mission 010.

[overconfidently]

WHO: Nate, the anomaly, and those involved
WHEN: near the end of the mission
WHERE: Earth-2
WHAT: anomaly end of mission shenans
NOTES\WARNINGS: threads will be marked where needed but blanket violence + death warnings

catch-all post for all things related to the anomaly near the end of the mission. feel free to do up your own top-levels here, tag out, fighty-fight, etc. info related to the anomaly, the timeline of events, and players involved found here for reference. feel free to toss any questions or do gentle plotting there.

Comments

knife threads 🗡️

[rudelanguage]

[will cascade open/closed starters in here!]

open prompt 1🗡️

[rudelanguage]

They don't understand it entirely, but Knife knows something is wrong about them. About the way they catch themself moving on impulses that aren't often their own, about how many times they've nearly bitten their tongue in having to force their jaw tight before sputtering something they should know better than to say. About...something...

What is it? Why am I...?

On a San Fransisco shopping street, Pending is standing stone still before a window display of...something. He doesn't know what - it's not what his focus is on. He's staring at himself, plainly troubled. Something's amiss and he can't figure it out.

Perhaps it's because instead of the characteristic green the half-orc has presented when daring to be around people, Pending is a weird, sickly-seeming ecru.

Or perhaps it's because he's utterly ignoring the car wreck clogging the street behind him - the one he'd come upon and proceeded to pull people out of a crumpled sedan, and gone into some kind of shock-state when thank-yous were blubbered; it's when he rigidly backed away, turned to flee, and got stuck at the reflection.

open prompt 2 🗡️

[rudelanguage]

Further testing is required.

Antigone is sneaking around in a San Fransisco neighborhood, and perhaps she could be mistaken for a bulky, bipedal raccoon when she skirts away from still-working street lights, heart racing...

This has to work. This is like...the thing I do. I have to--

Soon enough, she's stalking a lone pedestrian (is it you? someone on the opposite side of the street?) for blocks, speeding up, slowing down, waiting for the path to be soaked in darkness before silent steps hasten her form forward, reaching to snatch a wallet, a weapon, whatever's dangling and had been glinting in the night and--

"..."

And...and they don't! They just...! Stand there! Frozen! Mid-reach!

Their fingers twitch.

"Wh...what the..."

It's...not...nice...what the fuck........

Knife could steal shit all the time. Why can't they do it now?!

[will_chase_balls]

Dwayne is walking down the street in his 'villain outfit', which is actually just his usual red and black leather armor with a large axe on his back and two smaller axes on his belt. A large leather pouch hangs from said belt, which may be what draws Antigone's attention. While he has some normal civilian clothing in this place for when he wants to blend in, right now 'blending in' couldn't be farther from his goal. He needs to get these nullifiers to as many heroes and villains who are affected by the anomaly as possible, and he figures the best way to do that is to draw attention as a potential partner in crime or villain to be stopped.

Of course, to pull this off, he needs to have more nullifiers than the one currently hanging around his neck, which means he can't afford to be pick pocketed. When he hears a rustle behind him, he turns, grabbing his pouch instinctively when he sees Antigone, standing frozen mid-reach.

"A plate full of hot dogs is one thing, but I actually need the stuff in this pouch."

She does fall under the category of 'people who may be effected by the anomaly', though, so he pulls out a necklace, a bracelet and a pin.

"You should probably have one, though. Do you have a preference?"

[rudelanguage]

The kitsune is frozen in place even now, save for a few little twitches of her fingers. It's the fingers she's gawking at more than the guy making word-sounds (something about dogs, stuffing presents, whatever).

The clink of trinkets seems to snap her out of the frozen state, and it's like there's a need for all that action that didn't happen in those seconds to catch up together: She bristles like a cat and hops back a step, as if anticipating some kind of retaliation.

"What? What! I didn't do anything! What?" The confusion is plain. "What are you--huh? What, those aren't mine!"

[will_chase_balls]

He rolls his eyes.

"So you came up behind me and had your hand out like you were reaching for pouch, but you weren't trying to take anything?"

Her confusion seems real, though, which throws him off. Is she actually telling the truth? If so, what was her hand out for?

"Look, it's fine either way. And yes, I know these aren't yours. They're nullifiers. I'm supposed to be getting them out to people who might be affected by the anomaly. I'm offering you one."

[rudelanguage]

Confusion couples with suspicion and Antigone's eyes narrow, glowing little slits in the dark.

"For free? Why, what's wrong with it?" Proof positive she's only half-hearing him over the roar of panicked thoughts in Knife's head; adrenaline serves them well until it doesn't.

[will_chase_balls]

"I...I just told you why it was free. Just now."

She really doesn't listen to a single word that comes out of his mouth, does she? He takes a deep breath.

"These are magic. They were made to nullify the anomaly. I was tasked with getting these distributed to as many people as possible to nullify the anomaly's effects. You are a person, so I'm trying to give you one."

He hopes she gets it this time. If not, he might have to just try tossing a necklace over her head like a game of ring toss.

[rudelanguage]

One ear flicks like an irritable cat's. A likely explanation! I oughta fuckin--fuckin--!

...Be...gracious...and thank...him... Her eyelid twitches in tandem with the next ear flick as Knife's thoughts find themselves skewing more considerate than cantankerous.

"Hold it there." She's going to give him the gracious benefit of the doubt and, patting herself down, procure a planchette too big for her hands and bring the lens up to her eye to peer through it.

"No offense, but I gotta make sure it's not laced with some garbage hex." And the planchette lets Knife see magic in its raw state - to discern its properties, be it abjuration, transmutation, and such...

[will_chase_balls]

"Sure."

He holds up one of the nullifiers for Antigone to inspect. He doesn't fully understand the magic used to make these, since he's not a caster himself, but he trusts Gorgug and figures whatever artificer tricks he used to make these things will do what he says they'll do.

for deadpool

[rudelanguage]

It's easy enough to follow the fray to its source, as neither anomaly nor its host seem very keen on subtlety, and that suits Knife just fine. They're trying very, very hard to trust some kind of process here - that there's going to be some coordination, some show of force from more seasoned captives of Echo that will take this guy down, but...

...But it's not happening fast enough. Knife's head still feels like hostile territory, still itching and maddening and--and whatever! Who cares for the setup!

What matters is Knife-as-Pending finally has a clear shot. With the crossbow he ganked from villain-con, perched on the roof of a high-rise, all his focus is going in on angling the shot for the head...

With the bedlam in his head, he can be forgiven for not hearing someone incoming--

zooms in!

[fourthwalled]

A singing voice comes hurtling into earshot, as does the black and red suited body holding said voice, "HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!"

Wade barrels into Knife's side, intending to send the crossbow shot off it's mark, as he rolls away and pulls out his katanas, "That's not very nice, good sir! You're not going to hurt a hair on Nate's head, if I have anything to say about it. I happen to like those hairs! Especially the ones that never stay out of his face!"

Does he know why Knife wants to kill him? Not really. And it doesn't matter to Wade. He can't let it happen.

[rudelanguage]

The tickling sense of impending impediment comes a hair too late to reconsider the shot; survival comes first, so the bolt goes sailing well off-course while Knife's twisting their body to dodge the full brunt of the blow. Pending wholly discards the crossbow in favor of freeing up his hands to launch himself upright, blades dropping into his hands from some hiding spots in his sleeves.

Fuck. FUCK. Fuck-- Wild-eyed, struggling to hear past the blood pounding in his ears, Pending's focus snaps forward to the...glaringly red shape in front of him (that's nice, that helps).

"Piss off," he barks, gruff and urgent. If that's all it takes, all the better; Knife's window to work in is shrinking by the second.

[fourthwalled]

"Trying to shoot Nate, and now you're cursing at me?! You're on your last straw, mister!" Wade scoffs back, twirling his blades in hand and circling him.

"Leave him alone." Maybe there's an inkling in the back of Wade's mind that suspects this is necessary? But there's no way in heck he's going to listen right now. Not with Nate, especially.

"This is your last warning."

And by warning, he means he's going to attack you now. He leaps, blades swinging with speed and skill, and very much with the intent to kill.

[rudelanguage]

Yap yap yap. Pending's lip curls, flashing tusk, taking those chatty seconds to cast a spell on himself. As Wade leaps to do a murder, Pending's body begins to quiver, vibrate, and split; the space where he was is filled with air, as mirror images of the half-orc frame it.

Both images move in tandem but the true body, the one on the left, is the one whose knife properly aims for the meat between Wade's neck and shoulderblade.

[fourthwalled]

"What the, fu-- I mean, crud!?" Wade blinks, looking around frantically as he does whatever that was. There are two more of him now?

"How'd you do that?! Are you like Multiple man something?! That was kind of coo-!" Wade sees them all attack at once and then proceeds to do nothing to stop any of their forward progress, letting the attack come. Perhaps to key him onto the real one? The knife buries into the shoulder, but now he's up close and Wade can hit back. He cracks his head forward with the intent to headbutt him, blade finding Knife's side before Wade rolls away.

[rudelanguage]

"Khh-!"

Pain is a frequent friend, but the bite never gets any easier to bear. The sharp heat of even just a glancing blow makes Pending flinch - a move that is directly mirrored by its illusory clone.

This just speeds the clock up. Hurry. Hurry hurry hurry kill that thing get it out of my head--

Shooting a wary look at Wade, the two Pendings waver, pivot on a heel, and start toward the next roof, leaping to clear some distance, to find a way down and get to Nate.

cw:blood

[fourthwalled]

"Hey, buddy! Where are you going!?" He darts his gaze at all the versions, and follows after them, resheathing his swords and leaping. And promptly tumbling and nearly rolling off that next roof, smearing blood everywhere from his stab wound, just managing to find his grip and start crawling his way back. He's bleeding, but the wound is already starting to close. The pain of it screams at him, but Wade is used to it by now. His powers make him careless.

And now he's back to not knowing which of them is the right one. Dang it. This sounds like a job for indiscriminate gunfire! Wade pulls out his Desert Eagles from their holsters and starts to fire wildly at all of them, "Stay away from NATE! I'm getting mad now!"

after deadpool.

[overconfidently]

He'd seen the way the other had been gunning for him — seen it both with his own eyes and his psychic one and with what had happened to Deadpool— to Wade, he can't not get himself involved now even with the risk of those nullifiers disrupting everything that he's been working towards for the anomaly.

So he drops down from the sky — hits the pavement and sends cracks bleeding out from under him, left eye glowing bright and gold until the right joins in to do the same. Hands curled into fists at his sides, he eyes the one there in front of him.

"You're going to regret being born."

[rudelanguage]

Being smaller and covered with hair hides the blood. Sort of. Pulling on some semblance of the shape of Antigone, tinted bluer with that thought of hiding blood, Knife's already frayed and frazzled and not at their fighting best. But desperation is a powerful motivator - one they're quite friendly with.

The last of Pending is vanishing, having shrunk to smaller, compact proportions; a tail lashes out and fluffs up compounding the display of distress that Antigone's bright, unblinking eyes do.

It's him. It's him it's him it's--

"Turn it off," she utters, talking over the warning. "Turn it off now or I'm turning it off for you."

It'd likely help if she waited a moment to see him try, but she's already committed - picking up one of her knives and flipping it into a comfortable grip as she advances.

"Turn it off."

[overconfidently]

"I don't take orders from you." Or anyone, for that matter.

Eyes still glowing bright and gold, he lifts a hand then and, behind him, chunks of concrete are ripped up from the cracks he'd caused from his heavy landing. They drift and float behind him — hand raised with fingers sprawled and he stares to the one there in front of him...

...and throws the chunks of concrete — some large and some small in size — towards the one who's simply in his way. Who's causing problems to what he needs to do here. Who dared to think they could hurt Wade and get away with it.

[rudelanguage]

Dared and done, doubly so for the sin of having seen Knife bleed at all. They'd do it again! But later. Later later later. Things that matter right now: Kill the thing that wants in their head. Dodge rocks. Not in that particular order, even if they'd prefer it that way.

Antigone springs forward, her path indirect as she must roll and veer and tumble away from the lobbed concrete (acrobatics 17 (10+7)) - feats which would be defter and more controlled in better states of mind. As it stands, expedience means more than artistry.

He's clearly some kind of caster - sorcerer, wizard, whatever. Glowy fuck. See if I care! It does mean there's a chance there's some wall of force to break, and to that end, Antigone hurls a knife toward Nate's midsection in tandem with pushing out a pulse of of mental chatter like a wave of discordant voices of conflicting volumes - pitches and tones Knife's used before:

DropitLOOKUPrunrunrunrunWHATareyouTHINKINGyou'lldieI'MGONNAKILLYOUplease--

Dwayne ir'Dorn | OC | OTA

[will_chase_balls]

Dwayne is on a mission, and he's going to do this right. After spending his entire time here feeling useless and having absolutely no idea how to help with the anomaly, he finally has a task that is well within his skill set. Go out, and get people who may be affected by the anomaly to wear the nullifiers until they can come up with a more permanent solution. He can do that! He loves talking to people! It gives him a chance to go out and meet some of the native heroes and villains of this world!

Of course, since the people he's looking for are the powered folk whose alignment changes were causing issues, he figures it's best to make it clear that he's one of them. The best way to do that is to go out in costume (his leather armor, repurposed as a villain outfit) and his full arsenal that consists of one battle axe on his back and two small hand axes on his belt. Once attention is drawn, he figures he can start a conversation that ends with jewelry or pins on whoever needs it.

Once he spots someone who looks like they might be one of the potentially affected powered folks, though, he decides not to wait until he has their attention. Instead he bounds up, a huge grin on his face, and asks, "Hi, can I interest you in a free pin?"

...maybe if the salesman approach was what he was going to be going for, he shouldn't be doing so fully decked out as a villain.

nate grey, marvel comics.

[overconfidently]

oh, i'm changing, and i feel more like a ghost.
( something is happening and he can't allow it to.

verity — the anomaly needs him. needs to be protected, to help spread their influence across this planet and make people see things from the other perspective. to be made aware of how wrong they've all been and how much easier it is to understand each other when placed in the other person's shoes. but he can't very well do this if someone[s] are beginning to try and stop their attempts, so. he's out in search of this something that he comes to learn are nullifiers.

already that's an annoyance to him, what with being a mutant and all.

he flies across the sky — weaves through skyscrapers and across winding roads, reaching out with his mind to try and locate where these nullifiers are and deal with them in whatever ways that might entail. when he manages to locate one in a specific area, he drops down to the ground, hits it with a resounding thud as cracks splinter across the concrete beneath his feet, and his left eye flashes gold for a moment as he straightens himself up, flicking white bangs out of his face. )

You're in my way.

( said to whoever might be there. one who has a nullifier? one who knows where a nullifier is? one who's pieced together that an etrayan is in possession — or possessed to an extent — of the anomaly? one who's just in the wrong place at the wrong time? whatever the case, the floor is theirs and nate's giving about ten to twenty seconds before he starts throwing psychic hands. )

ooc.
if you prefer prose over brackets, just hit me with that and i'll match. again, just a mention that knife will be taking nate down but he's available for fighty-fights, talked to, or w/e. info post again here if needed.

[will_chase_balls]

There's not just a nullifier on him. There's several. One around his neck, and more in a pouch on his belt. Dwayne had been out, doing the rounds and trying to get these nullifiers distributed when this guy showed up out of nowhere. He'd expected to draw attention. His red and black leather villain outfit as well as the weaponry strapped to his body pretty much guaranteed that any heroes would have a few questions. This guy's choice of words made Dwayne think that wasn't the issue here, though.

"I'm in your way? What's that supposed to mean?"

He tenses up, expecting a fight. Already his fingernails are sharpening into claws and hair is spreading over his body in anticipation of things going downhill from here.