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xp_logs2011-09-29 08:34 pm
x-staffofone.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2011-09-29 08:34 pm
The Curse: Arcana rising
The Minorus, Amanda and the rest of X-Force go down with the plan. Things take a turn for the worse. The very worse.
Backdated to September 29th
Dew lay heavy on the ground, a low mist swirling around their ankles as Amanda, Wanda and the Minorus made their way to the centre of the deserted field that had been chosen for the ritual. They weren't alone - there were three other members of X-Force, invisible in the darkness outside the ring of light cast by the camping lantern Amanda carried - but the less the Minorus knew, the better.
"This'll do," Amanda said at last, stopping. She shivered slightly, partly due to her distance from the city, but mostly from the late-night chill. It was going to suck when she had to take her shirt off. "Wanda, you good to set up a protection circle?"
She looked up from where she'd been frowning at the ground and nodded. "Certainly. Let me work on clearing the ground and I will start to set everything up." Wanda patted the small satchel at her side as she started to nudge aside sticks and large stones to clear a path. She might have had the magical spark of a log herself but the knowledge of how to set it up and what to do was certainly old knowledge at this point.
Wanda would never be able to make it go live but she could make a damned good one that would just need a bit of a spark from Amanda to finish.
Meanwhile, the Minorus had kept their distance, but they were still close by. There were incantations to prepare, and whatever safeguards they had themselves in case things went awry. There was little they could do though, so Robert and Tina were mostly preparing themselves at a mental level.
Turning to his wife, Robert asked with inquiring eyes. "Are you prepared?"
Tina glanced over her husband. His black hair, once the color of a raven's wing, was starting to turn a shade of ash. His forehead held frown lines and eyes carried crows feet. Age was slowly starting to make its mark and could've left long ago. Yet he never left her side. Was he her lover or her fool? Perhaps a bit of both.
"As I can be," she said. Was there a right way to prepare for this sort of thing?
Out in the darkness, Remy prowled like a hunting cat. He had just checked than Doug was settling into his position properly. The younger man might not appreciate that his spot was further back than his or Marie-Ange, but Remy had learned that Doug's instincts once the battle had been joined about where to add his offense to make the most use of it were good.
As he reached Marie-Ange, warning her of his presence with a touch, he noticed the tension on the young woman's face. Silently, he passed on his orders with taps against her wrist: Arcana was their first target, but the Minorus only left the field as prisoners or dead. Their eyes met in the gloom as he passed along the new directive.
A potential fight in the dark was never an optimum situation to be in, and for Marie-Ange it was made worse by the nightmares she'd had for days, unsure as to what was fear for Amanda's young apprentice and what was precognitive vision and what was just worry that history would repeat itself. It was even worse because the dim lighting limited her options, what cards she had for images were all bold black lines on white cards and clumsily drawn simple forms. She nodded once to Remy, no issue in deferring to his instructions and kept a few steps back.
Doug covered the shadows on the opposite side of the small circle of light from Marie-Ange, with Remy prowling the dark between him and her. His slitted eyes swept left and right, doing his best to maintain his night vision while still keeping his attention on the events within the circle. He was unusually heavily armed, with both his customary pistol in a shoulder holster and a small holdout at the small of his back, plus knives and other items around his person. He didn't trust the Minorus a lick, and he definitely didn't like the feeling that Amanda was being maneuvered into something yet again.
As Wanda finished the circle, the clouds parted, revealing a sliver of a new moon that did little to light the area. Amanda wrinkled her nose, but stepped into the circle. "Give me the box," she directed Robert, who was carrying the intricately worked container that was intended to trap Arcana's spirit, once summoned. Silently, Robert passed the box over. "The timing must be perfect, you know this already. Once we begin there is not going back. Are the preparations ready? We should start at once." He certainly didn't want to waste any more time.
Amanda glowered, but didn't say anything else to the man as she took the small carved wooden box that was to hold Arcana's essence once it had been called. Kneeling on the damp grass, she placed the box in front of her and pulled off her shirt, revealing the channeling spell that had been Candra's 'special' gift. "Let's get this show on the road," she muttered, laying her fingers on the edge of the circle Wanda had prepared and activating it. A dull silver glow emanated from the traced outline, barely visible against the mist and the moonlight.
Tina was silent at first, her eyes focused on the ground as she slowly stepped forward. Her gaze drew toward the sky, and she lifted her hands, her index fingers and thumbs forming the shape of a circle that she framed the moon with. Her voice was surprisingly steady despite the fear that wormed its way through her heart.
"I call you. Mother. One that came before. Spirit of the deeper realm. The first. The tether. The line. Come to me, mother. I call you. The daughter of Minoru calls you. Come forth. Blood of my blood. Come from below and from above.Hear these words, hear my cry, Spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee, Cross now the great divide. "
The scars on Amanda's back writhed, power arcing through them, and the blonde witch hung her head, gasping at the pain. Her fingers dug into the ground, tearing up tufts of grass as she fought to stay still.
On the edge of the circle, close but not too close, Wanda was still as stone as she watched the proceedings. The air tasted wrong as the spell continued and she forced herself to breath carefully, to not blink or look away as the scars twitched and rolled on Amanda's back. To do so would be a disservice to her younger friend - and she was afraid that if she looked away, she would potentially miss a crucial moment where she was needed.
Marie-Ange didn't take her eyes off the ritual, but her face was tight and drawn and she was nearly crushing the card in her hand. Necessary or not, to see her friend in obvious pain was hard to watch, no matter how cold and detached she could pretend to be.
"Get ready." Remy muttered into his mike, his voice carrying to the earpieces that X-Force were wearing. He'd seen enough magic to know when a ritual was ramping up to the climax, and from the flare of energy, it couldn't be long now.
Slowly but surely, a low whistle filled the air. It sounded just like that, air spinning faster and faster around the group. The golden lines on Amanda's back suddenly flared into near blinding light, sending waves of pain to the woman, as well as black smoke that looked more like ink started to seep from the tattoo as well, slowly compacting itself over Amanda. It was as if a great vacuum started siphoning everything towards Amanda for a moment, sky breaking into lightning, clouds opening over the witch.
Space seemed to bend around the growing mass of darkness that seeped from her back, until it took the shape of a bubble of sorts, encasing the dark mass, which was quickly taking human shape. In a matter of seconds, the dark vaporous matter seemed to be absorbed by what looked like skin, yet it was impossibly pale and semi transparent; only the arms and the face were visible though, the rest shrouded in what looked like a shredded tunic made of the same darkness. Arcana now floated over Amanda, ghostly and giving the impression of being utterly breakable. Her face looked a great deal like Nico's, but this one was twisted out of anger and what possibly was best described as madness. Her eyes were bottomless pools of blackness and her teeth were all sharp. She had been suddenly summoned, pulled from the astral plane, and she was momentarily out of it.
Gritting her teeth, Amanda reached forward and opened the box sitting in front of her with shaking hands. "Do it now," she grated to Tina. "The binding spell, do it now." Tears were running down her face, black in the moonlight, as viscous as tar.
Wanda had taken a step back as everything had started happened and she shook herself, turning towards Tina on the other side. "If you're going to bloody well do it, do it!" she snapped, angry and concerned all in one. If this did irreparable harm to Amanda, the couple might not survive it.
Tina ignored the woman's petulant whining as she slowly approached Amanda. She reached out her hand, touching the woman on the forehead.
"With these words
I bind thee.
I bind thee Arcana.
Thou art she, between the worlds,
in all the worlds,
So mote it be.
By air and earth,
By water and fire,
So be you bound,
As I desire.
your power is found,
Your power I bind.
By moon and sun,
My will be done.
Sky and sea--"
An invisible force suddenly seemed to yank Arcana by one of her arms, as if urging her to enter the box. This act also seemed to finally snap her out of her confusion, as she started to fight back, but to no avail; whatever was dragging her didn't seem to either stop or slow down, and slowly her hand and then arm started to vanish inside of the box, filling it with darkness.
"No...NO! Arrogant children..." Arcana's free hand was simply flailing all around, her whole body slowly moving to the box. It was when almost all her arm had vanished that she laid a hand on Amanda's back...and something changed. Suddenly, it was as if the golden light of the scars focused entirely in her hand. "Aha...who would have known...but it's not time for that yet. This will do though, for now." Lifting her hand, Arcana made a quick movement with it at her almost entirely trapped limb, and the same golden light coursed through it, the box shattering upon contact. Almost at the same time, Arcana rose, arms extended, the invisible bubble around her bending and breaking.
"You little shit...I will have what is mine NOW", bellowed as she lunged at Tina, disappearing in the woman's chest, and apparently setting her on fire, turning the woman literally into a ball of fire.
Robert took a step forward, a hand extended at the sight, completely speechless.
"Fuck!" Amanda jerked up so suddenly she fell backwards onto her butt, shoving herself instinctively backwards. Another instinct stopped her before she destroyed the protection spell. For all the good it was doing. "Remy! Some help?"
As fast as they came, the flames vanished, leaving Tina visible again. Or what was left of Tina, as the woman looked at least half a century older. Suddenly, her back seemed to explode as yet another person apparently jumped out of her; she looked almost like Nico, although she was slightly older; her eyes were pits of darkness. Touching the floor lightly, black mist wrapped itself around her naked body as Tina literally crumbled behind her; her hair was long enough to reach her lower back too, and it fell freely and wildly. Looking around, Arcana ignored everything and everyone, stopping her glance when she reached Amanda, so she was looking at the woman over her shoulder. "No need to stand up", said with a grin as she lazily passed a hand over her long hair. "Once I collect another soul I will be out of your hair." And now her black eyes were set on Robert.
"Dat would be de go order." Remy said over the radio. His first two cards streaked towards the figure, but with a look, they dissapted into a gust of red mist. He bit back a curse, always angry about dealing with magic and the x-factor it created.
A thing, more scaly than furry and with great clawed wings for arms but otherwise bear-shaped came out of Marie-Ange's card, and another and another behind it, and they swarmed over Arcana, splitting into more and more scaly bear-eagle things smaller and smaller as the ancient witch simply swatted them away. As they finally split into hand-sized versions of their original forms, they screamed and all together turned towards Marie-Ange and began marching in lock-step towards her.
She yelped in surprise, scrambled back a few steps and tore the card in her hand into pieces, and her creations died, collapsing into scraps of paper that fluttered the wrong way against the wind and ink on the ground pooling like oil or blood.
Wanda picked the wrong time to attempt to sprint around the circle and certainly the wrong moment in trying to reach for her powers. A maelstrom of bits of paper hit her square in the face, obscuring her vision and clogging her mouth and throat. She faltered, hands reaching to clear the mess even as she gagged and spat, trying to breath again.
Still, she probed with the chaos energy - and immediately regretted it. There was nothing so horrible as the time she'd Seen Cyttorak through her powers but Arcana's appearance in the flesh had thrown everything in the natural world off by several steps. Even as she started moving again, slower this time, more wary, her powers were screaming at her. Everything was wrong, everything was off and she didn't dare try and manipulate anything in the immediate vicinity.
Not if she wanted to avoid creating smoking crater where they stood.
The sudden appearance of Arcana brought a scowl to Doug's face, and he thought I hate when being paranoid means I'm right, even as he was springing into motion. His right hand went to his shoulder holster, and his left to the holster at his back, in a simultaneous move that he'd practiced more than once to get right. He stutter-stepped to one side, guns coming up as he took in the scene, mentally locating each of his teammates.
Amanda was down on the ground, and out of his line of fire. Wanda was moving around the circle, and Doug shifted to ensure she was clear as well. Marie-Ange would utilize some sort of imaged attack from her spot at range. That left Remy, whose preternatural sense of motion Doug trusted to keep him out of the way of Doug's bullets, and the Minorus, who Doug couldn't really be forced to care all that much about. All of this analysis took a fraction of a second, and his fingers pulled back on the pair of triggers, one, then the other, in a sequenced volley of fire all aimed center mass at the figure currently immolating Tina Minoru and just starting to turn toward Robert.
Halfway between Doug and Arcana, each of the bullets flashed and was instantaneously transmuted into a white dove, over a dozen in the space of the less than ten seconds it took Doug to empty his guns' clips. The birds scattered into the night sky, and Doug struggled to parse what had happened. He thumbed the releases for the empty clips, and reached for a spare clip attached to his shoulder holster as he tried to figure out what to do next, but before his hand reached the holster, it became a white scarf that twined itself around his neck and face, obscuring his vision.
Her back was on fire and she was as weak as a kitten after the spell, but still Amanda had to try something. If Arcana got loose, that'd mean she'd have free reign to pursue Nico when the time was right. Pushing herself upright, she stumbled towards the witch with a rock clenched in her fist. "Oi, leave off!" she yelled, swinging downwards towards Arcana's face...
...only for the rock to turn into sand, draining away between her fingers. Oh bloody buggering fuck...
Arcana just looked around at each attack, a bored expression all the while. "You might not think about it, but it is way more bothersome not to kill you where you stand rather than just stop you all. But, it's too soon for that sort of thing." Turning to face Robert, who was know desperately trying to step back without tripping, yet failing every two steps, and smiled. "It's all over now." For those looking at her, Arcana turned into black smoke and covered the distance between her and the man in a flash, suddenly materializing and plunging an arm on the man's chest, lifting him from the ground, mouth twisted into a smile of delight. A moment later, the man seemed to burn just like Tina, and seconds later he was gone. With that same smile on her face, Arcana turned around. "Well then!", said cheerfully as she waved a hand, suddenly making everyone fall to the ground, even crushing irregularities on the ground. "I'll be taking my leave now. See you lot later!"
Nothing seemed to happen at first, but then Arcana started to fade, and moments later she was entirely gone, the great pressure over everyone banishing.
Amanda pushed herself up on her elbows, wincing at the burning in her back. The pain was nothing, however, in comparison to the feeling of dread and rage welling up within her. They'd messed it up. She'd messed it up. And now Arcana was running around loose with nothing between her and Nico but the smears of ash that had once been her student's parents. "Might as well have served Nico up to her instead," she muttered, clenching her fists so tightly her nails cut into her palms.
"What in the hell was that?" Marie-Ange was already pulling off her sweater to hand to Amanda, leaving a long-sleeved shirt on underneath. "Were we just double-crossed again or did Nico's evil great-grandmother just appear out of nowhere?"
"Dat was a loa - body rider. Bad magic dat. Death magic." Remy's stare was distant through the spot the thing had faded out. "Whatever de fuck we called up, it took its price in order to get free. Which makes it our responsibility now. Understood? Dis one we own now."
His gaze flicked from face to face; a terrible hardness there that was chillingly final; an echo of Gambit that ended any argument. "Marie-Ange, Wanda, you take 'manda. We getting out of here."
Doug checked to ensure his clips were still empty before roughly jamming his pistols in his waistband and pulling a small knife and
silently moving off to check their planned route out of the clearing to the vehicles they'd taken. He almost hoped he ran into something,
just so he'd have a target to vent his frustration on.
Wanda nodded sharply. There was nothing to say - everything that could go wrong, had, and now they were going to have to play catch up to put everything back into it's proper place. She went to Amanda's side, ready to aid her if she looked like she was going to keel over.
She was starting to get tired of them all being two steps behind.
Backdated to September 29th
Dew lay heavy on the ground, a low mist swirling around their ankles as Amanda, Wanda and the Minorus made their way to the centre of the deserted field that had been chosen for the ritual. They weren't alone - there were three other members of X-Force, invisible in the darkness outside the ring of light cast by the camping lantern Amanda carried - but the less the Minorus knew, the better.
"This'll do," Amanda said at last, stopping. She shivered slightly, partly due to her distance from the city, but mostly from the late-night chill. It was going to suck when she had to take her shirt off. "Wanda, you good to set up a protection circle?"
She looked up from where she'd been frowning at the ground and nodded. "Certainly. Let me work on clearing the ground and I will start to set everything up." Wanda patted the small satchel at her side as she started to nudge aside sticks and large stones to clear a path. She might have had the magical spark of a log herself but the knowledge of how to set it up and what to do was certainly old knowledge at this point.
Wanda would never be able to make it go live but she could make a damned good one that would just need a bit of a spark from Amanda to finish.
Meanwhile, the Minorus had kept their distance, but they were still close by. There were incantations to prepare, and whatever safeguards they had themselves in case things went awry. There was little they could do though, so Robert and Tina were mostly preparing themselves at a mental level.
Turning to his wife, Robert asked with inquiring eyes. "Are you prepared?"
Tina glanced over her husband. His black hair, once the color of a raven's wing, was starting to turn a shade of ash. His forehead held frown lines and eyes carried crows feet. Age was slowly starting to make its mark and could've left long ago. Yet he never left her side. Was he her lover or her fool? Perhaps a bit of both.
"As I can be," she said. Was there a right way to prepare for this sort of thing?
Out in the darkness, Remy prowled like a hunting cat. He had just checked than Doug was settling into his position properly. The younger man might not appreciate that his spot was further back than his or Marie-Ange, but Remy had learned that Doug's instincts once the battle had been joined about where to add his offense to make the most use of it were good.
As he reached Marie-Ange, warning her of his presence with a touch, he noticed the tension on the young woman's face. Silently, he passed on his orders with taps against her wrist: Arcana was their first target, but the Minorus only left the field as prisoners or dead. Their eyes met in the gloom as he passed along the new directive.
A potential fight in the dark was never an optimum situation to be in, and for Marie-Ange it was made worse by the nightmares she'd had for days, unsure as to what was fear for Amanda's young apprentice and what was precognitive vision and what was just worry that history would repeat itself. It was even worse because the dim lighting limited her options, what cards she had for images were all bold black lines on white cards and clumsily drawn simple forms. She nodded once to Remy, no issue in deferring to his instructions and kept a few steps back.
Doug covered the shadows on the opposite side of the small circle of light from Marie-Ange, with Remy prowling the dark between him and her. His slitted eyes swept left and right, doing his best to maintain his night vision while still keeping his attention on the events within the circle. He was unusually heavily armed, with both his customary pistol in a shoulder holster and a small holdout at the small of his back, plus knives and other items around his person. He didn't trust the Minorus a lick, and he definitely didn't like the feeling that Amanda was being maneuvered into something yet again.
As Wanda finished the circle, the clouds parted, revealing a sliver of a new moon that did little to light the area. Amanda wrinkled her nose, but stepped into the circle. "Give me the box," she directed Robert, who was carrying the intricately worked container that was intended to trap Arcana's spirit, once summoned. Silently, Robert passed the box over. "The timing must be perfect, you know this already. Once we begin there is not going back. Are the preparations ready? We should start at once." He certainly didn't want to waste any more time.
Amanda glowered, but didn't say anything else to the man as she took the small carved wooden box that was to hold Arcana's essence once it had been called. Kneeling on the damp grass, she placed the box in front of her and pulled off her shirt, revealing the channeling spell that had been Candra's 'special' gift. "Let's get this show on the road," she muttered, laying her fingers on the edge of the circle Wanda had prepared and activating it. A dull silver glow emanated from the traced outline, barely visible against the mist and the moonlight.
Tina was silent at first, her eyes focused on the ground as she slowly stepped forward. Her gaze drew toward the sky, and she lifted her hands, her index fingers and thumbs forming the shape of a circle that she framed the moon with. Her voice was surprisingly steady despite the fear that wormed its way through her heart.
"I call you. Mother. One that came before. Spirit of the deeper realm. The first. The tether. The line. Come to me, mother. I call you. The daughter of Minoru calls you. Come forth. Blood of my blood. Come from below and from above.Hear these words, hear my cry, Spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee, Cross now the great divide. "
The scars on Amanda's back writhed, power arcing through them, and the blonde witch hung her head, gasping at the pain. Her fingers dug into the ground, tearing up tufts of grass as she fought to stay still.
On the edge of the circle, close but not too close, Wanda was still as stone as she watched the proceedings. The air tasted wrong as the spell continued and she forced herself to breath carefully, to not blink or look away as the scars twitched and rolled on Amanda's back. To do so would be a disservice to her younger friend - and she was afraid that if she looked away, she would potentially miss a crucial moment where she was needed.
Marie-Ange didn't take her eyes off the ritual, but her face was tight and drawn and she was nearly crushing the card in her hand. Necessary or not, to see her friend in obvious pain was hard to watch, no matter how cold and detached she could pretend to be.
"Get ready." Remy muttered into his mike, his voice carrying to the earpieces that X-Force were wearing. He'd seen enough magic to know when a ritual was ramping up to the climax, and from the flare of energy, it couldn't be long now.
Slowly but surely, a low whistle filled the air. It sounded just like that, air spinning faster and faster around the group. The golden lines on Amanda's back suddenly flared into near blinding light, sending waves of pain to the woman, as well as black smoke that looked more like ink started to seep from the tattoo as well, slowly compacting itself over Amanda. It was as if a great vacuum started siphoning everything towards Amanda for a moment, sky breaking into lightning, clouds opening over the witch.
Space seemed to bend around the growing mass of darkness that seeped from her back, until it took the shape of a bubble of sorts, encasing the dark mass, which was quickly taking human shape. In a matter of seconds, the dark vaporous matter seemed to be absorbed by what looked like skin, yet it was impossibly pale and semi transparent; only the arms and the face were visible though, the rest shrouded in what looked like a shredded tunic made of the same darkness. Arcana now floated over Amanda, ghostly and giving the impression of being utterly breakable. Her face looked a great deal like Nico's, but this one was twisted out of anger and what possibly was best described as madness. Her eyes were bottomless pools of blackness and her teeth were all sharp. She had been suddenly summoned, pulled from the astral plane, and she was momentarily out of it.
Gritting her teeth, Amanda reached forward and opened the box sitting in front of her with shaking hands. "Do it now," she grated to Tina. "The binding spell, do it now." Tears were running down her face, black in the moonlight, as viscous as tar.
Wanda had taken a step back as everything had started happened and she shook herself, turning towards Tina on the other side. "If you're going to bloody well do it, do it!" she snapped, angry and concerned all in one. If this did irreparable harm to Amanda, the couple might not survive it.
Tina ignored the woman's petulant whining as she slowly approached Amanda. She reached out her hand, touching the woman on the forehead.
"With these words
I bind thee.
I bind thee Arcana.
Thou art she, between the worlds,
in all the worlds,
So mote it be.
By air and earth,
By water and fire,
So be you bound,
As I desire.
your power is found,
Your power I bind.
By moon and sun,
My will be done.
Sky and sea--"
An invisible force suddenly seemed to yank Arcana by one of her arms, as if urging her to enter the box. This act also seemed to finally snap her out of her confusion, as she started to fight back, but to no avail; whatever was dragging her didn't seem to either stop or slow down, and slowly her hand and then arm started to vanish inside of the box, filling it with darkness.
"No...NO! Arrogant children..." Arcana's free hand was simply flailing all around, her whole body slowly moving to the box. It was when almost all her arm had vanished that she laid a hand on Amanda's back...and something changed. Suddenly, it was as if the golden light of the scars focused entirely in her hand. "Aha...who would have known...but it's not time for that yet. This will do though, for now." Lifting her hand, Arcana made a quick movement with it at her almost entirely trapped limb, and the same golden light coursed through it, the box shattering upon contact. Almost at the same time, Arcana rose, arms extended, the invisible bubble around her bending and breaking.
"You little shit...I will have what is mine NOW", bellowed as she lunged at Tina, disappearing in the woman's chest, and apparently setting her on fire, turning the woman literally into a ball of fire.
Robert took a step forward, a hand extended at the sight, completely speechless.
"Fuck!" Amanda jerked up so suddenly she fell backwards onto her butt, shoving herself instinctively backwards. Another instinct stopped her before she destroyed the protection spell. For all the good it was doing. "Remy! Some help?"
As fast as they came, the flames vanished, leaving Tina visible again. Or what was left of Tina, as the woman looked at least half a century older. Suddenly, her back seemed to explode as yet another person apparently jumped out of her; she looked almost like Nico, although she was slightly older; her eyes were pits of darkness. Touching the floor lightly, black mist wrapped itself around her naked body as Tina literally crumbled behind her; her hair was long enough to reach her lower back too, and it fell freely and wildly. Looking around, Arcana ignored everything and everyone, stopping her glance when she reached Amanda, so she was looking at the woman over her shoulder. "No need to stand up", said with a grin as she lazily passed a hand over her long hair. "Once I collect another soul I will be out of your hair." And now her black eyes were set on Robert.
"Dat would be de go order." Remy said over the radio. His first two cards streaked towards the figure, but with a look, they dissapted into a gust of red mist. He bit back a curse, always angry about dealing with magic and the x-factor it created.
A thing, more scaly than furry and with great clawed wings for arms but otherwise bear-shaped came out of Marie-Ange's card, and another and another behind it, and they swarmed over Arcana, splitting into more and more scaly bear-eagle things smaller and smaller as the ancient witch simply swatted them away. As they finally split into hand-sized versions of their original forms, they screamed and all together turned towards Marie-Ange and began marching in lock-step towards her.
She yelped in surprise, scrambled back a few steps and tore the card in her hand into pieces, and her creations died, collapsing into scraps of paper that fluttered the wrong way against the wind and ink on the ground pooling like oil or blood.
Wanda picked the wrong time to attempt to sprint around the circle and certainly the wrong moment in trying to reach for her powers. A maelstrom of bits of paper hit her square in the face, obscuring her vision and clogging her mouth and throat. She faltered, hands reaching to clear the mess even as she gagged and spat, trying to breath again.
Still, she probed with the chaos energy - and immediately regretted it. There was nothing so horrible as the time she'd Seen Cyttorak through her powers but Arcana's appearance in the flesh had thrown everything in the natural world off by several steps. Even as she started moving again, slower this time, more wary, her powers were screaming at her. Everything was wrong, everything was off and she didn't dare try and manipulate anything in the immediate vicinity.
Not if she wanted to avoid creating smoking crater where they stood.
The sudden appearance of Arcana brought a scowl to Doug's face, and he thought I hate when being paranoid means I'm right, even as he was springing into motion. His right hand went to his shoulder holster, and his left to the holster at his back, in a simultaneous move that he'd practiced more than once to get right. He stutter-stepped to one side, guns coming up as he took in the scene, mentally locating each of his teammates.
Amanda was down on the ground, and out of his line of fire. Wanda was moving around the circle, and Doug shifted to ensure she was clear as well. Marie-Ange would utilize some sort of imaged attack from her spot at range. That left Remy, whose preternatural sense of motion Doug trusted to keep him out of the way of Doug's bullets, and the Minorus, who Doug couldn't really be forced to care all that much about. All of this analysis took a fraction of a second, and his fingers pulled back on the pair of triggers, one, then the other, in a sequenced volley of fire all aimed center mass at the figure currently immolating Tina Minoru and just starting to turn toward Robert.
Halfway between Doug and Arcana, each of the bullets flashed and was instantaneously transmuted into a white dove, over a dozen in the space of the less than ten seconds it took Doug to empty his guns' clips. The birds scattered into the night sky, and Doug struggled to parse what had happened. He thumbed the releases for the empty clips, and reached for a spare clip attached to his shoulder holster as he tried to figure out what to do next, but before his hand reached the holster, it became a white scarf that twined itself around his neck and face, obscuring his vision.
Her back was on fire and she was as weak as a kitten after the spell, but still Amanda had to try something. If Arcana got loose, that'd mean she'd have free reign to pursue Nico when the time was right. Pushing herself upright, she stumbled towards the witch with a rock clenched in her fist. "Oi, leave off!" she yelled, swinging downwards towards Arcana's face...
...only for the rock to turn into sand, draining away between her fingers. Oh bloody buggering fuck...
Arcana just looked around at each attack, a bored expression all the while. "You might not think about it, but it is way more bothersome not to kill you where you stand rather than just stop you all. But, it's too soon for that sort of thing." Turning to face Robert, who was know desperately trying to step back without tripping, yet failing every two steps, and smiled. "It's all over now." For those looking at her, Arcana turned into black smoke and covered the distance between her and the man in a flash, suddenly materializing and plunging an arm on the man's chest, lifting him from the ground, mouth twisted into a smile of delight. A moment later, the man seemed to burn just like Tina, and seconds later he was gone. With that same smile on her face, Arcana turned around. "Well then!", said cheerfully as she waved a hand, suddenly making everyone fall to the ground, even crushing irregularities on the ground. "I'll be taking my leave now. See you lot later!"
Nothing seemed to happen at first, but then Arcana started to fade, and moments later she was entirely gone, the great pressure over everyone banishing.
Amanda pushed herself up on her elbows, wincing at the burning in her back. The pain was nothing, however, in comparison to the feeling of dread and rage welling up within her. They'd messed it up. She'd messed it up. And now Arcana was running around loose with nothing between her and Nico but the smears of ash that had once been her student's parents. "Might as well have served Nico up to her instead," she muttered, clenching her fists so tightly her nails cut into her palms.
"What in the hell was that?" Marie-Ange was already pulling off her sweater to hand to Amanda, leaving a long-sleeved shirt on underneath. "Were we just double-crossed again or did Nico's evil great-grandmother just appear out of nowhere?"
"Dat was a loa - body rider. Bad magic dat. Death magic." Remy's stare was distant through the spot the thing had faded out. "Whatever de fuck we called up, it took its price in order to get free. Which makes it our responsibility now. Understood? Dis one we own now."
His gaze flicked from face to face; a terrible hardness there that was chillingly final; an echo of Gambit that ended any argument. "Marie-Ange, Wanda, you take 'manda. We getting out of here."
Doug checked to ensure his clips were still empty before roughly jamming his pistols in his waistband and pulling a small knife and
silently moving off to check their planned route out of the clearing to the vehicles they'd taken. He almost hoped he ran into something,
just so he'd have a target to vent his frustration on.
Wanda nodded sharply. There was nothing to say - everything that could go wrong, had, and now they were going to have to play catch up to put everything back into it's proper place. She went to Amanda's side, ready to aid her if she looked like she was going to keel over.
She was starting to get tired of them all being two steps behind.