xp_logs | Transian Public Library

There is, of course, a trap waiting.

Both vehicles were disabled and the guards safely zip-tied and stacking against the overturned APC. Kane walked with the others towards the armored car, taking a moment to brace against the door. He pulled for a moment, but the lock was too strong for him. Something he worriedly might not have encountered six months ago.

"Wanda?" He'd barely made the question when the woman leaned forward with an outstretched finger and her powers flared. The lock glowed red for a second and suddenly smoked as the latch detached and the door rolled up. Inside were a collection of wooden crates, neatly secured,, but in the middle a strange device. It was a strange icosahedron of circuit boards and wires, sitting on what looked like a complicated old school stereo tuner.

"I had hoped that my delivery would be completed unmolested, but I suppose that was too high a bar for my enemies." A thickly accented voice played over hidden speakers. "But since you have tried to take my property, whoever you might be, it seems only fair that you provide a proper test for my new invention." The shape suddenly bounced into the air over the tuner and began to spin.

"You see, there is an irrefutable link between science and magic; between the observable and the ineffable. So, I recorded this message as a goodbye to my would-be thieves. Chaos is the unpinning of our universe; so says the math and so says the magic." Behind them, rents of orange energy appeared in the highway around them and figures began to crawl out. "I discovered these creatures... manifestations of chaos energy - an imitation of life with none of their own. But imagine my surprise when they proved a great proof; nature abhors a vacuum. They lack the souls of the living therefore they are compelled to destroy those who have them to restore balance. Fascinating."

More and more creatures hit the asphalt and started to advance on them. "I look forward to seeing whatever they leave behind."

Spinning around, Jean's eyes widened before she shook her head. "I knew this was too easy," she mumbled. Her gaze unfocused for a moment before she winced. "He's right. They're not human. No mental signature...just..." She shot a telekinetic blast at the ones closest to her, knocking them back like dominoes. "Soulless monsters."

Marie-Ange stared for a moment as the things spilled from the portals, and then shook out her hands, imaged gauntlets rolling up her hands and covering her arms to the elbows. As the grey metal covered both arms, a long knife appeared just after. "Phoenix and Daytripper, crowd control." She sliced into the throat of one fast-moving soulless monster, and kicked it away. "Scarlet Witch, can you break them up? They are chaos, you are chaos..." She glanced at Wanda, and then at Kane. "Can you get me a path? I am going to shut down that box." In the other arm, a spear appeared, more solid than the gauntlets or knife. "Until that thing stops playing, I would bet these keep appearing."

"They hurt my teeth," Wanda said, though it was worse than that. It was like the worst feedback headache she had experienced. Even looking at them sent shudders through her powers. But with the pain, they also brought a sudden outside force of chaos and entropy, a situation Wanda rarely found herself in.

A creature leapt at Marie-Ange; Wanda slipped between them to grab it by the throat in both hands. Her powers had barely been called upon when she pulled, violently wrenching the head from the shoulders, red entropy exploding in an outward circle to catch another one in the face. "I think I can help with that path clearing. I've got this side."

"You know, this always happens with us. Nothing is easy." He grabbed the closest one by the arm, swung him in a circle, and smashed him into another, both disintegrating as they impacted. "Nothing is ever- wait, wait... they are self-cleaning monsters. I retract my statement." A punch decapitated another before one sliced talons down his back. His leathers protected him from the worst and he ripped the creature in half in response.

"OK, be careful. These fuckers are sharp!"

"Noted." Already sunk up to her ankles in the asphalt of the road, Amanda's voice took on the strange echo it had when she was merging with a city. A mile in both directions, detour signs with flashing lights and barriers were already directing local traffic away from the area; it took a little more focus and a brief mental "conversion" and the road rippled and bulged before forming a series of walls around the rents in the air. They acted as funnels, restricting the creatures' movements to single file. "Best I can do. Transia East and I are still getting to know each other."

The spear Marie-Ange had created was uncommonly solid as she stuck it into a soulless monster, and then rammed it through into the gut of another. Both screeched and she kicked the first with her booted foot to push them away before they could claw at her with scabbed and gnarled hands. "Good enough for pressing forward."

Meanwhile, a soulless monster burst into green light and ashes as Jean separated its head from its body telekinetically. She then corralled a group together with a telekinetic blast and smashed them into ash by slamming two telekinetic walls together with the clap of her hands.

It wasn't often she could actually destroy without worry, without guilt. But she wasn't really thinking about that right now. Or at least she was trying not to. Mostly she was just focused on helping Marie-Ange get to the box.

A soulless tried to come up behind her and attack her but she rolled with the attack, spinning around and slamming it into another creature. Tilting her head, she ripped the arm off of one and used its clawed hand to impale another in the chest just before the hand could disintegrate.

"How are we doing?"

Wanda grunted and staggered forward as a creature slammed into her back and hung on, its hands seeking her throat, as another one was running towards her front. She fell forward under the weight but managed to get her hands under the arms around her neck and used her momentum to throw it off of her.

As it flew into its "friend", the entropy energy that Wanda had soaked into while it had been on her exploded, taking both of them out in a vibrant red burst.

"Making progress but it is slow going," she said, pushing up from the ground with a groan.

"As long as that gizmo's working, they'll keep coming." Amanda gestured and a rolling hill of asphalt smashed into several shadow creatures, splintering them into fragments, but only to be replaced by twice their number. "We'll be overwhelmed."

"So we need to figure something out, and fast." Kane crushed two more trying to rush them, getting his body in the way of the main wave.