Chapter One
"Go?"
EAST JUMP CITY, STAR CITY ONE BANK
ONE WEEK AGO
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Rachel Roth made a habit of staying out of trouble. Life was easier that way.
When there was a car chase through the streets of Jump City, a mugging in a dark alley, or any sort of potential supervillain antics, Rachel made a point of bypassing it. No point in getting into a situation which was out of her control.
Rachel would have skipped town already, but she happened to be in a unique situation. No friends, no family, and if she possessed a social security number and a birth certificate on this planet, she would certainly be considered a truant. And Jump City seemed to be getting worse by the day.
Every once in a while, Rachel would move an innocent bystander out of the way with her powers, or make a robbery victim levitate to scare the attackers off. But that was all. She couldn't afford to be involved in any sort of super-heroics.
She had succeeded in staying out of trouble until today, when she went to pay on a loan at Star City One, and ended up in a hostage situation.
"Alright, Pea-brains." A little boy walked through the middle of the bank, metallic spider-legs sprouting from his back. "Here's the deal. We're going to be making a little deposit today, and if you fart-sniffers don't want to end up as lunch for my friend Mammoth over there, you'll be good little boys and girls and stay out of our way."
The eight-foot-tall beast Rachel assumed was Mammoth waved towards the huddle mass of innocent people lined against the wall. "I don't really eat people. But seriously, stay out of our way."
"They didn't know that until now," the little boy said. "Snot-for-brains."
A grey-haired girl with wild pink hair – the hair tied into two horn-like formations – walked past the assembled tellers, chairpersons, and ordinary citizens. Pink arcs of magic danced across her fingertips. She stopped when she saw Rachel, and her eyes narrowed. Rachel hoped the minor illusion she had casted on herself before going out on the town hadn't failed; as strange as Earth could sometimes be, her natural grey-skin and purple hair would still stand out.
Rachel felt the curiousity radiating off of the girl, a small focal point in the sea of fear and uncertainty which surrounded her. One of Rachel's many odd abilities was feeling the emotions of those around her – happiness, despair, anxiety, they all had their own wavelength which Rachel could physically feel. Out of the emotions hoped to feel from this girl, a piqued interest in herself was not one of them.
"Nice jewel," the girl said, pointing to the red ruby on Rachel's forehead. "Don't see a lot of those around town."
"Oh, thanks. It's a religious thing."
The jewel was a sticking point in the glamour Rachel could cast on herself. Long story, but in short, the powers that be involved in its creation were orders of magnitude stronger than her paltry magicks. It simply could not be worked around, unfortunately.
The pink-haired girl winked at Rachel. "Well, behave yourself and you won't have to meet your god just yet. Dig?"
Rachel nodded.
Mammoth proceeded to walk straight through one of the walls of the bank, the little boy with the spider-legs following in his wake. The pink-haired girl hopped onto a desk and began filing her nails, not paying any further attention to Rachel or the other hostages, which was fine by her. Absently, Rachel wondered if the bank would give her an extension of payment, seeing as she couldn't physically pay on the loan on the shop at present.
One of the other hostages, a middle-aged man with a decent build, took a nearby piece of plywood and hid it behind his back. Rachel placed a hand on his shoulder to signal for him to stand down; he gave a subtle shake of his head, before charging straight at the distracted super-villainess.
A spark of pink lightning erupted from the girl's fingertips. The energy wrapped around a ceiling lamp; the bolts holding the fixture up loosened and scared off a small bird who had retired in the rafters. Once the bolts dislodged, the fixture came crashing onto the head of the charging man.
Rachel held out her hand to draw the man back in, stopping herself at the last moment. She couldn't sense anything from him. What on earth possessed him to try and attack the witch like that? Even if the foolhardy charge had paid off, the spider-legged boy and the red-headed beast of a man would simply rip him apart upon their return.
Was he still alive? If only she could –
"Jewel girl."
The pink-haired villainess was looking at Rachel. Her eyes smiled as she made snakes of bright fuchsia dance around her hands. "I'd move back to your spot if I were you."
"I just want to check and see if he's alright."
"He'll be fine."
"But he's not moving."
"The ambos can check on him after we're gone. Sit."
"Not sure he'll make it that long."
After a moment, the girl relented, giving Rachel the barest hint of a nod. Rachel scrambled up to the man, careful not to make any sudden movements to draw the girl's ire. She could defend herself – or escape at the very least – but that would mean using her more obvious powers, which would draw questions and problems to her front door.
Rachel laid her hand on the point of impact; the man was still breathing, but likely had a concussion or worse. She applied a little of her magic to soothe the injury, but with her captor watching her not five feet away, there was only so much she could do. The angry knot on the man's forehead went from the size of a grapefruit to a walnut, at least.
"Well?" the girl asked.
"I think he'll pull through. If he gets medical attention soon."
"You a nurse or something, sister?" The villainess asked, a wry smile on her lips.
"No," Rachel said, searching her mind for an explanation. "I-I'm just good with this sort of stuff."
Rachel was never a particularly good liar, and judging by the pink-haired girl's suspicious expression, she hadn't gotten any better at it during her time in Jump City.
"Right." The girl had taken note of her, Rachel knew. 'Girl with strange jewel in her head who happened to be some sort of medic'. Too many coincidences. "You're too nice. It's his own stupid fault, you know. You can't save everyone in this city, and not all of them deserve saving."
Ignoring the girl's statement, Rachel moved back to her spot and waited for her first robbery experience to be over. If they knew about our powers, what would this girl do? Try to recruit Rachel into their little gang, or worse, take out a potential rival before she became a problem? Considering Rachel's powers, or rather what she knew to be their source, such a response might be unwittingly the most heroic deed in this girl's life.
Then again, the source of Rachel's power was many things, but foolishness did not happen to be among them. If Rachel could be laid low in a Earthling bank, she doubted she would have even made it this far.
The same bird from before was circling through the rafters in the ceiling, seemingly intrigued by the situation. A woodpecker from the looks of it. Odd color, though. Rachel hadn't ever seen such a shade of green on any bird.
In a fell swoop, the bird plunged down towards the pink-haired girl, landing on top of her head; the creature pecked at her forehead, and the girl tried swatting the bird away. Her attack only succeeded in making the bird angrier, the small pest proceeding to peck and scratch at its assailant as the villainess attempted to assault and grab the creature.
"Get off," the girl said. "Shoo, you little rat!"
Rachel heard the sound of something cutting through the air; seconds later, a curious curved weapon sliced through the air and impacted against the robber's head, knocking her off balance. In an instant, the odd green bird reconfigured itself into some sort of dinosaur, sending the girl flying with a flick of its massive tail. She landed inside of the hole Mammoth had made in the bank's wall.
Scrambling to her feet, the villainess took a small phone from her pocket and flipped it open. "Yeah, we've got trouble up here. Some kind of super do-gooders."
There was a figure stooped on the rafters above; it jumped, doing a full flip before landing on the large marble table in the center of the room, with perfect agility.
It was a boy, sleek and spiky black hair atop his head, and his eyes masked by a pair of sunglasses. He wore a blazer not unlike someone from one of the local high schools would wear, and green track-pants with a white stripe running down the side.
He titled his head towards the dinosaur, smirking. "How's that for an opening salvo?"
The dinosaur morphed again, this time appearing as a green-skinned boy in black tights with a large purple stripe running down the middle. He made a see-saw motion with his hand.
"Eh. Not the worst I've seen, dude."
The spiky-haired boy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you could do better?"
"Oh, my part was awesome. But it was a good set-up, dude, not bad for a newbie."
"Whatever," the boy said, smiling despite himself. "Jinx usually has a crew with her. Must be loading up on cash right now."
A giant sack flew from the hole in the wall, flying over Jinx's head and smashing into the green-skinned boy's body, knocking him sheer across the room. Cash and coins spilled all over, and Rachel noted some of the gathered hostages sliding a few into their pockets as the notes wafted towards them and coins rained down.
"Yeah." The man known as Mammoth walked back into the room, the little boy from before riding on his back. "And we scored big this time. Guess you felt that though, huh little man?"
The little boy snickered at the would-be-saviors. "Did you booger-sniffers skip math class or something? How do you expect to take us on two-versus-three?"
The spikey-haired boy smirked. "We don't."
A blue wave of concentrated energy pierced the plate-glass of the bank's walls; Rachel felt the ground rattle, and a strange oscillation vibrated through the air as the blast caught Mammoth in the chest and sent him sprawling. The bald-headed boy who was atop Mammoth's shoulders hit the ground right after.
Through the opening, a man stepped through – half-human, half-cybernetic. Blue circuitry intertwined with brown skin, and Rachel quickly discovered the source of the sudden blast; an arm-cannon on his right side, smoke rising from the barrel. He was tall and muscular, though still nearly a head shorter than Mammoth. The cyborg came dressed in a grey hoodie and jeans, though the reverb from the cannon had singed the top of his right sleeve clean off.
"Thought I'd even up the odds," the man said, cocking his arm-cannon. A small fire erupted from his burnt sleeve, and he patted it out before the blaze spread. "Aw man, I just bought this."
"Even?" The little boy cackled at him. "I guess it's remotely fair now. With only snot-face and the bird-brain over there, it was just embarrassing. I almost felt bad for them."
Jinx walked up, brushing dirt off of her doll-like dress.. "You guys new in town? Must be if you're picking a fight with the HIVE."
"Just three very concerned citizens," the spiky-haired boy said. "who don't appreciate you guys scaring decent townsfolk."
"Well, I'll give you some advice, little Robin." Jinx turned her hand towards him, a cheshire grin on her face as pink lightning bolted from her fingertips. "Jump City doesn't need any superheroes. You'd better run back home before you get hurt. Attack Pattern Alpha!"
A wave of pink energy hit the marble table, the stone splintering apart beneath Robin's feet as if a stick of dynamite had exploded beneath him; Robin jumped. A grappling hook was in his hands before Rachel could blink.
The hook wrapped around one of the ceiling lamps; the boy used the momentum from his jump to circle back around towards the 'HIVE", aiming a kick towards Jinx. The girl scarcely deflected the blow in time, the force driving her back.
On the other side of the room, a green shape erupted from the floor; the boy morphed into the shape of a gorilla, charging towards Mammoth and locking his arms around his waist. Mammoth beat his fists into the green ape as the creature leaned backwards, throwing Mammoth's body headfirst into the floor behind him.
The ape whirled, aiming a punch towards the floor. Mammoth rolled away; from his back he picked up a glass table by the legs, and shattered it over the ape's head as the creature lunged towards him.
The cybernetic man hurled punches at the little bald-headed boy. A turret of flame erupted from the boy's backpack as he cackled at the man's attempt to grab hold of him, buzzing around him like a bothersome fly. The boy flew backwards; a missile turret popped out from his backpack, launching a swarm of tiny rockets.
Scarcely in time, the cybernetic man aimed his arm-cannon at the swarm and fired. The blast ripped through the rockets, grazing the flying boy. With his lack of stature, a small graze combined with the reverberations of the beam was enough to send the cyborg's opponent spiraling in the other direction.
At present, the fight seemed even. Rachel figured time was on the side of the vigilantes defending the bank, as the police were undoubtedly on the way; even with their powers, ripping through a bunch of policemen and emergency vehicles likely wouldn't be a good look for the HIVE trio.
Rachel used the opportunity to tug the unconscious man back to relative safety; on her own, the man's heft would be too much, but with a little help from her telekinetic abilities and the man was back with the rest of the hostages within moments.
It was clear most of the rest of the captives were searching for a quick way out, though not had worked up the courage to make a run for it. If Rachel would have seen an opportunity, she would have taken it – she had seen enough weirdness for one day.
"Look out!"
The green ape was flying towards them; Rachel held out her hands and reached for her power on instinct, but the boy shifted back to his human form before he landed, rolling right below Rachel's chest as he hit the floor.
"Whew, he's tougher than I thought." The green boy shook his head like a wet dog, then realized the precarious place he had landed and slid back from Rachel. "Eh, my bad."
"You going to be alright?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, I think so." The boy rubbed the back of his head in a nervous fashion. "He really made a monkey out of me, huh?"
Rachel groaned. "I sincerely hope your fighting skills are better than your jokes."
"Hey, what's wrong with – "
The hostages were starting to panic, started gasps and a couple screams echoing through the huddled mass of people.
Rachel looked up. Mammoth had thrown a significant portion of rock at the ceiling while they were talking – not only was the shattered rock falling down, but portions of the ceiling and the beams holding it up were as well. Peachy.
The changeling morphed back into his gorilla form, attempting to shield the hostages with his body – it wasn't going to be enough. People were going to be injured, possibly die.
Rachel lifted her hands up, and reached out.
A shield of black energy enveloped everyone around Rachel. The pieces of rock, steel, and glass hit the dome and were held in a sort of stasis, forming a patchwork wall of debris around them. Rachel realized the only eyes not upon her were still in the midst of battle; everyone else had obviously seen her power, they all knew now. The changeling boy, still in ape form, was staring down at her. His eyes were wide with shock.
"Whoa," the boy said. "guess we weren't the only superheroes in the house today."
Rachel arched an eyebrow at him, sweat running down her brow as the strain of using her powers caught up with her. "I'm not a superhero, I'm just a girl with some weird powers."
"Well, I'm just a boy with some weird powers."
"Look, please don't say anything." Rachel scanned the other hostages, making sure all of them heard her. "None of you say anything. Please. I-I can't have this sort of attention, I just can't."
After a moment of quiet deliberation, the boy nodded. Most of the others seemed to join in, but Rachel couldn't tell.
"Sure, you got it."
"Thanks."
The boy morphed into a smaller monkey – a capuchin, Rachel thought – and in consecutive order covered his ears, eyes, and mouth. Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Just go do your job."
The capuchin gave Rachel a thumbs up, running back off to the battle.
Sirens blared in the distance as Rachel let the debris caught in her telekinetic field fall to the ground, making sure not to hit anyone with a rock by accident. The HIVE trio were already edging towards an exit point, Jinx blasting the ground in front of the assembled heroes with her strange magic and sending floor tiles hurling at them.
Rachel hoped this would be the last time she saw the girl or any of her friends – though considering that she was the one who had to make the monthly loan payments on the shop, the chance of a second encounter was more than marginal.
The little boy stuck out his tongue at the heroes. "See you never, snot-munchers."
A shower of small silver balls shot out of the boy's backpack, exploding into smoke and sparks as they hit the ground. A burning fog swept across the entire lobby, filling Rachel's nose with smoke and blinding her vision. After a time, the smoke dispersed from the room, and the HIVE trio were nowhere to be found.
Within the span of a few minutes, the bank's lobby was filled with Jump City police and emergency personnel. Rachel wanted to slip out, but the police were insistent upon processing all of the witnesses of the robbery; she gave them a cursory statement, nothing more-or-less than any of the other hostages would have said. They hadn't questioned her about her powers, so Rachel assumed the other captives had kept their word for now.
Or, so she thought.
The spiky-haired boy, who happened to be close by, perked up when Rachel mentioned to the officer that the pink-haired girl – Jinx – had talked to her personally. "Jinx spoke to you…?"
It took a moment before Rachel realized that the boy was indirectly asking for her name. "Uh, Rachel. Rachel Roth. And yeah, we spoke for a bit."
"Interesting. And you can call me…Richard." He shrugged. "Or Dick, but I really don't feel like anyone below the age of sixty uses that nickname."
"Right." It must have been some colloquialism native to Earth, because Rachel didn't recognize it. "Jinx said she liked the jewel on my forehead. After that, one of the hostages tried to attack her when they thought she wasn't paying attention…after she retaliated, I convinced her to let me check and see if he was alright. Probably not any useful info for you."
"No such thing as useless information, Miss Roth." Richard raised his eyebrow at her. "Are you an EMT or something? I think the ambos could use another hand or two."
"No," Rachel said, turning away. "I just…I don't have a degree or anything, I'm just good with that sort of stuff."
"Well, you must be some medic." Richard motioned towards the man Rachel had helped by pointing his thumb over his shoulder. "The guy you're talking about? They're saying he should have severe cranial trauma, perhaps life-threatening, judging by the size of the ceiling lamp that hit him. But he's got a minor concussion, at most. You might have saved his life."
Rachel gave a sheepish shrug. "Maybe the lamp hit him at the right angle? He's probably just lucky, one of those freak occurrences, you know?"
Again, Rachel was hardly the world's best liar; she felt suspicion and intrigue wafting from this boy, though he seemed a naturally curious sort anyway. The changeling already knew; though clearly, he hadn't said anything, and Rachel was thankful.
Rachel realized she was talking to a bona-fide superhero; for some reason, she was racked with a bout of self-consciousness. She hadn't left the shop in anything other than a pair of faded jeans and a plaid shirt. Certainly a far-cry from her usual, darker attire. Of course, when Rachel took the bus downtown, she hadn't expected to end up in the middle of a fight.
"Maybe," Richard said, obviously not convinced. "he should buy a lottery ticket with that kind of luck."
"Are…" Rachel scolded herself; she should have been leaving, not asking further questions. "…are you guys like a team, or something? I haven't seen you around before."
The cybernetic man strolled up beside them, his arm-cannon transforming into a robotic hand. "Sort of. More like we keep meeting up at the same places, so we decided we might as well work together on this one."
"Seems like it worked out." Richard dug a piece of shrapnel out of his coat, smirking. "Mostly."
"No one got too hurt, and the money's returned. Sounds like a good day's work to me." He pointed one of his grey, robotic fingers at his forehead, at the exact spot where Rachel's jewel was on her own face. "Don't mean to pry, but what's with the gem? Never seen anything like it before."
"It's…" Rachel looked off to the side. "it's a religious thing."
"That's some dedication." He must have noticed Rachel's discomfort with the subject, as he tried deflecting. "Like I said, didn't mean to pry."
"It's fine," Rachel said. "I should get going. Pretty sure this bank's not going to be processing any applications today." And she made her leave. Quickly.
Yeah. Rachel was definitely going to consider moving. Jump City was getting to crowded and too familiar for her tastes.
-[[[]]]-
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Rachel wasn't from Earth. And, as far as she could tell, she wasn't even from the same plane of existence.
It was a long story, but Rachel was essentially on the run. She couldn't return home, and when she stayed in one place for too long, a suffocating sense of uneasiness started to settle in. The sensation was hard to describe, but Rachel felt as if she was always being watched – the lion's share of her powers didn't come from the most noble source, so it made sense to Rachel that someone out there might want to keep an eye on her, to keep her abilities from getting out of hand and to put her down if they did become uncontrolled.
She hadn't felt the unease in Jump City yet, which was odd to her. With all the strangeness that occurred here, surely Rachel wasn't subconsciously thinking of this place as home? Her bank had been attacked by certifiable super-villains, the same one she visited every month to pay the loan on the shop, and walked past on the way to her favorite coffee place. Jump City wasn't a 'normal' city anymore, and it was growing weirder by the day.
It was past time to move on. She couldn't risk having her powers exposed. Or, even worse, inadvertently hurting others. Innocent civilians.
The boys Rachel met were nice, though. The changeling with the lame jokes, the cyborg man with the arm cannon, and Richard – she didn't know whether he had any powers, but he was a well-trained fighter, and shrugged off blows which would have knocked the wind out of Rachel.
The suspicion was clear on Richard's face when he talked to Rachel, but she hadn't done anything criminal, right? They wouldn't need to track her down or bring her back for questioning, and Rachel would remain just another city girl to them.
After a bus ride and a few blocks' walk, Rachel arrived at Miko's Magicks and Maladies, an idiosyncratic little shop in Jump City's own Little Japan. It was more of a fancy thrift shop than anything else, but for the more curious or gothic-minded in Jump City, the shop remained a treasure trove of oddities and rarities.
A white and red sign overhead the door displayed the name in both English and Japanese, though if Rachel didn't know better, she wouldn't have thought the shop transplanted from an older part of London - the peeling black wood and Victorian architecture didn't exactly evoke the same feeling as the surrounding shops.
Rachel opened the door, finding the shop's owner absent for the moment. Fine by her, as Rachel needed a little peace-and-quiet for the moment. The owner, Miko Takao, was a self-styled 'hedge witch' who taught a coven of curious girls in her basement every Tuesday for a little extra money. Rachel didn't exactly know what a 'hedge witch' was, but if Miko was any indication, the title did not imply any particular proclivity towards actual magic.
She believed her spells worked, and so did her 'coven', but Rachel was more skeptical: if a magic did not any tangible effect, either immediately or within a specific timeframe, then it was effectively useless to her. There was no way to tell whether the impact was due to magic or the natural ebb-and-flow of the world.
One of Rachel's pants pockets started to vibrate. Speak of the devil.
"Rachel," Miko sounded as if she were in the middle of a windstorm. "I'm up in Portland on a day trip visiting some sisters, decided to pick up some books. Did you need anything? I know you've got that thing you're working on."
Rachel grimaced. "I don't think they have any Azarathian grimoires in Powell's, Miko."
"Well, I was hoping there was some Earth knowledge that would be of use to you."
"Unfortunately, not in this regard. Our spells are guarded knowledge. If anyone on Earth possessed a tome of spells from Azarath, there's probably someone here looking to take it back as well."
"Does that include yourself?"
A good question, and one Rachel wasn't quite sure of. "Maybe, but I usually do a good job of masking my trail."
"You know, some of the sisters are interested in your style of magic." Miko sighed; she already knew the answer to this one, but was asking anyway. "Would it kill you to host a little demonstration, from an experienced mage?"
"If one of your sisters could even pull off one of my spells, someone would come looking for them. Better to keep them ignorant." Rachel sat in one of the wooden chairs in the room. "I met another witch today, by the way. I guess she was a witch, anyway."
"Really? What kind?"
"The kind that robs banks."
"A sister using her powers to commit crime. That's never good." She heard Miko gasp. "You were going to pay on the loan on the shop today, weren't you? Are you alright?"
"Mostly," Rachel said. "apparently, she's called Jinx. Has some sort of weaponized bad luck powers. You ever hear about anything like that in your travels?"
"Not really, the whole boiling cauldron and hex thing is kind of out of style these days. Was she an old crone or something?"
"No, she was around my age."
"Weird." Miko let out a long breath. "I wanted to ask you something…"
"If you need to ask if we have the budget to buy something, the answer is no."
"Rachel, it's a giant book of little-known herbal remedies, as well as tea recipes. It has a leather cover and homemade paper. It's practically one of a kind.""
Rachel groaned. Miko's book-keeping skills were lackluster at best, and indeed, she was nearly on the verge of closing the shop before Rachel came along. She was a dreamer, an idea girl who needed someone more level-headed to tell her they couldn't afford a new coffee-maker and a wand made from sequoia wood with a ruby pommel.
"If you want to eat instant noodles for every meal for the next month, then go right ahead. I won't stop you."
Miko blew air into her phone receiver. "You're no fun."
"Which is why the shop isn't running at a massive deficit right now."
"Alright, alright. I knew there was a reason I hired you." Miko giggled to herself. "Well, I'll let you get back to your day, Rach."
"Sure. Be safe." And the line went dead.
Rachel walked up the stairs to the living space above the shop, went to the small kitchen, and put on a pot of herbal tea. Her head was pounding all of a sudden. Too many strange occurrences today, and she hadn't used her powers like that in a while, which always put more of a strain on her mind. And Rachel still had work to do today; she hardly had time to waste in bed, recovering from a headache.
With a piping hot cup of tea in hand, Rachel retreated to her room. It wasn't a particularly large space, but compared to the student's dorms in Azarath or sleeping underneath a highway overpass, the room was a luxury suite. The space unoccupied by her small bed was taken up by books, tomes, and various mediation tools and magical artefacts.
A small television was placed atop a pile of books in the corner, though Rachel scarcely used the device; occasionally, Rachel would watch a horror movie or documentary, as she there were some gaps in her general knowledge of Earth. For instance, she recently learned that Earthlings were capable of space-flight.
Atop Rachel's bed were several scrolls and notebooks; she used ink and quill exclusively until recently, as the practicality of the ball-point pen was too much for her to pass up. All of them were research notes and commentary, on various subjects. the great Azarath sages, commentary on what would be called black magic and the occult on Earth, the exploits of the great heroes of Azarath and other planes – mostly to try and imitate their spells and rituals.
She tossed a book to the side – a history of the exploits of the hero Malchior, which Rachel hadn't really delved much into yet – and took the seat on the edge of her bed. She wanted nothing more than to lie back and drift into sleep, but there was work to be done. The fate of the world rested on her shoulders, in a literal sense.
Rachel was going to cause the end of this world. Not today, not tomorrow, but sometime in the near future, a demon would use Rachel as a portal into the world of mortals; upon his entrance onto the Earth, all life on the world would end. Simple as that.
It all started with, as it often did, with a vague prophecy. There were supposed to be certain signs, according to the monks back in Azeroth, the foremost being a falling star.
As far as Rachel could tell, that could be anything. A passing comet, a meteor crashing to earth. Perhaps Star City would inexplicably blow up, the interpretations were endless. How many heavenly bodies passed by Earth on a yearly basis? The end could already be in progress, and Rachel wouldn't know in the slightest.
Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on how one looked upon it – there were other, less immutable signs.
All of the combined knowledge and research in Rachel's room was, essentially, a giant thesis paper on preventing said end of the world. Rachel endeavored to have a plan, or at the very least, some sort of way of fighting back. No one else knew about the true purpose of Rachel's research; Miko knew the girl was working on something, but Rachel had never enlightened her room-mate on the exact goal.
Unfortunately for Rachel – and the world – her research wasn't going well.
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