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Welcome to the New Age [.plot-ein.]
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Post by Tempest on Aug 9, 2013 15:15:23 GMT -5
The sounds of dripping water and sobbing woke Nova up from one nightmare only to find herself in another one. It was pitch dark, aside from her preternatural glow and a couple places in the distance where cold blue light filtered weakly down from grates in the ceiling. Her glow allowed her to view her immediate surroundings and what she saw was not reassuring.
The bed she was on smelled like it had been fished from a trash pile and it had a number of various stains and marks. One side had been slashed and the springs were visible. As she moved, it creaked and groaned. Somebody's sobbing grew hysterical for a moment, then quieted. She could barely hear another person talking gently. The room must be massive, she thought.
It turned out that it was a loose collection of rooms (the acoustics of the room and the strange way the grate-lights disappeared when she changed vantage points). She stood up and wobbled slightly as she walked over to the edge of her cell. There was a bandage over the inside of her left elbow, which she tore off. A pinprick- they must have drugged her with something stronger after the initial chloroform dose.
Her clothes were the same ones she'd been wearing on the rooftop and the familiarity was somewhat comforting, even if the damp air was cool enough for her to feel a little uncomfortable. She rubbed her arms a little, trying to generate some heat through friction.
The only reason Nova wasn't freaking out was that being in a cell wasn't the thing bothering her. She'd been cells before. Hell, her room back at school was just another lock-up. Another way to protect those around her from getting consumed. Her stomach flip-flopped strangely as she finally worked up the courage to call out, "H-Hello? Where am I?"
A male voice from a different room hissed back, "You're in Hell. Now, shut up or they'll take notice of you."
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 9, 2013 15:54:22 GMT -5
Daniel woke in blackness, confused as to whether or not he was waking up in another dream - or if this was simply a dark reality. The last he remembered was Nova leaving him, and then then pain in his head came back telling him that he was indeed in reality now. Moving a hand up to his head though he felt a bandage on it and wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel better or worse about that. Suddenly, an echo of a conversation came through the vents and Daniel could have sword he heard Nova. Hearing the male voice though, suddenly caused Daniel to angrily slam a his fist against the wall - his body starting to heat up and turn to fire. "What is this?" He hollered through the vents - despite his flames coming to life they were awfully weak in the cool and wet cell he was in.
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Post by Tempest on Aug 9, 2013 17:54:27 GMT -5
Nova was going to repeat her question again in an attempt to get an actual answer, but she was forestalled by a familiar voice and her blood ran cold.
They got him too. She called out, "...Daniel?!?" Her spirit deflated somewhat. This was so much more serious if Daniel was in a similar situation. It wasn't just about locking up monsters, because that's what she had assumed first. She shook on on the bars of her cell, suddenly panicked.
They groaned, but did not budge. Not even the door, which would have been the weakest part. She tried all parts of her cell, even the back corner, which was stone. As she watched the scrapes on her knuckles scab over and disappear, a cool voice commented, "You should save your energy for later, Mija."
Nova whirled around to see a woman just beyond the bars of her cell. "What is this place," she demanded. "Why are we here?!" Her eyes caught sight of an individual moving into the feeble light she cast off. He was familiar, but it took a couple moments to realize why. "Dios," she spat. "Alex?! What are you doing here?!"
He shrugged, powerful muscles rippling beneath his Wolf costume, and things started to fall into place. The two people at the dance that nobody could guess. "You," she said venemously to the woman. "You're the Witch."
The woman tossed her dark hair and laughed. "I've heard that insult before and it never bothers me." Her brown eyes glinted dangerously as she made a gesture and Alex unlocked the cage. "I was wondering when somebody would put two-and-two together."
Nova felt cornered. Her normal instincts for freedom didn't kick in. Instead, she desperately wanted to be as far away from the woman as possible. All sorts of alarms were going off in her head. "STAY AWAY FROM ME," she warned the woman, then turned to Alex and demanded in a last-ditch effort to enlist his aid, "What does Erin think about this?!?"
That seemed to do something. He blinked a couple times and shook his head, as though to clear a fog. Vaguely, as though he weren't quite understanding what he was saying, "I... don't know where she is." The woman put a hand on his arm.
"We'll make sure you two are together soon," she said soothingly and he seemed to slip back into whatever had him enthralled to begin with. Nova made a noise of distress and backed into the wall. "Alejandro, querido, please hold her still."
Water, from a source she couldn't identify, snaked around her legs and arms and froze there. She could break it, but it just froze over immediately. The woman edged closer and ran a finger along her jaw. Nova was the taller of the two, but that didn't lessen the danger she felt.
"Get away from me, you bitch," she snarled. The woman laughed and placed her hands on either side of her face.
Suddenly, everything was all right. Her mouth eased into a semi-smile and she relaxed. With a gesture from the woman, her icy bonds were suddenly gone. She would follow her Mistress to the end. Everything was all right.
Nova settled into formation behind the woman, alongside Alex. They walked until they were in front of another cell. She looked at the person inside. A familiar face, but inconsequential. He was from the before times.
She heard her Mistress speak. "Now, how are we going to handle you, Daniel?"
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 9, 2013 18:27:14 GMT -5
Daniel wasn't quite sure what was happening, but when she heard Nova his heart dropped all the way to his knees. What was happening? A few minutes passed and the flames on his body seemed to light up the whole entire room. He was getting very close to turning to nothing but flames. The sight of Nova though quickly caused his flames to leave him, and instead he quickly analyzed the situation his head. "Not touching me is a good way to start," the young man bit out - caught between grief and confusion. What had they done to her? She wouldn't just blindly follow this strange woman around. She was though, and Daniel was left wondering what had happened between the time she had yelled his name and where she was now. "Who are you?" he finally managed to grind out - coming close to bursting into flames at any moment.
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Post by Tempest on Aug 9, 2013 19:01:39 GMT -5
The woman laughed. "I like you. You've got spirit. I'll enjoy breaking you." Nova stood as still as stone behind her Mistress, hyper-focused on the woman's every move, every word.
The woman tilted her head and asked, "Does it matter who I am? You should be more concerned with what I am." She smiled beneficently. "I'm your Goddess, for all you know. I hold your very existence in my hands. If I decided today that you are going to die, you will die. If I decided that you deserved your freedom, then you would be free." She turned and said, "Mija, please kill yourself."
Nova had to do as she asked, but how?! A look of desperation crossed her face as she searched for a means. In the end, she merely hit her head against the nearest wall. After two dizzying cracks of her skull against the denser material, she heard her Mistress say, "Enough, Mija. You did well." Nova wobbled on her feet, but smiled through the blood that streamed down her face. The damage was already healing, but she could have kept going if her Mistress had wished.
The woman's smile remained in place as she caressed Nova's face. Nova leaned into the caress, sighing contentedly. "You can see," her Mistress was saying with a heavy Spanish accent. "I have utter control. You can call me Mistress Renata. Every time you don't use my title, you will be disciplined. Do you understand?"
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 10, 2013 13:22:33 GMT -5
Daniel ignored most of the woman's comments, all the way up until Nova started slamming her head against a wall - which caused his flames to disappear and for him to sit there with a purely shocked and worried expression on his face. It was already obvious that this woman had some type of control over everyone that was following her, turning away Daniel thought his best actions at the moment were to just ignore her. He refused to call her such a name, folding his arms together and looking to the floor. Too many emotion were going through him at once to fully concentrate, and he had to figure out a way to get out of here.
Fast forward
Daniel had spent quite a few minutes working on the lock until it had finally budged for him, and as it opened up the young man carefully made his way out into the hall way - hearing a noise though caused him to break out into a full on sprint until he almost stumbled upon a door. Opening up this door he found himself in pitch darkness - considering his options this seemed like the only available door to him and possibly him being a little bit closer to getting out of this place. Snapping a small fire by his fingers, Daniel walked into the room when suddenly the door closed quite suddenly and he was left for a moment seeing nothing but mix of sand and something else at his feet.
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Post by Tempest on Aug 10, 2013 13:57:44 GMT -5
There were voices that rang out in delight above Daniel before the lights snapped on, revealing the rest of the arena. A mixture of sand, sawdust... and dried blood covered the floor. High stone walls surrounded Daniel on all sides; the door had disappeared.
A multitude of faces stared down at him, some calculating, some gleeful. Renata had the seat of power on a raised platform. All-in-all, it was like a miniature Roman Colosseum. There was a gentleman sitting next to her with a stoic expression on his face and two familiar figures stood impassively behind her.
She rose to her feet and addressed the crowd. "Isn't he something, ladies and gentlemen? A fully-fledged fire elementalist, spirited and probably ready to let out a bit of his frustration." Somebody in the cloud tittered- her laughter grating and high-pitched. "Bring out the first opponent!"
A door shifted into view on the opposite side of the arena, opened, and let out a man with a lost sort of expression on his face... until he spotted Daniel. A flurry of activity occurred in the stands as bets were placed. The man wasted no time. Despite the floor lacking much traction, he sprinted across the stadium and aimed his body for Daniel's.
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 10, 2013 18:53:16 GMT -5
Daniel was lost in confusion as he looked around, realizing that this wasn't his escape - it was a trick and he was stuck in some kind of arena. He looked up to the announcer seeing it was the same woman who had talked to him before. Frustration did indeed rise up in him, at the woman directly - none of his questions had been answered. His time for thinking though quickly stopped as a man stumbled out of the other end of the arena, and started to make a run at him.
Daniel looked around quickly, trying to figure out another escape but coming up short as he tried to throw a fireball directly at his target for all his anger. His fireball disintegrated in a matter of milliseconds and the boy's attention was brought back to the man running at him. Seeing a flash of silver in the man's hand, Daniel closed his eyes regretfully within seconds before impact - his whole body turning to fire and dropping to the floor.
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Post by Tempest on Aug 10, 2013 19:42:48 GMT -5
The man rushed right into the flames. Shrieks filled the air as he was engulfed in fire. The crowd let up a cacophony of jeers and hoots. Some hissed their displeasure. Without a doubt, those were the ones who lost the fight. Money changed hands in a flurry of activity as the man's screams went from heart-rending to merely weak, to nonexistent.
Renata held up a hand and the crowd immediately went silent. "That got your appetites going, did it not?" she asked the crowd and a roar went up. "Did it get you excited, Daniel? There's more where that came from. NEXT!"
The door appeared, in different part of the wall this time. A woman ran out, a zeal in her features and a water bottle on a chain around her neck. Renata rang out with a commentary as she spotted Daniel and closed in. "This specimen is another normal human being, but she has been dosed with a prototype of our new drug 'Ahoga', formulated right here. It is obvious she feels ready for anything, including a fight with a Gifted."
As though this were a cue, the woman deftly uncapped the bottle and water slid out into globes all around her.
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 11, 2013 0:58:47 GMT -5
Daniel quickly went back to his solid form after he had felt the man go through him, feeling like he had gotten kicked in his stomach and his legs. The sight of the burned body caused him to be sick - and it was only after he wiped his mouth and looked up that the said water woman was making her globes. "What are you doing? Stop!" Daniel hollered at the woman. Ignoring his plea, the woman launched some water spikes at Daniel and the young man threw up a fire wall in defense. The said spikes melted quick enough and the water fell into the sand and sawdust.
The woman used the rest of her water left too make a sword and started a full on sprint at him like the man before had done. Instead of turning straight to fire, Daniel brought up a sword of fire and it clashed very quickly with the sword of ice. So much steam rose that for a moment it seemed as if it was just Daniel and the woman - all by themselves. It was during that moment that the woman mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' and ran into his fire sword full on - setting herself ablaze like the man before her.
The steam went away and Daniel was left standing once more, with another burned corpse near him. These fights went on for what seemed like forever, and each time it got harder and harder. It was also along with every fight that Daniel felt something strange growing in him before, a voice he had never heard - but it had always been there. "Kill, kill them all... burn it... burn the world..." He started hearing the voice around the fifth fight, and it was the sixth fight that he got his first injury. A deep cut to his lower arm and right cheek. His seventh fight Daniel narrowly avoided a broken leg, but instead ended up with a sprained foot. His eighth fight, he had laughed as another person burned to death - it was a loud hysterical and demented laugh. Who was this person? It surely wasn't him... Daniel... the nerd... the nervous boy...
The ninth fight that came was almost the breaking point for the boy's sanity. It had lasted longer than the other fights, and had caused him a lot more injuries compared to all the fights before. When the tenth corpse was burning though, Daniel collapsed to his knees and something snapped. A sudden wave of fire and destruction echoed from his body in an overwhelming manner and all of the corpses around him were burned to bones. It was upon finally being in a circle of flames that Daniel fully let himself lay completely on the ground... the fire was his home... his protector.. it would save him...
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Post by Tempest on Aug 11, 2013 22:13:16 GMT -5
Renata had been forced to discipline her newer attendant during the sixth fight, when the girl had darted forward when the flame elementalist had gotten hurt. The girl was silent and demure for the rest of the fights.
Overall, the crowd seemed pleased with Daniel's performance. It was time to bring things to a close for this round of fights. They couldn't kill off too many normal people at once, since it would spoil things for other fights. The crowd had seen what Daniel could do.
It was clear he couldn't do much harm to somebody with a power strength against him, too, so she sent her Wolf to collect him and put him back in his cage. The water-elementalist easily put the fires out and picked up Daniel in his arms. A particularly lewd-minded individual in the stands shouted inappropriate suggestions at them, which went ignored by Alex.
Daniel's old school comrade placed him on his bunk in the cell, down in the musty comfort that the darkness offered so many.
The next few days ran the same, though Daniel seemed to get better as things continued. More efficient. Sometimes Renata cut the rounds short by sending Alexander down to meet him. Alex sometimes sustained injuries. Sometimes he didn't.
About a cycle passed (time stopped having meaning since the light levels stayed the same in the cells), and Daniel's cage was opened again.
|| To those reading this: the narration was discussed by Seren and myself in order to establish a routine. This is not something anybody should take upon themselves without getting permission from the other party first. ||
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 13, 2013 11:09:56 GMT -5
As the time went by Daniel was slowly forgetting what day it was and instead started having conversations with the voice inside his head. The voice was vicious and did a lot more of his killing then Daniel cared to think about. It was the voice that made him capable of doing such things. Groggily seeing his cage opened, Daniel frowned - he didn't want to do any more of this... he didn't want too. He wanted Nova, he wanted the school, his bed... comfort. The voice was blood-thirsty though and wanted more death.
A second passed and Daniel stared at the open cage, suddenly sitting up in surprise. He would go the opposite way this time, maybe that would change? There's no way though... this was probably a trick... Rolling out of the bed, Daniel stretched and started to make his way out of the cell a lot more slowly now. It almost seemed as if the boy knew it was trick but was still trying too see if it was real. As he went through a door on the opposite end of from where he had initially tried to run too in the beginning.
The same result happened though, but instead this time the crowd seemed to be a lot more quiet. Daniel sighed and cracked his knuckles. What was it going to be this time?
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Post by Tempest on Aug 13, 2013 13:39:33 GMT -5
They knew the focus of this next fight. When the door opposite Daniel opened and a thin girl with glowing eyes wandered in, they shouted. It sounded both excited and disappointed. It was Nova, but she was coated with a thick layer of dried blood that was beginning to flake off her face and arms.
Her clothes were those she'd been wearing when she was kidnapped, but they were almost unrecognizable. They'd been so coated with blood and visceral organs that what wasn't stiff and cracking was stained a deep red-brown.
She moved like a person who had checked out. Her internal glow only manifested in her eyes and she already had a couple wounds that were refusing to close properly. The blade she dragged in at her side was clearly heavy, large and unwieldy. It was cleaner than she was- the black volcanic glass only showed the dull residue of dried blood in the runes carved into the blade. It penetrated the sand and sawdust and skittered over the stone beneath with an uncomfortable scraping sound.
The girl looked up at Renata, who made a motion with her fingers. Nova hesitated a fraction of a second before picking up a sudden, frightening burst of speed to aim a slash at Daniel.
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Aug 14, 2013 2:14:13 GMT -5
When Nova walked out to meet him - Daniel could barely recognize her. The glow was familiar though, but it seemed so dim in his eyes compared to what he had remembered. A lot of things had changed that he had once remembered about her, even though in truth it hadn't been that long at all. She smiled at him once, even if that seemed like years ago... what was left now though? He couldn't grasp for the thoughts quick enough until the voice started talking to him.
What are you doing? You hesitate and she kills you, she doesn't even know who you are anymore. Kill her, kill her and be done with it. Your life is more valuable. 'No, that's not right. She's who I... she's...' She's nothing now, isn't that blood disgusting on her anyway? Who wants that for a lover much less a friend? 'You're wrong, she's beautiful under that, she really is - you don't know anything...'
At this point in time Daniel had started to grip his hair, his blood-shot eyes growing wide with a combination of fear and rage. "Stop it, stop it, stop it," Daniel started to mutter to himself as his teeth ground against each other uncontrollably. It wasn't fair! He was wrong! Why did things like this always have to happen?
If you don't react she's going to kill us both and it won't matter anymore, what's wrong with you? You get a kiss and suddenly she's it for eternity? You're so gullible. 'That's not it...' That's exactly what it is now -
The slash that Nova aimed was midway through the air, coming devastatingly close to him.
If you don't do anything... I WILL.
The split second reaction almost came too late as Daniel's expression suddenly went from panicked to completely deranged. He brought his arm up to take the initial blow of the blade, the limb seeming to fade to nothing but fire as the blade passed through it.
Now, we can cripple her... This will be just as easy as the others.
Daniel shot his other arm out to aim a karate chop at Nova's wrist that was holding the blade.
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Post by Tempest on Aug 14, 2013 21:05:10 GMT -5
Nova didn't seem to understand the muttering, and it certainly had the crowd perplexed. Somebody shouted encouragement at Daniel, then cheered when he turned his arm into flame.
Nova didn't blink as her weapon swept through flame instead of flesh. Even the chop didn't seem to faze her since it hit one of the iron bands grafted to her wrists instead of the flesh. The force of the impact dropped her wrist a couple inches, but she was strong enough to bear it and react instantly.
Her other hand reached for the arm that had chopped her while she swung the blade up, the edge seeking his torso.
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