Finale: All teams

[voidtreckermods]

Inside the System

The forest seems endless as the Voidtreckers move through it, soothing the red vines that constrict the trees as they go. But eventually they will start to come together, as though they are being funnelled towards a centre.

The trees end, the forest opening out into a large clearing. Vines carpet the floor and climb up the trees, curving to create a dome of red mesh that blocks out the sky. As everyone gathers in the clearing, vines weave past them to cover the entrances, closing them in. The red light does little to light up the gloomy dome, but as their eyes adjust they will see a huge gnarled and broken tree in the centre. It pulses with the same sickly red glow.

From the gloom creatures emerge, more of the mongoose. These ones are larger, teeth and claws are sharp as they circle the clearing, hissing and snarling.

The tree begins to move, its branches and roots are huge and they swing towards the gathering Voidtreckers with a speed that seems unlikely for their size, roots rise up to try and tangle around limbs.

The vines creating the dome can be soothed, but there are so many of them it will be a lengthy job and the mongooses patrol the edges, attacking anyone who is trying to clear the roots. Often they will give chase to anyone who tries to run, trying to hound them into the path of the tree roots or into the range of the attacking branches.

All the while more vines are growing from the tree, pulsing red strands that spread towards the walls of the dome and beyond.

Outside the System

For those that did not enter the system it has been a long vigil over their unconscious teammates. The sectors still have problems but these seem to lessen: there are fewer emergency alerts in Winter, the walls stop moving in Autumn, all seems calm in Spring and the weather calms in Summer.

But as Day Eleven of the month of Jelly begins there seems to be a shift: the sky darkens, going from the usual clear blue that is has been for days to a dark, burnt red.

The Helpmates have mostly calmed the last few days, but now there are more of them and they will attack on sight. The only place they will not enter is the inner sanctuaries of the Great-Seasons, where the bodies of those who have entered the system still lie.

A few times the ground ominously rumbles and for anyone still in the Spring sector there are certainly a few frightened alpaca-type creatures to calm.

Comments

[subcircuits]

Devero turns his back on the fight entirely. He's leaving himself exposed, sure, but he trusts in Koumyou and now in Kaiba to watch his back for him.

He puts both of his hands on the tree, fingers spreading against the bark. Bark that's not bark-- the tree that's not a tree, he knows it's not a tree. But no matter how personally frustrated he is with the illusions, it's still a system in distress. Its viral influence needs to be purged. This is why they're here, isn't it?

(He hears Koumyou's voice in his head, speculating on the train's motivations for picking up wildly outclassed Devero as one of its heroes. "Maybe it wanted someone who wouldn't choose to kill as a first reaction." Maybe this is why he's here...?)

Closing his eyes, he leans his forehead into the bark as well, and focuses how he'd been able to soothe and dissipate vines out there in the forest. He thinks about antiviral programming in a public system, and about the cells of someone's body swarming in an immune response. He thinks about how many of them are here and how hard they've all been working to contain and mitigate this invasion.

He thinks about blue light. He pictures that magical glow piercing into the sickly red of the tree, expanding and brightening to beat back the infection.

"Get out!" he roars, unaware that he's spoken at all, much less how loudly he just shouted that.

[its_dad_sanzo]

A Sanzo priest is, at the end of the day, a protector.

They protect their sutra from the world, and the world from their sutra.

And Koumyou Sanzo in specific had guarded two sutras for over twenty years. The only Sanzo in history to do so, and for longer than some Sanzos lasted guarding one.

Protection is as natural to him as breathing, and that's what he does now, even though the sutra on his shoulders is only illusory. The katana in his hand is only as real as the pole beneath the image, but that's fine.

It's enough.

Sword in one hand ready to block branches and vines, the other hand free to fire jets of water at the mongeese? red blobs? hostiles. He plants himself between Devero's back and any approaching danger, and gets to work.

Which isn't to say he won't defend anyone else in range, of course. There's plenty of him to go around.

i want to apologize for this tag

[gentle_jim]

Everyone's feeling up on the tree and Jack can't help but wonder if maybe it has a preference...

...for a handsome AI, perhaps?

He's just gonna lean one hand on the enormous trunk and grin. "Let me in, baby. I'll show you a good time."

Time to break that mood...

[light_of_willpower]

Meanwhile, away from Jack and the tree-trunk...

Letting out a huff of annoyance, Trunks moved to focus on freezing those vines trying to trap him and Cassie. Trusting her to keep them mongoose-free.

[nutkrusher]

Cassie is far too occupied to roll her eyes and/or vomit the way she'd like. Instead she'll be putting her stick-staff to good use, using gusts of razor-leaf wind to push the mongeese further away.

jack omg...

[shadowslipping]

Yuume is ultimately feeling a bit more in her element with this particular line of work, and while a stick is a stick not a sword, it's something. Much as the illusions might be faltering, they're still at the trunk though, so this is what she has to work with.

Shields, for those attempting to soothe the system. Bladed leaves, for the mongeese as she keeps her footwork going. "Whatever the flickering is, we need to stay on course! Keep it up!"

Emporio quite agrees with the idea- and as one of the continuing fighters, gives a small cry as he continues on. Blind for the mongeese, followed by fireball- both for them and any errant branches and roots. The flickering is odd, and it feels like something's shifting but...

Right, right, focus-

Back at the trunk, Katsuya is doing his best to do just that. He. Does have to pause when he hears Handsome Jack though. "PFffHfhf...oh man that one's perfect..!"

Yep, the blond is a teen alright. Still! They have to keep cooling this thing off! "Righ'- c'mon tree thing, or whatever y' really are...we got yer back..!"

[voidtreckernpcs]

Mongees and roots keep attacking, trying to wind around the ankles of those near the tree to pull them away, or shoot at those trying to protect the ones touching the tree.

As everyone begins to soothe the tree, red vines slowly untangling and vanishing, there is a ripple, then another.

The the illusion is just gone. Suddenly they are stood in a dome of red wire, one that is being rapidly soothed by those not focussing on the tree. The room they are in is one of pipes and wire, slowly being freed by the choking red wires. Mongeese become unformed red shapes, firing lasers from inside the mass of cloudy chaos.

The tree itself a mess of red wires and a cloud of the same cloudy red substance that make up what were once mongeese. But for those currently with their hand on it, soothing it. There is something more. Something being smothered underneath it all.

Slowly but surely though they are cutting through.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba gets better at dodging with practice, though even he's disoriented by the complete crumbling of the illusion. The red surrounds them, a color of anger.

What's wrong can be clearly seen. He hesitates, but still feels drawn to push back the vines. He pours what little power he has into freeing the 'tree'.

"Whatever it is...I think it's working." He still tries to pump out ice as he works, but splitting focus is tough.

[subcircuits]

"Yes!" Devero crows as the illusion just vanishes. "Yes, finally!" He might even have fistpumped were not both his hands occupied.

Now he can really see what's going on. He can see the engulfing, choking cloud of red stuff under his hands. This is it-- this has been their enemy all along. He has no idea what it is, what's controlling it, or why it's doing what it's doing. All he knows is that there's something down inside, under the amorphous miasma. He can feel it. "Kaiba, I think you're right," he calls over his shoulder. He raises his voice so his next words boom and carry. "There's something underneath! We have to reach it!"

And he, for one, isn't going to wait for 'slowly but surely'. He twists his hands from flat against the bark to flat and held perpendicular, his fingers stiff and rigid like his hands are blades.

Now he's imagining a scalpel limned in blue, descending to excise infected flesh. Putting his back and shoulders into it, he tries to slice his hands through the red mass to whatever lies smothered beneath.

[its_dad_sanzo]

Reality shifting and illusions crumbling isn't enough to make Koumyou pause, thankfully.

Koumyou snatches a thick wire from the ground that was trying to reach Devero's feet. Before it can wind around him instead, the priest blasts it away with a water attack that sends it crashing into a few red blobs. They'd been about to fire on someone else on pillar-touching duty. Who? Who cares, they're scattered now.

He's staying good and busy over here, determined to do his best to keep backs covered. The priest spares a single glance over his shoulder after Devero's booming shout, seeing what he's trying to do and smiling, just a little.

And then he's back to it, focusing hard enough for the smile to fade again from his strangely-young, unlined features.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin looks around, surprised but not very. The illusion has vanished. He gazes upwards and sees the dome of vines is now a dome of red wire. Strangely, the wires are still behaving like the vines, allowing themselves to be soothed by those whose touch exudes blue light. The mongooses are still red blobs and are still making a nuisance of themselves with laser fire, but now they are part of the tree canopy. If they fire at those who are grouped around the tree, Curufin hits the blobs with ice shards or freezing energy.

The tree has changed to a mass of red wire and its head is a cloud of the red blob material. Curufin steps up to what was once the tree trunk and lays his hand on it. He doesn't know why he does this, just an intuition. His fingers glow with the blue light, and he murmurs to the tree, "Just be calm and let us free you."

[tactlesstantei]

[Masumi looks up in surprise as the illusion drops, leaving her to finally see her true surroundings. Still, she has a job to do, and she keeps her hands on the tree/mass of wires in her efforts to soothe it.]

Everyone stay focused! We're getting closer to fixing this!

[Her call is part relief at slowly resolving the root of the problem, part encouragement to keep going now that they seem to be getting close to fixing what went wrong here.]

[unfavorableinstigation]

Hey. Hey. We're here for you.

It's not a response to Curufin, but Nita does not remove her hand. Shards of ice finally appear - to cut anything that isn't clearly wire, or restrained by it.

[gentle_jim]

"Finally showin' your true colors, huh? Nice," Jack remarks when the illusion drops, his gaze following the choking red wires up to the cloudy mass.

"This is some Eridian level shit..." It reminds him of his vault-hunting days on Elpis.

Jack digs both hands into the wires, trying to pull them apart with brute strength. "C'mon, show me what you got inside!"

just demonstrating that Curufin is actually contributing to the effort

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin summons his gifted powers and manifests ice-shards to add to the cutting power that Nita and others are mustering. He feels increasingly that there is something under the red miasma that must be revealed.

[10billionpercent]

Senku moved out of the way so people who were stronger than him could get at the wires and pull at them, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. He stepped back and nearly bumped into Gen who was watching his back.

"You're not exactly dressed like a shining knight you know." He informed Gen, reaching out to place a hand on his back, to let him take the point on the approaching creatures.

[fun_thementalist]

"Mmm, I hadn't thought this through, clearly!" Gen remarked, still aiming blasts of ice now at the approaching creatures, and hoping a little that all the flashier, more practiced moves from basically anyone else, as they were experienced than them, helped divert attention.

But he couldn't resist saying to Senku, feeling the reassuring weight of his hand against his back, "You'd need to change too, Senku-chan. You'd be so pretty in a dress as a damsel - maybe with some red, to bring out your eyes ..."

[voidtreckernpcs]

Until now it had seemed like the creatures were endless, they were killed and yet there were always more, but as the attacks hit it seems they are vanishing as surely as the vines.

In the centre the soothing is clearing the red substance away as the mass of wires begin to vanish. Light begins the come back to the area as the dome around them is soothed by the efforts of both those attacking the red mass in the centre and those soothing the wires that made up the dome.

The mass shuddered and then jerked, in what seemed like a last ditch defence tendrils- once the branches of the tree, whipped out to hit everyone, curling around limps and trying to knock the voidtreckers off their feet.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin turns to respond to the last ditch attack. He is a warrior, after all, and it is his job to protect others. He'll have to go back to fighting, for the moment.

He throws the freezing spell and the ice shards at those whipping tendrils, trying to keep everybody on their feet. He is very fast, so he can run between the Voidtreckers and slam the tendrils with the winter powers this place has granted him.

[mynameisallen]

Allen had been doing his part attacking what needed to be attacked and when he could see that he was trying to be knocked off his feet, Allen was at least quick enough to do a few flips away briefly before sending out another fireball towards the center.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba moved in to cut at the red mass more, gaining more control over his power as he went. They could stop this. They were nearly there.

One problem, though: the still-lashing wire. He manages to freeze the first few, gritting his teeth through hits, but just when he's cutting away the last bit in front of him, his arms are seized and he's yanked to the ground.

"---hey!" He's still pumping out ice to try to free himself, but it's harder to aim.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita crouches, not pulling her hands back.

I know this has got to hurt, but-! Just a bit longer...

And she uses her freeze one more time - if she can't freeze herself, she'll try her hardest to freeze those tendrils.

[10billionpercent]

Suddenly having a tendril come at him made him duck down and tug on Gen at the same time to do the same. Nevermind the lasers, the mass of tendrils in the middle were trying to get the job done.

"I already told you." Senku breathed, and turned to blast his freezing spell on them just before Curufin got in there and hopefully it would help. "That you're getting me in a dress again over my dead body."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen would duck down as Senku tugged him, but also try and roll them away as more came hurtling forward. Maybe if they both scrambled and flailed together - they could manage to avoid getting impaled by tendrils. How did they get drawn into this battle?

"That's unfair, Senku-chan, you looked good in that dress," Gen pouted a little before grimacing and pulling them out of the way of more laser fire. Crap crap crap. "And also unfair, since what you're wearing now is basically a a skirt anyway, and looks good on you too."

[voidtreckernpcs]

It really is the last defence efforts because as the tendrils are fought off and more attacks are fired into the mass in the centre it pulsates one last time before inverting, pulling back into itself and dissaperating.

The dome disappeared, as did the red unformed creatures, vanishing into nothing. In the centre was a blue plinth, dull for a moment but once it was free beginning to pulse, emitting blue terndrils of light outwards towards the pipes and wires.

Thank you. The voices of the Great-Seasons sounded from all around them.