Masks 2

"I'm not sure if creating cyborg animals is exactly ethical, Blackstar."

Ken and Sam debated the ethics of cyborg eldritch artillery.

Zil got up, helping fend off the attacking fish with fire while Finn got up and began swinging her sword. Lightning and ice came out in equal measure as the two cleaved through countless attacking fish. Candy let out her screams, devastating entire squads while the Demon shot off blasts of lightning and ice. Nocturne and La Chat fought at their best, beating, slicing, and hacking the Fish down.

Maria and Chalchi used their water together, slamming down waves of enemies as they facilitated Theraea's work. Siren kept up her assault on the tentacles, stabbing and prying off the remainder of them.

Down in the Chasm, Theraea reached into the deepest wells of her power. She was far from the greatest Weaver mage, and this was well beyond her abilities.

But she had to try.

Unleashing growing wisps of black Abyssal energy, she focused inward and stretched the wisps across the portal. Each latched onto a portion of the rim.

And then they began to pull, vast waves of purple and orange energy washing over the whirlpool. She felt her very soul being burned as the throbbing in her head throbbed through her body. Buckling down involuntarily to her knees, her body seemed to stretch and warp as the pressure nearly tore her apart. Bursts of screaming erupted from her lungs as pain overcame her.

A massive tentacle slammed down at her, but Lady Light punched it back, keeping her safe and her concentration secure.

As the portal drew to a close, Theraea saw two giant eyes staring at her through the murky whirlpool and she felt a voice in her mind.

"I WILL RETURN, WEAVER. IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE."

And then the portal bubbled closed, cutting off the last of the tentacles. The chasm of teeth around her began to yellow and rot, and the black veins that ran throughout the temple began to fade and disappear. The Fish, though, didn't revert back to their humans form. Rather, a kind of aggressive feral madness seemed to overcome them.

Theraea had undergone changes as a result of this experience. Her wings now had shades of purple and black mixed in, and her fluffy body was now covered in black veiny patterns. Her eyes had also gone from black to a very dark purple.

Following the portal's closure, Theraea collapsed to the ground. All strength was gone from her body, though she was still faintly conscious.

Esen pushes herself up to a sitting position and looks around at the battle.

"Thanks, Theraea. You're a real hero," she says, looking to her. She stands and tests her hookshot, coiling it through the air until she's satisfied she has control. Then she turns to the fish hordes and just walks forward until they're in range, slashing and slicing with all of her ability.

"..."

Theraea coughed.

"...Ow."

Weakly, she threw up a thumbs-up. It'd be on the others to finish this now.

Finn swings her blade wide and strong!! She begins pulling back - the tighter their formation, the easier it'll be to hold these guys off together!

"Aye, that's nice and all - now what's the plan fer gettin' out of here!?"

Siren floated above the portal in Maria’s bubble, snarling at the rubble where it had been. Then, she grabbed a chunk of the temple and hurled it straight into the middle.

“FUCK.”

Another chunk, as hard as she could. Preferably something supporting a roof.

“YOU!”

She flips it a solid double bird then starts grabbing people, starting with the wounded - as many as she can carry. “Thanks, thank y’all so much, just hang on, please, okay? Just lemme get you out of here before you start killing me!” She’s going to zoom then yo to somewhere with air, leaving Maria for the last batch so those below could breathe.

Siren began to grab people, swimming them rapidly back to the surface two at a time!

First came the wounded. Or more, the recently wounded since Darkmagic's healing bullets had worked wonders.

The last two left were Maria and the Demon. The Demon insisted on being there last with Maria, as she was both old as hell and rather hard to kill. Together, they fended off the Fish hordes long enough to be picked up!

Siren successfully got everybody out of the underwater temple and back up to the surface! They were back at the ramp they'd first taken down to the Undercity! The city was still a fish-infested mess on the surface, with jellyfish floating through the sky zapping everything they could and swarms of Fishmen patrolling the streets.

Now on the surface, Nocturne's radio finally sprang to life.

"What?" he asked. "Oh...oh shit..."

He looked to the group.

"The Omnicorp is preparing to nuke Rainwalk."

"Ya'll think there's survivors still? Maybe we could talk the Omnicorps out of- yeah no that sounded just as ridiculous comin' out my mouth."

Sam shook his head.

"Unless Hackerman can hack the nuke we might just need to cut and run... or unless one of ya'll has a nuke-disablin' ability yer hidin'."

“I’m going to be real. I don’t think I can hack that nuke, and even if I could, if my memory of Omnicorp is still good, it’s not going to be the only nuke. Big O likes things through and excessive, just like capitalism! Ha!”

“Let’s get out of here.”

Theraea was still lying on the floor in kind of a daze.

"Nuke? That's... okay, um, that's... bad, right? Really bad? We should... um, we should probably go. Like Ken said."

Cool! Great. Second time contemplating the destruction of a huge swath of Texas, really needed to make a habit of this. When Old Lady Squad got dropped off, Maria made a point to stick by Siren, and would take a hold of the girl's hand if she seemed even REMOTELY open to it. Wasn't time for Unpacking yet but like, jeez. Wanted to be just. Even remotely comforting- that was how you got CONTROL over anything in your freakin' life, defaulting to vague concepts of caregiving. For sure.

"... Yeah. We can't-" get people out fast enough? Handle anyone in there, currently? Stop a series of nukes? "... We just can't, let's, let's move..."

Steppy steppy. She'd pick up stragglers if she had to. No time.

Ken (and Polybius) leaves. To the dropship.

"Fuck, well at least we saved the world right? Christ."

Esen goes to the dropship to get the hell out of dodge!

Nocturne called in the dropship, and Lady Light flew around the LZ clearing it by blasting the jellyfish out of the sky.

Once the dropship landed and the ramp lowered, they all piled on before it took off. Lady Light stayed outside, providing cover as the ship left the vicinity of Rainwalk. The ship was fast, and had them well out of the blast radius by the time the explosion was detected on the sensors.

"God..." Nocturne said as the report came in. "Those monsters."

La Chat gave him a hug at that, trying to console him after the absolute clusterfuck that mission had been. Then she went to Candy, giving her a pat on the shoulder as well. Lady Light flew in through the ramp (lowered by Nocturne) once they were clear while the Demon went and sat on one of the dropship seats astounded by what had happened.

A short while later, the dropship touched down at a rather nondescript bit of wilderness in New Mexico. The ramp came down, and Nocturne stepped off the ship. They were in a shallow canyon surrounded by large rocky outcroppings and deep caves. Good cover, and lots of room to camp while they waited for ships to take them home.

"All right, guys. All things considered? We did everything we could," he stated, addressing the group once they were off the ship. "We stopped that god's plans, we got Siren out of there, and we didn't lose anybody. The aftermath...that's on the Omnicorp. Nothing we could do about that. You guys were great, all of you."

He sighed deeply, then looked to Siren.

"Can't imagine what you've been through. If you need anything from me, anything at all, just ask. Okay?"

Theraea stumbled off the ship. Oof, that took a lot out of her. On the bright side, she'd upgraded to a cool Goth Aesthetic, so like... trade-offs.

"...I guess that could have gone worse," she said, looking around blearily. She looked tired as hell. "Um... Good job, everyone."

Nocturne's words startle Siren out of the do-or-die haze she was in while rushing people out of the temple. As soon as its gone she misses the haze. At least then she knew what to do.

"Thanks. Thank you. I..." Don't really deserve help! "I'll be okay." Unlike everyone else in her city. As the nuke went off, her mind theatre was playing a steady loop of her sorority friends and parents and, God, Allison, out there somewhere with a family, burning to ash in a blinding nuclear flash. If she hadn't already killed them.

Siren is very much not going to be okay!

"But - Why did you- No! A god could have saved them, or, like... a wizard, right?" They were in the future, there had to be some tech. Or magic. She couldn't be the only one who made it out.

"There was nothing we could do about that," Nocturne replied. "If we stopped a nuke, somehow, they'd have just sent more. We had to evacuate."

Esen steps out of the dropship and walks to sit down on a rock. She still can't believe what happened. The city, that god, the nuke... She puts her head in her hands and groans.

Finn flops against the wall.

"I need a fuckin' drink."

Theraea realized she should probably check on something.

She walked a bit of a distance from the group and opened the portal into her apartment. Needed to make sure there wasn't still a dangerous tentacle inside.

Esen went out to sit on a rock. It was still afternoon, and the summer heat of New Mexico was quite dry and punishing. Still, nothing she couldn't handle as she tried to get a grip on what the fuck had just happened.

Finn stated her wish for a drink and the Demon laughed. "Think we all do," was her response.

Theraea went and checked her apartment, finding the place UTTERLY THRASHED. The tentacle, though, seemed to be gone.

Well. At least she didn't have to take care of that. Theraea searched the place for any drinks she could possibly distribute that didn't get destroyed. Maybe even some water. Humans needed water all the time.

Theraea was able to fill up a nice glass of water! The dropship itself had a sink, but it was the thought that counted.

Oh.

Well, Theraea still brought water for everyone. She felt like she had to do something after that horrible a day. Probably better than nothing. Probably.

Ken is excessively smoking on his vape because whoof, that nuke incident, reminded him of the carpet-bombing incident that destroyed his previous place of employment.