REVENANT (Reece)

Revenant watched as the ambush devolved into chaos and individual skirmishes. It seemed they still needed work as a team. He felt the draw of the battle, wanted to wade in swinging as he saw the gang members draw bats, machetes, knives, pistols and SMGs, all weapons meant to break and rend his teammates. But he didn’t, he’d agreed to hold back, to avoid becoming embroiled and distracted, to wait for Ku and any other supers to show themselves.

It reminded Reece of theatre club, standing backstage, waiting for his cue to enter. Desperately hoping he’d remember his lines.

He frowned as he smelled something wafting on the breeze, normally he couldn’t smell anything, he didn’t breath after all. But he relaxed a moment later as he recognized the scent of Shade’s magic permeating the night, stronger even than before. Reece hadn’t had much opportunity to develop his magical palate, but even still, Shade’s magic seemed strange.

It smelled of darkness, of blood and death and stone; it smelled of power and age. He’d been confused ever since he’d detected it in the backroom of the Underground. With its darker tones it seemed like it should be full of the pungent scent of necromancy like Revenant himself, but it wasn’t; the dry, solid aroma of stone seemed to mute the effects of the other scents, mellowing them, absorbing them into itself. It was very, very confusing. And very interesting.

Reece shook his head as he realized he’d let himself get distracted, Shade’s magic was a puzzle for another time.

He watched as his team hammered the disoriented gang members, and stepped forward as he saw his target exiting a vehicle. He wasn’t sure why Ku had waited so long, perhaps he’d been just as surprised and wanted to wait and see what he was up against?

Revenant walked slowly down the bank, waiting for Ku to notice him, knowing he’d be drawn to test himself against the undead warrior once more. What he hadn’t expected was for Ku to pitch the SUV at him.

Reece blinked his eyeless sockets as the vehicle arced through the air, aware that he really should be getting out of the way, but somehow unsure in that moment of exactly how to do that. He knew the SUV wouldn’t hurt him, but it might leave him disoriented or momentarily trapped beneath the weight of metal. Even a few seconds would be enough for Ku to be on him, raining down blows. And still Reece stood there.

If he’d been able to breath, he would have sighed in relief as a gust of wind swept the flying car away into a tree. He sent mental thanks to North Wind, and shook himself free from his daze. Ahead of him, Ku was stamping and beating his chest like a gorilla asserting his dominance. Did he mean it to be intimidating? Reece wasn’t sure, but it was time to get this rematch started.

Taking off at a steady, loping charge, Reece swung his staff almost gently around him, breaking bones and gun-wielding arms on his way to Ku, who suddenly looked around in confusion as something hit him in the side of the head. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Reece sped up, hitting the distracted man with the full weight of his charge. Dust rose in a circle around them from the impact, and Ku was launched into the SUV behind him, the metal crumpling around his body before the mass was carried even further, coming to rest twenty meters away against a particularly sturdy tree. Then Revenant froze as a woman stepped forward, and the scent of death magic assaulted him, the bitter scent had been hidden beneath Shade’s aroma of power. Black essence coiled around him, worming its way into his spirit, plucking away his control of his own body. He fell to his knees before her.

Desperately, he called up his sheet. He still had a couple of CP from levelling, was there something he could purchase to aid him in resisting?

Codename Revenant Real Name Samuel Crow Species Undead Archetype Champion Origin Cursed Wealth $ 0 Level 3 [25%] +2 CP Health 570 / 570 Recovery Rate 0.52 per minute Strength 40 (32) Intelligence 8 Agility 9 Acuity 8 Fortitude 52 (35) Willpower 10 Stamina 105 / 105 Focus 41 / 41 Recovery Rate 0.52 per second Recovery Rate 0.1 per second Powers Talents Complications Enhanced Strength rank 1 Undead Traits Inhuman Enhanced Fortitude rank 2 - Code of honour Magic Sense: Scent - Curse

But the option to spend points stayed grey. He guessed the system was setup to prevent exactly what he'd just tried. His focus returned to the lady in black, fuming and battering against her control. He hated feeling powerless.

Seeing a flash of white behind the woman's back, he watched in hope as North Wind quietly flew up behind the necromancer. Before grinding his teeth in frustration as North Wind's ice lance shattered harmlessly against the necromancer's shield, her own hastily summoned shield of ice fractured under a swarm of magical bolts released by the mage a second later in retaliation. The force of their impact threw North Wind back out of the embrace of her winds, and she tumbled painfully across the concrete surface of the road.

Reece watched her stumble to her feet, her left arm hanging awkwardly at her side. Her eyes wide in pain, she still managed to concentrate on forming a splint of ice around her broken arm, binding it to her side. She glanced helplessly between the smugly grinning mage and Reece on his knees behind her. Seeming to reach a decision, she launched herself into the air, disappearing into the night sky.

Reece mentally sighed in relief. He'd been worried the necromancer would order him to attack once North Wind had been grounded. She probably still would, but at least he wouldn't have to deal with pulling the young girl apart. Shift could outrun him, Shade could hide from him, and Division was mostly just clones, his prime out of sight. He considered dropping out to the player lounge, letting NPC Revenant deal with the coming orders, but that would be coward's way out, there was always hope. For Reece, the hope was that tonight could end without him being forced to kill one of his teammates.

NORTH WIND (Mia)

Mia had been watching the ambush, cold pooling around her, ready to use. It took a decent amount of power and control to get airborne using only wind and air pressure, and it was easier if she was already off the ground, so she'd been crouched in the upper branches of a tree, watching the fight below.

She was supposed to have stayed out of the skirmish, but had been using tactical bursts of air to disrupt gang member’s aim or to throw dirt in their eyes at opportune, or rather, inopportune moments.

She regretted having to pass off her evening shift to be here, but she was glad she had. It felt good to actually be doing something other than training, to be able to fight back against the world. She loved her virtual family, the experience of actually belonging for once had been so heady she’d been tempted to give up on the chance of heroing all together, and just focus on the feeling of belonging for once, no matter how fake it was. For a former foster kid like Mia, being able to live out her fantasy of family life had been incredibly seductive and also deeply cathartic.

But just as much as she was the lonely girl of her childhood, she was also the isolated, downtrodden teenager of her later years, desperate to fight back against the injustices and the bullies of the world. And the game was her chance to exorcise more than just one her demons.

When she saw the SUV flying towards Revenant, she'd reacted on instinct, reaching out and shoving the vehicle away. And when she saw him forced to his knees before the woman, she’d gritted her teeth in rage and launched herself forward.

Now she stood there battered and bruised, her broken left arm throbbing in pain, and the rage burned even colder. She launched herself into the air, the winds responding more rapidly than ever. She flew upwards, higher than she’d ever dared before, until the air itself became sluggish and thin, and then she stopped, focusing instead on the cold seeping its way into and around her, letting it pool and coalesce before her. Then she released her hold on both it and the winds.

She fell back towards the earth exhausted, and a large mass of ice bigger even than herself fell beside her. As a trickle of Focus returned, she used the winds to speed and direct their fall, and as the field of battle became clear below her, she focused on the pool of calm at its centre.

Little seemed to have changed in the 30 seconds she’d been gone, Revenant still knelt before the darkly dressed woman. It was tempting to aim the mass of ice directly at the mage, but she was fairly sure that would kill the her, so instead she aimed it 10 meters behind the bitch instead. It struck with a boom like thunder, concrete cracked, chips of stone joining shards of ice as a concussive wave of force swept away from the impact.

North Wind had halted her fall whilst still fairly high in the air, and she gritted her teeth as she struggled with the distance, focused on containing and directing the wave of pressurised air, funnelling all of it into the back of the mage.

REVENANT (Reece)

Revenant looked up as a subtle whistle rose above the gloating voice of the harridan in front of him. He watched as the white mass struck behind the mage, her eyes widened in shock and pain as her shield washed away amidst the force of the impact, ribbons of blood appearing around her as she was gashed by shards of ice and road, and he watched in pleasure as she dissapeared over his head, carried away on a beautiful wave of over-pressurised air.

Reece, his control of his body returned, dug his fingers into the concrete, easily weathering the storm of ice and pressure, looking up once it had passed, he froze once more, this time in fear as North Wind slumped and fell lifeless from the air.