Heroes Uprising: Alternate Universe (Thread 4)

Emmet silently applauded Sandra's performance, the song was very appropriate for the current situation. He agreed with Sandra's assessment that she'd ventured past her limits, the amount of power radiating from her testified to that. He considered her questions, the goal of their training had been met, should she progress further? "

" I believe you should focus on the spot your currently in and mark it as your new starting point when you summon the power of the phoenix. With each new practice session we should strive to go a little deeper then the last time, from this we can better exercise our control, in theory mind you "

He was unsure of how to respond to her second question " Im not quite sure, a lot was happening in my head....after I killed the third Lee, Something seemed to break and I was falling, deeper and deeper ino the phoenix force, while my emotions became corrupted and influnced the power itself. I dont believe the phoenix force is aligned with good or evil, but a neutral entity. The darknes that we see in it, may be our very own "

Sandra had come close to fully giving into her darker urges and Emmet leaped into it, the power itself couldnt be blamed, for they were the ones to wield it " If we harbor such intentions, it will show itself inside of the power and as you saw through my unfortunate example, a dark phoenix can manifest "

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The dummy rolled out of the way of Tanesha's oncoming attack,its movements becoming sluggish as she used she slowed it down. Nodding at Katy, the two girls attacks, alternating out with punches and kicks, allowing for Cassandra to get in and make use of what she'd learned so far. Suddenly a torrent of water erupted into existence and swept all three girls off their feet. The dummy was now floating off the air, its body surrounded by rings of water as he it flopped about in a macabre fashion.

Sandra understood. Even the best and kindest of people had dark urges deep inside, the looming darkness as the waters went deeper for Sandra represented her own dark side, at least at this time. She probably felt fear from it for good reason. Power corrupts, and with Sandra still harbouring distrust if not outright hatred towards certain people like that bitch on the cheer squad or especially that sick twisted hoe that murdered her, and her boss that not only did bad things to Sandra herself but also made Tani's life hell.

Yeah Sandra definitely held emotions deep inside that could fuel her own Dark Phoenix. So the fear, insecurity, whatever she was feeling peering into this darkness. Maybe it was her own mind, maybe it was Phoenix. But either way Sandra took as a warning, a warning to stop, a warning that she wasn't ready to wield the abyss of power that still awaits without something potentially terrible happening.

It all seemed to be about mentality. If you suddenly had one of the greatest powers in the universe at your finger tips, could you resist your dark side? Where you mentally mature enough to not give into the power, to not go on a revenge fuelled murder spree to strike down those who wronged you? And if you did, mentally could you live with that blood on your hands?

Honestly Sandra did not think she was ready. She did not think she could currently give the correct answer to any of those questions. Maybe in time as she continued to grow and mature, but taking a self aware objective look at where she stood right now, she knew she was not ready.

Sandra closed her eyes and relaxed, the infinite pool and water around her all fading away. When she opened her eyes she was back in the real world with Emmet once again. "My that was... quite the experience." She told Emmet of her finial thoughts before exiting her mind and wondered if Emmet had any opinion towards the matter.

-----

Katy stood up "so it's my powers now." This is where Katy wanted to get to with her training. She showed she can take a pool of existing water and manipulate it, throw it around, shape it, change it's form to ice and back. Katy already had these skills before she ever started training. But summoning, to be nowhere near a existing body of water, but to still be able to generate enough water to attack with anyway. This is what she'd struggled with for so long. She'd done it at the tournament against Nina, but it was a very tasking process that took almost everything she had. And she was able to do it freely when Riku gave her that magical boost fighting the the Horsemen. If only she could achieve the level of summoning she had with Riku's magic, but in her normal form. She wanted to achieve that level of summoning so badly.

But for now, she'd just have to make due with taking the water the dummy has generated and using that against him. She got into a fighting stance "Alright then dummy, bring it. Show me what you got."

" Excellent work dawling " Emmet told Sandra as she opened her eyes, relayed all of her thoughts to him and Emmet was quiet for a moment.

He understood exactly where she was coming from and had to applaud her mature outlook. Many people who received such a massive power would more likely then not devolve into simple tyrants, plundering, taking what they wanted and smiting everything and everything that offended them. Emmet had never had such thoughts upon discovering the phoenix force and the power it held.

It almost bored him, like he'd done such things before and wasnt in the mood to do so now. Regardless, he saw a point where he and Sandra split at a forked path. At her core Sandra was trully a good person who didnt want to harm people if she could avoid it and it did not want to paint her hands red with blood.

Emmet didnt know where he stood anymore, his hands were stained with blood now and it was more coming to terms with his comfortability about the whole thing. If he had to he'd kill again. It would be a simple matter to leave such grisly affairs to Riku, Noah, Kaiser, or Tie.....but a part of Emmet wasnt shying away from the idea and this newfound bloodlust unnerved him.

" Well said dawling, part of mastering this power but mastering ourselves as well. Humans and mutants are creatures of emotion, despite our assumption we are ruled by pragmatism, logic, and rationality, any situation cn be turned on its head by a person being overuled by their anger and rage, lust, etc. Those with power must be even more careful as I said before, negative emotions can cloud and corrupt us and therefore our powers and the phoenix force "

Emmet allowed his stance to relax as he readied himself for what was to come next " You've reached a new threshhold now you must build upon it. Now it is my turn " he offered her a kind smile and closed his eyes, mentally alerting the others what he was about to do and sensing a little apprehension from a few, not that he blamed them. Riku was, as always, not particularly bothered and had nothing but confidence that Emmet would be ok, making the boy feel a little better.

As Sandra had done before, Emmet conjured up an image of an expansive pool, albeit more grandiose as to fit his own taste. The room looked like it belonged in the castle of a long ago ruler, gold and jewls adorned the the edge of the pool and perfect crafted statues of mystical creatures were placed around the front corners. After taking a moment to look over everything Emmet allowed his gaze to roam over the pool of water itself.

For Sandra it had seemed relatively normal, the darkness only beginning to make itself apparent the further out she went, but for Emmet he was gazing at an empansive pool of shadows, darker then night. Reaching all the way to the shallow end, conjuring up an image of a pool of ink. He'd expected for the darkness to be further in for him but not like this, how much of it was true and how much was his troubled emotions manifesting?

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Tanesha and Cassandra positioned themselves on either side of Katy and readied themselves for what the dummy would do next. Water surged towards them again, but time in the form of tentacles.

" Nigga this better not be going where I think it is! " Tanesha yelled as she boosted her speed with chi and dodged around the thrashing tentacles, mixing in her secondary power to slow them down.

Riku rolled his eyes " Bitch please, if you was guys then mayyyybe but hell no to that with females "

Tanesha assumed the aim was to take down the dummy and it was currently keeping them at bay.

It was now time for Emmet to set upon his turn. Sandra's pool was clear, being a telepathy and training with Goodman Sandra knew it was important to keep a calm and clear mind. But Sandra knew Emmet's mind was anything but. For her concern and doubts didn't start to set in until later, but Emmet's pool was black as night from the very beginning. Emmet I know it's hard, your mind is very cloudy. However, you have to let go. Everything that happened in the past, it doesn't matter in this moment. Sandra knew she was asking a lot, the events on the island weighed heavily on Emmet's mind and at times he seemed to struggle to understand who he truly was. Sandra was asking Emmet let go of all of it, and to be honest she didn't know if Emmet was even capable of it.

"Unnecessary thoughts pollute your mind, it's why the pool is black. You need to stop overthinking, stop worrying. Just relax and open your mind." Sandra could only hope Emmet's mind was what was blackening the pool, and not that it represented something else.

-----

Katy stepped in front of Cassandra causing all the water tentacles to shoot towards her. She used her power over water to stop them, merge them together, and shoot one big water torrent back at the dummy. Cassandra knowing the dummy was currently using water powers waited until just before it was about to counter Katy's return fire. She then used her telekinese to freeze dummy in place leaving it wide open to attack. Even if the dummy switched back to her powers now, it had to be to late. At this point Katy\s water cannon was right in it's face about to smash into him. No way this thing could both free itself, then dodge or counter in time... could it?

Emmet acknolwedged Sandra's word, she was right that his feelings about what happened on the island and the subsequent fallout with numerous members of the group were playing a part in his mental instability. But more then that he questioned if this wasnt his natural state of mind? Given what happened with Riku earlier, he certainly had been more open to discovering his personal darkness, but he hadnt wanted to think it was this blatant.

He took a few calming breaths and stepped into the pool. Despite its appearance, as he'd envisioned, it was simpleish water. Currently around his ankles, he began to make his way deeper in. Soon the water was up to his knees and remaind as dark as ever, but it was gradually not bothering him as much.

Outside his mind, cosmic energy was pouring out of his body in a steady and often erratic manner.

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The water blast hit the dummy point blank, for a second then completely froze over and shattered into ice shards that now hovered in the air. The dummy itself seemed unharmed, Cassandra realizing that it had blocked the initial attack with telekinesis, a very subtle use of it. The dummy's eyes had started glowing now, causing the ice shards to glow as well.

In the next instant the shards all zoomed straight towards the girls. Tanesha didnt have enough time to slow them down and opted to boost her speed, trusting that Katy could handle herself, she quickly knocked Cassandra out of the way and yelped as a few of the shards sliced her body, causing a great ammount of pain, not to mention destroying a good portion of the ground on impact.

" Ok bitch thats a little too damn much! " Tanesha yelled angrilly, those attacks had been way stronger then anything it had done before and clearly meant to be lethal.

Riku, who'd been looking at porn on his phone, raised an eyebrow, honestly they fight should have ended with the last move they'd pulled off. Tanesha was right, the dummy had clearly been going for a killing blow, he also noticed it had started powering up. That shouldnt be happening, he'd just thrown some level spirit into and added a mirroring spell with some minor amplification, nothing the three of them couldnt handle.

He stood up and started walking forward, only to hit a wall " What the fuck?! " a magic circle flared to life underneath him, he immediately recognized it as an anti-demonic binding spell, but it shouldnt have been possible for it to be placed under him without his notice.

" HA, to think a brother of mine, older no less, would fall for such a trick! "

Riku starred in shock as the dummy suddenly spoke, in demonic tongue so only he understood what it was saying. He mentally kicked himself for not seeing this coming, it was so fucking clique and obvious. His bitch of a sister hadnt done anything during the island trip, but now she was ready to begin starting shit.

" Your being far to gentle, how do you expect these patheic human wenches to learn anything if you handle them with kindness, you must take to the very edge of death, only then will true power be discovered "

Riku ground his teeth in anger at getting played, they'd been dragged into another dimention as well, it would be awhile before the others noticed and longer before they could do anything. He pressed his hands together, this fight wasnt over.

" Look you busted bitches, I dont have time to explain, were, well really you, are in deep shit. Someone hijacked that damn dummy and injected it with steroids, it has your powers cranked up to eleven. Ten, no fuck that, survive for three fucking minutes and i'll settle this! " he began chanting a counter spell to break out of his prison.

Tanesha sighed " Well, it wouldnt be a day ending in Y if bullshit like this didnt happen " she steeled hersel and helped Cassandra up, placing a hand on both girls, she added poison resistance and made it as strong as possible. Generally it would make anyone immune to her poisons, but the dummies own poison was apparently stronger now " Dont worry, were gonna get out of this " she assured Cassandra, feeling bad that a simple training session had turned into a death match.

When Sandra had done this Emmet had confirmed she had a calm and stead increase in power. Emmet's power was also growing steadily, but in his case it was erratic. She had to wonder if Emmet should really be doing this in his state of mind. Your power is increasing steadily Emmet. Sandra said as she she continued to monitor him.

-----

With the green glow Katy found herself unable to turn back these ice shards, although she did still manage to deflect a bunch of them away from her, but not all. She used her chi training to increasing her speed and dodge the last few, taking some painful cuts on her legs and arms mostly, but fortunately nothing that would of went deep enough to cut ligaments and cripple her.

When Riku explained it the current events it made more sense. Katy at first thought it was just the what she assumed was telekinese that she had no control over, that made the ice hard to turn away or stop. But it seemed now she also had a overpowered version of herself to deal with.

The three girls regrouped, Tani also seemed to have taken a few hits, but Cass seemed unharmed. Tanesha added poison resistance to the both of them. "So this thing has all of our powers, and is now supercharged to use against us. And we have to last at least 3 minutes." She might of said it to Tani but opted not to say it with Cass here, but their odds currently wasn't looking great. Hopefully this wouldn't become some dragon ball shit where Riku's 3 minutes equates to the next 2 hours.

Emmet suddenly felt something brush against his leg and paused, the water now up to his waist. He looked around but saw nothing beneath black surface of the water " Perhaps i'm taking this analogy too far " he pondered, obviously there was nothing in the water that he wasnt imagining, his anxieties were threatening to take shape.

He clenched his fist and continued his progress, he needed to remain calm, keep his gaze forward. As the water rose, the sensation that something was moving around him continued, even as he tried imagining it was harmless fish. He knew exactly what was plaguing him, try as he might to deny it. Before he realized it, the water was up to his neck and the footing was gone, leaving him floating.

Now was the time to trully dive further.....but he felt unable to do so, fear, excitement, craving, rejection were all filling his mind. Outside cosmic energy was gushing out of Emmet now and beginning to effect the surrounding area, dark clouds gathering overhead.

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A massivive amount of water had been drawn out, it soon took on the shape of writhing snakes, it made Tanesha think of a mythical animal Riku had talked about before called a Hydra, she gulped as all of the snake heads were trained on them. In the blink of an eye the snakes converged. Tanesha immediately attempted to slow them down, but broke off immediately as all thought changed was consumed by dodging.

The number of heads seemed to be fluxuating, making it more difficult to dodge. Cassandra was able to deduce that telepathy was being used as well, distorting their ability to tell reality from illusion. Tanesha yelled as she was tossed to the ground, she rolled out of the way of the attack barrage. She focused her chi and cast her senses out like she'd been taught, as three of the water snakes reared back and fired off blast of water, combined with telekinesis to heat the water to scalding temperatures.

Sandra was watching things on the outside while keeping in contact with Emmet. Whatever was plaguing Emmet he unfortunately seemed incapable of moving past it at this time. Now things seemed to be going from erratic to unsettling. She spoke to Emmet mentally Emmet remember we are not here to gamble with our sanity, but merely to explore our limits. If you have any doubts about going further then where you are, then there is no shame in pulling out right now.

Sandra didn't give Emmet a order, she wasn't demanding him out of the pool. But what she just said was meant to make Emmet think that she wasn't entirely comfortable with the way things was starting to head.

-----

Tanesha realised at that moment she was the only one still on her feet, the snake heads seemed to have caught Cass and Katy, knocking them down as well before they all converged on a calculated attack to end Tanesha. There was to many snake heads after her to dodge even at Tanesha's best, she realised they was pushing her towards the scalding water but there was nothing she could do to avoid it. Using the best of her abilities to dodge and barely stay alive time seemed to slow as she could feel the scalding heat, the water was literally about to consume her in a agonising and horrible death when a wall of ice rose between her between her and the water, Tanesha went from feeling extreme heat on her back to extreme cold, so cold if fact she felt she had to move away from the ice wall to not risk freezing herself. Also the illusion was now gone, Tanesha had found herself time to catch her breath and wipe the sweat from brow.

Cassandra and Katy where back up, while the illusion was still being projected, Cass had managed to shield Katy and Tani's minds from it, thus Tani going from barely staying alive to now having time to catch a breather. Katy had on reflex erected the wall of ice without even thinking about it, and oddly she did not feel tired from it like she usually did. "It's because you acted on instinct" Cassandra said surprising Katy. "You've thought me much, so let me teach you. Katy the only thing holding you back this whole time has been you, you believed you couldn't use your powers and your mind made it true. You doubt and overthink what should come to you naturally and oh so easily." She went into telepathy for the next part "And hey it helps having someone to fight for doesn't it. Not strangers, not casual friends, but to fight for someone truly special."

Oh god she knew!! Katy was starting to panic a bit but Cass added in "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." That made Katy feel a bit better that Cass wasn't going to taddle on them, but it reaffirmed the notion in Katy's mind that Tanesha really needs to get on the ball about coming clean with Sandra. It's only been a few hours since the beach and already Riku had come close to suspecting something, and Cassandra had already caught them red handed. The few days Tani wanted, at this rate they may not be able to keep the affair secret for that long.

But that was for later, right now the girls had to focus on the real snake heads and the dummy trying to kill them.

Emmet sighed, conceding that Sandra had a point, in his current state of mind, it would be unwise to attempt going further.

" Running away are we, since when have you been such a coward "

Emmet froze, that voice had come directly from his own mouth, but it felt like it hadnt actually been him that had said it. He peered down into the murky water and saw pair of glowing red eyes. A figure soon manifested and Emmet was looking at a reflection of himself, the one from the island, complete with the outfit he'd worn then.

" Cowardice doesn't become you, or rather use "

Emmet gulped then steeled himself " It isnt cowardice to recognize ones own weakness, to do otherwise begets recklessness....I dont want to return to you, not again "

The reflection laughed cruelly " Return to me, surely you jest, I am you and you are me, ever present within you. Whether or not you repeat the actions from island is...well up to us. If you dont want to then simply dont, I dont see the problem "

" You make it sound so simply, it doesnt erase my...ugh! Our actions in the slightest, our feelings, impulses "

" Hmm " the reflection cocked its head in contemplation " You mean giving into glorious destruction and watching it all burn and crumble away? Do you deny your pleasure, your enjoyment? Destruction is a part our deing as creation, pleasure can be found in both. Take life, give it. All is our right "

Emmet shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the thoughts beginning to form, but before he could speak, the reflection continued.

" The Lee's death means nothing to us the grand scheme of it all, but they were avenged in the end and the younger ones still live, there is some concellation in that. If your so insitant on making ammends then simply offer to take care of them, nurture them in their parents stead, mhmm having them as our thralls wouldnt be such a bad thing would it.

" NO! Yes I will do all I can to help the Lee's but I shall do it from a far and make sure they are taken care of...Its all I can do, that and take care of the remaining horsemen "

The reflections smile became wicked " Ahhh yes, the reaper longs for destruction and we can give it to him, does that notion satisfy our " morals " whatever they may be. The horsemen and whoever hired them, fear factor, all of them are enemies, villains as it were. In this we can play the hero, though behaving entirely like villains ourselves, but all of that can just be HANDWAVED!! "

Suddenly hands reached out of the water and wrapped around Emmets throat, reflection was pulling itself forward as it tried to drag Emmet down. Emmet was fighting with all his might against himself and it was impossible to tell who was winning. As much as he wanted to he couldnt deny a lot of what it had been saying, he was tired of denying it, denying himself.

The sound of a whistle split the air " Hey hey, enough rough housing in the water! "

Looking to the side, Emmet saw a lifeguard tower float by, a young girl was sitting in a chair, wearing a lifeguards swim suit and a stirn expression. Her long hair flowed down to the flair, a striking mixture of white and red " Dont you think you've had enough of this? " she demanded.

" Yes, I believe I have "

Emmet surged forward, finding now that his own hands were on the reflections neck as he dove down, deeper and deeper into the water, deep blackness beginning to dispell. Outside a strong wind had picked up as the cosmic energy seemed roar out of emmet, Sandra could feel fear beginning to bloom as this seemed to be the beginning of a repeat, but a voice spoke to her in the back of her head that it was alright.

Emmet starred at his reflection dead in the eye " We are the same, I accept this, but I accept this in my own way, not this aspect of me.

The reflection laughed again " You speak as if its only me, we are many, not just one thing, just one aspect. We are make of all our years and experiences "

Emmet found himself surrounded by countless numbers of glowing orbs, each one feeling like him. He was reminded again of the cage he'd seen before with the figure chained up inside it. Taking a breath he uttered the word " Stop "

The reflection vanished, as did all the orbs and Emmets dive halted, leaving him floating in a dimmed golden light. Outside The rush of cosmic energy had halted and not only that, Sandra could feel that time had stopped, she sensed all of the others nearby, but couldnt feel anything from them in this frozen state. Turning back to Emmet she saw his expression had relaxed considerably and the cosmic energy around him felt less forboding.

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The dummy wasnt thwarted for long by Katy's ice wall as it soon overwhelmed it, but by that time the girls had gotten out of the way. The temperature was rapidly starting to drop as the dummy switched from water to ice. Tanesha focused, recalling that using your chi could help with extreme tempuratures like this, to certain degrees. The now ice snakes surges forward even faster then before, Tanesha pressed down on the ground and blinked out of the way, performing her first shundo.

As the ice snakes crashed into the ground, they releashed a purple mist that enshrouded the area. Tanesha staggered the littel, realizing there was poison mixed into the mist. She felt her heart beginning to hammer in her chest, if it was hurting her this much with her resistance, she didnt wanna think about what it was doing to the others. But she barely had time to think of them as something came speeding out of the mist towards her, feeling itself to be an ice figure copy of her.

She back flipped out of the way and delivered a chi enpowered spin kick at it's back. The two fought furiously, in some instances they were moving in slow motion as they ice doppleganger of course had her powers, albeit stronger as she was moving slower then it was and its poison coated limps burned her skin. As it transformed it's limbs into blades, she wondered if that was just due to its form or her powers.

Tanesha knew her poison technically classified her as an elemental type, same as Katy and one of the advanced applications for high level elementals was elemental shifting, whereas they physically become the element they control. Tanesha knew she was still a long ways off from that, and that was if she managed to reach it, but it was certainly something to aim for. As of the moment it just made her doppleganger more deadly.

Managing another shunder, she caught its back and grabbed it into a headlock, she pushed herself to her limits, making her acid as corrosive as possible, fighting against the dopplegangers own. Tears welled up in her eyes as she her flesh boiled, but she refused to die hear. Sandra flashed through her mind, Katy as well, all these feelings, the unsureness of it all " I'm not going down here!! " she yelled, releasing her grip and jumped away.

The doppleganger was swaying, itss form having become incredibly unstable. Tanesha didnt hesitate for a moment and leaped at it, hammering at it's body till it finally burst. She fell to her knees, vision blurry as the mist had remained. She coughed and wiped at her mouth, seeing blood on her hands. How long had they been fighting, surely the three minutes were up by now. But she had to push the thought aside as more ice dopplegangers began to emerge.

Sandra trusted the voice that spoke to her, and it seemed things was working out. She could tell Emmet was internally battling with who he was and given the feeling she was getting from Phoenix, it seemed the Emmet she knew was likely winning out on this occasion, though what was being said in Emmet's mind was muddy to her, so it was partly a assumption at what she seeing.

While she waited on the final results of what was becoming of Emmet, Sandra took in her time froze surroundings. It was quite the sight to behold, a world in perfect stillness. No wind, no leaves or grass blowing, no people moving. It was not only dead still, but no motion also meant no noise, so it was also dead quiet. Sandra got the sensation this was not Emmet's first time doing those, though she was pretty sure this was her first time resisting this. Was it do to her letting the Phoenix in more and trying to get more in tune with it, was her own Phoenix power now enough to resist Emmet. Or did Emmet simply desire Sandra to not be frozen? It was a curious question.

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At that moment a pair of legs stepped in front of her, still fighting though the pain Tanesha looked up to see Katy. "This has to end soon." Katy said in a strained voice. While Katy was still hanging in there, Cassandra was not at this point. Not only did she not have Katy's natural affinity for cold as a ice mutant, but she didn't didn't even have chi training to fall back on. The combination of the intense poisons and now fidget cold had taken it's toll on her, she had not made it far into this battle before collapsing. She was at the point of barely breathing due to the toxins, the little resistance Tanesha had given her early likely being all that was keeping Cass alive. On top of that her skin was paling, she was also gradually freezing.

Katy had adopted to the cold with no issues, but the poisons was still effecting her. She felt like she was going to have a full blown heart attack, the pain was unbearable. The toxins also gave her migraines. Katy's vision was also blurry and she felt as if her body was weak. As the ice dopplegangers moved in Katy grit her teeth, steadied her body, focused her chi and formed a long ice spear with her powers. She charged forward with fiercely stabbing and slicing at every doppleganger she could, pushing herself to the limit even as they surrounded her. As space got to tight for the spear she switched to close range ice blades and ice covered fists.

Emmet felt...better, far more then he had for the few days, a part of him felt like he didnt deserve it, but he pushed the thoughts aside, now was not the time for it. He was currently just listless drifting not quite as dark waters " Hmm, I feel like this setting has run its course, afterall theres more then one way to draw on power, you can dive and you can rise! "

Emmet:
Today I change my place in history
Today I’m gonna start a brand new life
Done with suffering had enough of misery

Finally on a path that’s heading somewhere bright

I feel a different kind of energy
Kicking everything to overdrive
Switched-on revved-up turbo-mode vitality
Finding it hard to believe that I feel so alive

Emmet kicked off and surged upward till he burst through the surface of the water and rose into the air.

Just watch me go
See me fly
Don’t look for answers
Don’t ask why~I
Can’t explain the way I feel
I’m soaring
Like I never have before
Flying self-assured and free
And I somehow feel I finally feel like me

I looked in the mirror
And I gotta say
It’s been a long long time
Since I felt this way
Right now
I’m just a bit surprised
Cuz I feel just fine
And I might just touch the sky
I might just touch the sky
But if I don’t I’ll know
That I dared with pride
And though I fail I grow
And tomorrow I’ll touch the sky

As he song, he noticed the figure on the lifeguard tower dancing and smiled. He didnt stay in place long, no he simply couldnt and soon rose higher into the sky till he was over the clouds.

I feel the sense of possibilities
And i could get addicted to that rush
Open doors and so much hope in front of me
Full of confidence, every challenge crushed

My heart’s electric racing endlessly
Feeling like the stars have all aligned
Illuminate the darkness that was blinding me
Now I’m positive that it’s my time to shine

Cordelia had her fingers plugged into her ears, both physically and mentally, but was unable to block out the sound of Emmets amazing voice. The white queen had a careful eye on Emmets sealing room, it was wasnt showing the same violent reaction as a few nights again, but their was an harmony resonating from it, Emmet was still safely under lock and key, but it was impossible for him to be completely tied down as shown before.

I will explode
You’ll see me rise
You may not even
Recognize
I just can’t wait for this reveal
Exploring
Now I’ve opened up a door
Finding so much more in me
When I look inside I’m liking what I see

He climbed higher and higher, far more then he'd ever dared to before. But but emboldened soared past the past earths atmosphere and into space.

I’m climbing higher with the past behind me
Heights like I never dreamed
Finally learned I need to do it my way
Now I see what I can be
When I trust in me
I’m free

I looked in the mirror
And I gotta say
It’s been a long long time
Since I felt this way
Right now
I’m just a bit surprised
Cuz I feel just fine
And I might just touch the sky
I might just touch the sky



As Emmet sang he felt his mind becoming cleaer, more focused, more like himself. He'd resumed  his progress, but his power output was now much smoother then it had been. As the song came to an end Emmet paused in front of venus. He marveled at the planet and all the stars around him, the lights within the darkness.

He opened his eyes and time resumed forward, Sandra was able to tell that like her, Emmet had gone past his own limits, moving ahead of her, but not in an extreme way, if she were to reach and strain somewhat, she'd be able to touch him. Emmet let out a relaxed breath and the cosmic energy coating his body and general area moved with him, like a true extension of himself.

" Apologize for that display dawling, but I've got myself in order now " Emmet said with more of his usual confidence and self-assurance.

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" Good job guys, keep it up your doing great "

Since Riku was off being annoying, Tabitha was taking charge of the magic lessons. She had Donovan going some review with a book on support magic while Garfield, Dave, and Adrian were practicing on gathering mana via magic circuits. They'd certainly come along quite a ways since they began these lessons, able to pull off basic spells and applications.

Riku had tested the group during the last meeting to learn what their elemental affinities might be. This test could be done in different stages, with most opting for the the standard fire, water, wind, and earth. But Riku felt that was basic as fuck and since technically there were much more elements then that, he went with a more advanced ritual.

Garfield had an affinity for the four main elements, as well as their sub categories, most impressive was a rare affinity for the element of nature, which explained his overall mass affinity. Riku had explained that this was one of the rarest of elemental affinities. Not just for elements but animals, insects, and possibly life and death. One of the reasons Riku had been pushing entomancy on him, that and the whole spider theme.

Dave had affinities for fire, Earth, space, ether, and potentially death and mind. The space part wasnt particularly suprising given his mutant power. The death and mind ones were, meaning dave would learn psy based magic and necromancy. Riku planned to partner him up for joint training with Gat when he got back on the island, since Dave had asked about gun magic, earth and fire combos were good for it.

Donovan had earth and a high affinity for light and life, which was common for most mages who specialized in healing magic, Donovan had been especially happy abou this. Adrian had missed the last session, so his element remained unknown, Tabitha was unable to perform the same spell Riku had, but Adrian was fine with it. He was lagging behind the others still and despite Riku's not so subtle comments that he had no talent for this and wouldnt be put out if he wanted to join the chi class.

But Adrian was determined to keep going, given his mutant power, most things he wanted to learn came easy to him, for the first time he was presented with a skill that he was struggling with and as aggravating as he found it, it was also incredibly fascinating, not to mention getting to be around the demon himself more wasnt something Adrian particularly wanted to give up.

---------------------------------------------------------

Despite his earlier claim, six minutes had passed and Riku was still struggling to get out of his binding. He couldnt see what was happening, but he could sense the three out fighting and could feel they were rapidly wearing down. Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!!!! This wasnt happening, no way this stupid bitch was this powerful to do all of this and keep him on hold at the same time. Someone had be helping her, he refused to believe the difference in their powers was this vast.

As you shouldnt dawling, theres no reason you shouldnt be out of this mess already.

Riku blinked as he found arms linking around his neck, turning his head slightly he saw an image of Emmet floating behind him, red eyes and all. Like the incident in the tower, the Emmet of his mind had showed up to remind him of what he should already know. This was strangely calming to him and did help him to focus more.

Would you like me to help you?

Riku shook his head " Naw I got this, just sit back and enjoy the show "

That being said, he actually did have half of an idea of what to do with this. Dispelling the seal wasnt working so why not just....change it. Riku could change his body however which way he wanted, currently only within reason, but why couldnt he do the same to the world around him. He'd studied a bit in transmutation, mostly as a filler course, but he recalled something Emmet had told him once a long time ago.

Dont limit yourself, you have too much talent and potential for that.

Riku took a breath and reached out, touching the barrier. With a great amount of effort, he focused and imagined its form and properties changing much like his changed himself. Soon the barrier twisted on itself, its fundamental nature to contain inverted to let out. Riku jumped out and with a pulse of demonic energy, dispelled the mist. Tanesha was on the ground, holding onto Cassandra to protect her when she noticed Riku.

Relief and fear shot through her, the expression of the demons face was one of absolute RAGE as he saw the state the three of them in, leaving no illusions as to what he trully was.

" You fucking cunt! You've got a lot of nerve fucking with my basic ass friends!!! " Riku roared, his form exploding out to match his anger.
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" Such harsh words brother, but you should all be thanking me, these three humans have all seen some growth, as I said they would, they feel indebted to m-

" Oh shut up you bag of expired telapia!! "

The air became charged with magic as the dummy and the giant ice snakes became enveloped in five large magic circles, holding them in place. Riku held up his enlarged hand and slowly began to close it.

" Listen to me " sis " cause im going to say this once, this upcoming war is between you and me only, dont get in any cliche ass ideas about trying to drag any of the bitches I hangout with into it, it wont do you any good and will only make torture session I have planned for you all the worse, now take your worthless excuse for an exsistence back home and tell daddy im still his favorite! " he closed his fist and the magic circles flared up with an intense pink light that completelt distentigrated the dummy and constructs.

The dimention shattered, leaving Riku and the others in the spot they'd been in. Riku was breathing heavily, he'd had to pull off some pretty big magic, not to mention the move wasnt entirely sure he'd done. But after a moment he was fineish. He looked down at Tanesha, Katy and Cassandra pointed a finger at them, immediately they felt the effects of the poison vanish from their systems.

" Healing magic isnt my thing, but dealing with poison is simple enough for a demon, lets go get you taken care of " a large void opened up underneath them and swept then away, in the next moment they appeared behind Tabitha.

Tabitha turned around, looked up at Riku, then looked behind him, without a word she called Donovan over to assist her withe helping.

" What the fuck happened?! " Garfield asked in shock, Riku could be rough with his training methods, but he didnt generally leave them as battered as Tanesha and the others currently were.

Riku shrank down to his regular form " I'll when the group get all together in abit, wasnt exactly planning on hiding this but I also wasnt about to spill my bussiness like that, but given what just happened, I might as well "

Kano and Tie, who'd been sparring, walked over as well.

"That's good to hear" Sandra said with a smile before bring her own Phoenix power back out, reaching the same level she'd gotten to in her mental pool. Emmet was stronger, but surprisingly did not feel completely out of her reach. If she pushed a little further she could get to a level of somewhat comparableness, and it likely wasn't going to be to long until the True Notes faces a foe that does force her hand in going beyond where she is now. But she rather not risk it at this exact moment. Whatever time of peace they will have, Sandra wanted to use it to get comfortable at her current level before pushing even further, sticking to her and Emmet's original plan.

There was a moment of silence as the Phoenix's stood together. This moment had a special type of feel to it, much different from the face off back on the island. "Well Emmet, I think this has been a pretty productive evening for the both of us, don't you agree?"

-----

Riku had arrived just in time, at the level Katy was fighting she had very little, virtually nothing at all to be honest left in the tank. The fight was just to much to had kept going any longer at that intensity. Tanesha had somehow dragged herself over to Cassandra, but other then using herself as a human shield Katy didn't think Tani had anything left if those two had gotten attacked again.

With the poison and cold gone Cassandra was gradually starting to stir, even if it was only groans at the moment it indicated she was still alive. Even now back in the heat, Cass skin was still somewhat cold to the touch. Had the poison itself not done her in, then Cass was not very far off freezing to death.

As Tabitha and Donovan got to work it seemed Riku knew what was behind the attack, his sister or something right? At least that's what Katy thought she heard him say. It seemed Riku was soon going to give them the full story. Katy had to wonder what the deal was behind all this.

" I do dawling, were both at different points then when we began and its only the start, neither of us is sure where this power will lead us in the future, but as long as we keep our heads held high and our minds clear, we'll be fine " Emmet spoke with more confidence then Sandra had heard from him in awhile, whatever had happened in his mind seemed to have done wonders.

It was nearing the end of the nights training session, it felt like barely any time had passed, but Emmet wasnt sure if that was simply because of his second time stop of the night " Before we head back, shall we indulge? "

Sandra automatically knew what he meant and grinned as the music started playing.

Oh yeah, aw
World we're livin' in
Let me tell ya

Emmet:
And it's a wonder man can eat at all
When things are big that should be small
Who can tell what magic spells we'll be doin' for us?
And I'm givin' all my love to this world
Only to be told
I can't see, I can't breathe
No more will we be

Sandra:
And nothin's going to change the way we live
'Cause we can always take, but never give
And now that things are changing for the worse
See, woah, it's a crazy world we're livin' in
And I just can't see that half of us immersed in sin
Is all we have to give these

Emmet and Sandra:
Futures made of virtual insanity
Now always seem to be governed by this love we have
For useless twisting, all the new technology
Oh, now there is no sound
For we all live underground

Sandra:
And I'm thinkin', what a mess we're in
Hard to know where to begin
If I could slip the sickly ties of Earth that man has made
And now every mother can choose the colour
Of her child
That's not nature's way

Emmet:
Well, that's what they said yesterday
There's nothin' left to do but pray
I think it's time I found a new religion
Whoa, it's so insane to synthesize another strain
There's something in these futures that we have to be told

Emmet and Sandra:
Futures made of virtual insanity
Now always seem to be governed by this love we have
For useless twisting, all the new technology
Oh, now there is no sound
For we all live underground, whoa!

Emmet:
Now there is no sound
If we all live underground
And now it's virtual insanity
Forget your virtual reality

Sandra:
Oh, there's nothin' so bad
As a meddlin' man
Oh yeah, I know, yeah

Emmet and Sandra:
Futures made of virtual insanity
Now always seem to be governed by this love we have
For useless twisting, all the new technology
Oh, now there is no sound
For we all live underground

Oh, now there's nothing that we live in
It's all goin' wrong
Out of window, you know
There is nothing worse than a rambling man
There is nothing worse than a foolish mind
Virtual insanity is what we're livin' in
Yeah, yeah, it's alright



The two danced through the air as they made their way back to the meet up spot, their performance charged with cosmic energy and causing a light show in the air. The song came to an end as they touched down.

------------------------------------------------------

" Demon, does what you were all going through relate to the coming to a halt? " Tie asked

Riku raised an eyebrow at " Bitch what are you talking about? we were in a closed off dimention, an annoyingly well put together one, nothing in it could affect the outside world "

" Hmm, it is as lady Tie states, we sensed a change after it happened, though nothing around us seemed any different so I dont believe it was done by an enemy " Kano confirmed " It also seems like it wasnt related to your incident "

Riku thought about that, immediately realizing it was Emmet, something like that had happened during their sparring/therapy session. Everything seemed fine, so he assumed Emmet was doing ok now.

Tabitha and Donovan finished, the three girls all had their wounds healed up, as well as physical and mental fatigue. Riku magicked up three mugs of hot cocoa and floated them over, upon Tabitha's request.

" Somtimes Chocolate can work wonders for a persons health, mental and physcal " Tabitha explained.

They'd all gone through the ringer and like Garfield, Tabitha knew it wasnt Riku's doing, she sensed trace amounts of demonic energy on them, but she knew Riku's like the back of her hand. She gave him an appraising look, to which he shrugged.

Cass cupped her mug in both hands and took a sip "This is nice" she complimented. Katy took hers by the mug handle. The battle had been bad enough for herself and Tani who had means of defending themselves. Cassandra was thrown straight in the deep of it totally out of her element, but she had managed to pull though and survive. Katy thought about what Cass had told her regarding her powers. Was that really her problem this whole time, that she was lacking the right motivation and mentally, she had been holding herself back?

She took a quick glance towards Tanesha and then down to Cass. Katy guessed it was possible. For a normal person if you attempt a sport or job or something and you walk into thinking you can't do it, that you are going to fail. Then odds are, you will fail. So it's not hard to believe that being in the wrong frame of mind could also effect a mutants powers.

It wasn't long until the night show in the sky was noticed and Sandra landed with Emmet having just come off a musical dance number. Both of them was radiating with Phoenix energy, and both of them felt like they've grown, the presence of the Phoenix still felt by those who wasn't even in tune with sensing energy. Sandra let her Phoenix powers fade out seeing everyone gathered around Tanesha, Katy and Cassandra. And it did not look like this was any sort of celebration either. There wasn't even a hello as the first thought and words out of Sandra's mouth was "Oh god, what did we miss?"

Tanesha looked up from her cocoa following the arrival of Sandra and Emmet after their performance and smiled at seeing her girlfriend. But then all of the emotions from before began to rise to the surface again. Guilt, shame, unsureness, all of it was present and fought it down and kept a smile on her face.

She froze when she noticed Emmet looking at her with speculating gaze. Emmet wasnt the type to pry with his powers and he'd been working on them for awhile now so the chance of getting overhwhelmed would be slimmer. Then again the boy was scary good at reading people even without telepathy and empathy. Emmet looked away as the others started appearing.

Riku had handwaved the initial question again, but once everyone was present and wondering what had happened to Tanesha, Cassandra, and Katy as they all seemed visibly shaken. The demon obnoxiously cleared his before beginng.

" Alright so i'm just gonna get to the point, my standing in hell has recently been threatened, which led to what happened tonight, you see my father is the king of hell and-

" So your dad IS Satam! " Dave suddenly exclaimed then blushed when everyone starred at him " Uhhh, I just always kinda assumed and....i'll be quiet now "

Riku rolled his eyes " No my dad isnt Satan, though he may have to become my daddy if I wanna get on his good side. Obviously none of you would know this certain piece of informan, sans the mutated bird, but Hells prior king was the fallen angel Lucifer, but my father, Asmodeus the demon prince of lust(duh) staged a coup and after a very lengthy civil war, seized power and took the throne, driving Lucifer out and rewriting the hierarchy of hell "

Tie was listening impassively, as Riku had said, Heaven had heard about the rumblings in hell but decided to stay out of it. So Hell trully was under new management.

" Hmm, what befell Lucifer in the end? Emmet asked curiously

" Rumor is he's hiding somewhere, biding his time to get revenge on my father, another rumor is he's running a night club in LA and is happy as a clam not running hell, were all pretending like we dont know. Anyway I got called back home recently and learned that I have a sister....well a sister thats worth something " A lot of the demon rulers had kids coming out the wazoo and Asmodeus most of all, though most of his children were monstrosities of one form or another or not particularly powerful.

" Were suppose to fight it out to see who gets the title of heir, tonight was her basically saying hello, in a fucking annoying way " Riku said, spitting on the ground.

" So basically we got drug into your ratchet ass family problems? " Tanesha asked as she drained the last of her cocoa " Well that tracks "

Riku rubbed the back of his head " Yeah about that that sor.....s....sorr............. "

" Bitch dont hurt yourself choking on that word, we know that wasnt your fault " Tanesha told him after it became apparent saying sorry might have killed him.

" Yeah thats not in my bad bitch vocabulary, but you know who can say it, tig ol bitty Teslas! " he immediately shape shifted back into Tesla " What? You thought you'd seen the last of these mommy milkers, I think not! One more appearance before I take this show on the road!! " He took a breath " I'm sorry the three of you had to go through that, I didnt want my problems affecting the group, I should have know she would pull something like this, im to smart for that, but i'll make sure she doesnt try to mess with most of you, pedobear your on your own "

" I dont need nor want your help abomination " Noah told him though his tone didnt have the usual bite to it.

Tanesha pressed a finger to her forehead " Nigga I will accept that if you promise to never change in that again! "

" Done and done " Riku changed back " Still gross "

Damn so the three girls was attacked by Riku's sister? That had to have been rough. While this had been completely unpredictable and out of any of their control, Sandra still felt bad she hadn't been there for them. Sandra also wasn't appreciative of Riku mocking Tesla giving the effort she'd put in lately to try to understand why the girl how she was and try to help her, but she did excuse it as Riku being Riku.

Katy and then Cass finished up their coco as well and thanked Tabitha. Katy also found herself not really caring that much about hell, not because she had any sort of inherent hatred of demons like Noah, but just because it seemed to be none of their business as mortals, it left her indifferent to it so say. What did worry Katy was Riku's sister making more moves against him, and others getting dragged into it. "Not to doubt your abilities but can you really prevent your sister from coming after us or others again?"

" Oh ye of little faith, its honestly quite simple Aqua Vida " Riku held up a finger " One, going after you all is honestly pointless as you have no affiliation with hell aside from hanging out with me. Honestly she and I are going to have to meet up so we can actually decide how were going to go about this otherwise its going to get unnecesarilly complicated and confusing, noto to mention annoying since I know nothing about her and she has all the tea on me "

He held up a second finger " Two, your all still alive. Like I said before she was using all of your powers on speed and while she was being pretty creative in a sadistic way, she was actually being honest about pushing you all to get stronger and technically you all did. As for why she went about this other then messing with me....she was probably into you all, I mean were both children of the king of sex demons. Not to mention her mother is another of lords of hell, Lilith queen of the succubus "

Riku didnt say it out loud, but he'd honestly done stuff like that to guys he found attractive and was in a particularly evil mood " That said, she could have just drowned in you all in poisoned water and crushed you with tk and water pressure. From her methods I can deduce it was a one time thing and now that she has my attention, we can get this battle for the title of princess of hell underway "

Something occured to Garfield " Lilith, isnt that Lithuels mother? "

Riku shot him a look " In his world yes, though based on what he said about her, she's very different from this worlds Lilith, who likes carpet "

" Wait then how did she and your dad-

" You dont wanna know " Riku said cutting him off " But thats basically how my life is going, i'll probably be around sporatically, time in hell moves differently depending on which part of it your in "

Kano stepped forward " My friend, I do not know what battles await you, but I offer my services, as the heir of Asgard to the heir of hell, it would be a good start for diplomacies "

" Pretty sure you fucking my brains out on the regular are already has us at a good start to that " Riku said with a grin " And I also know your not gonna let this go, so i'll tell you what, once I found out the info for this and if it seems like I can call on outside help, i'll do that, sound good "

Kano nodded " It does "

" Obviously i'll be helping you as well " Kaiser put in to which Riku just nodded.

" I of course wish to help as well " Emmet said stepping forward " I dont know how much I can be, but I have seen some growth tonight, largely due to you and i'd like to pay that back "

Riku wasnt sure how to take that, were this Emmet as true self, Riku would have never asked for his help and it wouldnt have been offered. Emmet would have absolute faith in him and sat back and watched, though not without gifting him something special. But this wasnt the true Emmet so..." You dont owe me anything Em, but like I said before, not gonna turn away your help if I think i'll need it. Anyway Kai if you wanna take over "

Kaiser stepped forward and started the post training meeting which meant going over everyones current progress and how they felt about it as a whole.

If Emmet, Kano and others where in then so was Sandra if Riku wanted her help. While running into hell certainly wasn't the first thing she wanted to do, she also wasn't one to let friends walk into danger alone. Besides she worried about Emmet, what if ademon got to him like that Horseman reaper guy did? Riku and Kano may need some help to tame him if shit hit the fan again.

Katy also offered her services if needed, she was never one to back down from a fight and if she was willing to go after Emmet against all odds, she certainly wasn't fearing some demons.

Cass opted out. She said since only just started training, that her lack of experience was more likely to get in the way then to be of any help. In her mind she just didn't want to get wrapped up in this and thought all these people where a few fries short of a happy meal. But to be polite, she gave them the old "I'll only slow you guys down" excuse.


Before much longer the training session was over and everybody had gone their separate ways/fractured off into their separate groups. In the next morning Tanesha awoke to the sounds of foods frying in a pan and dishes clanging. She pulled the bed covers off and went into the kitchen where Sandra wearing nothing more then a shirt had prepared a huge breakfast. Sandra noticed Tani "Babe!! Sleep well?"

Sandra realised her girl had a long night last night. So she decided to get up early and make breakfast. This was not the first time Sandra had cooked for Tani and by no means would it be the last, honestly she quite enjoyed it. "Girl take a seat, I have beacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, sausage, cereal, fried ham, beagles, you name it. If it's in this kitchen it's on."

Sandra had her second session with Tesla today, she hoped this one went smoother then the first. But before that she wanted to make sure her girl was ready for whatever today brought Tani's way.

-----

At the Mafia/Horsemen hideout Nina was making a early morning round. She really didn't sleep at all anymore being a vampire/demon hybrid. She wasn't tasked duty, it was more just out of boredom she decided to take a walk. As she made her walk she actually seen somebody else up and around, it was Troy's sex doll Abigail. Eva may of been slow in the head and to love struck to see the real reason this girl was here, but others wasn't. This girl basically filled in the role Tanesha once had before she deserted and joined the True Notes.

"Hey rape bitch, your masters bedroom is the other way." Abigail just ignored Nina completely and kept walking, this was odd as this girl was a wuss and would normally cower at the mere sound of one of the Mafia members voices. It annoyed Nina that all of sudden now this girl seemed to grow a spine out of nowhere. She walked and placed a hand on Abby's shoulder to stop her, before Nina could even say a word she found her arm separated from her body and some force threw her to the ground before stabbing her heart leaving a good sized hole in Nina's chest. Luckily, this was no longer a kill shot for Nina due to her demon side. Nina disappeared into shadows to escape whatever impaled her, reforming several feet away. Blood tendrils reached out to Nina's arm pulling it back onto her body and her superhuman healing rejoined it and closed up the hole in her chest.

"What the hell kind of power was that?" This was no telekinesis, it felt different then Sandra. Suddenly a male voice, Troy's voice, spoke from behind her as he walked up. "I told you not to get to close to the girl." Troy walked right up to Abby, brushed her hair back and Nina from her distance could just barely make out, one of those mind control chips Troy had was now on Abby. "You believe me now that these things work?"

Try had seen Nina new powers and would question that soon, but first he wanted to prove his point that these mind control chips are the real deal.

Tanesha had woken up feeling very hungry, so she was more then happy to take Sandra up on her offer. Last night had been wild, to say the least, she couldnt tell if it was a good thing or not that she was getting used to being put in life or death situations " Thanx gurl, honestly all that sounds really good " she smiled at her girlfriend, but then her mood started to dip as she recalled the rest of yesterday, namely what happened with Katy.

She still felt so confused about what had happened and her feelings for the girl till then had just been a friend. But she couldnt deny how her heart started to beat faster when she thought of Katy, same as when she thought of Sandra, it was love. But no matter how you put it, she'd cheated on Sandra yesterday and the part of her that wasnt over the moon about what had happened, was disgusted with herself and full of loathing.

But everytime she tried to bring it up to Sandra, a lump would form in her throat and she'd put it off, but she knew that she couldnt do that forever, it wasnt fair to her, Katy, or herself.

She'd told Katy that was going to tell Sandra what happened with them, but she was struggling to bring it up, she was sure over breakfast wasnt the most appropriate of time, but she would....eventually.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon getting home from the training session, Emmet had immediately gone to bed. But as usual, after an hour( if he was being generous, it was actually thirty minutes) of sleep, he was fully revitalized. Not it was more accurate to say he'd never stopped being, even after how emotionally draining the night had been, Emmet found himself bursting with vitality. With his homework all finished several weeks in advanced and his singing practice not schedueled till later.

So he decided to get some more practice in, finding him back at the True Notes training grounds. He wasnt planning on trying to delve deeper into the phoenix force, so he felt it should be fine. After a few deep breaths he returned to his spot from before in the phoenix force. He found it relatively easy to maintain the power now, even with his recent growth. He went through a few fills to see what he was capable of now.

Not suprising, he was still unable to freeze time wilingly, perhaps full control over time resided in the deeper depths and he was subconsciously reaching there under duress, certainly wasnt something he should currently rely on. The rest of the abilities he was granted by the phoenix force were noticeably increased. The amount of cosmic energy he could summon and use.

It gave him a few new ideas of how he could employ his orbs, going from that he tested how the phoenix force effected his personal abilities. As Sandra had done on multiple occasions, the phoenix force could be used to amplify their powers. Emmet tried it with his flight first, finding that his speed had increased dramatically, clearing one side of the island to the other in a matter of seconds.

It almost felt like he was teleporting or using shundo. Next he tried his own flames, he wasnt sure why but he felt a very significant difference between his flames and cosmic flames and didnt appear to have anything to do with their composition, in any event his flames were stronger and his control felt better as well.

He'd been unsure of it he should try his newly gained powers of telepathy and telekinesis, but something spurred him on. He changed locations to the nearest city and focused, his range practically exploded out of him till his head was filled with voices, images, and emotions. He hugged himself tightly as it felt like he was about to explode. A calmness came over him, the voices and emotions becoming filtered.

His control felt tighter now, he reigned in his powers and focused on a certain section of the city, finding he could connect to everyone in it and look through each of their minds individually. He was also capable of controlling them, putting suggestions, thoughts and emotions in their head, in some instances it was full control, but he pulled back from that and returned to the training spot.

Telekinesis was his latest power and so far his progression with it had been going smoothly, mainly using telekinetic force for push based movements and mentally picking things up, though he'd limited himself so far to small things like pencils. But now charged with the phoenix force, he looked below him and sent mental push.

The ground exploded, leaving a large gash in the ground, Emmet inspected the hole carefully, seeing that it went fairly deep. For the next hour he practiced with this, fine tuning the force and accuracy he was using. At the end of the hour he pushed again and made a perfect circle in the ground, next a triangle, then square, he continued with this, each shape having more sides. He inspected each hole and nodded with satifaction.

Next he pulled large chunks of rock from the ground and tossed then back and forth, maining his control, he currently had them floating around as he sat cross legged in the air. He was feeling very accomplished with his progress, but again he felt a strange sense of deja vu, the more he practiced the more familiar it all felt, like he was gradually remembering something he already knew how to do.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following a morning gang rape, Riku had headed down to hell to meet with Verstand. As one of Asmodeus's most trusted adviser/general, this warranted having a very impressive housing in the kingds domain. Not to far off from Asmodeus's castle was a special district in the city of desire where only the most high ranking were allowed to dwell.

Verstand had a particular taste for Victoria era london and it showed in how his mansion was presented. Made from the flesh and bones of giant demon that Verstand himself had slain and crafted it to fit his style. Riku was sitting in one of the mansions meeting rooms. Decked out in his best steam punk outfit, he'd never admit it, but the psionic demon was one of the reasons he'd adopted this style.

He'd come to discuss what had happened last night and hopefully get some information about what was going to happen next.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave was making his way to the cafeteria, he'd started the morning off with a rather nice threeway with Garfield and Donovan, Don having taken it upon himself to do everything he can to make sure his best friends were feeling good and damn if he wasnt doing a good job. He'd left the other two to keep going at is as his stomach had started growling, that and his mutation didnt give him the level of stamina they seemed to have.

As he rounded a corner he bumped into Milo " Oh morning Milo, you heading to the cafeteria? "

" Good Morning Dave! " Milo said with a little more enthuiasm then he'd intended, he'd always been a morning person and seeing the guy he'd been majorly crushing on for the longest only helped to put a pep in his step " Oh, yeah I always like eating in the cafeteria, foods uh pretty great "

" Can't disagree with you on that " Dave said " Wanna sit together then "

Milo fought to keep his voice calm " Yeah dude that sounds great "


-------------------------------

Four figures were sitting in the shadows of the schools roof, talking quietly amongst themselves. One was sitting at a laptop, typing away rapidly and looking through the schools security camera systems, marking multiple targets, they were wearing a mask making their gender hard to pin down. Another was a large man wearing body armor and the last two appeared to be a young girl and boy, each wearing the genosha high uniform.

The girl looked at her phone in a bored manner and asked if they could speed this along as their was a live stream for a famous singer she wanted to catch, the masked person said they could record it in HD if they wanted to which the girl agreed. Names and locations were sent to each of their phones.

Sandra noticed Tani's smile had dipped, she used her telepathy enough to confirm her girlfriend was feeling a deep distress. She thought maybe she should take a peak, but at the same time she didn't like butting in on peoples freedoms like that. It was one thing to joke around and tease, but Tani seemed to have something more serious on her mind. Sandra trusted Tani fully and knew Tani felt the same. So instead of potentially causing a argument by spying on private matters, she'd rather let Tani open up on her own. Then of course the mess Sandra caused with Tesla, that was making her reluctant to intrude on Tani's thoughts as well seeing as she certainly didn't want anything similar happening to her girlfriend.

"Tani you seem troubled, is there something you need to talk about?" Sandra knew from personal experience people can sometimes have trouble speaking up in difficult times. She posed that question to Tani in hopes that by her speaking up first, it would then make it easier for Tani to start a dialog.

-----

Nina took a moment to process what was going on. It wasn't just that the girl was acting, Abby's demeanour felt genuinely different then before. "Alright Troy I'll bite. So these things actually work. Do you really think they'll overpower the telepaths and the two Phoenix's?" Troy shrugged. "It's not so much overpowering the brain by force, but more manipulating the brains electrical signals to rewrite it's thought process, at least that's what I'm told. This Phoenix is something my tech guy could not possibly run tests on, but that said it really should not matter how powerful somebody is." This posed a interesting question. "So assuming these things can get removed or destroyed without ripping a piece of the victims skull out, what then, they go back to normal?" Troy briefly thought it over "In the case of removal the human brain should be capable of repairing itself, yes. But it's not like the moves where you destroy a chip and it's like a light switch. It'll take time, maybe even a couple days for the brain to right itself. If a chip is destroyed, we could have up to a days worth of control over the person before the brain repairs itself to the point said person can really start resisting us."

Interesting so the brain had to heal after a chip was removed, kinda like a cut in the average person's skin. The bleeding doesn't stop instantly, it gradually gets less and less over time. So the same thing happens with the mind, it gradually corrects itself over time. "OK then, what about her?" Nina asked referring to Abby. Troy smirked "So you can't figure out? She has a interesting ability. She has what you can essentially call a interdimentional third limb. Her attacks as you found out are all but untracable, attacking from a different plane they stick from nowhere in a instant. Your senses can't feel, a telekintic like can't detect it's movement because there is technically nothing in this plane of existence to detect. You'll never know you are hit until you are hit, and as you found out yourself Nina, when you are hit... well it's not exactly a ordinary third arm that's attacking is it?" Nina responded with "It's more like tendril, with a lot of strength."

Troy gave a nod. "Her only weakness really is her range is limited, and well her physical body. Far as I know it doesn't really have a name, but it's been labelled a Vector. So we've just been running with that."

-----

Katy had been out for a jog when she happened across Juliet. Katy remember the girl from the previous tournament, she was kicking Sandra's ass pretty well until the girl pulled out the powers of the magic fire bird for the win. Actually, yes the girl had even sat with them before. The two got to talking which eventually lead into a sparring match as at some point Katy had to see for herself how good this girl was. They refrained from using their powers as they was in a public place, and a circle of people formed around them before the first ever even started. The proceeding spar would leave Katy impressed, and ultimately laying on the grass. Juliet was very good at leading her opponent, despite Katy's best efforts Juliet was able to follow, parry, block and reversal everything. It took a while for Juliet to find a opening in Katy's game, but when she did she had not hesitated to take advantage.

The other students cheered on and Juliet extended her hand to Katy, helping the girl back to her feet. When they where able to get free of the crowd they decided to start making their way to the cafeteria. They talked about training routines and Juliet mentioned spending a lot of time in the dojo. When she wasn't training students, she was training with Tenshi. She'd also been into combat long before Genosha. It's why she explained she was so good at reading Katy's every move.

The whole time they talked Katy had a feeling of Juliet having a slight resemblance to someone else. You wouldn't notice it just passing by, but spending extended time in the girls presence the feeling was becoming more prevalent.

A part of Tanesha was screaming out for her just to tell Sandra the truth, it wasnt right to do   this to her and leave her in the dark. The look of concern on the other girls face dug into her like a knife " It's nothing gurl, im just a little shaken  up still about what happened with Riku's bucket head ass sister, things got really bad. But I guess its nice to know he actually likes us " referring to how angry he'd been when he saw what had happened to them " But i'll be fine soon, its not the first fucked up situation i've been in and it wont be the last " she gently squeezed her girlfriends hand as she inwardly cussed herself out.

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Emmet was not experimenting with cosmic energy, namely changing its form and conjuring items from it. He'd long since considered the application using different elemental forms, that fire was the chosen form going off of the phoenix motif, but not the only one it could realistically form.  He felt the deepest connection to fire,  naturally, he made an orb and added the concept of flame to it, making a miniture sun in the palm of his hands.

He starred at it intently, feeling an immense heat radiate from it, for a moment it felt like it was the actual sun in the pal of his hands. The star that granted life and death equally, bathing all in light and flames....Emmet blinked, spacing out wasnt anything new to him, but that felt different.

He looked down at the orb again and decided to christen this technique Solaris Vita. He dispelled it and next crafted a rapier of pure cosmic energy, he marveled at his creation for a moment, suddenly he sensed something coming from a distance away. He felt terror, a deep terror and it came from two sources, both surrounded by a wall of jovial malice.

Please god, please help us!!

Emmet rubbed his head as it was flooded by voices pleading for help, sending prayers out to god.

" Hmm, since your asking, it would be rude to answer " Emmet said, his voice taking on an odd tone, his eyes gaining a red hint as he flew off in the direction of those calling to him.

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It wasnt long till Verstand finally appeared, the normally nude demon wearing outfit befitting of victorian lond aristocrocy. He took a seat across from Riku and waved his hand, summoning a table with a complete tea set " So it seems you have met your sister "

Riku didnt waste time with pleasantries and immediately launched into what happened last night, taking time to pour himself a cup and load it to the brim with cream, honey, and sugar, much to Verstands annoyance.

" So in the end I slapped the bitch out of her, with plenty to spare "

" Uh huh, whats your honest opinion of her capabilities? "

Riku scowled at the ground " She got the drop on me, I didnt sense her sneaking up, not to mention sealing me and putting up a bounded field of that magnitude, damn thing was almost a reality marble....oh dont tell me the bitch can do that too!? "

" She can " Verstand confirmed " Whats rather suprising is how you were able to get out of her seal, that shouldnt have been possible "

" Tell me about it, that thing was practically a cheat " Riku smirked a litlle " But i've got my own little tricks, shit I didnt even consider trying till I was reminded of someones very wise words. Im nowhere near out of whatever the fuck we've got going on "

Verstand would never admit this out loud, but he always found Riku's indomitable will and confidence/arrogance rather impressive. Even backed into a corner he would never give up, never stop scheming and somehow he generally managed to warp a situation into his favor, hmm was this this the blossoming of another aspect of his power?

" In any event, the gauntlet has finally been thrown down between you too and the battle for the title of lord Asmodeus's heir, the princess of hell is fully underway "

Riku nodded " Great to hear, but two question, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BITCHES NAME AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DAMN FIGHT GOING TO BE?! "

Verstand took a sip of tea before answering " Odam Lyric Sakhr and as for what the battle shall entail, the two of you will meet in a week to discuss that "

Riku's head hit the table " Are you kidding me with that damn name, those two jackasses that spawned her basically said they cloned themselves and gave her all of their names and why a damn week, lets do this shit now "

" It was lord Asmodeus that decreed your meeting time, im sure he has his reasons, in the meantime you can still prepare , i've arranged for you to have a meeting with Lord Satan today "

Riku sat back up " Oh goody. heres hoping he grants me a super op skill or weapon or both! "

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Dave and Milo ran into Katy and Juliet along the way to the cafeteria and decided to all go together. Milo was introduced to Juliet, having never met her before, but he'd been in attendance for the festival tournament and remembered her match against Sandra. He asked if she and Sandra were related, to which Juliet replied she didnt believe so.

Dave could see what Milo meant, the two girls did look similar, though it was kinda hard to notice when Sandra had an actual clone running around. As they stepped into the cafeteria, Dave suddenly paused " Shit! "

" Whats wrong? " Milo asked in alarm " Are you ok?! "

Dave sighed " Doesnt look like any of us are, we walked right into a damn trap "

Daves mutant ability had gradually been getting stronger, aided in part to his magic training, given space was also one of his magical based elements that he had an obvious affinity for. He was more sensitive to areas he was in now, unfortunately he'd noticed too late and the moment they'd stepped into the cafeteria, space became cut off.

From the outside they had seen a number of people walking around, occupying tables, etc. But now it was eerily empty. Dave attempted to teleport, but his body wavered for a moment then nothing " Yeah I should have figured "

A seemingly young boy wearing the genosha high uniform was sitting at a table, enjoying a stack of pancakes. He had to hand it to the school, security sucked ass, but the food was good. He was watching the group in mild amusement, based on the information he'd received, he wasnt surprised that Dave had picked up on his power, but soon enough to save them of course, or even notice he was sitting in the room, well the actual room " Alright Hannibal, round em up! "

Sandra gave a little smile, she doutbed Riku would ever admit it but she agree'd it was nice that her cared.
While there likely was truth to Tani's other statement, heck Sandra still remembered everything everything Karen put her though, Tanesha even woke her up from a nightmare one night. Her girlfriend was lucky not to have actually died she did, but it sounds like she, Katy and Cass came pretty close. Still, she a gut feeling that wasn't the whole story and there was still something else. No lie, she was tempted to take a peak into Tani's mind and see what was really going on. But she knew Tanesha would tell her when she was ready.

The two girls finished up their breakfast before helping each other get ready for the day. Tanesha was just about to head out where their was a knock on the door. Sandra, nearly done dressing was in the process of pulling her socks on so Tani answered the knock on her way out. She was expecting it to be Tesla due to what Sandra had told her, and sure enough it was. There was a awkward silence as the two made eye contact. Tani could tell right away just from the look in her eyes, that she was hiding something. Girl wasn't a telepath so no way Tesla knew what her secret was, but just the stern look in the girls eyes. This girl wasn't being bullshitted. Tani knew, that Tesla realised straight away that something was going on. Tanesha trying her best to sound calm and not nervous at all called out to Sandra to say her client has arrived. Sandra came over and greeted Tesla, she gave Tani a quick kiss and wished her day went well and with that Tani was free to free to leave.

Sandra invited Tesla in and closed the door behind them as Tani left. "Alright then I have a lot to make up for what I did to you yesterday. Get comfortable and relax, we'll start soon." Tesla gave Sandra a nod, it was the same deal as yesterday. As Sandra got prepped Tesla got comfortable. She decided she would take up the offer to lay on the bed today, so she bent down to take her shoes off so to obviously not track dirt on the sheets, plus it's just more comfortable regardless with shoes off, and she laid on the bed. A moment later Sandra was with her and it was time to start.

-----

Juliet would notice the look some of Sandra's friends would give her the few times they met. It wasn't the hot babe look, not that Juliet considered herself ugly at all. But it was always that comparing look, that they was coming her to something else. Now with Milo's question it all made sense, they where comparing her to Sandra. Did they really look that much alike? Sandra had made a inch or two on her and it's not like they where was twins. Surely it's not just cause they are both redheads?

There was no time to consider this further though as Dave cursed, explaining they walked into a trap.

Katy and the others where quickly aware this boy wasn't just trapped victim.

-----

In one of the cites outside the main Genosha complex that held the students, dorms, classes, etc. A blue orb that seemed to spark with electricity materialised in a parking lot. It melted everything in it's way leaving a perfectly round corner taken out of some cars and a few inches perfectly round cater left in the ground. When the orb subsided a completely nude woman was seen kneeling, she was in a pose that indicated she had just been holding something. This woman as it was turned out to be someone the True Notes knew well, it was Kiya.

Kiya stood up taking in both her condition and surroundings. "Did that mother fucker really just Terminator me to a different city?" Last Kiya remembered it was the middle of night, she was dressed head to tow in all black tactical gear and she had tracked down the location of big time mutant crime boss. She was on top of a high rise tower well over a mile away from the target, she had a incredibly powerful rifle in her hand with a super far zoom. She had the target in her sight and was just to pull the trigger when the man turned his head, as if to face her even though she was to be seen in the dead of night, then a white flash. Next thing she knew she was here. Her cloths and gun was vaporised or something though the teleportation, but Kiya herself just like Arnold in the movie seemed to be perfectly unharmed.

She tried to access Scouts phone or computer remotely but there was no single. Seeing Kiya could access any network in the world including satellites to be able to reach anywhere in the world, this should be quite impossible. This meant she was not on Earth anymore, or rather she was not on the same Earth Scott was on. So she travelled to another dimension, again. "Great, what bloody Earth am I on this time?"

Emmet arrived on loacation and mentally shrouded his presense. Looking down he could see two women being roughly pinned to the ground and surrounded by what appeared to be five men with one person hovering on the outskirts. Looking through their minds he was able to grasp the situation.

The two women had stumbled upon a gang initiation where the men immediately set upon them. Most odd about this whole ordeal is that power dampening collars had beeen placed on the womens necks, rendering them unable to use their powers. Such items were generally used by law enforement when dealing with mutant criminals, how did a petty street gang get their hands on it.

He probed deeper and saw that one them, a man named Rocco, the oldest and leader had aquired them some a new drug channel. It appeared this had happened earlier in the day, the man gave them to Rocco as an added bonus along with the drugs. Emmet felt there was more to this situation then appeared. As he'd been pondering all of this, barely five seconds had passed.

He floated down and made himself visible to them " Good Morning Gentlemen, and I use that term loosely, I've come to collect the two women your forcing yourselves on, its past the time they should be home and resting in their beds "

Everybody froze and instantly looked at Emmet, Rocco narrowed his eyes, his mutant ability was a type of detection, came in handy when pulling off illegal activities and avoiding the police. But he hadnt sensed Emmet at all, his range just shy of three miles, was he a telepath? That was possible, but something was telling Rocco there was more to this boy.

The women were immediately forgotten as the gang were immediately on alert and arranging themselves, Rocco in the back while the new gang member was even further behind him, his form wavering out of few, indicating he had invisibility. The remaining three were in front. Two on the side each pointing a gun at Emmet.

One was a teleporter and the second could grow extra limbs, he had various other guns on his person. Barely worth Emmets attention, but the one in the middle conjured up two large balls of fire in his palms.

" Your gonna regret trying to play knight, you faggot bitch! " the fire user, named Rick, screamed out " Boss, want me to torch his ass? "

Rocco nodded " Do it " now they'd see, if the guy was a telepath then this was gonna get annoying.

Rick hurled both balls of fire at Emmet, the boy making no move to defend himself, as they got nearer time seemed to slow down. No he wasnt slowing down time itself, more so his thought process was speeding up. It would be simple enough to bathe the whole area in cosmic fire and deal with the wretches, while also sparring the victims, but that wasnt quite showey enough for him.

He pondered over his various options and the reactions he would get, Rocco had already deduced his telepathy and was basically broadcasting that he was subtly gesturing to the teleporter to move behind him and shoot, banking on the mans perceived impressive speed and reflexes and it wasnt exactly a bad strategy, were Emmet a simple telepath.

The teleporter vanished and appeared, not behind Emmet, but in front of him, directing facing the oncoming flames. He was shocked, he'd meant to do as Rocco ordered, but at the last minute he'd decided to move in front of this mysterious guy. The flames slammed into the teleporter, eliciting a scream from him . Emmet manipulated the flames so they converged entirely on the man.

" Oh my, how gentlemenly of him " Emmet commented politely as the teleporter collapsed to the ground, wildly patting at himself, with a snap of his fingers the flames went out " I suppose its my turn to retaliate "

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Riku followed Verstand to another room in the mansion, this one discarded the demons taste and revealed what the house really was, for the room was comprised of living flesh, at the center of it was a large mirror. A tool for comunication, only the lords and various high ranking individuals possessed them. It was somewhat safer then directly going to another of the lords domains to converse with them.

Verstand gestured for Riku to step in front of it while attuned it to Satans domain. Riku was wondering what he should expect, being the son of the king of hell meant he'd kinda grew up around the other lords, and obatained mutual hatred, but he couldnt say he knew Satan all that well. He mostly kept to himself and didnt interact with the others much, to Riku's personal knowledge.

Satan, the embodiment of the sin of wrath and one of the original princes of hell during Lucifers rein. Said to have been with Lucifer from the moment he lost his battle against heavens army and became a fallen angel along with all of those who also sided with Lucifer. But the more popular theory was that he was literally born the day Lucifer fell, another apsect of Lucifer that was given physical form, representing his rage at god.

Whatever he was, when Asmodeus launched his Cou, no betrayal was more suprising then Satan turning his back on Lucifer and siding with the lord of lust, his reasoning was another thing that was a mystery. Whatever if was, he saw his station rise after Asmodeus and his forces proved victorious, now known as the unofficial second king of hell, in a more concrete way then he ever had when Lucifer was running the show.

If this guy really wanted to throw his hat in the ring with him then it wasnt something Riku could take lightly in the slightest.

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Dave could see the guy eating pancakes wasnt actually in the room with them, it was more like he was sitting on the otherside of a glass window. Milo tried to read the guys mind, but wasnt getting anything. On the other hand he did sense another mind suddenly appear in the space. The group could hear the heavy footprints of a large man wearing pitch black armor, complete with a cybernetic, mediaval style helmet.

The group was immediately on the defensive, not knowing who the man was or what he was capable of, but Katy was getting a severe sense of Deja vu. Milo attempted to scan the mans mind, but all he was getting was static, he was contemplating what power he should switch too when the room suddenly became filled with what appeared to be bubbles?

Recognition snapped in Katys mind instantly, the merc from the Jerry incident, before she could say anything, the bubbles flared with light and detonated, engulfing the space in a massive amount of explosions. Dave yelled and created a magical barrier around the group, but not before they took some damage.

Hannibal starred at the barrier, there was no information that Dave could do something like that, he should be completely powerless in Andrews spacial trap. Andrew himself was suprised by that as well, was it magic?

Dave coughed, his head spinning a little " You guys ok? "

Milo nodded " More or less, didnt know you could make barriers " he focused and shifted from telepathy to kinetic energy manipulation, causing his ten second cool down.

Meanwhile Hannibals body was rapidly generating soapy liquid and creating another field of bubbles.

Katy was rocked by the explosions but recovered quickly like Dave. "I know the big guy. His name still eludes me, but he was one of those mercs that came after Tanesha." For a bit she wondered if the daze from the explosion is why she could recall the other, but as her mind cleared still nothing back. She was pretty sure that one was new. Juliet elected to stay silent just signalling she was OK. She didn't have much to add as she didn't know what was going on, so she was just observing the situation at the moment.

-----

After documenting this unexpected turn of events for when or if she'll ever see Scott again, given the man she was about to assassinate was far more powerful then previously thought. Kiya next thought was to figure out exactly where she was, her cybernetics not allowing her mind to wonder about meaningless things like grieve of her lost friend or longing for the world she was ripped away from. She quickly hacked into the cities camera system and something happening on the outskirts of town intrigued her, notably one young man that had just shown up. But while she knew this man, was he the same guy? There was multiple ways to find out, but Kiya was not opposed to taking the direct approach and started walking.

The area Emmet was at wasn't far away. As Kiya crossed a road a car slammed on it's break and skidded to a stop. A young woman got out and thinking Kiya was in shock after somebody had their way with her, like why else would this girl be butt naked walking towards apparently nowhere, she ran over to offer help. All she got however was Kiya quickly grabbing her by the throat, the woman felt her feet lift off the ground as Kiya seemed to heist her up single handedly with not the slightest bit of effort at all.

Kiya looked the woman up and down, as if sizing her up before say "you aren't my size" in reference to the woman's clothing. Kiya tossed her to the pavement and continued walking to Emmet's location, the woman after catching her breath scrambled back to her car and sped off in fear. Kiya had contemplated snapping the woman's neck for the car, but hacking a road map of the area she deduced it was quicker to walk as the roads took a long loop around.

-----

Troy and Nina was still talking, by now Troy had sent Abby away. "So something I've been meaning to get answers for, I seen what you did back there against. You starting to gain more new powers?" Kiya figured this coming. "You could say... kinda. Some of the powers are from my vampire, they aren't new. I used to be much stronger back before I was roped into joining this place. Starvation kept me relatively weak for a long time so it's going to take a while to regain my old strength. Other abilities are emerging from my new demonic side, those are new."

-----

Sandra and Tesla where wasting no more time and getting right into it. Sandra was currently, well not turning Tesla's mind off per say, but she wanted to make sure the girl was truly calm and relaxed so she wouldn't be trying to interfere as Sandra worked. Once Sandra got Tesla into a state of tranquillity she took a deep dive into Tesla's mind. There was a lot of damage to repair. Emmet tore down Tesla's character, Tesla always showed herself as strong and afraid of nothing. But Emmet tore that wall down, showing her as weak and afraid of him. On top of that Sandra herself damaged Tesla emotionally, digging up old trauma from her childhood that was best left buried in the deep recesses of Tesla's mind. So Sandra felt she had a lot to make up for.

Rocco could hear alarms ringing in his head, another facet of power that was in a way similar to the famous spider sense, he could feel things out and in some instances tell how dangerous a situation was, this was one such situation. It seemed obvious that the guy had manipulated the teleporters mind to appear in front of him, but he'd also controlled Ricks flames, did he have multiple powers?

Ricks wasnt a particularly bright person, so he wasnt considering any of this as he glared at the roasted teleporter whimpering on the ground " Fucking idiot, why'd you have to jump into my attack!! " he yelled, causing large flames to flare up around him " They fuck this bitch up! " he shot a look to the other gang member beside him who just nodded.

Rocco started open his mouth to protest, but suddenly found he was paralyzed, he couldnt speak, let alone move. His gave was frozen on Emmet, who's smile made it clear that he was behind it and they werent getting out of this alive. Rick roared and unleashed a deluge of flames. Emmet had to admit he was somewhat impressed, Rick wasnt lacking in power, but he was far to quick to anger.

Emmet dodged the flames, as he began to move, music filled the air, he was now dancing amidst the flames. The other gang member sprouted four other arms and pulled out his other guns, opening fire. The bullets whizzed through the air, but they all passed by Emmet, some seeming to get caught up in his rhythm and swirl around him along with the flames. All eyes were on him, regardless of if they wanted to be, a lone spot light shone on him.

The teleporter suddenly sprang back to life and grabbed Emmets outreached hand, the two instantly vanishing. Rick and multi arm paused in their attacks to look around wildly for where the two would appear. multi arms yelped as teleporter suddenly tackled him out of nowhere. They teleported, appearing very high in the sky, plummeting down.

Multi arms was flailing around for something solid to grab. His fall was arrested, leaving him suspended in the air as teleporter crashed into the ground. Emmet landed lightly on his back, in a poised position. Multi arms cursed and pleaded but Emmet ignored him, as he wove together the next part of the performance.

Multi arms felt an immense bit of crash slam in him, sending him towards the ground where Teleporter was slowly moving. Emmet closed his fist and BOOM!!

Kiya felt the ground shake from where she was coming from. Emmet looked down and saw perfectly made six pointed star shaped hole in the ground. He floated down till he was hovering over it " Thats two "

Rick gulped, his confidence was alll but gone now, having witnessed the others be basically crushed to death. His flames were dimmed down now and he was looking at Rocco for orders now, but his boss was frozen in place and the newbie was nowhere to be seen.

" You showed such marvelous flames earlier, permit me to show you my own "

Rick barely had time to register what Emmet was saying before a large bird shaped construct made of flames was upon him. Beautiful, this was the only word Rick could use to describe it, even as it engulfed and slowly burned him to ash.

Emmet appeared in front of Rocco now, starring upwards into the taller mans eyes and releasing the paralysis. Rocco held Emmets gaze and didnt move, he already knew it was pointless, he accepted his fate, he figured after all the fucked up shit he'd done in his life, he probably had this coming.

" I admire your conviction " Emmet said as he pressed his hand to Roccos chest " I shall reward you with a spectacular, my gift for your journey to hell "

Rocco suddenly found himself flung incredibly high in the air.

Solaris Vita

An orb manifested directionly in front of him, he dimly thought back to his youth when he and his friends would always see who could go the longest at starring directly into the sun. He was swallowed up by in a torrent of heat and light, illuminationg the morning sky, almost as if the sun had risen early.

" One bit player left on the stage it seems "

Emmet had paralyzed the invisible mutant all the way at the start of the battle, but he'd allowed him to remain hidden. He broke the hold on him and the young man immediately became visible and threw himself at Emmets feet.

" PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DONT KILL ME, I DONT WANNA DIE, I DIDNT WANNA DO ANY OF IT, I DIDNT WANNA HURT THE GIRLS BUT THEY MADE ME, I PROMISE I DIDNT WANT TO DO IT!!! " He screamed hysterically.

Emmet leaned over and gently rubbed his cheek " But you would have " Emmet said, crushing any hope that had begun to blossom " You would have used them as brutally and roughly as possible for as long as possible, then you would have killed them and thrown their bodies into a ditch and went about your way. Its a rather sad death, dont you think? "

The invisble mutant suddenly fell backwards, his vision becoming blurry, when it came back into focus he found that he was surrounded by his fellow gang members, he starred up at them in confusion, how could they be alive, was it all a dream or a bad trip on whatever drugs they did earlier. Rick reached down and grabbed his legs, hoisting them up onto his shoulder, a cruel look in his eyes.

It was then that he realized they were all naked, including himself, his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as comprehension donned on him what was about to happen. He tried to fight them off, but they held him down, muffled his cries by shoving something into his mouth, covering his screams of agony as Rick plowed in. One by one they took their turns on him, again and again and again and again.

Emmet turned away, he'd mentally trapped the young gang member into a nightmare of which it seemed like there was no end. It was a more advanced version on what he'd did to Karen, using what he'd planted into his mid, he could already hear him foaming at the mouth, he couldnt say whether or not he'd die from it, but quite frankly he didnt care.

He approached the young woman, both sleeping peacefully, another thing he'd done at the start of the battle. He carefully eyed the collars they were wearing and pondered how best to remove them without harming the two of them.

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Dave remembered hearing about that, Garfield and Donovan having given him a blow by blow description. As they'd just seen, this guy generated a type of explosive liquid that he shaped into bubbles, things packed a hell of a punch. He gritted his teeth as the barrier was assaulted by a series of explosions " Damn, between this fucker and the guy that put us in here, this is a shitty situation, but nothing I dont think we can get out of "

They needed to come up with a plan and fast, but first they needed to check their resources " My mutant power isnt usable otherwise I would have gotten us out of here, but I can still use magic. Nothing crazy unfortunately but I can get by " He was weary at trying to use spacial magic, it was so more unpredictable then his mutant power, but it was possible gonna be their only chance to get out of here

" Milo, what power do you have at the moment? "

" Kinetic energy manipultion, I can increase or drain kinetic energy, I can also use use a defensive field, kinda, it only works around me though "

Juliet explained her power was absorption based, she could sipon off a persons physical energy and add it to her own. Dave thought for a moment " Ok, I wont be able to keep this barrier up for much longer, it eats away at my mana and this guy attacking it isnt helping. First thing first is taking this guy down, his power is good for fighting at a distance, but theres no way he has any problems with close quarters, especially with the armor "

" We'll need to focus on wearing him down as much as possible, are you two cool with Milo copying your powers? Milo are ok with copying their powers, do you have enough slots open? "

Milo closed his eyes and discarded telepathy as it currently wasnt viable. He held out his hands to the girls and they each took one. He copied Katy's power first then Juliets.

Once that was done, the plan was devised, Juliet would use her power while they all got in any attacks on Hannibal directly that they could. Milo would mostly run support with kinetic energy manipulation, drain the bubbles as best he could, after a few mins he'd switch to Juliets power. Dave pulled a bottle of water out of bag and tossed it to Katy, he told Milo that he had a second one in case he needed it.

There wasnt much more time for talk as the barrier gave out, everyone immediately scattered, a chain of explosions going off. Milo pushed out and delayed as many other explosions as he could. Dave cast magic missile, sending arrow shaped projectiles of magic at Hannibal, as he though, the guys armor was touch, not to mention he was deceptively agile, managing to dodge of few and create more bubbles.