The four Mitchells were sat on the bonnets of the dune buggies watching the live feed from Lechuza.

The gang had turned on one of their own and thrown him against the limp form of Ragnar.

“Potential sympathiser, could maybe be an asset, probably too far beaten to be of any real use though.” James noted.

“Handy they’re both together though, the rest of the field is targets.” Kyra said, not looking up from the feed as Teddy gave her a worried look.

“Looks like a leadership challenge, last few days has been all run, they’ve stopped and seem to be split into little groups conspiring but no one has gone far” Lucy pointed out, as ever doing the depth analysis on what she saw.

Teddy frowned and crossed his arms, one hand pinching his lips in concentration. As the notional team leader it was his role to make the play. They all had a vote but when it came down to the decision of what they were doing it was his plan. He saw a few options but they were limited, they had heard about the gangs in the area and what behaviour they could expect from them.

They were confident in their own abilities and could take two to one or three to one odds, especially with the element of surprise. But that meant to committing to a course of action that would leave none of the targets alive. He needed another advantage over the other team. His eyes fell on Lucy and he started to think of his horror movie magic show.

The roles were fairly simple, they wanted to take prisoners if they could, none of them had spoken about the fact they might have to kill some of the gang. They were going for a good cop, bad cop routine. Teddy would show them the darkness then Kyra would show them a way out. James was to add to the theatrics while Lucy was the ringmaster, she would set up a series of illusions to make the gang more open to taking the option of not fighting.

They masked themselves as best they could, all of their aura control was incredibly tight after spending so long in Stonewall and they had no problem hiding from the gang who were barely trained. Teddy was hiding in the shadows, imperceptible to the gang who hadn’t even posted a lookout whilst they debated. He watched the panic start as Lucy’s Fog of War rolled out from the centre, to him as an ally it was permeable but he could see the edges of its effect. With her kicking it off in her ritual magic circles to boost her powers Teddy watched the interface notifications for the right time for his appearance.

[Gang] has had [Fog of War] used against them by [Lucy Mitchell]

He saw the markers on his mini map of Lucky and Koda prowling on the edges, James joined them in making what Teddy was pretty sure were real hyena noises.

[Gang] has had [Dimensional Instability] used against them by [Theodore Mitchell]

[Gang] has been influenced by aura; [Clarity] by [Lucy Mitchell], cognitive ability of members of [Gang] have been decreased.

[Gang] has had [Vertigo] used against them by [Lucy Mitchell]

[Gang] has had [Double Vision] used against them by [Lucy Mitchell]

This last power was critical in the start of the encounter. Lucy had reabsorbed Lechuza and was using her Bush Witch form to boost her powers. She had the largest mana pool of any bronze ranker they had ever heard of and she was burning it in chunks to affect the entire gang per power, this was only going to become exponentially more draining as the effects became more complicated. The sporadic attacks against the illusionary doubles of James, Lucky and Koda caused a mana drain on the individuals making the attacks to top her up slightly.

[Gang] has had [Houdini Palace] used against them by [Lucy Mitchell]

She had used the bronze rank variant, the walls surrounding the gang looked identical to their real surroundings but were gradually dimming in light, almost unrecognisably. The biggest burn of mana came next.

“Hush little baby, don’t say a word. And never mind that noise you heard.”

[Gang] has had [Enter Sandman] used against them by [Lucy Mitchell]

The Lechuza enhanced, mana boosted spell was terrifyingly real, the Mitchells could all see it but there was a tell-tale haze around the illusion to them to show it was just an illusion. When the first gang member figured it out and was about to blurt out the truth Lucy paralysed them with a psychic scream, Teddy winced at the thought of how powerful that scream must be right now.

He looked over at Lucy, who was outside the illusions that kept the gang from seeing her. The swirling effect of the ritual she stood in was eerie, her arms extended, fingers dancing. The tell-tale black streaks over her eyes, that normally fell from her forehead to her cheeks were darker and more foreboding than he had ever seen, there looked to be a mix of dust flaking and floating off and black ichor dripping from the end of the marks before disappearing. The tips of her fingers were slightly stained in the same way the witch Lechuza’s were. He filed it away in the back of his mind to make sure Lucy was happy with the ways her powers were turning out, if she ever fell down a bad path she could be a terror but he was confident the family would never allow that.

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He focussed an looked at the gang. Lucy hit them with the blazing sun illusion and that was his cue. Teddy released his portal that would summon the beasts from beyond reality but held them back within it. He teleported in front, using space distortion to mask the arrival slightly. He released his familiars and sharpened his aura to give as much impact as he could. He surveyed the scared group in front of him and found himself quoting in English:

“Is it better to have mercy and save the wicked and seek reformation or cruel to inflict their presence on the world for a moment longer than otherwise could have been?” He shook his head and remembered he was the bad cop.

……..

James’s job was simple, he needed to unnerve the gang to make them more susceptible to coercion to giving up. He had Koda prowl the opposite way to him and he stalked the gang from the periphery. He watched as Teddy and Kyra made their appearances and thought they put on a good show. He was very hopeful it was going to work right up until he saw the woman in the middle take charge. She had been conjuring a whip silently as soon as they had been released from the illusions. As she killed one of the gang members that tried to run and suddenly screamed orders James looked at Teddy, his eyes were sad and he heard him talk to himself in English.

“Oh for Fs…”

Before unleashing the beasts within the portal. James conjured his mud rhino armour, he wanted to take prisoners by brute force not kill. He was looking over the group when he got a message from Lucy.

[James, theres a confluence of magic surrounding the elf on your side, looks like a big spell and its almost complete. I have no shot on him from here. Get there now and don’t hold back, that spell will kill.]

Sent at the speed of thought and read not much slower he saw the elf. Teddy had marked him on the interface which caused a red glow around the individual. Teddy himself was working towards the elf but had to cut through the gang in front of him. They weren’t incompetent, they had enough skill that they were struggling to disable them without killing them and a few had already fallen.

[Taking Wraiths Dash.] James warned Teddy and he immediately had a response in the form of the comment being ticked by Teddy. He could use the iron rank variant of the power through the interface and aimed accordingly. His own powers were strongest from a redoubt position, a standing stance he could bring his extra strength to bare. Before he used the power he summoned his staff. He landed just short of the elf inside staff range. He dug deep and swung hard, hoping to knock the elf far from the battle. He was surprised when the elf was blown into two pieces by the force of his swing. His Scurry power at the start of fights made him faster and five times stronger for a brief moment, his Standing Kodak power made two footed planted attacks twice as strong an his unarmed bonus from Bear Arms made the attacks four times stronger. Looking at the clump of once-apon-a-time elf he realised that he had no armour on, he must have sacrificed summoning or conjuring the armour to get this spell off first.

………

Kyra was devastated, firstly that the whip woman had killed one of her own so cavalierly in front of them and then in encouraging them to fight. The first man that came at her she had caught off guard and caught him in the throat. As bronze rankers their physiology hadn’t departed too far from the norm and a wound like that would be fatal. She blocked and weaved the next gang member’s attack, intending to fire a healing bolt at the wounded man to save his life but his partner was ferociously attacking her with what looked like a poisonous blade. She had to fight hard to fend him off and was saddened when she felt the aura of the man she wounded snuff out. Redoubling her efforts on the fight she put the man on the back foot. Moving into a sequence attack she sliced up the back of the leg and struck the man in the head, expecting him to go down with the power she was surprised when he used an accelerating power which unfortunately for him didn’t work out as he moved into the path of her shield coming down into his face and killed him outright.

She didn’t have time to be shocked at the two deaths in quick succession and moved onto the next attacker.

………

Lucy had a splitting headache. The amount of mana she had just used had drained her huge mana store considerably and she wasn’t used to emptying it out like that.

She paused for a moment gathering herself before diving in. She grasped the handle of the Athame and pulled it out in one fluid motion, the Deathstick was firmly held in the weapon rail on top and ready to go. She hoped the volatile nature of the Deathstick would still be fine attached to the weapon. She had on her vambraces, the Armour of the Combat Witch, the left of which was loaded with a further three wands. She had chosen fire, ice and a funny wand she had picked up on their travels through the jungle with Yarraballah. It was a solid green wand that extended into a long vine that could shoot out to wrap the target and then be pulled in.

Armed and armoured she released Lechuza in Bush Witch form to distract and immobilise and walked into the fray.

Having arrived late the maelstrom of powers and weapons was intimidating. Without the power to give ranged attacks she knew she needed to get in close. She managed to fire a gout of flame from her left vambrace using the magic stored within before she saw a woman about to hit James in the back of the head. She quick-stepped up and before the woman saw her she punched the narrow tip of the Athame into a gap in her armour. In her drive to protect James she didn’t think about it as she activated the Deathstick on the spine. With all three runes uncovered the blast blew a hole straight through the woman as she had already penetrated the armour.

………

Teddy was shocked to see they had killed every gang member so far, they had forced them into the position even offered surrender they were too scared of the whip woman in their centre. She had so far not committed to a fight but harassed from afar.

[Lets see if we can at least take the last one alive.] Teddy said. [Put pressure on her but try and get her to give up rather than do something desperate. James, see if you can tie up that whip next time it comes your way.]

Sure enough, the next time she tried to hit James he clamped the whip to his staff with his armoured hand. He wasn’t worried when the woman drew what must’ve been her backup weapon and attacked Kyra who was beginning to be an expert swordswoman.

He started to get concerned when the woman was rebuffed from Kyra and onto Lucy. She knew the fundamentals of swords fighting from the academy but had not had her new sword long and had a long way to go before she could rely on it to survive. She knew enough to safely disengage though she didn’t look happy about it, the woman was still mostly boxed in surrounded by the family.

He noticed her glancing his way and saw no desire to approach him. He was standing casually with his dimension blade at his side and a lantern over each shoulder. He was just about to try intervene without killing her when she made her desperate move.

She exploded her whip, it started from about halfway and chained towards James. He had time to complete his armour with the Mud Rhino stylised helm covering his head and face. She then used a special attack to rapidly move towards where Ragnar was lying with the beaten gang member propped up against him.

Teddy didn’t have time to think, he just acted. He threw a black hole hand grenade and inexpertly used an earth spike of Kyra’s from the interface. He had been trying to hold her back and block her rather than kill her but the result was quite gruesome.

He missed with the spike at the same time Kyra launched one, they both penetrated the lunging attacker from either side. This would have taken a few moments to work her way out of but the gravity bomb behind her pulled at the wounds ripping her apart. As the wet lump of torso hit the floor a full strength magic missile that must’ve been in the air the moment she lunged smashed down on her.

They all stared for a moment at the remains, a little sickened at the abrupt finish to the fight.