Part 4: Limbo
A group of some dozen or so heroes charged out to find themselves in quite another world altogether. The sky swirled a plethora of blues and greens, and the door they had opened led to a rock platform which seemed to float in space. Looking around, other platforms held various technological gates, presumably through which these captors brought their captives. Each platform was linked by bridges and lifts, and each had its own installation. What they could see stretched out seemingly forever, with these floating rocks stretching out like so much debris. One might call this Limbo, the dimension between dimensions. Then there was a prickle down Dark Husks spine, she sensed, with her own instinct rather than her artificial sensors, two specific presences. Turning, she saw two figures, one of average build and eyes which held nothing, but showed such power it was gripping, the other a huge metallic figure who towered over many of those around her. Though they were fighting for all they were worth, she could feel that they had sensed her too, and beckoned her help. She charged in with immense speed and attacked with such ferocity it put the single cyborg form off guard, with enough time for her to penetrate the armor protecting the brain inside, skewering it on her claws. How she knew to do this, she knew through the one she now knew as Foreshadow, there was no explanation and neither needed any. The freed heroes who'd accompanied her had followed her into the fray, despite the simple fear which came from facing huge villains. However, they were indeed heroes for a reason and did their part to deal substantial damage. Some had powers which allowed them to exploit this newfound weakness, piercing the armor fast enough to penetrate the vitals, while the others did what they could to support them.
At the moment the entire objective was to rescue any hero currently held. There were simply too many for those heroes present to handle. If more could be freed, perhaps the tide of battle could be turned, but there weren't any more. They were outnumbered by far. Foreshadows frustration at the chance to perhaps discover if he had been created here made him push himself just a little too far, collapsing under the strain of searching and searching with his senses. Evidently there was something special about this trio which had pre-destined them to this conflict, since Foreshadow's fall had triggered something in space-time. The gateway to his dimension flashed with the entry of heroes such as Zhang Junyi, The Pariahs Lullaby, Firedance, White Wasp, Deveon and more as they continued to flow in. This gave the lower level heroes a chance to run. The Third Horseman would let loose with a volley of bullets as The Pariahs Lullaby swung his mace in a wide arc sweeping hard into the armored torso plate into the soft nerve center beneath. Firedance would then teleport the dead hulk high above the battlefield to drop it far below. With this inflow of heroes, Iron Tower and Dark Husk found it within themselves to began reaching within and make a dramatic call for help. Nanuk, Megan, Delirium, Neon Angel and Satine charged through from Iron Tower's. Kraven, Zappo, Frostwire and others from Dark Husk's. There were enough heroes now to turn the tide from a running battle to the portals to an encirclement of the main platform. Leaping and flying from platform to platform, heroes knocked down cymek after cymek, disabling static defenses and fortifications. Some would be knocked down to be revived by others, but with such a multitude of protective shields and healing auras overlapping each other maintaining a steady battle line in the heroes there was no slowing down.
Foreshadow awoke to watching several tankers charge into a fray, scrappers following closely in on their heels under cover of fireballs, icicles and energy blasts. Surrounding them were force fields as rifle grenades landed in volleys in time to catch foes on the ground. Ahead of them were several cyborgs, a mix of having their armor crushed under gravitic strain, flailing about under the mental confusion and pain from telepaths, or having the elements rebel against them as fire, ice, wind and earth trapped and weakened them. The tankers charged straight into them in this state, slamming into them, burning, smashing into visible weak spots while the scrappers tore into them with a lightning fast flurry of assaults. Above them the sky rained fire and ice as storm winds threw would-be threats away into the abyss beyond. Foreshadow noticed cars, pool tables, forklifts and other heavy objects fly through the air over him as they pulled apart defenses and cyborg weaponry. In some areas the cyborgs began to fight back with a vengeance. Cannons dwarfing Rikti technology pounded away at defensive shields, huge blades and blunt weapons emerged from cyborg exo-skeletons to tear up and crush heroes. Static platform defenses worked cohesively with laser fences and proximity mines as rockets flew away and blasters concentrated their fire on isolated heroes. With more cyborgs came reserve troops in dark powered armor wielding heavy pulse rifles moving out in formations to make even the 5th Column fearful. Manning bunkers and trench-works they began opening fire, pushing new numbers into the battle. Others charged into the line of heroes with large melee weapons, firing their rifles on the advance before clashing with the tankers and scrappers, freezing the attack.
Foreshadow rose, flew up and towards the line while Iron Tower put heavy force behind a clap to knock back his attackers. They got back up to find themselves stuck into the ground as Dark Husk swept her claws through their legs for a summoned heavy truck to slam into them, flinging them into the minefields and laser fences. Chaos was indeed all about while this last push was made on the central complex. With this late a deployment of the reserves, it was quite possible that they were stalling for some way to win the battle, or to go down fighting as best they could. To do this, they needed more, and to get there faster. Foreshadow had an instinct, an unusual feeling for him really, that the secrets behind who he was lay here. It was with this that he pushed himself forward, straining his control to unleash more and more power. He would launch volleys of objects at formations, blades slashing and trucks smashing, while letting loose with force to repel those close by off into the unknown. Manipulating the molecular forces around him, he redirected bullets and rockets to their origins, and pulled energy blasts to roll and caused flames to die around him. He would let nothing stall him now. In concern for their comrade, other heroes fought harder to create an enveloping wedge with Foreshadow at the lead and Iron Tower and Dark Husk at his sides. With him came a wave of gravitic force, lifting some up in feather-like weight to be pulled back with an asteroids mass. Those he didn't catch were smashed by the Tower or torn apart by the Husk.
At long last, they reached the final gate which barred the rest of the platform from the towering citadel ahead. Foreshadows unrelenting charge had gone beyond his control and slammed into the fortification, tearing the high walls into the ground. Final defenses opened up and the last enemy reserves deployed. Many didn't last long, finding themselves weightless as they were knocked out into the distance from heavy hits, some slamming into other defenses with weight beyond their own. Foreshadows charge was enhancing the advance of heroes a hundred fold, sweeping all before the assaulting wave. Ripping apart the outer blast doors, the heroes charged in, numbers swelling with more and more coming from the portals, being teleported to the front lines as soon as they were arriving. Every hero who arrived charged the advance further. Colorful costumes became a wave. Inside the citadel, the remaining cyborgs and garrisons put up a fierce fight, making the heroes fight furiously for every metre of ground gained in ambushes, traps and in the desperation of trapped animals with no option left but to die as best they could. The charge had lost its momentum, though not the advance.
Foreshadow at the moment was quite literally overwhelmed with power. He was near his full potential, using his powers beyond any level that he used to, however strangely without the pain of too much happening within him. Here he was at peace despite the battle raging around him, and his substantial part of it. Something in him also recognized the place. It was through a strange instinct, something beyond human memory but he somehow knew that he, in some way, had been here before. There was no doubt that answers lay here. It's unsurprising that ideas of destiny were going through the trio's minds. While fate was an increasingly unpopular explanation for such coincidences, there could be no denial of something special happening, and the strange bond that the three felt. Despite all the death and agony which surely must have surrounded him and had affected many others, he was immune. There was suffering everywhere, but he found it harder and harder to find the human emotion and compassion within him to let it affect him. The new control over his immense power surely had something to do with it, but the answers, he somehow knew, lay just ahead.
The small army of heroes surged through the main corridors, splitting off into teams to cover multiple corridors. The trio also split to fight with comrades they knew personally. Iron Tower left with the super-team Paragon Order, as Neon Angel brought the others from the team to lead in one direction. Foreshadow's super-team Elite was hardly represented, but fell in with close veterans of his past battles and adventures. Dark Husk simply ran in with anyone from her dimension, keeping behind the tankers, claws out and at the ready.
Paragon Order struck straight into the heart of a heavy counter-attack, facing many of the toughest foes, some who had fallen back from the battles outside, some who had used the time to erect defenses and organize this apparent last stand. Cyborgs stayed forward to be bait while the soldiers manned heavy weaponry, many salvoes firing away. However, with the force fields thrown around the powerful super-team precious few shots actually penetrated, and Iron Tower was first to lay his fist on the nearest cyborg. Quickly following it fire and ice rained from above and a scrapper's spines were launched into the cyborg, penetrating the armored shell and poisoning the fragile brain within.
At that moment Dark Husk was in another corridor. Feeling a little outclassed by the other heroes she took every advantage to throw herself into risk and danger, though the greater benefits were seen afterwards for taking those risks. As soon as a tanker sliced his fire sword into one of a cyborg's arms, Dark Husk was there, diving into the now unprotected flank to stab into the center. Her new armor protecting her as it repaired any outer damage she then leapt straight into the next group of soldiers, spinning with her claws extended, tearing through armor and flesh, done and ready for more before they even collapsed to the ground.
Foreshadow moved much more quickly than the other two, sweeping through the corridors, pulling anything and everything from the walls and surfaces to smash into enemies. No one could get near, being repelled by his repulsion field, and blasters used the opportunity to fire from within, safe from harm. Flying in a circular formation around him, blasting any opposition, with tankers and scrappers cleaning up behind them, there was certainly nothing to stop them. He reached the central dais first, ripping open the blast doors to be suddenly overcome with nothingness and awareness at the same time. He was no longer he, he was it. Whatever was human in him before was pushed aside into the background, and suddenly it was aware of everything again. Suddenly it began to remember.
It had seen everything now, it could remember everything now, from the very beginning to the minute it was brought to this, place. There were the cosmos, the dimensions, the universes, all of which it was aware. And there was this place. The hallway to all of them. It remembered being taken, for the first time in all time. This group here in this most sacred of places had taken it. How? The device before it. A temporary trap until something more permanent could be devised. The contraption could not last long enough, and it escaped, out there. At that point it found three powerful emanations, three in great pain and struggle but with strength enough to harbor it. One, a mutant frozen in shock of tragedy. Another a crippled human. And the last.... the last evaded it now. It was obvious who this was, and so it brought out the sheltered consciousness that was his shell.
Now would be the time to find out, to discover, everything. Pushing its own consciousness aside to watch the one lying dormant awaken, it braced for what surely would be a degree of panic. In its minds eye it saw itself, in its human shell, floating dormantly. A little nudge and his eyes popped open, predictably, in panic. Other heroes at that point saw Foreshadow suddenly turn, his face in abject fear. Questions began stuttering from him, even as the answers flowed into him with the force of a crashing wave, memories streaming from the consciousness he wasn't even aware of yet. It was being careful of course, only releasing memories of what had transgressed since its possession...
Iron Tower and Dark Husk felt the void immediately, something missing, their connection in hiding. Drawn however to the same point, they rushed to the central dais. They saw Foreshadow, or so they believed, but without the strength and emptiness of before. And there they felt an onrush of memories as the real Foreshadow, the spirit, apparition, cosmic being, whatever name you called it, shared itself with them. In those moments of pain, in their pasts, they had a divine spark, something which marked a destiny for them which was apparent to this thing when it had last been here.
The group basing itself here, the power-seeking dimension-travelers, had pursued it. In their quest for cosmic power, they sought it out, captured it… How did they do that? It was still a mystery. It could see where it had been held, the caging prison device… But no way in which it could have been captured. No matter. It was aware now, and the backbone of this insidious operation was shattered… by these impressive creatures, all surrounding it now. There is no wonder that all three of its escape routes, escaping into the body of one of these three individuals during a weak point in their lives, all originated at Paragon City. In a City of Heroes, indeed, there is unlimited potential. This one now… This one it had arrived within… Why him? It peered into his mind, and saw his last memories…
A group of some dozen or so heroes charged out to find themselves in quite another world altogether. The sky swirled a plethora of blues and greens, and the door they had opened led to a rock platform which seemed to float in space. Looking around, other platforms held various technological gates, presumably through which these captors brought their captives. Each platform was linked by bridges and lifts, and each had its own installation. What they could see stretched out seemingly forever, with these floating rocks stretching out like so much debris. One might call this Limbo, the dimension between dimensions. Then there was a prickle down Dark Husks spine, she sensed, with her own instinct rather than her artificial sensors, two specific presences. Turning, she saw two figures, one of average build and eyes which held nothing, but showed such power it was gripping, the other a huge metallic figure who towered over many of those around her. Though they were fighting for all they were worth, she could feel that they had sensed her too, and beckoned her help. She charged in with immense speed and attacked with such ferocity it put the single cyborg form off guard, with enough time for her to penetrate the armor protecting the brain inside, skewering it on her claws. How she knew to do this, she knew through the one she now knew as Foreshadow, there was no explanation and neither needed any. The freed heroes who'd accompanied her had followed her into the fray, despite the simple fear which came from facing huge villains. However, they were indeed heroes for a reason and did their part to deal substantial damage. Some had powers which allowed them to exploit this newfound weakness, piercing the armor fast enough to penetrate the vitals, while the others did what they could to support them.
At the moment the entire objective was to rescue any hero currently held. There were simply too many for those heroes present to handle. If more could be freed, perhaps the tide of battle could be turned, but there weren't any more. They were outnumbered by far. Foreshadows frustration at the chance to perhaps discover if he had been created here made him push himself just a little too far, collapsing under the strain of searching and searching with his senses. Evidently there was something special about this trio which had pre-destined them to this conflict, since Foreshadow's fall had triggered something in space-time. The gateway to his dimension flashed with the entry of heroes such as Zhang Junyi, The Pariahs Lullaby, Firedance, White Wasp, Deveon and more as they continued to flow in. This gave the lower level heroes a chance to run. The Third Horseman would let loose with a volley of bullets as The Pariahs Lullaby swung his mace in a wide arc sweeping hard into the armored torso plate into the soft nerve center beneath. Firedance would then teleport the dead hulk high above the battlefield to drop it far below. With this inflow of heroes, Iron Tower and Dark Husk found it within themselves to began reaching within and make a dramatic call for help. Nanuk, Megan, Delirium, Neon Angel and Satine charged through from Iron Tower's. Kraven, Zappo, Frostwire and others from Dark Husk's. There were enough heroes now to turn the tide from a running battle to the portals to an encirclement of the main platform. Leaping and flying from platform to platform, heroes knocked down cymek after cymek, disabling static defenses and fortifications. Some would be knocked down to be revived by others, but with such a multitude of protective shields and healing auras overlapping each other maintaining a steady battle line in the heroes there was no slowing down.
Foreshadow awoke to watching several tankers charge into a fray, scrappers following closely in on their heels under cover of fireballs, icicles and energy blasts. Surrounding them were force fields as rifle grenades landed in volleys in time to catch foes on the ground. Ahead of them were several cyborgs, a mix of having their armor crushed under gravitic strain, flailing about under the mental confusion and pain from telepaths, or having the elements rebel against them as fire, ice, wind and earth trapped and weakened them. The tankers charged straight into them in this state, slamming into them, burning, smashing into visible weak spots while the scrappers tore into them with a lightning fast flurry of assaults. Above them the sky rained fire and ice as storm winds threw would-be threats away into the abyss beyond. Foreshadow noticed cars, pool tables, forklifts and other heavy objects fly through the air over him as they pulled apart defenses and cyborg weaponry. In some areas the cyborgs began to fight back with a vengeance. Cannons dwarfing Rikti technology pounded away at defensive shields, huge blades and blunt weapons emerged from cyborg exo-skeletons to tear up and crush heroes. Static platform defenses worked cohesively with laser fences and proximity mines as rockets flew away and blasters concentrated their fire on isolated heroes. With more cyborgs came reserve troops in dark powered armor wielding heavy pulse rifles moving out in formations to make even the 5th Column fearful. Manning bunkers and trench-works they began opening fire, pushing new numbers into the battle. Others charged into the line of heroes with large melee weapons, firing their rifles on the advance before clashing with the tankers and scrappers, freezing the attack.
Foreshadow rose, flew up and towards the line while Iron Tower put heavy force behind a clap to knock back his attackers. They got back up to find themselves stuck into the ground as Dark Husk swept her claws through their legs for a summoned heavy truck to slam into them, flinging them into the minefields and laser fences. Chaos was indeed all about while this last push was made on the central complex. With this late a deployment of the reserves, it was quite possible that they were stalling for some way to win the battle, or to go down fighting as best they could. To do this, they needed more, and to get there faster. Foreshadow had an instinct, an unusual feeling for him really, that the secrets behind who he was lay here. It was with this that he pushed himself forward, straining his control to unleash more and more power. He would launch volleys of objects at formations, blades slashing and trucks smashing, while letting loose with force to repel those close by off into the unknown. Manipulating the molecular forces around him, he redirected bullets and rockets to their origins, and pulled energy blasts to roll and caused flames to die around him. He would let nothing stall him now. In concern for their comrade, other heroes fought harder to create an enveloping wedge with Foreshadow at the lead and Iron Tower and Dark Husk at his sides. With him came a wave of gravitic force, lifting some up in feather-like weight to be pulled back with an asteroids mass. Those he didn't catch were smashed by the Tower or torn apart by the Husk.
At long last, they reached the final gate which barred the rest of the platform from the towering citadel ahead. Foreshadows unrelenting charge had gone beyond his control and slammed into the fortification, tearing the high walls into the ground. Final defenses opened up and the last enemy reserves deployed. Many didn't last long, finding themselves weightless as they were knocked out into the distance from heavy hits, some slamming into other defenses with weight beyond their own. Foreshadows charge was enhancing the advance of heroes a hundred fold, sweeping all before the assaulting wave. Ripping apart the outer blast doors, the heroes charged in, numbers swelling with more and more coming from the portals, being teleported to the front lines as soon as they were arriving. Every hero who arrived charged the advance further. Colorful costumes became a wave. Inside the citadel, the remaining cyborgs and garrisons put up a fierce fight, making the heroes fight furiously for every metre of ground gained in ambushes, traps and in the desperation of trapped animals with no option left but to die as best they could. The charge had lost its momentum, though not the advance.
Foreshadow at the moment was quite literally overwhelmed with power. He was near his full potential, using his powers beyond any level that he used to, however strangely without the pain of too much happening within him. Here he was at peace despite the battle raging around him, and his substantial part of it. Something in him also recognized the place. It was through a strange instinct, something beyond human memory but he somehow knew that he, in some way, had been here before. There was no doubt that answers lay here. It's unsurprising that ideas of destiny were going through the trio's minds. While fate was an increasingly unpopular explanation for such coincidences, there could be no denial of something special happening, and the strange bond that the three felt. Despite all the death and agony which surely must have surrounded him and had affected many others, he was immune. There was suffering everywhere, but he found it harder and harder to find the human emotion and compassion within him to let it affect him. The new control over his immense power surely had something to do with it, but the answers, he somehow knew, lay just ahead.
The small army of heroes surged through the main corridors, splitting off into teams to cover multiple corridors. The trio also split to fight with comrades they knew personally. Iron Tower left with the super-team Paragon Order, as Neon Angel brought the others from the team to lead in one direction. Foreshadow's super-team Elite was hardly represented, but fell in with close veterans of his past battles and adventures. Dark Husk simply ran in with anyone from her dimension, keeping behind the tankers, claws out and at the ready.
Paragon Order struck straight into the heart of a heavy counter-attack, facing many of the toughest foes, some who had fallen back from the battles outside, some who had used the time to erect defenses and organize this apparent last stand. Cyborgs stayed forward to be bait while the soldiers manned heavy weaponry, many salvoes firing away. However, with the force fields thrown around the powerful super-team precious few shots actually penetrated, and Iron Tower was first to lay his fist on the nearest cyborg. Quickly following it fire and ice rained from above and a scrapper's spines were launched into the cyborg, penetrating the armored shell and poisoning the fragile brain within.
At that moment Dark Husk was in another corridor. Feeling a little outclassed by the other heroes she took every advantage to throw herself into risk and danger, though the greater benefits were seen afterwards for taking those risks. As soon as a tanker sliced his fire sword into one of a cyborg's arms, Dark Husk was there, diving into the now unprotected flank to stab into the center. Her new armor protecting her as it repaired any outer damage she then leapt straight into the next group of soldiers, spinning with her claws extended, tearing through armor and flesh, done and ready for more before they even collapsed to the ground.
Foreshadow moved much more quickly than the other two, sweeping through the corridors, pulling anything and everything from the walls and surfaces to smash into enemies. No one could get near, being repelled by his repulsion field, and blasters used the opportunity to fire from within, safe from harm. Flying in a circular formation around him, blasting any opposition, with tankers and scrappers cleaning up behind them, there was certainly nothing to stop them. He reached the central dais first, ripping open the blast doors to be suddenly overcome with nothingness and awareness at the same time. He was no longer he, he was it. Whatever was human in him before was pushed aside into the background, and suddenly it was aware of everything again. Suddenly it began to remember.
It had seen everything now, it could remember everything now, from the very beginning to the minute it was brought to this, place. There were the cosmos, the dimensions, the universes, all of which it was aware. And there was this place. The hallway to all of them. It remembered being taken, for the first time in all time. This group here in this most sacred of places had taken it. How? The device before it. A temporary trap until something more permanent could be devised. The contraption could not last long enough, and it escaped, out there. At that point it found three powerful emanations, three in great pain and struggle but with strength enough to harbor it. One, a mutant frozen in shock of tragedy. Another a crippled human. And the last.... the last evaded it now. It was obvious who this was, and so it brought out the sheltered consciousness that was his shell.
Now would be the time to find out, to discover, everything. Pushing its own consciousness aside to watch the one lying dormant awaken, it braced for what surely would be a degree of panic. In its minds eye it saw itself, in its human shell, floating dormantly. A little nudge and his eyes popped open, predictably, in panic. Other heroes at that point saw Foreshadow suddenly turn, his face in abject fear. Questions began stuttering from him, even as the answers flowed into him with the force of a crashing wave, memories streaming from the consciousness he wasn't even aware of yet. It was being careful of course, only releasing memories of what had transgressed since its possession...
Iron Tower and Dark Husk felt the void immediately, something missing, their connection in hiding. Drawn however to the same point, they rushed to the central dais. They saw Foreshadow, or so they believed, but without the strength and emptiness of before. And there they felt an onrush of memories as the real Foreshadow, the spirit, apparition, cosmic being, whatever name you called it, shared itself with them. In those moments of pain, in their pasts, they had a divine spark, something which marked a destiny for them which was apparent to this thing when it had last been here.
The group basing itself here, the power-seeking dimension-travelers, had pursued it. In their quest for cosmic power, they sought it out, captured it… How did they do that? It was still a mystery. It could see where it had been held, the caging prison device… But no way in which it could have been captured. No matter. It was aware now, and the backbone of this insidious operation was shattered… by these impressive creatures, all surrounding it now. There is no wonder that all three of its escape routes, escaping into the body of one of these three individuals during a weak point in their lives, all originated at Paragon City. In a City of Heroes, indeed, there is unlimited potential. This one now… This one it had arrived within… Why him? It peered into his mind, and saw his last memories…