Team Magic

A pale shadow lingered in between the hallways connecting the current meeting place to the other such chambers on base, listening ever so quietly to the details given by the great being. This man was eerily quiet and still, almost statuesque in fact. All movements was controlled to such a degree that if it wasn't for the fact that the slight rise and fall of the chest happened, the long-haired man would have been thought of as something as a life size figure. He was too unnatural, too mechanical and precise to be human despite his appearance. Stock still and motionless save for the most minute of breathing, his presence could easily be described as artificial and unnatural.

This man was Colonel Mirror, traitor to the Balbooran Empire. He was also a cyborg engineered to be the perfect weapon by his own government, sacrificing humanity and life expectancy for drastically increased powers that no flesh and blood human from his world could ever hope to achieve. The majority of his organs had been replaced with machine counterparts, his bones steel and muscles artificial polymers. Oil and various other suspect fluids pumped themselves through his body along with his blood, an uneasy alliance between flesh and metal.

He was a being whose life was geared towards tragedy, as all events conspired against former man known as Mirror. Betrayal, insanity, despair, corruption, and violence trailed behind his each and every step- ever ready to make the man even more miserable than previous. He was a monster who gave up and relished in being a bloodthirsty beast who bared its fangs at the world until he tamed by the innocent soul of a young boy. The man who was feral regained his lost humanity, though not even that was enough to prevent the loss of the boy. And thus Mirror became alone once more.

By all rights, the stillness of death should have been his destination. And yet, he was still existing. Morbid thoughts of a scrapped weapon being raised and rebuilt flashed through the military dressed machine-man, a mirthless chuckle emanating from his stiff lips. "I cannot control my own death even. How droll..." His life was brought back into being by the Nomad, and he instantly thought of the Memory Collector, who was not unlike the mysterious benefactor he was listening to. Beings with absolute power... How tiny and insignificant he felt compared to them. How could he not feel resentment towards those who do whatever they wanted and callously borrow beings such as his fellow team members.

For a brief moment, he expected the urges to return. The program that those bastard scientists installed within him that turned him into a beast and a weapon, one that killed off friends as well as enemies. And yet the dark feelings never came. The lack of blood lust was enough to give the man a bit more hope, making him thoroughly cynical to very jaded but cautiously optimistic.

At the very least, he could be free to think and do as he liked within this period of borrowed time. "...A perfect opportunity to repent for my many sins..." Mirror's hands clenched, the sound of grinding steel emanating from his limbs. "Though redemption will never come, at the very least... this life can be used for others one more time." His gaze fell upon the younger members, and the formerly hardened gaze softened as he was reminded of the boy. "Yes... It is worth it."

Hey this first person thing worked out for icarax, figured I'd give it a try. His original stories in are first person anyway so it fits well

-Ω-

"...So, let me be helpful and just recap for everyone here; the one time that our glorious leader DOESN'T hide behind a screen, he comes down and tells us to prepare for new and horrible enemies while not providing any information on what kind of abilities they'll have and thus ensuring that we have no idea what to train for" It wasn't hard to guess that I was bitter, if the tone of my voice didn't clue anyone in. I had sounded that way a lot lately. I swear I was going to turn into a wrinkled old man by the end of this.

He (She? If it wasn't for the voice, I'd believe it was a girl. Olympus knows only girls could be this confusing) was as enigmatic as ever. Even when the space god was trying to be up front, he was still extremely cryptic; this whole thing still stunk like Hades's armpits, still providing absolutely zero reason to trust him. Maybe I should have been grateful for the heads up he was bringing us, but I couldn't bring myself to feel anything but hacked.

I blew out a breath. Well, if I was a monkey stuck in a cage with a heated floor, then guess I had no choice but to dance. For now.

I glanced back at these new guys — and UP for one of them (being on a team with a giant? I guess we finally look imposing, at least). Other's, on the other hand, were unfortunately less than intimidating. My eyes widened as I realized there was even a scared little girl among our ranks now! The poor thing was already surrounded by my, ah, coworkers, but it sure didn't make me feel any better about her being here.

Deep breaths...I counted to ten in my head to keep from saying some rather uncouth things towards our 'employer'. Kids and civilians thrown into a multiversal war. Good gods...I really, really hoped I got the chance to punch that nomad in the jaw before things were all said and done.

Besides that there were those people I had met briefly in the library, a couple people who I saw in Republic city so seemed to have 'joined' while I was gone, and a rather odd woman who claimed she was more than twice my own Mother's age. Not that I'd be one to judge based off appearance, I guess. All in all, most looked capable enough — and very lost, with only three days to get acclimated and prepared for what lies ahead. Oh dear. I didn't want to think about how many stress induced headaches I was probably likely to feel over our training days.

"Three days, a bunch of new people, and an unknown enemy to prepare for..." I muttered, thinking. For people like me who were already well trained this wouldn't be too hard, but for anyone else this was going to be hectic. "Good question, isn't it", I noted at the kindly girl who had introduced herself as Estelle. "Alright, you all heard what's going on — we've been imprisoned by a space god and in three days we're going off on a mission to gods knows where to fight gods don't-know-what. First off, if anyone has never fought before...well, make yourself known quick. Same for anyone who isn't really trained to fight; time is precious here and we should probably start by figuring out who's going to have it worst and needs the most attention. Some of you will probably elect to stay on the sidelines for safety, but even then it won't hurt to get some training over the next few days."

"For everyone who is already trained well enough..." I frowned and glanced over at our big red friend. "Hey, Atty, got any good ideas?" Somehow I doubted working on my archery for the hundredth thousandth time was going to help me get ready.

"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016

-Iroh slowly shakes his head.-

Three days? That is not nearly enough. Even the Avatar would not manage that.

-Still, it seems obvious that there is no getting out of this situation, and so they can only make the best out of what they have. Iroh sighs, then takes his nephew's shoulder.-

Come, Prince Zuko. We have little time.

Sasuke

"Only a few days for rest and training exercises, huh?" Sasuke commented after their benefactor left them. "I wish he wasn't as cryptic as Sandayu."

The ninja ranger then looked around to see what everyone else was doing before he got down on the floor and went for a seiza position.

I need some time to relax and meditate. When Sasuke was now concentrating, he placed his hands on a Monkey hand pose.

---

Sky

"About time we all get a break." Sky murmured when their team benefactor left them. He decided that there was no choice, but to rest and train up for the next big one.

For starters, he went off to see if Urza was not busy.

Urza shook his head at Sokka's question.

"Unless the laws of reality have shifted since we were here last-for which I will certainly check-no, the time we have is all that we have and it will have to suffice."

Then he glanced over to Hood.

"And I am as well aware of that as you. There are steps we might be able to take if my latest project is successful, and I am collaborating with the construct-" He nodded at Icarax, "-upon something more long-term. For now I will simply say that I am trying to improve upon my greatest artifact. You have no knowledge of artifice, so unless you have a powerful magical or technological artifact you have not revealed, that is all you need to know. And if you are not interested in improving your equipment or combined unit tactics, there is no point to your interruption."

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao Tzu

Team Magic, Maria

"We shall have to work hard," Maria smiled now that Chaika was calmed down. "We should begin by explaining what we each can do so we can plan a good training regiment for the group and be assigned roles in what is to come."

---

Team Science, B.B. Hood

"F-Fine, improve my equipment and combined unit tactics, do whatever you want," B.B. Hood stuttered at Urza, clutching her chest as she remembered her impalement on the world prior to Korra's. "F-For all we know, we could be facing a dozen Sargons, and I really didn't like the fight with the one."

edited 26th Jun '15 1:02:40 AM by GameGuruGG

Wizard Needs Food Badly

Team Magic

"I've got experience as a military instructor," Riesbyfe declared, "I can train you lot in hand-to-hand, some weapons, and general fitness."

"And stringed instruments," she added, chuckling as if that had been in any way funny somehow.

edited 26th Jun '15 9:37:55 AM by RhymeAndTreason

Sokka was taken aback by the sudden appearance of Icarax and a wooden sword.

"I mean, if that's what you want... to give this training session a big start, then, sure. Let's do that." Sokka unsheathed his sword, tapping it against Icarax's wooden sword before taking a step back. "I can handle whatever you throw at me."

---

Three days later

So Sokka might have been wrong.

Last time, the training was rough, but dear spirits it was not this rough. Once more, he slept, ate and trained in the slow time zone, except instead of just Sam and Urza barking at him increasingly more demanding exercises, but this time Icarax had joined the fray. And Icarax had no concept of what a human could do, or even worse, a concept of rest. Many times had Sokka crawled into his sleeping bag, hidden away from Sam and Urza, only for Icarax to literally kick him until he woke up.

Thankfully, the slow time zone turned the three days into twenty one days. It was easy to keep it a secret, just pop it out here and there and say hello to everyone else. It wasn't like Sokka didn't want anyone else to have access to this miraculous time-extending zone, spirits know everyone needed it, but... well... Sokka needed it more. Over the past few missions, the boy could feel how he was slowly sliding into a semi-leadership position. He was sure he couldn't make people like Icarax or Urza follow his orders, oh no, those were mountains too high to climb. But there was a mountain he was working on, one that was showing many results: Gavrill.

Sokka felt that if he managed to earn Gavrill's respect to the point where she would listen to his ideas instead of just flipping him off and telling him to do something incredibly naughty with himself, then that would be enough to convince the others to listen to him. The problem was: they had no leader. There was no self-appointed leading player, someone who could at least point them in the right direction. The other team had Atrocitus, who acted like that kind of person (to varying degrees of success from what Sokka had managed to gleam). Sokka couldn't be Atrocitus, but at least he could try to achieve that same kind of aura.

Which meant training, training and even more training. Those short fifteen minute breaks to go have lunch with Hood were gone. Now they were occupied by capoeira lessons with Sam, or trying to wrap his head around the latest artifice concept with Urza, or taking part in a sparring match that would eventually devolve into Icarax chasing him around and coming this close to cutting his arm off. He had the bandages to prove it. In fact, he had many bandages. Sokka tried to pass them as a cool stylistic choice, but everytime he walked he was reminded of the day he tried to sneak up behind Icarax.

"Three days!" Sokka yelled, stepping out of the slow-time zone, bag on his back, legs about to give up and let the upper body fall to the ground. "Three days in the bag. Which means our mission should be starting soon." He said, glancing at the rising sun in the distance- he was still amazed at the day and light cycle this place had- and sighing. "Which means we're about to face the one enemy that made our employers come out of hiding."

TEAM MAGIC, PRE-TIMESKIP

"As Maria said, we shall learn each others' abilities, both strengths and weaknesses," Atrocitus said, not only to Armani but to the rest of the group as well. "Then we shall spar. We shall fight simulations. Anyone of you who believe you are at the pinnacle of your abilities will be proven dead wrong. We all have a variety of gifts at our disposal that something will always be the one that will cripple you. We will learn to cover our own weaknesses as well each others and expand our limits. Most importantly, we will bring up those among who have the least experience in outright combat." With this he glanced over at Queen Elsa.

"I too will train myself", he continued. "If any of you are confident enough in your abilities, I volunteer myself as the target. I have experienced pain and suffering beyond that of many mortals. If it merely a matter of whether my body can keep up with the pain. I will not tolerate from any of you holding back."

"We only have three days to train. Let us all make it count." He then charged up the Red, creating a protective Red Light aura around himself and causing the immediate area around him to go up several degrees in temperature. "Effective immediately......"

-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-

TEAM MAGIC, THREE DAYS LATER

Atrocitus spent the next three days observing the training regimines of the rest of the team, either just watching them train or providing his own advice, much of it blunt yet helpful and noncondescending. The greatest lesson he tried to instill into the group is to always be prepared for attack, which he did by interrupting the training of the others by randomly attacking them in full nonlethal force. Of course he only did this while they were training and not during rest periods, as doing so would be counterproductive, but he at least made sure to still think about the possibility of happening everytime. He also made sure the group did not take extended break periods or otherwise slack off. Not having the need for sustinence or to sleep helped in keeping everyone on schedule.

When facing against individual members in sparring sessions, Atrocitus was brutal as both a physical force and a mental one, employing subtle mind games to throw opponents off. This forced his quarry to defend themselves on two simultaneous fronts of mind and body. If they lost, Atrocitus gave the same blunt, brutal, yet helpful advice as before. The Red Lantern held back, obviously, making sure to be nonlethal or at the very least not injure them heavily, his drive to win these spar encounters often forced his opponents to attack him with increasing lethality. Atrocitus pushed himself to tank even the most powerful of these attacks, increasingly his own tolerance in process. He would sometimes outright tell his team members to just attack him with everything they got to test himself.

Those who observed the Red Lantern would find it very noticeable that he was actually going easy on Elsa, Chaika, and Sheik/Zelda. The Queen of Arendelle in particular the Red Lantern was paying the most attention in her development. It was also noticeable that Loki was the only person whom Atrocitus was outright malicious to, often going out of his way to be particularly nasty towards the Trickster God.

When not observing and/or directly involving himself with the other members of Team Magic, Atrocitus busied himself with improving his constructs. The improvement done in three days was remarkable: He could now created full replica constructs of actual people and objects, the clearer and less fuzzy models being those he subconsciously had some strong emotional attachment to. These special constructs looked like clear, red statues of gelatinous ice of the subject he tried to create, quality of which rivaled even the best Green Lantern constructs.

The three day period was now over. Now to see if the training had paid off......

-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-

TEAM SCIENCE, THREE DAYS LATER

Jack basically spent this time going around to as many of the other members of Team Science and asked them to spar with him. If they accepted, the Chaser treated these fights as all good fun, even when the fight escalated a bit. He managed to pick up a couple of quick pointers and tips from those he sparred against, and even managed to tweak his own fighting style of bit to accomadate the greater variety of opponments. His favorite sparring partner thus far had to be Bigrench, mostly because the big guy basically enjoyed a good fistfight almost even more than Jack did. Plus, he managed to give the ork a few pointers on how to fistfight somebody more strategically, not caring whether the advice stuck or not.

The only people he did not speak with about sparring were Icarax, Gavrill, and Sokka. Sokka because it seemed Icarax was seriously putting the poor kid through the ringer when he volunteered to be the water bender's new tutor; Icarax himself due to Sokka; and Gavrill he purposely avoided at all costs because he could not trust himself to not make a fight against her escalate to fatal levels.

Outside of fighting, that small glimpse of Urza's bluerpints got Jack's mind whirling enough to build himself a prototype engine to go with the Planeswalker's vehicle. He did not tell Urza, though. Wanted to concentrate on training first before showing off what he had. Might have the chance before the mission started.....

edited 27th Jun '15 4:10:04 PM by UdtheImp

DAMMIT MARK, STOP HOTTING HELPY!!

TEAM MAGIC, THREE DAYS LATER

Estelle had done a lot in her life. She had trained with the empire's best swordsmen. She had hiked through mountain ranges full of hostile creatures. Together with her friends she had been around her own world twice and was gearing up for another tour just before she was spirited off to this place. Bur this, this was something else.

Even though her own body was screaming out in agony she tried to smile through it all. She tried to encourage the others not to give up, even as she suffered along side them. And even went as far as to join Loki in his "training" regargless of what the Trickster thought of her.

By the end of it Estelle had taken her skill with a sword to new heights and even improved on her artes. Casting more powerful spells no longer tired our as quickly, probably a result of her just being in better shape. Along side that she had discovered a system of multi-casting for her weaker spells. While it did take as much energy as would casting the multiple times, it allowed her to rapid fire cast them with very short incantations.

And now those "three days" are up. Estelle was nervous and excited at the same time. She desperately wanted to see this new world but also dreaded what could reside there that forced them to undergo such training before hand. Either way, the princess was about to find out.

PM box is Closed, Indefinitely Friend Code: 3368-4181-6850

Team Science, Three Days Later

For the most part, Gavrill had kept herself isolated from the others at a considerable distance while they trained. This stemmed from both her general hatred and contempt for them, combined with not wanting them to know about her newest party trick for as long as possible. It wasn't something she'd really thought about before, as there was never much call for it back home. But she could think of a few interesting ways to take advantage of it here.

Making use of a large mirror produced by the bases' item-summoning properties, Gavrill focused her shape-changing abilities, feeling her very cells shift and ready themselves, and practiced for the final time. Her skin rippled and shifted, bones muscles and organs rearranged themselves, her hair was pulled into her head and changed color, her dials were withdrawn into her skull and concealed, her entire body shrunk and compressed itself, and she grunted with pain and exertion as every fiber in her body readjusted itself. Within a few seconds the spitting image of Korra was standing there. Then she shifted again, and B.B Hood was standing there. Then Jack. Then Loki. Then Sokka. Then Elsa. Then Maria. Then Toph. Then Bigrench.

With a sound like shredding meat she resumed her original shape, taking a few moments to admire herself. Why the fuck hadn't she thought of this before? It certainly wasn't easy, that was for sure. Compressing yourself into a smaller shape was pretty uncomfortable, and maintaining that shape necessitated intense concentration and willpower, but she felt sure it would be worth it in the end. This had all sorts of potential. It did have limits, however. Inorganic beings like Icarax were out of the question, and clothes were definitely going to be a problem. She couldn't shift those. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

Fletcher - Three Days Later

Fletcher had spent the three days avoiding any and all training whatsoever, and as a result, Atrocitus. It was pretty easy for a teleporter.

He had popped in from time to time, tossing out advice and then leaving before Atrocitus could catch him. He might not need it, but other people did.

And he didn't need it. He could teleport, and he could swing a bat. That was all he needed. He'd trained his abilities to the best they could be. Anything else was just a waste of time.

He hit, he ran, he hit again. Hand-to-hand lost him teleportation. Bats bounced. Axes could be dropped. Guns...
He didn't want to go anywhere near guns.
At the end of the three days, Fletcher was in the middle of the forest, sitting on a sturdy tree branch, and reading a young adult novel. Something about two kids traveling the multiverse, armoured talking polar bears, and the evils of organized religion.

---

Mordin Solus - Three Days Later

It had taken him about ten minutes, but Mordin had figured out how to work the red light.

From that point on, he was unstoppable.

The challenge was great: three days to outfit himself to stop something of multiverse ending proportions.
The resources were literally infinite.

The lab he had created was at the pinnacle of his universe's technology. The lab Cerberus has provided paled in comparison, and even the STG would be jealous. Multiple micro-manufactures hummed along, pumping out disposable lithium heatsinks, heavy weapon ammunition, and several different makes and models of weaponry.

Speaking of weaponry, multiple tables had those makes and models laid out in a makeshift armory, ranging from pistols to weaponry usually used against vehicles (or Krogan).

Collected in cases along a table also lay several hardsuits. Mordin had remotely taken measurements and manufactured them, but nobody had seemed interested. Maybe later.

Mordin, at the moment, was in the middle of this entire mess, a gun on either hip. After making so much use of the red light, now was the time where he was trying to figure out how it works. Energy-to-matter conversion was still an unknown technology in his universe, and it's invention could see the elimination of poverty all together.

It would also see the elimination of all logistical needs in the Reaper War. If they could flood the battlefield with cheap and powerful weapons, ones that could even fell the Reapers, the war would be over within months. A victory.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

Ryuko - Pre-Time Skip

"Well that settles that..." Ryuko said as she saw Mbili disappear. She looked down at Senketsu, shrugged and continued walking over to her area. Senketsu looked over at Ryuko, puzzled at her walking away.

   You're not gonna begin training for our upcoming mission, Ryuko...?    Senketsu asked while Ryuko walked away. She yawned in response to him. "We got three days right? I got time. Besides, I did say we'll be ready in one right?" she answered with another yawn. "Also, that mission took a lot out of me..." she added as she went over to her area to rest. Senketsu sighed at her response.

Three Days Later

Of the three days the group had to train, Ryuko spent the bulk of the three days keeping to herself. Only coming out in occasion to look at the others as they trained, she barely got any training of her own. In fact, she spent the majority of her time in her room, sleeping off the effects from the events in the Southern Water Tribe and Republic City. Only when being berated by Senketsu was she was able to train by herself.

With the three days over, Ryuko stretched her neck and rolled over her shoulders as she walked over to the main lobby of the base, giving a loud exhale and yawn. "That was a nice three day rest, don't you say Senketsu? she asked as he rolled his eyes.

"   Considering you barely did train these past three days, I would say it was a nice rest...    he answered Ryuko.    Our mission is about to start. You sure you're ready Ryuko?    he asked as she brandished her scissor blade and slung it over her shoulder. "Don't worry Senketsu. I think we got a handle of this job..." Ryuko answered back.

Your works are one trope short.

Three days later

-Icarax-

Stepping out of Urza's temporal stagnation dimension, I squinted at the rising sun. Makuta were supposed to hate the light, yearn for darkness...I scoffed. Such ideas were meant for the weak. The sun could do no harm to me and thus I allowed myself it's presence in the full and in doing so I found that, strangely, I came to approve of it. After all, the strong walk openly during the day while the weak scurry in the darkness.

Idly, I flexed my arm even as Sokka dragged himself out after me. For the past three days I had dedicated myself to the training of this mammal and though it had come with its set of annoyances, I found the entire experience not a complete waste of time.

Amusing in fact.

The human body was indeed quite the biological construct. Its ability to heal, rest and regain vigor in just 3 hours of rest was to be honest, above what I had imagined for such a frail looking creature. Looking at the boy slumped on the ground, I felt my eyes narrow ever so slightly- despite everything he was still soft.

But he was not as pathetic as he had seemed. I had learnt that first hand on the first day when we crossed swords. He was hopelessly outclassed and as I held my wooden sword against his neck for the fiftieth time, I saw the realization sink in that he would never even lay a scratch on me. But his spirit broke not. 'Again' he had shouted and charged at me, brandishing his 'space sword'. This time he finally avoided my first feint and our blades met.

I remember being unable to wipe the smile off my face.

That was how our first lesson began.

"Remember, if you draw your sword, you will fight to win. No matter against what, no matter against who- if you draw your blade from its sheath to fight, you will fight to win. Otherwise you are but a gnat to be stepped on, not even worthy to feel the edge of my blade."

...

He had learned that first lesson the hard way; but after that, he was better. His sword skills improved- the unneeded movements were all but eliminated from his fighting style till finally, I allowed him to face me in another sparring match.

He lasted all of 25 seconds, 15 seconds more than the last time.

I guess it was finally time to give him something he had earned.

Striding up to him, I didn't bother hauling him to his feet. I made an exception and bent down. Opening the compartment in my leg, I retrieved from it the sword I had forged three days prior.

"Sokka of the water tribe. Since you have survived the last three days of training and in recognition of your growth in the way of the sword, accept this blade into your arsenal."

I drew the sword from it's sheath and it's keen edges blazed with a silver fire as it caught the rays of the rising sun.

"Forged of the mystery steel, unbreakable and never in need of sharpening, it will carve through any substance as if it were water. It will never fail you as long as your resolve lives."

Sheathing it once more, I placed the blade in front of him and stood up.

"You are as ready as three days of hell would allow."

---

-Elsa-

What did queens do after fatigue killing baths? They slept; Elsa herself would swear later that she had never had quite so refreshing a nap. When she awoke, she felt like morning itself and of course it just so happened that it was the morning of the second day. It was sometime after her second cup of hot chocolate in the morning that Elsa decided that a stroll through the woods was a good idea.

She had never made a more serious blunder in her life.

First the red mist had rolled over her and then she felt the uncomfortable heat. By the time she realized that leaving was an extremely good idea, Atrocitus was stomping over to collect his latest student.

"I regret..." She remembered saying to herself as she was led to the great training arena the red lantern had prepared.

"I regret taking a stroll today."

...

Training was harsh and for one who had never participated in such an activity, it was doubly taxing. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew the demon was actually doing his best to make the exercises easier for her. However, it mattered not, by the time the third day rolled around, Elsa was fainting with fatigue.

She was also quite well acquainted with two others of royal blood. One Shieka and one Chaika. Different though they were, the fact that they were all royal made speaking to them that much simpler.

Currently, Arendelle's long suffering monarch was slumped against frozen tree stump fast asleep. The morning sun disturbed her not as her body rested. Three hellish days had finally past but it had not been in vain.

Atrocitus would have realized after Elsa summoned a blizzard into the training pits. The so called 'ice queen' was more like the personification of winter than just a girl with ice magic.

—Just a few minutes into the timeskip, the Armani and Loki cross scene commences!—

Loki wasn't one for flattery, but he deserved a great big hand after that. Dismantling the bomb that was Nerile required precision that very few possessed, and he had done so with grace and pomp (two things very few possessed too). Sitting in the rocking chair he had made for himself in the long week they had spent before visiting that dreadful, spiritual world, Loki resumed reading one of the books he had stumbled upon in the library's section of Midgardian fiction, content to spend the next three days in complete, calming silence.

The moonlight appearing out of the corner of his vision, however, was probably a sign that his peace was about to be disturbed. The boy rounding the corner to the section of the library he was in confirmed it.

Armani hadn't bothered disguising his presence, that much was certain. His mouth quirked up as he noted the man sitting in the chair. A bear's snarl would make for a more friendly smile than his was.

He glanced around, confirming that they were indeed alone.

"...Did you honestly think you were just going to be able to sit here unmolested", Armani noted dryly as he slid his narrowed eyes back to the trickster, "after your little stunts? One would almost think you believe me to be a cretin, and that we'd just forget about you."

"What a nice word. Unmolested." Loki repeated, smacking his lips together and tasting the air. "Has a sort of... odd feel to it. Then again, it must be because of its..." He raised an eyebrow, glancing at Armani over his book.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was talking to someone with a brain capable of forming, you know, thoughts?" Loki sighed and put the book in front of his face, shaking his head solemnly. "Alas, we can't have everything we want."

"I'm sure your wit would be very impressive indeed. If I was a five year old with a lower than average IQ on top of that. Sorry to disappoint. I'd say you should try harder, but since I'm pretty sure that's as eloquent as you can get, I'd feel simply horrible encouraging you in your doomed efforts."

Armani slowly walked around the resting god, hand clasped in front of himself; besides his circling motions, he seemed strangely relaxed. Oddly enough, when he passed by the bookshelf he stopped and pulled a text out himself, seeming to study it

"Are you trying to make me believe that you can read?" Loki scoffed, not even raising his eyes from his book. "Say what you're doing here, boy. I don't have all day."

"Keep trying, I'm sure one day your tongue will be as a dagger, cutting through my heart...Oops, not supposed to be encouraging you". He rolled his eyes.

"Whether you believe it or not, I did quite a bit of reading growing up. My uncle made sure that I dabbled in mythology of course. I can't say that stories involving you were a favorite of mine...", he snapped the volume shut, revealing it as a compilation of the mythical tales surrounding the trickster, "but I'm familiar enough."

He peered at Loki out of the corner of his eyes. "You were quite the trouble maker; you weren't the devil some people make you out to be based purely on the stories...but now that I've met the real thing, I see that your followers must have been quite eager to paint you in a white light. No one intelligent would trust you, and the rest of your clan wasn't stupid. Have you ever wondered why your father and fellow Aesir trusted you and kept you with them, despite your temperament? Family bonds run deep, of course, but a man like Odin would have been wise enough to know that you weren't to be kept in good faith."

"I'm sorry, how much is the session?" Loki interrupted Armani, browsing through his pocket, before looking up at him with a gentle smile. "Oh yes, this is not one. And you are not my psycho analyzer, not that I need one."

"Let me save you some time, boy." Armani turned to face him fully and raised an eyebrow as he became direct all of a sudden. Loki straightened his back and brushed his hair back. "I'm a bad apple. I lie, I cheat, I steal, but most importantly, I backstab people. But that is not all. As we speak, you may consider me your ally!... Yet I am not just ready to betray you and your colleagues, I am actively looking forward to it. I'm pure, unfiltered evil. The God of Lies, the genuine specimen. And the only reason you won't rid this world of such evil is because I'm useful to you and your band of Seekers. I do the things none of you will do. When it comes to saving the world, I am the one who will pull the trigger and bear the unpleasant burden that follows. In this, you are just like my father and all of Asgard."

"Does that answer all of your questions?" He asked, standing up and staring down at Armani. "Or will you ignore me and the truth... plus the fact that I could leave you lost, confused and open for an attack with nothing but my lips?"

Armani's predatory look of anticipation - that he had had since turning that corner – had slowly dropped as loki had gone on, and at the same time tinges of confusion began to appear at the edges of his face, not particularly changing even when he was outright threatened.

"...Hmm, did the trickster just reveal one of his nerves to his opponent?" Armani's gaze temporarily turned calculating, and Loki could practically hear the file system in Armani's head sliding open as he filed that information away. "How very...queer, of you." Armani frowned.

"What I was going to say — thank you for wasting both our time, by the way — is that the reason as I see it for why you remained in some levels of trust is simply because you rarely did something to truly and deliberately shatter those bonds beyond any level of repair. Even when you tripped everyone up, you'd always remain an Aesir, for better or worse." His frown deepend. "You don't scare me, Loki. Not as much as you want to, at least. But you do confuse me."

His frown deepened, becoming almost accusatory, as he held up the book next to him. "The Loki I read about in texts such as this would never have simply stabbed us in the back wholesale, a mere week into our quest — a fool reveals his hand too early, and you spent centuries hiding yours away while you were with the norse. And yet, that's exactly what you have done, showed us that there is absolutely no reason why any of us should trust you for anything."

He let a beat pass. "Nor...", his voice dropped lower, slower, as he processed what the god had just said, "would you have ever declared yourself a god of evil — you aren't just revealing the hand, you're painting it black. I'd almost think you were setting a trick up if your own actions hadn't already confirmed everything. You were smart once, someone who survived the world because he could flit in and out in any situation and come out on top, through your wits. Now, you're someone who outright attacks and kills millions of people, and who gets the thing closest you have to allies turned on you intentionally. You're not playing us, and you're not even trying. And you weren't ever evil, no matter how close you came. Hades's armpits, sometimes you even were heroic."

He didn't seem angry. As he said, for the moment his threatening aura that he had barely veiled earlier had faded into nearly innocent perplexion as he cocked his head up at the horned god, and for emphasis his hand shot up and rested the book of his tales on Loki's chest. "What happened to you, god of tricksters? This is a mockery of what you once were. Where is the deception? The ambiguity that always had once veiled you?"

"The books are known for exacerbating a few facts. Welcome to the wonderful world of reality." Loki grumbled, sitting back in his chair and moving to the next page. "If you're disappointed, get your ticket and get in line- you have entire universes ahead of you, eager to complain. And sorry if I can't manage more than a few words in response to your 'scathing' review. I have more important things to do than to talk with someone who takes things at face value and can't bother himself with the bigger picture."

Armani blinked, then rolled his eyes as his curiosity faded.

"Did you think about the fact that I could summon legends from your world about the other aesir as well before you decided to try dodging? Even if everything said about you was false and you have ALWAYS been this easy to spot as an unreliable moron, then that just means that the rest of the aesir definitely would have stopped trusting you a long time before now."

Uncharacteristically, Armani didn't seem to pursue the angle beyond that, sliding the compilation on Loki's legends back into the shelf. "But let's digress shall we. Perhaps they would have trusted you regardless just because you were family to them; would have been one of the few things saving you from banishment." Armani's face grew colder. "So Loki, why don't you use that legendarily big mind of yours and deduce what exactly is different about your situation here than back home. Or is your ego far bigger than your ability to actually think?"

"May I ask, what is the point of this little conversation?" Loki asked, not bothering to even look at Armani as he continued through his accusation. "Are you here to point out the distressful fact that not everything is like the books say? Perhaps the aesir were just as dumb as me. Perhaps the entire history are just fabrications and reality holds no resemblance to what you see in these books. Have you considered that, Armani? Have you considered that, perhaps, you've been given a lie all your life and you just went with it because it's the one that makes more sense... in a dramatic way of speaking? " "I mean, there's no possible way that this man standing in front of you can be anything else but the role you've given him the moment you first heard his name, right? That would mean that there's a world you do not know, and if there's one thing mortals like you fear, it's the unknown. It's better to ignore the possibility that I may have wishes, desires or heck, emotions, that differ from what the books tell you. No, just slap the title upon me and then chide me when I gleefully take it, even if I have no other options."

"Oh gods," Armani sneered at him, "are you really going there? Why, yes Loki, I'm sure that you're really a pretty angel at heart, aren't you? Oh yes you only, you know, killed millions of people and have never once showed any desire to change or make up for things, but what does that matter when you have emotions and desires just like anyone else. Totally absolves everything ever, am I right?", Armani hurled words in outraged flabberghastment — it seemed that Loki had pressed his ranting button.

He sarcastically cupped his cheek in sadness. "I guess I should feel just so sad for you, shouldn't I? The very image of a poor misunderstood loner, who was pushed into his current ways not by any fault of his own, oh heavens no, but because the world is just so hard. Just like I'm sure it was towards your victims, no thanks to you, but forget that because of course nothing's your fault, everything was just thrust on you and you had no choice at any point to do anything differently, I'm so sure", his voice seeping with hostile sarcasm. "Let me go summon up a tiny fiddle for you."

Armani stood close, and with the deity sitting down they were at face height as he glared into him. "You know I despise you Loki. I imagine quite a few people do. But you know what you don't seem to know? I'll tell you what; you're despicable not because of your title or position or that you're an ice giant or anything like that. You're despicable because of what you do of your own accord. You believe I have to think of you as being pure evil to distrust you, that anyone has to build you up as a devil in their heads before you can start to rub them the wrong way? That's a real laugh — I don't know if you're evil or just broken inside or what, but I know one thing for sure. There's no one making you do anything Loki, especially not here. You choose to be this way, and thus you've chosen to get whatever is coming to you."

The time for subtlety had passed, and Armani didn't give him a chance to respond. "My point, Loki, is that whatever advantage you apparently had back home, you really DON'T have it here. You think you're some necessary evil to us? That we'll 'need you to pull the trigger'? Space gods above, have you even once looked around? We have more than enough teammates here who can make hard choices and follow through, WITHOUT wearing black top hats around in the process — you're about as useful as our fallen nutter of a ninja friend Retaro or whatever his name was."

His fists clenched. "So, Loki, here we are. You've just proclaimed your desire to betray us again, after already doing it once and losing what little leeway you had. So do tell me, hornhead", he crossed his arms, keeping the position loose. "Why exactly SHOULDN'T I beat you into tar here and now, and then have Shantatto freeze you into rock like what we did to the aforementioned disappeared ninja? Sure would save us a lot of trouble now wouldn't it. Seriously, give me even one reason."

Loki's absolutely annoyed furrowed brow loosened up considerably, as he gently reached over and grabbed Armani by the chin. "I don't know, that's a good question." He whispered, tapping his cheek. "I think I'm not the one you should be asking that to. After all, you've had plenty of chances to get rid of me. And this is not the first time I openly antagonize one of you. So, tell me, Armani: if you think that is what you should do, then why are you asking me? Do you need me to confirm your accusation, to clear your mind? Does the executioner's hand sway, even as the axe hangs over the victim's neck? It's clear you don't fully believe in your own words..."

Armani glared at him then swatted his hand away. "How eye rollingly dramati—" Loki smoothly went with the motion though and while the boy was distracted planted a kiss on his cheek, rather easily interrupting whatever objection he had. "I rather like you, Armani. If someone had to kill me, I guess it should be you." He purred, letting go of the demigod and pushing him back. "You should use these upcoming days to train, instead of wasting time with soliloquies."

Armani's was too busy being frozen in pure horror to respond to Loki. His jaw was dropped, face so constricted that you'd think the muscles had turned to rock. Then came the fiery red glower as his face heated, and his hands twitched suddenly; Loki could practically hear the violent thoughts going through his head. Something along the lines of ‘kill the hornhead that has violated our body…kiiiiiiill hiiiiiiiiiim’

But instead of attacking, he slammed his fist into his hand with an audible bang and leaned back, taking a deeeep breath, and managed to banish the raging red from his face with a ten second count.

He finally gave a rather creepily peaceful smile. "Oh, I'm not going to kill you Loki...unlike someone here, I'm not quite deranged and voilent enough to where I'd be ready to start re-enacting scenes from the shining." His face turned serious — not angry or frustrated, just serious. "Whether or not you believe me, I don't particularly care. You're about to be proven rather wrong anyway." With that, Armani shoved past him and went to leave. He glanced back over his shoulder at the trickster. "I'm not leaving you behind, oh don't worry. I'm going to confirm this with everyone else, because I actually care enough to let my friends have a say in things. You know as well as I do, though, that I'll have an easy enough time convincing them that you're to remain here. Have fun." With that, Armani whirled around and continued his way out of that library section. So things would end for them.

Or not, as in that moment someone else decided to throw their voice in on the matter. Upon reaching the end of the section, rather than turning out of sight armani suddenly pivoted and glared up at a wall, hand going to his temple as he seemed to focus on...something.

For an entire minute or so, Armani's expression went from listening, to interested, to wary, to outraged, and back in quick succession while he occasionally seemed to talk under his breath — like he was in the middle of a conversation with someone.

Then Armani's face twitched and he threw his hands up in the air, giving up spectacularly. "I...hate you, so so so much you stupid hornhead."

Armani shook his head and gave Loki a lopsided look, expression seeming to switch between multiple emotions at once — he obviously had no idea what to think of whatever it is that had happened. "...But, it seems there was someone there to witness more of your actions than I did on our last trip, and funny how things look when put into proper context. Care to explain how exactly it is that, for someone so eager to betray us, everything you did...actually rather worked out for our benefit in the end?"

"An unfortunate side effect." Loki muttered, crossing his arms. "It seems as if, despite reality's many attempts to destroy the images we build thanks to our stories... it still hangs onto some despicable things. Like a turgid sense of dramatic irony."

Rolling his eyes, Loki picked up his coat and put it on, sighing. "Figure it out by yourself." He grumbled, ready to leave the library and head for greener pastures.

Armani just stared at him, then closed his eyes and rubbed his head as Loki prepared to leave. "I was just about to get you punished, so why on Earth didn't you...Ugh. You know what, I give up. Fine, fine. You get a pass on this particular incident. Your methods were...odd, but in the end you were actually a bit of a boon. I guess." He didn't exactly sound sure of himself.

Armani wasn't quite done, though. As loki passed by him, Armani's hand shot out and gripped his arm with more than enough force to stop him.

"Don't think this changes what I said earlier, Loki", the confusion having left his voice and replaced again by stern drive. " You betray us, and I will ensure that you will regret it. I don't understand what drives you, no, but I don't really have to, now do I, all that matters is how bad things will get for you. Just remember that no matter how tempted you are to do something off base, no matter what it is, eventually you will be taken back here where you'll have me to deal with. So, don't do anything stupid, because I'm sure not going anywhere."

Loki glared down at Armani, before slipping his thumb over to Armani's lower lip (Armani, being more prepared this time, simply knocked it away). "I look forward to it." He slithered before shaking his hand loose so he could leave the area.

He let Loki shake loose. "Oh and don't think I won't still beat you around if you pull another stunt that makes it look like you're turning coat, even if it turns out to be false later!" Armani called over his shoulder after turning towards the other end of the section to make his own exit. He turned out of sight with an extremely dissatisfied and bemused huff.

---

-Ω- "Are you sure the princess was telling the truth? You know, for some reason listening to the crazy voice in my head sounds like a BIT of a bad idea!", I gritted my teeth and muttered under my breath

~I feel like this is a great time to remind you what the definition of insanity is~

"Sure, you didn't express doubt the LAST five times...but there's always answer number six."

She huffed at me. ~For the final time, everything she said lined up with what we already know — much moreso than our previous theories did. It is indeed true that his actions, from a certain point of view, were aiding the team in acquiring the piece of sifuri. For certain, if he had intended damage he could have done a lot worse.

"And it doesn't really make sense at all for him to have simply turned coat on us anyway, despite how things looked...Meaning him only seeming to have betrayed us really is the most logical conclusion" I finished for her.

Alright, sixth time the charm — I started accepting it. Begrudgingly. Very begrudgingly.

I leaned against the library wall, staring up into the...forest above me. I missed the sky, sheesh.

No matter what his motivations turned out to be...He was still a killer in the end, someone who manipulated people just by instinct. I couldn't let myself forget that. The best I could realistically hope for was that his leash stayed strong enough to keep him from doing anything crazy. The man was still planning on betraying us somewhere down the line, he had said it himself...wait why was I taking his word on anything? Was he just messing with my head? But wouldn't that mean he was deliberately trying to NOT escape from us?

I realized that I had been mulling this over for a good ten minutes already — for zeus's sake, this might have been what he wanted all along, to just get me confused.

Wait, I found out this perspective in the first place by listening to the little villain in my head...so I had gotten to the point where I was listening to the bad voice in my head for advise on how to deal with bad people...

"Okay, that's it, time to stop thinking about this for my own sanity's sake." I shook my head and stood straight. "Guess all that matters is that he's on a leash."

Though, one thing still bothered me. The only reason I hadn't gotten a tribunal together on the not-really-deity was that the...guest in my head spoke up at the last minute and had tried to convince me that he was really just putting on a show. I hadn't believed her at first, but then she started pointing out how his betrayel had actually helped in the end. It took me forever to admit it, but she had had a point (the very thought made me want to wash my mind clean with high density bleach, ugh). If it weren't for that, he would have been in for an unpleasant punishment — so why in the world did he keep those details from me in the first place? Even if it turns out to be a false assumption, it's still one he would have known to play up to escape the consequences.

...Turns out a sort-of-trickster-god did things in a way that didn't really make any sense. Gee who knew.

Oh that's it. I am so done. "WHERE is fletcher at? He still hiding from training?"

~I imagine so. What are you planning?~

"I really really need to go hunt something right now — here's an idea for how we can train; I'm going to go sneak up on him and see how badly I can make him regret hiding!"

I set off, pushing Loki out of my thoughts for now.

"And WHERE did Zelda get off to, or any healer for that matter? I need someone to cast a cure spell on my cheek before it gets infected with whatever horrid germs must be found on his filthy tongue." I would probably spend the next several years meticulously scrubbing that cheek every day — that damn mouth of his would be giving me nightmares the whole time too. Grand.

edited 28th Jun '15 12:24:07 PM by tvtropesnoob

"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016

Atrocitus looked over at where Elsa slept. The Red Lantern was quite impressed by the young Queen's progress. While there was certainly room for more improvement, they did have a time limit, and the rate of progress was much faster than even he initially anticipated. The fact that she managed to summon a torrential blizzard that completely encased one of the training areas with it spreading and going out of control, as well being able to turn it on and off at will was testament to that. Elsa already had the sheer, raw power within her, and she had the capacity to control and tame it. All she needed was a safe environment to let it out; the confidence and positive assurance to know that she was not going to accidentally kill everyone by just existing; and situations where she can actually use her powers.

It was becoming clear Elsa was not merely a girl with ice powers. She was literally winter itself contained within human flesh. She just needed to be reminded of the latter part. Imagine the possibilities if they more time to train......

For now, Atrocitus decided to let her sleep. She deserved it the most out of everyone. He would wake her up when time came for the mission.

DAMMIT MARK, STOP HOTTING HELPY!!

Chaika Trabant (Team Magic) - Three Days Later...

Rows and rows of crimson spikes lined up neatly on the table, each resting on a silver casing. Some people would call those things bullets, others would call them ammunition. But they were technically neither of those things. Like fire, magic was a reaction that emitted energy, and thus needed some form of fuel to extract that energy. In the case of fire, the fuel were combustible materials; in the case of magic, memories. Memories of formerly living beings that were carefully preserved in a fine white powder which, using a special tool, was casted into those crimson "bullets".

An extra casing was extracted from under such tool, its casting process fully finished, and placed alongside the others with as much care as possible.

Chaika's schedule consisted mostly in two things: reduction of casting time, and accuracy improvement. She had noticed that her spells took far longer to cast than the others', and that the incantations had many words that repeated themselves throughout the whole process. As such, she was fully determined to reduce the number of words in each incantation as much as possible. As for accuracy, most of her spells had a rather large hit radius, so that was not too hard to perfect. The actual problem was targeting an object next to another she didn't want to harm.

While she was only able to reduce incantation times by a small amount, her accuracy improved drastically over the course of those three days. She began with normal targeting, using things like training dummies as targets, which she proceeded to blow up in explosions or slice in half with such violence that the stuffing scattered in all directions and both halves flew at least seven feet away from each other. For the second part, she began by placing a watermelon on a table, and focused on targeting the watermelon without harming the table in any way. With time, the size of the fruit reduced to the point where she was able to successfully knock a pea to the floor without sending the whole table flying across the entire room.

However, such training did not come without incidents. Several tables were cut, blown to bits, partially vaporized or downright smashed against a wall with her magic, and in more than one ocassion she tried to use her magic to cook, often ending up in exploding dough and boiled dishes somehow getting so burnt they became inedible. It wasn't until late in the second day that she finally realized her magic was not meant for cooking.

Atrocitus often snuck up on everyone and attacked out of nowhere, giving them little to no time to defend themselves. The first few times, she was caught fully off guard, and it did not go well for her at all. However, it did give her the motivation to be on constant lookout, even while working alone, which made her gain a lot of situational awareness. By the third day, she was able to fully cast The Shield just in time to block Atrocitus' attack.

One on one sparring sessions, however, were a different matter. The number of times she was able to fend off the red lantern for longer than thirty seconds could be counted with one hand alone, unlike the number of times she ended up on the floor in less than fifteen. At times he seemed to be a completely unstoppable monster, while she remained a mere fourteen-year-old who had never really fought against an opponent of that caliber. She did improve quite a lot, yes, specially when it came to ranged combat, but she was still fairly weak physically when compared to most of the other Seekers.

What took its toll on her in the end was not how intense her training sessions were, but how long she made them. Whenever she was not training, replenishing her fuel or cleaning up after training, she was either eating or taking a very short nap, only to resume her training shortly afterwards. She did talk to her teammates, yes, but not as much as she would have in other circumstances.

Despite all that, it wasn't until near the end of the third day that exhaustion finally overcame her will to remain awake, and she slumped right on the table where she had been preparing everything for the mission.

However, those eight hours of sleep managed to restore her energies almost completely, and so she was at the moment, making sure all her gear was ready before they had to depart.

---

Raven (Team Science) - Three Days Later...

Raven had always been rather strict, even before he adopted a soldier's life. But the context he found himself in made him train even harder than he would have otherwise.

He began by trying to get acquainted with his new comrades, as well as the location and the situation he was in. From what he could hear from the others, there seemed to be a second group of people like theirs. One specialized in technology, the other specialized in magic, and all because the two men in charge could not reach an agreement. He personally considered it a rather effective tactic, despite being purely accidental and silly in nature. Uniting the whole group would probably make it too difficult to handle properly due to the large amount of members, and the competitive aspect ensured that both groups would focus on achieving the objective rather than on the other group's activities. Not to mention that, even if one group failed due to unspecified circumstances, the other would still be able to succeed in their task.

As for his new teammates, "odd" did not quite describe them, but it was a beginning. However, they all seemed to be rather decent in combat, even if some were still young.

After getting familiarized with at least all of their names, he began his training. and it was rather hard to catch him in a moment where he wasn't doing it. Marksmanship, swordsmanship, endurance, every single exercise he could think of, he added it to his schedule. After that part was out of the way, a quick meal and some light rest, followed by one or two sparring rounds with whoever was willing, and then the cycle repeated itself again. This lasted for the whole three days, leaving around six hours free for proper sleep, one or two to oversee how other people trained, and one more for arm maintenance.

Needless to say, even after the three days had passed, he was still performing some light exercises with the sword, making sure to squeeze as much as he could from the little time he had left, but trying not to tire himself too much. They would all be leaving soon, after all.

edited 28th Jun '15 7:27:50 PM by Katarsus

Maria Renard, Three Days Later

While she did train with the others since Atrocitus insisted, Maria decided to actually focus on building up her spiritual power after her experiences in the spirit world and with some advice from Erza Scarlet. In her spare time, Maria skimmed through books on how to summon spirits, a book on something called astral projection, and a book on jumping. When she was not training or eating with the others or skimming through her books, Maria would always be found outside her body as a spirit flanked by one of her four guardian spirits. She had decided that forcing herself to always have her spiritual powers active would build up her spiritual power.

What then of her body while Maria was training her spirit form as it could not defend itself while Maria's spirit was absent? Maria had discussed the issue with Atrocitus and Armani, and they agreed that Maria would hide her vacant body and that Atrocitus and Armani could hunt for it while she was training her spirit form. If Atrocitus or Armani found her vacant body, they would graffiti her face with something called a washable marker. Maria reasoned that any lethal attack would kill her body if her spirit was absent and that she would leave her body in the care of another of the team if she had to become a spirit during a real battle. Naturally, she found her face graffiti-ed many a time when returning to her body leading to successive and more elaborate methods of hiding her body while she was away from it. Eventually, her spiritual summoning got advanced enough that Armani had to face down the Blue Dragon Seiryuu in his final attempt to find her body, despite having seen Maria's spirit flanked by the White Cat Byakko.

By the end of the three days, Maria had learned how to fight as a spirit and could now choose how many of her guardian spirits she could summon at a time from just one which was now possible with complete ease to all four at once. She also learned to triple jump instead of merely double jumping, and her body had gotten stronger and faster. The past three days were perhaps the most brutal training that Maria had ever experienced and the longest time periods that her spiritual power had been active. After the longest nap of her life, she had awoken and now felt she was as ready as she would ever be.

---

B.B. Hood, Three Days Later

B.B. Hood was not sure how to train herself up for the upcoming battle in three days, but knew she needed to restock her arms with the red light... until she found that Mordin Solus had created himself an entire lab more futuristic than anything she ever saw, and then knew exactly what she should be doing with her remaining days. Rather than create her own weaponry back up, she had decided to accept the futuristic weaponry and armor Mordin was making. As weapons, she ended up choosing an M-3 Predator to replace her pistol, an M-9 Tempest to replace her uzi, and a Scorpion to replace most of her explosives. While the weapons looked like the guns she knew, none of them used ammunition as she knew it. Apparently, Mordin's galaxy was so advanced that weapons have practically infinite slugs, but that the issue instead was heat, so the weapons of Mordin's advanced galaxy had to use thermal clips so they could dissipate heat efficiently.

B.B. Hood also found that Mordin had created armor for everyone, and while she pointed out to him that many like Urza and Gavrill would not benefit at all from armor, she certainly would so Mordin gave her the armor he designed for her. It was a red and pink female human armor similar in design to standard issue female human armor from Mordin's advanced galaxy, which meant it was somewhat form fitting to her body. It had kinetic padding underlay with hardened ceramic plates over it, could dispense something called Medi-Gel to seal any open wound, had a limited oxygen reserve for exo-atmospheric action, had something called a Kinetic Barrier which was a force field that could stop all kinetic attacks up to a point. Mordin warned that the Kinetic Barrier would fail under sustained fire and that melee attacks, slow projectiles, and energy weapons would go right through.

The majority of B.B. Hood's three days were training to make her use of these advanced weapons and armor as natural to her as using modern weaponry from her world and helping Mordin out in his makeshift lab. B.B. Hood even designed marked variant weapons of his futuristic equipment. There were a few gold and silver painted weaponry that replaced the chunk of metal that is shaved off for ammunition with a chunk of gold or silver respectfully. While they would not be as useful as the weaponry from Mordin's world, it was weaponry designed with specific creature's weaknesses in mind. If they had guns that could fire infinite gold bullets that merely required thermal clips last mission, the Cybermen would have been utterly screwed! In addition, a gun that could fire infinite silver bullets which only required thermal clips would be the utter bane of any werewolf. There was also a very fried woodgrain weapon from an attempt to replace the chunk of metal inside with a chunk of wood for an weapon effective against vampires that had ended up catching on fire after an initial test.

By the time B.B. Hood noticed that the three days were up, Mordin was now busy trying to figure out how the red light worked. If Mordin didn't know, then she certainly wouldn't know. B.B. Hood left him to his business and soon met up with Sokka, armed with the weaponry she had chosen, a number of thermal clips, and wearing the form-fitting red and pink armor minus the helmet.

"Sokka, it's great to see you again," B.B. Hood smiled but then frowned as she saw the bandages, and whispered to him. "You oughta go see Mordin. He has this thing called Medi-Gel that can seal any wound."

Wizard Needs Food Badly

Team Magic (Riesbyfe Stridberg), Three Days Later

Riesbyfe sat on the ground, peacefully playing cello. It was, in fact, the only moment of peace she'd allowed herself in the last few days.

She'd spent the allotted three days training, as instructed, without ceasing save when absolutely necessary and sparring with anybody willing (and occasionally that willingness had really just been because she wouldn't go away, but...). It had, naturally, been rough, and she'd gone through punching bags and targets at record speed, but she'd definitely improved.

Riesbyfe was going to fulfill her oath to Sion, multiversal weapons be damned. And if she was going to go hopping around the multiverse to do that, she was going to be at her best.

Admittedly, she wasn't sure just how much she'd improved - her aim and reflexes were certainly better, but she was already pushing limits with her strength. Though, Riesbyfe reflected, strong enough to break steel and shatter bones with her fists was pretty damn good.

She'd declined assistance from anyone else beyond sparring, though. Her own armour and natural toughness was usually enough, strength she had in spades, and she'd use no weapon other than her own True Apocrypha.

But now time was up and all that was left was to wait for the imminent call to action, so Riesbyfe had downed a can of beer and now was playing a soft tune on her cello.

Team Science (DLN-008 Elec Man), Three Days Later

He was a Robot Master. What that meant, among other things, was that human-like as he was, there was only so much growth and change that could be achieved.

And besides, he was Elec Man. He was perfect already.

He'd set up a practice range anyway, and had used it to test his aim, then recalibrate himself, then test his aim again, over and over, until there were absolutely no flaws, that he could find, in his targeting systems. Then, he'd fine-tuned all his servos until his agility was the best it had ever been. Then, he'd taken Item-2 for a test-flight, and recalibrated both himself and it until they were both as perfect as possibl.e Now, he was fresh out of a recharge cycle and checking and re-checking his systems for any errors.

...

...

None that he could find. Good. But now there was nothing to do for the last few hours...

He decided on just what he was going to do pretty quickly, though.

Grabbing an electric guitar just like the one he had back home, he just began to play a tune while he waited for the mission to begin.

MAGIC - Post these days three

Seiga sighed contently. She had had a fun three days. Watching others train, reading a bit when ahe found a book that caught her interest, avoiding Atrocitus when need be. It was good, in all the ways she liked.

At any rate, having had this welcome change of pace, she was now looking for ward to what awaited them. Another team...

Many interesting individuals, no doubt.

Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable

Team Magic - The Three Days

Of the three days, Hol had wasted maybe two of them trying to scout for a good partner. It didn't strike him that all of the Seekers would be working as a team anyway until the end of the second day. In a way, the mercenary thought, this would be the strongest he'd ever be, with so many partners at hand. Then again, he still had no idea who or what he'd be up against.

Apparently he was supposed to go save the world? That made this whole thing seem like a pretty big deal.

Speaking of worlds, Hol also learned of the multiversal nature of this entire affair. So as it turned out, none of the members of his new 'team' were familiar with the term 'Stand', and were not 'Stand users'. Curiously enough, Hol found that they could see his Stand. He figured that they were just Stand users who didn't realize that they were.

What training Hol took part in, he figured he could try and sharpen his aiming. Using targets moving at high speeds (speeds that would be impossible for any other gunman to deal with), he attempted to hone his accuracy.

Hol's Stand allowed him to control the trajectory his bullets flew in, letting them fly freely and change directions after being shot. But even with this inhuman ability, Hol's accuracy wasn't perfect. It was near-perfect as far as he was concerned, but the other Seekers would see plenty of times that he'd miss a target and blame it on something else, or one of them.

It was at that point that it would become clear to the Seekers that Hol wasn't the nicest guy around. Except to the women.

But even flirting with the women was proving to not go in his favor. On the last day, Hol attempted to make his moves on the azure clad princess. She called herself Kitana. She also gave Hol a good kick in the balls.

At the end of the whole thing, the mercenary was just sour.

He'd better be sent home right after this world-saving business, he thought.

Finally, three days had passed, and the mercenary lay asleep on a couch, cowboy hat over his face and covering his snores.

---

Team Science - Three Days Later

For his credit, Glacius was much more resolute in honing his fighting skill than Hol Horse.

After fixing up a voice modulator (so that he'd be able to speak freely to his new teammates) and getting familiar with the Seekers, Glacius practiced his hand to hand combat on training dummies, and occasionally with other Seekers.

Glacius was no practitioner. Once upon a time, the alien was merely an explorer. He had come to Earth, eager to learn more about it, but found only hostility and torture. As a forceful participant of the Killer Instinct tournament, much of what Glacius knew of hand to hand combat was self-taught, and he'd relied on his technology to win out in the past.

Now, he'd learned so much, and in only three days.

Now, once the three days were up, he had sat in a corner of their base, sitting cross-legged and participating in some sort of self meditation.

edited 1st Jul '15 6:38:33 PM by LatverianBadger

"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani

Sasuke (Third Day)

All Sasuke either did (in his Shinobi Shozuku mind you) was either meditate or spend time practicing fighting while using his clones to help him practice.

For now, he's a usual sight with his other comrades when he meditates. When he does so, he reminds the others that he needs the space/time to relax and concentrate on his meditation.

---

Sky (Third Day)

Sky spent the time using his non-ranger powers to see how much his force field can go to protect his body. Not that he'd know. He'll need something to test his force field on.

In the meantime, the ranger used the armbrace provided by Urza to practice his knife proficiency.

Basic slashes, defensive slashes, upward, downward. Whatever direction Sky can use the knife on. If he can see the area and if he can reach said direction, he can do that attack.

Donatello-The Renaissance

When Donnie heard that there was a group of villains from across the multiverse that was dangerous enough for Moja to show up and warn the seekers about them himself, he was understandably freaked out. Whoever had gotten them together must be as strong as Moja was, and that got Donnie even more freaked out. So with only three days left ahead of them, Donnie got to work.

He split his days between his ninja training and inventing things that could help him and his teammates out on their next dangerous mission. He spent little time with his teammate except for the third day. That day, after hearing some stuff of Mordin Solus and what he’d been up to, Donnie decided to take a quick detour to Mordin’s lab. After geeking out over the weaponry and armor, and taking with Mordin for a bit, Donnie took some of the tech for himself for later study and returned to his room.

Three days later, Donnie emerged from his room (donning the armor Mordin had made for him, modified to allow stealth). Making his way to the common area with his satchel filled with new tech, he spotted Sokka and B.B. Hood having a conversation.

“Sokka! B.B! Hey guys! Man, it feels like it’s been months since I’ve see you two!” Donnie said, walking over to them. However, he couldn’t help but notice the armor B.B. was wearing “Oh, you went and saw Mordin too! Can you believe the tech he has?” He started, a fanboyish gleam in his eye. “

“Of course, I’ve been quite busy myself,” Donnie stated proudly while patting his satchel, goading his teammates into asking him just what inventions he had stored in it.

With the equivalent of twenty-one days time to work with, Urza was determined not to waste a minute of it. This was more literal in his case than in some others, as he didn't need to sleep. Some of his time was taken up with instructing Sokka in some of the intermediate principles of artifice, but the vast majority of it was spent in researching phase magic and in examining what he could do for his allies that no one else could. The newcomer, Mordin, clearly had access to more advanced armor and weaponry than Urza himself could provide, save in a few special cases, so that was out of the question. Magical aids would be equally pointless. That left, unfortunately, very little but improving and adding to what they already had.

Mordin's weaponry was limited by heat, he could inscribe a magical rune to vastly improve their cooling mechanisms. Gavrille's limitation was a lack of offensive options other than claws and teeth, he could offer(though he doubted she would accept) bio-engineered improvements to her current form. The Metathran had taught him a great deal about such things and so long as they were not blended with technology in the unholy atrocity of compleation, he saw no moral dilemma in altering what was an unnatural creature to begin with. And so on. A small gadget here, an improvement there, making things work together, and in the process, learning a little about everyone's capabilities so he could command more effectively if he ever got the chance. And as usual, he offered to outfit the group with communication devices. It was usually one of their key shortcomings.

His own work, though, would almost certainly be more effective than anything he did for the others. At day twenty, he had in front of him a single, tiny powerstone, the result of all his feverish research efforts. Phasing magic was very complex, hence why it usually was not maintained for very long. But when it was, it required first, power to phase said object or creature 'out' of time, and secondly, an anchor point and specific magical guidance to phase it back 'in' at a certain time and place. This powerstone was that point. A simple, tiny pulse of specific magic would set it off and whatever it had phased 'out' would appear there. In his plane, Urza could never have made such a thing work. The crafting requirements involved were far too specific, and time and powerstone-intensive to be practical. But with the ever-present red light, all he had to do was wish for as many of them as he wanted. And now he had half his army, Metathran, vehicles, and artifacts of all stripes, waiting patiently 'outside' of time, firmly attached to the anchor point powerstones he carried with him.

He was hesitant to test the process on either of the pieces of Sifuri in his possession, though, and decided to put it off until they returned from this mission, instead passing Mordin the altered Weatherlight blueprints and suggesting he think of suitable modifications if he had any spare time.

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao Tzu

Science

Nitori chuckled. It was complete. Three days of work, interuppted only when she felt she could afford a break. What she had to show for it, was a giant mechanical dinosaur. She'd asked Supergirl, apparently there was something called the Loch Ness monster, believed to be a reptilian beast that lived in a lake. Except most people did not believe in its existence. It was a legend, a story.

So it worked well enough for her. Maybe she could turn it into a source of income, at any rate, it was packed with weaponry. Turrets on the sides, missile lauchers on the back, giant lasers from the eyes. It was sweet, and impressive.

And in her hand, she clutched a controller, allowing her to remotely direct this massive instrument of destruction and/or profit.

Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable