Jacob watched Steele go, hoping the billionaire would be a little more together when he'd slept it off. He smiled at Mack and squeezed the doctor's hand. "Only at the situation," he said. "If we can ever get a chance to get our feet under us, I think we'll all be a bit better." Part of him was putting together plans, trying to think of whom to contact for info on the other villains, the necessity of new costumes... "How's your sister?"
Mack glanced down the hall where Silhouette's room was, and then looked back at Jacob. "I don't know," he mumbled. "Usually when she gets this mad, I just avoid her and wait for her to calm down. I hope she doesn't hate me. I just...I just did what I thought I should do." He sighed and hung his head. "Do you want to go find a room?" Mack asked while still looking at the ground. "I want to go lay down, but I don't want to be alone." The news reporter on TV was still talking about Silhouette and her new group of heroes. A professor who teaches a class on superheroes, named Professor Greer, had come on and he was identifying all of the heroes that Silhouette had recruited. "They are all retired heroes or have been inactive for a long time," Professor Greer was saying in a nasally voice. "From this, I think we can safely assume that Silhouette was desperate for help. Whatever is going on, it is serious, and I advice everyone to stay indoors. Hell could break loose at any moment." With that, the news reporter thanked the professor and said good-bye to the viewers.
Jacob caught the professor's speech and groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off a headache. Wonderful. Not only had a panic just been started, but the public would have zero confidence in their ability to handle it. The Crusaders had been active from WW2 until the end of the Korean War, and no one questioned their competence. These days, anyone who could remember when Friends premiered was a has-been. Luckily the footage was blurry enough he was only recognizable as The Maestro by the powers he used, and not his face. He certainly didn't want any of this to fall on his son. Jacob looked to Mack. "She knows we don't think she's a monster," Jacob said. "And she wouldn't be the hero she is if she weren't resilient." "A bed sounds good right now," he replied.
"Hi, I'm off to find somewhere to sleep," Danny scratched the back of his neck. "You gonna be alright?" That was the worst question ever. Why wouldn't Emma be alright? Danny slammed his hands into his pockets "Good night!" he said with the cheeriest smile he could and slipped down the hall by Sapphire, looking for somewhere to sleep.
Emma watched Danny walk down the hallway. He was so nice, and friendly. She sighed inwardly. The prospect of going back to her dark empty room made her want to join Silhouette. She hated being alone, even though she managed it for years. She continued to watch Danny, her fear growing. She didnt want to be alone. She called out to Danny. "W- w- wait!" What am I doing? "I, um don't like, um, being alone. Could you join me?" She said nervously. He's probably just going to run away. Why the hell did she have to embaras herself like this?
Nyr returned to the main room with a slight frown on her face. A frown of confusion. Everyone claimed they were going to rest, but on her world, rest was almost always done alone. Why did they want to pair up to get ‘rest?’ Unless… well, maybe… maybe they didn’t plan on resting at all. Her frown turned into a scowl. With a slight sigh, she took a seat in the middle of the floor. The humans could play whatever games they wished, she would actually rest, and actually be prepared for the battles to come. Now was not the time for a lover’s embrace. Nyr drew five sword blades and inserted them into the floor, forming a five-pointed ring around herself, like a metal cage. Then, she clasped her hands in her lap, bowed her head, and shut her eyes. The day-night cycle on Tymar was much longer than Earth’s. Nyr could easily stay up for forty-eight hours or more, but that would mean sleeping for nearly a full day afterward. Not good. Besides, if she was going to be an effective member of this team, she needed to acclimate herself to their sleep cycle. “When you are done with your mating rituals, you know where to find me,” she said to no one in particular, then went to sleep, sitting upright on the floor, surrounded by sharp metal. To anyone who saw her, she probably appeared to be meditating or in silent prayer. Once she was asleep, her subconscious mind took over and her head tentacles began to rhythmically undulate, like dancing snakes with a mind of their own.
John was restless. He wasn’t sure why. A lot had happened so far, but he was used to a little adventure, so what was it that made him, of all people, unable to sleep? He tossed and turned a few times, but just couldn’t get comfortable. A lot of thoughts were swirling through his head, but he couldn’t find the one that kept him up. So he gave up trying. When he walked back into the hall, he saw that everyone had gone to take their own bit of rest. Nyr was the only one in immediate sight, which made him tread extra carefully. He didn’t know what would happen when you woke a sleeping tymarian warrior, but he didn’t much care to find out either. Not with all those swords at arm’s length. He doled around a bit, without a particular purpose, yet he found himself walking past Silhouette’s door every two or three minutes. At a certain point he just stopped walking away and leaned back in his old spot next to the door, though on the other side this time. He had originally planned to wait for her to wake up, might as well do it after all.
"Really?" Danny said with a small smile. He went back down the corridor and stroked her hand, " Come on," he gestured to empty room and wandered in. "I'll sleep on the floor..." Danny muttered, seeing the one bed and he grabbed a pillow and the blanket at the bottom of the bed. He started arranging a makeshift bed on the floor, waiting for Emma.
Jacob, feeling suddenly awkward, led the way to the hall where the bedrooms were located. He and Mack found a vacant one. Setting what things he had near a chest of drawers, Jacob began to disrobe. He hesitated a moment, then decided to leave his underwear on. He slid between tge sheets, sighing at the softness of the mattress and what was probably 3 billion thread count sheets, and waited for Mack to join him.
Emma smiled quietly in the darkness as she started to drift off. She was laying down, with her head at the foot of the bed. She was glad she had a roommate even though she probably wouldn't have one for long. Reaching down, she stroked his soft hair as she fell asleep. Her last sense was seeing Danny near her as she closed her eyes, and the feel of his hair on her skin.
The time had come. Silhouette was in the middle of the main room, freshly dressed in tight, all-black clothes, her crinkly black-brown hair pulled back into a full ponytail. No one had seen her leave her room, not even Danny. The door was slightly cracked, but it hadn't made a sound when it opened. It was like Silhouette had turned invisible and reappeared in the middle of the main room. When Silhouette yelled for everyone to come together, Mack untangled himself from Jacob. In his sleep, he must have subconsciously wrapped his arms and legs around the Maestro. "Sorry," Mack whispered with a shy grin. He jumped up and quickly got dressed. Like Jacob, Mack had taken off all his clothes except for his bright pink briefs. "Don't judge me!" he hissed when he saw Jacob look at his undies. After everyone was ready, they all headed up to the roof and piled into the Supervan, Silhouette taking her place at the wheel. Kiamo Ko stood in front of the vehicle, doing stretches in preparation for a long flight. Steele wanted to sit in the passenger seat, but Mack slid into it before him and mockingly stuck out his tongue. Steele grumbled darkly under his breath and decided to fly alongside the Supervan instead of riding inside. He twisted his watch and the silvery liquid covered him once again and turned solid and flexible. When Kiamo Ko turned to leaves and the wind lifted him into the sky, Steele kicked off the roof and green fire trailed from the bottom of his feet and from his hands. Silhouette flew the Supervan right behind them, so she wouldn't lose sight of Kiamo's leaf swarm. "Morgana, here we come," Silhouette whispered to herself. In only fifteen minutes, they had flown out of Fortress City and arrived at the Rolling Hills, a wide green plain characterized by gentle slopes and a few scattered trees. Kiamo Ko led them near an old farmhouse: the white paint was peeling, the brown shudders were hanging off their hinges, and there were dark, gaping holes in the roof. Silhouette made the Supervan hover nearby as she mulled over where she should park. Suddenly, three things happened in the space of a few seconds. Firstly, what had previously looked like a lumpy boulder on the side of the house stood up on thick legs. It was the Block. He roared so loud that birds flew out of trees for a mile around and hurled a large rock at the Supervan. Secondly, Steele raised his hands and yelled, "Blasters, fire!" Two beams of green energy shot from his hands and hit the rock, splitting it in half. One part flew off in a harmless direction, but the second part headed straight for the Supervan. Thirdly, Silhouette gritted her teeth and yanked the steering wheel to the side. The Supervan swerved, but not fast enough. The rock hit the left wing and the Supervan started to spin and dive straight for the ground. "NONONO!" Silhouette screamed. "This is not how I die! NOOO!" But there was nothing she could do. Tears streamed down her face as she pulled up the steering wheel with all her might, but the Supervan continued to dive. Mack looked back at Jacob with a desperate look in his eyes and reached out a hand to him. It was clear that he wanted to hold Jacob's hand as they plunged to their deaths.
It was nice, sleeping with Mack, and that not being a euphemism. His lithe, warm body felt nice, snuggled up against him. There was a part of Jacob which wanted to do more than sleep--in fact Mack no doubt felt that part pressing against him. But for many, many reasons, Jacob was content to simply have someone to share the darkness. And though he cracked an amused grin at the sight of Mack in his little pink briefs, *damn*, did they look good on him. Everyone rose and went through the morning preparations as if choreographed, the routine of heroes going off to battle coming back to them all. Jacob even found time to assemble a few masks for those in their party who'd left their "work clothes" behind. Armed with his harmonica and retractable baton, and a gun supplied by Steele, he joined the others in the Van. (Ooc: sorry for minor godmoding) *** When the attack began, Maestro barely had time to process events. As the Van began its horrible descent, though, time slowed enough for him to reflect on a few things. He should have thrown caution to the wind and spent the night in ecstatic delirium with Mack. He should have left a heartfelt message for his boy, or maybe stayed home. They should've painted the damn van blue so Saff could use her weirdly specific telekinesis to save their asses. He felt Mack grabbing for his hand, and took it.
When Emma heard Silhouette calling, she gently woke Danny, and led him to the super van. After they sat, she thought about battle plans. Suddenly, the Brick started to attack, and she screamed as they plunged to their death. There has to be something I can do! She thought frantically She looked around for something, anything blue. Would her gloves be able to save her? She could float out, but she couldn't save everyone. Then I can die with them. This isn't a bad way to go. She latched on to Danny's hand and curled up on his lap as she started to cry. "Try to visit me in hell, Danny." She said jokeingly as they continued to plummet.
There was nothing I could do, I couldn't fly everyone out and I couldn't leave them. Danny gently squeezed Emma's hand back and felt a tad helpless as she curled on his lap. Serves us right for.... whatever you call this rather than focusing on the mission I suppose. "Don't worry," Danny whispered, "I'll get a life time pass."
Nyr hadn’t really slept. She shut her eyes. She shut everything out. It was a bit more like meditation than sleep. Her body rested, but her mind did not. While the others got their sleep, she spent hours sharpening her mental blades. Morgana. Block. Morgana. Block. She pictured them both, letting the image sear itself into her memory. She would do the same for Master Kwan Yin, if only she knew what the woman looked like. When it came time to leave, she was alert. A little too alert, actually. Nyr was like a coiled spring, or like a timebomb that had miraculously stopped ticking with only 0.0000001 seconds left on the clock. Any moment now, she was gonna explode. Enemies beware, allies stay the fuck outta the way. She sat fidgeting in the back of the van, with a hand on her hilts, impatiently tapping her foot, with her eyes glued to the window. Where are you? Show yourselves. There! Time seemed to slow as the boulder hurtled toward the Van. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this was going: down. The Van was struck, spun around, and went into a steep nosedive. Any sane person would be seeing their life flash before their eyes, but Nyr only saw one thing: her target. She twisted the bracelet on her spacesuit and a holographic image of strange symbols --the Tymari alphabet, apparently-- flickered to life. She tapped out a string of coordinates so fast her fingers were a blur, then the symbols disappeared. A millisecond later, there was a loud thunderclap, a flash of light, and the gravity got weird. Unknown to the heroes inside, a subspace portal opened above the falling van and Nyr’s spaceship emerged. It was about the size of a cargo plane, and shaped like an elongated box, scarred with laser burns and bullet holes. One of its four engines was trailing thick black smoke. This ship had clearly seen better days. Its poor condition didn’t matter. She didn’t need the ship; all she needed was the gravitational distortion caused by the subspace portal. The SuperVan was still tumbling out of control, but the ship’s wake created an upward pull that slowed its descent and turned what would’ve been a horrific accident into only a mild fender bender. “Move!” Nyr said as her blade lashed out. In one swift motion, she cut through a wall of the van, nearly taking off someone’s head while doing so, and jumped out. She hit the ground running and drew a second sword as she sprinted toward the Block. Behind her the SuperVan hit the ground and bounced as the reversed gravity nearly pulled it back up again. But then the portal snapped shut, the gravity returned to normal, and the Van dropped the last few feet, never to rise again.
Emma struggled not to barf as she stood up, still holding Danny's hands. "Let's go kill some badguys!" She said racing away from the van. She saw Nyr charging towards the Block, she she gathered her power and started to run at him too. I can't really do anything, as there is nothing blue.... She thought. She luckily fell to the floor, as a rock flew over her head. She turned and spotted a green tractor. If she was lucky...... It could have blue electrical wires in it. Smiling, she turned towards the tractor.
John had nodded off a few times during the night, but he was sure he’d been awake when he hadn’t seen Silhouette walk through that door. It made him smile. He should have known better than to stalk a ninja. The moment the van was hit his old “we’re all going to die” instinct kicked in, but after almost two dozen years of constantly almost dying, he’d learned to keep it in check. Of course it didn’t help that Nyr almost cut his head clean off, good thing she told him to move. While she was slashing. Still, he was cool enough to follow through the whole that almost cost him his head, just before the ship hit the ground the first time. It took him a couple of seconds to realise what the hell just happened though. “Gravitational distortion. Cool.” He drew his gun and chased after Nyr, ready to give cover fire once they were close enough.
Maestro stammered his thanks to Nyr for saving them all and charged into battle with the others. First, he focused on Block, shouting Dissonance at the stony villain. He couldn't help but wonder, as he did so, how much of Block's body was himself, and how much was acquired stone and rubble.
Danny was yanked along and again found he could do little in this situation. He retrived his hand from Emma's grasp and said "Sapphire, I'm going to fly up and throw those bricks back at that giant boulder." And with that began rolling up his sleeves and rubbing his arms and felt the first feathers break through.
When Nyr jumped out of the Supervan and ran at the Block, Silhouette was right beside her, running at an equally swift pace. "Just like old times, eh?" Silhouette joked. "Except now we're on the same side." When they neared the Block, he roared and tried to swing at Silhouette's head. She ducked under his giant stone fist, climbed up the front of his body like a cat, and threw smoke pellets directly in his face. As she leaped off his shoulders and landed behind him, Silhouette yelled at Nyr, "Slice him to pieces!" Jacob's music also helped distract the Block, making him stagger backwards. Mack was still in the van when it crashed. He groaned and unbuckled his seat belt, hesitantly getting out of the ruined vehicle. "What can I do to help?" he asked no one in particular. He was completely out of place, a young doctor with no fighting experience whatsoever. Meanwhile, a swarm of colorful leafs drifted to the ground and Kiamo Ko materialized out of them. He took one step toward the Block, but Steele landed in front of him and said, "Let the real heroes handle this, Leaf Boy." "What's that supposed to mean?" Kiamo snapped, and then they started to argue back and forth, getting angrier and angrier.
As Sapphire raced towards the tractor, she suddenly halted as Kiamo appeared about a foot to the right. Maybe he could help. She turned and found an argument brewing between the two men. She probably should intervene. Sapphire took one of her gloves off, and threw it into the air. She immediately began to control it, as if her hand was in it, and grabbed Kiamo's wrist. "Would one of you gentlemen be kind enough to help me?" She said with a hint of sarcasm, as she gestured to the tractor.
Feeling the feathers break through, Danny began gathering rocks before his arms fully transformed. Now that he had some rocks he leaned over balancing them on his back as he narrowly dodged more rocks. Steele looked like he was ready to deal with the Block. Oh well, this will still help in some way. And so he took off, rocks still carefully balanced. As he reached a height that seemed alright, Danny rolled slightly, allowing two rocks to fall and one hit the Block on the head, causing him to glare up at Danny. This should give Steele an advantage. It's the most I can do really. Danny watched as an argument broke out between Steele and Kiamo and if he had arms at that moment he would have folded them. There's the advantage I gave them, gone. Emma appeared, trying to break up the argument or something and so Danny thought he'd join in too. Allowing one of the smaller rocks to fall, Danny yelled "Shouldn't you be fighting that walking quarry rather than each other?" The rock fell right in front of Steele, hopefully making them jump.
"As if I need you to tell me that," Nyr said when Silhouette told her to chop the rock man into pieces. She struck at his legs with both blades, cleanly slicing through him and turning for a second strike and then a third and fourth. While Silhouette climbed up and blinded him with smoke bombs, Nyr slashed at his lower body. Her limbs were a flurry of metal, but she hardly seemed to be making any headway. It seemed like she was only chipping off the surface, like carving a sculpture, not killing him. She needed to cut deeper. Nyr dodged away as Block tried to kick and stomp at her. His movements were clumsy and slow, easily avoided. "Not everything is like old times," she said as she passed Silhouette. "I've learned new techiques, mastered new styles you cannot fathom." Nyr backflipped, narrowly avoiding a thrown boulder. In one fluid motion, she ejected one of her blades and attached its hilt to the hilt of the sword in her other hand, then caught the blade in midair and affixed it to the tip. There was a click and an electric hum as the various components fused together, turning the twin swords into a single, absurdly long, two-handed katana. Nyr's fighting style instantly changed to match her new weapon. At nearly seven feet long, her new blade looked rather unwieldy, yet she maneuvered gracefully around it, cartwheeling and rolling around Block's attacks, keeping her blade in constant motion and keeping the pressure on her opponent. Instead of delivering a series of quick glancing blows, she kept the blade in a neverending arc that could --and did-- cut through anything unfortunate enough to cross its path.
The Block was falling apart. With every slice that Nyr dealt, a sizeable piece fell from Block's body. He lumbered and swung out and tried to hit her, but she was simply too fast. Finally, the Block stopped and roared at her in frustration. The pieces that she had cut off of him suddenly started to jitter and jump on the ground, making their way back to Block. When they reached him, the rock pieces fit back into where they had been chopped off, making him whole again. But, for a half a second, underneath all the stone there had been a glimpse of skin. The Block was a flesh and blood person, covered in rock armor. "This isn't working," Silhouette grumbled as she ducked and rolled to avoid the Block's swinging fist. "We could really use some help over here!" she called out to the other team members. Kiamo Ko was already trying to end the argument with Steele, but it was proving difficult. "Listen, I'm done trading insults with you," Kiamo told Steele in an icy tone. "Sapphire has a plan and I'm going to help her." "Oh yeah, run off like you always do, Leaf Boy!" Steele spat in response. Kiamo rolled his eyes and waved his hand. The grass around Steele's feet grew up rapidly and wrapped his entire body in a shiny green cocoon. Steele fell over and wriggled furiously on the ground like a giant worm; he would break out soon, but not for a few minutes. Kiamo nodded to Sapphire and ran over to the tractor. "Roots, do your thing!" Kiamo whispered fiercely. Thick, strong roots exploded from the ground and ripped the tractor apart, exposing the rusted old engine. That done, he winked at Sapphire and looked around for what else he could do. In the distance, Kiamo could see a small river flowing through the Rolling Hills. He jumped into the air and burst into leaves and flew toward it at a breakneck pace. Mack had gotten back into the Supervan and was trying to see if he could get the laser gun to work. "Maybe if I press this button...and turn this switch...and punch the dashboard," he was muttering as he worked. The Supervan control systems lit up for a brief second, but then they went dark again. Mack cussed under his breath and continued working.
Maestro kept out of the way of Nyr and Silhouette. His powers were strictly long-range, not up-close melee. He did wonder why Pigeon Man--he reeeeally needed to work on that name--was throwing rocks at the stony giant. Then, as Nyr did her thing, Maestro saw it--the human being inside the rocky form. "Ears!" Maestro warned, then began shouting Dissonance at Block, hoping to break through the stony armor.
