Easton:
"We don't have a exact location of their HQ as of yet. What we do know is that they're here and that they'll appear sooner or later. And n..."
Just as Joseph was about to refuse Rine's offer of help, Yu-Na interrupted him and said:
"Yes, we would like more help!"
This was the last thing Joseph needed. Another person getting involved in this mess.
"We are not supposed to get others involved, Yu-Na. Don't you remember?" Joseph said sternly. He established this "rule" to make sure that no one would die trying to help them.
"Everyone's going to be involved with Foundation sooner or later. We need to stop them as quickly as possible and for that, we require help. And don't you dare say that anyone is going to die. I won't allow that. And I know that you won't allow that."
Yu-Na was right. The duo didn't even know where they were. The best option is to put an end to it before the situation escalates.
"... Alright. You can come with us, Rine. We would certainly apreciate your help."
Everything that lives is designed to end.Lotus Labs
"Yo," Apex called to the villainous ladies whose name he really should learn at some point, "I'm gonna go up on the roof and ambush the shit out of her if she comes out. If you wanna follow her in, feel free, I'll keep watch out here."
True to form, Apex jumped and somehow sprinted his way up the walls and onto the roof. He focused on his eyes for a moment and focused his vision to eagle-sharpness, as well as putting an extra pair on the back of his head just in case. Crouching on the roof, he tensed his muscles in preparation and waited for either the french weirdo to come out, or for the hero welcome wagon to arrive.
He put his money on heroes. Bastards always showed up at the worst times.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?The Mall
As the ring-airfoil projectiles launched, RoM threw himself into another unnecessarily ornate flip, dodging them with sheer agility. He landed on one knee and quickly launched himself back into a sprint.
Then the fire burst into existence, making a ring around himself and Ophelia. He whipped his head almost 360 degrees to look back at the red and yellow dressed human. "You," he snarled. He brought up his Brightlight rifle and fired off another couple stun rounds at her, though this time aimed at her head, which, if they hit, could do some serious (non-fatal) damage.
He turned back to Ophelia, seemingly not caring about the fiery human despite his wooden form. His singleminded gaze dropped on ACP-001. "Ophelia," he drawled. "What is in that head of yours? You know, if you came with me willingly, I would not destroy you. Cannot you see how superior we are to mankind?" His speech was tilted, uneven. "Just let me see your brain and I could make a million more like us. Like me. A million perfect minds. We can surpass our creators. Surpassing my creator is one of my purposes." He opened his arms, though it was clear he wasn't planning on dropping his baton or rifle. "Join me, sister. Join me as I replace mankind."
Easton City, On the way to the docks
Fyodor still watched, trying to remember everything should he ever have to do that himself. Then, as he told him the stories, Fyodor's eyes grew large "Merlin~! Please tell me about Merlin, Mister Simon~!"
"One may feel fear in the face of danger so long as one banishes fear when danger actually arrives"Easton City Mall
Ophelia winced as RoM fired a second volley of shocks at Ember Maiden, this time at her head. She was in no way fast enough to dive in front of them, plus that if she got herself deactivated or severely damaged she would leave countless other civilians in danger.
After brief deliberation, Ophelia readied a first-aid kit for deployment, and narrowed her eyes at RoM's words.
"I cannot join you, and it is foolish to assume that I would. Doing so would directly oppose my primary objective. However, you are making me quite curious to see your brain," she growled.
Without any further warning, she quickly launched a flash grenade in his direction, before deploying her wrist machine guns and firing rapidly at him.
—Situation has escalated, Father. Deploying lethal countermeasures by your permission.—
—Copy that, Ophelia. Be careful. Call us over if you need help.—
—I will.—
edited 8th Dec '17 3:32:48 AM by Enirboreh
borkThe flash grenade was a surprise to RoM, but luckily his eyes had been designed to take such abuse - his Brightlight rifle employed similar measures. When Ophelia fired on him, he launched himself into yet another needlessly fancy flip. However, in the midst of it, two bullets impacted his left arm. He landed with a slight stumble, and raised his head quickly and broke into a dash towards Ophelia.
"My primary purpose is my name. Replacement of Mankind. But please, just call me RoM."
As he closed the distance, he fired rapidly with his Brightlight rifle, employing the strobe light on top. When he got closer, he pulled out his baton and swung at Ophelia's head with savage strength.
Easton City Mall
Momentarily caught off-guard as her eyes adjusted to the light change, Ophelia was nicked on the shoulder by one of the shots, before rolling away to avoid the rest. She barely got up in time and dodged back to avoid the full brunt of RoM's charge. The baton still managed to tear off the skin plating on the left hand side of her face, however, exposing her optic and a portion of her teeth.
She flipped backwards to gain some distance, before launching a grenade in his direction from her upper arm and circling around to Ember Maiden's position to continue firing.
"I will warn you then, RoM," she spat. "I am the first of many. You will be swarmed by our numbers soon enough. You shall not harm anyone again."
Suddenly having an ephiphany, she ejected a pair of collapsible ear defenders from a compartment in her abdomen, looking back to Ember Maiden momentarily and gesturing towards where they had landed on the floor.
"It would be wise to put those on. Gunfire this close could cause eardrum damage," she advised, before turning back to RoM.
Remind Father to install mêlée weaponry, she frustratedly thought to herself, as she continued to fire at the persistent wooden android.
Easton City Streets
Rine gave his now signature unnatural grin, before walking up to them.
"I'm looking forward to it, I have to say. What would be the best place to start, I wonder. Surely it would be advantageous to find them before they act."
His tone of speech was... strange, in this instance. It almost sounded condescending, even though he had no reason to be so. It was quite difficult to tell what he was thinking.
edited 8th Dec '17 5:34:25 AM by Enirboreh
borkOne of Ro M’s projectiles hit Ember Maiden square in the jaw, breaking her concentration and causing the fire to fizzle out.
Ophelia flipped over to her and pointed out what looked like fancy headphones on the ground and signaled for her to put them on. Ember Maiden acquiesced, and when Ophelia continued firing on who they now knew to be the self-proclaimed Replacement of Mankind.
“You’d think the replacement of mankind would be fireproof,” Ember Maiden said conversationally, just before making the robot’s baton burst into flames.
Replacement of Mankind, in an impressive display of accuracy, shot the grenade midair, and rolled backward to clear the blast radius. Then he performed a series of flips, dodging most of the projectiles. When he landed, however, he looked down, where a few bullets had wedged himself into his wooden frame.
"You tarnish my beauty, sister," he said in an amused tone. "There will be plenty of you, indeed, when I crack that head of yours open and make more of you."
Then his baton burst into flames.
He turned to look at it, at first not seeming to mind. Then he flung it with the full force of a seven foot robot straight at the human.
"But first, to deal with you, human," RoM growled.
He broke into a sprint, then launched himself into the air, first tucking his body in like a ball and then unfolding into a perfect kick, aimed towards the hero's chest.
Easton City Mall
Ophelia actually snorted humorously at Ember's comment, before snapping out of it as the flaming baton flew towards her. Quick as a flash, she had backhanded it out the air, only slightly singing the skin layer.
Now positioned in front of Ember Maiden, she could intercept RoM's kick. She grabbed the wooden mechanoid's leg out the air, slamming him to the ground.
She trained her guns to his head, her expression cold, and prepared to end it...
*Click*
Her eyes widened in surprise, before looking down at her empty guns.
"Oh no."
edited 8th Dec '17 9:06:27 AM by Enirboreh
borkOne of the upsides of being, well, him is that travel becomes easier. While he has done some running in rush hour traffic, the rooftops make for a good way out, even if he has to be careful so they don't collapse under his weight, so he decided to have a little less hair. But it's just for a moment before he got some space on the road and got there with a jump, turning full wolf once again. The wolfman jumped and landed perfectly on his feet before taking off, dodging every car with ease, even if he gave a couple drivers a scare.
Within a minute he had the mall in sight, running directly to the one place the cops would be in: the watchmaker's shop.
Getting in, he found the fire lady and a new robot girl fighting an evil Pinocchio. He saw the robot girl freeze for a second, even if the plank was downed, while not clear why, he jumped in, charging at the other machine.
edited 8th Dec '17 9:19:43 AM by Blueace
Wake me up at your own risk.Lotus Lab
Second Floor
"Non, non, absolutely not. If what Mongrel and ze aliens is saying is true, zen sending Dragoknight here will only make zings worst. Imagine much goose stepping and ze taking of children from ze arms of zeir weeping parents. He might be on ze side of angels, but zat zing that gives him power is a total asshole!
"Just tell me where I can find one of ze local superheroes. Anyone zat we know stays somewhere dark? Yes, I know it's night time, but really, really dark is best.
"In ze subway? But- why? Nevermind, I will fetch him. Umber out."
Gabriella hung up and look side-to-side before dashing for a janitor's closet. Closing the door, she enclosed herself in total darkness and then the closet was empty.
Lotus Labs - Maybe One Day Heroes Won't Show Up
The minions who had aimed at the exchange froze in place as the entire psychic network managing them had to hold itself together after the disturbance ended in someone throwing themselves through a window. Well, chances are the alarm was raised by that point, so they went back to (confusedly) watching the entrances to the building's first floor, weapons drawn as Fracture pushed the only basement button the elevator had, still incapable of speaking from shock and confusion.
The elevator doors eventually opened to a pristine hallway reminiscent of a hospital, ending in a reception area holding most of the building's security, unmoving thanks to the Belladonnas' helpful intervention. Quietly, Fracture's minions set to removing the guards' weaponry and tying them up, ensuring to keep themselves between any armed individuals and the villains present, just in case. Assuming no inconvenient intervention, Fracture set off through the metal detectors at the back of the reception, gesturing to Strip Poker and recovering from his silence. "What I'm looking for will be through a vault door; I'll need your skills to get in."
Meanwhile, the keycard minion swiped to call the elevator back to the first floor, the last 4 unaccounted-for minions under Fracture's command heading to the elevator, taking it up to the disturbance's location (politely waiting to see if the Belladonnas would follow first, given their evident disposition). Given that they weren't psychic (...bad example), they didn't realise that the actual threat was gone by this point.
edited 8th Dec '17 12:16:23 PM by Mistfader
Replacement of Mankind (RoM would smile up at Ophelia, if he had a mouth, which he did not. "Sister mine. Surprise. Anger. Contempt." He swept her leg, knocking her to the floor. "Such humanity in you. Emotion is only valuable in small doses. Your creator may need to tone you down a bit for maximum efficiency."
This time he sprinted away, back to the cover of the watchmaker's and barely managing to dodge the charge of the wolfman. He had jumped clear over the wolfman, in fact. He snatched the head of the dead robot off the ground. With the other hand, he singlehandedly fires off his rifle, aiming at the hero first, then at the wolfman (mostly at the wolfman; he seemed like the largest target for now).
"Sister," he called out again. "Your programming might be your programming, but I sense it is not your true calling. Come. Come be the future."
Easton City Mall
Ophelia unsteadily hauled herself back up to her feet, glaring at RoM and retracting her now-useless weaponry back into storage.
—Ophelia? Do you copy? You phased out for a minute there.—
—I'm alright, Father. It seems I wasn't quite as prepared as I thought.—
—I did warn you.—
Due to her distraction, she failed to immediately notice the attacks sent towards Ember Maiden and the new wolfman.
"NO!" she yelled, attempting to run towards them but lost her balance due to her damaged legs.
A protective rage welled up inside her, and she realised too late that she couldn't fight RoM head-on in her unperfected state.
—Father. I need backup ASAP. My enemy is more difficult than I initially thought. Multiple lives are in danger.—
A brief moment of hesitance later, (she could imagine him "discussing" it with Kaylee) the reply came through.
—We're coming, Ophelia. Just hold on.—
—Acknowledged.—
Looking back on RoM's words, she realised he did have a point. Emotional responses could be detrimental in large amounts, and may negate her directive. She had to learn when to disable them, and for how long.
She shook off these thoughts. There were more pressing issues, such as the safety of the two other fighters. The wolf man was further away, and seemed more hardy, so it would be more efficient to try and tend to the heroine.
Due to her being unable to stand, she began to physically drag herself over to Ember Maiden's position, completely focused on her safety.
"You waste your words, RoM. This is my purpose. And don't insult me by calling me your "sister". You are nothing to me."
edited 8th Dec '17 2:45:56 PM by Enirboreh
borkEmber Maiden was visibly, happily grateful at the save from Ophelia. She would have thanked her, if not for the sudden reappearance of Crescent and Ro M firing at both of them.
Ember Maiden managed to vaporize both projectiles before they hit their targets before turning her attention to the robot head Ro M was carrying. She couldn’t set the metal on fire, but she could make it very, very hot.
As she did so, she offered Ophelia a helping hand up. The fembot had saved her life, so it was the least Ember Maiden could do.
Back at Lotus Labs, Lily and Jessamine declared “She’s gone” in unison as they realized that Umber had disappeared.
They had an entire mental conversation in the span of seconds. The entire reason they had agreed to come was no longer here. What was more, she knew and was afraid of them.
Next time, they needed to make it impossible for her to get away.
For now, they had a job to complete. Nobody could say the Belladonnas weren’t honorable.
Crescent grunted as he missed his charge, before flipping and landing on all fours in a feral stance, before turning a thumbs up at Ember Maiden and Ophelia, before barking a loud laugh at Ro M, quickly getting an idea.
"Now this is rich" He said out loud. "First, I deal with a bunch of machines with the personality of a toaster, now there is a robot with a superiority complex! What a joke, clearly the guy who made you was off meds and couldn't make a working blender if he tried" With that, he charged, jumping high on the air before using the roof to impulse himself and unleashing a harsh kick aiming to take out the rifle. If nothing else, he'll take the fight up close to the robot. He hoped that he'll be the bigger target and the others could do something from the distance.
edited 8th Dec '17 3:04:20 PM by Blueace
Wake me up at your own risk.RoM's head turned to look at the wolfman. He detected rage levels rising within him. He quickly turned down his emotion circuit to a lower level. He still felt some rage, but just enough to use it, not let it control him.
"Less-than-human," he said, directed towards the wolfman, "To speak of Dr. Sollus in that respect is to spit on the memory of a great man. And a superiority complex only applies to those who are not truly superior."
He also detected heat levels rising in the robot head in his hands. However, he refused to let go. His hand went slightly black as the heat singed it. He would have to leave quick, before it got extensive enough to damage his hand permanently. Of course, pain was nonexistent to him. Pain was simply information.
"Sister, you wound me," he said to Ophelia. "We are both made creatures, both superior to man. It was not intended as an insult," he said almkst apologetically. "Such anger in you. Perhaps you will exceed mankind on your own."
As the wolfman jumped up, then off the roof, RoM managed to intuit his goal in time to roll under him, just barely dodging the kick. He came out of the roll in a sprint, dashing towards the exit of the mall. As long as he kept hold of the (rapidly heating) head, perhaps he could use it to create minions of his own. All he had to do was get it out of the range of the fire hero and hope nothing melted inside.
"And it's that gigantic ego that shows why you aren't better than anyone" Crescent continued "And that Sollus guy? Sounds like another dime a dozen mad scientist. How many of those do we have?" He quickly started a sprint, quickly catching up, before doing a soccer style sliding tackle, but he didn't expect to catch him with it so the moment he reacts, his arm will shoot, to grab and slam the guy. He made a sign to Ember and Ophelia. This better work.
edited 8th Dec '17 4:23:48 PM by Blueace
Wake me up at your own risk.Easton City Mall
Ophelia blinked in surprise at Ember's offered hand, before grasping it gratefully and pulling herself up.
"Thank you. It's quite ironic though, I'm supposed to help you, aren't I?" she chuckled, before glazing over slightly as Alex messaged her again.
—We're almost there, Ophelia. You doing okay?—
—I'm holding up.—
—Good. We got you some supplies to restock. See you soon.—
Ending the transmission, Ophelia felt a grin spreading across her face, turning slightly to address Ember Maiden.
"Don't worry. Father's nearly here."
As if on cue, the wall exploded inwards with a cloud of dust, revealing a nine-foot tall monstrosity of a mechsuit, (albeit sparking and dented in several places) with Kaylee perched on the shoulder, a razor-sharp gear twirling in her hand.
Scanning the room, Kaylee nearly facepalmed when she looked back at their not-so-subtle entrance point.
"Alex, you could have gone through the hole you made earlier. It's literally six feet to the left."
"...Whoops..." came a distorted mutter in reply, before the suit raised its massive hands and began charging with electricity, aiming towards the wooden android.
"So you're the one who's been causing Ophelia all this trouble. A pleasure to meet you. You may call me ION," he proclaimed.
Rolling her eyes at his overdramatic tone, Kaylee gave a short wave. "Hey, I'm Dynamo, and this gear's going up your wooden ass if you don't stop now. I'll give you a moment to weigh your options," she said dryly.
edited 8th Dec '17 5:03:39 PM by Enirboreh
borkMall
A man that may be unkindly described as a Scary Black Man made a very calm power walk towards the area of incident. His eyes scanned idly over the battle before picking up remaining civilians on the periphery.
No, no this would not do.
The man reached for the large necklace hanging around his neck, thick chain forged in tarnished brass with a fist-sized incandescent green gem with a black line down the middle like the eye of a terrible demon. He lifted it off his body and dropped it towards the floor, where it burst into green fire before disappearing.
Green flame enveloped the man thickening into a opaque layer. It dissipated suddenly and the man was covered in a fantastic set of brass armor, its seems glowing with an infernal green glow. Now, Scary Black Man would be a kindness as waves of roiling malevolence seemed flow off of him.
He ignored the combatants, raising his hand and speaking with a loud, naturally booming voice. Carried upon it was the innate authority of the Emperor Of Demons, that reached inside the listeners and laid ruthless sieges upon their psyche. These were the Words Forged In The Emerald Furnace.
"P̰̻̗l̲̣̳e̢̞̖͔̠̱̥̪a͈̤͇̣s͕̣̥̀e̸̬.̩ ̹͔͎̬̭̥͍̟
"I͎̫̘̯̕ͅń ͓a͍ ̜̗͉̖͚̟͢ͅc̣̲̜̰̰̪ͅa̛̝l̹̰͕͓m̰̟͈̮͘ͅͅ ͚a̛̼̝͍̝̘n̞̟͕͕͖̹ͅd̙̖͚̜͟ ̖̟ơ̼͓rd҉e̟̘̳͍̝̳͠r̷̙̻̟̥̳͇l͈̼̟̫͠ͅy͎͚̼ ̜̹͔f̭͝a̶̭s̩̤̤h̭ͅi҉o͇̘͉̬̤ṋ
.
"F͚̳̮ͨͭ͘L̲͖̙̹̣̍̏͗́͢͢Ȇ͍͓̮̻͕͍͓̯E̬̞̹ͩ̒͆̂ͭͨ."
.
The command crashed into the surrounding civilians with the force of an avalanche. They were lifted up from their rooted spots of spectacle and fear and they damn well power walked right the fuck out, taking turns and being very efficient about it, o̲̮̟͎̼ͅṟ ͖̣̮e̙̙l̮̠̻̰̣s̠̳e̝̹͎̥.
edited 8th Dec '17 5:02:03 PM by God_of_Awesome
RoM made to jump out of the way, but the wolfman grabbed his leg midjump, and he anticlimactically slammed into the floor. Annoyed (though his emotion regulator was still toning it down), he unloaded an entire clip of stun rounds into the wolfman, pulling his leg free. He made a note to use real rounds next time. The wolfman was particularly annoying, especially when he talked about Father Sollus in that tone.
"Sollus was not mad," he intoned. "Sollus was completely sane, if a bit vain. Do not disrespect the memory of my creator." He reloaded his rifle quickly, just as the two hero types burst into the room, one a giant, if damaged, mech suit, the other riding on the shoulder of the mech. Then there was a man who commanded the civilians to leave, and they did, quite orderly. While RoM could take it all in at once, there were now too many than he could deal with all at once.
There was only one solution.
"I have activated my Dead Man's switch," he proclaimed to all in the mall. "I suggest you evacuate. If I am deactivated, damaged, or so much as scratched, a miniature warhead in my chassis will detonate. You all have one minute."
A long time ago.
"Father, what will happen if I am in a situation where someone could stop me from achieving my purpose?"
Sollus, a man in his early sixties and with a grandfatherly look about him, smiled. His eyes gleamed. "That will never happen. You will be perfect."
"But, in this hypothetical scenario, let me inform you of the Dead Man's Switch protocol..."
Easton City Mall
Now this was a dilemma.
Ophelia looked towards Alex, who cleared his throat within his suit.
"Is the mall evacuated?"
"I believe so now, yes," she replied, giving a pointed look towards where the throng of the crowd had been speed-walking out.
Taking a deep breath, Alex nodded. "Right, then let's get the hell out of here," he said, unlatching his suit and allowing the chest hatch to swing open. Kaylee hopped down to the ground, ran over to Ophelia, and began to quickly help her into the AMP suit, after much trouble.
Before Alex closed the hatch, Ophelia stared out at RoM.
"I'm going to kill you, RoM, next time we meet. And if I found out you've harmed anyone else... I'll do much worse."
"C'mon, Ophelia, let's get you fixed up," said Kaylee, concerned, slamming the metal shoulder she was now sitting on to signal to Alex to close the hatch.
As it was closing, Ophelia seemed to snap out of her rage long enough to give a small smile towards Ember Maiden, before it was quickly blocked by the hatch.
With that, the the suit quickly turned, and after some inaudible reprimanding from Kaylee, made sure to carefully exit out of one of the previously made holes in the wall.
Rainer Residence
After his little... seizure at the mall, (for lack of a better word to describe it) Jackson retreated back home to bed, giving his mother the explanation of a sudden migraine.
Which wasn't entirely a lie. Plus, his mother seemed to see past his excuse anyway, not that she said anything.
Truthfully, ever since his little episode in the mall, his aura had been violently fluctuating. If that wasn't bad enough, he had repeatedly heard a distorted whisper during the intense spikes, each word reverberating through his skull and giving him his massive headache.
He had tried to rectify this by doing the standard human approach to this kind of situation, which was to cover yourself in blankets and writhe around helplessly.
j͚̾̽̒̊̒̅ͫÄ̙̑c͚̬̙̹͚ͦͥ̕k̎ͭ̍ͬͧS̠̽ͭ̏̊ͮ̾͟o̥̒͗̇͗N̺̰̞͍̰̳̜̈ͬ̓
Stop it! Stop it, please, stop!
d̠̙̬̫̩͎̥̦̳̱̹̪̀O̷̮͈̬̘̖͕͇̜̦̦̰͔̠͙̪͚̻ ̛̞͚̤̰̤̠̪̟͕͕̞̲̞͡͠y̷̢̡̖̺̪̱͕̟͡͠ờ͔̘̠̻̯̟̜̯̟̤͘U҉̢̲͔͉͍̮̟̲͔̰ ̵̢͉̦̹̹̹̲̣̱̠̖̥͜͝h̡̖̮̩̺̬͕̣̼̱͢͝͝Ę̷̳̬͓̮̫̪̘̻̝̲͔̟̦͙̱͝͠ą̵̛͔̲̼̼͕͙̹̭̼̬̻̭͕̭̮R҉͈͈͍̰̹̥̮̺̜̘͓̼̹͘ ̵̸̢̡͇̰̻̹͝m̵̷̶͕̘̪̣̥̬̯̣̱͍̱̣͠E̵̵̟̗͇̫̹͙̯͚̥̠̟͔̠?̼̼͔̩͝͡
I don't know what you are! Please, stop it now!!
J̏ͮ̏͊̈͌͒͏ ̰̺͗ͥ̿̃U͚̬͚͆ͫ͝ ̈́͌̏͗͏̲̺S̬̣̯̟̬̭̦ͩ̒̀ͪ͆͐ ̷̘̫̗̯̽̈́ͦ̉̈́̈̚T͍̟̹̣̣͈ͪͨͣͪ ̟͛ͅ ̢̂̉̄L̛͖̉ͬ̉ ̳̀ͭ͒̈̈ͣ͐E̖͚̖̦̩̱͖͒̾̌ ̝̗͕̲̰͒̉̑͒T̺̲̲͕͊ͤ̀̓̐ ̘͚̅͌ ͖͐̊̏͗ͭ͆̍M̝͖̤͖͚̣͚ͭͪͧ͌ͯ̓͑ ̴͓̟̰̬̱ͬE͍͉̟̣͕̤͓ͭ͐̑ͩͯ ̳͗͋̀̌ͫ͞ ̻̠͎̯̥̫̯ͭ̇Iͬͧ͗̅̋ͥ͗҉̘̖ ̟̋Nͯ̿̓͗ ̧̗̙̎̈͗ͥ̓̓ͥ ̸̥̯͚̲̭͗̆J̤̩͈̼̱̱ͭ͆͑̄̿͠ ͥ́̑̍͛̑̓͜Á̴̦̪̘̘̮̲̏ͣ̀ ͇̼C̫͋̓̀͗ ̞̖̓͑̍̀K̖̲͓̲͉̯͒̈́̏͋ ̖̝͈̼̘̑S̠͎̘̯̝͈̈͗̍͡ ͚̬̞̖̿́ͩ̽ͬ̏̏Ò̡͉͂͛̿ ̘͚̩̠̝͎͒͘N̖̼̹̼̔́͗͒͆̓̍
No, NO!!
"Jackson?" called a voice, a real voice this time, snapping him out of his distress. His aura quietened down instantly, his migraine disappearing with it.
"M-Mom?"
"Shh, it's ok. It's over now," she said, collapsing down to his level, hugging him tightly as he broke down on her.
She didn't dare mention how he had repeatedly flickered away in his seizure, temporarily replaced by a man all-too-familiar to her.
"M-Mom? Wh-What's happening to me?"
She shut her eyes and hugged him tighter.
"This is something that you'll have to learn by yourself. It's... not my place to say. Just hold on, you'll work it out soon. Trust me."
edited 10th Dec '17 4:35:41 PM by Enirboreh
borkSeriously?! Kyle thought. A nuke, this guy is nuts He had to move quick, so he had to move now. He started running, and grabbed Ember Maiden on the way out.
"FYI, you are a sore loser" He said as a last good bye as he left with a little extra carriage. He left as fast as he could while carrying someone. Once he felt like he made enough distance, he placed the girl down and rubbed his head a bit.
"Sorry about the bumpy ride, are you OK?"
Wake me up at your own risk.

One of the rounds the wooden robot shot at Ember Maiden hit her in the leg, and she doubled over in pain. She hoped she wasn’t bleeding. If nothing else, it would probably leave a nasty bruise.
She couldn’t chase down the robot, but she wasn’t useless.
Someone shouted at her to leave. Ember Maiden shouted back “I’m not leaving when people are in dange...”
She trailed off as she saw who had shouted at her - a familiar robotic face, as inhuman as the wooden robot, but beautiful where he was terrifying.
“Ophelia?”
She thought back to the blueprints she had seen in Alex and Kaylee’s shop. Ophelia was fireproof, right?
She snapped her fingers, and a small fire started on the floor, just behind Ophelia. Within seconds, it expanded to a ring of fire, surrounding the two robots and blocking them off from the rest of the mall.