No.4354[View All]
>Date: October 31st, 2017
>Location: The Hollows - Below Sanctuary City
>Time: 12:02am
>Below the dense city streets of Sanctuary lies a maze of tunnels, passages, and chambers. Some of these are simply maintenance tunnels, others parts of previous versions of the city, simply built on top of when the time came for something new, and others yet make up parts of secret routes that have been made, used, and abandoned over the years.
>Within this warren, an undercity has formed, across these tunnels, caves, and mazes, various pockets of people, whether it's those spurned by society, or those just simply seeking a life away from the surface, have formed groups, even settlements in some cases.
>Even further below the tunnels, and sometimes between them, lie the natural caves below Sanctuary City.
>Within one of these caves, a calm lake sits, a small hole within it providing a clear path to somewhere on the surface, outside of the actual city itself, through which the moon shines, a clear image of its lunar body being visible on lake's calm surface.
>At the edge of the lake, a young woman sits, humming a tune to herself, never opening her eyes as she does, a headpiece of crossing lines covering them. From the back of her head, a set of four white, feathered wings sprout, each pair perfectly synchronised, "balancing" the other pair out.
>As the woman hums to herself, another woman enters the cave, a pair of antlers sprouting from the top of her head, and stands behind the young woman, waiting.
>Without any prompting, the young woman stops singing.
"Ah. . . soon there will be visitors. . ."
————————————————————————————————-
>Further up in The Hollows
>Within a more built up area, a group of men stands around a table, at which a woman sits at the head, quietly tapping the side of her head and reacting as if she hears something.
>Narrowing her eyes, the woman leans forward.
"They're planning something, I want you to be ready."
————————————————————————————————-
>Elsewhere in The Hollows
>A redheaded woman climbs up a makeshift tunnel and stops, kicking the side of it to make some noise, getting the attention of a man outside.
"Hey, pass the package."
>The man walks over to a backpack across the room and carefully takes out a package from it, walking over to the tunnel and lifting up to the entrance, where the woman's legs wrap around it and she contorts her body to bring the package up to her hands.
"Thanks, only a few more of these to go. . ."
63 posts and 99 image replies omitted. Click reply to view. No.4433
>>4432>Omnius gets ready to snap at the woman, before holding his tongue. He takes a moment to calm down."Don't call me that. Who the hell are you?"
>He pauses for a moment to think."And why do you know anything about me?"
No.4434
>>4433>The woman tilts her head."That is what you are, are you not?"
>Not answering the next question for a few moments, the woman instead "looks" out across the lake, the place where her gaze would rest firmly being on the centre of the moon's reflection."Equinox, that is what they call me now, so you may use it too. I know of many things, I know of the spheres and their rotations, I know that the flowers wish to talk to your sister, I know you wish of many things. . ."
>Equinox stops swaying her feet."I know I wish for my corpus back. But I do not know what you wish for most."
No.4435
>>4434"Well right now I wish you would stop being so cryptic."
>Omnius hovers a little closer to the woman to get a better look of her."Okay, so you're some kind of wizard…? You seem like the type. What is it you want?"
No.4436
>>4435>Equinox tilts her head again."Were you not comfortable? You may sit here if you wish."
>The woman indicates to a space on the ledge next to her, then "gazes" out at the lake again."If you could, what would you do to bring back your mother? How many would you sacrifice? A person? A group? A city?"
No.4438
>>4437>The woman looks up at Omnius, then opens her eyes for a brief moment, looking at and through him at the same time, the visual of her eyes being open somehow looking to Orion like they're open, closed, present, and not present all at the same time, sometimes "glitching", while also somehow looking normal."It sits there, even if pained."
>Equinox closes her eyes again, the act returning everything to normal."I offer nothing, I simply wanted to know your answer."
No.4439
>>4438>Omnius feels his stomach drop. He floats backwards a bit, unnerved. "…You're actually not human."
>His eyes dart around the room, as he tries to think. After a while, his gaze returns to the woman, albeit reluctantly. "I don't know. I have no answer."
No.4440
>>4439>Equinox is silent again, then "looks" out across the lake at the moon's reflection."It is beautiful, is it not? I was there when it came into existence. . ."
>Equinox goes silent for a few moments."Others are not as unsure as you, they would sacrifice as many as it takes to see family. Your sister cannot stop them, that beauty will be scarred. . . you will make a choice before the silver gate. . ."
>Equinox holds a hand up in the air, "reaching" up to the moon above."I have seen it and it has been said, so it will be true, the scales have been tipped. . ."
>Equinox's "gaze" moves over to Omnius again."Your sister really should say hello to the flowers."
No.4441
>>4440"…You brought me here to make some kind of prophecy?"
>His feet now touch the ground, he ignores the flowers comment. "What happens now? Are we enemies?"
No.4442
>>4441"Do you wish to be enemies?"
>Equinox tilts her head."Would you not be more concerned with the one in the building you left? She threatens the one close to you."
>Not standing up, Equinox brings her hand down."I could fight you though, if that is what you wish."
No.4443
>>4442"Er… no. I'm not interested in a fight- Wait, what?"
>His eyes widen. "How do I get out of here? I need to go back!"
>Orion begins looking around frantically, searching for an exit. No.4444
>>4443"Ah, so you were unaware. . ."
>Equinox stands up, her feet not touching the ground, and walks over to Omnius."I can tip the scales, just this once. . ."
>Holding two fingers up, Equinox taps his helmet where his forehead would be."Consider it payment, for conversation. . ."
>The world spins around Omnius, fading away as if he's falling asleep, before going completely to black.
>Moments later, Omnius "wakes" up on the floor of the room in Futures Tower that he and Madeleine were in before the attack began, now finding it empty and without any power, the circular form of the gateway looming above him, dead and silhoeutted in the darkness. No.4445
>>4444>Omnius picks himself off the floor, and stares up at the gateway. "Madeleine!"
>Omnius shouts, while looking around the room. "Where are you!?"
>Omnius begins reaching out, searching for Madeleine's mind. No.4448
>>4447>Within the safe room, the red-eyed woman sighs and waves her hand, causing Madeleine to drop from being suspended in the air.". . .you try to work with them and they give you nothing."
>Moving her hand over to the opposite side of the room, the woman causes the doors to fly across and slam into their frame, locking them shut."What did you say, they could survive a nuclear blast?"
>The woman directs the questionat Dr Hiram."I should probably reinforce them a little."
>The entire building shakes as it starts to fall faster than before as some of the psionic force holding it up is shifted away, instead wrapping itself around the safe room to form a protective layer.
>As she does this, the woman grits her teeth a little.". . .admittedly a little harder than what I had planned, but nothing I can't handle~."
No.4450
>>4449>The woman flinches as the doors explode, but soon recovers, bringing her umbrella around over her head."That's an impressive show of strength, but
I have all the cards~"
>The woman jerks her head over to Madeleine."Dear, would you be so kind as to come here~"
>Madeleine resists for a moment, then steps over to stand by the woman's side."You may be a powerful psion, but two heads are better than one. Besides, if you hit me too hard, well. . ."
>The woman dramatically gestures around at the crowd."You and I might survive the fall, but would everyone? It's still a good drop left."
>Her own eyes glowing as if to counter the purple glow from Omnius's helmet, the woman points to him."So, why don't you do as I asked? Just let me bring the building down, and no one will get hurt whats. so. ever~"
No.4453
>>4452{"Bit you? So she's venomous?"}
>He thinks for a moment. ''{"Remember when my cousin pulled us into the Astral Plane? If I could just do the same, the state of your body shouldn't affect your mind…"}
>Omnius focuses his attention on the woman once more."I don't negotiate with bitches."
>Reality melts away, as the light itself seems to shatter all across the room inside and out. Swirling vortexes of lights in all colors real and unreal swallow the room, as it now floats about in the endless sea of the Astral Plane.
>Omnius lunges forward, and then plants his boot on the woman's torso, throwing her back and across the room. No.4454
>>4453"Now-"
>The woman doesn't have time to finish her sentence as reality melts away, flying back from the force but managing to right herself easily with a slight amount of psionic force."Where did you. . ."
>The woman looks around, her eyes a much more natural blue as she does.". . .I feel. . . good. . . wait. . . no!"
>The woman snaps her head in Madeleine's direction."Dear~ why don't you provide me a distraction?"
>Madeleine stands still for a moment, then shakes her head."You
bit me, so. . . no."
>The woman is silent for a moment, surprised, then breaks out into a frenzied laugh.". . .why can't
anything ever work out like it's meant to!"
>As the woman says the word "anything", a wave of force bursts out from her, causing Madeleine to have to bring up her arm to block it, still not moving."
Fine, I tried to be nice, but I'll just have to go
through you instead."
>The woman looks up at Omnius and Madeleine, hatred in her eyes as they transition to red again. No.4456
>>4455>As the woman flies towards her, Madeleine moves her hand up, pointing two fingers upwards as she holds it out in front of the woman's trajectory, causing a tangle of vines and thorns to burst out of the ground and wrap around her, constricting her tightly within them."I've never done anything like this before, but that's how you do it, right?"
>Madeleine points at the mess of vines."Do you think they're cool, I got the idea off Brutasuba. . . you know, General DeSadius?"
>The vines twist and tight again, then start ot crumble apart as they turn grey and wither, with the woman bursting out of the top of them, having gained a pair of bat-like wings somewhere in the process.
>As she hovers above the pair, the dust from the vines flies up around her, turning into a reddish-purple energy that gathers above her, the "walls" of the room and the traps soon following it. As this process happens, the woman pants slightly, exhausted yet still looking at the pair with anger in her eyes."Will you. . . shut up! How can I be
losing to the likes of you?! You're. . . idiots! Losers! Talking about your inane references and refusing to even
consider a deal!"
>The ball of energy above the woman finishes collecting what remains of the constructs around, she looks over her shoulder at it."This. . . though, is useful, I wouldn't be able to do anything like this normally, that was a good trick that you pulled off, I'll have to try and learn it later. . ."
>The woman gives a tired wave, causing the ball of energy to start crashing down towards Madeleine and Omnius."I won't be able to learn it off you, after all."
No.4457
>>4456"That was great Maddie, you're a natural."
>Omnius turns his attention towards the woman and her massive orb of energy. He watches as it begins to crash towards him."You're powerful, one of the strongest I've seen. But I've fought better."
>Omnius holds his palm palm forward, psychic energy crackling around his fingertips."Check this one out. I don't care much for the series, but I thought this was cool."
>The energy erupts from Omnius's fingertips, twirling and spinning around each other before converging into a massive drill. It smashes into the ball of energy, halting it's progress as it begins to drill into it. No.4458
>>4457>As the two energies clash, a wave of force is sent out in all directions, nearly knocking Madeleine aside before she holds out a hand to protect herself.
>The energy from the woman holds for a moment, pushing against Omnius's with a renewed force for a moment before faltering, pausing its advance, then breaking apart into several streams of energy as its fully pierced and broken apart.
>Seeing this, the woman puts one of her hands forward."No!"
>Omnius's energy collides with the woman's hand, travelling around her like a torrent of water breaking against a rock.
>Once it dies down, however, the woman pants for a few moments, then suddenly plummets "down" like a rock, "colliding" with the "floor" that Omnius and Madeleine are standing on before trying to pick herself up, only managing to half stand-up as she holds the arm she used to shield herself."I. . . I. . . have to. . . win. . ."
No.4460
>>4459>The woman stumbles slightly, but still remains standing."No!"
>Pulling herself up, the woman points her "injured" arm forward, attempting to pull out more energy from the surroundings, only managing to get a few faint sparks of red lightning before her arm falls down again.". . .I. . . can't. . . I have to. . ."
>The woman falls down to her knees, unable to hold her own weight anymore.". . .I need to win. . . I need it. . ."
>The woman looks up at Omnius. No.4463
>>4462"You're welcome."
>The room begins to move upwards. Omnius turns to face Dr. Hiram."Sorry that your grand opening got ruined."
>After several more moments the room shakes a little as it's placed down on firm ground back on the surface. He looks at Madeleine."Is there anything you can do to get that venom out of her quickly? I'm not sure if it's your area of expertise or not but better you than me."
No.4464
>>4463"O-oh. . . yeah. . . and we'll have to arrange handling the building being moved or reinforced. . ."
>Dr Hiram's tone indicates that the comment isn't a hint of any sort to Omnius, just a simple ". . .we could take a look at her, but without a clear idea on what the venom is, there's little we can do outside of just waiting for her to naturally recover - it could be dangerous to flush it out without knowing what it does exactly."
>As Dr Hiram talks, a few members of building staff make their way over to Madeleine, carefully checking her over. No.4466
>>4465>Orion is given a few moments before he's shooed away from the impromptu first aid station as more people are brought to the doctors, including the security personnel knocked out by the woman's entry into the room.
>Some time later, several MRD officers enter the room, having entered the room from the outside, and collect the woman's unconscious body, a few remaining to ask questions of the people in the room, hoping to gain a further understanding of the events of the day.
>As the remaining MRD officers ask their questions, one of the doctors approaches Orion."Hi, you were watching us as we looked over the blonde woman, right? She said you know her. I just wanted to say that she's going to be fine, the venom should all be out of her system now. In fact, the more concerning thing was the bite point, she lost a fair amount of blood from it. . ."
>The doctor coughs.". . .anyway, it should be fine if she leaves now, assuming the MRD doesn't want to ask you any questions."
No.4470
>>4469>Despite some lingering blood thanks to a lack of medical supplies for the situation at hand, Madeleine's arm seems generally fine, with an expertly done dressing sitting over the place where she was bitten. A slight wince from Madeleine when Orion grabs the arm is enough to indicate that some pain still remains.". . .a little out of it, but it's fine. . . it's fine. . ."
>Madeleine looks down at her arm, then at Orion."You can let go of it now."
No.4471
>>4470>Orion seems distracted, still carefully examining her arm. "Huh? Oh. Sorry."
>He lets go of her."Sorry I'm just glad you're okay. I wasn't sure if I did the right thing or not just letting you return to your body so soon…"
No.4472
>>4471"It didn't hurt. . ."
>Madeleine gives Orion a look as if to say "really"."I mean it. . . it was just weird because I'd think one thing and then she'd tell me to do something else and then I'd
really want to do it. . ."
>Madeleine shrugs.". . .it only started hurting after the thing wore off, so I guess it had some kind of painkiller in or something? Just very weird."
————————————————————————————————-
>Some time later.
>An MRD prisoner car drives across the city, holding a single prisoner - the woman who attacked the tower. As it turns and heads into a tunnel heading towards the spire, the woman opens her eyes, their red glow more obvious thanks to the dim conditions inside the vehicle. Cracking her neck, the woman pauses as the MRD officers within the prisoner area point their weapons at her in response.". . .lovely."
>Finishing her stretch, the woman looks over at the nearest officer."Do you want to know an interesting fact about Meta-Human dampening techniques?"
>The officer is silent, not engaging with her."I'll tell you anyway~"
>The woman's right arm snaps forward, breaking the bonds around her arm and grabbing the officer."They don't work on powers that aren't derived from the Meta-Gene~"
>The woman slams the officer into the side of the vehicle with a noticeable crack, causing his helmet to fall apart as the man himself goes limp.
>Reacting as quickly as their training allows, the rest of the officers let out a volley into the woman, their bullets ripping into her skin with enough force to kill a regular person.
>Looking down at the bullet holes, the woman sighs."Do you know how hard it is to maintain this~?"
>The sound of falling bullets takes over the vehicle for a moment as the woman's wounds heal themselves, the bullets dropping uselessly to the ground.
>As the woman's wounds finish healing, her head tilts."Oh, it's flushed, good."
>With another flex from the woman the vehicle explodes around her, sending the components in every direction across the tunnel, the passengers soon following them.
>Floating down to the ground, the woman looks around at the carnage caused by her actions, then sighs."Not what I wanted, but at least I'll fight another day~. . ."
————————————————————————————————-
>Location: Orion's House - Sanctuary City
>With a long day completed, Madeleine collapses onto one of her additions to Orion's home - a bean bag that sits alongside the other couches and chairs in his lounge.
>Looking at her now-cleaned arm, Madeleine sighs."You know what I'd like, us to have some kind of event or trip without something happening. . ."
>Looking over at Orion, Madeleine shrugs."Just for a change, you know? Before that, though, do you think you should tell your sister about the weird stuff you ran into?"
"I mean. . . weird dog creatures, cryptic ladies talking about choices and all that. . . seems like her kind of thing?"
>Madeleine coughs awkwardly, mumbling to herself:"Plus it would be nice to see her without weird drama hanging over the meeting as well. . ."
No.4473
>>4472"Oh yeah. I should probably let the MRD know about those dog things."
>Orion slouches in a chair near Madeleine's bean bag. "And yeah I can ask my sister to come visit when she's not busy. I haven't talked to her that much lately though."
No.4474
>>4473"Would the MRD be the right people? I mean, they handle Meta-Human things, right? Dog people sounds like. . ."
>Madeleine thinks for a moment.". . .the army? Pest control? The EPA? I really don't know who would deal with that kind of thing. . ."
>Madeleine sighs and shrugs.". . .and that just means you should do it even more, you should try to hold onto the good family you have, it's important to have people who can support you."
No.4475
>>4474"Yeah, you're right. I'll try and give her a call tomorrow then. And for the… dog… things… I dunno, maybe I'll just have to go back down there myself. I'd probably have an easier time rooting them out than most people anyway."
>Omnius thinks about the tunnels and the caverns. "Did you know people were living under the city the entire time? I mean, I'm not surprised that maybe a couple homeless people would be living in some kind of sewer drain or something. But I didn't know there was basically a little underground civilization there."
No.4476
>>4475"Just try to be safe if you do - sometimes things have hidden sides to them."
>Madeleine's voice seems to have a genuine tone of concern."I mean, I'd heard rumours that there were some people down there, but I thought it was the same as you, just a few people down on thier luck, maybe a few people using the sewers for trafficking and the like. . ."
". . .nothing like what you've found out today."
No.4477
>>4476"Well someone has to look out for the people down there. So I guess I better add it to the list."
>He thinks. "I wonder where those things came from. There were enough to literally flood the tunnel, and there's definitely more of them in hiding…"
No.4478
>>4477"Maybe they have someone for that already? It could be a good idea to reach out to them and speak to them in less. . . tense circumstances."
>Nodding along to Orion's thoughts, Madeleine adds:"That might be something your sister knows, or something someone she knows knows. . . what I'm more worried about is
why they're down there, you mentioned they took the one man away, what if they're planning some kind of attack?"
No.4479
>>4478"There's gotta be a reason, and someone or something's behind it. I'll ask my sister what she thinks if I can get a hold of her tomorrow."
>Orion looks at Madeleine."By the way… I was thinking… if you wanted some time we could go back to the Astral Plane, and maybe we could… practice. It could be fun."
No.4480
>>4479"We could. . ."
>Madeleine looks down at her bandaged arm, then sighs - a long tired sigh."Not today though, today's been too long. . . today. . ."
>Madeline looks over at Orion's TV.". . .today I just want to sit back and watch some crappy seasonal anime that we can rip apart."
No.4481
>>4480"Yeah not today."
>The TV remote hovers over to Orion's hand. He casually tosses it over to Madeleine."I'll be nice and let you have the first pick, since you've been through so much today. But you owe me later."
>Orion smiles playfully, then sinks back further in his seat. No.4482
>>4481"What if I pick something you want to tear apart too? What happens then? Do I still owe you?"
>Madeleine flicks through the options on the TV with the remote before settling on one."Oh, Maoumusume has a new season, let's go for that. . ."
[The End]