Oh No, Oslo! [Open]

[Violet Schultz]

Violet turned to look upward as she heard a furious flapping descending from the mouth of the hole, getting louder and closer until she recognized the courier man falling, being pushed by several of the winged creatures at once. She gritted her teeth and raised both hands toward the approaching wall of bats before lowering them in frustration. If she was to burn the creatures, they would undoubtedly fall on the civilians, and probably light them on fire as well. Great. Just what she needed... Instead of a blanket, she fired above herself, but the angle wasn't enough to get all of them, setting just the least careful of the creatures ablaze.

"Get down!" she shouted at the civilians.

Too many... Too fast. The wall hit at an angle as they swerved up to avoid impacting the ground, and everything was wings, claws, and teeth gripping her, the force of their tackle knocking the wind out of her as she found herself being hurtled backward toward the stone wall of the cave. At an impact at the back of her head, she blacked out and knew no more.

a headache and a screwed up dream later...

Violet blinked awake on the hard, dusty ground, in the dim light of a tiny lantern outside of what appeared to be the steel grating of a medieval cell. She was alone, her head pulsing with pain. When she sat up and lifted her hand to the back of her head, she felt a tender bump there and breathed a sigh. Oh, this was turning out to be one of those days... She moved her foot and looked down to see something that made her roll her eyes at the ridiculous cliche. A metal ring and chain attached her ankle to the wall of the 9 by 9 cell, across the room from the courier. The other larger cell contained most of the other people, who were looking alternately desolate and terrified.

Two guards stood outside her cell, and it took her fuzzy brain a couple of seconds to realize that neither of them were human, with enormous leathery wings sprouting from their furry backs. They looked like man-sized bats trained to stand upright. What in the... She gently massaged the back of her head for a moment while she considered the situation. They had chosen very poorly at restrainment methods in this case, fortunately, but she had no idea how many guards there were, or where on or under the earth they were. She thought she could feel Will's inner flame somewhere above them, but the head injury was making concentration somewhat difficult.

[William Talbot]

Trying to get across town during the day wasn't that hard, but trying to do the same thing, during some sort of city wide emergency, was harder, and doing so while going against the flow of citizenry was a great way to test one's good will and patience with others, but still, Will did have a few advantages that made getting from across town, easier.


Once he had gotten into downtown proper, he was able to run along the rooftops, to the area near the sink hole, and once there he started at once to get people to safety, as fast as he could, and from there, he was able to come into contact with these massive sized bats.

Who where scared stiff by him.


Still, the sight of an eight foot tall werewolf was more than enough to give anyone pause, and as such, Will realized that he could do more than just keep the people safe, he could likely stop this.

Maybe, if he knew how, which , he honestly didn't, yet...


Flipping his communicator out he called her up to let her know he was close: "Darkbrand, Blaze, I'm here, where are you?" he asked, although he had a good guess as to where, based on the link and the feel of her flame at the moment.

[Ray Terrill]

Flicker, flicker flicker.


On, off, on off like a light switch. The light switch in his home in Philadelphia, the one without power, the one he would turn on and off wondering what he does. He didn't know what the color brown was until he saw it on T.V. It was the first time he saw it. Not quite red, not quite black. He was seven. He saw it on an episode of 90210.

He woke up. It was black. He thought he was lying in his bed for a moment until he tried to shift the cover and heard the metal of the chain around his ankle rustle. He peeled his face off the flow. His body ached, the sides of his head troubled, there was dried blood inside his mouth, just under his tongue. He smelled like something that lived under a trash can. He was not alone.

The man was tall and thin and holding a walking stick with a florescent light bulb at the head. Wires rain down the stick and up to the light bulb charging with power, but he couldn't see any power source beside the man itself and the stick. The light beamed bright and his eyes narrowed, putting a hand up to his face as his pupils adjusted.

The man said. " Hello. "

" W-what?"

" You took quite a nasty header. Your friend was lucky though. She was only knocked out for a bit. She's in the other room, by the way. Would you like to see her? "

The man turned and looked back at shadows. He made a sound and the shadows detached from deeper darkness, their wings spread slightly and they disappeared down the corridor. Ray remembered the kites and shivered, squinting into the man's light.

" What the hell are those things? "

" I don't know. " The man said, glancing back at the corridor. "I sort of found them here. They listen to me for some reason. "

He looked at Ray. " They're fascinating creatures. Intelligent, strong, independent at times but utterly loyal to the nest and their king, that of course, being me. Strange but one can't complain. "

The man knelt and held out his hand. " Hello. My name is Doctor Henry Tepes. I killed God and took his place. "

[Violet Schultz]

Violet looked up as she heard Will's voice come from the table by the wall opposite the chamber door, which she realized held her gear, what little there was. Oh, this just kept getting better and better. It was fortunate that they didn't need the communicators to talk to each other, but she didn't understand why he was using it at all. Perhaps there were other Titans on their way who needed to know the answer to that question? It was doubtful. Robin had said he wouldn't be back until the following morning. Then again, when she focused on the link, she realized that it was a little vague at the moment, perhaps due to the layers of rock between them. She couldn't really talk to him.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who heard his voice, and one of the bat creatures spoke to the other in hushed tones, it's language nothing that Violet had ever heard before. It was humanoid, she supposed, but interspersed with strange squeaks, and in a pitch that made the back of her neck crawl. She suspected that it meant that they were speaking in a tone higher than human ears were capable of hearing during the pauses, but she couldn't be sure. One left, the other examining her with black, pupiless eyes. The real question was a matter of timing. How could she blow the chain without alerting every guard in the vicinity? She really couldn't. She would just have to act quickly.

She waited until the bat guard turned back around and blew the chain a few inches from the connecting shackle, and stood as the bat turned with a shriek, baring its fangs in displeasure.

If you didn't like that one, you certainly won't like this, she thought, her hand glowing with flame patterns as she touched the crisscrossing bars of the cell with her hand. With a metallic crunch, the door exploded outward with a burst of lavender flame, knocking out the bat who stood in the way. She hurried to the desk and took the communicator before going to the downed guard and retrieving his key set. She peeked out of the door to see a line of bats approaching down a long, cavernous passageway, heading for the door. She closed the door quickly and melted the lock to buy a little time before speaking into the communicator.

"Blaze, it's me," she said, looking over at the other prisoners and factoring them into her calculations. "I'm in some sort of tunnel system, I think. The civilians are being held prisoner here, and I don't really know how I can get them out. The guards are at the door, and I don't know how many there are, but there are some hundreds of them around this place. I melted the lock to stall them, but I don't know how much time I have."

If it had been just herself that needed to be freed, it would've been simple, but she needed to get the others out as well, and locate the missing courier man.

[William Talbot]

"Copy that, I'm on my way!" Blaze called out over the com-unit as he dove down into the hole and then saw that there where three tunnels to pick his route from.

Squinting for a moment, Will let his senses take over, and after another few heartbeats, he could just barely pick up Violet's trail, if only just, so he charged down into an opening, his eyes glowing brightly as he dashed along, after a few moments of that, he morphed into his wolf form and ran that way, eating up the ground as quickly as he could see it, his eyes piercing the darkness with a single intent, his feet leaving a trail of softly glowing blue foot prints behind him...


'Hurry! Violet needs you! The people need you! They all need you!' he could hear a voice not unlike his mothers spurring him on, rather than calling him back as it might have otherwise, but he didn't think too much about it as he reached an juncture of tunnels, and slid to a stop in the middle, the five openings and paths all looking to be just about the same.

But they weren't.

After a good long and hard sniff of the air, Will picked up the scent of ashy lavender, hot orchids and sweet cinnamon, Violet's scent, and with that he charged forward and let out a triumphant howl that filled the tunnels with sound, a sound that froze every giant bat that heard it...

[Ray Terrill]

" Down here " Tepes said " There is no rule of law...well, that's not true. There are rules, but they're more like handy suggestions. More like guideline. "

He paced around, staring at the wall, peeling off bits of the hard red clay that the cell consisted of and rolling it beneath his fingertips.

" You can kill someone. I mean, they do it all the time, over food of mating rights. You can steal from someone, although you might just invite more problems if you're caught. I mean...things here are complicated but they're...you know...they're not complicated. "

Tepes looked at Ray and wiped the clay on his coat. Ray noticed that the coat had been white once. Not it was off-brown, stained with food and mud. It's ends were frailed, it's cuffed soiled. Tepes stunk, smelled as if he had been wading thorough a sewer. Ray wondered if he was.

" You know, there's no lines here. No watiing for the post. Not checks, not mail, no studio apartment, condos. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's really the perfect place all year round. I like to live here. I really do. "

Ray tried to shift out into light but his head was still fuzzy from the fall. He couldn't concentrate long enough to shift his mass into energy. His jaw was numb. His eyes strained as he tried to concentrate. He looked at the light at the end of the stick and tried to draw it in,but there was something stopping him, something he couldn't sense about the bulb.

" So what...what do you want?" Ray said, peering at the bulb.

" Want? I don't want anything. It's what you want. What you crave for. What anyone craves for. Peace. I'm here to give you peace. I'm going to take away all the conflict, all the pain, I'm going to make a perfect world. The way it should have been in the beginning. "

Ray looked at him. " Then why do you want me? "

" I dunno. Someone should be alive to see it, I guess. "

There was a sound from outside the door. A loud, wailing howl. Ray immediately thought of Lon Chaney in the Universal Wolfman movies, but he dismissed the thought. Werewolves don't live in caves.

Tepes stepped outside and turned, looking out to the darkness just beyond the door. He made a few click and wheezing noises and kites emerges, birth by the darkness itself. He pointed and gesticulated and made a motion. A continent of kites slide out and headed down the hallway. Another phalanx head down the opposite way. Two stay behind and entered the room.

" Well, seems like your friends are being little inhospitable. I'm going to have to ask them to leave. "

Tepes paused and thought. " Well, when I say 'leave', I mean 'kill them'. When I say inhospitable. "

" I get it. "

" Okay. Boys. "

The bats came, wrapping knife sharp talons around his arms and hoisted him aloft. Ray offered no resistance, allowing them to escort him away, hopefully closer to the torchlights that lit the corridors.

[Violet Schultz]

Violet pocketed the communicator and knelt beside the downed guard, searching for his keys. These bat creatures wore no clothing, and a quick examination revealed that their long, fragile bones in their wings gave them a small finger, or thumb rather, as the short, clawed nub was the bone that was the thumb in humans. The bat had the keyring around that claw. She took it gently, not wanting to wake the bat-guard. It would be much better off if it stayed unconscious for the rest of the battle. She tried each of the keys on the ring until she found the one that unshackled her ankle.

Standing again, she looked over to the prisoners, who were watching with wide eyes. Some of the less shell-shocked people were coming to the cell's edge, and beginning to plead with her to free them. She hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"It will be much safer for you here," she said. "As soon as the battle is over, I'll come back for all of you. I promise."

"And if you're killed?" one man asked bluntly.

"Then my team will come for you," she replied, meeting the man's eyes. "In any case, I don't think that's going to happen."

She turned and headed for the door, resting her hand on it. She could feel a series of torches lining the hallway, but she couldn't sense much beyond the scope of the tunnel system, and the elaborate design. It was convenient that this bat army was so medieval, as an underground tunnel system would be much harder to navigate if she couldn't sense anything about it. Still, the picture she got from her sixth was more like a connect-the-dots, not really as extensive a map as she would've liked. The strange thing was that she also felt some electrical currents winding through the tunnels, congregating around one central room. That was more helpful.

She heard Will's lupine howl like a trumpet blast, the stone walls effecting the acoustics of the tunnel to amplify the sound. Her eyes lit lavender as she gained control of the five nearest torches, across the hall from the closed door of the dungeon and every ten feet or so on both sides of the hallway. She closed her eyes to focus, ignoring the pounding on the other side of the door. The door which had been designed to prevent escape was thick enough to prevent their entrance as Violet prepared to attack.

On the other side of the door from Violet, the orange flickering flames flared purple and then expanded explosively, causing another series of pained shrieks from the bats that lined the tunnel, trying to gain access to the attacker who remained just out of their reach. Another flash of lavender flames swept down the tunnel like a cleansing flame, spurring them to flee from the oppressive and dangerous heat. Some of the bats, not fast enough to satisfy their impatient and terrified comrades, were knocked out of the way by the swarm that flapped frantically away.

Violet saw all of the unfolding chaos through her sixth sense, her eyes glowing brightly as she sent wave after wave of flames into the corridor to clear her path. When it was sufficiently empty, she turned back to the prisoners.

"I'll be back," she reminded them.

A ring of lavender ignited around her feet and then flared, to reveal that she had vanished, reappearing on the other side of the near impregnable door. The opening was very wide, about three times her height, and about as tall, the passage almost perfectly circular. The blackened torches were completely spent, and she had to hold a fireball in her hand to see in the blackness, and the pale purple light bathed the earthen walls. Now that her headache was fading, she could concentrate well-enough to locate Will more definitely, and she turned and started down in his direction.

From the rigorous flapping that was growing in volume, she could only assume that back-up was on its way...

[William Talbot]

They might have been living creatures, but Will could hardly sense anything other then pure feral instinct, and the few emotions attached to that level of awareness, namely fear, rage and... Hunger...

Either way, it didn't pain him too much when he blasted them with gout's of flame, a fire breathing Timber Wolf not something anyone would bet money on seeing in this lifetime or the next, and yet here he was, charging down the earthen tunnels, a blur of blueish gray fur and pale blue light, screeches of pain, and frantic flaps preceding him as he smelled, and sensed Violet at the other end of a tunnel system that was growing ever more complex the deeper he went, the minuet pressure increase from being so far down under ground, starting to grow in tiny fractions as the pathway led further down into the earth, the air cooling somewhat, and letting him feel the various flames all the better, including Violet's.


Running full speed down a larger tunnel, Will suddenly crashed into the largest grouping of the bat people he had yet seen, they're numbers much larger now, and they where in a loose formation, as if they where preparing for some sort of attack, only they where facing the wrong way to defend against him. THAT told Will all he needed to know.

Morphing into his Lycan form, Blaze tore into the shocked and surprised group of man bats, his fists and feet flying about, his shoulder crushing into bodies, and bursts of flame flying about. To say that Blaze went through the group like a tornado, wound have been overly praising the tornado, because Blaze left nothing standing, and many of the simple fixtures that had been in the junction where smash, burned or broken to some extent.


But that wasn't his worry right now...

[Ray Terrill]

The chamber was suspended over a pit, he had no pretense that it wouldn't be, and it was bridged by a set of planks on wire, about the length and width of a playground swing. More than once as he moved across he had to be held aloft by the talons of the quiet sentries. Tepes, he noticed, walked with ease to the center platform. Ray was shoved forward onto the stomach of the stage. His guards unfolded, spread their wings and took flight, into the shadows above their head. Ray and his capture were along in the darkness seemingly floated in the middle of the world.

On the platform there was a desk that Tepes sat at. A jumble of screen and wires laid atop of it. The corded stock of electrical copper tied with tape ran along the edges of the platform, coalescing in the the center like a pit of snakes around a mouse cage. Ray stood and walked with caution less he trip on them. As he neared the desk, Tepes said " Science is the god child of insanity. ". Ray looked at him for a while. Tepes continued.

" It works on the soul principal that things can be explained. That the universe is essentially organized. That everything that's quantifiable can be quantified. That things happen for a reason. "

He frowned.

" It can't. It's not suppose to. We're not suppose to know how these things work. They just work. It's a mechanism without purpose or reason. It's a clock without a clockmaker. That's what the universe truly is. Just spinning gears. Wheels a'turnin'. "

Tepes looked down. His eyes were watering. He sniffed. He rubbed his face, cleared the tears from his eyes.

" My wife...she...she loved that idea. She said it meant that the only thing that matters are the choices you make. The things you can control. That which you truly have power. Yourself. "

Tepes nodded.

" She's dead. Died. In an earthquake. And I'm here. "

Tepes smiled.

" I'm going to be a better God than God ever was. "

Tepes turned to the screen, the tap of his fingers on the keys like a Fred Astaire number. Ray looked at him, moving around him to look at the screen, hearing the twittering of bats in the distance. Ray felt the red clay rock moving under his feet. He felt the caverns shiver like a cold lover. A wind passed thorough like breath filling the lungs of the underground. The rumbling grew. The buzzing grew. All was loudness and the sounds of machines. Ray muffed his ears.

" The maw is ready. " Tepes said.

" What?! " Ray yelled.

" The maw is ready! " Tepes reply.

" The wall is heavy! "

" The maw is..." Tepes began and took his stick. " ...Never mind! You can go now! "
He said and pointed the bulb at Ray.

All Ray fell was the shock of the volt passing thorough him as Tepes flicked the switch at the side of the stick. The air crackled with blue electric, it shivered his bones, it filled with mouth with the taste of hot tin and battery acid as he stumbled back. Ray's arms flailed spastically as he fell back. Fingers grace the tethers that held the dais aloft and slip away as he tumbles into the deep dark pit.

[Violet Schultz]

Violet met the bat creatures in the tunnel as they raced toward her, attempting to drive out the intruder who had burned so many of their kind. Her eyes glowed pale lavender as she used a tactic reserved more for large groups, the pyrokinetic display stunning, like underground fireworks.

Streams of concentrated white flames flashed around her in a broad perimeter, the shape like dozens of thick ribbons, the temperature setting any creature on fire which ventured too close. The roar of the flame was still audible over the deafening shrieks of the bats, and the vicious snarls that made it obvious that Will had joined the fray. Whenever a creature came too close, the rotating whips hit them head-on, setting their fur ablaze and sending them flying with the force she put behind it.

She moved forward, her flames clearing out her path toward Will as smoke and the scent of burning fur oppressed the air. The combined forces of both of their attacks was driving the bats from the opening, causing them to flee down the connecting tunnels. It wasn't long before she finally spotted Will, his gray fur glowing in the firelight. The last of the bats were fleeing, their loud shrieks fading into echoes.

"Will, we have to get the people out!" she called over the remaining cacophony.

She disappeared in a flicker, reappearing inside dungeon momentarily. Tattoo-like flame patterns glowed on her fist as it smashed into the metal door, crumbling it like aluminum foil as it warped and ripped from its hinges, slamming against the earthen wall outside the room, a trail of lavender flames following it on its flight path. She turned quickly and hurried to the cell's door, her eyes assessing it.

"Stand back," she instructed.

The people squeezed back away from the door as far as they could, watching with eyes that had equal parts curiosity and fear in them. Violet took a step back and extended her hand toward the lock, her eyes glowing lavender for a moment before the lock exploded, the metal pieces flying out toward the wall as she'd planned, as she'd directed the blast to cause. She opened the door quickly, her powers protecting her skin from the scalding heat of the melted metal.

"Everyone out," she said quickly. "Go left and follow the tunnel to the surface. Move!"

The people flooded out of the prison, frantically racing to follow her instructions. After the last person was out, she followed, coming out into the wide tunnel herself. Violet heard and sensed a mechanical buzz, and a growing rumble further down the tunnel. She turned to look back in that direction, a sense of foreboding growing. She focused her senses toward it and detected that odd energy that she recognized as the courier, and it was moving near the great concentration of electricity, a ways above it.

She raced off toward it. Today was turning out to be a long day...

[William Talbot]

Once Violet joined the fight, the bat people suddenly started to cave in their resistance until they where gone, the scent of scorched earth and fur, filling the area.


Nodded to Violet, Will followed her to the smaller cavern, as she set the hostages free, Blaze's imposing form working its way down a side hall that skirted the holding areas, and was in fact a shortcut into the main cavern, and as Will moved, he could hear Tepes and Ray talking and despite all of the noise, his sharp ears heard every word....


"Violet, we have a BIG problem here, Some other guy is in trouble and there's a nut-case here with some massive energy drill ready to level the city and most of the surface of the earth... Get here as fast as you can please, I have a feeling we'll need your bag of tricks shortly and-- CRAP!"


Watching from the shadows as Ray was tossed over into the pit, Blaze exploded from the opening in the rocks with a flash of hot pale blue flames as he raced for the edge, breaking through a line of armored bat soldiers and scattering others, some of whom likely recognized the large furry hero from earlier combat.

"NO!" He yelled as he skidded to a stop at the edge and watched as the slightly glowing suited man fell into the blackness, and then a blinding flash of energy and light filled the hole.

"Bastard..." Blaze growled in a gutterlly feral tone as he turned and looked at Tepes, his eyes glowing brightly, shining twin beams of hot blue light on him like mini spot lights, the fur on the back of his neck standing up as he stalked forward and then backhanded the first guard that tried to get between him and Tepes, the winged creature squealing as it flew into the far wall and landed in a heap...


"The universe isn't Chaos Tepes... Nor is it order... Look at a strand of DNA... Order... Look at a nova as it explodes and expands across the stars... Chaos... But then look again, at the world, the sky, the stars around you... The universe is both order and chaos, fighting, struggling for balance, for harmony, because order is not order, without chaos, and chaos is not chaos without order... Look at me Tepes... DO you know what I am?"

Will's wings formed and grew, twin blades of translucent blue light, that formed into the shape of flaming blue feathers, his eyes glowing, and his fists hot with fire as he stared at Tepes, then spoke lowly; "I am chaos from order, order from chaos, life and death, hope and angst, love and hate... I am a paradox, and I am me... and I am a Titan!"


Turning Blaze punched the air, a blast of solid energy, kinetic, solar, and pyroclastic, exploded from his hand into the doomsday drill, tearing into it and out the other side as if it was made of paper, the metal burning, and the paint blistering as if dropped into fresh hot magma, the sounds of steel and carbon, plastic and rubber, burning away, twisting, shrieking in inanimate agony as the drill was reduced to slag and wreckage in moments, a hot blue scorch on the far wall glowing brightly and smoking as he turned back to Tepes and raised his hand, palm out and fingers spread, as his eyes narrowed; "Its over Tepes..."

[Ray Terrill]

Ray remembered playing with matches. His father had lit some candles and let the matchbox out on the shelf just above the ottoman. Ray remembered the phish[of the phosphorus. The bulbous red head of the flame, orange and red. He remembered the lady-like shimmy it took and he held his breath around it for fear of scaring away the fire. The blaze ate the stick and burnt his fingers and he remembered stifling the scream less his father wake form his afternoon nap in the next room. Mostly, Ray remembered the house being a little less dark by pure firelight.

Tepes fell back, eyes glimmering like a baby staring at a mobile. He said " God doesn't have fur. "

The bright blue blast smashes the doomsday construction. It made a noise like a dying toaster oven an exploded in a burst of tangerine orange and scarlet red. The concussive sound of it's demolition like an orchestra of drums. Bat wings fluttered staccato, retreating deeper into the caves. Out from the bowels of the darkness, a single stray ray of light emerged and took form, landing on the platform.

Ray came to a stop on a kneel and looked up.

" We really need to go. "

******

They bound Tepes and rescued the survivors. By the time Ray emerged from the hole, it was morning. The night had passed, spent underground. He looked upon the dawning sun from the edge of the river and glanced at the tower in the distance. He heard footsteps coming up behind him and turned to meet the Titans.

" So alls well that ends with me covered in dirt. " He said.