Well, unless you've suddenly cracked the case of healing magic noooot much. A kiss would make me feel better though~ That's a kind of healing magic pretty sure." she let slip completely by accident. Her usual composure was failing her and she was speaking her thoughts out loud. Damn arm exploding... making her loopy. She took a deep breath, before continuing. "Sorry... l'm a bit out of it at the moment. But l'm fine, or will be fine. l don't really think there's much you can do though. My arm is definitely beyond any means of repair that we'd have access to for now. l can't even actually move it myself my nerves are that badly damaged. Just uh... stay with me in case l collapse or something. l'm not exactly in the best of states. Better off then the other girl. l'm surprised she's still awake. l can't feel my arm at all, nerves are all dead. But... she definitely can feel that in her legs."

[Strider]

It all seemed to have happened so quickly. Sense was still a little numb, and it would take some time to process that Gypsy was really gone. In response to Bartek's statement, Sense mentally shook himself. "Right. . . there was--we were supposed to get people, right? We still doing that?" Would they cut their losses here? If the person who took Ansuz' body was still watching, they might still be in danger.

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

Forge blushed at the kiss comment, but nodded. "Uh... I can stay with you, yeah... well on the bright side, you can't feel pain and I'm sure... something will be able to help. When we have time and aren't here. If you're feeling unsteady I... guess you can lean on me?"