Order And Chaos: A Superpower RP (Started, Closed)

[PrinceOfShapeir]

The call from Justin caught Veil at a bad time, just getting out of the shower. She snatched up her phone.

"Can't give you much advice from here, Justin, but I'm on my way."

She didn't have time to grab all of her spooky necromancer gear, just threw on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, yanked on her boots, grabbed her book, and hit the door, dialing on her phone as she ran.

"This is Veil. I need a car ready for me before I get to the garage, heading for the elevator now."

"On it." Came the voice at the other end. She hung up, darting into the elevator with Manny at her heels, slapping at the garage button. Thirty seconds later they were out and an unmarked black car was out front, a Seraphim security man next to it. He tossed her the keys, but she got in on the passenger side, Manny grabbing the driver seat. She handed him the keys and let him handle it.

Two minutes later they were at the scene. The car slowed and she stepped out, dark energy coiling about her arms, Manny speeding away as soon as she was out. She didn't wait, finding the weird wizard quickly and releasing the bolts of necromantic power at him.

Ordinarily she would have shouted some kind of witty quip or threat at him. All she could think today was "Eat death, stupid!"

 

[CounterAttack]

The staff-bearing thug yelled as Veil's bolts lashed through him, doubling over and dropping the staff. Or, he would have dropped the staff... if he could have let go of it. Something seemed to be locking his grip on the arcane tool. He straightened up again, his once-brown eyes now twin orbs of white. Electricity crackled across his face as the body - clearly its owner was no longer in control - began to spin and twist the staff, switching from one hand to the other and back again, trails of stone and steel arcing from the orbs as they moved.

The stone sphere cracked apart, and a gesture with the man's free hand exploded part of a brick wall. Shards scattered, then converged to form a set of massive fangs. They sped towards Veil, turning with intent to clamp down on her whole body rather than an arm or a leg.

[hr]

Yet another taxi horn blared at Mark as he sped through the streets, sliding across the bonnet of a car as needed. More than once in his pursuit of criminals had be been cursed at by commuters, taxi drivers and even a trio of buses of which he had once run the length. But he was getting close now. The Seraphim car had passed him on the way, of course: parkour training did not grant superhuman speed, merely conservation of momentum and an eye for environmental changes - whether helpful or a hindrance.

Soon all that remained between the traceur and his target was a chain-link fence. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, except there was barbed wire ringed across the top. How typical. A solution quickly presented itself. Vault up to the dumpster, leap to the fence - tuck both feet under yourself - push back from the feet, twist in midair to catch the fire escape. Pull-up with both hands, one extra stretch to grab the handrail properly... not the best move, but it'll do in a pinch.

Momentum's shot. Lovely. Still, he'd gotten what he needed. A way over the fence. Now crouched on the fire escape's handrail, Mark jumped, clearing the barbed wire by a fraction of an inch. A roll when he hit the ground and he was up and racing round the corner to take in the scene.

"Talsper, go!" The mage's spirit burst into existence as Mark ducked into the cover provided by a dumpster. The street-ganger was distracted by Veil and her skeleton buddy, leaving Talsper ample opportunity to throw a stream of fire magic in the staff-wielder's direction.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Seeing the attack Veil tried to recall a spell of warding from the grimoire, raising her hand. "Das Venarun ilan ulagaia ketah!" Instead of the wall of swirling mystic energy intercepting the shot there was more of a buzzing sound followed by a gout of foul smelling fumes and a few swirling lights.

"Oh, damn."

Before her miserable failure could result in her bisection the Seraphim car returned, Manny driving into the shot to deflect it and bringung the car around to drive straight at the wizard. Veil noticed the incoming bolt of flames from Talsper and grimaced, sending a quick order to the skeleton. He opened the door and bailed out, bones cracking on the pavement as the car continued on course like a ballistic missile, about to be detonated by the flames.

 

[Captainguy42]

" I see, I imagine you have a plan for getting in and securing the gold, leave the civilians and distraction. Big question is how do you plan to move 13 tones of gold?" Red Coyote asked.

 

[Pm0n3y]

"Oh, damn." Justin could hear from down the alley, the sounds of the necromancer's attacks being mostly deflected. "OH DAYUM!" Was how he replied, scrambling to his feet to steer clear of the car now barreling its way onto the sidewalk, into the alley, and towards the now-possessed gangbanger. Mixed with the shards of rock pelting the metal, and stream of fire blowing into the vulnerable bits, it didn't take a rocket scientist to guess what could've happened next. THA-BOOOM! An explosion. It was an explosion. As if the implications weren't clear enough. One such explosion that made the adjacent walls rumble in intimidation, and created a pocket shockwave ripply enough to send Justin flying off of his feet.

"I-i'm deaf. Again. This is it, isn't it? This is my life now." He remarked on the heavy ringing that invaded his eardrums as he began to his feet.

Naturally, the massive ball of flame and metal bits that accompanied said explosion extended outwards towards everyone within standing radius. Well, mostly towards everyone. At the epicenter of the blast, the fire and flames and metal bits only seemed to dance around the noticeably downed gangster. As he staggered to his feet, the fire began form in to orbs, orbiting around the staff the way Justin's electricity did. Same with the shrapnel, melting into flawless spheres in order to enter the stick's gravity. Even then, the man (or, well, his body at least) was still stunned enough to retaliate.

Justin raced back into the alley, the insulator glove already cupping the Awe. "I know an opportunity when I see one." He grunted at Veil, stopping just short of her spooky servant to toss a couple of plasma bombs at the struggling banger, one even landing at his lap. Justin (wishing he had his goggles in this particular moment) covered his eyes. PATAM! PATUFH! Smaller explosions blinded and disoriented the guy further, putting him back on his butt. "Stay down, please." Justin replied, a comment that probably sounded badass in his head, but was said in this pleading tone that made it seem a lot less so.

All the while, gray clouds and thunder began spreading over Manhattan.

 

[SkyeNeko]

Ianthe knew when they were out of the water, but the rain would give her free reign over the air and land. She just laughed. Her body slimmed down significantly, almost snake like, as she twisted around in his grip. Her arms tangled around one of his wings, while she struck out at him with her teeth. He had a good grip on her scales, but she still had a good range.

As they neared the city, she pulled down with all her strength on his left wing, causing both of them to crash into the closest high story window. Small quarters again, as Ianthe crashed around in the wreckage to hiss and strike out again. Her arms grabbed for anything that wasn't nailed down, throwing them at the dragon.

 

[booksv2]

" I see, I imagine you have a plan for getting in and securing the gold, leave the civilians and distraction. Big question is how do you plan to move 13 tones of gold?"

Smiling to himself and pulling out of the inside of the edge of the truck and lifting the side panel of the truck and set it on it, sliding the holding pins in and stepping back to see if it stays. Answering the important question to the person on the other side of the phone.

"I have a large truck, military originally and with some heavy modifications the suspension and wheels will take the tonnage while the motor will have to work some. But no more work that it can handle, biggest is getting it in and i have a winch and a cargo net rated for a ton. Few trips and dumping it in the back will get it in for one person, while the other takes care of the civies and the boxes."

Wiping his hands on a rag and reaching into the cab of the truck Marcus hits a button and looks down, the panel on the side of the truck flipping up as a medium sized Gatling gun slides out and starts spinning. Clicks going off rapid fire as it fires on empty. Hitting the button again it stops and slides back into the side of the truck. Turning to the phone Marcus asks.
"I need an answer, in or out Red. I would love to do it in a day or two."

Stepping past to a sliding garage door and sliding it up he grabs a large box of ammo and lugs it over to the truck. Stepping into the back and carrying it back to front of the truck bed to where a large raised area was. Setting the ammo box down and opening the panels on the raised area he lifts the box to slide it down into an empty area in it made to hold an ammo box, lifting the top of it and pulling the end of the ammo line out and sliding it into and loading the right Gatling gun before getting up and doing the whole same thing to the left with another box of ammo. Closing the panels and licking it down he jumps out the end of the truck bed and lifts the tail gate and slams it in to lock it.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Veil didn't wait to give the man a chance to surrender - the guy seemed to be trying to get to his feet even as badly off as he was, and she jumped forward to land on him knees first, slamming fist to face once, then again. The man reeled, glassy eyed, but kept moving.

Her eyes fell on the weapon he carried. Naturally, she thought, then gritted her teeth and grabbed the staff, wrenching it out of his grasp hard enough that she heard a finger snap. As she did the man dropped like a puppet with cut strings, and she rose

A dark cloud rose over Manhattan, beautiful and terrible. Great flames were her legs, and storms were her crown. Death was her raiment, and ice was her flesh. She clutched her staff in hand and exulted as eight million fell to their knees and rejoiced in their despair. With a sweep of her hand skyscrapers crumbled and Central Park was reduced to a lifeless waste, and another sweep restored them, brighter and more magnificent in their rebirth than ever they or anything else had ever been.

Veil shook her head and staggered upright in the alley, trying to force that terrible and intoxicating vision away. "Staff is...dangerous..." Every word was a struggle, just barely able to squeeze out around the force of will needed to avoid falling back into the vision. "Help...get help."

 

[CounterAttack]

Mark didn't see the colossal explosion caused by Veil's skeleton driving straight into Talsper's fire stream, but he felt the heat wave crash over the dumpster, wrecking it... and probably pretty much everything in proximity. Damn it! I'd hoped that the car would have been set to go for our escape if things got too hot to handle.

Talsper was thrown by the force of the blast, but untouched by the flames and the explosion itself. Either way, he crashed in a heap nearby, but slowly got back to his feet... only to find that Veil had torn the staff out of the thug's hands. The street thug was out like a light, but now the necromancer was the one struggling with the staff's will. "Staff is... dangerous... help... get help."

"The staff doth be the real threat! We must contain it before it causeth more harm," the mage stated, hurrying forward. Mark followed, unsure of what he could do to help. "Would that I could cast a knowledge cantrip... t'would identify this weapon. With that information I could find the best way to counter its effects."

"Yeah, well, your Empress was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. We need another option." Mark turned to Veil, unsure if she could see or hear him. "Veil? Can you hear me? Can you let go of the staff?" If she could drop it, then they could all just keep away from it until Seraphim could dispatch a containment team... did they even have those? Sure, there would undoubtedly be some for biological hazards, but what about magical?

Talsper, meanwhile, noted the design of the pendant which the street-ganger wore openly. But he said nothing. They had a higher priority right now.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

A shimmering fiend stood in front of her, both man and spectral evil, hideous and beautiful at once, and he whispered a sweet, seductive evil to her. "Let go of the staff."

The very thought was repugnant. Give up the staff? That would be like giving up her very life.

You're already dead.

The thought jostled her out of her reverie, but what she saw was still not entirely real. Mark shimmered with energy, a hateful light that threatened to sear her with its beauty, and Justin was a man of icy smoke, barely visible in this realm. Above she could see skies shot through with tears into worlds beyond, pale wisps pouring into them and out of them. One tear linked to her and the book at her side, and she gazed into it. The realm beyond the tear was a roiling darkness and the dark stank of decay, and in the dark she could see a movement, something gazing down upon her and seeing her return the gaze.

That baleful stare brought her focus back, and the world cleared up a bit. "No...it won't let me. So much power, I can almost grasp it...my hand! Cut my hand off!"

 

[Pm0n3y]

Justin jumped further down the alley, nearing the trio right when he heard Veil go "...my hand! Cut my hand off!" He quickly knelt to her side, deactivating the electrically charged gauntlet. "Whoa Vicky, that sounds a little drastic." He could've easily mulled over just how he could've reacted to touching the staff, or just how she herself could've resisted once he put his hands on it. Instead, impulsively, reactively, and prehaps protectively, he grabbed for the staff himself. With the Awe placed firmly on the shaft, Justin slowly placed the insulator glove over her hand. "I'm gonna pry your fingers off, okay? Please don't like, choke me in a possessive rage or something." He began for the pointer finger, and in that moment, remembered her super strength. "D-damn Vick, grip it any harder and you'd break it in half!" He stifled a nervous chuckle as he pulled.

 

[booksv2]

After a few minutes of no answer from his phone Marcus turns to it and picks it up.
"When you have decided one way or another get back to me. We will get together to make a plan then."

Turning his phone off and pocketing it Marcus turns on one of the TV's in the hideout and turns on the news. Looking at it as it reports lighting strikes and what looks like fast growing storm clouds that showed up and grew in a matter of minutes. Rubbing his face with his oily hand he remembers the lighting he had seen before and decided against going to see, but now there may be a reason as some reports of hero's fight down some gang-banger.

Leaving the news on and grabbing his helmet on his way past the table back to his motorcycle he slides it over his head and locks it place as he swings a leg over the bike. Kicking up the kickstand and revving the engine he quarter turns it and speeds down a tunnel with a sign over it saying street exit. Speeding down the dimly lit tunnel Marcus regrets not being able to smoke inside the helmet as he speeds out the entrance of the tunnel out what looks like a buildings driveway and turns down the street looking for lightning still striking. After half a minute of nothing he turns down another main street towards where those reports had the hero's fighting.

Getting to the street only a few minutes later he slows down and looks in every alley he passes to check if they are there. The helmet in inferred as he does he sees a few people sleeping in boxes before he gets to an alley with several body's and what looks like someone with no body heat. Slowing more and stopping across the street and turning the inferred off and checks over the people inside the alley as he sits straddling his motorcycle. Watching one on the ground seeming to be holding something while another kneels over her fiddling with something. But the ones who interest him are the others in the alley who were watching. as well as the still burning wreck of a car sitting just down the alley from them with what looked like a gang member who had taken quite a beating with his face bloody and his clothes burned.

Sitting there still as he looks them over Marcus's eyes keep going back to the gang member and the other person on the ground. Rubbing his hand on his pants as he watch's he narrows his eyes slightly.
"looks like the witch doctor gave someone else some trinket and they got crazy with power. Fuck, if he talks about who gave it to him or where he got it a significant part of what is planned could be down the drain."

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Maybe the strain was causing her to crack or maybe the staff was just starting to get frustrated, but things started getting weird as Justin tried to coax her to open her hand.

Snatches of half-remembered conversations began to run through her mind.

"Just drop it, Victoria! It's over!"

"Hold on, V. Stay on the line."

"I could just kill him, make things simpler."

She was losing her connection to reality, the vision taking on an almost cartoonish feel. In the back of her mind a part of Victoria wondered whether we were going Roger Rabbit or Space Jam.

Apparently the staff took that as a suggestion. Dream-Manhattan shuddered and shook under the footsteps of a thirty foot tall Mao, dribbling against what appeared to be Dennis Rodman in a bunny suit.

A hand brushed against hers. Nothing. Then took her fingers. She looked again, then opened her eyes. Justin. Trying to take the staff. Just focus. A heartbeat of focus and her grip weakened, enough that he could pull it open and take the staff.

As soon as it was free of her hand she slumped, her head aching as the real world reasserted itself. "What...the fuck...was that!?"

 

[CounterAttack]

"Let me see that weapon," Talsper requested in answer of Veil's question. Unable to take it himself to physically examine it, he contented himself with joining Justin and Veil, bending down a little to closely scrutinise the staff. "Hmm... it is of Eniadan make, that much is certain. Meaning it came from the radical magister Intet Yxi. If it would not let you go, Lady Velour..."

Mark heard screeching of tires in the distance. A black van had just come to a halt, effectively sealing off the alley from its side. "Talsper, do you know what it does or not? We may have company."

"Patience, goodsir. One must first eliminate the impossibilities before determining the reality." Talsper continued to study the staff in Justin's gloved hand. "It absorbeth materials from its surroundings, lightning doth strike on days of blue, and it hath some effect of control on its bearer... thou canst not touch this weapon with bare skin, lest thou wish to succumb to its lure. An intelligence enchantment is at play here."

"So this staff is thinking on its own?"

"Precisely."

Mark cursed under his breath. If Intet was giving away artifacts that thought for themselves, only he knew what else he had in store. Meanwhile, the van's door had slid open and a team of six - four men, two women - had emerged. Each carried a gun of some kind, mostly pistols, and wore body armour with the letters

[b]FBI[/b]

emblazoned on the chest. The six agents approached the Seraphim operatives in the alley, one of them carrying a plain ID wallet.

"Gentlemen, lady... whatever you are," he began, referring to Talsper's spirit last. The agent opened the wallet briefly, then closed it and returned it to a pocket. "Janus Corte, FBI; these are agents Villeneuve, Tirel, Cauda, Shepherd and Simmons. Would one or more of you mind explaining what's happened here?"

"Seraphim business, Agent Corte," Mark quickly answered before Justin opened his mouth and promptly put his foot in it; the traceur offered his own Seraphim-issued ID as he spoke. "We've just dealt with the situation at hand; this guy had some items that need to be contained before they cause more damage in the wrong hands."

Talsper thought-spoke into Mark's mind. Evidently he understood the value of privacy. Speaking of which... take the amulet from the man's neck. I wish to examine that further.

"'Scuse me." Mark knelt beside the unconscious street thug, fumbling with the pendant's fine chain before lifting it from the unconscious body and making sure he kept it to his gloved hand. To be on the safe side.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"On that note," Victoria said, holding up a finger for the FBI agents to hush, concealing a perverse glee as she dug out her cell and made a call. "Veil here. Target down, we need a Pandora unit here, tell them it's a high grade threat with significant psycho-memetic effect."

There was a long pause on the other end. "Repeat that, Veil." The normally unflappable dispatcher sounded utterly dumbfounded.

"Oh come on...we've got an evil staff that makes you magic and drives you crazy if you touch it."

"...right, we'll dispatch a containment unit."

She hung up and gave the feds a big smile. "We've got this, agents. Situation is under control."

One of the agents, an older man, put his head against the side of the van with a sigh. The others seemed equally irritated and frustrated. "Corte, can we go before the news crews show up and make us look like idiots again?"

 

[booksv2]

Lifting his face mask just enough to slip a cigarette under it and light it with a lighter hidden in the handle of the motorcycle Marcus takes in the black can that had pulled in front of the alley just minutes ago. Staring at the driver and tilting his head slightly as he spies a little wire going from his jacket to his ear he curses under his breath as he takes a giant draw of the cigarette and slams the lighter back into the bike and revs the engine slightly as he stares at the van with harder eyes. Pulling his cigarette out and flicking it into the middle of the street before burning his tires and facing the van he jumps his bike out into the street and keeps it down as he pulls back towards the back of it and turns it more to pull up next to the drivers side door and rapping his knuckles on the window, making a motion for him to roll it down.

The driver shakes his head and waves Marcus off but he raps his knuckles on the window again. The driver sighs and leans over to pull out his wallet before rolls the window half way down before flashing his badge over the edge of the window and barking out of it.
"Get lost! This is a federal van and you need to move on!"

Under the blacked out helmet Marcus's eyebrows raise and he guns the bike making a small tongue of flames spit out the tailpipe. Grabbing ahould of it with his powers and pulling it up he makes it burn hotter and it flies into the drivers mouth and burns everything in and around his mouth past the point of ever being used again. Reaching up and snagging the wallet Marcus closes it and slips it into his jacket as he keeps the 3 inch flames hot as a welding torch in his mouth his brain fries in under a second and his head starts to blacken as Marcus pops the brake and starts flying down the road. Following the road a dozen lights down doing the speed limit he takes a hard right down another street and keeps going slow as he activates his bluetooth and leaves a message on a machine specially made for messages that need to be passed around now.

"Virus, spread it around. Someone with magic tech just got either offed or picked up on the street and the federals are trying to pick them off the saints hands. Most i see happening is your witch doctor did something and now they have at least a stick that throws lightning and maybe more."

Closing the connection and gunning the motorcycle to swerve around some cars.

 

[Pm0n3y]

"We've got this, agents. Situation is under control." Victoria responded. Justin hopped up, staff in gloved hand. "Yeah! You guys aren't needed here." He added as smugly as he could possibly muster, causally waving the staff around in a fashion that made the FBI operatives jump. Out of the grasp of the others, the staff seemed inert. No elemental orbs orbited the stick and it didn't make the boy hallucinate burning the city to the ground.

"So i'm guessing i'd have to take my gloves off completely to use this?" Then he twisted a bit towards his partners. "Also, do we really need to bring a Pandora team out here? I mean, the tower's like, a few blocks away. We could just walk." He commented under his breath, the sound of a motorcycle engine brought his attention back out of the alley. The FBI van's windows may have been extremely tinted, but Justin could still notice the smoke billowing from an unseen window. "Also, FBI mooks, your car's on fire." The thunder exploded through once more, and the clouds darkened further. What little drizzle that was apparent became a full on steady downpour. "On second thought, maybe the team might be a good idea. Or at least they could get us out of this rain."

[hr]

Soarele quickly regained his footing, just in time to collide with a coffee table that was flung towards him. The barrage didn't end there, as the sea monster (now in a much smaller form) tossed whatever she could at him. He deflected most of the items, with a swipe of his claw and the twirl of his fiery Whiteraze, the dragon waited for a lull in the rapid fire before blowing a puff of his murky smoke in her direction. With the shroud obscuring her vision, the dragon passed through the stuff, his halberd still lit. As the tackled her, the force of the explosion rocketed the two out of the building, and sent them spiraling further into Manhattan.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Corte, can we go before the news crews show up and make us look like idiots again?"

"Also, FBI mooks, your car's on fire."

"What the-? Son of a *****. Simmons, check it out." The agent who had complained to his team leader sighed, but raised his gun and stepped around the van to assess the damage. A loud expletive was soon heard. "Jenkins is dead, Corte. No idea how this happened... looks like burning. No signs of damage to the van itself, though."

"Oh, for God's sake. As if we didn't have enough to deal with, we've got idiots attacking federal officers now... Move his body to the back, we're bugging out." After a minute or so of rearranging the contents of their van, the five soon piled into the vehicle and buzzed off.

"Well... that was a thing," was the best Mark could come up with to reflect on the events. "Justin, do my nerves a favour and don't wave that staff around. We'll examine it properly once it's under containment." The sound of another van's engine reached his ears. "Speaking of which..."

Sure enough, the Pandora team had arrived; Mark recognised the driver, giving Lanette a short wave with his free hand. Four guys in armoured suits jumped out of the back, however, two of whom shared the weight of a large and heavy-looking container bearing what looked like a mixture of arcane sigils and warning labels. The staff was taken from Justin and quickly transferred into the box, closely followed by the pendant Mark had picked up, and the container sealed.

With the magical items contained, the team hustled back into the van, closely followed by the field agents: Mark figured he'd hitch a ride back instead of running, especially in the weather's current state. It seemed to have turned bad rather quickly.