IC: Reclaiming the Void Options

[BishopMcQ]

Team

Wolves bay in the distance as mana warps reality around the orks. Thunder booms in your minds and a cold wind cuts off the baying. The spell crashes into the crosswinds and ceases to be.

[Buddha72]

D'zan curses in Sperethiel as his magic is pushed aside, his face hot with embarassment not his change of plans producing no results. He seeks a target for his shame and anger and quickly finds one as he yells to the team.

"Will one of you black rock people ask who these people are and what they want?"

Leo flies next to Papa and places his hands on his wounds as he begins to sing. The air around him grows warmer and the smell of new growth fills the air. He sends the weaves of mana into his flesh looking to restore it to it's healthy whole state and seal the wounds. He speaks gently to Papa as the song end.

"He is right, the oracle should be able to help us here. You struck the bargain, you should get all you can before the price is due."

[BishopMcQ]

Team

Argent's loping stride is cut short by the impact of the bursts. His body jerks to one side as he falls limply to the ground. Upon the astral, his aura dims briefly but stays steady. He's still alive, though for how long is unclear at a glance.

The lead ork, chuckles deeply as he watches the slim man fall to the ground. His rifle tracks through the air at the spirit whose magic had been ineffectual. "Be gone." Two cracks from the rifle are heard as he fires at Quahtli.

[BishopMcQ]

Team

The spirit weaves through the air, diving down to the earth. Quahtli comes to a skittering halt behind the bench that Uetz has taken cover behind. The ork roars in fury, screaming epithets in a language none of you speak.

[JxJxA]

Uetz eyes trace the Orc's shots towards Quauhtli, his face twisting into an expression of horror. However, he can feel his twin's battlefury and exhilaration as she twists and weaves out of harm's way. When she dips and speeds towards him, she lands with sharp talons digging into the pavement below her. She cranes her head towards Uetz and gives him a quick wink. If the eagle could smile, she would be wearing huge grin on her face.

[Redjack]

Papa continues as the scene devolves to chaos around him. He twists as the round slams into his shoulder when he steps between the shooter and Argent. Seeing Argent continue then fall as the magical healing courses through his body, he pulls a grenade into each hand from his harness, pulling the pin from the first before throwing it into the face of the center ork sniping Argent.

[BishopMcQ]

Papa

The warm wind inside your skull blows gently as you drop behind a heavy concrete trash receptacle. They are the distraction to buy time for the others to take their true prize.

Team

Before the gunfire has a chance to die off, the two kneeling orks twist at the hip slightly. Each continues laying down a barrage of suppressive fire, one towards the bench Uetz has taken cover behind and the other in Papa's direction. The center ork dips, the weapon falling loose from his hands and hanging on the sling. In one hand, he scoops up the grenade. With the strength of a professional baseball player, he hurls it toward the glass fronted building nearby.

The knife-fighting ork flips the dull gray knife in his hand once and flicks it hard at D'zan. He shouts "Fade away!" as the knife soars. The ork's frame belies the strength behind the throw. The knife cuts through the air with near the speed of a bullet.

[BishopMcQ]

Team

Despite the pixie's best efforts to get out of the way, the knife connects. The metal sends ripples of pain through D'zan's senses as the core of his being rejects it. The weight of the blade tears free of his body and falls to the ground below.

[JxJxA]

Uetz cannot bear to watch the outcome of the blade impacting the pixie. He is either dead, or alive. No sense in dwelling in it. If he is dead, then may he enjoy the paradise of Tlalocan. Instead, he turns his attention to the very immediate issue of increasing the odds of his survival.

"You forsook me once in my time of need, and painted the ground red with my blood. Perhaps you thought me unworthy, perhaps you thought that battle was not fated to befall us, or perhaps you required a sacrifice to pay heed to my solemn supplications. Now I call upon you again, holy warrior who protects my kin and kind. Come forth and relish the glory of battle!" Uetz weaves a Nahuatl chant, calling out the guardians who had ignored him before. Unlike before, he feels a powerful spirit relent under the force of his summons.

A window of fire and water opens, and a large spirit steps into the material world. Wearing the feathers and headdress of the eagle, clutching a shield that glistens with jade snake scales, and wielding a heavy, wicked macuahuitl, the spirit turns its mantled head towards Uetz and speaks with a thunderous voice.

"The scents of rage and fear hang heavy in the air. The sight of blood speckles the ground, and the sound of combat slays the silence. You have called, Nahualli, and thus I stand before you. The battle is joined."

"Thank you," whispers Uetz, relieved that his people's protectors had not abandoned him.

"Guys, we've got a problem," he calls out to the team. "I'm sensing only one enemy in the area, despite this pack of pinche pendejos. Quauhtli is sure that her bolt hit its mark, but that the buey resisted it. Can anybody tell me why?"

[Redjack]

The Troll damn near screams in defeat as the street samurai dispatches the grenade as if in a game of combat-catch. He responds to the voice in his head, "What is the true prize?"... I'd rather be the 'going crazy' where I am lord and master of the universe...

[BishopMcQ]

Papa
The warm wind brings back the overlaying purple lines of your vision. For an instant, three of the orks in front of you shimmer, replaced by a tall Nordic human, a broad shouldered ork with special forces tattoos, and a knife wielding human with the darker tribal features of Central America. They also seek the book, and will stop you from getting it if you continue to play games...

[BishopMcQ]

Team

One of the orks begins to chuckle as Uetz shouts out that he can see them, but his magic can't. "That's right, we're not real."

All across campus, lights turn on in buildings and illuminate the walkways better. The campus PA system starts wailing a high pitched siren, almost like an air raid. Within some of the windows, you can see the halogen strobe of alarms flashing.

Flashing across AR an urgent broadcast cuts through spam filters.
//UCLA Campus Alert System -- Fires have been reported in several buildings please evacuate the campus in an orderly fashion. Emergency crews are en route.// AROs begin to overlay the evacuation path from your area off the campus.

[Buddha72]

D'zan feels the impact across his slight form from the knife - more like a broadsword to him than a knife. The pain flashes across his body but the armor he wore held and no blade pierced his skin. He tumbles through the air and rights himself smartly. Feeling the need to move quickly and decisively, he quickly grabs the mana around him and flings it in ropey strands around Argent's still form. He flows his thoughts into Leo's effortlessly.

I'm going for the book and I'm bringing the fox with me. As soon as you can follow - I need you to heal his wounds. Let the others know what's up.

He feels the assent ripple back through the link as he calls out.

"Enough of this shit - I'm out!"

He reaches out to the book - feeling for its location and begins to fly that way as Leo whispers to Papa.

"He seeks the book."

[BishopMcQ]

Team

"Playmates, sounds like fun." The ork who had fired the grenade before, then howls in a strange tongue and there is a sudden shimmering in the air near Uetz. Pressure builds up in the back of the Aztlaner's eardrums before immediately dissipating. A wash of mana courses through the area.

[BishopMcQ]

Team
As the mana tears through the spirits, the combined will of the Fey protects Leo's fragile form from the blast. Around Papa, the smell of earth and hounds becomes palpable. The ancient warrior takes a half step back, bracing his body against the blast. His body tears apart, evaporating into the aether around him with stoic pride.

Quahtli is knocked into the air as if by a huge gust of wind. The eagle let's out a single cry "Brother!" and is gone.

[JxJxA]

The loss of his sister and guardian spirit nearly smothers Uetz with pure rage. A blood-red curtain is drawn across his vision, and he knows that his soul is shrieking furiously in the astral.

For the first time in a very long time, Uetz begins to contemplate killing these enemies slowly and painfully...

[Redjack]

The ork's attention on the mages, Papa pulls his SMG and releases a long pull at the trouble maker. Time to stop playing nice... and time to geek the mage.

[BishopMcQ]

Papa
Bullets zip past your ears, buzzing close enough to shake your horns. You can feel the impacts in the concrete of the trashcan that you are hiding behind. The mage quickly dips and zigs to the left as you open fire. You still manage to connect with his center mass as the barrel begins to pull up leading across his torso. The impact knocks him prone, but you don't see the viscous spray of arterial blood which accompanies a direct hit on an unarmored target.

Team

Across the walkway, the grenade explodes. Instead of the quiet whoompf and hiss of the smoke grenade launched earlier, this is a cacophonous explosion accompanied by shattering glass as the front of the building explodes inward. Shards of glass tear through chairs and plants, embedding themselves deep inside the walls of the music building. A cello falls to the ground from it's display and breaks.

There's a muffled whisper from the group of orks. The firing team rises and all three of them launch grenades towards the groups taking cover. A thick wall of smoke and hot metal blocks your vision. The kneeling ones turn and start running towards Frat Row with all the speed they can muster. The center one, stays facing your team as he evacs--looking over his shoulder from time to time as he makes his way to the Kinsey building.

The knife wielding ork curses in Spanish before grabbing the prone mage by the collar. He begins to run deeper into campus, following the evacuation route. His strides take the distance that a normal man would cover in seven.

[JxJxA]

Hands trembling, eyes bleary, Uetz looks out from behind cover and begins to chant in Nahuatl. He calls upon the gods to grant him the strength to reap bittersweet revenge upon those who harmed his sister.

"Upon this battlefield, you have tried to strip from me whom I hold dear," he says, voice at first tremulous but slowly gaining force, "Know that you have failed. Know that I will find her. Know that we will laugh together at your folly in the sphere of the Morning Star. Know that beside Quetzalcoatl's compassion stands Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli's fury. I invoke his name, and call upon his power. If I am unworthy may I find peace as a warrior felled in battle, but if he grants me use of his darts may you forever be lost in the hells of Mictlan!!!"

Uetz shrieks the last few sentences before flinging his hand in the direction of his scattering enemies. A bluish green orb blazes from his hand and splashes in the area, sending forth wicked waves of mana in all directions...

[BishopMcQ]

Team

The waves of mana crash against the icy will of another, wilting away like a summer flower caught in the force of a winter gale. The protection only seems to extend over the three of the orks. The two running toward Frat Row, lock rigid and slump to the ground. Blood pools around their bodies dripping from every orifice and the tips of their fingers.

[Buddha72]

D'zan guides Argent's limp body to follow in his wake as he pushes himself to fly as fast as possible, letting his connection to the book guide him where he needs to go.

[BishopMcQ]

Team

As D'zan soars away with an invisible tether pulling Argent along, the air around around the ork charging towards the Kinsey building wavers. Where the ork had stood, is a taller, more muscular ork with short cropped hair and security-armor. Papa recognizes him from the vision overlaid recently by Those-who-walk-in-Darkness' odd connection, and the portent when first arriving on campus.

Coltrane pushes through the door with a wave from his wrist and slams the door shut behind him.

Through the smoke, you can see the mage get to his feet. He and the knife wielding ork continue to run at inhuman speeds deeper into campus.

[BishopMcQ]

D'zan

You continue along the trail to the item, Argent's body coursing behind you. The smell of old leather grows stronger as you close the distance to your prize. Across the link with Leo, you see the play of events--two dead, the others withdrawing as Uetz and Papa prepare to give chase. Leo soars through the air, sped by his own magic to reach your side.

Papa and Uetz

Through the smoke, you watch Kieri and Bjorne charge further across campus. The mage pushes his body harder to match the pace set by his knife wielding compaion. Both run with superhuman speed, turning a corner and breaking your line of sight.

[Redjack]

Papa runs in pursuit of the attackers, SMG in hand, running at super-human (aka troll) speeds.

[BishopMcQ]

D'zan

Ahead of you, your vision soars spiraling through the Thaumaturgical Research building into a large library in the sub-basement. As the hunter's vision snaps back to your normal sight, you see a large building of concrete. Sigils glow brightly in the astral and you taste hundreds of different signatures that have left their indelible mark upon the astral space of the building. Around the building, a wash of different spirits flutters through the air. Most appear small, barely present among the detritus. Others loom like gargoyles above an ancient keep.

Papa

Your long legs stretch out as you run across the campus. It is clear that something has pushed the two runners well beyond any mortal limits of speed.