Started Capes

[Flo]

The sound made Celestia move instantly, diving down the stairwell and landing, arm outstretched towards the body of Celeste. The air in the room thickened, as a putrid and sickly yellow soul forms over the corpse. Slowly, it formed into the guise of a man, somewhere within the range of 55 to 60, with Peruvian descent and a disgusting face and body. Celestia closed her fist, as the soul began shifting into the guise of screaming, before vanishing into nothing. Releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding, lowering her hand to her side.

"Well! That happened!" Chirped Zeal from the stairwell. Poor kid, didn't need to see all of this. Ms Bullet now spoke up, dropping her arms back to her side.

"I was pretty close to doing this anyway. At least now there's no doubt it was the right move." If that is something she can do, she must be plenty strong. Or perhaps that's all she has. But first...

"I must say, that was certainly an interesting technique. Now then, let's clear this up and we can talk." Seems like she was about to offer to do it but was cut off by my actions. I slammed my hands out, a wave of air pulsing through the room. The body of Marvelite fades into motes of light and the carvings that plagued the walls receded, like vines away from fire. Something about my role and my access to the Loom gives me some innate authority, I suppose.

"Well," The woman began, an eyebrow raised. "Do you mind disposing of all of my kills from now on?" Ah, so she has a tongue to go with her lethality. Cute.

"I'm sure we could work out a fee, Ms..."

"Harukaze. Pleasure to meet you, Celestia. You're someone I can work with." And she doesn't even know my commission rates yet. Score!

 

[seaturtle]

As the careless girl bounded upstairs, Zander found himself wandering around the room they were in. Maybe it was the way that young girl (what was her name?) had carelessly dumped that body in the living room, or maybe it was shock from having heroes tell them they were pawns in some game involving a serial killer, but he needed a moment to clear his head. All this was too much to take in at once, and he didn't want to try to fake conversation with anyone right now. He flinched slightly, imagining his mother's reaction to such a sign of weakness... but she wasn't here right now.

He shook his head, trying to stay focused. They couldn't afford to waste time now, not with a killer on the loose somewhere. He looked around, trying to find something, anything... this house, the way it kept energy within the walls... it didn't feel quite right. He traced his hand along one of the symbols as it glowed, wondering what it meant. A noise from the bedroom upstairs and then a crash from the attic drew him out of his mind, as he noticed a strange flow of power. Energy seemed to be gathering in the attic, probably with whatever caused that crash.

He started heading up, hesitating slightly when he heard Zeal's voice. ”There's another Celeste up here!” she called down. The younger girl had come back into the house and went with Zeal, causing Zander to pass them on the way to the attic. Some energy was pooling in the bedroom.... but they'd be fine, and honestly, he didn't think he could handle being around that young girl right now. Whoever this second Celeste was would have to wait.

As he reached the attic, the first thing he noticed was the smell. Next, he saw the coffins, dimly lit by a circular window on the other end of the room. Five were chained shut, with the sixth laying open on the floor. A loud bang echoed from downstairs, making Zander jump, but he moved forward anyways. The energy was gathering in the open casket, slowly filling the corpse within. It appeared to be male, no older than 30, with distinctly Asian features. Dressed in only a hospital gown, the man had markings covering his arms that seemed to fill with the energy from the house.

"Anything cool in here yet?" called Zeal as she clambered into the attic.

"The energy from the house is pooling somewhere... he replied. "Looks like it's gathering into this dead body? He's starting to look a bit... less dead, though." The energy continued to fill the man, and as it gathered, color returning the the marred flesh. "What was going on down there? I heard noises."

"Celeste was a poser. She's dead now." Zeal motioned behind her, and.. Celeste emerged? Likely the second one that Zeal had mentioned earlier.

Turning back to the casket, Zander tried to absorb some of the energy. It felt heavy and slimy, causing him to retch as it coursed within him. "That's not... not natural. Something's off here."

"Isn't that what makes it all exciting?" Zeal grinned. Zander glanced at her incredulously - what about this was exciting? Nothing made any sense, a serial killer was loose, and all she could think about was the thrill of a rotting body?

"Couldn't even get my name right, stupid ****er," muttered Celeste(?) as she approached the two. Behind her trailed the young girl, and Zander found himself tensing up. "Now then, what have we got here... Ooh, a Hominus, didn't think these were still around." As Celeste(?) spoke, the smaller girl stuck her hands in her pockets and grabbed something from within.

"How'd one get here of all places?" questioned Zeal, making no effort to hide her excitement. God, it looked like she was about to bounce off the walls.. Did she have one too many cups of coffee this morning?

"It's not like it's hard to sneak things by when they're all meant to be gone," spoke the younger girl softly. "Id be surprised if there actually weren't any more Homini."

"I guess.. but still." replied Zeal. She leaned in towards the corpse, almost falling into the open casket.

Zander rolled his eyes and turned to Celeste(?). "So you're the real Celeste then? What was up with the fake?"

"Long story, boils down to a piece of **** hero stole my identity while I was... indisposed. And it's Celestia, actually." she replied.

Zander eyed her suspiciously. "Nothing personal, but... Is there anything you have that can, I dunno, vouch for yourself? How do we know that you aren't the impo-"

Before he could finish his question, the body lurched up and grabbed Zeal's outstretched arm. Jesus Christ, did she actually try to poke the glowing corpse?

"Free me. Free me. Free me." it rasped.

"gETOFF!!" shrieked Zeal, yanking her arm back. The Hominus flaied backwards, falling over the open casket and onto the floorboards. The younger girl jerked her hands forward, unleashing blue chains that wrapped around the body.

"No. Peace. No harm. Just Free. Just Free." the corpse gasped.

"Pease, sure. But no freedom. Stand." the young one commanded. The Hominus stumbled to its feet, using its head as leverage to stand. It turned its head and made eye contact with Zander. Something about it made Zander feel pity for the creature - it looked tired, like it wanted to give up. Like it just wanted... well, peace.

Zeal reached forward and put her hand on it, but it kept eye contact with Zander. "You. CLean. Kind. Clean. Free. Yes?" He wasn't sure if it was talking to him or Zeal anymore.

"Clean like. A shower?" asked Zeal. "Or what?"

"Hm, how odd," remarked Celestia. "Seems it's using a soul from this deathtrap as fuel to stay alive."

Zander's mind was spinning, trying to process all this information at once. "Is that the energy I can feel here? It was in the house before, but most of it is in that... thing... now."

"Those markings on the wall, they act as flytraps for spiritual energy. It starts out as a small drain, like a mosquito bite, but grows exponentially until you're nothing but a husk. Nasty work." replied Celestia.

The younger girl gazed at the rotting figure before them and asked, "How did you get here Jacob? If you remember."

"Clean. Untainted. Jacob. Yes. Jacob. Art. Yes, Art. Masterpiece. Life's Work. Dark. Cold. Alone. Then Came House. Warm. Family. Trap. No Free. No Peace." Jacob(?) responded to her question, trying to string words together into a tangible tale. It seemed to be enough for the smaller girl, as she let the chains fade from her hands.

"So this house... drains people of their energy?" said Zander as he started to put together the puzzle. "And that's what happened to err, Jacob here?" His mind began buzzing again.

"Oh!" remarked Zeal. "That fake lady told me something about keeping 'masterpieces' or something around the house! Maybe that's what he's talking about!"

Celestia turned her gaze to Jacob. "They drain you based on your passions, your creativity, any strong emotion you create. He was trapped in here, unable to pass, unable to watch as the world saw what he made. The kind thing to do would be to let him go Beyond." She turned to face Zander. "Seems like he wants you to do it, Suit-And-Tie."

Zander felt his heart jolt as he heard Celestia's words. Why would this corpse want him, of all people, to be the one to end its existence? He opened his mouth, about to scoff at her, but was stopped by Jacob's next words.

"Free Me." he muttered, still looking directly at Zander. "Free Me. Yes?"

The younger one stepped forward. "He's too squeamish. Let me do it."

Something within Zander made him take a step as well. What it was, exactly, he wasn't sure. Did he want to prove he was stronger than this stranger thought he was? Or did he want to give this suffering soul a more respectful end than what had happened to that other corpse that she had dumped off earlier? No matter the reasoning, he responded, "N-no. I can help. He's suffering here, right?" He took a deep breath and looked back into Jacob's eyes. "W-what do you need me to do? Drain the energy, or..."

The younger girl looked at Zander, taking his eyes away from Jacob's gaze. "I understand you're only trying to help, but you're no killer. If you do this, it'll stay with you for the rest of your life. Can you have that on your conscience? I don't think you can."

Celestia interrupted, "Harukaze, could you open these other coffins? I think this isn't the only one up here."

"Sure, if he decides to go through with this." replied the newly-identified Harukaze. "If he can't I'll end Jacob's suffering first."

"I can help with that too!" chimed in Zeal. "But I'm leaving once that happens. I'd like to look at something else besides dying bodies, gonna be honest." The five other coffins were opened, revealing five more Homini.

"Amen to that, Zeal." remarked Celestia. "Come on, you can fill me in on what I should know."

As the two of them left the attic, Zeal turned towards Harukaze and Zander. "Welp, good luck you too."

Alone with the person he least wanted to be around right now (well, maybe second least if you counted his mother), Zander began to become overwhelmed by his thoughts. Was Harukaze right? Would he be able to handle ending another person's life? It wasn't quite the same as cold blooded murder, and one could argue that Jacob was really dead to begin with... But... He felt the pressure of all the previous events of the day building, the severed body parts, the corpses, the death of "Celeste", it all came crashing down on him at one moment. He found himself frozen in a single moment, doubting himself, and wishing he was back home. Life there wasn't a ride in the park, but at least he was used to it. At least he knew he could do it. At least -

"Well?" Harukaze looked at Zander questioningly, snapping Zander out of his thoughts once more. Why did that keep happening? Why did he keep relying on others to break his spiraling train of thought? Alexander Antonov, heir to a country, he was more than this! And yes, he could do this. He had to. That's why he left home to start with, to make decisions for himself, to be who he wanted to be!

He blinked, and turned to Jacob. Grasping the corpse's feeble arm, he whispered, "I'm... I'm sorry. Be free." A flame danced across Zander's hand, trailing across the decomposing flesh it gripped. The room danced with orange light as the fire spread to the other coffins, engulfing them, and setting their contents ablaze.

"Free. No Chains. Farm. Free. Freeeee......" Jacob uttered his last words as he crumbled to ash, leaving the flames to dwindle to nothing on the floor. Zander wiped moisture from his eyes before glancing at Harukaze, and then quickly returned his gaze to the attic floor.

Harukaze turned around and walked past Zander, before briefly pausing. "Good work."

Zander took a moment to compose himself before following behind her.

 

[Thundawave]

Useless? Jiyu's eyes stung a bit at the pink-haired girl's comments as she, too, listened the best she could to what was going on in the bedroom. That impatient, arrogant brat didn't even give her a chance to explain the entire thing! They were supposed to be a team, and that girl was anything but a team player. She would have been kicked out of MGC's hero training a long time ago if she had that type of mentality. Jiyu waited until the girl, Zeal, and what was presumably the real "Celestia" to go away before getting on the move again. The bedroom and attic couldn't possibly be the only interesting things around this place.

"Ugh... While they're up there, let's see if we can find anything here," she said, trying to clear her head. She wandered into the kitchen, which looked relatively typical at first glance. There were plenty of cupboards around as well as a walk-in pantry door. The island in the center had 4 stools around it with Kara sitting in one, lost in thought. Interestingly, Jiyu saw no major appliances, which raised big questions. "What's even in this kitchen?" she muttered to herself. "Did that dupe even eat?"

From the living room behind her, she heard Thief stir as well. "Yeah... My phone is all out of charge so I might as well help out," he said as he began sorting through the materials in the living room.

Jiyu opened the cupboards, nearly gagging at the clouds of dust that greeted her. The cupboards were filled with old cans covered in dust and spiderwebs, and most of them had expiration dates back to around 2057. One of the cupboards had an antiquated toaster. Fake Celeste really was trying to kill them all in any way possible. "‘Just eat whatever’ my ass. That would have been the end of us."

She shut the cupboards and peeked into the pantry door before doing a double take. Instead of more expired food, there was just an altar, an elevated bowl with some Preheroic carvings that didn't match the rest of the house. Inside the bowl, there was a deep black liquid that undulated and pulsed slightly. "Guys, you’ve got to look at this."

"I'm definitely hearing it, at least," responded Thief from the living room.

Strange, thought Jiyu. She couldn't hear anything coming from it, but she trusted the Thief of Sound to be able to detect sounds beyond human hearing range. Turning back to the door, she saw that it was covered in layers of soundproofing, which explained why Thief didn't hear it when they first arrived.

A few seconds later, Thief walked into the kitchen to investigate. "Did you find some kind of shaving mach-" he paused as he saw what was inside. "That's... not a very normal pantry."

"Maybe Celestia would know?" Before messing with an unknown liquid, she wanted to see if anyone had any knowledge of it first.

The ceiling shook as materials seemed to clatter to the floor after a burst of energy.

"Maybe, but it sounds like they're keeping themselves busy upstairs as well..."

 

[Franciscosta]

Silen blinked. It seemed like the past few moments were just a blur, as he figured he was again just overloaded by all that was going on and his brain needed a time out. As he recalled all that happened he took a deep breath. It seemed like he was getting more and more used to the madness, and he wasn't particularly pleased with it. He watched as part of the group walked upstairs to investigate, and decided to leave it to them, and simply keep an ear on them. "Ugh... While they're up there, let's see if we can find anything here," went the Mask, walking into the kitchen. He agreed, they might as well investigate the place while they were there, especially considering this house might not actually be Celeste's (or was it Celestia now?), but Marvelite's. He looked around. For having hanged out in there for a while, that living room still had some places worth investigating.

He first thought back to Marvelite's actions upon getting in the house. He remembered her reaching behind the TV and pulling an Ouija board from behind it. What else could be hiding behind there, he wondered. Turned out, just a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo, like a crystal ball, some rotten tea leaves and another Ouija Board. Seeing the second board got the gears in Silen's head turning. He was generally a man of science, or as much of one that you could be in a world inhabited by heroes. But so many weird things had happened that day, that he just had to try it. He took out the second Ouija board and set it on top of the coffee table. He tried to remember what he read on that weird website he found the other day and skimmed through because he was bored. First he cleared his mind, and asked his question out loud. "Are you there?" He felt a bit silly, but that didn't mean much anymore at that point. He then slowly reached for the planchette, and just as he touched it, he felt it vibrating. His heart began beating fast as he waited for it to move.

And he waited.

And he waited.

"Well." he thought. Turned out it was silly after all. Trying again gave the same result. He sighed; it was worth a shot, but in the end he didn't really learn anything. He then turned his attention to the TV. It was still on from earlier, but it was only displaying static, plus it was completely silent. Turning the volume up solved that issue rather quickly, with a familiar white noise slowly becoming clear. Then, he started changing the channels, trying to get something to appear. Starting on channel 470, he repeatedly pressed the "channel down" button for what seemed like an eternity. However, he eventually got what he wanted on channel 116: the screen stopped displaying static and started displaying... nothing. It was now making the soothing sound of dropping water, though. He checked the channels all the way down to 1, but all were static, so he went back to 116. Silen stood there for a few seconds waiting for something to happen, and then moved on to the next thing on the list, the newspapers that he saw at a glance while working on that Ouija board. They were very deteriorated and old, some dating all the way back to 2055, the newest being from 2058. It was hard to tell though; their condition was so bad Silen had a hard time making out most of the words. Some were on police raids in Windermere, one about constructions in some random mall, and this other one about a speech from someone called Khara Hos... Hod... no, he couldn't make out that last name. Some Khara Ho...od.

As Silen was about to delve deeper into those newspapers, he heard the Mask call out from the kitchen. As he joined her, he saw an... interesting sight. A weird altar was standing there, with a weird bowl on top, full of pulsating liquid. "Maybe Celestia would know?" It seemed like a possibility, but he had a weird feeling about that bowl. "Maybe, but it sounds like they're keeping themselves busy upstairs as well..." He had heard everything that was going on upstairs, even if he was mostly confused about it. It seemed like a good time to pose that question to Celestia now though, since it sounded like she had left the attic, so he directed a message to her. "Hello, sorry to interrupt. I guess we haven't really met, but we can leave introductions for later. We found a weird altar in the pantry; on top of it is a bowl with some pulsating black liquid. Do you know anything about it?"

 

[Zerade]

Now with some time to herself, as things had seemingly momentarily calmed down, Haru took stock of her current status. Bringing up her status screen, she saw a pop up that she had ignored before.

Your level has increased by one!

Must’ve come from killing Craft Mine, or the fake Celestia.

She waved that away, looking closer at her full on status.

Kazeko Harumichi
Strider
LV 20
HP: 600/600
MP: 1300/1300
STR: 42
VIT: 30
DEX: 54
INT: 61
WIS: 65
LUK: 5
Points: 30

“Oh,” she softly exclaimed, suddenly remembering something. She went to her bag, picking up a certain scroll. A pop up came up, asking if she wanted to learn the skill contained inside, to which she selected yes.

You must reach these requirements to learn this skill:
STR - 50
DEX - 40
VIT – 30
INT – 30

She nodded to herself, while also quietly thinking why she hadn’t done this before. She used 8 of her accumulated points to raise her STR to 50. She briefly felt her muscles flex and contract, before returning to normal. She paused, before adding another point to it, raising it to 51, and instantly another pop up appeared.

By raising STR above 50, you have gained the passive skill 'Heroic Might.'

Heroic Might (Passive)
An ability given to those blessed with tremendous power. The user possesses great physical strength, casually reaching beyond the limits of most men.
50% Increase to Physical Attack Damage.
50% Increase to STR related skill effects.

About as strong as the other stat passives I got. Only lacking VIT now. She tried to learn the skill again, the attempt working this time, shown by the scroll exploding into motes of blue light, and information rushing into her head as a pop up appeared once again.

Dawn of the Vermillion Bird (Active)
Legend tells that during the height of war, a majestic bird rose from the crack of dawn to end the battle singlehandedly. The penultimate technique of the legendary Suzaku, Lord of the South.
500% Increase to Physical Attack Damage.
500% Increase to Attack Speed.
500% Increase to Movement Speed.
Additional 500 HP used per minute.
Additional 500 MP used per minute.

She whistled at the sight. “Hefty costs. Better be worth it.”

 

[Flo]

Celestia's nose twitched as the masked guy spoke about an altar. Seems they'd all forgotten that this wasn't her house, so how was she meant to know? Following him led to where the pantry should be, with thick soundproofing on the walls and the floor. The basin was raised up on a carved piece of marble, looking similar to a flower stem. The bowl itself was covered in carvings, but general history was never really her forte. Peering over the ridge revealed the liquid that the guy mentioned. It was constantly moving around, but never enough to spill. Oddly, the ground around the basin was completely clear of all dirt, dust or things you'd expect to see in an old pantry. Taking a sniff revealed the familiar whiffs of creosote, and a flick of her fingers pulled out a drop of blood that was blended in.

"Well, I don't have a clue what this is, but this blood is... curious." Celestia stepped out of the pantry and into the light, inspecting the blood more thoroughly. "Maybe somebody else knows what they are."

 

[SarasaKat]

"Could be Marvelite's blood?" Zeal offered, tagging along with the dark-haired enigma. Upon Celestia pulling out of the pantry, however, Zeal's eyes narrowed at the bowl it revealed. "Wait, hold on." She lifts the bowl out of the pantry and brings it into better lighting. "Ea, ya wild guy, never thought I'd see one of your things here," she murmurs to herself.

"This is Mesopatamian. Has to do with blessings the water and the Sea gives. Ironic cause this stuff in the bowl looks disgusting. I'm dumping it out." Zeal goes over to the sink and dumps it out, then proceeds to clean it to get all of the black goop out of there. She proceeds to then put it in her backpack. :)

 

[Flo]

The thick liquid sloshes as it drips down the drain, coating the sink basin as it slowly but surely all goes down, until nothing remains to show it was even there. Celestia looks into the sink plughole, before stepping back, clapping her hand on her shoulder to shake off dust.

"Now then, is that everything you guys have got from this place, or can we actually get moving to solve this murder spree mystery of ours? Regardless of whether it's real or not, I for one am not gonna let innocent people die while I could stop it."

Celestia's eyes glow as she moves out of the kitchen towards the door, passing by the others as she stops in the walkway. Curiously, she moves back into the living room and glances over the two remaining boxes, crouching down over them. Celestia sniffed once, as she recalled the one sat in the kitchen. Surely they must've thought of this right... Well, it was worth a shot.

Right?

But before that, Celestia bit her lip, causing a drop of blood to fall onto one of the cases, unlocking it with a click and a hiss. Smoke and liquid nitrogen poured from the box as Celestia pushed it open. Inside lay a sealed container of liquid, a Preheroic gun of some sorts, and a folded-up piece of paper. Rolling her eyes at the smoke and mirrors (literally) of the whole thing, she picked up the paper, hard and crusty due to the colder temperatures within the case. Her eyes danced over the unfolded page, her eyes shrinking to pinpricks and her blood running cold. Quickly folding the paper back up, she shoved it inside one of her coat pockets as she stepped back.

Shouldn't have said anything. These people were in some serious ****.

 

[Zerade]

Harukaze walked into the kitchen, eyes scanning the room, before they fell on the masked one. She recalled that she had tried to heal the imposter, and an idea sprang to life in her head. “Oi.” she exclaimed, soft yet brusque. “You know how to heal, right?”

”Yes, I do.”

“Teach me.”

The other woman responded without a moment’s hesitation, which caught Haru off guard, having expected some resistance to her demand. ”I power up this ball with my ability, and I control the mana to cover the wounded areas. Do you have an innate power source that can interact with the mana in this ball?”

“I could probably figure it out. Give it to me.”

”All right, sure. Do you want to see me do it first again?”

She probably didn’t need to, but... “Yeah.”

”Anyone have an injury they want gone?” Mask asked, her voice ringing out clearly through the house. In response, Haru simply slashed her palm with a knife, holding it out to the other woman, who then wordlessly began to heal.

Haru watched as her HP ticked up rapidly till reaching its max, confirming her idea would at least work in some fashion. “Okay. Let me try.” She took the ball, grasping it and channeling her magic through it, and achieved... absolutely nothing.

Mask began to speak again, as her face crinkled into one of utter bewilderment. She could tell Mask was getting a kick out of this, but she didn’t much care. She tried again, and a pop up appeared in front of her this time, showing her words that she thought she would never see again.

You cannot learn this skill.

Mask’s words faded into static, as she handed the ball back, and Haru shrunk into herself as she stared at the ground. She turned around without a word, not even noticing Celestia joining the conversation.

“I don’t understand,” she muttered to herself as she wandered out of the room. “I’m meant to be able - should be able to - to do anything.”

She stopped, hand centimetres from the doorknob leading her outside of the building, as her memory went back to that Hag, the one who had taught her magic, and the last thing she tried to pass on to her.

So why the ****... are there now TWO THINGS I CAN’T LEARN!?

Her hand clenched onto the doorknob, crushing it, as her eyes glowed red with magic and her hair billowed in wind of her own creation.

As she began to lose control, she ripped the door open, and off its hinges. “I’m going to break something.” She stalked out, before flying away in a rage-enhanced explosion, any semblance of discretion or reason currently gone from her mind.

She found herself at her small hideout. It took less than a moment for her to decide what to do. Her hair darkened to a deep red, and her eyes shone crimson as she activated Dawn of the Vermillion Bird for the first time. The small, tiny part of her psyche that was still capable of thinking anywhere close to straight started to count down.

72.

She started to tear apart the small, abandoned complex she’d called home for a time. She’d taken the most important stuff anyway. Everything still here could be replaced. The concrete walls might as well have been made of butter, as they offered no resistance to her newfound strength, nor to the cutting winds and searing flames that swept themselves up into an inferno.

58.

The mattress became kindling, and the water and ice from her minifridge evaporated and sublimated instantly as she tore it open, the scarce amounts of food inside becoming yet more fuel for the flames. With a hammer blow, she crushed her wooden desk to powder, and crumpled her metal chair into a ball of scrap with a single kick.

21.

The entire place was engulfed in flame, and almost everything in it was reduced to splinters and rubble, and the only thing untouched was her, using her power to wade through her fire unharmed. Yet still she did not stop, was her rage so unyielding. It hadn’t faded in the slightest; if anything the destruction had only made it grow.

5.

She felt...

4.

Like she was alive. Strong.

3.

Who cares if she couldn’t learn how to heal like that *****? She could do everything else better. Honestly, she should probably just go back and kill her just for the insult. The smug **** had it coming anyway.

2.

It didn’t matter. Look at what she could do! She was so ****ing strong! Her, Kazeko! Kazeko Harumichi, the strongest person in the entire ****ing wor-

1.

Her hair lightened to pink, and her eyes faded to green. She stood up straight, adjusted her sword, and walked out, her face set back in her normal emotionless mask. It didn’t even seem like she cared that she was literally inches from death due to her own power. The small shack collapsed behind her, lighting up the darkening city while the flames began to sputter and die.

Harukaze walked back into the building the others were in, looking as fresh as a daisy. “Sorry about the mess.” She quipped. She wasn’t sure if she meant the door or what she’d just done back at the hideout. It didn’t really matter.

It hadn’t even been two minutes since she left.

 

[Karolina]

Throughout the recent events, Kara had remained phased in order to hide herself from their unexpected visitors - amongst other things. Her mind was running with various contingency plans of how to untangle herself from the precarious situation she somehow got herself into. While still phased, she flew around the area, taking inventory of absolutely everything. She needed a full picture of what was going on in order to figure out what her next step was. After she had gathered everything that seemed important, she returned to the kitchen and hovered over the seat trying to collect her thoughts. It was a lot to process, frankly. And in the end, it seemed as if she really couldn’t abandon these people in their current moment.

”We need to find out what’s in those other boxes.” she said aloud, before phasing into existence. She strode into the living room where a few of the others had congregated. The other Celeste had managed to get one open. It appeared the contents had meaning to her, as she slipped a piece of paper into her pocket. Kara tilted her head slightly, but said nothing. It wasn’t her business anyway.

The other Celeste then approached her. “Well, can't you just phase into them? I got this one open.”

Kara nodded. “I can try.” She turned to the box in front of her, but then stopped herself and turned back. “The name is Kara, by the way.”

“Pleasure,” the other girl replied. “Name's Celestia Barkworth, SoulWeaver.” Kara smiled slightly. She liked the name - it fit Celestia better.

With that, she focused her attention on the black case. Gathering the energy within her body, she allowed herself to fade out again, before kneeling down and peering inside the box. She forced herself to emit enough light to see inside - it appeared to be a small metal disk of some sort, a paper folder, and a sealed container of liquid.

Frowning slightly, she withdrew herself and phased back into the living room. ”Well, we need to get this box open. I cannot do it.” Looking around at the others, she sighed and then spoke again. “I’d say that we should probably get going from here.”

“So it's got something important in it?” Celestia asked. “That's probably a good idea. Need to find this ****head who is locking us in this supposed death game.”

Kara nodded. “Yes, there's a metal disc, a vial with liquid in it, and a file that says CLASSIFIED. If we're done here, we should head to the clocktower. I can bring the box with us until we find a place to open it.”

 

[Flo]

The group left the house, now all standing on the front lawn as Celestia picked up the LED in the doorway. It was a miracle that it was destroyed in Harukaze's rampage-tantrum hybrid, but seems that someone must be watching us. As the last one out, the sound guy, passed through the doorway, they heard a low whine, somewhere between a dog crying out in pain and air being released from a tyre, as the house faded away, leaving no impression it was anything but a small field where it once stood. Not even any impressions on the grass remained. It was as if it was never there.

The group heeded Kara's suggestion to head to the clock tower, and began walking there. Chuck dashed away, mentioning something about the body and the hospital. Didn't need some genius to determine what he was doing. The walk there was tense. Not only tension from the ragtag band who were supposedly trapped in the city, but the very world itself felt on edge. The streets were silent. The air felt thick and clammy as the sun began to set on Edmonton. Celestia's hand shivered in her pocket, and she clenched it tightly. It wasn't long before they arrived at the tower, only twenty minutes or so of walking.

The clock tower area was of stark contrast to the streets they walked prior. Cars lined the streets, covering the whole roundabout that led to the clock tower's island. People lined the streets, as neon lights flickered on and off. As the group walked in, they could see a busy main street, the central commercial hub of the city, as well as where the main hotel for the city was located. The next street down was a small alleyway, covered in shadow. All that could be observed from this angle was a broken down car and some junk dropped inside it. To their left was a car park, one of those multi-storey ones that was some 10 storeys high. From the horizon, one could spot the tips of a large blaze, as well as a thick plume of smoke painting the dusk sky. The clock tower itself was tall and painted white, with a collection of curated flowers and fencing around it. What appears to be a plaque lies on the fencing surrounding it. Of course, the massive lightningrods that were dotted equidistant around the roundabout that lightly crackled and hummed.

Celestia turned to the group. As she was about to speak, a clearing of the throat could be heard to their side. Turning revealed the Suited gentleman from before, looking at them with disdain evident, even with his eyes covered in sunglasses.

"You cheated. This one was not part of the Test. As such, we have changed the conditions. Best of luck, heroes, you'll need it."

In a snap, he vanished, leaving only a beeping sound in the air as the number flicked over to 23.