Magic the Gathering: Nemo B-Alpha-0001
Nemo understood that the test ahead would not be easy. As with all the tests Rose put before him, he would have to remain cool and level-headed. But to defeat five Planeswalkers was nearly unthinkable, especially without much of a break in between. He knew that his power as a Planeswalker was at stake, so he swallowed his fear and looked out into the empty white field. At the other end stood Garruk Wildspeaker, and Nemo called out a challenge to the fur-armored man.
"Ho, Garruk! I am Nemo Shadowstrider, The-One-Who-Is-As-Many, and I will be victorious today. I have challenged five Planeswalkers to contest, and it was you who answered the call. Will you face me, Wildspeaker?" Nemo was always happy with his speeches, and this was no exception. Garruk chuckled heartily before calling out.
"Shadowstrider, I have heard tales of your prowess! Nemo the shapeshifter, Nemo the Werewolf, Nemo the Tongue are names whispered about you among the guilds of Ravnica and the peoples of Llanowar! Prove you are he, and I will gladly pit my magic against yours!" He laughed again, and Nemo nodded.
"Gladly, Wildspeaker! Behold!" Nemo grew about half an inch. His hair became a bright red, and then it grew long. His face turned softer, almost rounder, and he grew breasts. Nemo the Nord stood before Garruk Wildspeaker, finished transforming as the Nordic war paint appeared on her face. The transformation was equipped with her heavy Imperial armor, and she drew the steel sword from her belt to clash against her Legionnaire's shield. Rose stood a little off to the side, and she was not alone. Next to her, staring with varying degrees of interest, was a four-legged beast, a vampire woman, an armor-clad angel, a blue Illusion warrior, a floating man made of fire, and, unbeknownst to Nemo, an invisible Nova, hidden in her Vampire form. These were the ones who would judge Nemo's abilities, and from their reactions Rose would alter Nemo's powers as a Planeswalker. They and Garruk stared in awe as Nemo transformed.
"So the stories are true. Your companion, the spectator Rose, may flip a coin. I get the heads side, you are the tails." Rose, in her holographic form, flipped a Ravnican gold piece. It landed on heads, and Garruk let out another booming laugh. It was friendly but challenging in tone, and Nemo prepared herself. Garruk raised his hands in a battle stance. "I will draw energy from my connection with the Forest." The white ground at Garruk's feet turned to grasses, and trees sprang up behind him, as if that particular bit of forest had been there for years. Decades even. Nemo understood it was her turn. She focused on the places she had been in the particular timeline, and concentrated on her magic. The ground at her feet matched Garruk's. The entire empty battlefield had grown grass. It was Garruk's turn once again. He closed his eyes, thinking. In the end, all he did was tap into his connection with another forest. Nemo did the same. Grass, flowers, bushes and trees were everywhere now. With every forest that the two remembered, the battlefield grew wilder, new trees sprang up, and the existing ones grew stronger, larger, and more ancient. But Nemo knew there were no creatures yet. Again, Garruk wasn't strong enough to cast anything but Land, and Basic Land at that. Nemo could not even manage that. Garruk called upon the forest a fourth time, and the land near him looked like primeval ground, forest unending. This time, though, he laughed in a way that seemed... wild.
"I summon Grizzly Bears to my field!" true to his word, a pair of great brown bears trampled through the brush, emerging from his forest. They roared, but were not yet ready for battle. Nemo tensed up. Again all she could muster was more forest, and her's now looked pitiful compared to Garruk and his bears. Garruk chuckled when it was his turn again.
"Luck isn't with you, Shadowstrider! But it is with me. I will use a fifth Forest, and summon Durkwood Boars!" Two boars squealed as they exited the forest behind Garruk and took their place near the bears. "Now, my Grizzlies, attack the shapeshifter!" Nemo didn't flinch as the twin beasts swiped at her. She bled from a gash in her armor and it ran down her arm, making her grip on the shield loose. The hot blood distracted her, but she took her turn when the bears returned to Garruk. She focused, took a fighting stance. Her Shout of defiance shook the branches.
"FUS! I summon Ezuri's Archers to my field!" Two green Elves, a male and female, dropped out of the trees behind Nemo and took a stance. They looked pitiful compared to the beasts Garruk had summoned. As for Garruk, he responded by tapping into yet another Forest.
"Bears, attack Nemo!" As the beasts charged, Nemo waved her sword into the air.
"I cast Giant Growth on my archers! Now, block!" the two elves grew huge, bigger than trees, and shot oversized arrows into the bears. The creatures stumbled and fell as the elves resumed normal size. The bears sank into the ground, buried by the magic of the Plane. Garruk knew, however, that they were not truly gone. He smiled.
"Good shot, Nemo! Your turn!" Nemo couldn't help but smile back. But she was too weak to summon anything else, and passed to Garruk. He closed his eyes and his forest grew stronger. "Boars, attack! Don't hold back!" Nemo pointed her sword again, and green energy flowed from the tip of her sword to the elves..
"Titanic Growth!" the elves grew even larger than before, and again their arrows filled the boars, and the two swine were swallowed back into the earth as the bears were. The elves shrank down again for Nemo's turn. "Now, my Archers, attack the Wildspeaker!" An arrow launched across the field and stuck itself in Garruk's leg. He still laughed. And yet the arrow prevented him from summoning anything but a connection to a forest he had once visited. Nemo ordered her archers to strike again, hitting him in the arm this time. Garruk's forest grew stronger yet again before Nemo took her turn. "I summon a Llanowar Elf!" the elf that ran gracefully from the forest was not greenish like the other two, but pale and well muscled. He drew a strangely shaped sword as he stood in front of the archers.
"Now it is I who is unlucky. I tap into a Forest, and summon a Wild Ox!" the hooved ox stumbled out of the forest, and it looked peaceful enough, but Nemo knew better. And yet she smiled.
"Yes, you are unlucky. I will exploit my connection to these forests, and my power over the Llanowar Elf, and I summon a Thrashing Mossdog!" the beast was as tall as any elf, and it took it's place next to the Llanowar, looking out it's many eyes hungrily towards the Ox. Garruk laughed in his unsettling yet friendly fashion and patted the hooved beast.
"So, you've visited the Golgari! Well, I cast Monstrous Growth on the ox! And while I'm at it, Renewing Touch!" Nemo couldn't see what the second spell did, but the first made her flinch. The giant ox charged her, and she ordered Thrashing Mossdog to block. The ox stomped the ugly plant hound right into the ground. Nemo passed her turn. Garruk tapped into a forest, but he made no move against his opponent. Nemo was still resting, so Garruk took another turn.
"I summon a Thorn Elemental!" a thrashing beast, almost a tree itself, stepped out of the forest, stood next to the ox, and dwarfed it by comparison. Garruk other than that passed, a smug grin on his face. Nemo could still only pass. "Now I summon Durkwood Boars. Thorn Elemental, attack!" Nemo screamed as the thorns hit her face, scratching it terribly. She felt drained.
"I summon Gladecover Scout!" a purple hued elf fell into place next to the Llanowar, and they gripped their swords ready for an attack. Garruk laughed.
"Grizzly Bears!" a second pair of bears joined Garruk's line of beasts. "Thorn Elemental, attack!" the thorns again struck Nemo, and blood painted over her markings.
"I will stand for no more of this! I have Walked to more than just forests, Wildspeaker. Behold, a swamp!" a small pond of dark water appeared between some of her trees, and they wilted. "Doom Blade!" she threw her sword into the air, and it crashed down on the Thorn Elemental, cutting it into tiny pieces that were swallowed by the bloodied ground. Garruk was shocked, but not so much he couldn't make his move.
"I summon Norwood Archers!" Garruk's own elves, three of them, arrived dressed in fine clothes, distinguishing them from the ones on Nemo's side. He passed, afraid to waste his beasts.
"Now you're done for, Garruk! I summon Korozda Gorgon!"A woman with snakes for hair entered the field, creeping up from Nemo's swamp. She looked at Garruk's creatures, but they instinctively looked away. She laughed and whispered something to Nemo. The shapeshifter grinned, but passed.
"Nature's Lore!" a new forest appeared, mingling with Garruk's others.
"I'm not done yet, Garruk! To me, Varolz the Scar-Striped!" a mighty troll armed with a knife and armored in thorns bowed before Nemo before taking his place.
"You have many tricks, child. I have no idea how you won the Golgari. More Grizzly Bears!" another pair of bears joined his beastly army, standing in front of the archers.
"I summon Child of Night!" a vampire walked out of her swamp, hissing at the opponents. "Now, Trollhide!" the vampire was magically armored in... trollhide. Varolz stepped slightly away from the vampire. This didn't phase the green Planeswalker.
"Bull hippo!" a horrendous hippopotamus crashed out of the forest, disturbingly chewing on what appeared to be a blue head.
"I cast Mark of the Vampire on Korozda Gorgon! Now, my Gorgon and Child of Night, attack!" the monster women were blocked by the boars and the hippo. The creatures were destroyed but so was the Child of Night, and the Gorgon returned to Nemo. Garruk was getting angry.
"Nature's Lore! Attack, Wild Ox!" the beast rushed, but was blocked by the Gorgon and it turned to stone, then was buried. Then on Nemo's turn, she ordered the Gorgon to twice reduce the power of the bears, and they too were destroyed, turned to stone in an instant and shattered by an unseen evil force.
"Now that you're down to some archers... attack, all creatures!"
"No! Block the troll!" and the archers shot down Varolz, but were unable to stop the onslaught of elves attacking Garruk. They returned to Nemo, and Garruk was bleeding heavily. Nemo's wounds were healed. Garruk was so angry, he was unable to cast any spell but a new Forest.
Nemo finally tapped into a new forest as well. She cast spells of Lure and a Dying Wish on the Gorgon, then attacked with all her creatures again. Garruk was unable to stop his archers from combatting the gorgon. Through the stones the others tramped until Garruk met their blades. Garruk passed, the blood covering him.
"I summon a second Child of Night, attack all!" Garruk took the attack again, stumbling. He grunted.
"Durkwood...Boars..." he was on his knees now, waiting for the blades of the Golgari Swarm that Nemo controlled.
"Attack all! I win!" Nemo was awed as the entire battlefield disappeared, the creatures walking back into the land from whence they came and then the land disappearing into the minds of the Planeswalkers. Garruk got up, and Nemo saw he was already healed.
"Nemo Shadowstrider, you were worthy enough to defeat me. I hereby deem you ready to face my adversary Gideon Jura, Champion of Justice. He awaits you in my place. Go, Shadowstrider, and take your victory in... well, in stride. But please, before you go on... why are you called 'The Tongue'?" Nemo smiled, leaned in to Garruk's ear, and she whispered something up to him.
"IIZ, SLEN, NUS!" it was only a whisper, but still a Shout. The icy form of Garruk Wildspeaker fell to the ground, but at least then he understood. Nemo turned around and stepped further into the white nothingness. She understood that now she was somewhere else. The nothing was different somehow. And she heard a voice call to her. She turned around to see another human, armor-clad, with an aura of justice that seemed to surround him.