KASSANDRA
Alter Knight posed nothing in the way of conversation, suiting the spartan just fine. Her mind was abuzz with what she'd learned, and the thoughts of failure and deceit festered. Speaking with Specter had been enlightening - and had confirmed Kassandra's worst fears and suspicions. If the Isu could see such a future, surely they knew Layla would falter? Their intellect knew almost no bounds, so how was it that they couldn't stop the apocalypse? And how did they expect a more primitive people to succeed where they had failed?
Failure was beginning to seem like an inevitability. Despite all the power and knowledge of the ancient ones, they could not secure a future without a cataclysmic end. The cycle would seemingly continue.
But there was one thing that could change it all. It was the slimmest of chances, but one the misthios knew she could and would undertake. Her immortality would prove advantageous. Rather than sticking to the shadows of her world for two thousand years, simply waiting to give it all up for someone else to replace her, only for them to fail... Kassandra could change it all.
Alter Knight disappeared through the gateway, and Kassandra followed closely behind. She grabbed the pendant around her neck, the current form for the Staff of Hermes, and she looked it over. The staff had always spoken to her, a voice in her mind that echoed with old power. It had said a few things when she'd acquired the staff, but in the last two hundred years... barely a peep. She only ever heard from the staff when it was in proximity with another Isu artifact. Aside from that, it didn't make for entertaining company.
Yet in this moment, Kassandra heard it again. The disembodied male voice overpowering the female one that asked for a battlefield. What it said was simple, but it was enough to give the misthios a moment of pause and clarity.
"Paradox detected. Timeline altered. Adjusting prediction... Hello, True Keeper."
Now, she had no idea what a paradox was, but 'timeline' felt self-explanatory. If time could be seen, set on a line, it is what Kassandra would call it. And evidently, her shift in perspective had done enough to alter whatever vision of the future the staff and its Isu creators had foreseen.
Hopefully, it would be enough to stop armageddon.
"Take us to Alexandria, resting place of Alexander the Great," Kassandra answered the female voice, and the world began to shift and shape around the two combatants. She was here to win, now. If she could succeed, she could truly do what the Isu and Layla never could.
She could save everything - and some silly little armored girl wasn't about to stand in her way.
M.O.D.O.K.
The great maw that was M.O.D.O.K.s mouth was wide and agape as he roared in a combination of pain and fury, unintentionally expelling his psychic power in a move that was rapidly reducing the battlefield around them into dust and code. The mutant lost a leg trying to close the distance, trying to dodge through the attacks, but the Man-Mind was too enthralled in his own madness to take notice.
Jeice's fist was thrown, one last hit to end the fight. It met its mark, and before Jeice could tell what came next - a blinding white light seared his vision, the jewel on the A.I.M. leader's forehead seemingly erupting completely. An empty blank void is what greeted Jeice, for only but a moment, as quite suddenly...
He was right back in the lobby.
The roster screen had yet to shift, and M.O.D.O.K. himself appeared beside Jeice, hands raised to rub the Man-Mind's temples as though he had a headache. "WHAT THE..." he grumbled. "DID I WIN?"
As though in response, the roster updated.
Jeice had moved up the bracket.
"WHAT!?" M.O.D.O.K. roared when he took notice. "IMPOSSIBLE! YOU ARE A SUPREMELY INFERIOR SPECIMEN! A COSMIC FLUKE! YOU MUST HAVE CHEATED, SOMEHOW! GRAAAAH!!"
NEPTHYS
(Auto-Perms Granted By Blue)
Why was this human so intent on hiding? Surely she was aware that the gardevoir could sense her, no? It didn't take a genius to deduce some of the common traits a psychic being possessed. Neph's narrowed eyes were somewhat concealed by her green hair-like helmet. Kirin relied heavily upon those talismen, but after they had failed, she-
The gardevoir's eyes widened as she quickly deduced the strategy. Kirin had applied those talismen to any surface and used them to teleport like lightning across the battlefield. The thrown ones had been a distraction - Kirin's intent had never been to land those.
KE-TSEW!
Nepthys whirled on the spot, raising her arms. Kirin's blade met a psychic barrier inches before connecting with the gardevoir. There was a brief moment where their eyes locked, and the Pokémon didn't need to use telepathy to get her threat across. Kirin pulled back and slashed again, the gardevoir catching it with another outstretched palm, the kinetic barrier a thin film between them, before she fired out a psychic blast.
Kirin yanked back her blade to avoid any damage coming to it as she began to fall. In response, the gardevoir began to drop with her, engaging in the fight on Kirin's playing field. Slashing and hacking, Kirin's movements became a blur, but the gardevoir kept up. Blade cut barrier as they dropped, and for every second slash that was blocked, there was an accompanying telekinetic blast that Kirin evaded to respond with more cutting and jabbing - before she swung her leg to the side, feigning another blow with the sword. Her shin connected with the gardevoir's side, knocking her to the ground just as they reached it.
Immediately, Kirin plunged the blade down, attempting to drive into the Pokémon, but reverse telekinetic blast was enough to make the gardevoir slide out of the way before she quickly brought herself up to block a side-armed swing from the blade with another barrier. Kirin's left hand broke away from her blade's handle as she swung again. The blade was blocked, and again, Kirin was allowed to connect again, her fist battering into Neph's face, who stumbled back, unable to block the next sword-strike that blazed upward.
It wasn't too deep, Neph quick enough to evade any seriously lasting damage, the uppercut of a slash still digging into her flesh, however, leaving a mark from her jaw up toward her forehead, completely severing her left eye. "GAR!" Nephthys yelled, a burst of psychokinetic energy blasting the battle priestess back before she could close the distance again. Kirin was launched into the air, procuring more talismen to throw down, but she was interrupted.
Neph appeared above the priestess, her good eye flaring with teal psychic energy as she raised a palm, a blast striking Kirin in the back and launching her to the ground. The gardevoir raised both of her arms, a frown besetting her mouth in a thin, angry line. The factory Kirin had recently been hiding in suddenly began to rip violently apart, great chunks hurtling from it in an attempt to crush the human.
IRNANE
Even as the nerevarine countered cleverly with a method to ensure Dracula could gain no ground by keeping it close and personal, for the time being, Irnane could tell that the vampire was not fully engaged. His eyes had grown distant. She understood the look of someone consumed in their own thoughts. His cape tore away from the dark elf, dispersing itself at her magic's curse. Yet Dracula's arm stretched out. He barely seemed to register the blade in his gut, nor the lesions slowly splitting themselves all over his face and body.
His hand found her neck - no, it didn't grasp it. It found her platysma, grabbing on gently. His eyes maintained their distance, and Irnane was left puzzled. Was he having second thoughts? A clarity of conscience? His demeanor shift was at first subtle, before sudden, and suddenly, this wasn't a fight anymore. It almost felt foolish having her blade stuck in his midsection. Her brows knit tightly together in mingled confusion and concern as she pulled the sword out. Again, Dracula did not react. She dispersed her magic, clearing the effects to keep her opponent and acquaintance from suffering more lesions, as they seemed suddenly unnecessary.
"Tell me, Nerevarine..."
His gaze finally seemed to focus on her, their eyes connecting. Irnane was moved by what she saw in his, and her free hand reached up to be placed upon the back of his palm. His following questions was surprising. It was as though the purpose of this place they were at had become moot to the count. His ambitions had suddenly... faded. He gave her a lot to answer. What would she do if she succeeded against the Oblivion crisis? What if her selfless desires would bring about her end? What if she would fail in the end? Questions the dunmer would ask herself sometimes, when she was alone in her room, trying to sleep. She had many restless nights. Sometimes she cried those nights away out of selfish pity for her position in life, being someone she'd never asked to become. She tried her hardest every day for the people of Vvardenfell, and Morrowind as a whole, yet she had no friends. No people to rely on. Nobody to support her beyond the superficial house alliance. Being nerevarine was a lonely existence. She yearned for her past relationships, before those had ended, and everything had become so complicated.
She could see those desires reflected in Dracula's eyes, among so many other things.
"You have lived well beyond my years," Irnane replied, her tone softly contrasting their shared violence just moments ago. "The questions you ask, I know they were once for you. Whether you answered them, whether you asked them to yourself, I know not, but they are for me, now. Our paths... perhaps it was fate that brought me to you, and you to I. We are kindred souls lost in a tumultuous sea of our making, destined to suffer for loving too much. I may be young for my people, but I am no fool to see that I very well may bring about my death through my selflessness. I may not live past the threat I face. I may fail in the end."
The hand rested upon his own moved up to slide her fingers to his palm as she grabbed his hand, and slowly moved it away from her neck. "I know what possibilities my future holds. The good... the bad... but despite anything, I must ignore what my mind knows, and obey what my heart says. To save others, I have to risk myself. Even if everything I've done is moot, and all the good is undone by a great evil, I cannot die saying I didn't try. At the end of every day, that's all any of us can do. We try. Failure and fear should not define our paths. Your eyes, Lord Dracula... they tell me so many stories. I will be fortunate to live to tell half as many. But I will still try."
What was meant to be a climactic fight had become a conversation of heart, soul, and purpose. It was not one that Irnane was used to - she never had people to open up to. Nobody who could understand her. But she felt Vlad could understand her, like she could understand him. Even if they were clearly very different people on the outside, in so many ways, and even though he was not secretive of his villainous exploits in life, Irnane felt a strong connection to the vampire, one that had only grown since she'd first laid eyes on him.
Her other hand slid her blade into its scabbard, and reached up. Her palm was placed upon his cheek. A gentle, personal gesture. Her lips curved into a small smile with the taint of sadness behind them as she read the stories of his eyes. "I know your ambition is important to you, but if this fight and victory is what you truly want... then why do you look so sad?"
