Official RP Thread: The Evolutionist's Stone (2)

[Zaleramancer]

The Astral Realm was in chaos. A riot of colors and shapes danced across what could have passed for a landscape. Howling noises and wildly changing temperatures buffeted whatever unfortunate spirits remained. The source of this enormous turmoil was, of course, the wild rioting of all the people formerly subjugated by the Mover. Their emotions reached strongly into these realms, warping the very essence of it.

 But through this seeming chaos, a bubble of calm advanced. A ominous figure levitated within it, radiating power. In the manner of many astral spirits, it seemed more like a vague impression or a suggestion of a person. The wild fury stirred up by the riot seemed to almost sputter and die around him. The strange person hovered about in the aether for a moment, before finding his bearings.

In the chaos, the being felt the mind it was searching for. Moving through dimensions the human mind could scarcely understand, the figure advanced towards the mind nearest the person he wished to speak with. It was a brilliant mind. A shining thing of logic and distributed intelligence, bustling with shining thoughts and calculations.  But, it was weak willed, it was inclined to meekly follow rather than lead. The being prepared itself would happen next...


Eddie was still muttering nervously. He really did not want to be here. A dozen different calculations and extrapolations all pointed in one direction- The capture and/or execution of the Mover. Not to mention him. However, the rather unstable overlord would easily crush him if he tried to cut a deal with the invaders or flee.  A solution is what he sought for- Any solution.

His quick thoughts were interrupted by a sudden sensation of enormous pressure in his skull. It was as if a giant were attempting to force his head open and enter. Someone was attempting to possess him! Frantically, Eddie fought back. Thoughts raced and his mind spouted babble to hold off the mental assault. It was to no avail, though he had sheer intelligence on his side, his opponent had a will of iron- and that mattered more. In seeming slowness, Eddie felt his mind and consciousness shoved aside, Shunted to a far corner of his memories.


The newly enfleshed individual blinked several times before leaning against a wall. His struggle with Eddie had been more draining than he had anticipated. It did not help that his separation with the Astral Realms was already beginning to diminish his strength. It would be best to resolve this matter quickly and return home.  

"So.. How the mighty have fallen. A former tyrant now waits for his subjects to hunt him." He said, with a voice like many people speaking at once.

The Mover reacted rather slowly, obviously unused to the idea that anyone- particularly Eddie would speak to him like that. Once again, a telekinetic hand slammed Eddie's body against the wall.

"WHAT?!" The Mover almost shouted, "How can you speak to me like that?"

"Forgive my rudeness, I am in a rather.. ill mood." Was the response. "But I am not your Eddie. Rather, I am here on the behalf of another person. This person wishes to make an offer."

"An offer? What can this person offer me?"

"Life. There are a raging reality warper, a confused telekentic and several hundred other superhumans thirsting for your blood." Came the person's sarcastic reply.

"I.. can-" The mover began.

"You can't." He said. "You will be drawn and quartered. You are not a stupid person Sir Mover. Proud, maybe, but far from an idiot."

The Mover deigned to respond to what the mysterious person said. He shifted where he stood as explosions sounded outside. As the person had said, many people wanted his head now. There was no way he could stop all of them.

"Did I mention that she will supply valuable contacts and monetary gains to let you... recapture your lost domain." Said Eddie's body, as he seemed to examine his hand. "All that she asks is for your help. As a equal partner to her plans."

"And her plans are what? I will not be drawn into something suicidal."

"Simple. Revenge. Rebels killed someone close to her. Those rebels happen to be causing a great deal of trouble, They may have even inspired this current.. insurrection in your domain."

The floor rocked with a sudden crash.

"If you are going to decide, I would do so quickly." Eddies voice seemed to loose some of the echo. The mystery person had no interest of staying here if that reality warper showed up. She would rip him to shreds with ease in his current condition. Even in the Astral Realms, victory would be questionable at best. Here there would be no battle, only death.

"Fine fine!" The Mover replied, no doubt thinking something similar. "Just get me out of here."

"I thought you might say that."

The not-Eddie reached out to touch the Mover. Then The Mover seemed to vanish in a flash of light, and Eddie collapsed.


In the Astral Realms, The mystery person grew stronger by the second as he filted away from the chaos of Indianapolis. Towards the person who had hired him.

Samantha Trelaine.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

The Mover coughed a minute, and looked around. Was it--was it really?

"Don't be so shocked, Mover. You look like a ghost. And pale is NOT a good look on you." A coy smile grew on the Overlady's face.

Mover examined the place, as though to make sure that reality was real and admired it briefly, before snapping back to seriousness.

"Overlady Trelaine."

"Yes, yes, we've just gone over the pleasantries. Do you have any idea why you're here?" Samantha bothered not even to look at the Mover, resolving only to let her eyes pass in his direction when the servant walked past him to deliver her a glass of water.

"Your henchman gave me an idea that you needed my services getting back at the people who killed a loved one."

Samantha smirked at the word "henchman", "Yes, I do need some assistance. My boy was not well, you see, and they didn't even have the kindness to take him into custody and subject him to rehabilitation. No, they wanted him dead, and so by the time they were finished with him, that he was."

The Mover took a seat when it was provided him and the two discussed Overlady Trelaine's grievance for about another hour or so. In fact, the two vented copiously to one another, about family, and friends, and territory, and those ungrateful subjects who had felled her mighty oak of a boy, and threatened now to fell him. And by the time they had finished, The Mover felt as though Caleb could have been his own kin. Samantha's knack for emotion had that effect on people.

So The Mover shot up from his seat, red as a poker fresh from a fire, and marched down the hall to Samantha's War Room. It was seldom employed by Samantha, for she had a mind like a finely-tuned war machine, and could easily bring a foe to ruin without taking down so much as a note; but the Mover was all-too-ready to draw up some plans to take down the rebels.

Especially those Samantha had told him about. The ones Caleb had told HER about. They seemed the worst. Their elemental friend had died, of course, but she hadn't been the only driving force to that resistance. She had friends. Some psychics, some elementals and some strong physical supers.

Strangely, they all of them seemed the best at what they did. At least to hear Caleb tell it. The Mover would need his best ideas, his best plots. He would need Eddie.

He barked out for his prodigious minion in the heat of his infuriated state, but received no answer. He looked out into the throne room where Samantha sat, and hoped the lab rat simply hadn't heard him.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Back at the Mover's Base==

Eddie shuffled along the ground, sweating profusely, hoping to God that he had forgotten some secret-passage escape route. Scrambling to every wall, he realized to his mortal terror, that he had not. With that in mind, his ingenious intellect kicked it into overdrive.

"A-alright, alright", Eddie muttered to himself manically, "if I'm here, and the supers are approaching from..."


"Where did you say The Mover's room was again?" Damien looked nervously to all sides, forgetting he was with a trained assassin, a half-demon elemental and a superhumanly intelligent reality bender.

"It's the entire third floor." Maiden breathed with an air of annoyance.

"He has a thirteenth floor in this building?" Damien huffed, passing by a schematic like the one they had with them.

"He’s never seemed the type to be superstitious..." Jack looked to either side, lest he be taken off guard by a phaser, or a teleporter, or a camouflager, or another vanisher...

The four stopped in their tracks; The Mover's men stood at the end of the hall, yet to notice them. Maiden stepped forward to deal with them, but Wayne assured her there would be no need for her to go all "killing-spree" just yet.

"Just save up that energy of yours, I can handle this." He disappeared, put the silencer on his photon gun and stepped out of the range of Maiden's soundproof invisibility field. Two shots, and Maiden vaporized the remains to leave no trail.

By the time the four had reached the second floor, they began to hear the sounds of battle more clearly. Perfect, Wayne thought, Jared and the rioters made it into the building. And Sophie's blasted the captives out from upstairs.

Now all they would need would be to reach the Mover, and when they finally would, they were certain they'd be up for some exercise. Or so they thought.

When they finally had got to the third floor, all that met them was the sight of the prodigious super-genius Eddie Bryant, trying his best to overcome his fear of heights (and angry fliers) so he could somehow make it out onto the window ledge.

"Oh, no you don't!" Damien cried, tackling the now-sobbing Eddie to the floor. He collapsed in a heap upon being tackled, and offered resistance only in wimpy jest. He knew he would be no match for whatever superhuman met him, and so all logic temporarily left him beyond the defense he knew as a young boy: he curled into a ball and braced for the worst, wondering how long his mortal frame could withstand the beatings of numerous superhumans with power so vastly beyond his.

Damien got off of him and looked at the pitiful man, "Please tell me YOU'RE not the Mover..."

"N-n-no! Of course not! I'm not nearly as physically powerful as him! Or as evil! Wait-wait-wait, that came out wrong, I'm not evil at all. I mean I didn't even LIKE the Mover...I-I hated him in fact. Don't kill me!"

Wayne looked at the pathetic man, and decided to save his bullets for his intended target. Three kinds of people he didn't kill: immortals, kids and wimps.

Maiden approached him with menace that only her face was capable of expressing.

"Where is he?" She teleported the photon gun from Wayne's hands to hers, levitated Eddie dangerously close to the ceiling fan that span overhead and aimed the gun at him, "Where has he gone? TELL ME, or I'll blow your head off and use the spinning of the fan to grind the bloody stump smooth..."

Eddie blinked as the image flashed in his mind briefly, and searched for words, the simplest he could find (for Maiden despised when he went all intellectual, even though it was a habit of his when he was afraid). Only one came to mind.

"Australia."

The four looked at one another and back at him, "AUSTRALIA?"

Eddie nodded, and dropped to the ground.

"D**n it. We haven't got time to just 'port to Australia. If he knew to go there, anticipating we'd actually succeed in breaking in, then I know he's got people. He'd likely kill us if we just sprung up on him unprepared."

Jack cursed, "So, whadda we do? I know you don't plan on just suggest we tell the rioters to 'Go home, the Mover's left, so everything's cool now'." Wayne paused a second, causing Jack's face to fall, "Wayne? Wayne, what are you thinking?"

The world's second best assassin seemed a bit less menacing, and yet more menacing at the same time as that familiar grin crossed his face.

Damien kept asking, "What are you planning?" as he made his way down the hall. Maiden took his lead, and touched the elevator button, drawing the elevator car rapidly up to their floor.

When they reached the first floor, Wayne spoke finally.

"Alright, here's what we need to do. Maiden, find Virago. I need her and Sophie, and a couple more blasters out here, quick as you can. I'll tell you all what to do when you get back. Jack and Damien? You'll come with me. We've got some evac to do."

"A-and what about me? I can help, what with being super-smart and all. Not to brag, but--"

"You--just...follow us outside..." Wayne tried his best not to cap the little nerd upon hearing his voice again.

Still confused as ever, Damien, Eddie and Jack trailed behind Wayne, and Maiden was off to round up the others. She levitated and phased through the second floor. She alerted everyone of the plan, and phased up to the next floor, continuing the pattern until their allies on every floor had been alerted of Wayne's plan.

In about ten minutes, everyone would be out and into the streets.

"Alright!" Wayne called out into the screaming masses, "All RIGHT!"

When even the closest supers failed to pay him any attention, he hoisted his gun over head and blew a blast into the air. Silencer off, it caught the attention of most in range, which in turn caught the attention of others.

"That's better." Wayne looked around at the faces of the supers, and was inwardly surprised at how many there were. Some fought, some looted, some tried to escape the chaos; but now, almost all eyes were on him. His work as an assassin made him uneasy being seen by so many, but he continued. He issued the plan clearly, and concisely, and with a rallying cry, most everyone was with him.

Maybe the others shoulda let HIM hold the Evolutionist's Stone along with Jack, he chuckled to himself in thought.

Upon remembering the red pumice-looking stone, he thought to mention it, but decided to leave that detail out. No time now for demonstrations and proof and convincing; and besides, with so many crooks in his midst, it would attract more dishonest attention than genuinely loyal support.

He walked back toward the building, and looked up to the very top. It was twenty stories of dismal, dreary oppression, and now it would serve its most profound purpose so far. Sophie came out first and behind her, Virago, Bobby, Jared and a few unnamed others. They introduced themselves briefly, and Wayne called over to Virago.

"Virago, I need you to round up the blasters. You and Maiden decide the most strategic weak spots of this building."

"What are you planning to do? Break back in for something?"

Wayne smiled again, "Just set my blasters up, will ya, V?" And that she did. Four blasters on the sides, two in front and in back, and one at each corner. Virago returned, eying the crowd of wondering supers and thinking perhaps the same thing as them, "What are you up to, Wayne Cobane?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Whilst she wondered, Eddie was still calculating. How would that cold-hearted brute Wayne evacuate all of these people? Certainly they couldn't be teleported elsewhere in such great numbers. And he was too eager to get his plan underway to wait for all of them to move out on foot. Wayne’s voice called out to the crowd, startling Eddie out of his quiet internal extrapolations.

"Anybody out here have a pocket dimension?" He cried out to the top of his voice. A couple minutes the people murmured amongst themselves, contemplating the extents of their capabilities. Finally, a slender boy with a red mohawk and silver eyes pushed his way through the crowd.

"You got a pocket dimension, kid?"

"You got money, mister?"

"I got five hundred with your name on it, punk, now you got a pocket dimension or what?" Wayne began to figure the boy wasn't being honest.

"Yeah, somethin' like that." The kid smirked. He extended his right hand, and out before him appeared a whirling electric-blue spatial warp. Not a quick jaunting spatial rip like Torres or Cosmo. Impressive, Wayne thought, this kid can make steady portals.

"You choose where that goes?"

"Yep, I can send it anywhere."

"Send it to the outskirts of the city. In that park way out there."

The portal widened, and allowed every super to step through until all were out of the way, and the only remaining had a part in Wayne's plan. Now he had impressed Wayne, that included "Mohawk" too.

Wayne looked all around, to make sure Mohawk and the others were all prepared for what he had in mind. Everyone seemed to be in position, except Virago, who had yet to take her instructions. And so with that...

"A'right, everybody," Wayne spoke, his voice amplified like a megaphone, "here's how it's gonna go. Maiden and Virago are going to wait in the very center of the lobby, forcefielded. And when she gives the word, you all aim your energy at Maiden's forcefield. She'll channel that energy, combine it with her own, and send it into Virago, so she can initiate demolition. Jack comes in after and quakes the rest all to Hell. Now, keep in mind, it won't all go right away, so Mohawk is gonna cast portals for you all to get out as quick as you can. Everybody clear on your job?"

Uproarious cheering from all sides of the Mover's building.

"Alright then. Maiden, on your mark."

Maiden materialized a stopwatch in her hand, set for five minutes. No need for a touch from her, it began counting down.

She looked at it, and then to Virago, "You ready, V?"

A cheerful smile was her only answer.

It had occurred to the telekinetic that so many things would be different once the building was destroyed. The destruction of this place would serve as a reminder to all that...there was hope. It was a courageous, defiant act, and it meant so much to her that she could be a part of it. To be here, with a former rival, and be able to work with her for the better good...it was a profound comfort. She and Maiden had no idea who they were, where they came from, or any other parts of their past beyond being discovered by Eddie. But now, with this place gone, with the influence of the MOVER gone, it would all work out for the better.

And Maiden was thinking now, as well. She and Virago had started off as enemies, partly because of Maiden's own disdainful and cold attitude. The two always sought to outdo one another, and to prove their superiority, both in power and intelligence. But now, she realized, as Virago had a short while before her, that they would need to value one another, and form a friendship between them. If they did that, then they would never have to worry about being used or abused again.

Maiden spoke again finally, "Don't worry, V. This won't hurt a bit." She took Virago by the hands and the two looked toward the ceiling. Only a minute and a few seconds left.

Wayne looked through the glass door at the two, sharing their anxious anticipation. Any second now, the Mover's building would be gone, kaput, finished, and it would be all thanks to his skill for battle strategy. He wondered what report they would give of the fall of the Mover's property. He and his team would likely be featured in history books as key to deposing the despot. And over time, he and Jack would be more and more lionized, until perhaps one of them was the equivalent of Beowulf, with the Mover as a telekinetic Grendel.

Inconspicuously exultant at the thought, he donned his shades as a little smile made itself visible across his face. Jack looked over to Wayne, and his expression fell again.

Any second now, Wayne sighed as he looked the building over. Any second.

And...time. The stopwatch beeped audibly from the lobby, and Maiden dispersed it, her heart now racing with exhilaration and a determined sense of duty. Her hands began to glow first, and then it spread to the rest of her body. She emitted a hum that built in volume over the next thirty seconds. Her hair tousled gently by the energy she emanated, her eyes and skin aglow, she seemed an alien being; a powerhouse of pure energy.

When finally her body had stored up enough power in itself, she called out to the others to launch their powers to the full extent of their capabilities. From all sides, beams of intense energy blasted through holes in the corners of the walls, and bombarded her forcefield. A dimensional aperture within the field channeled all the raw energy into Maiden, and sparks began to fly from all around the field. Heat, light, electricity and psionic energy coursed through her veins, giving her an unimaginable boost of strength.

And yet, she had only a fifteen foot radius in which any of it would be under HER control. She would have to give it to Virago to finish off if she intended on the energy release going well.

She clasped Virago's hands a bit tighter, and with that, the energy she held within was let go. All of it, every ounce, was conducted into the body of telekinetic Virago, and the telekinetic force she produced only added to the raw and intense reservoir of energy. Thankfully Maiden kept Virago's body integrity, too, for if she had not, she would certainly have been vaporized.

Virago's thoughts rushed through her mind at top speed, to the point she nearly felt as though SHE could bend reality to her whim. Time seemed like such a creeping and tangible thing, coursing over her skin like water, or silk. She could feel its touch easily, and see passing light with no strain. Things began to get slower...

And slower...

And slower...

And...

"What's takin' them so--"

Wayne's complaint was interrupted with a sound that would have made a deaf man jump out of his skin. Wayne, Damien and Jack quickly covered their ears as had the others, but it only barely kept them from losing consciousness. It was a concentrated summation of power from a reality bender and numerous other energy powerhouses, and the result was a magnificent rainbow aurora of instant, inescapable destruction and carnage. Surely, if anyone had been in the way of that, it would have been their end.

It quickly barreled through every floor, leaving the building a nearly hollow tube. What hadn't been disintegrated by the sheer magnitude of the blast had been ejected from the roof as small debris, in a rather volcanic fashion.

Wayne blinked for a second, trying to adjust to the light burst that had just accompanied that mighty roaring beam of power. Getting together his composure, he looked to Maiden and Virago, who awaited his signal.

The thumbs up.

Mohawk cast portals inside the forcefield for Maiden and Virago to escape, and Jack stepped through, taking their place (and remaining forcefielded, because fortunately, Maiden’s power radius was extended through the spatial warp).

Jack took a deep breath and exhaled as calmly as he could. His tattoos lit up, and he plunged his hands forcefully into the ground. The earth beneath him crunched harshly, gripping the tips of his fingers, and the foundations of the building quivered unsteadily.

Wayne motioned for everyone to hurry up; as she tired, Virago’s power over Jack’s forcefield was fast losing its hold, and so Mohawk set up the second portal for everyone to get into as fast as they could. Wayne looked to Jack and gave the second signal: the thumbs down.

Jack looked back to his work and concentrated with all his might. He realized it wouldn’t get enough of the building loose before it collapsed on him. He’d have to kick it into high gear if he hoped to take the place down with the least effort. And so he loosed his grip and slammed his fists back into the pavement with all of his might. A wave rippled through the ground, to all sides of the building. This would certainly speed things up.

And that it did. As soon as the distortion met with the cement-stone wall, it cracked and the walls buckled with another loud crunch. A rumble from all around. The place was about to come down. And so as quick as he arrived, he jumped back through to safety.

When he met up with the team, they went together to join up with their fellow rebels and revolutionaries in the park just outside the city. As though it were waiting for them to rejoin the crowd, the building slowly sunk, shorter and shorter, until finally they got comfortable, and then it collapsed in on itself, releasing a massive plume of dust, debris and rubble. They had never been so happy to see a building demolished in their lives; certainly the remains marked the permanent dethroning of the psychic despot.