Not So Subtle

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Will's ploy indeed works, the horrifying fear fading to a dull sense of uncomfortableness. For everyone but Will that is. The shifter is finding himself face to face with the eyes and even if he can't technically see them, his senses pick up on it anyway. For most people, the deepest, most primal fear is the simplest too. The unseen predator in the dark. Existential threat from early humans to lungfish flopping onto land to escape the toothed things in the depth. But Will is different. Will has slept through tectonic shifts and extinction events, been vessel to reborn soul and evaded death many times over. No, to Will the ice-cold terror is different. It's empty. An endless void not of coalescing celestial bodies but of an universe at the end of it's lifespan. Fragments of planets and stars scattered to the infinite void as cold, desolate remnants. The death of heat stretched over as many billions of years as preceded it and maybe it will not collapse back in on itself to be reborn for another turn. Maybe this is all that is left at the end of things. Only Will. And the Dark. All purpose long forgotten.

Meanwhile Ryn claws at the blindfold, tearing through material that reforms on it's own. Even if her nails feel like they tear at Will's very being, threaten to wear him down to the nothing her eyes are searing into him with cold flame, Will endures as he always has.

And even with her head enveloped she still senses Leo coming. Threads lashing the air and cutting his thick hide, footfalls that ripple out. Her feet rise to block his punch. Her ribs and spine are held together by sheer determination and clench as she's forced to push against Leo's considerable strength, locked into a contest she'd side-step and destroy if she was in full possession of her senses. Able to breathe. In brute strength the Thing riding Leo's flesh is more than her match.

[Samantha McManus]

Already bleeding and wading into a frankly bewildering melee, Sam gets her hits in where she can, tripping Ryn up when possible, giving her nowhere to hide from Leo's onslaught.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Lacerations opened and rapidly healed as the considerably less human agent brought further blows to bear. He aimed to press his advantage and drive her back from anyone her tantrum might harm. The thing sharing his being howled in his head as he began to overpower his opponent. It hungered for the meat of the divine and he hoped he could actually stop himself from trying to satisfy the feeling.

"You have to stop, Ryn. We can be more than things built to destroy. I'm starting to realize that is exactly what I am. Maybe I always have been. But the best way to rebel against the gods is to defy that purpose, not to embrace it." He didn't know why what he had said entered his mind, but it felt less like an outside influence and more like he was finally starting to listen to a buried part of himself.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn opens her mouth and sucks in enough of Will to bite off and chew up a fist-sized lump. She swallows it halfway down before retching it up and spitting it in Leo's face, the remains smoldering with a heat so intense it burns off Leo's less-than-human face. But perhaps more importantly, the raging thing in his head recoils from it as if it had been burned directly, giving Leo some clarity for his musing.

"I destroy what needs destroyed!" she screams, the ghostly or not-so-ghostly beaks of Ravens and jabs from the Morrigan harrying her into Leo's bone-shaking blows taking their toll. More and more of her is enveloped in bandages, torniquets and splinting made of her kanaf, leaving her with fewer and fewer strands to slash and tear at the ground and enemies alike.

[Katarina Kane]

The brawl continued for a while, until a shot pierced the air.

To be clear, gunfire had been going on fairly constantly, as the three-sided fight between rogue agent, interdimensional miscreants and the Agency tasked with taking both down all fought one another, but this was a higher caliber bullet, cutting through the air and shattering the speaker system blaring Welcome to the Jungle, sending the music to a stop with a high-pitched shriek.

And yet, music kept going. Guitars, drums. A hard rock beat bouncing off the walls of the mall. The agents on the third floor; the high point, where the shot originated from stopped their shooting briefly and, as if pulled and torn by forces outside their control, began to join in.


Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Look out, look out!
Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
She’s gonna make you shout!

Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Beware the flow!
Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Turn off the radio!

Katarina rose from her position, dropping the sniper rifle to the ground beside her as she strode forward to the balcony. The shredded remains of the collar, ripped from her neck, fell to the ground as well. She stared down at the fight below her, took a deep breath, and actively tapped herself into the energy around; the orb providing the musical backing; the heightened nature of reality caused by a wish gone haywire. This world was about song. She was a singer. She was a siren. This world was...

"It’s the legendary lyricist, the Phoenix rose,
Here to shake your body from your hair down to your toes!
It starts in your ears and flows down your spine,
Works its way into your hips until it makes you mine!

Oozes down into your heart and it infects your soul
Until your whole entire body starts to lose control.
‘Cause the second you start hearing my hypnotic groove
You’ll forget how to think, and you can only move!"

The Wyldclay, alarmed, rose from their own hidden position up top and jumped on Katarina, wrapping their arms around her mouth in an attempt to stifle the siren song. But before they could get a good grip, the power of the music washed over them too, forcing them into a dramatic kick, backhandstand, and dance routine, providing backup support for Katarina as she worked her way down the spiral staircase, Wyll and the Agents close behind.

Don’t be shy, everyone knows you can’t help but lose it
When your system’s overridden by the sound of music!
It’s not your fault, nobody can maintain their focus
When they're sucked into my new aquatic hocus-pocus

Don't know why you're surprised that you're completely transfixed
And absolutely mesmerized by the track that I've mixed.
Feel my voice on the mike, music strummin and drummin'
With the power of my song, you should've seen it coming!

As Katarina continued, her scales erupted, spreading out from the small patch on the small of her back, out across her chest and down her arms and legs; a slightly grey-blue like rainclouds overlapped with darker blue overscales. She grimaced some as her body erupted, gritting her teeth as she kept making her way forward. That break gave time for the agents closest to her on the second floor to join in.

Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Beware the flow!
Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Turn off the radio!

The chorus kicked in, with Katarina hopping up on the railing, an agent on either side supporting her and keeping her from falling as she continued,

You can’t help but dance. There’s no time to rest.
There’s a siren on the mic that’s making you possessed!
There’s nowhere to hide! Nowhere to go!
No escaping from the demon in your radio!

The Wyldclay mimed covering their ears as best they could while forced to participate in the backup dancing. Two agents, getting the idea, put in their own earplugs and charged Katarina, guns blazing -- but other agents, dancing along to the beat, got in the way, taking the bullets for Katarina, who whirled and pointed.

There’s another verse coming, so I’m back from hell
To put your shaking butt right back under my spell.
There’s a slither in my rhythm, shipped in straight from Hades,
Heatin’ all the boys up, and most of the ladies!

So, don’t call a doctor, don’t call a priest!
You’re a thrall to the rhythm and can’t be released!
All that’s left is to surrender and profess devotion
As you’re lyrically commanded to perpetual motion!!"

Even through the plugs, the agents dropped their guns, swaying from side to side, joining in the dance. Crisis averted, Katarina turned her attention to the floor -- and fight -- below.

"I’m a psycho on the microphone, vile and evil!
With a rhythm this insidious, it’s gotta be illegal!
As long as you can hear me, then you’re mine for the taking!
Now my devilish revelry’s got your skeleton shaking!

Your muscles take over, your mind’s deactivated
As this tricksy singing pixie makes you totally captivated.
Might as well give in and come to grips with your fate;
Once you heard the bass drop, it was already too late!"

Katarina doubled over for a moment, as her body continued changing. The back of her suitjacket bulged and stretched, as something tried to force it's way out the back. The pause was enough time for more backup singing!

Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Beware the flow!
Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Turn off the radio!

With a cry, the jacket ripped and shreded, a pair of half-formed wings ripping through bone, muscle, flesh and linen to seek the open air. Gritting her teeth, even as the scales climbed up her neck, Katarina slid over the second-floor railing and lept to the ground below, turning her power in full on the fighters and bystanders.

You can’t help but dance. There’s no time to rest.
There’s a siren on the mic that’s making you possessed!
There’s nowhere to hide! Nowhere to go!
No escaping from the demon in your radio!

She strode forward, agents falling to the ground in her wake.

You're not ready for me, boy. I’m strange and exotic!
Diabolically, chaotically, hypnotically erotic!
Even if you don’t wanna be dancin’, well, you’re forced to be,
So cower to my power of seductive sonic sorcery.

You know you’re totally enchanted, so give in to my hex!
You ain’t gettin’ with me, and so it’s better than sex!
Even the wallflowers over there, bored and listless,
Will be crawling to the floor, screaming out ”Yes, mistress!”"

Those last lines were sent towards Miriam and the other bystanders, making sure that no one was going to cut off her escape route. She turned back to what was once the melee, as her power washed over the fighters.

You can’t help but dance. There’s no time to rest.
There’s a siren on the mic that’s making you possessed!
There’s nowhere to hide! Nowhere to go!
No escaping from the demon in your radio!

She turned to run for the exit, looking over her shoulder to see if Ryn was taking advantage of the serious distraction her power was creating.

"Now that I’ve got you, I ain’t ever gonna let you go!
No escaping from the demon in your radio!"

[Will Stanton]

Will had been partially eaten before, and if Ryn thought that was going to stop him, she had another thing coming -- you can't threaten him with a good time!

The music, on the other hand? That was something else entirely. The first verse or two, with Katarina floors above, had no immediate effect...but Will would be one of the first on the ground floor affected, being more attuned to This Sort of Nonsense than most. Not that anyone was likely to be able to withstand the triple threat of orb, siren, and pop star, but Will certainly was not high on the list of potential resistees.

He unraveled himself from Ryn's face to the tune of the beat, swaying and waving to the song, in what appeared to be a biologically impossible sequence of moves for people with bones and sinew and whatnot. They worked, choreographically speaking, as the music washed over him.

"Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Beware the flow!
Whoa-oh-oh! Uh-oh!
Turn off the radio!"

[Leo N. Eskandari]

The flesh-burning clay facial should have just made the entity inside him recoil, but his entire consciousness was screaming just as much as his body. He stumbled back, clawing at his face to get rid of enough of the clay to allow him to heal. The sudden musical onslaught did nothing to gain his attention.

He eventually came back to the moment, body beginning to move to the music even as his face repaired itself. Katarina's intentions quickly became clear and he danced in her direction, hoping he didn't have to use force. He wasn't sure he could anyway. "What are you doing Katarina?! The Agency won't just forget about the two of you!"

He didn't care if she didn't look human anymore. He, of all people, couldn't judge her for that. But he couldn't just let her give the Agency a reason to hunt her down. Could he?

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn's head snaps towards Katarina at the sound of the sniper-shot, even with Will still enveloping her head. She hears the muffled sound of her voice and when Will relinquishes his hold her mouth falls open just a little bit. She's beautiful, scales and all, sending a painful warmth throughout her chest. She wishes to look and see Katarina's eyes smile, be free of the doubt and fear that plagued her, but she's scared of what she might see. Scared to cast her terrifying gaze on her and she suddenly wishes she hadn't dropped her shades. She watches Katarina descend from the corner of her eyes, wincing at the wings tearing themselves free.

Her body relinquishes the tension of battle and countless injuries, moving slightly to the sound of the Siren's song even if it's not directed at her, turning to watch Katarina open a path to escape. Ryn has known defeat, been forced to retreat; and though it never lasted for long she always hated it, always fought to the last. But she has never been rescued. And here Katarina is, embracing all she sought to shed just for her. Because of her. Despite her. It feels like a stone is hanging on her soul, holding her firm yet hurting. She doesn't know what these feelings are, all she knows is to run!

After a couple of steps, her knee gives out and slips it's socket, making her stumble as she forces it back in, body enveloped in moving, tightening black bandages wrought from the threads spilling from the slits on her shoulder blades. The physical pain doesn't matter. She grabs hold of Katarina's hand and pulls her along, down the emptied out mall and towards the nearest Ghostroad.

[Katarina Kane]

"My path has been chosen for me, Mr. Eskandari," Katarina said, as she followed Ryn. "May yours be more fruitful."

[Samantha McManus]

Sam struggles with the urge to dance, going in fits and starts, which would probably look very comical if she weren't bleeding from several wounds and staring divine wrath at Ryn as the fury and her not-girlfriend get away.

[Miriam Bell]

As the two are running they pass by Miriam, on her hands and knees, mumbling "Yes, mistress." with a dopey expression on her face. The drugs probably aren't helping.

[Narrator]

It took a bit -- maybe five, ten minutes? -- after Katarina and Ryn scarpered for everything to calm down. It was a tough task to tell the exact time, as the X-Teams and Agents kept going through multiple iterations of the final verses and chorus of the song, dancing in strangely familiar choreographed patterns, in step with one another despite never having been taught the steps. Eventually, though, the steps became clumsier, and less organized, and the singing a little less on-key and warbly, until it all kind of sputtered to a stop, leaving a bunch of people standing around in an evacuated mall.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo bucked against the residuals of the siren's song, the creature within him furious at being controlled. His claws dug into his palms and the pain gave him the focus he needed to regain some control of his body. If he had been human, he would surely be unable to break free even the little bit he had.

When the song mercifully ended, he asked whomever could hear, "Is everyone in one piece?" The anger at failing so spectacularly creeped into his tone.

[Will Stanton]

Will grunted as he stopped twirling. He looked down at himself and found, to his surprise, a chunk of him was still missing from where Ryn had bit it off. Normal for most people. Abnormal for Will. Just what the hell was Ryn, anyway?

"Nope," he said, in answer to Leo's question. "But that's fairly standard."

His eyes darted first to Miriam, recovering on hands and knees in the shop, and then to the bleeding and bruised Sam. He opted for the Goddess first, hustling over to provide something to lean on and checking her wounds to see if they needed quick attention from a living bandage.

"Hey," he said, softly, resting one hand on her shoulder and feeling the divine wrath in the tightness of her muscles. "We'll get 'em."

[Miriam Bell]

"What the bloody hell was that!? This uni-- place is insane." Miriam loudly complains as she gets up on shaky limbs.

[Samantha McManus]

"She shouldn't have been able to do that," Sam spits blood.

"Not to us."

[Will Stanton]

Will took one hand off of Sam's shoulder for a moment, shifting it into a bottle of water and handing it to her to let her wash her mouth out. He then regrew the hand and returned it to Sam's shoulder; clearly reticent to physically separate from her at the moment. What had he seen when Ryn had hit him with the full power of her stare?

"Well, it happens to me all the time, but I hang around telepaths on a regular basis," he joked, with a faint smile. "It's not so bad, once you get used to it, though your mileage may vary."

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"And I'm sure we have some scientists who would love to know what makes you special enough to think you wouldn't be affected," a familiar voice said from the spiral staircase.

Wyll Wyldclay adjusted their white linen suit and sunglasses as they came to the bottom floor and the fightpit. "Lovely mess you've made here. Do you do private parties as well, or is this more of a public performance piece?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Cause she secretly has an ego bigger than mine." Miriam mutters before taking note of who is talking. "Took you all of five seconds to go native, did i---wait what? Who the fuck are you? And I swear if you just say 'Will' I'll shove you through the nearest meat-grinder."

[Samantha McManus]

"That's the other one, isn't it? The one she mistook our Will for when she attacked?"

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"You can tell the difference, because I'm the handsome one," they grinned, head cocked to one side.

"Wyll Wyldclay, head of human resources. And I presume the four of you would be the anomalies. The Ravenkeeper, the Mirrormaker, the MegaByter, and the moppet. Charmed, I'm sure."

To a telepath's mind, Wyll was put together wrong -- familiar bits and bobs, unplugged and rewired, pieced together in a parody of the more familiar Will standing by. It might remind them of some of the more hopeless cases they had met at Muir, though Wyll was far more composed and...coherent than they were.

[Miriam Bell]

"Yeah okay, I'd want to punch them too." Miriam snarks with some amusement to her voice.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"He has a very punchable face," Leo quipped.

"So, any chance I can just hide out in your universe for a bit?" Leo added, "Because I am in mortal terror of the shit-ton of paperwork and explaining I'm going to have to do."

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"Oh, don't worry, Agent Eskandari. Allowing four interdimnesional intruders to learn about and use the paths we have sworn to protect and shattering the Veil? I'm sure there's probably a standardized form or something covering that usual happenstance," Wyldclay deadpanned.

"I would love to learn more about how you stumbled across our little operation. And what, precisely, you think you are doing here," Wyldclay said, leaning back against a pillar.

[Samantha McManus]

"We discovered your agents stumbling around our patch. We thought we'd mended fences, then the fury came back and attacked my friend here," she gestures to Will.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"In my defense, they broke into HQ before I ever met them," he responded, feathers ruffled. "And I had no way of knowing your interdimensional doppelganger was pretending to be Agent Kane, now did I?"

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"We discovered your agents stumbling around our patch. We thought we'd mended fences, then the fury came back and attacked my friend here," she gestures to Will.

The 'Wyldclay' had the good sense to a little abashed at that. "Well, that one might be on us, admittedly. I can assure you, on my honor, that no one expected Agent Ryn to invade the house of a Goddess, nascent or otherwise. There are rules and boundaries, and ruffling the feathers of the Morrigan breaks them. I'd say she'd receive a stern talking to, but, well, you see how well that tends to work."

"And I had no way of knowing your interdimensional doppelganger was pretending to be Agent Kane, now did I?"

"Oh, there are dozens of ways to ascertain if someone is who they really are. Some of them don't even leave permanent scarring."

[Miriam Bell]

"To be fair, we're very good at lieing." Miriam nods, wandering over to Will and placing an arm around his waist, closing rank, so to speak. "Besides, your 'paths' aren't exactly hidden all that well. Right? That's not just me? Feeling them stretch out between everything? Like--okay maybe it is just me then. Cool. Please don't shoot me."

[Samantha McManus]

"There's one thing she said that really concerns me, though."

"She said it wasn't an attack, it was a theft."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo opened his mouth to trade more barbs with Wyldclay, but he thought better of giving him the satisfaction. Instead, he asked, "Theft? And you have no idea she took?"

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"Cool. Please don't shoot me."

"You can...sense the Ghost Roads, can you?" The Wyldclay said, with a grin. "Now, you HAVE gained my attention there. That IS a rare gift."

They walked over towards the trio holding on to one another. "Tell me, how DOES that work? Is it a tingling in the toes, a dry feeling in the back of your mouth? There's been cases before..."

"She said it wasn't an attack, it was a theft."

"If you're missing anything that belongs to you, I'm sure the society will make sure you're well compensated," Wyldclay said, examining their fingernails. "It WAS one of our agents going rogue, after all."

[Will Stanton]

As for Will, he hadn't taken his eyes off of Wyldclay, and leaned a little tighter into both Sam and Miriam in defiance of biology and physics. Thoughts of Null and of Legion were running through his head as he eyed up this Don Johnson-ass motherfucker.

[Samantha McManus]

"She phrased it oddly, to downplay it. Said she stole water from a bottomless well or somesuch."

"Which rather makes me think it's not what she stole, but who." She glances to Will.

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"You can't steal a 'who'. That'd be kidnapping, not theft," the Wyldclay grinned. "And as for compensation, well...I didn't see your name on it. And I checked. Thoroughly."

[Miriam Bell]

"Why would anyone bother to steal a part of Will when they clearly have one here already? They're all... garbled up but it's Will." she says, though something about this feels off. Like she's missing something obvious.

[Samantha McManus]

"I think you're burying the lede that apparently she was sent to do that," she says, turning the gaze of hundreds of eyes to the Wyldclay.

[Wyll Wyldclay]

The Wyldclay stared back, directly into Sam's, erm, main eyes.

"Well, if I knew you would be coming back over, I would have asked you to bring me a doggy bag. But I was working under the distinct impression that you lot would be closing the portal, and stopping your bric-a-brac from bleeding over into our world. You only get so many opportunities in life, and I didn't get where I am today by ignoring them."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo stared daggers at Wyldclay. "Of course this is all your damn fault. I can't believe I'm the one everyone's worried about when you're causing trouble for fun."

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't think it was for fun," she says, her gaze never leaving the Wyldclay.

[Miriam Bell]

"No, that tracks. Just the scale's a bit off. I'd ask why but you're not going to give us a straight answer anyway, are you?"