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The thunder pounded overhead and lightning arced across the skies as rain poured in buckets. Scything down through the grey and black, the slightly-acidic droplets poured down onto the small yard behind the orphanage.
Jace sat under the stoop, staring up at the enormous General Logistics building across from the back lot. Every day, the same woman who had abandoned him would sit on the balcony a few floors up – and he could see her silhouette through the windows. Her long hair cascading down her shoulders and accentuating her thin frame. Always in the same professional, high-quality suit.
He knew; he could feel in his bones, that it was his mother. The woman who abandoned him. He only ever knew her as ‘mom’ and didn’t even know her name. The people at the orphanage – or rather, ‘long term daycare’ as they would call it – would not give him her information. In effect he had been abandoned for her career aspirations.
And that gnawed at him.
The pounding rain continued to slowly flood the dirt lot, creating a muck of polluted sludge that would be drained away ever so slowly by the constantly-clogged drain. He hated this weather. He hated the dreary rain. A crisp, cool, spring wind or the biting chill of winter was his preference. This muggy, damp heat was the worst, and surrounded him like a palpable aura of suffocation.
The woman standing up caught his attention once more, and he watched as she walked over to the window, looking down at him – or so he imagined. I hate you, he would think. I hate you for bringing me here. For abandoning me. I’m going to get out, and make something of my-
Someone from behind shoved him forward off of the stoop, and he fell face-first into the mud. Hands held him down from behind, and he could hear the laughter of the older boys as he thrashed and struggled to breathe. Digging his fingers under his face, he was able to make a channel just large enough to get some air into his lungs.
I hate you all! The thought resonated through him, and he felt the heat surging inside his torso. He could hear their taunting voices, but could only distinctly make out his name…and a call for help?
“Jace! Get up!”
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Jace was brutally woken up by the tight, cutting sensation of the safety belt in the rear of the vehicle that strapped across his waist. Ollie instantly popped into existence next to him, and Jace felt the weightless sensation of the vehicle getting air before it began to turn. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Detonate!
The black dot appeared in front of him before detonating – removing the influence of gravity upon himself, the vehicle, and everything else that the 5-foot radius touched. “What happened?!” he shouted as he removed the safety belt. Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3), Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending]. The purple aura popped into place around him, and the still-sheathed blade – and the blades on his new prosthetic legs – surged with the purple and crimson nebula.
Quinn shouted back, “Something picked us up off the road! We’re in the air!”
Greg growled as he pushed himself up from the seat and free floated to the hatch on the ceiling. Muscling it open, his form crusted over with stone as his Planetary Defenses Skill was activated, and the brown symbol of his Protector’s Vow appeared above Quinn’s head. He un-looped the rifle from his shoulder, racked the slide to load a round, and popped his head out. “Aspirants! Or Ascendants!” The bark of the rifle echoed through the APC interior.
Priam raised his small, silver tube. The characteristic glow of the golden honeycomb barrier popped into place around all four of them as he used his Pulsar Ward, and the slight, golden symbol of the Pulsar Physic also manifested above them. “We’re protected!” he shouted. “And contingent heals are up! Only for serious injury though!”
Jace kicked open the back doors and launched himself out, and a swirling wind grabbed him and flung him far off to the side. Pointing his grapnel arm back, he latched it to the APC and the length jerked him to stop spinning. He saw two Cosmic Power users – both Nebula – who were flying outside of the radius of an enormous tornado that had lifted the vehicle.
He could see the muzzle flash of Greg’s gun snapping off rounds, but saw the bullets impact the wind wall before being swept away. “Hey! Over here!” Jace shouted as he drew and threw his sword in one smooth motion at the figure dressed in slightly brighter-colored, grey armor.
The blade flew towards them, and they turned to face him, dodging deftly out of the way. Jace recalled the blade and barely got it up into a block as the figure dashed forward at almost impossible speeds and brought a wickedly spiked blade to bear. The masculine, haughty voice came out from behind the visored helmet that looked extremely high-tech. “You must be Flicker.” They pushed away from Jace’s block and flew back a few feet, launching blades of wind from their weapon.
Jace blocked each, trusting in his Swordmage Stance’s [Astral Annihilator] Evolution to sunder the Skills as they came in – and thankfully, it did. The figure let out a laugh. “Oh, this is going to be fun!”
I need to keep near him, Jace thought as he retracted the invisible grapple line and re-fired it – watching it attach to the figure’s chest without them noticing. He retracted the line – and to an outside observer, a legless figure began flying toward the armored, flying, Nebula user. Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused]. The crackling, red nebula surrounded him as he was pulled into range and unleashed a large, sweeping strike.
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The figure crackled with grey, sparking-white winds as they used some type of empowering Skill of their own, and Jace felt his weapon reverberate down his arm from the impact as they blocked. “Good! I was hoping for a real fight!”
“Don’t take too long!” a female voice shouted.
Risking a glance, Jace eyed the other figure flying around the APC, shooting off blades of arcing electricity that cut into the vehicle’s exterior, gouging grooves as the static flickered over the vehicle’s exterior and shorted out the holographic projectors, revealing the dingy exterior. Damnit. I need to get them on the ground before the anti-gravity ends. Pushing off of the blade-lock with his foe, Jace let the grapnel stay attached, but flew back to the APC. Arbiter’s Anathema, he thought as he focused on the tornado.
The spiral vanished, and he was able to impact the side of the APC at a slightly downward trajectory – sending it towards the ground below. He had no time to celebrate, as he was beset upon by two attackers. He had to get his legs involved with the blocking and parries as the pair of spiked weapons carved at him from two directions. He could see Priam’s barrier cracking as their assault slipped past his defenses. “Ollie! Report!”
The otter whispered into his ear, “Preliminary information: Ascendants, Tier 4. Class is Nebula Windspeaker – wind mage, Advanced Class is Tempest Dervish – fast blade user.”
Jace nodded and allowed the anti-gravity on himself end. As he began to fall, he grinned as he heard the crack of Greg’s rifle rounds impacting the now-disengaged-from targets; the high-explosive rounds cracking their armor as they had to move to evade rather than chase Jace. “Reloading!” he shouted a second later. Jace’s barrier shattered, and his Dark Matter Shield began to take the hits.
Time to try out these new legs. Steel Gale Stride. Jace activated his Steelstalker Sabatons once per day Skill and felt the air firm up under him. Sprinting through the skies, he left a trail of ghostly, purple-grey blades of wind as he engaged with the figure he had first began to fight. Shadow Nebula Smokescreen. The blinding cloud – to all but him – expanded out from their melee, and he was able to score several strikes that broke through the armor and scored impacts.
“Grah! Take this!” the figure shouted. Jace felt his energy drain precipitously as a blast of wind tried to pierce through him just like his Dark Energy Beam would. He could feel his eyes begin to flutter closed.
Hope’s Edge! Jace’s sword ignited with the silver and gold glowing dust of the Nethal home world. Swinging over and over, he chopped into the still-blinded opponent, scoring further hits on their arms as they tried to deflect. Even trying to move away from him, he kept up with them and the smokescreen stayed focused on him. For those eight seconds – he was a cloud of blades that severed and sliced repeatedly.
His energy full once more, and not feeling the least bit tired, he saw the smokescreen fade, and felt gravity reimpose itself as he began to fall. The figure who he was slicing at was covered in the purple and crimson miasma – but the other one, wearing darker, grey armor – was waiting. “There you are!” they shouted as they launched an enormous gust of wind at Jace.
The blunt impact was tremendous, and he felt his energy drain even further as he grew more tired. If not for the energy-restoring effect from earlier, he would be fast asleep and falling to very likely injury. But – he still had his grapnel attached to his initial target who looked to be in rough shape. Retracting the line, he rapidly ascended to them once more. They got their sword into the path, Jace intercepted their attempted lunge with his invisible sword – and stabbed his leg-blades into the chinks in their armor.
They let out a cry of pain and the aura surrounding them faded as they began to drift in space. Jace turned with his blade ready to deflect the strikes of their partner – but they were busy dealing with Greg’s hail of bullets. At some point, the Planet Protector had pulled out a second assault rifle, and had acquired some type of head gear that covered his eyes and – Jace assumed – linked up to the weapon’s sights. He was dual wielding the weapons, and this other Ascendant was spending their focus on maintaining a wind barrier. Jace had to admit – it looked badass and he was jealous of Greg’s prowess with firearms in that moment.
Stabbing down into the weak-spot of the armored neck, Jace kicked off the now-dead and free-falling corpse as Ollie dusted it.
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[Stardust Acquired: 300]
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As he fell, he fired the grapnel at the other one and retracted it, ascending towards them. As he pulled himself closer, he saw a bright, white flash shatter the APC’s driver window and impact Quinn’s head. Some type of sniper round that blasted into the side of her head – shattered Priam’s barrier…and the damage transferred to Greg. Jace saw the barrier surrounding Greg shatter as well, and even his stone and earthen shell crack to reveal the dented armor below.
The hell was that? Jace thought as he glanced at the direction he thought the shot came from…and he could faintly make out the sparkle of something off in the distance. A Skill, he knew, from the All-Seeing Dragon’s Eyes. Another Ascendant? A sniper? He knew the basics of snipers, having seen them pick off street folk who ventured too close to megacorp assets in the cities. Ruthless killers at a range who were lethal combatants.
Greg pulled his head down into the vehicle, and Quinn began driving off as she finally got control over it. I can catch up later, Jace thought as he refocused his attention on the figure who was now unoccupied by Greg’s rapid-fire shots.
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Oh, a damage transfer Skill, Vhell thought as she racked back the slide on her Astral Arms Mk. 13 Disintegrator, bolt-action anti-materiel rifle. That’s troublesome. Wind’s Silent Embrace (Rank 5), she thought. The arcing spirals of wind covered the muzzle of the enormous barrel to cloak her next shot.
She was posted up about three miles from the combat, and used her integrated Mk. 5 Fire-Support cerebral implant and Mk. 8 Trueshot prosthetic eyes to verify her next shot’s trajectory. Surefire Spiral, she thought as she activated another Skill and felt herself tire ever so slightly. Thankfully, her armor popped an adrenal stim into her bloodstream – a minor one – that pushed back the effect and kept her locked-in and frosty.
She took aim at the flying Aspirant known as ‘Flicker’, as the vehicle went out of sight over a hill. She could keep shooting at it, but this target was far more dangerous than an APC full of support-type Classes.
This is so easy, she thought, thinking back to training with Myscape Industrial in their special forces. Just like picking off the street folk sitting outside the perimeter. She grinned as she let out her breath and squeezed the trigger.