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meg_evonne:
Anduriel said they wouldn't post more of Reza until we got more of the fight going...more please?

"When she returned, she was packing an honest to god rocket launcher. I swear."  Anduriel Joey thread.

The Molten Beast overhead was huge, as in block out the sun huge.  With slow intentness, it formed a glowing green bowling ball of energy.  In our formation we made a good impression of bowling pins.  As Carrolton raced to her car, Debbie called up her air power and lofted skywards, hands extended overhead with her cannon weapon.  I heard the whoom sounds again.  Debbie shot up under the Beast's front legs, twisting in her ascent as she reappeared under the things chest and pumped cannon rounds into the area beneath the Beast's exposed throat near its head. 

The Beast roared and the energy ball fell from its front paws to the ground nearby.  We ducked bits of flying ashpalt made by it's new crator.  Debbie, soared on past the head of the Beast, barely escaping it's snapping jaws.  That's when Carrollton, on one knee beside me, let loose with the rocket launcher's payload.  Rounds blasted through the Beast's chest.  It roared one last time and fell dead to the ground with an earth shaking thud.  Andre, who had been directly underneath it, leaped for safety and used an energy shield to shove it's head back away from us and the car.  Debbie lowered back to the ground.  Then we stood staring at the dead Beast. 

There was a loud chain reaction of brakes and horn honking as cars that had been behind us slowed to a halt or continued on past us with gawking heads turned to the Beast.  As luck would have it a news van pulled up near the Beast's tail.  A short red haired camera woman leaped out with her camera rolling.  Andre ducked his head down, hiding his face from the camera, and Debbie turned away just as quickly hurrying back to Frances' car. 

I was left looking like a deer caught in the headlights of the new media circus.  Carrolton rushed up to me, handed me the rocket launcer.  "Put it back in the back of the SUV.  I'll handle the camera crew."  She pulled out her ID, different from the one I'd seen her flash at the crime scene, and I heard her say she was with NSA from the US.  Frances joined her with his ID from Interpol. 

I put the rocket launcher back in the SUV.  Several of the gawking drivers pulled out their cellphone cameras and started snapping photos.  I looked down at Wildflower, it was back to Star Wars mode.  "Great."  I mumbled as I headed over to Debbie who opened the car door and made room for me inside.  I don't know where Andre went, but he was gone, vanished, whatever he can do.  "I can see the promos now, 'Star Wars fan wipes out pre-historic flying dinosaur.  News at 6.'   I want a hat like Andre's to hide behind." 

I hoped the Beast would fade into nothingness, but it just lay there, dead. Evidence for anyone that things existed that weren't supposed to be there.  "Geez, flying dragon attacks vehicles on local street."

Debbie didn't look pleased as she concurred.  "This one isn't going to be swept under the carpet.  Magic has been found--alive and well on Earth.  What do you think will happen now, Joey?" 

I shook my head and tried to imagine what I would have thought if someone started showing pictures of flying dragons on the news.  "Debbie, I don't have the slightest idea."

Qualapec:

--- Quote ---Debbie didn't look pleased as she concurred.  "This one isn't going to be swept under the carpet.  Magic has been found--alive and well on Earth.  What do you think will happen now, Joey?" 

I shook my head and tried to imagine what I would have thought if someone started showing pictures of flying dragons on the news.  "Debbie, I don't have the slightest idea."
--- End quote ---

There wasn't much we could do. We were surrounded by a force far scarrier than the armed guards of Wildfire or wizard-turned-spider-monsters of the Emperor: the American media. All around me there large, black machines that could only be cameras. They obscured the faces of the cameramen, making them seem like strange alien probes instead of people.

Though...if the cameras were the alien probes...the men and women in sleek business suits and slick hair were the alien ambassadors hassleing you in some bizzare greeting custom in a language unlike anything you've ever heard.

Andre...was visably suffering. Even though the majority of his face was obscured by his hat, I could see the hard clench to his jaw. He was a carreer thief; staying to the shadows had kept him alive for centuries. His proffession was the very definition of 'low-key'. It had to be killing him to have all of that attention on him.

Debbie was doing considerably better, much to my suprise. As we forced our way through the crowed of reporters she was right beside me the entire way. Occasionally her spitfire nature shown through, and she would shove her hand in the face of a camera that got too close. Once she even pushed hard enough to send the cameraman sprawling back into a collection of his fellows.

Frances was still suffering from head trauma. He stumbled through the crowd following Andre. I'm not even sure he still knew what was going on.

Carrolton handled it like a pro. Giving orders and the most beaurocratic bull I had ever heard about an escaped mutant, one in a trillion thing, it would never happen again, nothing to worry about folks, blah, blah, blah.

My senses returned to me again about the time I crawled into the big SUV Carrolton had called for us. Normally I dislike those ridicules, huge cars, but in this particular case I was happy to crawl into the behemoth with tinted windows. We all crawled in, everything got quiet as the doors closed and the driver went about trying to drive though the crowed of people that had gathered.

Debbie was the first to break the silence, "...Well, I think we can all join hands in a collective 'oh shit'."

I glanced back and Andre, "Didn't you teach her better than to use language like that."

"I used your modern parenting methods of self-reliance," He quipped back. "But Mr. Gardner, you are a walking 'oh shit' you know that?"

I glanced back at Debbie, whispering, even though I had to lean across Andre to get to her, "Why is he calling me 'Mr. Gardner'? I think I recal saving his ass?"

Debbie leaned over too, so we met halfway across Andre, she whispered too, "He's still angry about the hand."

Jeez...you miss the power limiting bangle just once and you're marked for life. "He grew it back."

Andre, finally seeming to get fed up with my very adult and not in the least bit juevanile behavior, grabbed me by the hair and pulled me back, "You're breath smells like rotten eggs."

"You little-" I began, before realizing the other adults in the car were staring at me.

Carrolton 'ahemed' from her seat opposite us, and turned her attention to Andre. "So, do you mind telling me what that thing was?"

Andre leaned back in his chair, "It was a low-level demon." He leaned foreward for effect. "And notice how I say, 'low level'. As in, if you think that's bad, wait till you see what's coming." He eyed the crowd around the SUV, "Although. You'll excuse me if I don't feel inclined to talk under such pathetically insecure conditions?"

Carrolton smiled a business woman's smile, "Naturally-Driver, take us to Mr. Clapp's apartment."

"It's Capp." I insisted childishly. Somehow I felt that between Andre acting like a snot, and Carrolton acting like a snob, that this was going to be a very long night

Kristine:

--- Quote from: Qualapec on July 30, 2008, 02:18:23 AM ---Carrolton smiled a business woman's smile, "Naturally-Driver, take us to Mr. Clapp's apartment."

"It's Capp." I insisted childishly. Somehow I felt that between Andre acting like a snot, and Carrolton acting like a snob, that this was going to be a very long night.

--- End quote ---

I wasn't disappointed either, but not for the reasons I thought it would seem long.

When we all got to my apartment we took turns cleaning up in the single bath.  Finding, once again, no food - I started to order pizza, then made the mistake of asking other people what they wanted.  Debbie wanted vegie, I wanted pepperoni, Frances was hoping for a supreme and Sarah wanted meat lovers.

We ordered Chinese.

When the doorbell rang, I immediately assumed that the delivery guy forgot something, but when I opened the door I found a shortish heavy woman with wavy brown hair who seems to expand to someone twice her girth below the waist.

"Hi" she said pleasantly when I opened the door, "I'm Amy, you must be the new flower power"

I looked back into the apartment for a minute in surprise.  The description seemed to be derogetory on it's face but the tone in which she said it made it, simply a statement of fact.

"I'm Joey...uh...Yeah.  And you must be..." I thought of several words to describe her and none of them were complimentary.

"I am one of the First on earth" she said pleasantly and motioned that she would like to be let into our gathering.  I shrugged and stepped aside to let her in.

"The First what?"I asked, trying to sound intelligent.

The rest of the gathering greeted her by name as if they knew her and I felt a little better about letting her in.

She gave a general 'Hello' and turned back to me.  "The first wizard of earth." she saw something on the table she liked and picked up a container and some chopsticks. " If Earth is no longer the furthest world from the center then magic is going to start cropping up all over.  I'm the first one that has shown the kind of power you see on other worlds in wizards, or shaman or whatever you want to call them."

Qualapec:

--- Quote ---She gave a general 'Hello' and turned back to me.  "The first wizard of earth." she saw something on the table she liked and picked up a container and some chopsticks. " If Earth is no longer the furthest world from the center then magic is going to start cropping up all over.  I'm the first one that has shown the kind of power you see on other worlds in wizards, or shaman or whatever you want to call them."
--- End quote ---

Andre and Debbie looked up, and exchanged glances as Amy greeted Frances and Carrolton. I was glad I wasn't the only one who still had no idea what the hell was going on. I was glad, that was, until Debbie stood up frantically and looked Amy up and down.

Amy just stood there, looking at Debbie like she had two heads. She glanced at Frances, "Is she human?"

"No," Debbie growled, "She's a wizard just like you. And no no no no no no NO!" Debbie met Amy's eyes, "You're a wizard." She whirled around to Andre, "She's a wizard! Earth's development shouldn't be that far...developed!"

Panic seemed to set in to all the people in the room who weren't savvey to what she was saying. Carrolton spoke first, "So, you're saying that earth is developing faster than it's supposed to? Is that bad?"

Debbie whirled on her, "You tell me. How will the masses of this planet respond when thousands of people suddenly have magical powers? How did they react in the middle ages when they THOUGHT thousands of people had magical powers? I've read X-Men, and I've read about the Inquisition. It. Will. End. Badly. You humans aren't nearly mature enough as a race to handle that kind of thing."

"I'll ignore the 'you humans' bit," Carrolton's eyes narrowed. "What do you suggest we DO about it? Our resources are already stretched to the max."

Debbie didn't like it when people she didn't like got that closer to her, "Just what is 'YOUR resources', hmm?"

Debbie had a point on that. Carrolton had told everybody she was there for an insurance company, but I think at this point we could all drop that little fantasy. But still...Gah. A catfight. I felt like banging my head against a wall. Debbie...had a temper, and I realise now why she was never afraid to get into a confrontation with random people in the street. She could twitch her nose and turn them into dust. Thankfully, it seems that one of Amy's talents was to nullify conflicts. I didn't even notice her mumbling a spell under the veil of her Chow Mein. A strange light enveloped Debbie and Carrolton. Debbie looked at her, with a smile that seemed fake, as if she was trying to be angry but couldn't. "You used an...emotional binding spell on me?"

Amy's eyes widened, "That's what it's called? Then, yes." She got a sort of far-off look on her face, "I don't like when people fight."

Andre looked curious. I was expecting some kind of a quip, but he spoke gently, "Isn't that ironic? An empath that specializes in canceling out sour emotions in people. You're very lucky Ms. Amy, most empaths go crazy." He sighed, "Although...I did wish you would be another combat wizard. Especially with what's to come."

I did not like the sound of that. A part of me knew that Andre and Debbie wouldn't have come to this world just to save my ass. Debbie might, but not Andre. Inside I suppose I had already known that the Situation Was Bad. Still, it sucked to have it confirmed by the dark tone in his voice. I sat down in front of him on the coffee table and met his shaded green eyes, "What's to come?"

He motioned to the large, old book he was holding. It looked like one of those spellbooks in those MMORPGs. But there was an eloquent script that I didn't recognize. It was all lines, like Sanscit, with thick and over exageratted lines and dots like medival Latin letters. He flipped through the book and everybody gathered around. "I had a hunch, so I did some research on the beastie we killed earlier."

"What 'we'?" Carrolton asked, she was ignored as Andre flipped to a page with what looked like a rought black and white painting of the Lava monster.

"Garathmor," Andre read allowed as his finger traced the name. "I remember hearing horror stories about them as a child. How, during the Age of Demons, they ran rampant on the world, feeding on magical energies to sustain their own lives. They served great Demon Overlords, who feared giving magical power to humans. They stamped it out wherever they could, when they weren't going to war against each other, that is."

"Age of Demons?" I asked, that sounded bad.

It was bad. Debbie explained, "The age in which demons ruled the innermost world, and by extention all worlds surrounding it."

Andre continued, "But after the Age of Demons, when powerful wizards began to rise against the Overlords, they lost most of their power. For ages we picked them off whenever we found them. Garathmor are relatively weak in comparison to the other things around, especially without their Overlords to protect them."

Carrolton was the first to catch on, "And it took a rocket launcher to kill ours..."

"One point to that lady. It was strong. I felt the strain against my shield when it attacked. I shouldn't feel the strain unless-"

I can be smart when I need to, I understood with a sudden moment of terror, "-Unless it had an Overlord to protect it."

Andre rubbed a hand through the side of his blond locks, not disrupting his hat, "Yes. But the problem is, the Overlords were destroyed thousands of years ago. They're EXTINCT. Which means one of three things is happening." He raised a hand, and numbered off the different scenarios, "In order of what would be best for us: Setting 1, the wizards missed an Overlord all those millenia ago. It's been in hiding, gathering power, and waiting for a weak world in its magical infancy to show up and crate a new Demonic Age on that world. Setting 2, the theory has been discussed that the reason Earth is suddenly excellerating in its development is that there is another world coming to life on the outside, forcing Earth in. If that world is...something else, another primordial soup of spiritual energies, another Center world, then the Demonic Age could simply be starting again and bleeding into this world. Setting 3, last but definatly worse, is that magic, demons, monsters, is all bleeding into Earth from beyond the other worlds, but also from time and space."

Debbie looked shocked, and I felt a sick feeling rise in my stomach as I asked, "Why is that last? It doesn't sound the worst..." I was trying to convince myself."

Andre continued, "That isn't supposed to happen. Some higher beings can travel through time, but for a creature from one time to bleed across the boundaries of another time...it's not supposed to happen. There are walls, FAILSAFES, set up to prevent that. If this is what's going on then that means something far more terrible than a new Demonic Age on Earth or Earth becoming the battleground for a clash of titans, it means the walls are breaking down."

"Well?" I said impatiently, even as the fearful bile rose in my stomach, "How do we stop it?"

Debbie reached out for my hand, "That's just it. We can't. If the walls of the universe are fading then...there's nothing we can do about it."

Everyone stayed quiet for a long time.

I was ready to fight demons, monsters, palace guards, emperors, floating clouds of gas. But if it was as bad as Andre was saying, this would be an enemy that I couldn't fight. It scared me, and I suddenly realized how, although the things I had fought up until that point scared the crap out of me, I would have given anything to have one of them. To have something I could trade blows with instead of just sit around waiting for the end of the world.

Then I considered Andre's other two, better options, both of which seemed pretty damned dismal.

Debbie was right, this called for a collective 'oh shit'.

Oh shit.

Qualapec:

--- Quote ---Debbie was right, this called for a collective 'oh shit'.

Oh shit.
--- End quote ---

AN: I'm sorry to double-post, it's just been a while since anybody posted on this, and I kinda wanted to write something for these guys and hopefully get somthing going again! So, here goes! Continuing the "meanwhile, Reza" lines that Anduriel started.

Reza

Reza wrapped the furs tighter around herself as she decended into the cave. It seemed as if the temperature had dropped the second she entered...Usually magic generated some heat, even ice-centered spells resulted in a slight rise in temperature outside of the effected area.

Not here. Never here. The wraiths of the dead were not meant to be warm.

All around her, she felt them. They reached out cold, ghostly hands to touch her as if she were a holy savior decending into their hell. Occasionally one was corporeal enough for her to feel a corpse-hand run down her leg. But she was concerned with larger spectors. The closer she got to the bottom of the cave the more she felt it.

Raw power. Coming from a creature pratically made of nothing else. And Reza knew that She had put great spells in place to control the impact of her magic on visitors...and still Reza felt the pressure weighing down on her. What a magnificent being.

Eventually, she saw the faint glow of red firelight at the end of the tunnel. The darkness slowly became a bloody red glow, and the wraiths that had been following her crept backward. Warmpth was not meant for the dead, and neither was light. It was their curse, to be lacked all things of life except the memories of it.

The tunnel she entered was filled with rings of the red fire.  Calmly she stepped over each of them. 81 in total. She didn't worry about touching it, in a place like this, even the fire lacked warmpth.

She entered a great hallway. It must have one point been a part of some citadel or the center of an empire. Now it was buried by the millenia beneath the sand and rock, forgotten by all but a few.

The accursed few.

Reza was never a religious woman, but here...she felt like making the Sign Against Evil, even though she knew the creatures here were not evil. No matter how they came across, no matter how She came across...they were not evil. They were driven by the needs of the universe. Sometimes this resulted in the pain of lower beings. Reza knew this, and it was what kept her from making the Sign.

At the end of the great hall...Reza found Her. She sat on a throne of cold marble carved from the same piece of rock as the wall behind it. It was large, and carved with endless circles and incantations meant to keep Her power in check.

She was not so impressive herself. A girl who looked no more than her teens was not what Reza expected every time she decended to the Hall of Ancients. Her eyes and hair were black, her skin the same caramel color as Reza's. Her dress was black, and in the style of the Earth medieval, with sleeves dropping all the way to the floor.

"Child of Wildflower," when She spoke, Reza felt the urge to run. "You know why you have been summoned here?"

"I do," Reza answered.

"You did not try to run?"

"Why run when there is nowhere to hide?"

She seemed pleased with Reza's answer. At least as pleased as she could be. "And I take it that you understand the consequences of your actions."

"Of course."

She rose from her seat, "The Universe is in chaos. I feel it. The turmoil and pain wrapping around all things like a dark blanket." She rose from her seat. "I will give you one chance to explain yourself, Child of Wildfire, before I cast judgment."

"I did not throw all things into chaos for personal power if that's what you're implying. I know better than that." Reza sighed, "Things needed to change. The Emperor was not fit to rule. He needed to be forced from power. The resulting turmoil was not my intention. I had thought that the Essence of the Emperor would pass to his son the moment he was gone, thereby keeping universal balance."

The woman on the throne nodded, listening carefully, "I understand. I truly do. But the Emperor is an important part of the Balance maintained between worlds. You gambled, and it may result in the end of all things. Whatever you're intentions, I cannot let a single being get away with taking such risks."

Reza nodded, bowing her head. She had known this would come from the beginning. It was the cost of her dream. "I accept my punishment, Your Majesty."

Slowly rising and descending from the throne. The carvings glowed with the same red fire-light Reza had seen in the hallway leading to the Great Hall. As She walked down the steps, each lighting up with the same powerful carvings.

All the while, Reza felt as if the pressure behind her eyes would force it's way out through her forehead. Standing so close to Her made Reza's skin burn and her lungs gasp for air. It forced her to her knees.

"I, Queen Among the Dead and Living sentence you, Reza of Wildfire, to the Land of Wraiths. There you shall remain for all eternity. Your torment shall be to watch the lines of the suffering dead grow, all because of your actions." She raised a hand and Reza forced her eyes shut.

The magic slammed into her with the force of a runaway golem. Picking her up by the chest and hurling her across the length of the Great Hall. She contacted the marble, seperating her shoulder joints. She slid along the marble as the magic pulled her closer to her end. Inside, she felt her body become numb, touch, sight, taste, hearing all faded into a muffled darkness. She screamed, a single, wordless cry of failure. But then...

She stopped. The magic stopped. hovering just an inch from the hallway now consumed by red fire.

It took her a moment to realize that it hadn't dragged her into the depths of the Wraiths' land.

The Queen Among the Dead and Living walked towards her, slowly. Across the great hall it took much time for her to reach Reza. She wasn't one for rushing things. She came to Reza, and placed a cool hand on Reza's forehead. Suddenly, the pain subsided, and her senses returned to her.

"I am," the Queen spoke, "granting you temporary leave of this sentence. Fix it, however you can. If you fail, or if you die in the process, remember what awaits you. And if you succeed...keep in mind that not all will be forgiven, but your sentence will be lessened. Now go, Reza of Wildfire, mend the whirlwind you have sewn."

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