by Early into the night in Cedar Port:
"Arnaldo 'Slick Melt' Azamuth, a prodigy of alchemy who's talents ultimately turned their fangs on him as he would fall into an abyss. This lead to his life being spent in the pursuit of dangerous pursuits. His primary skill however, comes from his knowledge of acids..." Luna thought as she was running through the streets of the port down following a cloaked figure. She had her sword drawn and her focus sharp as she as heavily concerned for the safety of the civilians. As much as she wanted to end this in a single blow she did not want to risk setting off a reaction with whatever the alchemist may be hiding on their person. At her side were the summoned spirits of Vita the huntress princess and the green wolf spirit Aegis. Desperate for an advantage Luna would see a tree up ahead near a roof as she would use her abilities to extend a branch, archning it so it would become a ramp up to the side. "Vita, take the high ground, the moment you think you got a shot at a knee or to disable take it. Aegis you prepare to lunge in and help give Vita an opening while I cover you." She would say to both spirits hoping to put an end to this situation quickly. While the government did say he was wanted dead or alive, Luna would however prefer to not have to kill him.
"Understood!" Vita said running towards the branch Luna literally had extended for her, as Aegis started to pick up speed to follow through on his part of the plan. "Roger." He said building up speed aiming for the knee. Dark green energy built up along the edges of Luna's wooden sword, the divine and mysterious Eilifa Von before she would stop and thrust her blade towards the man causing a dark green bolt of energy to fly towards the fleeing man, catching his eye as he would look over his shoulder once more taking focus away from the approaching canine spirit.
As Arnaldo tried to dodge the bolt, Aegis would leap the the man sinking his teeth into his arm. "Get off me you mutt!" He shouted before throwing a flask at the dog. Aegis let out a loud yelp, still keeping his bite down firm even as the smoke came off his body. Arnaldo tried his best to pry the wolf's jaws off his arms only to feel a worse pain as one by one three arrows would pierce him, two in the back of the knees and one in the left shoulder. He would scream in pain before dropping to his knees but not before slamming Aegis's muzzle down on the stone brick path.
Aegis whined, slowly letting go of the man, looking towards Luna. "Sorry Luna, clocking out early today..." He said as his body started to dissipate into green specs scattering in the wind. "Thanks friend, sorry you had to be put through that.." She said as she was starting to close the distance between her and the alchemist. She signaled Vita to stay back with her other hand just in case she was needed to act from a distance. "Arnaldo Azamuth, please, surrender peacefully. You cannot run from me any further." She said as she knew she was right. Getting close to the man she could sense something in his life force that caused it to radiate abnormally burn out, along with the physiological symptoms of sweating, heavy breathing, bloodshot eyes, intense trembling. Luna already suspected the man used some form of potion to be able to enhance his body to be able to try and flee from authorities, and his recent dosage was clearly already in the process of wearing off.
The man quickly pulled something out of his cloak and held up a rather large and girthy vial containing a black liquid with star like sparkles inside. There was an intense magical aura given off by the vial and its contents as Luna stopped in her tracks. There was something ominous about the situation that gave her pause as she knew she would have to react with great care. Luna looked over to Vita who appeared to be in agreement with Luna's concerns as well.
"Stay back! This is a rare acid made from the bone marrow of gods, tears of a Celestial Dragon, and even the wings of a Netherworld Fairy." He said trying to be intimidating as his trembling arms held the dangerous bottle. Luna knew she had to be careful, and any reaction could cause him to unleash the substance that Luna believed could destroy the whole town from existence. Luna believed the man for the moment as there was something cosmic about this particular concoction and she did not want to risk anyone's lives. Luna took note as she could tell civilians were trying to evacuate silently, all scared for their lives. "What's the plan here? You know better then me there's no place you can toss that without you being in the way of it as well. You're in no condition to run with both shot kneecaps and coming down from something particularly taxing on your system." She said trying to talk to the mad man, hoping she could in fact talk him down, try to reason with him. However before she could make headway the man's frail body had failed him as he let go of the vial, dropping it onto the ground.
As it fell Luna felt the world slow down, the sound of the cracking almost stopped her heart as she would see the liquid start to spill out. Luna knew running wasn't an option as there was no way she could get herself clear in time let alone anyone else. Luna knew she had to try something otherwise the whole town would be melted down. "Nothing I have can contain it, so I suppose I am going to have to try, that." Luna thought in the moment tensely as she watched the man's pants and could feel the life force of his flesh start to corrode quickly out of existence.
Using all the strength she could muster she quickly stabbed the wooden sword into the ground as she braced herself, banking on the divine essence imbued into the weapon and praying for a miracle as the Eilifa Von would begin to absorb the acid into itself. Luna had no choice but to hope that the mere speck of Yggdrasil would be capable of handling the all encompassing acid.
"C'mon, I know you can handle this... Just a little bit more left!" Luna said as as her blade was taking on a black and starry appearance, glowing a bit before Luna felt a surge of energy going through her body that was overwhelming. However Luna started to feel an ominous sensation from the sword before crackles of green energy began to discharge as the blade began to shake rather violetlike and intense. Luna tried her best to steady the blade but she knew there was a limit to how much the blade can take, especially with something meant to slay gods and devils alike, but she hoped she wasn't close to the limit despite knowing she clearly was. Luna could sense the instablility growing before suddenly there was a large, blinding, green flare of light that consumed Luna, the Alchemist, and everything nearby. Midway through the flare as Luna tried to shield her eyes she felt an extremely disorienting headache before she would find any stimuli to her other physical and magical senses suddenly vanish a few moments before she would lose consciousness...
In another place:
Luna groaned as she regained consciousness, slowly as each of her senses restored one by one starting with touch as Luna felt the rough, course, cold concrete she was laying down against, as well as small lumps of metal and plastic that Luna assumed was rubbish. This alerted her as before she was on a smooth, tiled, clean stone brick road. Next came smell as the polluted air grazed the nose of the enhanced senses, the smell of engine fumes that reminded Luna of Motor City but there were others in the mix. The lack of a nice sea air helped reinforced the fact that Luna was not exactly where she was, and the scent aspect seemed to only worsen her fears as she could tell by the enhanced sense of smell she was far from where she was when she blacked out. Next came hearing as the sounds of explosions, yelling, screaming, metal clanking, scraping. "A battlefield? Not in Cedar Port anymore, did I get blasted into Motor City? Is that possible for me to survive even with my Goddess Skin? My natural healing is slowed as well... Perhaps Eilifa Von teleported me here?" Luna thought as she slowly registered her motor functions, her fingers and knees starting to shake a bit before she was able to start to push herself off the ground.
Her emerald eyes opened to the world as she saw she was in an alleyway between two buildings, light from the sun hitting the street ahead. Luna looked around as her blurry vision came into focus as she saw the city streets around and started to get a bit nervous as she did not believe she was in Motor City, looking over at the rather, plain yet strange looking streets. However something that scared Luna was that of her seven senses, aside from her own body she did not sense any magical energy anywhere, even from the plants in the area. Instinctively Luna used her dark terragenisis abilty to manifest a black pebble in her hand which assured her she wasn't in the Neutral Zone, but only served to terrify her even further. "Well the good news is I am not in the Neutral Zone which means I'm not on a day long death clock. Bad news is I have absolutely no idea where I am. Not even Pergrande has such low levels, it's like I'm in a dead zone." Luna thought as she was getting her bearings. Unable to find her sword anywhere nearby she started to get concerned. She reached her arm up into the sky as she mentally called out for the divine blade bestowed upon her by Yggdrasil.
Luna used this feat several times before, once from nearly a kilometer away and the wooden sword always found it's way back to Luna's hand wiithin a dozen seconds under complicated situations. As the seconds passed, the ticking of her Infinite Improbability Chronometer as the seconds passed. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty, twenty two, twenty four, twenty six, twenty eight, thirty, thirty two... Wait Thirty Two?" Luna felt her heart drop as the half minute mark had passed her by and there was no sign of her weapon, however on a more curious note she grabbed her left side and did not feel the hilt either. She assumed someone either tried to lift the sheath or the sheath returned itself to the sword. Giving it thought she never found anything notable about the sheath, in fact she recalled it breaking many times when the blade wasn't holding it only to be magically fixed once inside. "Since they've never been so apart as far as I know it's possible the sheath was merely a subtle extension of the sword's power and a lack of proximity destroys it." She speculated to herself.
Her moment of analysis and thought was cut short by yet another large sound of something crashing into metal before an alarm could be heard, followed by screaming and shouting. Luna would put aside locating Eilifa Von for a moment as she had a feeling someone was in danger. Luna would run into the street turning around to see something rather confusing to her. She could sense no magic coming from the being, but she looked at the massive twelve foot tall humanoid made of a dark metal. The figure was incredibly massive and misshapen as most of their body was in uneven lumps and disproportional limbs. Luna scanned the area with her sight and sense of Life Force. She could see in the smaller arm of the giant was a hostage, a young man off the street while in front of him were two rather odd individuals. One was a man dressed in a rather weird getup. He was dressed in a costume that consisted of a black long coat, grey combat pants, a reinforced chainmail shirt. In addition he had black combat boots, and just bellow his fingerless gloves the end of two long gauntlets as well as two shoulder pads. Most notably was the black mask with red eyes that were glowing. There was fire along the trim of the coat, boots, and from the shoulder pads, all in a controlled form.
The other individual, another man was wearing a more simplistic costume consisting of a single one piece sleeveless red suit with green accents and a upper face mask. However more notable about this man was the bone like armor that clad his arms, upper chest, and knees. From his arms were two pronged claws on each of their arms.
Luna studied the empowered trio for a moment and found no magic coming from either of them but they all had vibrant Life Force in such a way that Luna has never seen before. "What the heck is going on, and with those weird get up no less. I don't sense any magic, but not the time. First things first gotta save the hostage." Luna thought to herself as she looked around, noting the few who staid were recording on some device, from the chatter she could hear the names "Pyrex" and "Skelatex" being cheered for but she did not know or understand what that was about. Luna took a moment to take stock of the surrounding fauna to see if there was something she could use to her advantage. Luckily even in the concrete and brick based area, there were trees, flowers, and other shrubbery around. Luna knew she had to be quick as she couldn't afford to be careless. While the metal figure was distracted by the two costumed figures in front of him, Luna knew she had to be swift and couldn't afford the delay of waiting for plant growth.
Seeing a tree nearby, Luna would do the math in her head while watching the metal monstrosity, making sure their attention was on the two before him. "Let him go Metalosus, there's no need for a civilian to get hurt." The flame based individual said ironically trying to cool down the tension. A deep chuckle came from the metal monstrosity as he stared down the other two, flailing about the body of the young male in his hands a little. "But this is so much more fun!" He said with a joyous sparkle in his cold, solid white eyes. The two men before him would remain in a striking stance, ready to spring at the nearest opportunity.
Luna tensed her grip before she would slash right arm left as she used her chlorokinesis and plant evolution abilities in conjunction to extend a tree branch at rapid speed towards the man's hand, splitting the tip into several tendril like ends that wound wrap around the metal hand, wrist, each fingers, and the thumb all straining against the beastly hominid trying to pull open the grip. "What the hell is going on!" He said confused before Luna would begin to run forth, jumping onto a fire hydrant before using it to jump again, grabbing the metal head and climbed up the body before she would slide down the arm and try to use her strength to pry open the hands with her physical strength in addition to her magical strength.
"What the hell is she doing? Is she crazy?" The bone clad man would say stunned by the gall of the disguised fairy. However his partner on the other hand was more willing to see the unpredicted opportunity for what it was, a chance to turn the momentum and gain a major advantage in this fight. "Sort out the bureaucracy later, Skels, give the lady a hand! Yo Tech Team, give the new player the phantom coat treatment." The flame clad man said to both his partner present and to others over a com link.
"Roger!" The bone clad man responded running in and would aid Luna's efforts, and a moment later the man was freed into the bone man's arms before he would run to the side, putting the man down near bystanders. "Hostage freed." He said before turning around.
After the hostage was saved, Metalosus would thrash his arm about with such strength the tree the branch was attached to came out from the roots as the branch shattered. Luna jumped in response before she landed on her left foot and right knee, sliding back next to the fire based man, who tensed up his right fist before throwing a massive punch and suddenly a vast stream of heated fire came out blasting at the heavy metal man, blinding him as he held his arms up. "Thanks for the assist miss but the NeX Crew's got it from here." He said with confidence, before Luna looked the man up and down before analyzing his partner. "You got three cracked ribs, two broken, a few torn muscles, and your right knee and left shoulder are having a competition to see what gives out first. Your partner over there isn't much better but his injuries are more flesh then bone related. Before you two start to have an internal bleeding contest while that monster just keeps building up power I think you should let the Sabertooth mage handle this." Luna said as the man was stunned for a moment, confused as to how a complete stranger who had just arrived onto the devastating scene was able to provide such a concise diagnosis. However he chuckled as he had no comeback and just a lot of questions.
"Fair enough, never heard of Sabertooth but you're probably a foreign team on tour or something right? Anyways Metalosus here has a dangerously high unstable X energy level, he's got a destabilized dual power of both metal flesh and kinetic energy absorption. Ergo, the more he's hit hard, the more the effected area gains power." The man explained and Luna nodded, while she too had questions about the strange nature of the other she had tro put that aside for the moment as she stared down the metal man for a weakness. "Any known weaknesses?" She asked in response getting up and trying to formulate a response. "Stillness drains him but that takes a while, he's scared of fire, and well, his immune system is extremely weak but getting something in his system difficult."
Luna listened to the list nodding as she was formulating an idea as a black ooze started to drip out of the back of her elbow before shooting into the ground. Luna predicted her best chance would be the Harvest Goddess Poisoned Strike to try and weaken the metal man before binding him down while paralyzed. "What the hell did she just do? Is that a turnip?" "What did she do?" Luna heard from the crowd as she bent down and pulled out the Turnip from the ground. "Woah what? Did you make a turnip grow in the road?" The fire man said as he was doing his best to keep up the fire stream while being aware of his surroundings. "Long story short it's unholy poison, getting this in him should bring him onto his knees without much more tragedy." She explained, both greatly confused by the lack of the information about the other however they knew while lives were at stake that they needed to work together. His stream of fire began to die down. "Yo Metal mouth, you got anything cool to say, oh wait, my bad." He would say taunting the villain, giving Luna her opportunity as Metalosus was about to scream back. "What did you just call me you flaming son of a f-" He tried to shout before Luna tossed the unholy vegetable into Metalosus's mouth, sliding down the throat of the giant causing him to choke for a moment before he could swallow it.
A moment passed as the dark turnip was dissolved, spreading the poisoned juices throughout the system. Red tears leaked out of the metal eyes as it roared in pain, moving about the humongous right arm and left leg as the rest of the body slowly stiffened up. "In any normal man that poison should render him unable to move and force him through agony." Luna said almost surprised by the metal giant's response. "His immune system may be weak but his body is so deformed it takes a while for anything to get around. Give it a second." The masked man said before the metal man would fall over trying to move, slowly stiffening up. "Eh plant lady, our normal restraints often don't work on him. I can get a containment crew out here soon but in case your toxin doesn't hold enough..." He asked not wanting to overstep on her generosity. "Oh, no problem." She said looked down at the metal man on the pavement. She tensed her fist as from the left side of the metal man's neck and each of his arms and legs as large square segments of the concrete rose up, arching around the metal body tightly and would burrow into the ground, forming five bindings of earth that would stop him from moving about.
Stunned by the display of terrakinesis in addition to the other three abilities the pink haired woman displayed, the flame clad man did not know how to even speak regarding what this woman was capable of, utterly speechless as Luna would turn to him. Luna recalled the wounds she pointed out earlier and would approach him, putting her hand on his chest as her hand and the man began to glow in a soft pink light, healing the injuries over the course of a moment. "Here let me treat these." She said calmly, before starting to sense the sheer confusion from the man as he began to try to even process what was happening. "What is going on, my wounds are-" He would try to say but would be interrupted when Luna was suddenly struck in the back of the head with a rather large rock by the fire man's partner. The first blow knocked her to her knees before a secondary blow shattered the rock and would have the intended effect of knocking her out slowly.
The bone clad man turned to his partner confused and concerned. "Yo Pyrex, you okay? She was doing some weird glowy stuff to you." He would say confident that he did the right thing, only to be started when the partner instead of gratefully high fiving him, started to blow up at him. "Skeletex, dude, she was healing my wounds!" He said as he was genuinely angry that his partner knocked out someone who just helped minimize casualties and still offered to help. Skeletex would rub his neck awkwardly, wincing as he started to realize just what he did. "Oh, um, shit. Well still, Chlorokinesis, Terrakinesis, that weird turnip, and healing? Just how many powers does she have?" He would say confused before Pyrex would kneel down to pick up the mage, bridal style and a small distance away from his cloat so the flames would not burn her. He knew he couldn't afford to take this woman to just a normal hospital, not when there was something strange about her. Something that from his perspective was unnatural. "Add one more to the list, she was able to see our internal injuries from a distance. That's at least five powers. Triple powers are rare, usually 15% can stabilize, but quads are impossible." He explained as the two started to walk off, ignoring the presses.
Skeletex held up his arm blocking his face from cameras as he was bombarded with questions regarding why he knocked out the woman who helped save the day. "This is why I'm glad I have my own personal PR team..." He whispered to Pyrex, who rolled his eyes underneath his mask. "The fact you need one already speaks volumes." He said as the two would return to their copter before putting Luna in the back, flying off to back to their headquarters. The NeX Team headquarters operated out of a renovated college campus to be able to serve both the needs of the hero team, and accommodate other hero teams as needed. After landing the helicopter the two heroes would take Luna to one of the secure holding cells, not sure of her capabilities in addition to the mood she'd be in after waking up from being knocked out.
The fires on Pyrex's costume died out, revealing the red trims as he would place Luna down in a six feet by six feet by ten feet cubed cell behind reinforced glass, before he could leave he looked over and saw a blue haired woman dressed in a red blouse, black skirt, stockings, and shoes. The blue haired woman was holding a tablet and a small case. "This her? The mystery woman? We were listening over the comms..." She said before Pyrex nodded, holding up Luna's arm as the the woman walked over, getting onto her knees and opened the case, pulling out one of the syringes before she would try to stick the needle into Luna's arm, only to struggle against the flesh. "I don't get it, the feels like the softest skin I ever touched but seems as durable as a concrete wall!" She said before the needle broke, sighing before she reached into the case and pulled out a diamond needled syringe, handing it to Pyrex. Pyrex nodded understandingly as he was not surprised at this point. "Thanks." She said as she watched the hero struggle like she did even with the stronger tool, before managing to draw blood and fill the syringe. Pyrex began to breath a bit heavy withdrawing the syringe, putting a cap on it. "No kidding, she's full of surprises. Her X rate has gotta be at least a mid tier S class." He explained before the woman grabbed a tablet, activating the sensors as the two would leave the cell. A ray of blue light passed through the whole cell scanning Luna's body over the course of two minutes taking detailed notes.
Pyrex and the woman would begin walking off through the facility towards main ops. Pyrex would tap his temple causing his mask to disappear revealing his charming blue eyes to accent his short, dirty blonde hair. "Any record of who she is? She said she was part of something called Sabertooth but InZane knocked her out before we could get to talking." He asked only for the woman to shake her head. "No, we don't have a record for a team called Sabertooth in the national or international registry, there is a Saber shark, a Saber Fang, Saber of Neo, but oddly no Sabertooth. Nor does any registered hero have her power set. Hell she's possibly the only female Terrakinetic recorded so far." The woman said adjusting her glasses reading off the tablet in her hands. "So Jane Doe here has the powers of a Goddess by comparison to us mortal men and there's no record of anyone like her? She's a stable Quintuple, Sextuple probably." Pyrex said to Zia as he was baffled by the prospect as well.
"First that weird storm, now someone with half a dozen or more powers stabilized? Is there a relation?" The doctor said as she did not like the idea that the two were just a coincidence. The flame powered hero shook his head before just shrugging as he was honestly equally dumbfounded. "Honestly I want to say yes as that could explain a lot. But the way she moved and acted, that was a crap storm that had both me and Zane on the edge but she came in calmly. She clearly trained with her abilities, abilities that were most assuredly battle tested. Though that storm only happened about ten hours ago... Any word from Agent Violet?" He explained as he could not shake off the thoughts as he played all the evidence in his mind, hoping the team's handler would provide a miracle answer as there was something about the situation that made him uneasy. "This is a bad time to deal with this, we've just cleaned up from an alien invasion last month. We can't afford another major disaster." He sighed as the two would come up to a junction, stopping as they had to part ways.
"Look, Merlin, don't worry. We're all in this together, and we don't even know if this is an apocalypse incoming. I'm going to go over the scan data, run some blood tests, see what we're dealing with. Though we may be on a ticking clock... We gotta be ahead, we gotta, otherwise what happened to, to..." Zia started to say before tensing up, a tear welling up in her eyes, Pyrex put his hand on Zia's shoulder, wanting to say something as a tense moment passed. Merlin felt words he wanted to say but it was almost as if a phantom held his throat. "Yeah... you're right. She'd never forgive us for moping." She said before turning and walking away.
Pyrex sighed as he would continue to ops, walking in to meet his tech support crew as he would find Zia's twin sister Mia dressed in just a oversized yellow hoodie, yellow sweatpants, and black running shoes sitting at one desk of the renovated desktop filled classroom turned operation center. Across from her was the other tech support member Connell, a rather chubby man wearing jeans, a plaid shirt, and denim hoodie. Connell's brown eye's turned to Merlin's as he walked in. "Yo Merlin, is that chick you brought in as powerful as the rumors say? What's her limits? He said before taking a bite out of his licorice, making Mia roll her eyes. "She's still in holding unconscious after InZane knocked her out. Should've been paying attention to the cams bro. Apparently Zee needed Merlin to use a diamond tip syringe." She explained leaning back a bit before looking at Merlin. "Since you're still in uniform I can tell, you're worried about when she wakes up aren't you? Don't worry I already turned on the Zeta dampener." She explained much to the chagrin of Merlin as it seemed as if they were treating the pink haired woman like a criminal but then again given what they already did to the woman he could honestly not be surprised if she wanted to bust out, or even blame her for wanting revenge.
"Well anyways, pass this memo to Tia and anyone else along. Keep Zane away from Jane Doe, and be careful. For the moment, assume she's higher tier S class X rating." He'd say before putting up the holding cell feed on the main screen. The Hero stared in silence, deep thought of what sort of power they were dealing with. Meanwhile Connell and Tia's jaws dropped as they were in disbelief at the note. "I'm sorry but did this man just say high tier S?" Tia said as Connell took a moment to think. "Yeah I think he did. Dude, you're a mid tier A class, and that's still rather high as only 15% of known powers reach Mid to High tier A. An S is like, less then 5% of all empowered individuals." He explained as he stood up. "Are you for real? I know she's seemingly packing major heat in that frame but-" Merlin would look over interrupting the train of thought of his aid. "During our fight with Metalosus, she was holding back, and I think she's hiding more. Something about her is not, normal. Until her extents are put out on the table, best not to let her be underestimated. Look man, trust me on this."
Connell looked into Merlin's eyes, nodded before he would sit back down at his computer and start to compose a memo, before sending it out to the third twin and anyone else in the building that it may concern. A tense ten minutes passed and Merlin would start to return to the cell, waiting outside the room for the woman inside to regain consciousness.
Inside the cell Luna would for the second time in the same day, groaning as she would wake up before the blurry vision started to clear up as she regained her senses rather quickly. Luna would start to recognize what she was in as she looked around the concrete cell, seeing a cot to her left and a glass wall behind her, she started to get concerned, anxious, quickly getting onto her feet looking around. "Oh Shirain no, last time I was in a situation like this Sabertooth's Master had to come save me- Well either this time I wait for a fiery demoness to bust down the doors or this time I don't play the damsel in distress. Wait didn't Itori get a promotion recently? Well either way..." She would say looking around the concrete cell before she would walk towards the wall. She was ready to escape as she started to sense what was around. It was disorienting not having the modicum of background magical senses to fill the background.
"If you're wondering about your powers, don't bother as you're in a Zeta based Dampened Cell. Negates all excess X energy." Pyrex said through his filtered voice as he would walk into the room wearing his mask, his arms folded as the glowing red eyes of the mask stared directly at Luna. Luna listened to his words but she seemed to be more confused then anything. From what she comprehended it seemed as though he was trying to explain Luna was in a dampened cell but the notion was illogical given if her magic was negated, she would not be able to stand at all given her golden heart would become a major hindrance.
"Is he trying to bluff since we're in a concrete room?" Luna speculated as she would once more call on her dark terragenesis to make a miniscule spec in her left closed hand, feeling the unholy rock was enough to let her know what the situation was. Luna did not know what was going on as she would look the man in the eyes. "You lot got some nerve. This how you treat legal mages? I know I've had a controversal past due to my family, religion, and anything else that's been used against me. There was zero collateral damage." She would explain as she focused her gaze at the masked man. "I know this isn't Fiore so where exactly am I? No regime of anti-magic oppression so I'm not in Pergrande, but there's no where else on Earth-Land that can have such low magic energy and not kill me for simply being there."
Pyrex was confused as he did not know how to even process the information before him as from his perspective it seemed like a crazy woman let her powers go to her head and make her believe she was magical, but on the other hand he did witness her use a multitude of powers without instability so he couldn't immediately say no. However what she said regarding her own character in a public light seemed to be concerning and raise questions. "What are you talking about? Fiore? Pergrande? and it's just Earth, not Earth land." He would respond. "Who are you?" He said directly getting to the point.
"I am Luna Mira, former Guild Master of Aurora, current member of the Sabertooth legal guild. I was on a job before an accident." She explained as she started to get suspicious, wondering where exactly she was. "Legal Guild? Job? What are you, an assassin? No, an assassin wouldn't stop to save people in broad daylight. You must think you're some kind of magical being, going around doing adventures for cash?" He explained as he was trying to ration out the thoughts of the woman before him, but the way he was wording it started to offend Luna as he seemed to be mocking her. "So it would seem I landed way far away if you never heard of Fiore... Anyways since I am not close, and illegally imprisoned by the laws I stand for. I don't know who you and your partner think you are, but I apologize for the damage in advance." She said as she prepared herself to escape, doing the calculations in her head.
Meanwhile as the two in the containment area spoke, Zia was running through the halls, breathing heavily after kicking off her heels to hurry to the ops center. Rushing in she was holding her tablet as she looked over at her twin sister and Connel at their desks, looking over at Zane who was laying down on a bench. Mia looked over at Zia who slumped against the doorframe, a terrified look in her eyes. "Sis! What's wrong!" Tia said immediately getting up and going over to her sister's aid, helping her across the ops and sitting her down in a chair. "Breathe, Zia, breathe, remember to reset if you need it." She would say concerned, her hands on her twin's shoulder. Mia was normally lax and laid back but the only thing that made her increidbly concerned immediately in the world was anything happening to her twin sisters. Zia started to breathe in and out slowly before looking back into Mia's eyes. "I analyzed Jane Doe's blood, her X rating, factors out to zero." She said with almost a terrified expression on her face. Connell's ears perked up as he heard that and was curious. "Point?" He asked as was curious to know the exact rating. "Zero, zip, nada, there's no trace of Catalyst X in her system. Hell plenty of other weird stuff but not X. Which means..." She started to say before her twin sister started to catch on, before Zane (Also known as Skeletex), followed by finally Connell realized it.
"Which means the Zeta Dampener is not gonna do anything! And from the looks of things Miss Mira over there isn't too keen on being stuck in a cell by people who think she's a bloody lunatic!" She said before rushing over to her computer to activate the comms while Skeletex started to run out of ops. "Pyrex! Abort, the Zeta Dampener does not work, repeat the Zeta Dampener does not work on her-" She would say but she was too late as she grabbed the desk to brace herself watching the display.
"Wait what? Repeat-" Pyrex tried to say over the coms before a sudden rumbling was felt as Luna focused on as much as she could around before the concrete around the frame of the glass wall would crumble in, slanted towards the outside before the glass shattered. Pyrex stepped back, raising his left arm to guard his neck as the glass shattered and kept his right arm lowered as he predicted the next moves of the pink haired woman. As if following stage directions, Luna started to duck and run out of the cell, using the glass shards, dust, and pieces of concrete in the air as a distraction to try and make a break for the door. Pyrex would use his right arm to grab Luna's left forearm, trying to keep her in place.
Black rocks began to form around Luna's right index and middle finger, quickly forming a sharp tip before she would plunge the piercing strike into Pyrex's left side, aiming upwards sinking the rock clad fingers in before twisting. She listened to Pyrex's muffled scream come from under his mask before his grip would loosen. Leaving the rocks in the wound she would pull her fingers out so she could use her hand to free her other arm, siding away from the man before she would plant her left foot down twisted, before swinging her right foot around her body with as much force as she could muster slamming into the wound.
"Fuck, you play dirty, you're good though. Martial arts experience?" He said as Luna took up a striking pose. Even in the current situation he had to admire the way she was able to bend power and hand to hand combat. Luna knew she couldn't afford to run away so soon. "Yeah I was trained by a former internal affairs agent of Rune Knights." She would say before she would look at Pyrex, sensing the growing heat before suddenly a fireball appeared in his hand before he would toss it at the Nature Fairy. Luna jumped aside dodging, landing on her toes before she could see another one forming in the opposite hand, a rather larger one at that. Luna could see the tactic at hand. Luna tensed her fist before a single seed would shoot out of her/ knuckles burrowing into a wall before quickly growing into the dark pumpkin. While the pumpkin grew, Pyrex launched the fireball only to be surprised when it suddenly got sucked into the growing dark purple pumpkin. Luna started to run out of the room as she had a feeling what was going to happen, with Pyrex following behind after getting a look at the rumbling pumpkin before the unholy plant exploded, knocking Pyrex against a wall, his wound hitting against a bump in the wall.
Luna would hear his grunt faintly as she had ran out of the cell and started just running through the facility. There was little life force in the area, very few beings that could help guide her out, and the metal tiled flooring would prove to be a obstacle if she were to find another combatant. Luna began to run through the compound, trying her best to memorize her surroundings as not to get lost, finding the former college grounds looking similar. Eventually Luna found herself in what appeared to be an auditorium that seemed to have suffered some damage from thrashing about. It still appeared to be in a relatively functional state for general purpose meetings but would not be suitable for a full audience. Luna would start to walk across the room before she would sense a Life Force above before dropping down before Luna would see Skeletex fully prepared for battle as his bone armor like appendages were extended.
Luna looked around as she could see soil about in the room from destroyed planters that were never fully cleaned up, making not of it in case she needed it. "What did you do to Pyrex? How are you still running practically unscratched?" He said as he began to take up a a low stance, waiting for the woman to make the first move. Luna stood her ground as she studied the man's behavior. "He went down hard, but he's alive. You lot may be criminals, but I don't see any need to kill you." She said which seemed to both confuse and aggravate the man. Luna could sense his unease. "Says the one who broke out of prison and escaped by assaulting a hero. That's typical criminal behavior missy." He said in a bitter tone. Luna couldn't resist the urge to scoff and laugh slightly at that argument. "Ever hear of illegal imprisonment? Not a crime to escape when you're illegally confined against your will without proper justification or due process." She retorted back at him, only for the intercom to suddenly come online as the tech support watching from the cameras decided to interject. "Uh yeah, gotta side with her on this one Skeletex. You did knock her out after she subdued a villain and saved a hostage. Even when she was trying to heal Pyrex you instantly knocked her out instead of warning and you and Pyrex forced her into a cell. Kinda shady to be honest." Tia would bring up, before Connel decided to throw in his two cents on the matter. "True, and she hasn't really committed any major crimes aside from public use of powers but given the hostage situation there is leniency. Plus everyone tends to look away when it comes to the rare healing powers..."
Skeletex would start to get angry and look towards the nearest camera before shouting at his allies who seemed to support their present enemy's position in the matter. "Just whose side are you tech nerds on! She brutalized Pyrex." He shouted, aggravating Tia making her yell back at him as she never liked the way the bone powered hero acted most of the time. "He's alive and we are also down a holding cell, both of which would be fine and dandy if you weren't a smash first knock out later idiotic failure of a 'hero'. Who knows maybe we could've sat down and talked with her if you hadn't-" She said trying to start on a rant before the hero would yell even louder, standing up facing the camera. "Who the hell you calling a failure! I heard those air quotes by the way. Just because you bare the face of a great hero doesn't give you the right to look down on others, hell I don't even know if we can call her great if she died so eas-"
As the two would argue, a handful of seeds started to protrude before Luna would toss them at Skeletex, causing the scattered seeds to land at various points on his body before growing into vines that would wrap around the body of the hero, tightening as he would find his body quickly constricted as he tried to resist against it, trying to break free but Luna quickly intervened as she would use her natural plant evolutionary abilities to reinforce the vines, before letting one loose and reach up towards the balcony and would rap around a bar, slowly extending before wrapping around more and more, raising the man upside down, hanging him in the air. "Yeah sorry I know I'm missing a lot of context but that seemed like a good time to just do that." Luna said as despite being the escaped prisoner in the scenario she felt like a third wheel given the argument was starting to take on a more personal nature.
"Big time, he was about to cross a line that would be about the same as repeatedly stomping a puppy. I know we gotta try and take you down and all, but thanks girl." Connell interjected before Skeletex would try to say something but a vine covered his mouth, and the only thing that could be heard was a muffled scream. "Well at the very least he's contained." Luna thought before she would look over to a side door to see where she came in from, starting to get a sense for the facility. She started to feel as if this compound was a reconfigured facility, most likely a campus grounds. "So I don't suppose you'd tell me where the exit is would you?" She asked hoping for a miracle only to be denied. "Sorry miss, Pyrex is our boss and he's the main guy around here. Unless he says- oh crap. Yeah I pressed mute why? Oh crap, yeah now I-." Connell said over the intercom which confused Luna, however she started to sense a familiar life force in the area behind her, before she could see light start coming from behind her with heat starting to reach her back.
"Oh hell no!" Luna thought as she quickly dived forward and landed on the floor, looking up as she watched a massive fireball pass over her, hitting the concrete wall behind the stage. Luna would look behind her and see Pyrex enter the room, breathing heavily as his costume now had his fire accents burning brighter then they were before, the rage eminating from his body. "That's enough from your pathetic mouth!" He said before starting to run, jumping before using fire to propel his jump, while his right hand had a claw of fire that he used seemingly to slash at the vines breaking them, before tossing Skeletex aside. Luna stood up as she watched Skeletex free himself of the vines mid air before barely managing to land on his knees and elbows. Luna would look up at the display. "Huh, guess there's some infighting. Might be able to use that to my advantage." Luna noted as she started to weigh out the situation before her as the situation was now two on one.
As predicted from his behaviorisms, Skeletex would appeart to start to respond to Pyrex. "Oh come on, you know-" He would star to say before Luna decided to take the opportunity to step forward, and take a deep breath getting in all the attention as she raised one foot leaning back, channeling as much magical power up her body, through her lungs and up her throat before leaning forward and stomped on the ground before releasing a major exhale as a black magic circle appeared and being shot out of it was a massive volley of black rocks and purple colored: vines, flowers, and assorted crops such as: pineapples, durians, butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, beets, corn, kiwis, radishes, russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, yellow potatoes, spaghettis squash, asparagus, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, yams, ginger, garlic, and turmeric at the two heroes.
The two heroes braced themselves as the tried to shield themselves with their respective powers, pushing them to the limits with Skeletex trying to push his bone armor to be stronger then before and Pyrex blazing heat. "Owe, owe! Unholy onion juices in my frigging eyes! Fresh Garlic exploding in the nose followed by ginger with an overpowering yet somehow salty aroma! Durian to the funny bone!" Skeletex complained before his voice got incredibly high pitched. "Kiwi to the kiwis..." He said before keeling over. Pyrex's flames managed to burn through most of the vegetation but the rocks would still hit. Once the flurry was over He dropped his flame guard breathing heavily. "That's enough! The lot of you."
Suddenly rushing in from all doors were armed officers pointing guns from every angle. Luna tensed up looking around as she was concerned. "What is going on?" She asked confused but the two heroes looked concerned as they dropped their guards, with Pyrex's flame accents dying out. "About time you showed up Violet." Pyrex said before Luna looked behind her as she saw a woman dressed in a pantsuit consisting of a black jacket, mini skirt, heels, but with a violet blouse and stockings. Her shoulder length raven hair flowed freely as she adjusted her glasses. Her silver eyes locked onto Luna, "Alright I heard everything from the tech duo. You're a long way from Fiore Miss Mira. Call me Agent Violet." Agent Violet said which seemed to only confuse Luna as this woman seemed familiar with her homeland. "Wait so I'm still on Earth-Land?" She asked hopeful for at least some modicum of hope that shat she could return home soon. "Not a chance. This is just Earth, you're in the entirely wrong universe. Please allow me to apologize for the rude treatment of Skeletex, he will be disciplined accordingly. We do not have a lot of experience with multiversal encounters yet."
Pyrex would look over at Agent Violet skeptical. "Multiversal? Explain." He asked as he wanted to hear more about what Violet was trying to imply. Agent Violet sighed as she would roll her eyes. "Last night the unusual storms, they carried in an influx of exotic particles, that was no storm, it was a breach in the fabric of the Multiverse. Luna Mira here, her world is drastically different." She explained which made Pyrex start to ease up as he let down his guard. "So her nonsense about being a magical mage going on adventures for cash that is a legally recognized status is true?" He said and Luna rubbed the bridge of her nose as she was finding this situation to be exhausting. "Yes!" Luna said feeling like a broken record. "We'll take her word for now. When she believed she was in her own world she acted in the best interest of protecting innocent civilians. So we're willing to be lenient. Clearly magical enhanced humans of her world are a force to be reckoned with." Agent Violet said before Luna rubbed her neck awkwardly. "About that, I'm not exactly human either. I'm a Nature Fairy."
Skeletex started to laugh incredibly hard as he stood up, almost keeling over. "Alright that's a good one, nice try. Magical creatures don't exist under any world-" He would say before Luna would extend her wings out making him suddenly stop laughing. Luna retracted her partial transformation. "Son of a bitch Magic is real." He said trying to stop his jaw from permanently dropping. "On that note it would seem there's a lot of catching up to do, and perhaps answers to be found. If you don't mind, I think we should adjourn to a more, suitable meeting room." She said snapping her fingers as all the armed men that came in before her lowered their arms and quickly evacuated the room. Pyrex began to deactivate his flame accents nodding. "If she's done fighting so am I. I believe we're at a misunderstanding here and we should probably calm down before we blow something up."' He said as he never wanted to escalate things, and he knew Luna could have stuck around to kill him if she wanted so he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now.
Skeletex growled a bit as he started to storm over towards Agent Violet. "Listen here miss fancy suit, I don't think you get to just forgive and forget this bitch for going gung ho and wrecking our base and breaking Pyrex." He said with a menacing aura. The woman adjusted her glasses in response, not even phased by the threat of the alleged hero. "Enlighten me as to what circumstances brought upon this state after the dimensional storm? Actually don't stress your brain cell. Let me tell you, after she did your job better then what you can ever achieve you B list capped, you knocked her out, and she woke up in a prison cell which even by our standards is unjust and she has enough grounds for a lawsuit to justify garnishing your wages till your eighty three and leave you still thirty years away from retirement." She said looking the man twitching with rage in the eyes with a stoic calmness. It was almost as if a raging beast was stopped in it's tracks by a iceberg of calmness. "As far as I'm concerned she has committed no crime save for forcing her power onto another outside of defense but that's a healing power so it's practically a freebie."
Skeletex threw his arms up in the air out of frustration before beginning to walk off, heading towards a side door out of the auditorium. "Whatever. I don't want any part of this powwow to begin with." Agent Violet shrugged as she started to turn around, using her commanding presence as she would walk away through the main door. "That's probably for the best. Miss Mira please follow us to our conference room. Doctor Hall, Miss Hall, Mister Reed, please join us there as well."
Luna followed along, confused as she wanted to find answers and given the agent's response to the attitude displayed by Skeletex Luna had a feeling she should be a bit more diplomatic when it came to getting information. Luna needed to find what happened to her sword first and foremost, as well as finding her way back home. She did not know what to think of the woman who was able to look someone like Skeletex in the eyes, wondering why exactly the impulsive fighter stopped his rampage before it would begin. She wondered if this woman was hiding a strong combat power or aptitude, or whether or not it was some sort of authority standing that prevented Skeletex from going any further. Though in all honesty from the impressions this woman was giving, Luna was not convinced to rule out blackmail as a possibility.
She followed the duo as they left the ruined auditorium and through the halls of the campus, through the sections and up a flight of stairs until they managed to arrive at a rather comfortable looking conference room. In the center was a large circular table with ports for USB and outlet cables at six equidistant points. Surrounding the dark wood table were twelve rather comfortable leather chairs. Against one wall was a interactive board with a mounted projector on the ceiling designed to project a computer onto the board.
Around the room were a few planters, Luna was almost astonished that Agent Violet didn't arrange to have all plants dirt removed from the room beforehand, but she assumed that either the mysterious woman knew about the Chlorogenesis and the Terragenesis aspects of her magic and decided that it would be redundant to try and removing the planters would be a waste of effort; or on the other hand she might just have decided to leave them in as a show of trust and good faith. Luna was not sure as to which outcome was more likely in this scenario as both were reasonable to assume. Regardless Luna knew it was best to ignore that scenario for now as she couldn't afford to take any grand moves given she had more to gain from trying to play with the government agent then risking taking a stand against.
It was clear this room was one meant for briefing or similar semi-formal presentations. Luna's eyes scanned the room as she would see three individuals, recalling that Agent Violet did call out to three people. Luna could see the excited man at one end of the table, sensing the anticipation as she guessed he was the masculine voice from over the intercom earlier. Luna felt a chill up her spine she only felt when encountering someone who was a fan of her modeling career. However Luna's eyes were more drawn over to a more rare sight as she analyzed the twins. Twins were always an oddity to Luna as from a distance one's life force could in fact be enough to pose as the other, however when in the same room Luna could sense the subtle differences as well as sense any major differences such as scarring, wounds, and even slight weight differences.
Luna examined the more, formally dressed of the twins first, her examining eyes felt a kinship and slight hesitation as she realized the green eyes she met were in fact examining her in a similar level of analysis. Luna had a feeling there were going to be a lot of questions, especially of the sorts that one side may not want to disclose to the other. "Alright Miss Mira, allow me to introduce to you... roughly half of the NeX crew, one of the top Hero Teams in the area. Of course you met Zane Valdes, also known as Skeletex before. Again I apologize for his, unprofessional conduct." She explained as she would seem to try to rush through talking about Skeletex, which spoke volumes about his character and seemed to raise more questions in Luna's mind. Pyrex would see his time coming as he pressed his temple as he undid his mask, not wanting to undo his suit completely at the time. Luna would turn and find her eyes suddenly meeting the blue eyes of the man looking down at her. "This on the other hand is the Team's Leader, and the Provincial penultimate hero, Merlin Stone, Also known by his hero name, Pyrex."
Flustered for a moment Luna tried to compose her balance, but Luna would stay silent as she was not sure how to respond. Merlin was not too far off as he too finally saw Luna outside of the confines of his professional façade and literal masks....
WC 10143
"Arnaldo 'Slick Melt' Azamuth, a prodigy of alchemy who's talents ultimately turned their fangs on him as he would fall into an abyss. This lead to his life being spent in the pursuit of dangerous pursuits. His primary skill however, comes from his knowledge of acids..." Luna thought as she was running through the streets of the port down following a cloaked figure. She had her sword drawn and her focus sharp as she as heavily concerned for the safety of the civilians. As much as she wanted to end this in a single blow she did not want to risk setting off a reaction with whatever the alchemist may be hiding on their person. At her side were the summoned spirits of Vita the huntress princess and the green wolf spirit Aegis. Desperate for an advantage Luna would see a tree up ahead near a roof as she would use her abilities to extend a branch, archning it so it would become a ramp up to the side. "Vita, take the high ground, the moment you think you got a shot at a knee or to disable take it. Aegis you prepare to lunge in and help give Vita an opening while I cover you." She would say to both spirits hoping to put an end to this situation quickly. While the government did say he was wanted dead or alive, Luna would however prefer to not have to kill him.
"Understood!" Vita said running towards the branch Luna literally had extended for her, as Aegis started to pick up speed to follow through on his part of the plan. "Roger." He said building up speed aiming for the knee. Dark green energy built up along the edges of Luna's wooden sword, the divine and mysterious Eilifa Von before she would stop and thrust her blade towards the man causing a dark green bolt of energy to fly towards the fleeing man, catching his eye as he would look over his shoulder once more taking focus away from the approaching canine spirit.
As Arnaldo tried to dodge the bolt, Aegis would leap the the man sinking his teeth into his arm. "Get off me you mutt!" He shouted before throwing a flask at the dog. Aegis let out a loud yelp, still keeping his bite down firm even as the smoke came off his body. Arnaldo tried his best to pry the wolf's jaws off his arms only to feel a worse pain as one by one three arrows would pierce him, two in the back of the knees and one in the left shoulder. He would scream in pain before dropping to his knees but not before slamming Aegis's muzzle down on the stone brick path.
Aegis whined, slowly letting go of the man, looking towards Luna. "Sorry Luna, clocking out early today..." He said as his body started to dissipate into green specs scattering in the wind. "Thanks friend, sorry you had to be put through that.." She said as she was starting to close the distance between her and the alchemist. She signaled Vita to stay back with her other hand just in case she was needed to act from a distance. "Arnaldo Azamuth, please, surrender peacefully. You cannot run from me any further." She said as she knew she was right. Getting close to the man she could sense something in his life force that caused it to radiate abnormally burn out, along with the physiological symptoms of sweating, heavy breathing, bloodshot eyes, intense trembling. Luna already suspected the man used some form of potion to be able to enhance his body to be able to try and flee from authorities, and his recent dosage was clearly already in the process of wearing off.
The man quickly pulled something out of his cloak and held up a rather large and girthy vial containing a black liquid with star like sparkles inside. There was an intense magical aura given off by the vial and its contents as Luna stopped in her tracks. There was something ominous about the situation that gave her pause as she knew she would have to react with great care. Luna looked over to Vita who appeared to be in agreement with Luna's concerns as well.
"Stay back! This is a rare acid made from the bone marrow of gods, tears of a Celestial Dragon, and even the wings of a Netherworld Fairy." He said trying to be intimidating as his trembling arms held the dangerous bottle. Luna knew she had to be careful, and any reaction could cause him to unleash the substance that Luna believed could destroy the whole town from existence. Luna believed the man for the moment as there was something cosmic about this particular concoction and she did not want to risk anyone's lives. Luna took note as she could tell civilians were trying to evacuate silently, all scared for their lives. "What's the plan here? You know better then me there's no place you can toss that without you being in the way of it as well. You're in no condition to run with both shot kneecaps and coming down from something particularly taxing on your system." She said trying to talk to the mad man, hoping she could in fact talk him down, try to reason with him. However before she could make headway the man's frail body had failed him as he let go of the vial, dropping it onto the ground.
As it fell Luna felt the world slow down, the sound of the cracking almost stopped her heart as she would see the liquid start to spill out. Luna knew running wasn't an option as there was no way she could get herself clear in time let alone anyone else. Luna knew she had to try something otherwise the whole town would be melted down. "Nothing I have can contain it, so I suppose I am going to have to try, that." Luna thought in the moment tensely as she watched the man's pants and could feel the life force of his flesh start to corrode quickly out of existence.
Using all the strength she could muster she quickly stabbed the wooden sword into the ground as she braced herself, banking on the divine essence imbued into the weapon and praying for a miracle as the Eilifa Von would begin to absorb the acid into itself. Luna had no choice but to hope that the mere speck of Yggdrasil would be capable of handling the all encompassing acid.
"C'mon, I know you can handle this... Just a little bit more left!" Luna said as as her blade was taking on a black and starry appearance, glowing a bit before Luna felt a surge of energy going through her body that was overwhelming. However Luna started to feel an ominous sensation from the sword before crackles of green energy began to discharge as the blade began to shake rather violetlike and intense. Luna tried her best to steady the blade but she knew there was a limit to how much the blade can take, especially with something meant to slay gods and devils alike, but she hoped she wasn't close to the limit despite knowing she clearly was. Luna could sense the instablility growing before suddenly there was a large, blinding, green flare of light that consumed Luna, the Alchemist, and everything nearby. Midway through the flare as Luna tried to shield her eyes she felt an extremely disorienting headache before she would find any stimuli to her other physical and magical senses suddenly vanish a few moments before she would lose consciousness...
In another place:
Luna groaned as she regained consciousness, slowly as each of her senses restored one by one starting with touch as Luna felt the rough, course, cold concrete she was laying down against, as well as small lumps of metal and plastic that Luna assumed was rubbish. This alerted her as before she was on a smooth, tiled, clean stone brick road. Next came smell as the polluted air grazed the nose of the enhanced senses, the smell of engine fumes that reminded Luna of Motor City but there were others in the mix. The lack of a nice sea air helped reinforced the fact that Luna was not exactly where she was, and the scent aspect seemed to only worsen her fears as she could tell by the enhanced sense of smell she was far from where she was when she blacked out. Next came hearing as the sounds of explosions, yelling, screaming, metal clanking, scraping. "A battlefield? Not in Cedar Port anymore, did I get blasted into Motor City? Is that possible for me to survive even with my Goddess Skin? My natural healing is slowed as well... Perhaps Eilifa Von teleported me here?" Luna thought as she slowly registered her motor functions, her fingers and knees starting to shake a bit before she was able to start to push herself off the ground.
Her emerald eyes opened to the world as she saw she was in an alleyway between two buildings, light from the sun hitting the street ahead. Luna looked around as her blurry vision came into focus as she saw the city streets around and started to get a bit nervous as she did not believe she was in Motor City, looking over at the rather, plain yet strange looking streets. However something that scared Luna was that of her seven senses, aside from her own body she did not sense any magical energy anywhere, even from the plants in the area. Instinctively Luna used her dark terragenisis abilty to manifest a black pebble in her hand which assured her she wasn't in the Neutral Zone, but only served to terrify her even further. "Well the good news is I am not in the Neutral Zone which means I'm not on a day long death clock. Bad news is I have absolutely no idea where I am. Not even Pergrande has such low levels, it's like I'm in a dead zone." Luna thought as she was getting her bearings. Unable to find her sword anywhere nearby she started to get concerned. She reached her arm up into the sky as she mentally called out for the divine blade bestowed upon her by Yggdrasil.
Luna used this feat several times before, once from nearly a kilometer away and the wooden sword always found it's way back to Luna's hand wiithin a dozen seconds under complicated situations. As the seconds passed, the ticking of her Infinite Improbability Chronometer as the seconds passed. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty, twenty two, twenty four, twenty six, twenty eight, thirty, thirty two... Wait Thirty Two?" Luna felt her heart drop as the half minute mark had passed her by and there was no sign of her weapon, however on a more curious note she grabbed her left side and did not feel the hilt either. She assumed someone either tried to lift the sheath or the sheath returned itself to the sword. Giving it thought she never found anything notable about the sheath, in fact she recalled it breaking many times when the blade wasn't holding it only to be magically fixed once inside. "Since they've never been so apart as far as I know it's possible the sheath was merely a subtle extension of the sword's power and a lack of proximity destroys it." She speculated to herself.
Her moment of analysis and thought was cut short by yet another large sound of something crashing into metal before an alarm could be heard, followed by screaming and shouting. Luna would put aside locating Eilifa Von for a moment as she had a feeling someone was in danger. Luna would run into the street turning around to see something rather confusing to her. She could sense no magic coming from the being, but she looked at the massive twelve foot tall humanoid made of a dark metal. The figure was incredibly massive and misshapen as most of their body was in uneven lumps and disproportional limbs. Luna scanned the area with her sight and sense of Life Force. She could see in the smaller arm of the giant was a hostage, a young man off the street while in front of him were two rather odd individuals. One was a man dressed in a rather weird getup. He was dressed in a costume that consisted of a black long coat, grey combat pants, a reinforced chainmail shirt. In addition he had black combat boots, and just bellow his fingerless gloves the end of two long gauntlets as well as two shoulder pads. Most notably was the black mask with red eyes that were glowing. There was fire along the trim of the coat, boots, and from the shoulder pads, all in a controlled form.
The other individual, another man was wearing a more simplistic costume consisting of a single one piece sleeveless red suit with green accents and a upper face mask. However more notable about this man was the bone like armor that clad his arms, upper chest, and knees. From his arms were two pronged claws on each of their arms.
Luna studied the empowered trio for a moment and found no magic coming from either of them but they all had vibrant Life Force in such a way that Luna has never seen before. "What the heck is going on, and with those weird get up no less. I don't sense any magic, but not the time. First things first gotta save the hostage." Luna thought to herself as she looked around, noting the few who staid were recording on some device, from the chatter she could hear the names "Pyrex" and "Skelatex" being cheered for but she did not know or understand what that was about. Luna took a moment to take stock of the surrounding fauna to see if there was something she could use to her advantage. Luckily even in the concrete and brick based area, there were trees, flowers, and other shrubbery around. Luna knew she had to be quick as she couldn't afford to be careless. While the metal figure was distracted by the two costumed figures in front of him, Luna knew she had to be swift and couldn't afford the delay of waiting for plant growth.
Seeing a tree nearby, Luna would do the math in her head while watching the metal monstrosity, making sure their attention was on the two before him. "Let him go Metalosus, there's no need for a civilian to get hurt." The flame based individual said ironically trying to cool down the tension. A deep chuckle came from the metal monstrosity as he stared down the other two, flailing about the body of the young male in his hands a little. "But this is so much more fun!" He said with a joyous sparkle in his cold, solid white eyes. The two men before him would remain in a striking stance, ready to spring at the nearest opportunity.
Luna tensed her grip before she would slash right arm left as she used her chlorokinesis and plant evolution abilities in conjunction to extend a tree branch at rapid speed towards the man's hand, splitting the tip into several tendril like ends that wound wrap around the metal hand, wrist, each fingers, and the thumb all straining against the beastly hominid trying to pull open the grip. "What the hell is going on!" He said confused before Luna would begin to run forth, jumping onto a fire hydrant before using it to jump again, grabbing the metal head and climbed up the body before she would slide down the arm and try to use her strength to pry open the hands with her physical strength in addition to her magical strength.
"What the hell is she doing? Is she crazy?" The bone clad man would say stunned by the gall of the disguised fairy. However his partner on the other hand was more willing to see the unpredicted opportunity for what it was, a chance to turn the momentum and gain a major advantage in this fight. "Sort out the bureaucracy later, Skels, give the lady a hand! Yo Tech Team, give the new player the phantom coat treatment." The flame clad man said to both his partner present and to others over a com link.
"Roger!" The bone clad man responded running in and would aid Luna's efforts, and a moment later the man was freed into the bone man's arms before he would run to the side, putting the man down near bystanders. "Hostage freed." He said before turning around.
After the hostage was saved, Metalosus would thrash his arm about with such strength the tree the branch was attached to came out from the roots as the branch shattered. Luna jumped in response before she landed on her left foot and right knee, sliding back next to the fire based man, who tensed up his right fist before throwing a massive punch and suddenly a vast stream of heated fire came out blasting at the heavy metal man, blinding him as he held his arms up. "Thanks for the assist miss but the NeX Crew's got it from here." He said with confidence, before Luna looked the man up and down before analyzing his partner. "You got three cracked ribs, two broken, a few torn muscles, and your right knee and left shoulder are having a competition to see what gives out first. Your partner over there isn't much better but his injuries are more flesh then bone related. Before you two start to have an internal bleeding contest while that monster just keeps building up power I think you should let the Sabertooth mage handle this." Luna said as the man was stunned for a moment, confused as to how a complete stranger who had just arrived onto the devastating scene was able to provide such a concise diagnosis. However he chuckled as he had no comeback and just a lot of questions.
"Fair enough, never heard of Sabertooth but you're probably a foreign team on tour or something right? Anyways Metalosus here has a dangerously high unstable X energy level, he's got a destabilized dual power of both metal flesh and kinetic energy absorption. Ergo, the more he's hit hard, the more the effected area gains power." The man explained and Luna nodded, while she too had questions about the strange nature of the other she had tro put that aside for the moment as she stared down the metal man for a weakness. "Any known weaknesses?" She asked in response getting up and trying to formulate a response. "Stillness drains him but that takes a while, he's scared of fire, and well, his immune system is extremely weak but getting something in his system difficult."
Luna listened to the list nodding as she was formulating an idea as a black ooze started to drip out of the back of her elbow before shooting into the ground. Luna predicted her best chance would be the Harvest Goddess Poisoned Strike to try and weaken the metal man before binding him down while paralyzed. "What the hell did she just do? Is that a turnip?" "What did she do?" Luna heard from the crowd as she bent down and pulled out the Turnip from the ground. "Woah what? Did you make a turnip grow in the road?" The fire man said as he was doing his best to keep up the fire stream while being aware of his surroundings. "Long story short it's unholy poison, getting this in him should bring him onto his knees without much more tragedy." She explained, both greatly confused by the lack of the information about the other however they knew while lives were at stake that they needed to work together. His stream of fire began to die down. "Yo Metal mouth, you got anything cool to say, oh wait, my bad." He would say taunting the villain, giving Luna her opportunity as Metalosus was about to scream back. "What did you just call me you flaming son of a f-" He tried to shout before Luna tossed the unholy vegetable into Metalosus's mouth, sliding down the throat of the giant causing him to choke for a moment before he could swallow it.
A moment passed as the dark turnip was dissolved, spreading the poisoned juices throughout the system. Red tears leaked out of the metal eyes as it roared in pain, moving about the humongous right arm and left leg as the rest of the body slowly stiffened up. "In any normal man that poison should render him unable to move and force him through agony." Luna said almost surprised by the metal giant's response. "His immune system may be weak but his body is so deformed it takes a while for anything to get around. Give it a second." The masked man said before the metal man would fall over trying to move, slowly stiffening up. "Eh plant lady, our normal restraints often don't work on him. I can get a containment crew out here soon but in case your toxin doesn't hold enough..." He asked not wanting to overstep on her generosity. "Oh, no problem." She said looked down at the metal man on the pavement. She tensed her fist as from the left side of the metal man's neck and each of his arms and legs as large square segments of the concrete rose up, arching around the metal body tightly and would burrow into the ground, forming five bindings of earth that would stop him from moving about.
Stunned by the display of terrakinesis in addition to the other three abilities the pink haired woman displayed, the flame clad man did not know how to even speak regarding what this woman was capable of, utterly speechless as Luna would turn to him. Luna recalled the wounds she pointed out earlier and would approach him, putting her hand on his chest as her hand and the man began to glow in a soft pink light, healing the injuries over the course of a moment. "Here let me treat these." She said calmly, before starting to sense the sheer confusion from the man as he began to try to even process what was happening. "What is going on, my wounds are-" He would try to say but would be interrupted when Luna was suddenly struck in the back of the head with a rather large rock by the fire man's partner. The first blow knocked her to her knees before a secondary blow shattered the rock and would have the intended effect of knocking her out slowly.
The bone clad man turned to his partner confused and concerned. "Yo Pyrex, you okay? She was doing some weird glowy stuff to you." He would say confident that he did the right thing, only to be started when the partner instead of gratefully high fiving him, started to blow up at him. "Skeletex, dude, she was healing my wounds!" He said as he was genuinely angry that his partner knocked out someone who just helped minimize casualties and still offered to help. Skeletex would rub his neck awkwardly, wincing as he started to realize just what he did. "Oh, um, shit. Well still, Chlorokinesis, Terrakinesis, that weird turnip, and healing? Just how many powers does she have?" He would say confused before Pyrex would kneel down to pick up the mage, bridal style and a small distance away from his cloat so the flames would not burn her. He knew he couldn't afford to take this woman to just a normal hospital, not when there was something strange about her. Something that from his perspective was unnatural. "Add one more to the list, she was able to see our internal injuries from a distance. That's at least five powers. Triple powers are rare, usually 15% can stabilize, but quads are impossible." He explained as the two started to walk off, ignoring the presses.
Skeletex held up his arm blocking his face from cameras as he was bombarded with questions regarding why he knocked out the woman who helped save the day. "This is why I'm glad I have my own personal PR team..." He whispered to Pyrex, who rolled his eyes underneath his mask. "The fact you need one already speaks volumes." He said as the two would return to their copter before putting Luna in the back, flying off to back to their headquarters. The NeX Team headquarters operated out of a renovated college campus to be able to serve both the needs of the hero team, and accommodate other hero teams as needed. After landing the helicopter the two heroes would take Luna to one of the secure holding cells, not sure of her capabilities in addition to the mood she'd be in after waking up from being knocked out.
The fires on Pyrex's costume died out, revealing the red trims as he would place Luna down in a six feet by six feet by ten feet cubed cell behind reinforced glass, before he could leave he looked over and saw a blue haired woman dressed in a red blouse, black skirt, stockings, and shoes. The blue haired woman was holding a tablet and a small case. "This her? The mystery woman? We were listening over the comms..." She said before Pyrex nodded, holding up Luna's arm as the the woman walked over, getting onto her knees and opened the case, pulling out one of the syringes before she would try to stick the needle into Luna's arm, only to struggle against the flesh. "I don't get it, the feels like the softest skin I ever touched but seems as durable as a concrete wall!" She said before the needle broke, sighing before she reached into the case and pulled out a diamond needled syringe, handing it to Pyrex. Pyrex nodded understandingly as he was not surprised at this point. "Thanks." She said as she watched the hero struggle like she did even with the stronger tool, before managing to draw blood and fill the syringe. Pyrex began to breath a bit heavy withdrawing the syringe, putting a cap on it. "No kidding, she's full of surprises. Her X rate has gotta be at least a mid tier S class." He explained before the woman grabbed a tablet, activating the sensors as the two would leave the cell. A ray of blue light passed through the whole cell scanning Luna's body over the course of two minutes taking detailed notes.
Pyrex and the woman would begin walking off through the facility towards main ops. Pyrex would tap his temple causing his mask to disappear revealing his charming blue eyes to accent his short, dirty blonde hair. "Any record of who she is? She said she was part of something called Sabertooth but InZane knocked her out before we could get to talking." He asked only for the woman to shake her head. "No, we don't have a record for a team called Sabertooth in the national or international registry, there is a Saber shark, a Saber Fang, Saber of Neo, but oddly no Sabertooth. Nor does any registered hero have her power set. Hell she's possibly the only female Terrakinetic recorded so far." The woman said adjusting her glasses reading off the tablet in her hands. "So Jane Doe here has the powers of a Goddess by comparison to us mortal men and there's no record of anyone like her? She's a stable Quintuple, Sextuple probably." Pyrex said to Zia as he was baffled by the prospect as well.
"First that weird storm, now someone with half a dozen or more powers stabilized? Is there a relation?" The doctor said as she did not like the idea that the two were just a coincidence. The flame powered hero shook his head before just shrugging as he was honestly equally dumbfounded. "Honestly I want to say yes as that could explain a lot. But the way she moved and acted, that was a crap storm that had both me and Zane on the edge but she came in calmly. She clearly trained with her abilities, abilities that were most assuredly battle tested. Though that storm only happened about ten hours ago... Any word from Agent Violet?" He explained as he could not shake off the thoughts as he played all the evidence in his mind, hoping the team's handler would provide a miracle answer as there was something about the situation that made him uneasy. "This is a bad time to deal with this, we've just cleaned up from an alien invasion last month. We can't afford another major disaster." He sighed as the two would come up to a junction, stopping as they had to part ways.
"Look, Merlin, don't worry. We're all in this together, and we don't even know if this is an apocalypse incoming. I'm going to go over the scan data, run some blood tests, see what we're dealing with. Though we may be on a ticking clock... We gotta be ahead, we gotta, otherwise what happened to, to..." Zia started to say before tensing up, a tear welling up in her eyes, Pyrex put his hand on Zia's shoulder, wanting to say something as a tense moment passed. Merlin felt words he wanted to say but it was almost as if a phantom held his throat. "Yeah... you're right. She'd never forgive us for moping." She said before turning and walking away.
Pyrex sighed as he would continue to ops, walking in to meet his tech support crew as he would find Zia's twin sister Mia dressed in just a oversized yellow hoodie, yellow sweatpants, and black running shoes sitting at one desk of the renovated desktop filled classroom turned operation center. Across from her was the other tech support member Connell, a rather chubby man wearing jeans, a plaid shirt, and denim hoodie. Connell's brown eye's turned to Merlin's as he walked in. "Yo Merlin, is that chick you brought in as powerful as the rumors say? What's her limits? He said before taking a bite out of his licorice, making Mia roll her eyes. "She's still in holding unconscious after InZane knocked her out. Should've been paying attention to the cams bro. Apparently Zee needed Merlin to use a diamond tip syringe." She explained leaning back a bit before looking at Merlin. "Since you're still in uniform I can tell, you're worried about when she wakes up aren't you? Don't worry I already turned on the Zeta dampener." She explained much to the chagrin of Merlin as it seemed as if they were treating the pink haired woman like a criminal but then again given what they already did to the woman he could honestly not be surprised if she wanted to bust out, or even blame her for wanting revenge.
"Well anyways, pass this memo to Tia and anyone else along. Keep Zane away from Jane Doe, and be careful. For the moment, assume she's higher tier S class X rating." He'd say before putting up the holding cell feed on the main screen. The Hero stared in silence, deep thought of what sort of power they were dealing with. Meanwhile Connell and Tia's jaws dropped as they were in disbelief at the note. "I'm sorry but did this man just say high tier S?" Tia said as Connell took a moment to think. "Yeah I think he did. Dude, you're a mid tier A class, and that's still rather high as only 15% of known powers reach Mid to High tier A. An S is like, less then 5% of all empowered individuals." He explained as he stood up. "Are you for real? I know she's seemingly packing major heat in that frame but-" Merlin would look over interrupting the train of thought of his aid. "During our fight with Metalosus, she was holding back, and I think she's hiding more. Something about her is not, normal. Until her extents are put out on the table, best not to let her be underestimated. Look man, trust me on this."
Connell looked into Merlin's eyes, nodded before he would sit back down at his computer and start to compose a memo, before sending it out to the third twin and anyone else in the building that it may concern. A tense ten minutes passed and Merlin would start to return to the cell, waiting outside the room for the woman inside to regain consciousness.
Inside the cell Luna would for the second time in the same day, groaning as she would wake up before the blurry vision started to clear up as she regained her senses rather quickly. Luna would start to recognize what she was in as she looked around the concrete cell, seeing a cot to her left and a glass wall behind her, she started to get concerned, anxious, quickly getting onto her feet looking around. "Oh Shirain no, last time I was in a situation like this Sabertooth's Master had to come save me- Well either this time I wait for a fiery demoness to bust down the doors or this time I don't play the damsel in distress. Wait didn't Itori get a promotion recently? Well either way..." She would say looking around the concrete cell before she would walk towards the wall. She was ready to escape as she started to sense what was around. It was disorienting not having the modicum of background magical senses to fill the background.
"If you're wondering about your powers, don't bother as you're in a Zeta based Dampened Cell. Negates all excess X energy." Pyrex said through his filtered voice as he would walk into the room wearing his mask, his arms folded as the glowing red eyes of the mask stared directly at Luna. Luna listened to his words but she seemed to be more confused then anything. From what she comprehended it seemed as though he was trying to explain Luna was in a dampened cell but the notion was illogical given if her magic was negated, she would not be able to stand at all given her golden heart would become a major hindrance.
"Is he trying to bluff since we're in a concrete room?" Luna speculated as she would once more call on her dark terragenesis to make a miniscule spec in her left closed hand, feeling the unholy rock was enough to let her know what the situation was. Luna did not know what was going on as she would look the man in the eyes. "You lot got some nerve. This how you treat legal mages? I know I've had a controversal past due to my family, religion, and anything else that's been used against me. There was zero collateral damage." She would explain as she focused her gaze at the masked man. "I know this isn't Fiore so where exactly am I? No regime of anti-magic oppression so I'm not in Pergrande, but there's no where else on Earth-Land that can have such low magic energy and not kill me for simply being there."
Pyrex was confused as he did not know how to even process the information before him as from his perspective it seemed like a crazy woman let her powers go to her head and make her believe she was magical, but on the other hand he did witness her use a multitude of powers without instability so he couldn't immediately say no. However what she said regarding her own character in a public light seemed to be concerning and raise questions. "What are you talking about? Fiore? Pergrande? and it's just Earth, not Earth land." He would respond. "Who are you?" He said directly getting to the point.
"I am Luna Mira, former Guild Master of Aurora, current member of the Sabertooth legal guild. I was on a job before an accident." She explained as she started to get suspicious, wondering where exactly she was. "Legal Guild? Job? What are you, an assassin? No, an assassin wouldn't stop to save people in broad daylight. You must think you're some kind of magical being, going around doing adventures for cash?" He explained as he was trying to ration out the thoughts of the woman before him, but the way he was wording it started to offend Luna as he seemed to be mocking her. "So it would seem I landed way far away if you never heard of Fiore... Anyways since I am not close, and illegally imprisoned by the laws I stand for. I don't know who you and your partner think you are, but I apologize for the damage in advance." She said as she prepared herself to escape, doing the calculations in her head.
Meanwhile as the two in the containment area spoke, Zia was running through the halls, breathing heavily after kicking off her heels to hurry to the ops center. Rushing in she was holding her tablet as she looked over at her twin sister and Connel at their desks, looking over at Zane who was laying down on a bench. Mia looked over at Zia who slumped against the doorframe, a terrified look in her eyes. "Sis! What's wrong!" Tia said immediately getting up and going over to her sister's aid, helping her across the ops and sitting her down in a chair. "Breathe, Zia, breathe, remember to reset if you need it." She would say concerned, her hands on her twin's shoulder. Mia was normally lax and laid back but the only thing that made her increidbly concerned immediately in the world was anything happening to her twin sisters. Zia started to breathe in and out slowly before looking back into Mia's eyes. "I analyzed Jane Doe's blood, her X rating, factors out to zero." She said with almost a terrified expression on her face. Connell's ears perked up as he heard that and was curious. "Point?" He asked as was curious to know the exact rating. "Zero, zip, nada, there's no trace of Catalyst X in her system. Hell plenty of other weird stuff but not X. Which means..." She started to say before her twin sister started to catch on, before Zane (Also known as Skeletex), followed by finally Connell realized it.
"Which means the Zeta Dampener is not gonna do anything! And from the looks of things Miss Mira over there isn't too keen on being stuck in a cell by people who think she's a bloody lunatic!" She said before rushing over to her computer to activate the comms while Skeletex started to run out of ops. "Pyrex! Abort, the Zeta Dampener does not work, repeat the Zeta Dampener does not work on her-" She would say but she was too late as she grabbed the desk to brace herself watching the display.
"Wait what? Repeat-" Pyrex tried to say over the coms before a sudden rumbling was felt as Luna focused on as much as she could around before the concrete around the frame of the glass wall would crumble in, slanted towards the outside before the glass shattered. Pyrex stepped back, raising his left arm to guard his neck as the glass shattered and kept his right arm lowered as he predicted the next moves of the pink haired woman. As if following stage directions, Luna started to duck and run out of the cell, using the glass shards, dust, and pieces of concrete in the air as a distraction to try and make a break for the door. Pyrex would use his right arm to grab Luna's left forearm, trying to keep her in place.
Black rocks began to form around Luna's right index and middle finger, quickly forming a sharp tip before she would plunge the piercing strike into Pyrex's left side, aiming upwards sinking the rock clad fingers in before twisting. She listened to Pyrex's muffled scream come from under his mask before his grip would loosen. Leaving the rocks in the wound she would pull her fingers out so she could use her hand to free her other arm, siding away from the man before she would plant her left foot down twisted, before swinging her right foot around her body with as much force as she could muster slamming into the wound.
"Fuck, you play dirty, you're good though. Martial arts experience?" He said as Luna took up a striking pose. Even in the current situation he had to admire the way she was able to bend power and hand to hand combat. Luna knew she couldn't afford to run away so soon. "Yeah I was trained by a former internal affairs agent of Rune Knights." She would say before she would look at Pyrex, sensing the growing heat before suddenly a fireball appeared in his hand before he would toss it at the Nature Fairy. Luna jumped aside dodging, landing on her toes before she could see another one forming in the opposite hand, a rather larger one at that. Luna could see the tactic at hand. Luna tensed her fist before a single seed would shoot out of her/ knuckles burrowing into a wall before quickly growing into the dark pumpkin. While the pumpkin grew, Pyrex launched the fireball only to be surprised when it suddenly got sucked into the growing dark purple pumpkin. Luna started to run out of the room as she had a feeling what was going to happen, with Pyrex following behind after getting a look at the rumbling pumpkin before the unholy plant exploded, knocking Pyrex against a wall, his wound hitting against a bump in the wall.
Luna would hear his grunt faintly as she had ran out of the cell and started just running through the facility. There was little life force in the area, very few beings that could help guide her out, and the metal tiled flooring would prove to be a obstacle if she were to find another combatant. Luna began to run through the compound, trying her best to memorize her surroundings as not to get lost, finding the former college grounds looking similar. Eventually Luna found herself in what appeared to be an auditorium that seemed to have suffered some damage from thrashing about. It still appeared to be in a relatively functional state for general purpose meetings but would not be suitable for a full audience. Luna would start to walk across the room before she would sense a Life Force above before dropping down before Luna would see Skeletex fully prepared for battle as his bone armor like appendages were extended.
Luna looked around as she could see soil about in the room from destroyed planters that were never fully cleaned up, making not of it in case she needed it. "What did you do to Pyrex? How are you still running practically unscratched?" He said as he began to take up a a low stance, waiting for the woman to make the first move. Luna stood her ground as she studied the man's behavior. "He went down hard, but he's alive. You lot may be criminals, but I don't see any need to kill you." She said which seemed to both confuse and aggravate the man. Luna could sense his unease. "Says the one who broke out of prison and escaped by assaulting a hero. That's typical criminal behavior missy." He said in a bitter tone. Luna couldn't resist the urge to scoff and laugh slightly at that argument. "Ever hear of illegal imprisonment? Not a crime to escape when you're illegally confined against your will without proper justification or due process." She retorted back at him, only for the intercom to suddenly come online as the tech support watching from the cameras decided to interject. "Uh yeah, gotta side with her on this one Skeletex. You did knock her out after she subdued a villain and saved a hostage. Even when she was trying to heal Pyrex you instantly knocked her out instead of warning and you and Pyrex forced her into a cell. Kinda shady to be honest." Tia would bring up, before Connel decided to throw in his two cents on the matter. "True, and she hasn't really committed any major crimes aside from public use of powers but given the hostage situation there is leniency. Plus everyone tends to look away when it comes to the rare healing powers..."
Skeletex would start to get angry and look towards the nearest camera before shouting at his allies who seemed to support their present enemy's position in the matter. "Just whose side are you tech nerds on! She brutalized Pyrex." He shouted, aggravating Tia making her yell back at him as she never liked the way the bone powered hero acted most of the time. "He's alive and we are also down a holding cell, both of which would be fine and dandy if you weren't a smash first knock out later idiotic failure of a 'hero'. Who knows maybe we could've sat down and talked with her if you hadn't-" She said trying to start on a rant before the hero would yell even louder, standing up facing the camera. "Who the hell you calling a failure! I heard those air quotes by the way. Just because you bare the face of a great hero doesn't give you the right to look down on others, hell I don't even know if we can call her great if she died so eas-"
As the two would argue, a handful of seeds started to protrude before Luna would toss them at Skeletex, causing the scattered seeds to land at various points on his body before growing into vines that would wrap around the body of the hero, tightening as he would find his body quickly constricted as he tried to resist against it, trying to break free but Luna quickly intervened as she would use her natural plant evolutionary abilities to reinforce the vines, before letting one loose and reach up towards the balcony and would rap around a bar, slowly extending before wrapping around more and more, raising the man upside down, hanging him in the air. "Yeah sorry I know I'm missing a lot of context but that seemed like a good time to just do that." Luna said as despite being the escaped prisoner in the scenario she felt like a third wheel given the argument was starting to take on a more personal nature.
"Big time, he was about to cross a line that would be about the same as repeatedly stomping a puppy. I know we gotta try and take you down and all, but thanks girl." Connell interjected before Skeletex would try to say something but a vine covered his mouth, and the only thing that could be heard was a muffled scream. "Well at the very least he's contained." Luna thought before she would look over to a side door to see where she came in from, starting to get a sense for the facility. She started to feel as if this compound was a reconfigured facility, most likely a campus grounds. "So I don't suppose you'd tell me where the exit is would you?" She asked hoping for a miracle only to be denied. "Sorry miss, Pyrex is our boss and he's the main guy around here. Unless he says- oh crap. Yeah I pressed mute why? Oh crap, yeah now I-." Connell said over the intercom which confused Luna, however she started to sense a familiar life force in the area behind her, before she could see light start coming from behind her with heat starting to reach her back.
"Oh hell no!" Luna thought as she quickly dived forward and landed on the floor, looking up as she watched a massive fireball pass over her, hitting the concrete wall behind the stage. Luna would look behind her and see Pyrex enter the room, breathing heavily as his costume now had his fire accents burning brighter then they were before, the rage eminating from his body. "That's enough from your pathetic mouth!" He said before starting to run, jumping before using fire to propel his jump, while his right hand had a claw of fire that he used seemingly to slash at the vines breaking them, before tossing Skeletex aside. Luna stood up as she watched Skeletex free himself of the vines mid air before barely managing to land on his knees and elbows. Luna would look up at the display. "Huh, guess there's some infighting. Might be able to use that to my advantage." Luna noted as she started to weigh out the situation before her as the situation was now two on one.
As predicted from his behaviorisms, Skeletex would appeart to start to respond to Pyrex. "Oh come on, you know-" He would star to say before Luna decided to take the opportunity to step forward, and take a deep breath getting in all the attention as she raised one foot leaning back, channeling as much magical power up her body, through her lungs and up her throat before leaning forward and stomped on the ground before releasing a major exhale as a black magic circle appeared and being shot out of it was a massive volley of black rocks and purple colored: vines, flowers, and assorted crops such as: pineapples, durians, butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, beets, corn, kiwis, radishes, russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, yellow potatoes, spaghettis squash, asparagus, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, yams, ginger, garlic, and turmeric at the two heroes.
The two heroes braced themselves as the tried to shield themselves with their respective powers, pushing them to the limits with Skeletex trying to push his bone armor to be stronger then before and Pyrex blazing heat. "Owe, owe! Unholy onion juices in my frigging eyes! Fresh Garlic exploding in the nose followed by ginger with an overpowering yet somehow salty aroma! Durian to the funny bone!" Skeletex complained before his voice got incredibly high pitched. "Kiwi to the kiwis..." He said before keeling over. Pyrex's flames managed to burn through most of the vegetation but the rocks would still hit. Once the flurry was over He dropped his flame guard breathing heavily. "That's enough! The lot of you."
Suddenly rushing in from all doors were armed officers pointing guns from every angle. Luna tensed up looking around as she was concerned. "What is going on?" She asked confused but the two heroes looked concerned as they dropped their guards, with Pyrex's flame accents dying out. "About time you showed up Violet." Pyrex said before Luna looked behind her as she saw a woman dressed in a pantsuit consisting of a black jacket, mini skirt, heels, but with a violet blouse and stockings. Her shoulder length raven hair flowed freely as she adjusted her glasses. Her silver eyes locked onto Luna, "Alright I heard everything from the tech duo. You're a long way from Fiore Miss Mira. Call me Agent Violet." Agent Violet said which seemed to only confuse Luna as this woman seemed familiar with her homeland. "Wait so I'm still on Earth-Land?" She asked hopeful for at least some modicum of hope that shat she could return home soon. "Not a chance. This is just Earth, you're in the entirely wrong universe. Please allow me to apologize for the rude treatment of Skeletex, he will be disciplined accordingly. We do not have a lot of experience with multiversal encounters yet."
Pyrex would look over at Agent Violet skeptical. "Multiversal? Explain." He asked as he wanted to hear more about what Violet was trying to imply. Agent Violet sighed as she would roll her eyes. "Last night the unusual storms, they carried in an influx of exotic particles, that was no storm, it was a breach in the fabric of the Multiverse. Luna Mira here, her world is drastically different." She explained which made Pyrex start to ease up as he let down his guard. "So her nonsense about being a magical mage going on adventures for cash that is a legally recognized status is true?" He said and Luna rubbed the bridge of her nose as she was finding this situation to be exhausting. "Yes!" Luna said feeling like a broken record. "We'll take her word for now. When she believed she was in her own world she acted in the best interest of protecting innocent civilians. So we're willing to be lenient. Clearly magical enhanced humans of her world are a force to be reckoned with." Agent Violet said before Luna rubbed her neck awkwardly. "About that, I'm not exactly human either. I'm a Nature Fairy."
Skeletex started to laugh incredibly hard as he stood up, almost keeling over. "Alright that's a good one, nice try. Magical creatures don't exist under any world-" He would say before Luna would extend her wings out making him suddenly stop laughing. Luna retracted her partial transformation. "Son of a bitch Magic is real." He said trying to stop his jaw from permanently dropping. "On that note it would seem there's a lot of catching up to do, and perhaps answers to be found. If you don't mind, I think we should adjourn to a more, suitable meeting room." She said snapping her fingers as all the armed men that came in before her lowered their arms and quickly evacuated the room. Pyrex began to deactivate his flame accents nodding. "If she's done fighting so am I. I believe we're at a misunderstanding here and we should probably calm down before we blow something up."' He said as he never wanted to escalate things, and he knew Luna could have stuck around to kill him if she wanted so he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now.
Skeletex growled a bit as he started to storm over towards Agent Violet. "Listen here miss fancy suit, I don't think you get to just forgive and forget this bitch for going gung ho and wrecking our base and breaking Pyrex." He said with a menacing aura. The woman adjusted her glasses in response, not even phased by the threat of the alleged hero. "Enlighten me as to what circumstances brought upon this state after the dimensional storm? Actually don't stress your brain cell. Let me tell you, after she did your job better then what you can ever achieve you B list capped, you knocked her out, and she woke up in a prison cell which even by our standards is unjust and she has enough grounds for a lawsuit to justify garnishing your wages till your eighty three and leave you still thirty years away from retirement." She said looking the man twitching with rage in the eyes with a stoic calmness. It was almost as if a raging beast was stopped in it's tracks by a iceberg of calmness. "As far as I'm concerned she has committed no crime save for forcing her power onto another outside of defense but that's a healing power so it's practically a freebie."
Skeletex threw his arms up in the air out of frustration before beginning to walk off, heading towards a side door out of the auditorium. "Whatever. I don't want any part of this powwow to begin with." Agent Violet shrugged as she started to turn around, using her commanding presence as she would walk away through the main door. "That's probably for the best. Miss Mira please follow us to our conference room. Doctor Hall, Miss Hall, Mister Reed, please join us there as well."
Luna followed along, confused as she wanted to find answers and given the agent's response to the attitude displayed by Skeletex Luna had a feeling she should be a bit more diplomatic when it came to getting information. Luna needed to find what happened to her sword first and foremost, as well as finding her way back home. She did not know what to think of the woman who was able to look someone like Skeletex in the eyes, wondering why exactly the impulsive fighter stopped his rampage before it would begin. She wondered if this woman was hiding a strong combat power or aptitude, or whether or not it was some sort of authority standing that prevented Skeletex from going any further. Though in all honesty from the impressions this woman was giving, Luna was not convinced to rule out blackmail as a possibility.
She followed the duo as they left the ruined auditorium and through the halls of the campus, through the sections and up a flight of stairs until they managed to arrive at a rather comfortable looking conference room. In the center was a large circular table with ports for USB and outlet cables at six equidistant points. Surrounding the dark wood table were twelve rather comfortable leather chairs. Against one wall was a interactive board with a mounted projector on the ceiling designed to project a computer onto the board.
Around the room were a few planters, Luna was almost astonished that Agent Violet didn't arrange to have all plants dirt removed from the room beforehand, but she assumed that either the mysterious woman knew about the Chlorogenesis and the Terragenesis aspects of her magic and decided that it would be redundant to try and removing the planters would be a waste of effort; or on the other hand she might just have decided to leave them in as a show of trust and good faith. Luna was not sure as to which outcome was more likely in this scenario as both were reasonable to assume. Regardless Luna knew it was best to ignore that scenario for now as she couldn't afford to take any grand moves given she had more to gain from trying to play with the government agent then risking taking a stand against.
It was clear this room was one meant for briefing or similar semi-formal presentations. Luna's eyes scanned the room as she would see three individuals, recalling that Agent Violet did call out to three people. Luna could see the excited man at one end of the table, sensing the anticipation as she guessed he was the masculine voice from over the intercom earlier. Luna felt a chill up her spine she only felt when encountering someone who was a fan of her modeling career. However Luna's eyes were more drawn over to a more rare sight as she analyzed the twins. Twins were always an oddity to Luna as from a distance one's life force could in fact be enough to pose as the other, however when in the same room Luna could sense the subtle differences as well as sense any major differences such as scarring, wounds, and even slight weight differences.
Luna examined the more, formally dressed of the twins first, her examining eyes felt a kinship and slight hesitation as she realized the green eyes she met were in fact examining her in a similar level of analysis. Luna had a feeling there were going to be a lot of questions, especially of the sorts that one side may not want to disclose to the other. "Alright Miss Mira, allow me to introduce to you... roughly half of the NeX crew, one of the top Hero Teams in the area. Of course you met Zane Valdes, also known as Skeletex before. Again I apologize for his, unprofessional conduct." She explained as she would seem to try to rush through talking about Skeletex, which spoke volumes about his character and seemed to raise more questions in Luna's mind. Pyrex would see his time coming as he pressed his temple as he undid his mask, not wanting to undo his suit completely at the time. Luna would turn and find her eyes suddenly meeting the blue eyes of the man looking down at her. "This on the other hand is the Team's Leader, and the Provincial penultimate hero, Merlin Stone, Also known by his hero name, Pyrex."
Flustered for a moment Luna tried to compose her balance, but Luna would stay silent as she was not sure how to respond. Merlin was not too far off as he too finally saw Luna outside of the confines of his professional façade and literal masks....
WC 10143
