My Superhero Academy

Sam just barely lifted his head to look at Matten unimpressed "Excuse me for not being amused because it turns out we were risking our lives for nothing" He said sarcastically. "We had nothing to use against them, nothing they cared about, no love, no morals, no pride, no greed, and with this, not even self-preservation, and we were the ones who lost before the game even started" He stood up straight, but his vision got blurry and he stumbled a bit.

"I'd very much rather not be comforted by you, thank you very much" You don't know nearly enough to do that

Looking at Armada, he decided to say another point.

"Just to know for the future, is there any secure place we could send those robots where they couldn't give that self destruction order? Next time, it could come in handy"

Looking at the people, he exchanged a look with his dad, who nodded.

"Well, probably whoever did this is alive, and has something we can use against them, even if it's just pissing them off enough for them to yell their plan at the top of their lungs"

Outside Gym

"Not really," said Armada. "But I might be able to whip up something that can keep them from detonating. It'd still take a while though."

Meanwhile, Rosa was getting scared. If she didn't do something now, they'd find her eventually. And if they did, either they'd do only God knows what to her or her superiors would do something even worse. From the middle of the crowd, she shifted and morphed into a small little red robin in the blink of an eye without anyone the wiser. She tried to fly off, hoping that no-one would notice the little birdy taking off from the crowd. And if they did? Then she'd just have to improvise.

However, as she caught a glimpse of Sam, she started to realize that this might have been a very, very bad idea...

Outside Gym

"Oh, you're excused." Mahvash winked at the poor boy. "Hero work can be hard and takes some work and has the occasional reverse, especially in the beginning. You couldn't have expected that."

The daeva appeared well in Sam's personal space just not nose-to-nose with the boy and pressing both sides of his face with her hands. "I'll comfort you anyway. Not like I'm fair weather, even watching ...you right now."

Thin strands of hair spun into a chignon, while Mahvash put on her best concerned mother look. "Lad, nothing with agency truly lacks fear. They always want something or somethings, and more 3rd rate mooks than I want to count start screaming of how fearless of pain and death they are when cornered." But you, at least I know you would not be a very diligent enemy.

She put a finger up, leaving the boy's face be. "Fear not, I'll not overestimate you anymore. Take a load off, and watch mama work," Mahvash winked at him before spreading wispy moth wings and taking off hard.

"I'll deal with the perimeter then," the daeva noted her own flight and felt the flapping of a bunch of tiny things, insects and at least one bird, and shrugged. "A dome rather than a wall." Kind of like me of greater ruination, but a thin sheet of unmaking poison, and I'll provide the light—even if it sickens the guests a little.

"Fear not," the daeva announced to the people below. "I'm going to lower a small curtain around you, to save some labor. If Mikael has not let anyone outside of range, and he is effective after getting over his tendency toward panic attacks, then we will narrow things down and let you back to your lives soon enough. If we missed them, then they're gone, we cross-reference RVSPs, who people saw, etc. and hunt them down or welcome them when they appear again."

The daeva focused, bringing a hollow, opaque dome over the assembled people and embedding it—unpleasantly—with small sparks of light.

edited 23rd Jun '18 10:42:34 AM by CenturyEye

Sam just gave Matten an eye roll and made a perfect replica of cuckoo clock, just to illustrate the point to his father.

"Doubt those had any actual agency, anyway" He commented. "Everything human about them was paper thin"

With, that, he looked in another direction, and saw a robin. Something in him awoke, an instinct to hunt appeared, as his eyes became feral, as his human side sighed. An ice path was willed into existence as he charged towards it, faster than he'd ever been and ready to pounce.

Outside Gym

Well. This was bad. Rosa hadn't taken into account that one of those hypocrites had gained a taste for raw poultry, but with the way Sam was chasing after her, it was clear he was going for the kill. Still, she wasn't going to be someone's dinner just yet. She started to fly as high up as she could, away from Sam and the others below. If he was going to catch her now, he'd have to conjure up a pair of wings out of thin air, but that probably wasn't something he could do.

...

Probably.

edited 23rd Jun '18 12:50:51 PM by kkhohoho

Outside Gym

As Matten lowered a curtain on everyone, he spied Sam chasing a robin that had fluttered out of the throng of people. He supposed Sam had lost himself to bestial instincts. Then he realized something suspicious.

What had a robin been doing in a crowd of humans?

"Hi there, little birdie." In an instant Mikael was above the little bird, his own wings keeping him aloft as he swung his hand to try and snatch the robin out of the air.

Outside Gym

Just as she had seemed to narrowly avoid becoming someone's dinner, Mikael appeared right over her, snatching her up. She started to panic and thrash about in Mikael's grip, but then she started to think. Mikael may have had his suspicions, but as far as he knew, she was still just a robin. A dumb little robin who could only chirp and defecate on people as she flew overhead. As long as she didn't display the slightest sign of human intelligence, who was he to guess the wiser? She resumed her thrashing but made sure to behave as robin-like as possible, chirping and rapidly turning her head all the while. If she just sat pretty instead of trying to escape like any robin would, she'd really start getting their attention.

While the lung missed, the beast still had the power over ice the boy had was still on hand, as a series of stepping stones appeared midair. Leaping one step after another, he was on track once again.

Until a piece of ice smacked him across the face like a slap.

"What?" Sam said, recovering his senses. Looking down, he saw his dad looking mildly annoyed over that. Chuckling in embarrassment, he still went to Mikael, looking at the bird critically.

"What's up with that bird?" He asked, trying to make it as if his outburst didn't happen "Some kind of familiar?"

Outside Gym

Mikael eyed the bird closely as it thrashed about. It seemed to be a wild animal after all - panicking when caught by a larger creature was quite a natural response - but it still didn't explain why it was here. Sam came up to him a second later, no longer acting like a beast.

"Well, it wasn't scared off by that explosion." He told Sam. "That suggests it has some kind of intelligence. It only tried to escape when we hemmed in the crowd. Evidently, either the bird or the person controlling it didn't want it captured. The question is, are they willing to sacrifice it?"

He held out his hand with the bird in it. A thumb was pressed to the back of its head, so it was forced to look at Sam. "Let's test if the bird can understand us. I'll open my hand, and if the bird tries to flee, we'll kill it."

Then he silently mouthed to Sam, 'This is a trick, don't actually kill it.' with hand gestures to make sure Sam got the meaning. After giving Sam a moment to get the message, he opened his hand to let the bird rest on his palm.

edited 23rd Jun '18 5:12:01 PM by kagescorpionakki

Outside Gym

Biting through a tendril connecting her to her thin dome, Mahvash descended to observe Mikael's catch. Resolution not to overestimate people, but the demon seemed to work when sent at a problem. Huh. Albeit, Sam actually took his head of his hands to act too, in spite of his breakdown, helped along by embracing his inner kitty. Go figure.

The daeva felt at the 'bird, briefly making a disgusted face before her features morphed into a proud smile. Sam isn't broken, and is a good guesser. "Yes, very good!" She barely resisted the urge to pump a fist in the air. "Though not necessarily a Bond Creature... It could just be a parasitized animal. That bird's aura has that sickly light infesting it." One I want to place, but I have a big catalogue of aura samples to go through...

Mahvash drifted back, letting Mikael do his thing.

edited 23rd Jun '18 5:33:51 PM by CenturyEye

Sam grinned like a certain other cat, as he nodded at Mikael. Matten's appearance wasn't really registered. Whatever the bird is, they'll deal with it after the experiment. As soon as Mikael left the bird go, he went into a pouncing stance, pretending to have gone feral once again, and got ready to lunge.

Outside Gym

Oh God. These people were even worse than her! Still, what other choice did she have? If she fled, they might try to kill her. But if she didn't, they'd know for sure that something was up. And if they did, they might capture and interrogate her. And if they did that, then it was goodbye Rosa and hello to whatever new persona her bosses wanted to put in her instead. Damned if she did, damned if she didn't. Besides, these hypocrites were goody little two-shoes compared to her. They wouldn't actually kill a poor defenseless little birdy. Probably.

In any event, it was do or die. She flew out of Mikael's hand and soared towards the moon, hoping he really was bluffing like she thought. And if he wasn't? Then at least she'd die as herself.

Score.

Sam knew they won, so he decided to catch the 'bird' in a rather simple way. Making and sending a birdcage its way so it closes its door once it has the bird inside.

"Better get a wizard on the job" He said "We got a bird on hand"

edited 23rd Jun '18 7:02:12 PM by Blueace

Outside Gym

"Well, either it really is just a normal bird, or sacrificing it was preferable to having it be captured. Assuming it's someone's familiar, or construct." Mikael frowned as he flew up to grab the ice cage before descending to meet Matten.

"You said you could sense something from it. If you have any ideas on figuring out what's off about it, I'm all ears." He offered her the caged bird. "Maybe have Armada scan it with her device?"

Outside Gym

"..." The daeva opened her palm to conjure a swarm of moths that quite deliberately flew at Samuel—whether through or through him was up to him and his reflexes—to make an anchor around the remains of the buffet, its trail, and the table that David had recently thrown. When they finished she rained the contents down over Samuel before picking out food crumbs.

"You're still looking at a familiar in that cage," she pointed the bird out, somewhat superfluously to Mikael. "It can still fly or just be a bird with someone else looking through its eyes." She began to offer the some dust covered fruits that had been strewn about along with a wet wipe, innocently brushing her fingers along the bars of the cage.

Of course what was important was what she didn't say. The daeva recognized that shiny taint now, given time and the somewhat sterile cage.

The light dimmed around the cage and her own essences pulsed through the cage, to pollute the shine and native bodies alike. The bird did take a hit, but it had a slackened leash for a time.

"Lesson paused. I wanted to hunt down that source of that light aura that diseased Rosalinda, and here it is, its trail rather. Short version, to be a familiar, the shiny thing and that bird's souls are already entangled. Hands-free, possession-lite in essence. Very convenient. And perfect. I did need something to test surgery skills on before getting to her."

Mahvash tapped on the cage after her pules, assuming the 'bird' wasn't swimming in pain. "Of course, if you understand me, tell me your name and keep saying it. It'll get you through the next length of time." She raised tendrils that thinned to near invisibility before stretching out toward the bird. "I didn't see Dr. Bozo's treatment, but I read the details. I'm not belching, and I'm going for a full 'cleanse'. I couldn't copy Bozo's method anyway, what with the poisonous aura, and this will hurt the thing terribly, but it'll hurt the disease more."

She briefly shrugged her shoulders, before tilting her head at Mikael. "Comments? Questions, Mr. Scholar of Morality?"

edited 23rd Jun '18 8:18:24 PM by CenturyEye

Outside Gym

"Hm. Well." Mikael considered Matten's plan, staring at the bird as he did. "If it is under someone's thrall... they clearly weren't averse to letting it die, regardless. So... if you think it will work, by all means."

He smiled and gestured to his fur coat. "I'm hardly one to berate you for killing an animal. Not like you could make things worse at this point."

"Very funny" Sam said as he simply stepped aside and froze anything that got near him, figuratively and literally with La Zona.

"Can you see how smart is that bird? Just to be clear on everything" Not that I have anything against hunting, but whatever Matten does enters probable serial killer territory

Is it too late to try and become a wizard?

edited 23rd Jun '18 10:17:31 PM by Blueace

Outside Gym

"Ask a wizard," Mahvash took the cage from Samuel without really looking at the boy and descended to a semi-clear spot, sending a gradually expanding cone of ruination before her to make a sterile area. Not primarily from insects and pathogens mind you, but from the spirit of the place. Essence abhorred a vacuum, and letting this bird merge spiritually with this little bit of schoolyard would be sloppy.

The bird things was not natural bird though. "That advice about keeping your name close, by a chant or a cheer is important," she said to the bird. "That you and that light sheen don't have equal real estate in there, or worse, means that you can come out of this intact. The 'natural world' is very connected, including you, excluding me, but the ticks, the texture, etc, help me know when I'm dealing with homo sapiens sapiens." She shrugged. "Changing form is your prerogative though, as is your demanding an end."

The daeva surrounded the cage with thin tendrils. "These have to go through your body to get at that soul of yours. My deed will leave neither unharmed, and there's a long list of adverse effects, including but not limited to: degenerating into a number of unpleasant things really, like a ghoul. Then there's the potential for wasting and chronic psychic pains."

"Ok, I think that covers informed consent," Mahvash ticked off points on her fingers. "which falls under 'Respect for persons.' 'Beneficence', well, we are ridding you of a parasite and maybe another, and that leaves 'Justice', which I suppose goes with the hero thing and perfecting this technique for my own school's style of exorcism." And how perfect, Samuel and Mikael are both the very ones who witnessed me dispatching the Boisterous Weakling a second time and who succumbed to horror at that Dome in the forest. Well, Belmont's report is supposed to distinguish the good human experimentation from the bad.

The daeva's tendrils rushed to pierce the bird and decay and wither the foreign light—without doing too much of the same with the host soul.

Sam turned to Mikael, with a rather deadpan expression, mouthing "And this plan just went terrible"

This was probably going to be messed up so he simply went back to Armada.

"So, we found a strange bird, I had a bit of a cat episode over it, and it turns out it was a familiar or something probably magic like that, alongside of apparently not being a bird and Matten got her hands on it, which should speak by itself on why I am telling you" He said, as fast as he could while trying to be coherent. "So, Bozo is hard to reach if he isn't around, is he here or is there anyone else we can get who is good with this stuff?"

Edited by Blueace on Jun 26th 2018 at 8:10:34 AM

Outside Gym

Armada couldn't help but blink as though Sam was a blithering idiot. Which to her he may as well have been. "Okay, slow down there. You kind of lost me with the whole familiar thing. What's this about Matten?"

Meanwhile, Rosa couldn't so much as flap her wings before Matten pierced her with her tendrils. As they spread through her, she began to morph and shift in rapid succession, far more resembling some sort of writhing gooey mass than a bird. It began glowing brightly like glittering gold as it screamed in pain, as though its entire self was being overridden as Matten tried to free Rosa of whatever had enslaved her. Though whether or not she could remained to be seen.

Sam took a deep breath before trying again, this time slowly "So, we saw the bird, I had a bit of a cat moment, but then, Mikael caught it and I got back to my senses, and more aware of there being several things off over it, among them, why was it among the crowd and why it didn't bolt out with the explosion. Matten mentioned it being bonded to some mystical power or another, and basically went mad doctor meets evil sorcerer and, well..." Deciding to simply quote most of what Matten warned to the bird, with an inappropriately cheery tone.

"And yes, those were mostly her words" He finished.

Edited by Blueace on Jun 26th 2018 at 8:10:10 AM

Outside Gym

Challenge? To me? The daeva pursed her lip, feeling the light push back against her own probe and spread across the bird now girlish mass of ...mass. Okay. Emerging though was the thing's own undoing. Streams of black raced at wherever gold emerged, and the soul was caught in the middle.

Mahvash had little trouble from the screams. They meant that the souls was both still alive and aware. And there was no anesthetic for this anyway without the daeva possessing the soul.

"Well," the daeva said at last withdrawing her probe after the unnatural light had melted away and not returned. "I now pronounce you sole proprietor of that meat estate." She tilted her head. "And yet, you did not follow my advice. Secret that good? Or were you that far gone? I don't need secrets. Just start saying whatever comes to mind: what you see, what you feel, what you enjoy, the name of a pet. Things to make sure that you're all together in there."

Gym

As the Light began to wither away, Rosa found herself slowly beginning to return to her natural form; a teenage girl with serious attitude problems. She was also butt-naked. Not that she seemed to mind. She could feel whatever force had been influencing her, or rather a lack thereof. After being ever-present within her mind for the last few weeks, it was just... gone. For the first time since she was kicked out of the Academy, she was free. And she had one of those hypocrites to thank.

Lovely.

She was still on the floor, just barely managing to bring herself to a sitting position. She checked to see if she still had her powers, willing her skin to morph into a skintight catsuit. Apparantly, losing the Light didn't take her powers away. At least she got something out of it in the long run."Don't know how you did it, but thanks. Though you're still a bunch of fucking hypocrites."

Outside Gym

"Rosalinda Martinez Garcia," Mahvash admonished after reappearing for the third time with a robe that about fit this time and draping it over the girl. "Language."

"And you are very welcome." The daeva pulled the robe closed around the girl while pulling her into a snug embrace. Which tightened for just a moment. "And stop assuming that I cannot do things. When you're this close, seek out my aid! Or even when you're not close. Do it old style with prayer radio. Don't go toughing it out, like I'm not here!"

After she'd finished pinching Rosalinda's cheeks for the slight, the daeva's expression dropped from livid to smiling once more. "Well, come on. To the nurse with you," she said while raising Rosa to her feet. "I'll walk you and we can catch up. By the way, you owe me a real present now."

Outside Gym

"That it," said Rosa as they walked to Nurse Hello's office.. "You're not gonna ask me what the hell I was doing working for the bad guy, why I infiltrated the gym, any of that? Or are you just gonna save that for interrogation?"