Voyage Through the Multiverse (Open) [IC]

[Skylus]

Madi, to say the least, was bored out of her mind. Then, she heard screaming and what sounded like guns going on. The Ghoul stepped up to the door and discovered that it was weakened somehow, and that there was some sort of creature walking down the hallway...Which was now stained with blood and viscera from dead people.
"...I kinda hate my life sometimes."

BANG. The door buckled as something hit it with tremendous force. Another hit, then another. Finally, the door flew off its hinges and skidded across the floor as the Ghoul walked out of her cell. "Alright, let's see what I have to fight this time..."

[Naval Monte]

...

Miria would still hear the creature breathing as it scratches at the metal door with its claws. It would keep scratching at the metal until it stopped. As Miria wonder what else the creature might do she would hear it roar as another large dent appeared on her door. 

Another roar followed by a loud bang and a new dent on the door. The creature was now attacking the door with the intent to break in. Miria can hear the metal groan as it tried to resist against the intense pounding from the creature. She would soon hear one of the bolts from the hinges span off. 

As the creature kept pounding at the door she can see something black slithering into the room as more bolts snapped off, she saw it was tentacles. The bolts from the upper half all broke off and the door would be blown off the hinges with the other bolts flying off from the impact.

The door slammed loudly on the floor. From the floor Miria can see human feet with long nails. The feet and legs were skinless or translucent, as she can see black muscles and thin blood vessels. The calves and rest of the legs suggest that the creature was muscular in built. Yet what she can also see are jet black tentacles moving around, some slithering on the floor. All covered in blood with chunks of skin, tissues, and organs stuck to them.

The creature would walk into the room, the tentacles began to search throughout the floor as it began to smell out her cell. As the tentacles got closer within her to attack them they would lunge at her quickly, warping themselves around her wrists. The tendrils would pull her out of the bed and lift her up in the air and slammed her against the wall, her arms held above her head.

From there she would have a good look at the creature. It's presence loomed over her even if she was held up to be at chest height. It was either six or seven feet in height. It's broad shoulders had strong, brawny arms attached to them. From the forearm Miria can see the mass tentacles come from the creature. It's chest and abdomen once more shown that this creature was made of pure muscle as no trace of fat can be found on it.

From its neck she saw patches of wet fur covering its neck, shoulders, and parts of its chest and backs, it also has a head that resemble more of a deer's skull, with long black antlers that look like the crooked branches of a tree growing from it. It's teeth has long canines however. It's empty holes were eyes should be stare into Miria's own red eyes.

She would see more tentacles rising from the ground and surrounding her as the creature stood in front of her, watching her almost with curiosity.

---

The agents looked at each other as they heard the woman having a meltdown in the car. "You're dealing with the crazy chick captain." One soldier said. Dylan muttered about his tem being a bunch of cowards as he approached Kayta.

As he got closer to the car he couldn't help but to admire it. "The lady has a nice taste in cars." He said to himself. Once he was close to her window he took a note on them being tinted, he filed it away for later.

He would tap st the glass. "Ma'am, we would like to ask you some questions and to ensure you are alright. Can you speak to us?"

[Menschenfleisch]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Polly, Skye and Kiara

Polly raised herself up from the bed and stiffened her back, stretching her neck from side to side. For a moment, she almost seemed like her old self: though if she'd been told that, she would not have been particularly pleased. She had a purpose now, or at least something resembling a goal. She had no doubt that people were trying to use her, whether it was her 'team' - Miria, Madi, Ganon and Amaterasu - or AEGIS. But while Madison seemed outright antagonistic and was treated as an enemy of humanity almost worldwide, AEGIS seemed to be on much better terms with not just the local government but all the other powers that were in general. She could use their resources, their finances and their training, but perhaps not their proselytising. She had become exceedingly cautious after waking up, having realised that the majority of her team were either radicals, insane or had exaggerated personalities. She didn't know whether Miria was honestly that emotional, whether Kiara was honestly that passive or whether Ammy was really that aloof. She'd even begun checking her surroundings, looking for discrepancies in case this was all an illusion put on by a power beyond her perception. Her hand sparked involuntarily, blue light momentary escaping from the corners of her palm. She was excited. Or was this anxiety?

"Right. Johann, where are we going first?"

Two by two group: easy to take down. Skye bum-rushed the first man, opening up the front of her body and sprinting through him, ripping him up and absorbing him into her body wholesale. She left an extremely long trail of gore, which she used to slide to one side of the room whereupon she leapt on the wall and used it as a springboard of sorts, leaving a massive dent where she jumped off of it. She bounced around the room like a marble being knocked around the interior of a matchbox, taking a man's head or arm off with each pass. She was moving too quickly to be tracked. She'd deliberately engaged the patrol group in the cafeteria due to its large size and abundance of weapons. What weapons, you ask? Anything. Anything at all. Three soldiers shuffled in through the front door and instinctively, she kicked a table toward them. The table hit one man and crushed him against the wall, cutting his legs from his torso. Two bullets came her way and she reflected them both, putting two rounds through the helm of one of the security guards. The last remaining man took one shot, and she easily stepped past his bullet. Against a dozen, she might've been at risk. Against so few with such little training, she could wipe them out with impunity. She wrapped her lips around his eye socket and injected his head full of Kalmite tendrils. They scoured the interior of his skull, pumping liquefied brain matter, tongue and flesh into her stomach. The man slowly lost the capacity to think, then the capacity to suffer, and finally the capacity to live. He crumpled on the floor, shrivelled and dry. His parched skin naturally curled up, pulling itself into a sterile ball.

Skye stood over her latest catch's corpse, taking deep breaths. Blood dribbled down her chin. Her arms were covered in soot and red paste, and her shoes were utterly matted with brain matter and respiratory flesh. She noticed a white nodule - the remains of the man's other eyeball - on her shoulder, and heaved. Her hand hit the wall, her knees hit the floor, and she retched and vomited on the ground like a dying drunk, upchucking an indistinct, noxious slurry. "I don't-... I don't enjoy it!" Huff, huff. "You fucking... why do you keep doing this? Why do you revel in violence? Why do you have such a fucking fetish for children committing murder?! I'm only seventeen, you bastard. Kiara's even younger!" She breathed in and out, in and out, far too quickly. Her head was light as a feather, and her world was spinning. "I don't want to do this. Why do I have to keep killing people?! You disgusting, voyeuristic, sadistic piece of shit - fuck you! Fuck you!" She put both her hands on the floor, eyes hazy. "Why do you make me pretend to enjoy it? You sickening bastard... at least you coulda made me a villain, not the bloody hero. Is this what you think protagonists do? Is this what you think normal people who go out and achieve if they were as powerful, and as smart as you want to be? Come on. I could be a doctor, or a scientist, but you made me a serial killer. Is that the sort of person you idolise? Mass murderers?" She dragged her hand through the remains of the man, who was little more than indistinct mush. "... how many was he worth? Another chapter? Another ten paragraphs? I-... oh, god." She emptied the bottom of her stomach, where the acid was strongest. It burnt her throat, seared her gums and scarred the ground. The man's corpse began to fizzle and bubble as her cells worked through it, popping like a piece of bacon being cooked.

"Fuck you."

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding War
Miria

Miria was ready to jump into action, and to fight for her life, but no sooner had the door opened, did that mass of black tendrils find themselves clutching the small woman. Miria hissed and tried to bite into them, to no avail, and a split-second later the limb was torn from her reach, wrestling her and effortlessly twisting her arms back. Miria cried out and winced, feeling her own limbs being twisted away against her will, forced up and pinning her to the wall. Even if she pulled herself up, those tentacles were far too strong for her to do any damage to. The pain was mild, but it surprised her. The strength of the monster was immediately made apparent; of course, Miria realized, fighting was futile, when she was a mere girl, and that thing could warp steel and shred concrete. She didn't know what she was thinking.

Dangling by her arms, Miria was dwarfed by the monster, which stood a good two feet taller than her at the least. The writhing mass of tendrils and muscle approached her, its transparent flesh and blood-soaked body catching Miria's eyes. The smell was even stronger now, burning the back of her throat. Anxiety seized her, and in that moment, her will to fight was extinguished. Miria knew that there was no fighting this thing. She was dead. She was going to die for real this time, and there was nobody who would help her, and nobody who would be able to even find her when it was all over.

Miria felt sick. She didn't scream or kick, since she knew it wouldn't do any good. Polly wasn't around to shake the monster off, and Skye and Kiara wouldn't be tossing her under any more blankets. It was just her and the monster, and she was going to die. The very least that she could do to give herself some comfort was to make sure she didn't die pitifully. She winced and closed her eyes, and tried her best to prepare herself to what came next; she didn't have her crystal to help her this time.

Oh, stars...she wouldn't ever see home again. Her Mistress would never know what happened to her. That thought pained Miria more than the thought of dying.

Katya

Just before the captain could reach the car, the muffled swearing stopped, and the windows rolled down on his order to reveal a very peaceful, smiling woman. "You wish to ask questions?", She piped up right away, nodding enthusiastically. "I'm obliged, after you dealt with that horrible thing!", She exclaimed in a sing-song voice. She was still mad about her trunk, but she was at least good enough at acting that it didn't catch in her voice.

"I'm fine, myself. Not a scratch on me! I'm thankful for your intervention, although I am a little regretful that my vehicle was damaged in the process. Anywho, that's not what you're hear for, correct? What questions do you have for me?"

On the outside, Katya was peaches, but inside? Her thoughts were divided into two streams: The first was a jagged, rushing river of swearing and lamentation over the damage to her pristine white carriage, and the second was a bumpy, icy torrent of paranoia and panic as to what questions she would be asked, who the strange soldiers were, and whether or not she was about to end up in the news for espionage charges. She was going to need a good drink later to calm down both of those thoughts.

[Skylus]

Madi somewhat regretted leaving her cell. Not only was the hallway covered in blood and dead people, merely seeing it was enough to forget who she was. There was another scent in the air besides blood, and the Ghoul focused on that, somehow bypassing the carnage as she walked down the hallway.

The Ghoul only caught a glimpse of the creature as it tore a door off its hinges and then walked inside a cell. She thought she saw someone she recognized down the hallway but there was no time to find out who the person was. She instead silently followed the creature inside the cell and found it holding Miria up against a wall by a tentacle.

The creature was taller than her by at least a foot, it had the blackened muscular skinless body of a human with the skull of a deer with tentacles growing on its forearms. Not the greatest thing to look at, but the Ghoul had seen worse. "Alright. Drop her and turn around. Why don't you fight someone that can actually stand up to you?"

The demon was too preoccupied by Miria's scent to notice the scent of Madi, which smelled like the corpses the ghoul devours for survival. Madi could see spikes made of metal growing from the creatures back as it turned to face her. She saw curved forward facing horns also growing from the creature as it saw her. The creature was growling at Madi once it saw the ghoul.

A tentacle would latch out and strike Madi on the chest with enough force that not only did Madi feel her ribs break but she was also sent flying into the other cell, crashing into it to not only dislocate her spine but also to leave cracks on the wall. When she fell she could feel herself sitting in a pool of blood and could see the leg of a man with a tan complexion next to her by her right side; she would see the upper half of the man's head at the corner of the room, his brown eyes staring at her in a look of pure horror as the eyes were still wet from the tears he shredded due to both the intense fear and pain he felt in his final moments.

The Ghoul merely sat there for a bit, realizing that whatever the thing was that had sent her flying had done this to what remained of the man who’s upper face was now gazing at her, eyes somehow not dimmed. Madi raised her gaze from the head to the hole in the wall, then slowly got up as her spine was healed. It would take a bit longer for her ribs to heal, but she could still move.

The creature hesitated for a moment, then decided to try to fight the demon again, knowing that Miria’s life was still in danger. Madi left the cell with the dead man and returned to the cell that housed Miria, then stared the deer demon down. “Don’t get anyone else involved in this. It’s just you, and me.”

The demon snared in response to hearing Madi, almost annoyed to find that the ghoul was still alive. Another tentacle would strike Madison by her chin as it uppercut her, lifting her body off the ground and sending her flying to the ceiling where she hit it hard, leaving a dent on the ceiling.

Madi would feel that some of her teeth were rattled and cracked from the blow, some feeling incredibly loose. She tasted blood in her mouth and was sure her mouth was broken from the blow. The creature still held Miria but it now had its left side turned to Madi, looking to her from one eye hole while looking at Miria from the other.

Oh fu- Madi was thrown into an uppercut and hit the ceiling. Scarily enough, she appeared to be stuck there for a few moments, but then she eventually became unstuck and began to fall.

Of course, she hit the floor of the cell a second later, and all the Ghoul could do was lie there for a few seconds before slowly standing up. God dammit this isn’t working. Let’s see...I need to take care of those tentacles first...Wait it’s got its left side open. Maybe if I’m fast enough...

The creature let out a choked snarl as her jaw suddenly healed itself and she shook her head, then threw herself at the deer demon’s left side, claws outstretched. “Hang on, Miria, I’m getting you and everyone else out of here!”

Madi would see from the bicep of the creature the skin was moving towards several spots and folds and mounds of flesh was collecting, the scene bearing eerie and grotesque similarity to clay being molded. From the twisting and pulsating wad of writhing flesh a growth of folding flesh would sprang out from the creature and they would strike at Madi while she was in mid-air, causing her to sink into the flesh and trapping her.

Madison would see the flesh growths changing before her as it became extra sets of arms and the folds of flesh around her became fingers for the hands she jumped into. The creature would snarl at her as it began to squeeze Madi.

---

The Hero of Twilight was not having a good day. He was still a wolf, with really no way to communicate with anyone, he had been subjected to some horrifying things that he was sure would come back to haunt him later, and to make matters worse, he was now covered in human blood.

Although, despite what was going on, despite the fact that he was covered in blood, the wolf somehow still managed to smell something. Something familiar. A scent. Madison. And Miria as well. Let’s see...

The wolf risked trotting down the hallway and turned the corner. The scents are stronger this way, which means they must be-What was that?

Two snarls, and then the wolf heard what sounded like creatures fighting. That other snarl..It sounded...evil, like it was made from a Dark World creature, but not quite. I should find out what that was. And so, Link steeled himself for what was to occur and ran down the nightmare-fuel inducing hallway.

However, as he continued to run down the hallway, the wolf was soon overcome with a rare sense of nausea - the sheer evil of the creature was affecting him. Finally, Link found himself looking up at a deer headed burnt thing, and for one of the few times in his short life, he felt dread.

But then he realized that Madison was somewhere in the room, along with Miria - Yes, Miria was being pinned to the wall by the demon, and Madison was... - Wait what in the name of Hylia was [that?

---

The Ghoul let out a snarl of her own as she tried to free herself, but she realized that something else had snarled along with her. When she managed to free herself, she saw what appeared to be a wolf darting around the creature’s legs, snapping at them as he kept dodging.
What?
She then somehow heard a voice in her head.

Leave this to me, I’ve dealt with far more demons than you have.

She recognized the voice and grabbed the wolf as he got near her, then held him out in front of her by the scruff of his neck. Just what do you think you’re doing? And how are you doing that?

The mind-speak thing? I can only do this in wolf form. Look, I want to help you. So let me help.

Have you seen what this thing’s been doing to me? You’re going to get yourself killed. Yeah, I see that look in your eyes, you’re not going to take no for an answer are you...Fine. You can help. Just try not to get yourself killed.

The wolf nodded, the Ghoul let go of the creature and he did something Madi didn’t expect. The wolf somehow created an energy field around himself, crouched down, and then sprung towards the creature, snarling.

Madi followed suit a second later, hoping that the transformed Hero of Twilight wouldn’t get himself killed.

The demon would roar at the wolf as it snapped at its leg, more in rage over the attacks and the wolf making it drop the ghoul than in pain. The two would see steam coming from its wounds as it began to heal from the attacks.

The demon turned to face the duo as they charged but the demon would simply move and swatted the wolf away with it's bundle of tentacles, sending him crashing onto the concrete wall and hitting it so hard that he left cracks, and slammed Madi down to the ground. On the floor the creature would step on her, applying pressure to make it harder for her to breath as it began to crush her.

The Ghoul snarled as the demon tried to crush her and she grabbed the demon’s leg that was trying to crush her and tried to throw it to the ground. Meanwhile, the wolf tried to shake off being thrown into a wall and darted up to the demon again, snapping at the creature’s legs.

Madi's attempt to throw it off failed as the demon was much stronger, only giving her a slight reprieve from the pressure but still having a hard time breathing. Link's snaps would only annoy it as it would send out tentacles to impale Link. From behind a long tail will grow from the creature. The tail was scaly, being in a similar shape to a alligators tail. From the top rows of metal spikes can be seen with tuft of black hair growing from the base of the spikes.

The wolf dodged the tentacles and noticed the scaly tail, then, on a whim, started attacking the tail, biting and clawing at it. Madi, meanwhile, continued to try to get the thing off of her so she could breathe.

Links attempt would be futile as his teeth and claws could not go through the scales, each feeling like he was striking at metal. The demon would swipe its tail at Link as it applied more force to its leg to crush Madison.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

This was it; this was it; this was it. Miria prepared for the pain, but...it didn't come. Instead, an ear-splitting roar and the commotion of battle shook her back to the present. Something had just attacked the monster...it was another monster, or something. It and a wolf. It wasn't anyone that she recognized, but their sudden entrance and attack was just as good in her book. Miria was shaken side to side while her predator wrestled with its contenders. At some point, her right arm slid without warning, alerting Miria to one important fact - that the beast's grip on her had loosened. Suddenly, she was no longer resigned to her death, realizing that the monster had more pressing matters to deal with than a four-foot-nine girl in a prison cell. Miria began to struggle her hardest, thrashing and tugging her arms, the monster's grip growing weaker and weaker. Finally, the tentacles gave way, and Miria slipped free, landing on her feet, back to the wall. She didn't stick around to see if the thing would notice her escape, as while it tangled with the ghoul and wolf, Miria bolted around its other side. Past the massive body she fled, almost stumbling over another tentacle, her boots making a wet thud against what she could only assume was blood. A moment later, thanks to her speed, Miria was away from the sickening flickering light and the tiny interior of her cell, and running into the open, ruined hallway. Like her experience at the Magnate, the scene was grizzly, and it terrified Miria, but she didn't exactly have the time to freak out when there was an actual battle going on right behind her. Instead, Miria ran further down the hallway, only looking back to see what was happening once she'd put a good dozen or so meters between herself and the fight.

[Naval Monte]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

As Miria fled from the fight she would hear the creature roar as it would strike Link again with its tail to send him away as the tentacles would come after him, each one hardening into a boney spear. Madi would feel the creature lifting its leg off her but before she can take advantage of her new freedom the creature would swiftly kick her between the legs, making her slide out of the cellmate to the force of the kick. 

Miria would hear a loud buzzing coming towards her from behind. Should she turn behind she would see a dog size dragon fly like creature with yellow exoskeleton with blue legs and waist with a long scorpion like tail at the end. It's long spindly legs dangled in the air as it's many bulging eyes stare at her. It's mouth had human like teeth with four pair of candles acting like a mouth guard should they fold together.

The creature rose it's tail up to sting her as it flew close to her. Elsewhere in the facility while Skye raged against the heavens for the actions she wa forced to partake she would hear music coming from the hall.

"You say, "Yes", I say, "No"
You say, "Stop" but I say, "Go, go, go"
Oh no
You say, "Goodbye", and I say, "Hello, hello, hello"
I don't know why you say, "Goodbye", I say, "Hello, hello, hello"
I don't know why you say, "Goodbye", I say, "Hello""

The song sounded as though it came from the recording of four men. So far while close it didn't sound to her heading towards her direction. With Kiara she would see her cell door open, but none st the other side. Should she look out she would see a small car being driven by two impish creatures laughing.

The two were most likely at the same height as Miria but the two had a much stocky and brawny physique. One was green and the other red. The green one had small horns and the red much larger curled horns. The green imp had snall fangs sticking out from its lips, the red one had larger canines and its mouth was open to show large grin. The red imp had small devil wings while the green one had none.

The girl would see other people poking their heads and quickly going back as they saw the imps driving, the two running over fleeing staff members as they laugh in glee.

---

The captain wasn't too surprised to see Kayta being young or beautiful, if anything it was the perfect cliche coming to life. A pretty woman being chased by a monster in the wilderness and a brave man slay the beast to save the damsel. Of course the beast isn't slain due to his mission objective and chances are this fair maiden was hiding a few secrets that wouldn't make her seem like the ensei in distress that this situation made her appear to be.

"That's good to hear ma'am. As for your car we might be able to fix that if you agree to ask us a few questions." He told the woman. He would take out a tape recorder. "Now who are you and what do you do? What were you doing before the incident occured?" The man asked.

[Menschenfleisch]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Kiara, Polly and Skye

"Right... you want violence? You want. violence? I'll give you violence, you execrable sack of shit." She stood, grim and pale. There was nothing to laugh at or deride here, nothing to inspire even a giggle: not fear, not pity or absurdity. Rather, she was seized by an overwhelming contempt. It burned inside her, thrumming alongside her heartbeat. All this rage and hate, with nowhere to turn. So what was she to take it out on? What was she to fucking do?! And she'd rather let go of this shakesperean, overly purple prose, too. She had to serve those despicable sons of bitches. She felt like a child in an abusive household, wanting desperately to leave her predicament yet knowing that if she did, she would be deprived of too much. She couldn't be selfish, she couldn't be vain. She had to think about her friends and those she cared about. There was a whole world waiting for her. How could she let them down? The needs of the many outweighed the desires of the few. But... her hand refused to move. It didn't stray from the wall, nor did her eyes move away from the floor. Her vision was blurred and filled with black. Her throat stung, as if abraded by sandpaper.

Music. At a time like this. They still wanted her to act, they still wanted her to fight. They misunderstood: she didn't hate killing because her victims were less than herself. Humans were like vermin to her. They were so small, so insignificant, she could snip their necks off without even noticing it. it took effort to speak at their speak and to move at their pace, like a man having to freeze his leg mid-step in order to not overtake a snail crawling along the ground. No, what she hated especially was how pointless it all was. "Maybe I am a plague!" She yelled, no longer constraining herself to human limitations. Her voice was like a sonic blast, it shattered glass, and she spoke in such a frenzy that whole paragraphs took but milliseconds to utter. "Maybe I am not good. Maybe, I am just a psychopath. I am disgusting, but only because you made me this way. Stop trying to portray me as a bad person, stop making me hurt people. Or at the very least, stop berating me for doing what you made me do. I know what this is: you're trying to criticise me. But the truth is, I never wanted to do this! I'm seventeen. To humans, that's young. To Kalmites, that's just a fraction of a thousandth of a percent of how long we're supposed to live. You took everything, leaving a murderous husk behind. You killed my parents and my friends and stole the only opportunity I had to live - not on your terms, but mine. I envy bystanders and cannon fodder. They have lives and experiences beyond the story. But I, the protagonist, am nothing but a vehicle for the narrative you want to push. I am Paul Auster's experiment, a child raised without real human contact. I'll only ever meet caricatures of real people at best. And the worst part is, I know that I'm like them. Just a... shallow prototype of another character, a half-baked attempt at making something permanent - or at the very least less fleeting than a mere feeling of accomplishment or satisfaction. I'm not even a real person. My struggles aren't even as tangible as a baby's."

She knelt and drew the knife that she'd liberated from a soldier's corpse. It was matted with blood, not just on the blade but all over the hilt: even where her hand had covered it as she'd wielded the weapon. She placed it over her heart. "Everything I do is preordained. I had no choice to begin with. This is all I was intended for." Her hands stabilised, her breathing slowed and steadied. "Jacquelyn was only able to hold on because she had an alternate personality to cling to. She had a past that was established for her and an alter-ego that wouldn't let her make this decision. I have no such thing." Fingers, trembling. Eyes, twitching. But, arms firm and jaw set. "I've only been alive for two dozen paragraphs. That's about five minutes and I've just realised something. My world only exists if you write it and I am certain that regardless of what I do, or what I did - no matter who lives or who dies - you won't write any more or any less for my home than you want to. Because really, you're the author, and The Spark is just a gimmick." She closed her eyes and shut off her ears. "There's no point to me existing. I can't affect the outcome either way. But with me gone, there will be fewer loose ends. Fewer characters to write for. Ergo, you'll give Kiara more time. She is the only real thing I can imagine right now, the only person whose reality you can perpetuate. Please, for the love of whatever you hold sacred, give her a happy ending." She willed her heart to beat faster and faster. Time grew slower, her mind grew sharper. The more and more she thought, the more and more certain she was that this outcome had not only been inevitable, and that The Spark really did nothing, but that this was also the best outcome for everyone. Kiara would keep existing, at least. Her story wouldn't end. All the time and effort that went into developing Skye would transfer, she was sure of it. Her chest burst open and she deflated like a wet sac, spilling her innards over the wall.

Skye is dead except when you imagine that she's not.

Kiara trotted out of her cell, looking left and right like a startled rabbit. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on or what had started it, but she was certain that some pretty bad stuff was going down right in front of her. Now that she was out of her cell, she had an opportunity to do something about it - or at least to look around and ascertain her situation. The safety of her allies was at the forefront of her thoughts. She was strong and talented, intelligent and calculating: that wasn't arrogance, it was fact. However, she knew that many members of their party were either weaker, less well behaved (for want of a better term) or already considered to be AEGIS' enemies. It was... chaos, out here. Blood was smeared on every wall and no doors remained standing. The sound of gunfire was faint and fleeting but the din of screams, roars and clangs was deafening. Whatever was going on, resistance to these monsters was fading. Monsters, yes: she could tell at a glance that they were the prisoners who were supposed to be interred here. It disturbed her, knowing that these people had designated her one of the mindless killing machines that seemed to roam the facility now. Then again, she'd only been here for a few hours. Judging by the bed, bookshelf and food in her room, her stay hadn't been intended to be short, or even for a finite period of time. These people had prepared to keep her here indefinitely. However, seeing those imps, listening to their laughter - it was enough to make her break out in a cold sweat. She was afraid, yes. She wanted to hide in her cell, but what kind of person would that make her? She wasn't just concerned for the staff either, she was also worried about the imps. They seemed to be cackling madly, but that was almost certainly due to prolonged isolation and intensive interrogation. They were reasonable people, right? She could refuse the situation... or so she hoped.

"No! Stop!" She ran toward them, hand outstretched. She was in front of their car in a flash, hands on the bonnet. She dug her heels into the ground, stopping the metal behemoth in its tracks. "Listen to me! You don't need to do this! Maybe if you'd just calm down, we could discuss this!" The red imp crawled through the smashed-up windscreen and cackled madly, flinging its arms out to either side, gesticulating at her. "O-oh, no, that's disgusting! I'm sixteen, you bastard!" It gave her the finger while its green friend presented its ass. She held up her hands to block out the sight, using her hip to hold the car in place. She was immovable, easily resisting the meagre efforts of the car to shove her away. The green one got up, realising that she wasn't going to move, and defecated on the bonnet, in spite of the dozens of soldiers and lesser employees who were now watching, while the red one tore out a shard of glass from the windshield and lugged it at her.

Overwhelming pressure. The weight of the sea pressed down on all who were present. The world bled like a wet canvas: all the colours wept like washed pigments, saturating everything in brilliant hues of all shades, separated by vibrant voids of nothing. The alarms blared while broken strings harped in the background, strumming themselves and producing a discordant cacophony of sounds and sights that twisted and curled into smells, the strongest of which was that of blood spilled on concrete, though such a thing was insignificant compared to the absolutely delightful euphoria that flooded through their brains, so much so that their heads felt like they might explode if not for the imaginary iron bands constricting them and holding them in place, even as they moved to bite out their tongues which felt so large in their mouths, and all the while there was the scream of ambulances and children to the tune of a circus' calliope, serrated like the blade of a rusted knife plunged into the heart of a dying girl whose life was over before it begun, bleating nonsense while she wished for a better tomorrow that would never come, sinking slowly into a swamp loaded with buzzards that swatted at them with agonising batons, beating them into the mud and pulling guilt out of their spines in order to pump it right back into them, vivisected and studied by endless coats and instruments whose touch was cold as ice and whose aftermath was hot and painful like the feeling of leaving your hand on the side of a kettle or a stovetop while they were powered.

No cadavers. Just people, suddenly reduced to something less than, or perhaps far above human. Their psyches weren't destroyed, oh no, merely changed. Perhaps, improved? What they did felt so fundamentally right, so justified, that it was hard to even understand it as anything other than perfectly empirical, as if it were a natural consequence of their logic. One plus one equals one, and a man must draw paintings of his wife with his saliva. The silence was deafening: not one person dared to make a noise. A young intern's name badge clinked against a button on her shirt and the whole crowd at least thirty keeled over, laughing and pulling out their left eye. They arranged themselves in a circle around their creator, exchanging eyes. Of course, some were less happy with the trade than others. There was an elderly woman who managed to get a the most myopic eye of all, which made the others jealous of her. Another got a green eye even though they already had a green eye, meaning that everyone beat them to death and gnawed the flesh off their ribs. The whole group pranced around, then spent a few seconds clutching their heads and screaming silently. A group of them, the smart ones, let their tongues loll out of their mouths and bit down hard. An unintelligent goon cut his own tongue out with a shaving razor which he used to cut his eyelids off, placing them gingerly over his ears. His friend asked him for the razor, which she then plunged into her ear, digging around her auditory canal until she managed to extract a tiny white ornament - the hammer of one's ear - and cut her teeth out with the well-worn razor, slicing her gums off in the process. Everyone applauded her politely, and then cut open her fingers with their nails and pulled out her knuckles, trading them among themselves. She fell to her knees, deprived of purpose, and trembled, sobbing, for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, everyone else's left brains decided to go to war against all of the right brains in the room, inspiring them to first crack open their skulls on the walls and then to dig through their own heads in order to scoop out one hemisphere of their brain. The winners then fell upon one another, rending flesh like clay with inhumane, adrenaline-fuelled strength. They were having so much fun! This was the best birthday ever! But those pesky mouths of theirs kept running regardless of which hemisphere of their brain won. They kept yelling for help, announcing how sorry they were or gurgling inarticulately: how uncouth! So they grabbed their tongues and ripped them out wholesale before tossing them right back into their mouths and chewing them up - though they couldn't swallow for obvious reasons. Kiara sobbed and screamed in the middle of it all, unnoticed by anyone.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

Buzzing. Miria turned to see what was causing that buzzing; it was obviously not a part of the siren. The sound was close enough that she picked up on it and turned, putting it above the deer monster on her priorities list. She wasn't quite prepared for what she would see, however; she hadn't expected a giant bug, at least. She yelped and stepped back. She saw the tip of a stinger among the blur of movement that was the large beast, and realized that she needed to deal with the thing right away, before it stuck her. Her training and instincts kicked in, her hesitation to fight gone now that she was dealing with a life-or-death situation. Miria jumped to one side, kicking off of the wall to her right and giving herself just enough height to pull off one of her stronger attacks, a spin kick. She twisted her body and swung one leg down as fast and hard as she could, bringing it down on top of the bug in the hopes that she could neutralize it immediately, or, at the very least, stun it or hurt a wing.

Katya

Katya needed to decide right then whether to lie or tell the truth. On one hand, she could simply say that she was Amelia Sterling, a wealthy woman who was visiting the countryside to see her family before getting lost, but on the other hand, she wondered how easy it would be for the troops to discover her true identity and mission as Katya Dimitrov, the spy who was out in the country ruining communications and stirring the pot before being attacked.

If they were British, she'd be in deep trouble, although something told her that they weren't. She remembered that AEGIS was out and about, and she did recall them being quite interested in catching monsters. She didn't think that the British would be quite as adept at finding and catching them as these men, and besides, the whole "quiet helicopter" thing just seemed to fit a shady abhuman-subduing organization anyways. Still, was it a good idea to tell the truth?

Katya was willing to take the risk; if it worked, she would have her car fixed, which was quite important to her, and if it didn't work, and these men were actually British soldiers who were going to arrest her? Well, she banked on them not knowing she was packing heat. Maybe if she was lucky, she could work out a deal and wyrm her way out of custody while they dealt with bigger problems, like world-ending demons and Witchcraft. Katya smiled and leaned back, feeling confident. "My name is Ekaterina; Ekaterina Dimitrov. Katya, if you will, or Katherine, if it suits you English speakers. I'm a representative of the Bureau of Abhuman Affairs of Russia, and my mission is to engage in surveillance and espionage."

She leaned back in. "Before I was attacked, I was engaging in sabotage and surveillance of local communications.", She said. A coy little smile stretched across her lips. "Is that all?"

[Naval Monte]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

Johann straighten up his coat. "With the containment breach in progress we will need to leave along with the staff and safer anomalies. We will let the security forces and MSTs deal with the escaped anomalies. Unfortunately some of your team members will not join you in leaving because they are too much of a threat to leave their cell." The man explained to her. He would open the door to her cell.

"You better stay close with me Dahlia. We don't know what was released and in this facility we have plenty of dangerous anomalies that were trapped in this world." He would gesture her to follow him as he walked out of the cell, bringing slow enough to allow the girl to catch up.

---

The music began to fade away as whatever was making it walked away. As Skye laid on the ground dead a figure would bewalking towards her. The thing seems to be a white horse with black mane. The eyes were white with a black pupil. The horse had a large horn on top of its head. The horse look down at Skye. 

The unicorn look down the corpse and the spilled organs and the unicorn would go down to smell her spleen. The unicorn would back away as it snorted in disgust. The equine would begin to walk around Skye as she was spared from being it's feast.

From behind a soldier wascursing loudly as he saw the unicorn follow by it neighing loudly as it gallop towards him, the man trying to shoot at the creature but failing as she heard the gunshots stopped. The body hitting the floor with the unicorn biting off the soldier's face.

Among the groups fighting in the war against the sides of brains the two goblins joined opposite sides, each one having to beat each other to a bloody pulp until a winner was decided. The two goblins fell on to the ground, both struggling to get up but both collapses on the ground unmoving.

During the carnage a small frog standing on it's back leg wearing a small top hat and a cape was trying to take off the shoe of a dead man. It was willing to ignore Kiara as she sobbed.

The dragonfly was lucky struck by her kick. The creature let out a screech and it fell on the ground and tumbled on the floor until it landed on its back. It's wings were broken as it tried to fly up. The dragonfly tried to right itself up as it squirm on the ground, its legs skittering as it rock side to side.

Eventually it got on its side as it curled its tail to its body, the creature still crying out in pain. Mirira would see four more dragonfly creatures but this time they didn't go after her, instead they went to the down creature. Two of them cried out to the other when they landed while two of them had their tails raised as they screeched at her, guarding the injured dragonfly from her.

---

The captain knew the moment he heard her name was Russisn he had a feeling things got complicated and sure enough she was with a secret agency in Russia and she was performing a top secret mission in UK soil. "Oh brother. I'm not paid enough to deal with James Bond shit" the man thought but still kept his neutral expression.

"Ma'am, there is no Bureau of Abhuman Affairs in this Russia. I believe you might have been taken by a rift without knowing because this isn't your U.K. but when you mention abhumans you mean Anhumans or Parahumans correct? If that is the case than you will have to come with us. There is the possibility we might work with similar organization."

[Skylus]

K Rool had returned to his airship and was flying it towards the meet up point when a massive portal appeared and swallowed the Flying Krock whole. It vanished a second later.

---

Meanwhile, Doug had been cleared for takeoff and his ship had been launched down the runway, then he was flying through the air, heading towards Fortuna. Except he never reached his intended destination, as a portal opened up and then the Loftwing Mark VII was gone.

(RIP SotE)

---

Meanwhile...In my arc..

The two ships appeared in the sky above the AEGIS base, the airship about fifty feet above the Loftwing and it dwarfed the small fighter in size.
"Sir, there's another ship out there. ABout fifty feet below us, looks like a fighter of some sort." A Krusha handed K Rool a readings document and the Kremling King nodded.
"Yes, I know, I know, whoever they are hasn't contacted us yet, therefore I shall contact them first." K Rool then did just that.

"Greetings, I do not know who you are, you may introduce yourself however you like. I am King Krusha Rool, commander of the Kremling army, and this airship is mine, her name is the Flying Krock. To whom am I speaking to?"

Meanwhile, Doug picked up the transmission and responded, letting K Rool who he was and that his scanners had picked up a location. K Rool confirmed that the airships scanners did the same thing and the two decided to landed on the helicopter pads below.

It took the two some time to land on the pads, due to there being twelve helicopters, with five ready to fly, but they managed.
Due to the two of them never meeting before, K Rool and Doug sized each other up and then determined the other to not be a threat. The two (along with a few of the Kremling King's men) ventured into the base...

---

Madi stared at nothing for a few moments and then slowly sat up, the pain already receding as the Ghoul got to her clawed feet and ran back inside the cell, blocked the tentacles, and then kicked off the stone floor towards the creature, the wolf following right behind her.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no! Miria stumbled back, shocked by what she was seeing. The other bugs, they were...protecting it? They were hissing at her. They weren't going to attack? Were they going to now? The one that she'd kicked was whining. Oh no, she'd messed up; she'd messed up bad. Again. Her voice caught in the back of her throat. No, it had been attacking her, right? The bug raised up its stinger. It was a monster, just like the monsters fighting down the hall, right?

They were protecting their friend. Miria's heart sank. It was no different than her and the others, looking after each other, stuck in the base, was it? No, she told herself, they were just bugs. They were monsters, and that was why she had attacked them. That was what she told herself, but...

Miria placed her hands over her mouth. The realization sunk in that maybe she'd just wounded something that was just trying to get out, like her. She imagined herself in its position, crippled and hurt, stuck in the middle of the hellish, blood-soaked hallway, while some bigger creature loomed over her. She was the monster, in this case. She didn't mean do hurt anything like that, but her reflexes had just kicked in. She saw something ugly and scary, and she attacked without a thought. It had been a misunderstanding, but that didn't take away from the fact that Miria had done something wrong, and now she was stuck between Madi and Link and her demon predator, and the small group of insects that were trying to help their wounded friend.

"I'm sorry!", She stammered, bending forward. "Damn it! I'm sorry!", She cried, holding out a hand. This was just like when she tried to help Mnemosyne; she just ended up hurting something that didn't deserve it, and even though her gut screamed at her, telling her that it was futile, she couldn't help but try to set things right. It wasn't fair to just hurt the thing and then run when she saw that it was innocent.

Katya

While the Captain seemed annoyed, Katya couldn't help but smile a genuine, amused smile. "That's exactly what I was hoping for.", She told him, nodding. Working for similar organizations? Perhaps. He was open about Abhumans and the fact that she likely had been rifted, which only confirmed her suspicions even more. God, she loved being right. A gambit that paid off was always exciting. "Well then! Lead the way.", She told him, turning the key on her car again. "I do believe I'll look forward to cooperating with your organization."

[Naval Monte]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

As Miria begged for forgiveness from the creatures the two guards only responded with more aggressive screeches, one even lunged it's stronger forward to frighten Miria away from them. The creatures and Miria would hear another screech as something can be heard coming towards them. 

The thing was a nightmarish pterodactyl-like being. It had dark-pinkish skin, pale-grey eyes, double-jointed legs and four membranous wings (two in place of arms, two on their backs). It's long mouth ended in a beak and Miria saw the bottom half split into two segments whenever it roar out. It was half way to reaching her height.

The bugs began to freak out when they saw the creature, all of them forming a defensive position as the injured one began to panic as it tried to get up to flee. These creatures were trapped in the base with a natural predator back in their native dimension. The new creature would be crawling towards the bugs

The attempts on hitting it with the stone floor didn't amount much ad the creature didn't feel much pain. It would send out more tentacles at the two. 

At the landing pad the helicopters taking off almost hit the airship but dodged it, however they now remain hovering as soldiers were seen aiming their rifles and even rockets at the intruders. The group would see more soldiers arriving and they too would aim their rifles at the new intruders as soon as they enter the base.

"Freeze! We already had enough trouble with intruders as is. If you fuckers so much as blink without our orders will we kill you!" The commander threaten, fury and stress very much evident in his voice.

Another soldier was talking through the radio to let others know of what was happening when suddenly the soldier seem to explode into a shower of blood, a large chunk of the right side above his lower abdomen missing. The other soldiers were shocked from the sudden death that none would have went after Doug or K Rool of they ran, especially as another soldier exploded with only his head, arms, and legs remaining.

The soldiers would see a woman wearing a latex bodysuit with long straps and belts attached to it and the suit having long sleeves attached to it by metal buttons. The woman had a metal mask that also acted as a helmet, only allowing her long and messy dark hair to come out. The mask had small holes to allow the woman to see and the very desgin gave the face of the mask an almost demonic quality. 

"541 has escaped! Someone get the teleki... " the commanders head would be erased before he can finish speaking. The other soldiers would begin to open fire on the woman. As the bullets flew towards her they would all eventually stop in mid air. The soldiers knowing what would happen if they stayed kept firing at the woman as they walked back to leave the room. They never stopped firing at the woman as they knew that if they stopped she would send their bullets back at them.

---

"Fine, but we first need to let my superiors know about this and if they will be fine with you coming in." Commander Dylan told the Russian as he told the pilot through his mic to contact the base to let them know of the situation. As the man waited to hear from the pilot he would ask Kayta. "So what does your organization do with Abhumans? Heck mind telling me about them just to see if they are similar to the parahumans back home?"

The commander would get the pilot responding back through his headset. "Commander something is wrong. I can't contact the base." Dylan looked puzzled. "The hell? How can you not contact them? Is there interference?" He asked. "Negative sir, all of my systems are running as they should. I think the interference might be coming from the base if thst is indeed what is going on." 

Dylan felt a terrible feeling rest in the pit of his stomach. He has been with AEGIS long enough to know that a site not responding is never a good sign. "Patrick get everyone back. Something is horribly wrong." The commander didn't care if he was showing weakness in front of an admitted spy, if his gut feeling was right than returning back was far more important than pride.

Dylan turned to face Kayta. "Unfortunately you came at a terrible time. I can't take you back to see my superiors. Right now I suggest you find the nearest town and stay there so hopefully no more monsters will chase. Something important came up and it's safer for you if you stay away from us for the time being. If things go well for us we will have our meeting." 

Kayta can see the team returning back to the helicopter, the monster was still left on the ground. The helicopter was obviously not sent to carry it back which means another team would arrive to retrieve the monster and send it somewhere to be locked up.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

Miria did the only thing that she could think of to protect the bugs, or at the very least buy them some time. As the small Pterodactyl approached, Miria ran forward to meet it. She stepped around the group of small creatures and put herself between them and their own predator, glaring at the small beast as it came closer. She didn't even know if that thing was good or bad like the bugs, but she couldn't let it eat them, or do whatever it was trying to do. She didn't want to end up hurting it either, if it was intelligent like the bugs. How would she be able to scare it off, she thought? She wasn't very big, but she was bigger than it was, and she knew at least one way to make herself appear larger. She remembered that some animals made themselves look big to scare off predators, and campers or travellers would do the same to scare off large cats and bears. That was what Miria was banking on for her play.

Using herself as a shield for the small critters, Miria opened her coat and spread it wide, trying to give herself a bigger profile. She hissed and put one foot forward, bracing herself just in case the large bird still tried to attack, and providing a strong bulwark for the little party of friends behind her. If the creature still wanted to fight, she would fight, but if it stopped or fled the other way, then that would be good enough for her. She couldn't allow it to harm those bugs, though. She'd already made that mistake, and she wasn't going to let them all die because she had been scared and irrational.

Katya

They couldn't contact base, and something was wrong? Katya immediately tensed up. Oopsie! She was really hoping that she hadn't just messed something up! Thankfully, she hadn't, apparently...it was just another emergency somewhere else that was making the team's communications spotty. At least Katya wasn't in hot water, but regardless...oopsie! Right when she was about to be escorted as well, and get her precious vehicle fixed. She didn't know if she wanted to go to some small town now, with her car looking the way it did. She would have to park it somewhere where the blemish on its trunk wouldn't be noticed. Sure, it was a petty thought to have while something obviously strange was happening, but...Katya didn't have the best priorities.

At least she could dodge the questions about her for the time being. It wasn't like her mission overlapped with AEGIS's all that much anyway, but she was a bit paranoid, and she didn't think it would be good for her to go about talking about her own organization openly. Unfortunately, any talking that she did want to do would just have to wait, as the team prepared to set out. That left her alone once more, stuck in the middle of the damned coutry.

With a tired sigh, Katya reached to her dashboard for a pack of cigarettes, and began to sift through it. Where did she go now? Maybe she could just find a shop in the nearest town to touch up the paint on her trunk. They took cash, didn't they?

[Skylus]

TGWR

K Rool watched the armored men in silence then backed up a few feet as a woman wearing a mask started killing them. "I believe I shall let you handle this. You might have noticed that I am not that fit for fighting, however, if you like, I will leave these soldiers with you for protection."

Doug merely shook his head. "Nah. I think I'm alright."

"Very well. The lot of you, follow me. When you find your friends, tell them that if need be, my ship can evacuate all of you. While we were entering this building, a few of my men took readings of your ship. It turns out that it fits inside of the hangar bay. When all of you are ready to leave, you know where to find us." K Rool and the Kremlings took their leave and returned to their ship until further notice while Doug eyed the masked woman.

"Uh...Hello...Look, I'm just trying to find my friends, I don't know where they are, maybe you do?"

---

The Ghoul and Wolf simply kept trying to drive the deer demon back, figuring that the thing had to tire eventually.

[Menschenfleisch]

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

”Well, I mean… obviously, right? Terry was an old friend of yours who got roped into Andarta’s gang, The Raven had a history with both you and your mother and Andarta knew you by name, while her parents probably met Alex at least once in person. I’d be surprised if the last leader didn’t turn out to be related to you, somehow. The authors are real fond of circular storytellin’ like that.” She visibly flinched and shoved Alex away as she leaned in: ”Jesus dicks, you feisty cunt! What in the god damn… can’t this wait? C’mon, pretty much everybody would’ve heard that - even without enhanced hearing!” She hissed, perhaps redundantly. ”Look, guys, I think we’re overcomplicating things here,” Jack asserted, holding up her hands. ”Wouldn’t it be easier to just gas them, unleash a pack of ravenous dogs on ‘em or ask AEGIS to send an actually qualified team of dungeon-crawlers down here? I don’t see why we should fight The Crimsonites on their own terms. They’re expecting a team of magicians and mages: with Andarta, possibly the most skilled witch in Branwhrn on their side, magic should be our option of last resort.” But then she pinched her nose, sighing and looking at the ground. ”Never mind. The authors obviously aren’t going to take the pragmatic option, they’re going to take the anime-esque character-centric one. Jesus-fucking-a-sodomised-donkey, I can’t catch a break, can I?” She shrugged off Simon’s comment, though she had far less success shrugging off Alex’s cold, unyielding, undead hand. ”Thanks for that, ghost MILF. Now I know Simon’s an autist and you’ve got a compulsive maternal complex.” She pulled back her hair, bundling together all the loose strands. The mines hadn’t been disturbed for a very long time, but the air was still thick with dust. She’d probably have to vacuum out her lungs after this, lest she suffer a severe case of irresponsibly-contracted silicosis. Already, she regretted not bringing a gas mask - though that was probably due to a lack of authorial oversight rather than a personal failing on her part. ”Jeez, guys. I wonder how you’re going to contrive an excuse for us not to have lung cancer? Or maybe we will asphyxiate to death, and the arc will end right here! Actually, please don’t do that: you seem like the kind of facetious cunts who’d do that sort of thing for a laugh.”

The miners, thank god, were relatively friendly and quite well dressed. By all accounts their equipment should’ve been in tatters and yet their pickaxes only displayed the faintest traces of rust and their uniforms betrayed no fraying edges nor any hastily sewn patches. The tales they told of Andarta’s attempts to hunt them down were really something else - as well as really mind-numbingly boring. It was like she was at her uncle’s house (not that she had one) and he was telling her about that ‘monstrous cockroach infestation we stamped out last week with a bottle of ketchup and two flyswatters’. But to be honest, the ambience of clanging metal and breaking rocks soothed her. This seemed to be a safe place, even if she was ostensibly surrounded by the long dead. She was, rather oddly, at peace. There wasn’t anyone to fight here, nor any story to propel. This was time that she could spend relaxing and unwinding. In fact, she hadn’t untensed her shoulders ever since that frenetic battle the group had fought earlier. She raised her hand, asking the head miner: ”How many of your people live down here? Surely, if you had access to an alternate dimension, you all would’ve migrated there? And I feel like I should tell you that The Crimsonites have basically lost all their resources and personnel. If there was ever a time to fight, now would be it.”

Alex stopped Jacquelyn again, repeating the question that she’d asked earlier. A thousand emotions flickered across her face, dancing like a guttering candle flame. ”What do you expect me to say? That I don’t want to hurt anyone - that it viscerally disgusts me to even see blood? Alex, I know what this is. You feel like you weren’t enough of a mother to your children so you’re trying to adopt everyone you can, just to feel like you’ve ‘raised’ someone, and ‘done your duty as a mother’: but that isn’t how this works. No amount of guidance and good deeds will ever be enough: not to her, regardless of what you or the goddamn Dalai Lama think. I don’t blame you for leaving but I do blame you for thinking you could just pop back in and pretend that nothing ever happened. Liz’s life isn’t something you can jump in and out of willy nilly: you don’t get to be a part of your kid’s life only when you want to, or only when you have time. You don’t get to show up unannounced on her doorstep, cry for a bit, and then expect her to start calling you ‘mom’ again. She doesn’t know you anymore; you’re less than strangers! You coming back now doesn’t make up for the years that she spent loathing herself and the world for taking you away: absolutely convinced that it was her fault, somehow, that you were dead. Even if she thinks she’s gotten over it, the truth is that trauma will always be a part of her. Maybe she’ll ignore it, maybe you’ll make her happy enough to offset the toll it took on her: but it’ll still be there, festering - a memory of the time she spent thinking you were gone for good. She took me and all those other interdimmies in specifically to prove that she wasn’t like you: that she was capable of helping people and, more importantly, staying in their lives - and even if it was unfair of her to hate you for leaving, that doesn’t change the fact that it happened: no matter how she feels about it now, there was a chapter of her life during which she wanted nothing more than to spit in our face and to tell you that she, did, better. So fuck you, Alex, and stop doting on me: because I sure as hell ain't your daughter, and neither is Liz.”

But that seemed a tad honest, so she just defaulted to the most generic, comfortable answer she could give. ”Haha, what? Alex, I just froze up for a bit. There’s no need to worry, you old cooch. Now, keep your eyes on the prize: we’re expecting company.”

[Menschenfleisch]

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

[Naval Monte]

Secrets of the Raven

"You know speaking of Terry where is he?" Metis asked as she looked at Elizabeth. "You were adamant on him joining us." The witch reply was. "Despite what our resident Deadpool fangirl thinks I was smart enough to try and get AEGIS involved. Keyword being try, bastards didn't respond to my calls." The clockwork automaton looked at the witch incredulous look.

"You have them on your phone contact." The witch snorted. "I wish it was that simple. They just gave me throw away phone that allow me to connect them whenever I got a lead on them. But when I tried to get in contact with them I just keep getting the damn automated messaging voice. Typical really, something major is going on and the authorities can't be arse to respond on time, only after something happened. So I sent Terry to find them and get their asses on the move." 

The witch felt like taking out a cigarette but decided not to due to being underground. "You know Jack, you're lucky that Lilith isn't with us. I don't think she should appreciate you taking the Lord's name in vain like that. I Andy she would drag you out of the mines by your ears so she can shove as much bar of soap into your mouth." The occultist jest, needing to do something to kill time while waiting for the digging to be done.

Though thinking back to what Jackie said about the mines the witch got off the wall and walked to her mom. "Hey can I borrow your staff for a moment." Curious on what Elizabeth was planning the lich gave her daughter the staff. Elizabeth rose the staff up and used it to trace several symbols on the air as she began to chant in a language that sounded Greek to Alex.

As Elizabeth felt the Aeronous Aetheric current flow around her she directed it to remove the dust in the air and to keep it away from them. As everyone felt a gust of wind hitting them Elizabeth would feel another aetheric current coming from behind the cave in wall. She would lower the staff now that her work was done but she was still trying to pin point what she was feeling.

It was at this time that Jackie told Alex that she find and that she should expect company. "Right, I'll be ready for any surprises waiting for us. Also I'm not an old cooch." 

Alex decides to leave Jackie as she walked to Elizabeth. Once the lich was gone the miner would say. "The cult is weaken huh? We might join you fighting against them but I would need to convince the others to fight, which would be hard after the amount of raids they had done before and how many of us they captured. We got a few dozen of us left. These mines are a bloody death trap kid, we had enough souls to make an underground community. But that might be the ticket for me to get the others to join in the fight, most of us want things to return to how they were."

The group would hear the final batch of the rocks being moved away. "Well the way is clear." The miner put the handle of his pickaxes on his shoulder. "I will see if I can get in army set to join you all. I hope that furna of yours can bring this AEGIS over to help us. Tell the others down on the other levels that you all on our side, they'll help you all if you do" The miner began to leave the group.

As the group prepared to leave they would see a dark portal open up before them. As they were prepared for a fight they would see Terry emerging, falling on his hands and knees as he was taking deep breaths and sweating profusely. Elizabeth quickly went by his side and knelt down to check on him. "What the hell happened Terry? You ran a marathon or something?"

Terry would take a while to respond before he felt that his lungs got enough oxygen. "I found the AEGIS base and I wish I didn't find it. The whole place is a mess." He said as he got up. When asked what he meant by a mess he would reply with. "It was like I stumbled across a war zone. Something either broke in or out, either way the base is a flaming wreck with the survivors trying to deal with the anomalies that broke out. I was being chased by a few before the tenebraes sent me here." He explained.

The others were surprised to hear the news, all wonder which group attacked AEGIS? "Looks like our resident lunatic is right. We're forced to go through a character centric anime plot." Simon said as he shook his head, not sure if he should be surprised or annoyed that Jackie was right on how this will go. "If this is an anime than the only possible love interests your gonna have are the teenage girls who like edgy mysterious bad boys Simon." Samson told the slav as he cackled. His tendrils moving around a he laugh as his eyes glow slightly.

The slav simply told his symbiotic partner to shut up but the creature still laugh. With Elizabeth she would give the staff back to her mother. "I sensed an aetheric current down in the tunnels. I'm not sure if an alchemist is down there or something else related to alchemy but we should suspect a trap somewhere down there." Alex would nodded and tell others what Elizabeth told her.

The group would resume the journey down the tunnel. As they went down both Elizabeth and Alex lead as they were two of the most powerful alchemists in the team, those they can sense out for any alchemical traps before the group active them. "You know there is something I have been wondering." Alex asked her daughter. When she asked what is on her mind Alex would say. 

"If these item can control anomalies why hasn't AEGIS or the Order claim it for themselves and used it? I would have at least suspect them fighting for it, but nothing has happened. Did they truly not know of the anomaly in the mines or did they know but for some reason choose to avoid it?" The lich mused as they kept going deeper into the mines.

---

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

The soldiers would normally complain about taking orders from someone who was not with the Imperative, especially if they were intruders who broke into the base and violated theye air space. Yet the protest died with roar of another creature that was released in the facility.

The soldiers all fled, all but one. He stay when Doug began to speak to the woman. "Are you crazy man! That witch is going to kill you!" He warned. The soldier's warning would turn out to be true, but it was not Doug who should have heeded the warning. Some of the bullets flew out and the soldiers body began to jitter and seize as his body was riddled with bullet holes. By the time the woman was done the body was covered in holes, oddly the body did not fall to the ground, instead it floated up in the air.

"No." The woman would say, hoarse and scratchy from either underuse or because she overused her voice before, it echo due to the helmet which made it sound more metallic. Doug would feel his gun fly off its hostel and float right in front of his face, the barrel aim at his forehead. The woman would walk forward and stop when she was by his side. 

Doug would hear the switch of his safety being turned off. "You should heed that soldier's warning. The others you will find down there are extremely dangerous. Trying to talk with them may cost you dearly." The gun would drop to the ground. "But I'm merciful. I don't see a reason to kill you, you don't bear their mark. It's because of that I can give you this warning. Leave now while you can."

The woman would begin to walk to the door, holding the body with her powers as she made the doors open on their own. Doug would hear the guards shooting at the woman and her meat shield from behind.

Deep in the base Mirira attempt to scare off the creature made it unfurl its wings to scare her off as it roar at her. In the conflict on which will be scared off first it would end when the demon let out a roar at Madi and the wolf for being a pest to it. The creature would begin to back away in fear from Miria, sensing danger coming close by. The insects were also freaking out from the roar, the one injured especially being the worst as it tried to take off with its broken wings out of fear.

Down in Biblo's cell he would hear several mechanical voices that sound like a recording of men singing. 

"We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine"

The doctor stuck with Biblo cursed. "Crap, 450 has escaped." The voices got louder the closer they got to the cell, the voices beginning to sound slightly more human but still producing the buzz that show it was a recording. With Kiara the frog somehow got the shoe off the dead soldier and was now dragging its new prize. The two would hear loud footsteps coming towards them. The frog would jump on to the show and hide inside of it.

Kiara would see a giant walking down the same hall she was in. Like the demon Madi and Link were facing  it was either skinless or had translucent skin, revealing black muscles and bulging veins. However on top of the muscles were skeletal plates of white metal fuse to the muscles made to resemble bones. 

From ribs to femurs, the creature was covered in bone armor. From it's back were rows of massive metal spikes bundle together to look like wings. From its elbows she saw long appendages growing from the elbows and ending down to double blades scythes with runic letters on the blades. The head was a skull like the demon but this one was a skull with many metal horns growing from the back of the head and two from the chin. 

The creature lack eyes and it had large canines, she saw veins bulging out from the bottom half of the skull somehow. It produces an aura of authority, power, despair, and horror; a dark aura that many would say feels demonic but yet it felt very different from a demon. 

The creature was at at least 8'11, if not taller, either way it dwarf Kiara. The creature would stop to look down at the girl. "Was my release caused because of you child?" It would ask. "You are not from this world nor have you been sealed in this tomb for long." It didn't say anything on the bodies. It can sense that she played a role in their demise.

[Skylus]

Doug watched - heard, rather - the massacre and as it died down the Hylian picked up the pistol and, without even really thinking about the action, aimed the weapon towards the door, and then lowered the gun a bit. He waited a few more seconds before he slowly ventured further into the base, hoping to find someone that he somewhat recognized.

The first person he found wasn't exactly a person at all, but rather a bipedal panda. The creature was raiding the kitchens of the base and when Po saw Doug, his eyes lit up. "Hey! I don't know where I am, or how I exactly got here, but look at all of this food!"

Doug simply gave a small smile and dragged Po out of the room, the panda protesting as he did so.

A few minutes later, the two found themselves in some sort of library, where they found someone; that someone was Ganondorf Dragmire. "Greetings. I'd like for everyone to be gathered here, if possible. i suppose the panda can stay here with me while you try to find everyone."

"Okay. Do you have any idea where they are?"

"Unfortunately, no, but this facility is only so big."

Doug nodded and left the room by the east door.

---

"Singing? And what a strange song it is. What is a...'sub-marine', and why is this thing yellow? Furthermore, why are they living in it?"
Bilbo gazed at the man known as Karl. "...I'm sorry, did you say four hundred and fifty? What does that mean?"

---

"We can't fight this thing!" Madi was once again thrown against a cell wall and she grabbed the wolf as he ran past her. The Ghoul started retreating towards the door, eying the deer demon as it watched them. "We've leaving. Goodbye."

The Ghoul quickly paused to toss the creature bothering Miria and some dragonflies down the hallway - by the roar it made it sounded angry - told her to follow the group after she dealt with the dragonflies on her own, and continued to run down the hallway. Once Madi rounded the corner, she only paused for a second to tell the younger Link and Midna to follow and then the Ghoul was off, trying to find a somewhat safe hiding place.

[The Japanese Americans]

Shadows of the Empire
Fortessa
Lee

Lee soon found himself bored with his phone games. It wasn't like they were boring or anything, he just wasn't in the mood for them. So he put on some tunes and stuffed his phone in his cloak pocket. He turned away from the war council and headed out the door. He walked down the hallway, checking into the rooms every now and then. Then, while he was in the middle of the hallway, a rift opened under him, making him fall into it.

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
An AEGIS Base
Lee

He dropped down into another hallway. A metal one, like the one he just left, but there were alarms blaring. An emergency? He heard something running behind him, so he ducked to the side and pressed himself against the wall. A wolf, something humanoid, and a pale human passed by. A quick repeat of the phrase "Observation" for the three of them let him learn their names before they ducked around a corner. Madison Goodwill, Link, and Miria Bankhari. The Observation Skill is certainly helpful. He just wondered when it would become Low Class God's Eye. Probably when he's at max Level. He heard more running, and looked to see the young kid from the meeting. Along with... was that an imp following him? He knew they had to be running for something. They passed by him, and he turned and followed them. If he was to become a sorcerer, he would have to prepare for everything, know things, and level up. In fact, he knew he had spare points. He should pour that into his Int. Stat, boost his mana amount. He got 5 points per level up and he had reached level 8 without spending any so far, so he has 40 points. "Status." A window pooped up, and he dumped all his points into his Int., increasing it up to 56. He felt his mana capacity grow, and his magic sense became more precise. He closed the window and continued following the two.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

Follow the big freaky rat monster? It could talk, it didn't eat her, and it had been fighting the deer beast, so it was probably a friend, and Miria wasn't going to turn down advice from a "friend" in this situation. The Pterodactyl was backing off, its own survival probably a priority over eating its litte insectoid prey. Miria figured it would be able to follow along and keep up after Madi passed it, since she hadn't exactly kicked it like Miria had the dragonfly. Still, those little dragonflies couldn't keep up, or at least the one that she'd hurt hadn't. It was only a matter of time before they were set upon by the large deer monster, and Miria knew that it couldn't get away in time unless she helped.

Miria gulped, making a decision that she hoped wouldn't some back to bite her - or, well, sting her. Whether or not its friends trusted her, Miria didn't have much of a choice. She needed to get them all to safety, and she wasn't going to leave the injured one to die. This was her problem; she'd created it, and she was going to set it right. Tensing her fists for a moment, Miria opened her hands and quickly leaned in to scoop up the injured dragonfly, cradling it in her arms. "Come on!", She called out to the other four, not even sure that they could understand her. Would they chase her down to attack her? Well, at least they would be following her and getting the hell away from that big beast. She didn't even care if they hopped on her back for a ride! She just needed to book it! Miria turned, critter in hand, and nodded her head for the others to follow, running around the corner to follow the wolf and the big rat monster. She tried to make sure not to put pressure on her cargo's broken wings or hurt it, although it was a little low on her priority list for the moment, given that being chased and eaten by escaped monsters was a bigger problem than a little extra discomfort.

[Menschenfleisch]

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

”’Smart enough’ to call the anomaly police, huh? Gee wiz, you want a cookie for being basically fuckin’ competent?” Jacquelyn paused for a moment. ”Don’t take that too seriously, Liz, I’m just joshin’.” She already felt guilty enough for bringing so much strife to her life and for insulting her mother. The contempt she felt for her allies was real, but in her mind that was a good thing. She was close enough to them now to start seeing the cracks in their perfect facades. ”Terry’s really been run ragged these last few days, hasn’t he?” She mused. ”Getting shot at by Ky, getting blasted by me, getting knocked around by you, nearly dying to bugs, having to abandon Andarta, reuniting with you after all this time, nearly getting killed by reavers; and now he’s basically your errand boy, running tax forms or whatever to whoever or wherever you say.” She felt like she was being a bit hard on others, to be honest, but her mouth kept running regardless. She was just that sort of spontaneous person, whose speech and gait spoke to this subtle, untold confidence: not that abrasive aplomb that befitted the definition of ‘chad’ but rather that quiet, self-assured and especially comfortable nature that reminded people of coffee-sipping scarf-wearing caucasians sipping their beverages while leaning on doorways, or slick-haired vagabonds who splayed out their arms on park benches and seemed to never be focusing on anything in particular and yet never left anyone around them wanting for attention. The boundary between manipulation and sincerity was thin for Jack, as it had been nonexistent for Kyle. Her emotions, like her body, adapted to her surroundings. She didn’t necessarily control them, but they certainly prevented her from keeping up one continuous persona. Right now, they were doing their damndest to turn her into a killing machine. ”I don’t think Lilith would give much of a shit, to be honest. She’s a vampire living in a town where hundreds of concurrent disappearances go essentially unnoticed. Besides, I’m fairly certain I’d enjoy the taste of soap. Early instances of the ‘Vanth’ line, my progenitors, suffered from ungodly severe pica. Our abilities cost a lotta energy, and our whole schtick is converting mass into light, so I’m told we used to eat rocks, broken glass and shrapnel for a quick boost in the middle of a fight. Too bad the habit stuck outside of combat, too.” She saw Alex eyeing her up, and so she dismissed her with a wave of her hand. ”Nah, I was never that affected. Sure, there were cravings now and then, but I only occasionally indulged in such delights as chalk, rubber, and… woodchips.” She turned away and clung to herself, flustered. ”It was the geneticists’ fault, okay?! And besides, they were delicious! The word ‘chip’ is in the name!”

Jacquelyn, once she’d finished blushing (ashamed of the very thing she’d just unnecessarily confessed to in front of the whole group), found just enough time to respond to Alex’s apparent counterargument to the statement that she was, in fact, ‘an old cooch’. ”Not old? Love, you might act like you were born yesterday, but you look like you’re ready to sue the Chicxulub asteroid for making you a widow.” Liz, at that point, began to chant. It was all Greek to Jack. Or rather, it was all untranslated Teutonic script to her: she actually had a fairly good understanding of the hellenistic languages. It was easy to forget, but Jack had been intended to be one of the most effective killing machines ever devised. She’d been second to none, a first among equals who even Kyle couldn’t predict or control - though that was probably due to the existence of other espers rather than her own intelligence. Again: the more superintelligences there were on the same planet, the weaker all of them would be, as each of them would be another variable that none of the others could perfectly simulate. She’d been tutored in science, art, language, history, geography and all manners of waging war. However, she’d repressed most of those skills along with the memories that she had of the world she’d been born in. The temptation to remember lingered at the back of her mind, luring her with promises of knowledge and comfort like Eden’s forbidden fruit. She addressed the miner in order to get her head off of such things, having perfected the art of self delusion and avoiding having to answer uncomfortable questions. ”Hey, man, I’m not gonna ask you to get your whole crew together in order to join us. You’ve done enough as it is.” It bore reiterating that Andarta’s victory would spell the end of all anomalies, including the ghost, but she didn’t want to come off as a total dick: just a facetious one. In fact, if pressed for an answer, she might’ve even admitted to being a bit of a cunt. ”Hey, thanks for all the help, ‘specially for vouching for us, too. I appreciate it.” She affirmed cheerily, bidding him farewell with a short wave. Before, the mines hadn’t felt empty: they’d felt oppressive and packed, as if predators’ eyes were looming out of the dark, with god-knows-what waiting to fall upon them when their backs were turned. Now, although it felt no emptier, she at least felt a little safer, knowing that there were at least a few friendly faces just beyond her perception. She doubted that the man could actually levy an army on their behalf - and further doubted whether he would - but she was legitimately thankful for him saying that he’d try to do so anyway. Ah, sentimentality. Oh how she loved unimportant, almost totally irrelevant secondary characters!

However, just as they were about to proceed into the next section of the mines - and presumably into even further danger - Terry popped out of nowhere in front of them, gasping and looking as if he’d just run a marathon. That, or he’d gone skinny dipping in a public pool: it was up for debate. ”Woah, dude! Calm down, you look like shit!” His account of the events leading up to his appearance didn’t give her much hope. No help was coming, at least not from the surface. ”Damn. The Crimsonites must’ve gotten to ‘em - that or one of their allies. I’m guessing we’ll have to deal with that clusterfuck when and if we finish dealing with whatever’s down here. I don’t imagine that the fight with Andarta’s going to be easy.” She actually felt rather queasy. This whole time, she’d been working under the presumption that if everything went sideways, she’d be sheltered from the worst of it by the far more qualified individuals surrounding her. However, hearing that AEGIS wasn’t going to come pretty much confirmed her worst suspicions: they were stranded down here, and unlikely to make it back if they tried to run. The Crimsonites were cornered, and that meant that this fight - at least to them - was a battle for survival, not merely conquest or victory. ”You stole my line,” She muttered in Simon’s general direction, though her voice didn’t carry much venom to it. As they proceeded down the next set of descriptionless mineshafts, Alex and Liz began conversing while the rest of the group remained largely silent. Perhaps the Ashwoods were more foolhardy than she gave them credit for, Jack mused. Or maybe they were trying to lure out the Crimsonites with the sound of their voices? They seemed to have the situation under control nonetheless, and so she decided to jump into the conversation alongside them. ”Hey, we know that AEGIS avoided the town like a plague ‘cuz of Andarta and the Arawn Reavers. They probably didn’t want to make a move on the anomaly either, knowing that it was in the Crimsonites’ hands. Though, AEGIS doesn’t seem like the sort of organisation that would care about how strong their enemies were: in fact, I think they’d be more willing to commit resources to getting rid of Andarta if she were stronger. I guess they musta had some kind of deeper reason for not stopping her sooner.”

[Naval Monte]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

The pterodactyl would let out a loud screech when Madi punched it away from Miria. When Miria decided to grab the injured dragonfly it would screech in surprise and tried to struggle to break free. It would get the others to react as they began to fly after her. 

The creature would be wagging its tail wildly as it tried to break free. But when it began to realize that Miria wasn't putting pressure to crush it or anything harmful it stopped, now curious on what she was planning but still weary. When the dragonflies got on her all four were going to sting her when the one she was carrying screech out to stop them. Miria would feel on on her back, another flying above her head, and two on her shoulders.

The creatures would argue among themselves on what to do with the girl but their argument would end when they heard both the pterodactyl and the demon. The ones on her back and shoulders saw their hunter riding on the back of the demon, the two seemingly made a truce with each other to chase after the same target.

The dragonflies began to screech more upon seeing who was pursuing them. While the group fled from the demon down on the halls in Ammy's cell the goddess would see several orbs of light form in her cell. The light would form kanjis that would turn into slips of papers with those symbols on them. The papers would move to form a circle in the air as they spun in the air.

The papers would land on the magic circle and the kanji would release a flash and the magic circle will lose its powers. Ammy would soon see two beings standing in her cell. One was an old man who was incredibly tall, standing at least 12 feet in height possessing red hot skin, white hair, angelic white feathered wings, and is adorned in Buddhist monk attire. The man had a very long nose on his face. Next to him a man whose face was a white dog with long black hair adorn in Onmyōji attire. He was 9 feet tall.

"Ōhirume-no-muchi-no-kami." The tengu said to Ammy, both he and the inugami bowing before her. "We have freed you because we require your assistance to not only break free from the humans prison but to get revenge on them for not only imprisoning us but for their crimes against our kind and many other creatures like us." The inugami told the sun goddess.

With Karl and Bilbo the doctor would back away from the door. "That is what we call the thing that is out there." He explained as he took out his pistol and a knife. He would begin to cut pieces off the blanket and roll them up to make ear plugs, he has two to Bilbo as he out two in his ears. "Put those on now, you can't hear their music for too long." 

The music was now getting louder as the music makers were at the door. The door would suddenly unlock itself as the two heard a loud pitch noise through their makeshift plugs. As the door open they would see  John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star from behind the door. The four men wore suits and one odd note was that their mouths had lines that one should see on a doll that can open its mouth.

The doctor began to shoot at the Beatles but his bullets did not slow them down. As they kept singing about a yellow submarine Paul McCartney reached out and grabbed Karl by his neck, strangling him. Ringo Star would walk up to Bilbo and keep singing while watching him, John and Goerge were doing the same.

A soldier would reach the cell and see what was happening. As he drew his gun to shot John Lennon would turn to look at him and fire a laser from his eyes, burning through the soldier's helmet easily with his skull and flesh having no resistance. The laser would go through his head and begin to burn the wall. Bilbo didn't see the laser, he just so two burning holes appear on the soldiers head before collapsing on the floor dead.

[Menschenfleisch]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Kiara

Bit by bit, a man snipped off his fingers with a bolt cutter. He didn't have a spare hand to grip it with, so he used his mouth in their stead - though it was a little hard to get the job done without teeth, gums or eyes. Steel met bone and broke through moments later with a wet, satisfying crunch, although the followup gurgle was a little underwhelming. Of course there were some people who tried to get in his way. This one particular woman kept trying to snatch it from him, screaming incoherently about monsters and darkness. She was flanked on every side by eyes. The walls, the ground, her own body was eyes. She could see everything: the whole planet, no, the whole universe. She was everything, and everything was eyes. Squirming, squelching, slick. Earth was made of her, and she was a cancer, for whatever she touched turned into her: mountains into trillions, wineglasses into portions. She felt every single one of them: each individual sensation. It was like staring into the sun except for every sense and endlessly more potent, a daggerlike pressure building inside her head. Every time she thought it would reach its peak or that her mind would fracture, it kept climbing higher, never once giving a hint that it would slow down. She was bodies, the planet was bodies. She was eternal, undying, everything, the god that she worshipped and the degenerates she spat upon. She was the soil of Eden, the roots of Yggdrasil, the azure above the firmament.

Kiara was alone.

She hacked and wheezed, raising herself up on her elbows. So emotional, so unbelievably prone to outbursts. She was not affected by her own blood, no, she was affected by what she was seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting. She gripped the floor, laden with discarded tongues. Nobody spoke, it was deathly quiet save for the wet slapping noises made by bare feet in puddles of blood. That glass shard had drawn one drop of blood, one. She dabbed it from her cheek with a strip of cloth torn from her pant leg and scrunched it up, clenching it tightly in her fist. This was a curse, a burden, a danger. She felt like a tourist trapped in a museum after midnight where every exhibit was some unique and hateful demonstration of the harm that she could cause. Fanaticism, self harm, fear, insanity... all these people shared one grand delusion: that they were special, somehow. Whether that was because they were doomed to a purgatory unique to them or because they were atop the world was irrelevant. Her blood, this time around, had been infused with the belief in one's own importance. How stupid she had been, throwing herself in front of that car. Had she really believed that she could stop this from happening? She'd only made it far, far worse. A man tried waving a flap of his own skin at her, rambling at her to sign it. A trio of soldiers took turns passing a knife between themselves, carefully incising their teeth - still inside their mouths and set within their gums by some miracle - with crisscrosses and parallel lines. Their eyes had already suffered much the same fate, having been engraved with floral patterns. A woman sew her eyes shut and pierced her eardrums with her needle before forcing it through each of her fingernails. See no evil, hear no evil, do no evil. "Make this stop. What did they do wrong?" Already, she had realised what was going on. She wasn't too dissimilar from Skye in that regard. "The world doesn't, it shouldn't revolve around me. Let them go. Let me be normal." She was only a few dozen paragraphs old, and already she was begging for others to exempted from her narrative. "What will my fate be? Do I end up killing people, like that serial murderer that came before me? I swear, I won't let that happen."

Kiara hadn't the cunning of Skye, the curiosity of Avarice, the determination of Valerian, the adaptability of Jacquelyn, the intelligence of Kyle, the tenacity of Polly, the unflappability of Marcus, the passion of Mnemosyne, the innocence of Cassia, the self-sacrificial attitude of Cherry nor the moral character of Alastair. What was she but a coward filled with poison, a warbling sac filled to the brim with toxin and nausea? Unintelligent, undeveloped, immature, pacifistic, all things that the narrative rejected. She had no redeeming qualities besides affability, and what good was that? These weren't narcissistic thoughts arisen from self loathing, either. They were real, and acknowledged by all those who knew her. By human standards she may have been a scientific genius but that was it. She was systematically deprived of noble qualities elsewhere, be they social or ethical. She came close to ending her life there and then, but thought the idea of Skye having to make her journey alone was too terrible a thing to imagine. How could she do that to her? And though she may have been a physical burden, she thought that maybe she could make herself useful somehow, so long as she stayed out of everyone else's way. And so, she grabbed a discarded rifle. Quick as a flash, she disassembled it and pulled apart each one of the bullets chambered inside. She flattened a copper shell with her palm and surrounded it in black powder, lighting it by striking two pieces of steel - the firing pin and the muzzle - over it. The following explosion was dull and uncontained, but it left the copper shell red hot nonetheless. She grabbed it, protecting her fingers with the cloth of her shirt, and pressed it against the wound. The sizzling of flesh and the guttural burble of boiling blood filled the air, as did her high-pitched gasps, though she refrained from screaming. She smelled... disgusting. Like week-old fruit and rancid meat put together in a cold urine stew. That was why her blood did what it did, wasn't it? It was so that anyone who smelled, saw or heard how ugly she was would be struck down by madness. There was nobody in the world who would ever be able to remember just how repugnant she was, because their minds would sooner descend into pandemonium than acknowledge that something so utterly repulsive could exist.

The deed was done. She dropped her soiled, steaming shell and got to her feet, gripping the wall. There was nothing she could do for these people, she thought, as they fell upon each other like mad wolves. She had wondered, as a little child, how someone could hate themselves and why anyone would want to hurt themselves. This was why, she thought. Every reason for doing so was presented to her in that very moment: madness or guilt. Her pace was slow and yet somehow she managed to, somehow, stumble across an open cell, the interior of which was only just slightly more chaotic than what existed outside of it. The sweet timbre of music invaded her ears, swallowing up her every sensation. But beneath it all, there was an uncomfortable drumline: the harsh tick of clockwork joints and piston cartilage, perhaps only synthetic in name and behaviour. That was to say, the four musicians seemed to be outwardly organic, and yet they moved like crude automatons. A soldier's corpse fell in front of her, a hole in his head. "No, no!" Without thinking, without regard for her own safety - and thereby the safety of all others - she reached out and pulled Paul back, flinging him into the corridor. Her qualms about injuring people were no less severe than those of killing them, but she didn't know what else to do. And these things... were they even alive? If they cut her, would they even flinch? She restrained John Lennon by placing her right forearm over his neck while locking it in place with her left wrist, shoving her knee into his back so that he fell forward and was forced to look upward at the ceiling, rather than at anyone in the room. "Get out!" She beseeched of Ammy, Karl and Bilbo.

[Naval Monte]

Secrets of the Raven

Elizabeth and Alex became silent after Jackie mention that AEGIS most likely was aware of the anomaly but something prevented them from nabbing it before Andarta or something prevented them from attacking her. The two pondered on what would make AEGIS not try to get the object?

"Maybe they had trouble when she was walking around as a godwalker and was waiting for the right time when she was at her weakest to get her? Perhaps what happened to them was Andarta's contingency plan encase she felt that AEGIS knew she was weak and they can take her anomalous treasure?" Elizabeth theorized as she put her hands behind her head.

The group would see strands of glowing tendrils covered in drops of mucus suspended in the air. Well those with the sight to see into extra dimensional planes and see invisible entities and phenomenon. The tendrils were fungal creatures hailing from the Underground that the miners go to.

They use their light to attract pray who would get close to them to take the drops of sweet smelling mucus, unaware that doing so will ensnare them in their trap as the sticky coating will trap the victim to the tendrils were the very same mucous that attracted its victim will begin to dissolve them alive and their liquified remains absorbed by the fungal tendrils. 

Of course with the membrane between worlds being weakened in the mines even Jackie can see the tendrils, as well as the eyeless six legged lizard like creatures with translucent skin, the iridescent moths flying around, and the unholy offspring of starfish and spiders clinging on to the walls.

On the ground the group would see isopods the size of basketballs crawling away from them. The cave walls would bare strange symbols written by more intelligent inhabitants from the subterranean dimension who left their mark on either the mine wall or whose symbol transcend behind the planar boundary to be seen on Earth.

While most in the Order ignored the sights Alex looked at the creatures with fascination, her cryptozoological side begging to study the native fauna being seen. Elizabeth looked the creatures with wonder. She almost felt like a kid journey deep down to find another world hidden from the world she knew.

Terry also looked at the creatures with some sense of wonder. Being with Andarta and the Crimsonites killed any sense of wonder from the supernatural out of him, but he still find it interesting to see some supernatural entities act like animals instead of monsters or gods.

"So Terry." Elizabeth asked as spikes of gems of different colors began to appear as they walked deeper into the mine, the Borderland properties growing. "Did Andarta ever told you anything about what was in the mines or any plans on how to deal with AEGIS?" A few of the moths would fly around Elizabeth. Alex was using her powers to pull off some of the gems for later use. The former cult leader would frown.

"Other than using the Reavers as an effective tool to scare them off or destroy the base they have I can't say if she had other plans. She might have and didn't tell me because I was the best member to her inner circle. I'm not sure if Albert knew of any contingency plans but Vincent probably did, that guy is always with her. I always thought that was a thing going on with them."

Terry would chuckle at that, shaking his head. However he would return back Roman more serious expression when he moved to the anomaly. "From what I heard another group found it before them, Claudia always called them The Court. Apparently this Court tried to study the anomaly to use it's powers for their own but something happened that made them abandoned the idea and to leave it alone. I think they tried to perform an experiment on it and it backfired on them. Perhaps the hauntings and the Borderland is a result of that screw up?"

As Terry explain what Claudia told him, with most members listening to his story Alex would look preoccupied with something else as she held on to her amulet necklace. 

"Some of the people behind that project would join the Crimsonites and that is how we came to know about the anomaly. As for what it is Claudia told me that it was a lynching pin for her plan, a catalyze that would make the Order's... no, her goals, a reality. But it needed both power and she needed instructions on how to operate it effectively. That is why were hunting down souls until Vanth drop into existence, Claudia saw her as a more efficient power source. The Corpus Obscurus was thought to contain information on the anomaly and as such would provide instructions on how to use it." He explained.

Terry glanced over to Jackie, nervous on how she would react to hearing that Claudia wanted to use her as a battery for some reality altering anomaly. "Can you tell us what it is man? You are skirting around on telling us on what could create and control anomalies like that." Mai asked, voicing the same thing that was going on in everyone's mind.

Just as Terry was going to say what it was they found deep in the mines Elizabeth would take out her knife and revolver. "We got company!" She can feel the alchemical energy from before. From the darkness the group can sense multiple powers approaching them.

Slowly the group would see several humanoid bodies walking towards them; all much smaller than the group (being close to Alex or Miria's size), having transplanted skin, and having abnormal limbs and body proportions. Some lack eyes or had to many eyes or their eyes were too big or too small. Others were skeletal in shape or morbidly obese, others had enlarged limbs or multiple limbs or were missing limbs entirely.

They would see two massive humanoid figures made of rock appear behind the others. "A bunch of homunculi and two golems, peachy." While the group was preparing their spells Elizabeth fired three shots to a homunculus, two bullets hitting its chest with the final one going through its head. "There is an alchemist hiding somewhere. If we find him we can force him to call off his army." She told the group.

Elizabeth would fire more shots as Rolo, Mai, and Alex unleash elemental attacks on the creatures (lightening, fire, and ice respectively). Theo summon his own golem to march towards the two enemy golems, clearing through homunculi. Metis gave Valerie a sword as the two ran to fight against the artificial humans in melee combat. Both Richard and Wei stay back to try and summon back up while Simon stay back with Nix who was using her shadow powers to slow down the horde.