The sounds of battle were apparent, but they were dwarfed by the noise that was the sheer snowstorm. He gave the vehicles provided to them a quick scan.

Seemed like something from his homeworld.

Should be simple. He's seen snowmobiles just like these when he was a kid. But that was what...two decades ago? He hasn't been to his homeworld since.

Still, he could probably take it. Just step on the pedal and steer, right?

"Hop in the sidecar." He motioned to Kara. "I'll take the wheel. Or...bar handles in this case."

edited 24th Sep '14 6:25:52 AM by LatverianBadger

Urza looked out at the snowstorm for a moment. Its appearance, so far as he could tell, was...unnatural. The weather hadn't been quite right. And yet, there it was. He filed the blizzard away as something to investigate if he got the chance and walked forward, down the length of the line towards the monk's tent. Upon reaching the terminus, where people waited to enter, he simply peered inside, then stepped around the corner and 'walked within, appearing in the most unpopulated and dimly lit place he could see inside. The artificer didn't think the place's owner would be hard to locate.

"Come on!" Toph yelled out when nothing happened, the satisfying sound of stone hitting something not ringing through her ears. "What do we have to do to hit these guys?" Another earth disk was sent out, and this one finally hit something, making Toph stop to analyze what just happened. For a moment, she could feel the spirit's feet stomping through the snow... and just how many were heading to the festival. "Whoever did that, do it again! I'm gonna go stop these guys before they get to the festival!"

Donatello promptly started running away from the spirits. "I'm a man of science! I can't be taken over by a spirit, it just doesn't make sense! Although there have been reports of people being able to project their concioussness it'd take a highly advanced brain which I don't think these creatures possess AND WILL SOMEONE KNOCK THEM AWAY BEFORE THEY TAKE OVER MEEE!"

Ryuko - Snowstorm

Ryuko cracked an eye open taking a peek at the battle ahead, when suddenly to her sides she saw something swoop past her. It proceeded to run circles around her, circles that Ryuko tried to keep track of. Senketsu opened his one eye.    Now what's happening? You're moving in circles!    he said as Ryuko looked ahead at the thing that circled them. Senketsu looked ahead and saw the spirit right in front of them. Senketsu and Ryuko widened both of their eyes at the sight and Ryuko gripped her scissor blade tighter.

"You know what the-" Ryuko was about to ask Senketsu before the spirit lunged in front of them. Ryuko held her blade in front of her, and ran for the spirit. One slash of the spirit and... it passed right through her. Ryuko landed on the snow and looked behind her. When she looked, she saw the spirit as it took her form and appearance, Senketsu and all. Ryuko turned to face the image, which stood by and stared back at her.

   Are you seeing what I'm seeing?    Senketsu asked while Ryuko nodded. "A splitting image of myself huh? This has gotten interesting..." Ryuko said while seeing the spirit. She then gripped her scissor blade and pointed at the spirit. "You think you can steal my image... whoever you are?" she asked it. "Well, you got another thing coming!" she added as she charged at the spirit, looking to defeat the spirit.

Science, Snowstorm

Gavrill circled any spirits who came near her, darting out of the way of their attempts to possess her body. This battle was turning into a shambles. Her teammates were mostly running around in disarray, as was the other team. This whole thing was starting to get embarrassing. Some discipline wouldn't go amiss. She barked at Ryuko, Labrys and Toph;

"Don't waste your strength, you morons! Wait until he-"

She pointed at Icarax.

"-makes them vulnerable before you attack!"

She watched Donatello flee, shaking her head and sighing.

"I really don't know why we keep that loser around..."

edited 27th Sep '14 4:18:21 PM by Vox

Icarax

As I felt the shadow energy surge into me from the spirit I was holding, I knew then that I had discovered a weakness I could heartily exploit. Letting the spirit go and allowing the shadows to return to my substance, I saw the change that had come over the once rabid beast.

Then I knew. This current snow storm was out of the ordinary as were the states of the spirits causing it. Shadow, or whatever it's form on this world, had leaked into their being and thus empowered them into violent weapons of destruction. The spirits could accept shadow into their being- someone had taken advantage of this and had done what Teridax did with the Rahi. For a moment, my mind mused on hos unchanging plans of the despicable were though separated by walls of reality: Teridax had deemed it fit to place shadow kanohi on the Rahi he created, thus infecting them with shadow- causing them to grow violent and dangerous.

These Spirits were no different. All I needed to do as a master of shadows was to put such paltry use of my element to humor and revert this annoying obstacle.

Brushing aside the vermin currently trying to latch onto my armour, I called upon my power over shadow. I beckoned to it from my surroundings, urging it to be drawn into me from wherever it dwelt. Thus, I pulled at the shadows lodged within these freaks of nature around me; denouncing their form, their power.

I would draw all shadows into me. Then, when my team no longer needs the shelter of peace, these vermin can have their vengeance restored.

"Good luck down there, Sasuke!" Rayman said to the departing ninja, before more serious matters gained his attention

Just narrowly avoiding the massive claw, Rayman swooped around the giant bear spirit, and began firing at the spirit.

Science

The SPD ranger saw the spirits lingering around the area with some of his colleagues taking them on.

"Can't Urza be here at the right time right now?" He drew out the knife from the armband, remembering what Urza had told me on handling it.

"Okay. Where's the nearest one?"

Magic

"Cover me."

The Kakuranger told Rayman as he approached the bear spirit. He pondered that most of his ninja weapons may not work.

"ART OF THE DOPPLEGANGER!"

He was able to summon three exact clones of himself. They dashed towards the spirit and drew out their Kakuremarus and moved around to confuse it from the front and back.

edited 30th Sep '14 2:36:57 AM by Ominae

The Snowstorm

The orks attempt at baiting the spirits actually got them to scurry away, not interested anymore in whatever those grotesque little things were. The sounds of scuffle started coming from the festival grounds, screams echoing as the snowstorm started to... slow down. "They're moving!" Bumi announced to the others. "Tenzin, I gotta go get these guys! Give me some backup!"

"Bumi, don't—" Tenzin began, but stopped himself so he could blast a spirit that was running towards his brother. "Don't do anything stupid!" Turning to Gavrill, he shook his head. "Nothing we do is working. We need to come up with a plan to end this as fast as possible."

Marina was the first to hit the spirit going after Donatello. Fortunately, the grenade did its job, blowing away the spirit, but it also did its job a little too well, creating a sizable crater. The spirit Amethyst was attacking heard her taunting, and echoed it, although it sounded like Amethyst was yelling through water. "That's it, ugly, come at me!" It yelled, screeching, a tongue jumping out of its mouth, going straight for the gem. "That's it, ugly, come at me!"

Maria's attempt at communication with the spirits did not go as planned. Once they saw a fellow spirit, the dark spirits cornered Seiryuu, their dark auras glowing with energy as they tried to infect their enemy and turn him to their side. Due to her connection with the spirit, Maria would feel a twinge of pain, but she would also see an image of a massive tree, its roots digging deep, impossibly deep into the earth, its oak older than time itself...

Korra scoffed for a moment. "It's, it's not magic- it's bending!" She yelled, bringing out a flurry of similarly shaped rocks- but whilst her rocks just flew through the spirits, Mistral's rocks once more hit all of her targets, making them join her comrades scurrying towards the festival. "I don't understand. Where did you learn that bending style?!"

The spider web worked, perhaps too much, pressing the spirits against the snow, causing one of them to whimper in pain. "It worked!" Mako parroted, a hopeful smile appearing on his face. "That's awesome! I-I mean... good job. I'm going to corner some spirits, you trap 'em!" He yelled, spreading both his arms and creating two walls of fire, attracting the attention of a group of ten or so spirits, who all started running towards him.

The spiritual Ryuuko didn't move, but it's Senketsu eyes did shine once Ryuuko was close enough, its ethereal form charging forward so it could possess the scissor blade wielder, a sly grin appearing on its face.

Once more, Icarax's attack not only drained nearby spirits of their dark energy, turning them back into their harmless forms, but also caused other spirits, especially those that weren't so close to the shadow wielder. The energy he was obtaining from these moves was tremendous, and it just kept on coming, growing stronger and stronger and stronger. But alongside the spirits, Icarax gained the voice of what was influencing them. A drowning command banging against his head... find the Doctor. Bring the Doctor. Find the Doctor. Bring the Doctor. All that and an image, an image of a tree, old as time, its roots digging deep into the ground...

Combined with Icarax's attack, Rayman's move not only defeated the spirit, but also separated him into multiple smaller versions of itself, all of them so cute that their first instinct wasn't even to wonder where they were, but rather to scratch themselves. The healed spirits, now free of whatever was holding them, would remain on this plane for only a few seconds, before turning into a ball of energy, flying rapidly towards the mountains behind the palace.

Outside the Palace

"Divide and conquer." Sokka stated, as the four-headed wolf spirit started moving towards them. "Sifu Sam, you take the head on the right. Sky, you get the head on the left. I'll distract the two heads in the middle." He gulped, holding one hand out, flexing his fingers. There was a crack and a buzz, and once he touched his blade again, a blue current could be seen travelling through it. "Did I forget anything? Oh yeah. Don't let it hit you."

Running forward with his blade outstretched, Sokka attempted to bring the attention of all four heads to him at first, before snaking back and forth, narrowly avoiding each bite and bark through a careful use of the acrobatics that Sam had taught him. He could feel the fur and the spit brushing against his armor, his body moving faster thanks to the magnets inside the armor. Focus on the movements, Sokka thought to himself, his blade moving alongside him, never hitting anyone but always coming close. That wasn't his objective anyway.

He simply danced, back and forth, from one side to the other, like an annoying animal that just wouldn't stop. Heh. He was sure he heard a Fire Nation soldier calling him and his friends that at one point.

The Meddling Monk's Tent

"We don't know what those are, they... they just showed up." Clara said, as the Doctor turned around, staring at the back of the tent. "I thought they were a part of this world, but everything felt so out of place... and I couldn't ask the Doctor, what with how he is now."

The Doctor's ears perked up, and he stared at the ceiling, just as Urza entered the tent. "We've got trouble, coming straight at us." He rubbed his hands, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a golden metallic device with a green light on top. Pointing it at the sky, he pressed a button, and the device emitted a low whirr. After a while, he brought the device closer to his eyes, staring straight into the light. "Snow. Snow on the ceiling. Could be making this up, it's just a screwdriver, after all."

"Hold on, what—" Clara stepped in front of Nerile. "Okay, you... whoever you are, back off. You're not hurting the Doctor, okay?" She raised a finger and glared at everyone around her. "Any of you get any close to him, and I'll... I'll do something you'll regret for the rest of your life."

Loki stared down at Clara, then at Nerile. "We need the Doctor, and you are going to stand in our way." He rubbed his chin, as the Doctor sniffed the tent walls, murmuring the word 'spirits'. "I wonder... who's going to make the first move in this imminent battle?"

Republic City Waste Disposal Unit

Huayi Zhe's face slowly melted into a frown as not one, but several people walked out of that swirling blue light. Yin Moh's face... well, it had the biggest smile in the world. "Spirits." Huayi muttered, eyes widened. "I can't believe it."

"I can believe it!" Yin Moh yelled out, giggling like a school child. "No more pursuing fake leads! We just found a group of one oh eighties! The existence of our section has just been validated!"

Huayi pulled back on her sleeves, revealing a gauntlet, similar to the ones that metalbending police officers wore. "Alright, all of you, not a single move! You are all intruding on Republic City property... heck, I think you're intruding on Republic City as a whole! Identify yourselves... immediately!"

"Don't treat 'em like that." Yin interrupted her, looking at the group in front of them. "I'm as excited as I can be, but... the last one oh eighty we met was a hostile. And this is not just one, but several. Let's be careful here! Don't want a repeat of the GI incident."

Huayi took a deep breath, as Yin pulled back his sleeves, revealing his own gauntlet- except his was colored red. "Identify yourselves... and explain how did you people get here. If everything's okay, if you guys aren't hostile- call Chief Beifong-" She added to Yin, who walked back to his car, still pointing the gauntlet at them. "Then everything will work out fine. But we'll need your full and uncontested cooperation. Any sudden movement will be interpreted as a sign of aggression."

edited 29th Sep '14 7:19:30 AM by stratofarius

Magic, Republic City Waste Disposal

Joseph Joestar was now Extra Confused.

After landing in an area that smelled like ass, he was suddenly confronted by a group of... what appeared to be some strange police group?

He was really tempted to kick their asses. Really tempted. You could even see his cheek twitch in anticipation. But, he wasn't sure what that gauntlet would do, and whether these people were even hostile at all. So, for once, he cooperated, raising his hands in the air slow and deliberately.

But not without some answers.

"Listen! I don't know how I got in some shitty sewer! And I don't know who you are, or what an one oh eighty even is! I want answers, and soon! If I get my answers, and if I like them, then maybe I'll tell you my name."

edited 29th Sep '14 7:32:14 AM by trip

Team Magic — Republic City Waste Disposal Unit

Beifong? Was he in China? The name certainly sounded Chinese to Hanzō. The title sounded interesting, too — “chief”? The first thought that passed through the Ninja's mind was of a tribe of barbarians, but the couple that were blabbering at him and the rest of the rag-tag group he seemed to be a part of wore clothes of a higher quality than those of barbarians (even if they were covered in stinky sludge at the moment), their speech was surprisingly comprehensible, and they weren't hairy enough.
The request of identification made Hanzō surmise that the duo were probably officials of some sort — that is, the sort of people that made Ninjas' work harder. Identifying himself was out of the question, then, but it was obvious that some answer must be given or the jittery officials might start a fight.
He opened his mouth but the man that complained about the stench but a moment ago beat him to the punch. The Ninja's mouth curled in disgust directed at the man's foul mouth and general brashness.
“The shadows awaken,” he said cryptically and bowed, hands together. While the gesture seemed innocent, it was also a position from which Hanzō could assume a battle stance quickly or form the hand-signs required for his Ninja magic without moving his hands.

Science

-The orks emit a roar and a quadruple squeak of triumph respectively as the enemy flees before their uncontested might. They continue chasing after them, both shooting and trying to catch the spirits, the mekboos laughing madly as he fires grenade after grenade into their midst.-

WAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Magic

-Iroh turns around to see he is not alone. Several other extremely outlandish-looking people including what appears to be an Earthbender with a much-improved version of their signature armor appear to have been dropped in as well.-

Republic city? No place I ever heard of... And Bei Fong? Have I heard that somewhere?

-Still, best not to aggravate these people or reveal his true identity. The chances of there being a White Lotus member in their organization are too remote to play that particular trump card.-

I am... Mushi, a refugee from the Earth Kingdom. I do not know how I was brought here, as I was escaping the Fire Nation at the time, or who these people are.

edited 29th Sep '14 10:06:42 AM by Chabal2

Chaika (Magic) - Republic City Waste Disposal Unit

After spending several several seconds standing back up, Chaika was greeted... by a particularly aggressive woman with a gauntlet. Her instinctive reaction was to hide behind her coffin, and peep from behind it. The intervention of the seemingly more easy-going man, however, managed to calm her down enough for her to answer to him.

"Name, Chaika Trabant. Traveller. Objective, Delsorant City. Not hostile. Please, no attacking."

She still kept glancing around, wary of all the people around her. The current general mood didn't seem very good, so she needed to pay aattention to everyone else, and be prepared to run away if she had to.

Science, Snowstorm

Gavrill lashed out at the spirits near Icarax the moment they were drained, seeking to rip them to shreds.

Magic, Republic City Waste Disposal

Gough turned in the direction of the questioning voices, still being careful not to make any sudden movements that could be seen as threatening.

"I am called Gough. Understand that I mean to cause no harm. But I cannot tell you how I came to be in this place, or where this place is. The name of this city is not known to me. I had hoped that thou could enlighten me."

"AHHH!" Maria screamed fell to her knees as the the darkness of the spirits began infecting Seiryuu who was now trying to actually fight them off by instinct but failing because there were far too many. Maria, however, tried to hold off on dispelling Seiryuu as long as she could and block out the pain since she was getting a vision... A massive tree, almost divine in origin. As the corrupting darkness spread over Seiryuu, Maria attempted to dispel her spirit. She could not risk continuing to fight these spirits with her own.

"That was a bit too explosive, hmm..." B.B. Hood looked at the crater, frowning a bit in thought but turned to Don. "You alright, Don?"

There were honestly still people who couldn't recognise a Doctor Light Number on sight? Hmm.

And a city he'd never heard of, to which he'd arrived through a portal, and which had a suspiciously low-tech look about it?

"Ugh, I've been caught up in another inter-dimensional mess, haven't I?" The robot grumbled quietly.

Fine then, he'd just make do. Best to start with introducing himself to the humans, who appeared to be government agents of some sort. Excellent.

"I am Doctor Light Number Zero-Zero-Eight, Elec Man, a Robot Master designed for power plant management. I do not know how or why I am here, but I assure you I mean no harm unless you do."

Urza stepped forward to answer Loki's question. He didn't recognize the god, or any of those standing near him, as members of their rivals, but he did understand that the strange man muttering to himself was likely the owner of the place and the person the shaman required. Also, someone who might know something about the mysteries surrounding everything here.

"If you do not step aside, I will," he said. "I have business with this man, on behalf of the chieftain of this city and I will not see him threatened by you. Any of you."

edited 30th Sep '14 1:04:44 AM by RedCedar

"I'm fine!" Donatello mumbled, his head stuck inside the snow, after the blast sent him tumbling forward. "May have frozen my shell off, but I'm fine. Really." He winced a little once he moved his legs. "Are we winning the battle?"

Stopping the closest she could get to the festival grounds, Toph brushed some of the snow away from the ground, needing all her concentration for this. Stomping her feet, she let out a single breath before raising both hands, a rock wall being erected between the festival and the incoming spirits, as tall as the tallest spirit that Toph had sensed. Of course, the rock wouldn't cover the entire city, but hopefully this provided an obstacle for the now corporeal spirits.

Rayman watched as in surprise as, in response to his light attacks and Icarax's shadow powers, the massive dark bear spirit split into several adorable, harmless little bear spirits, then disappeared. These "monsters" were actually innocent spirits who had been corrupted by darkness!

It was then that Rayman heard a familiar sounding scream. Turning his head, he watched in horror as Maria screamed in pain as Seiryuu was being corrupted by dark spirits. "Don't worry, Maria!" Rayman shouted, before zipping off in her direction. Swooping down from above, Rayman fired at the dark spirits harming Maria, trying to purify them and free Seiryuu. "I've got you covered!"

edited 30th Sep '14 12:44:55 PM by Dezmo

Team Science, Republic City
"Multiple humans. Several other species. Human city with low-level industrial capability. Time travel? Highly improbable. Existence of extra-terrestial forces known at this stage. Interesting. Not time travel."

"Parallel universe. Multiple. Not natural phenomena, brought here by forces unknown. Interesting. Technology level of forces unknown vastly beyond home universe's. Problematic."

"Identity. Ah. Doctor Mordin Solus. Professor Mordin Solus. Either applicable."

Language barrier overcome. Omnitool not source of transmissions. Forces unknown wish us to communicate. Interesting.

B.B. Hood raised an eyebrow at Donatello and looked around the battlefield.

"It..." B.B. Hood tilted her head. "Well, our team is holding steady, but the other team isn't doing that well, save for the limbless one."

B.B. Hood frowned a bit... Other than Icarax who seemed to be draining the darkness from the spirits and Rayman who was purifying them, the only ones who had success were... Mistral, the human trapped in computer code; Labrys, the android; and... well, herself when using explosives.

"I..." B.B. Hood suggested to Don. "Think you can whip up something that could theoretically contain spirits?"

Sam took off with a nod of acknowledgement and a smile, Murasama flying back into the sheath for a moment as he approached. He was already closing by the time the right-hand head noticed him, and by the time it made an instinctive lunge he was already rolling underneath.

He came out trailing snow on the far side between the neck and right foreleg, a clear opening in the thing's defences, the tip of his ponytail lightly brushing against its fur as he surfaced. Turning as he straightened up, Sam planted his feet firmly in the snow, left hand slipping around his sword's sheath while the right hovered above the handle - his positioning was causal but at the same time quietly calculated, something eyeballed to impossible precision.

At its heart, this quickdraw stance was the essence of the Rodrigues Murdering Sword Style, at least as it survived in Sam. Centuries of family discipline honed to a razor's edge in youth, but then blended and warped during a pilgrimage across the globe, introduced to mindgames through bitter experience, until eventually only the barest traces of the original elements were still visible, almost entirely eclipsed by a complex web of new additions. Until, as if to mirror its user, Japan played only a cameo role in its heritage.

And in one motion, he lunged. His grip on the sheath grew tighter as he squeezed the trigger, propelling Murasama into a waiting hand.

As always, Sam was smiling.

"Oh, we need him? So, what, is he going to explain everything? Has he got Sifuri in his coat? Do we need him to punch you again? Look at him, Loki. He's sniffing the fucking walls." She points with her spear, a bad habit nobody's ever bothered to try and break, and comes within about half a foot of giving Clara a crash course in trepanning. "You can see that, right? I don't know about you, and I don't care, but where I come from that kind of madness is catching. Or it just stabs you when you're not looking. I'm not saying we have to kill him or anything, not if you're going to cry about it, I just don't reckon we should give him the chance."

Urza's warning breaks the moment, Nerile wheeling around into a glare that quickly loses momentum; those robes are too garish for him to be a novice, even in the here and now with all the colours muted and the patterns turned incognito, and more pressingly, there's something in his gaze that makes provocation feel like the last mistake she'll ever make. It's a subtle something, but it's there, something communicated through the high arch of his eyebrows and the deeper lines on his cheeks, the steel glinting in his eyes. Strength shines through, a kind of strength with no relation to the body.

Pretending she hasn't noticed her position on the food chain, Nerile leaves it a second before backing down. There's a moment of tense silence, broken only by the quiet sound of the Doctor's curious nostrils, before she breaks his gaze and shifts to one side.

"Oh? Go on, then. Have fun trying to get any sense out of the fucker."

edited 30th Sep '14 3:06:57 PM by TheMalignancy

"You're asking me if I have devised a method of capturing enemies I have been fighting for approximately three minutes?!" Donatello asked, glowering at Hood, before smirking. "Yeah. I have!" He looked down, and started writing on the ground. "Now, I'm going off on the assumption these spirits are nothing more than energy beings. Somehow, they found the right... let's say, frequency. A frequency in which they can hit us but we can't hit them."

"Now, knowing Icarax's area of expertise, I'd wager a guess that what we're fighting against are corrupted energy beings. Imagine a motor being fed the wrong kind of fuel. It can work, but it won't work as well as it would with the kind of fuel it was built to handle. That's what making them hostile, and Icarax can channel that energy and turn them back into their normal forms."

During this enunciation, he was also scribbling in the snow, completely focused on it. "But as we can see, the energy beings that aren't close enough don't get turned back. Instead, they merely become corporeal for a moment. Icarax's hold on them isn't strong enough to extract the corruptive energy, but it's strong enough to fluctuate the frequency and cause them to enter a state in which we can hit them."

"Therefore, if we want to capture these spirits, we'll have to work out a method of fluctuating their frequency before working out how to capture them. For the latter part, some kind of containment unit will work, perhaps a device that is already created to store energy modified to store a different kind of energy. If I was in my workshop, I could whip up a device in no time, but we don't exactly have a lot of tools." He pulled out his T-Pod. "I could make some rudimentary conversions to the T-Pod, change the battery and make it store the kind of energy these spirits are made of. But for the first part of our plan, I'm gonna need something that can produce a lot of energy..." He leaned on the snow pod. "Be it electric energy or... motion... energy..."

Snapping his fingers, Donatello smiled, grabbing Hood by her shoulders. "I need sharp tools that I can use to cut things apart, something I can use to weld them back together, and something I can use to deal with screws!" He kneeled on the snow. "I'm also gonna need some backup! I'm going to essentially turn the motor into... into a ghostbusting machine!" The turtle squeed. "Oh, this is like a dream come true!"

edited 30th Sep '14 4:58:08 PM by TheBigBean

The Snowstorm

Gavrill's attack successfully hit the spirits, slashing them into pieces... but unlike the spirits which had their darkness removed, these ones didn't so much dissipate and disappear as they slowly died. Their unearthly aura slowly faded away, their eyes turning blank and vacant, as their pieces fluttered to the ground like paper, before being blown away by the wind.

"What are you doing?!" Tenzin exclaimed, his jaw on the floor after that display. "What did you just do to that spirit?!"

Rayman's attack stopped the dark spirits just as their lines of corruption were spreading through Seiryuu's body, his aura shifting to a corrupted one, his eyes being replaced by those of complete hostility and loyalty to a single mission... said corruption went away with the dark spirits purified by Rayman, freeing Maria to dispel her spirit and regain her mental stability.

Outside the Palace

The right-hand head followed, or at least tried to follow, Sam's movements, the scene playing out in quasi-slow motion, the head's micro-expressions shifting in time as it realized that it was about to be attacked. But these expressions weren't one of fear or despair, but rather ones of satisfaction and victory. For as Sam's sword swiftly cut through the white, luscious fur of the four-headed wolf spirit's neck, nothing came out. The cut remained there, an eerie visage into nothingness, until it seemed to bulge and bulge...

... until a stream, nay, a shower of purple bats flew out of the cut, flying next, past or right through Sam, not injuring him, but producing enough distraction for his eyes and ears to keep the swordsman occupied, if not for a second or two. The wolf spirit used that chance as its head turned to the side, attempting to bite down on one of Sam's arms. Sokka saw the result of his attack, also getting distracted by the display of colors and forms, allowing one of the wolf heads to almost bite down on his arm. Luckily, he managed to dodge it, shifting to the side, using the rhythm he had built for himself to speed up his retreat.

"Okay!" Sokka said once he was far enough from the wolf spirits. "Normal tactics... not going to work on this guy!"

The Meddling Monk's Tent

The moment Nerile stepped aside so that Urza could go after the Doctor, Loki's face twisted into one of restrained anger as the Doctor pushed past both him and Nerile, running over to Urza. "Planeswalker!" He yelled, a much more serious expression on his face. "Listen to me. Clock— clock is ticking— hnnng—" The Doctor bit his lower lips, his eyes darting all over the place as he clenched his fists, concentrating on the next few words. "The clock is ticking for us. The watchmaker— no, no, not that, not now..."

Panting, the Doctor looked up at Urza. "There is trouble. Your leftovers. Ungrateful people... eating the leftovers. We need to take care of the trouble... two fronts. Not now. Information!" He grabbed Urza by his shirt, bringing him closer. "Spirits. Coming here, fast, coming here, strong. Need to be stopped, need to be contained, need to be sent back to Spirit World. Do it, do that, do that before they get to me. After that, find me. Trouble... your trouble, two fronts— three fronts. We take care of it together."

"Doctor!" Clara said, a smile appearing on her- until then weary- lips. "You're making sense again."

"Yes, yes, Ace, but the polarity of the reserve won't work." The Doctor said, crossing his arms and scratching his chin, before going back to waving his sonic screwdriver at the tent walls with the smile of a child.

Republic City Waste Disposal

"Okay, that's, uh," Huayi sighed again, visibly distressed by the entire operation. "That's a lot of answers. A lot of those are good, a lot of those are bad. Know it seems you guys don't know where you came from... which helps a lot, believe it or not. A lot of one oh eighties don't know where they come from, then again, that's usually because they're drunk liar." She rolled down her sleeves, grumbling. "An one oh eighty is the designation used for starspawn... creatures out of this world."

"Sorry, did you say refugee from the Earth Kingdom?" Yin asked out loud, a phone held up to his ear. "I don't think those are a thing anymore. Haven't been a thing for the past seventy years."

"Sir, we're going to need you to tell us the truth." Huayi told Iroh, reaching into her jacket and pulling out a notepad, scribbling down the names she had heard on it. "Right... following standard procedure. My name is Huayi Zhe." She pointed at herself with her pencil. "And that's Yin Moh." She pointed at the man on the phone, who had his back to the group as he was engaged in a conversation with someone. "We work for the Republic City Police Department... we protect that city over there," She pointed at the city in the distance. "From people like you. Officially, we're just cops. But unofficially, we've been assigned for the freak beat. Our job is to search for one oh eighties..." She looked up at Gough. "And keep them... away from the city. Is there a way for you to get smaller, sir?"

Yin walked over to Huayi's side. "Beifong's on her way with a squad." He told her, as she kept on staring up at Gough. "We're gonna have to ask you guys to be calm. This... this is actually the first time we're following protocol to the end. We've never had a real case- most times it was just guys in costumes..." He chuckled, wiping the sweat off his brow. "Wonderful day, wonderful day... "

"You people are going to be taken to a facility on the outskirts of the city... we can't have you hanging around the normal people." Huayi continued. "Once we get you folks there, we'll contact our especialist. First time we'll see the guy- or gal- actually. He'll decide what has to be done to you. Up until then, you're under our jurisdiction, and you're our prisoners."

"... in name only." Yin added, much to Huayi's chagrin.

SCIENCE TEAM HAS VAPOR FOR BRAINS (that means Republic City: Magic)

Joseph did not like those answers. He did, however, realize that he enjoyed living quite a lot, and he still didn't know what that gauntlet did. As much as he'd hate to do it, he's going to have to co-operate, even if just for a little.

But first, questions.

"... Alright then, what's this facility like, anyway? And what usually happens to Starspawn?"