What their Eyes See: Finale

[voidtreckermods]

It’s been a weird mission. The Voidtreckers have been busy investigating, making headway in mapping and saving citizens from the video games and strange illusionary creatures. Those in the fourth tier have made contacts, followed leads and gotten close to the high and mighty of the criminal underworld.

Yet what exactly is happening here is still unknown. Their new found ally Anan is as stumped as the rest of them, but even so, the hackers and technological knowledgeable voidtreckers have been successful in isolating the virus to study and make an anti-virus. A netpoint network has been set up across the city, and enough access data stolen that they can start throwing everything into the systems and networks across the city.

While the illusions remain a mystery and how they got there, finally the world is purged of the strange virus as the anomalies begin to clear up by noon of day ten. Spectura victims wake up in hospital beds, dazed and confused, while no more sightings of the impossible plague those on the other tiers.


On the morning of day eleven, the once housebound and terrified citizens leave their shelters with the first tendrils of light reaching through the fog surrounding the enclosed city. An exodus of people, from fighters of tier four to elites of tier one, are making their way into the streets...and heading down into lifts and outside, out into the smog-filled wasteland.

“It’s so beautiful,” is heard, a rumbling through the crowd as people smile, laugh or wave into the fog.

”I won.” Fighters from tier four look around in wonderment. Other exclamations, about a blue sky, a greeting to a friend fill the air.

There is a pull. The voidtreckers will feel it too, though to them the world looks and feels no different. This pull is easy to resist, or they can follow and investigate it, attempt to lead citizens back inside the city. It’s not safe in the smog, no one has canisters, but none will heed the warnings.

Nor is there time for better efforts when a crackling sounds in the air, light and colours flashing in the smog, everywhere at once and too quick to get a hold on.

“STOP THWARTING ME!” booms out, and a great force pushes them back while pulling the citizens farther into the wasteland, sand and dirt kicked up in a frenzied storm. The voidtreckers can hear the civilians in the smog, but getting to them will prove harder than they may like.

Grabbing an air canister is highly recommended for those who prefer life.



CIRCLE ONE: THE MAZE
No matter where one leaves the city from, they will find themselves in a maze of walls, of metal sheets, each blending into each other. It feels surreal, as if nothing is quite real, nothing quite solid.

But it is solid. For those voidtreckers who cannot see illusions it will look like they are merely stood in the wasteland of the world. But when they begin to move they will learn those walls are tangible, and those that look close enough will see the same almost-light as the creatures that purple team have been fighting as the source.

For those who are not immune to illusions it is a strange place indeed. No smog to be seen, just high unyielding barriers. The pathways are different colours giving off hues of brightest pink, red, purple, neon green, glowing white, darkest black. Sometimes there are symbols on the walls, Capsule Corp, royal insignia, ravager flames, HYDRA, marks of royalty. They are emblazoned on the walls, the floor, sometimes even in the sky. And the deeper in they get...

➤ WINDING ROADS
It's noisy as they move around. As well as the distant noise of the citizens in the distance they can hear an acoustic guitar, erratic piano playing, the sound of bamboo on stone. Or perhaps an eagles cry, a lullaby or a song is heard as they move their way through the maze.

Objects stand in their way, blocking paths and needing to be moved or destroyed. Larger than life playing cards, red apples, flowers. Spears and daggers hang in the air as does the moon and the sun. Water often cascades through routes, making it difficult to move through or fire creeps up walls, nonthreatening but ever present. There are clouds of butterflies and ravens perched on walls, watching their every move, and the smell of sugar often hangs in the air.

But it’s better to navigate these turbulent passages with perseverance than violence. Daggers and apples will shatter and slice apart to attacks, creating a way through to begin with - but those that try the method of destruction to solve their problems will find these walls crowding them tighter, rising higher, becoming all the harder to destroy than they were before. They will become trapped, and will need assistance from the outside to untangle them from webs or jails made from crystal.
➤ STALKING THE STREETS
It isn’t just the Voidtreckers or locals who wander the maze. Wolves, dogs, zombie sheep and ghost animals mostly mind their own business, sometimes inclined to growl or bahh, but easy to pass. But other times, you may sense that you’re being followed, a presence hovering over you...while another companion will see as well the large shadow shrouding you before a decaying hand grabs at you from above, threatening to send its victim to some other part of the maze if not stopped.

Monsters also stalk these paths from various realities. The dead will be met in robes of white while others in armours from medieval times. All are fast, unrelenting in their attacks, unconcerned with pain or stopping without being properly slain. Ghouls of all shapes and sizes search for prey, and many more seek victims.

How they act and how to defeat them may be known to some, but not all. Is it worth the effort to stay and fight illusions, however? Sometimes those illusions don’t give a choice, but in other instances, a person from the city may be found on the ground unconscious, the smog air getting to them. They’ll need help, and fast.

CIRCLE TWO: IS THIS HOME?
Voidtreckers will realise they’ve left the maze when they find themselves in an open field. It spreads out far with vineyards in the distance, a campsite, all of this leading into a forest of childrens board games. While the campsite is not a true campsite as many will realise, it is the first moment everyone will have to come together, to perhaps plan ahead. Air canisters are essential in this environment, and locals have been found needing, unconscious. Backtracking through the maze is a death wish for many, but with the talents of the voidtreckers, setting up a checkpoint here may not be that impossible before going on ahead.

And then, when they finally do…

➤ FAMILIAR
It is almost dream-like as they walk, areas changing without them fully crossing the distance needed. One moment they are in a shopping malls food court, the next the interior of a spaceship; streets of palaces, temples, and mansions line up as a mish-mash of glamour, while others offer more humble abodes, taverns, family homes, bakeries. Medieval structures blend into tech bases, maintenance bays and dark rooms. Beautiful gardens, beaches and dusty souks all share space. But as they move through it, they will be tempted towards what is theirs.

And these can be anything. Ships, palaces, home, and even singular rooms: all of these are seen, doors providing access, doors that draw your character towards it, as if they know what’s on the other side. Spaces personal to the viewer, and with the constant pressure of these illusions, somehow draining to be around, they will find it harder to doubt what they see. Even if their bedroom leads towards a volcano, a blacksmith housing hospital beds right beside it, it will not seem so bizarre to find these natural.
➤ DEARLY BELOVEDS
But it’s not only structures that exist in this labyrinth of streets: there are people, animals - family, friends and pets. Beloved mentors, a smiling loved one. The night sky will wash over, the ocean within view; your favourite plush rabbit, a worn jumper. Your favourite song playing, losing you inside this new reality.

Even people from the Voidtrecker Express are around, whether or not they’re still passengers. Feanor, Zetta, Noctis, Cassie Cage, Jin Ling; Elfnein, Link, Mami, Gyousou, Duo; Senku, Jiang Yanli, Olivia, Bucky Barnes. They walk this plane, friends and lovers of the voidtreckers, coaxing them further into the illusions. Assuring them everything is alright, offering reasons to give in.

Over all this though, they can still hear the citizens in the distance; their voices sounding more confused, frightened even. To push on the voidtreckers must walk away, ignore these temptations and push on to the third ring.

CIRCLE THREE: TWISTED HEART
For those who manage to get through the second circle, pushing away the temptations of home, they will find themselves back in the smog filled wasteland. But through the smog they will see more, always more. Once again the scenery blurs into impossibilities, from testing labs with padded beds, to other imagery associated with asylums of old, to dark cramped spaces, to hallways raging on fire. They sense fear itself, and even the most stoic will find apprehension digging into them as they make their way forward. Is this their fear? Or is it your own?

It may be hard to discern in this twisted reality.

➤ MISERY LOVES COMPANY
This time, as the scenery shifts around them, so does their own sense of self try to match what these places mean. The despair of being lost in darkness, the belief that they can’t be seen by others, all sound fading from their ears. They are on the moon, trapped there for years; at the edge of the vast ocean, on the bank of a river of lava, despair in their hearts. In a wrecked city, their own city destroyed almost beyond recognition. By opposing forces, by weapons of mass destruction.

They have lost everything. There’s no fixing this.

A Pandora box of fears have been unleashed, with seemingly no hope. Your worst enemy has been granted a second chance, family stumbling towards you on the verge of death before your eyes; forces that you were meant to be dealing with back home have found you, surely leaving your own world in ruins, from titans to ayakashis.

Or they might stumble upon a graveyard, stretched out as far as they can see where every name is someone they care about.

There are even voidtreckers of now and old opposing you: Danny Fenton, Lan Xichen, Darth Vader, Vegeta, Xue Yang. Kerry stands pointing a gun straight at a fellow passenger while shadowy ravens and terrifying dragons swirl in the sky.

All this emotional turmoil will do a number on the voidtreckers, but there is strength in numbers. More civilians have fallen unconscious at this point, and those willing to aid them can take them back to the city. But no matter how the voidtreckers move, they must keep their nerve and hold onto hope as they cross the final hurdles.

Comments

circle two

[happyends]

[ It's not that Madoka doesn't get it. She understands what's happening here, what's been happening all the time in this world, even though it's been turned up to an absolute eleven at this point.

She knows it's all fake. She knows that the Mami she's seeing being killed by one of the Kyokos right now has to be fake too.

But still, to just see that happen, regardless of how much it's real or not..

It's a little bit too much. So of course Madoka can't help but call out. ]

N-No, don't..!

[redmeguca]

What? C'mon Madoka, it's a fake. No way I'd do that to the real Mami. This place is basically one big Witch's Labyrinth, and these are it's Familiars. Literally nothing here that isn't a passenger actually matters.

[happyends]

I.. I know.

[ That Kyoko wouldn't do it to a real Mami. Heck, even though Kyoko was aggressive and abrasive when she first showed up, even back then Madoka wanted to believe as well that there was no way Kyoko would really hurt Sayaka.

So of course she's not going to assume in this situation either that Kyoko would want to hurt Mami.

But still.. ]

S-Still, even if it's not the real Mami-san.. Doesn't it feel bad to do it to something that looks so much like her..?

[redmeguca]

Not really. I've heard of a Witch that makes familiars that look just like magical girls that enter it's barrier. Tries to act like them too, but they don't quite get it right. Since it only targets magical girls and not normal humans, the locals like to use it for training. It's just like that, you know?

[happyends]

[ .. Just like that.

Is it supposed to be that easy? Is Madoka the weird one for not being able to think of it that way? She has no idea, but she's slowly starting to feel like it. Because no matter how she thinks, she can't bring herself to think differently. ]

Ah, um.. You must be really strong, Kyoko-chan.. Y-You could probably save a lot of the people who got trapped here in these illusions..

[ While Madoka already almost can't bear it anymore. ]

[redmeguca]

...Look, I'm not going to pretend that it's not all sorts of messed up that I can just casually stab something that looks just like my friend in the face. That's what being a Magical Girl does to people, it wears them down until they're broken enough to succumb to despair and become a Witch. It's not worth it unless there's something you want with your entire heart and soul.

[happyends]

That's exactly why, Kyoko-chan.

[ Why this feels so awful to her. ]

Even if you're a magical girl.. You still have to keep your humanity, you know..? [ Not that she thinks Kyoko has lost it. But it's just - it's the small things like this that make Madoka think back on Sayaka's behaviour, right before the other girl succumbed and became a witch. ]

Next time something like that pops up, let's just try to get past it and ignore it, okay? W-We have to focus on saving the people in here, anyway, not on killing everything.

[redmeguca]

Alright, fine. I just thought it was kind of insulting for them to use Mami's face for that, but let's try it your way. I reserve all right to stab faces if they try to attack us, though.

[happyends]

.. well, I guess I can't blame you for wanting to protect us..

[ Of course she's going to put a positive spin on it. It's what Madoka does. ]

Is it okay though..? Um, I mean, for me to stick close to you for a moment.. [ She frowns, a little uncertain. Maybe a little scared. She's seen so many things in this maze already.. ] I-I don't know how well I can deal with all of this by myself.

[redmeguca]

It's fine, I'm more than capable of taking care of the both of us. No shame in a noncombatant sticking around a fighter in a dangerous situation.

[happyends]

Ah, I'm.. I'm kind of a combatant too..!

[ She clutches her bow, holding it up. Look, she gets that she's not much of a fighter compared to Kyoko, but she's been practicing too hard to let herself fully be called a noncombatant.

But going around in the middle of all these illusions would still be tough for her. And she figures that it could be tough for Kyoko too, in some ways. So it's much better to stick together. ]

I'll see if I can help where I can..

[redmeguca]

A bow, huh? Makes sense for a baseline human. You guys are, no offense, kinda squishy.

[To prove her point, Kyoko briefly squishes Madoka's face.]

But seriously, want me to enchant that for you? Could make all the difference, you know?

[happyends]

[ Have a slight whine as her face is getting squished. Madoka isn't enough of a person to protest or resist that she steps away from the squish, but she does make that slight whiny sound all the same. ]

Would it help..? [ She says, once she's been freed from her terrible predicament. ] I-I mean, what would it do..?

[redmeguca]

Well, it'd be generally sturdier and the draw would be easier. Plus, I could have it shoot lasers instead of arrows like Magical Girl you did. They'd be red instead of pink though, so I understand if that's a deal breaker.

[happyends]

A-Ah, I don't think I have any reason to be that picky over colour-coordination..!

[ Sure, Madoka loves her pink. Very obviously so.

But in the middle of an emergency situation like this, she isn't planning on letting any of the civilians - or anyone else - get hurt, just because Madoka didn't want to protect them with a colour arrows that weren't her favourite colour. ]

If it's going to make me able to do more this mission, then.. Please help me out, Kyoko-chan.. [ Because this is Madoka. Of course she's willing to do anything to help out. ]

[redmeguca]

Alright then, one last question: Temporary or permanent? I literally don't have to care about magic use anymore, so it makes no difference to me.

[happyends]

Well, um..

[ Even if Kyoko is saying that-- ]

Let's go with temporary for now.

[ They have no idea when things might change, after all. Sometimes stuff gets all screwed up in these mission worlds, and the last thing Madoka wants to do is actually have Kyoko trapped into having to give her magical energy when she might end up sometime in a situation where it's harder. ]

We can always do it again next mission..!

[redmeguca]

Alright, no skin off my back either way.

[Kyoko taps Madoka's bow and it twists and warps with a red glow. Left behind is a fancy bow of polished wood, with only a thin beam of red light acting as a string.]

There ya go! One enchanted bow, ready for use.

[happyends]

[ Her eyes are wide as she turns over the bow, looking at it. ]

Really..? It's that easy? [ It does look different, so Madoka knows it must have worked, but it's just.. amazing to her. ] It looks like that took you nothing at all, Kyoko-chan..

[redmeguca]

Yeah, enchantment's a snap if you know what you're doing. Took me a bit to figure it out, but I had a good teacher. Temporary enchantments are easier too, don't have to worry about putting enough magic in for it to take hold.

[happyends]

Thank you..! I think this will be really useful here..

[ Especially since it's been a real pain to have to stick around after each battle to gather her arrows while a new illusion enemy could appear at any moment. ]

I'll make sure to carry my weight!