[Warning! Temporal instability detected! This record may no longer be part of the current timeline!]
Bašmu was a horned snake, so long its body stretched out to the horizon. It had six mouths and seven tounges.
Narwhal slammed its head into the ground with a forcefield, and proceeded to systematically carve it up.
Ušumgallu was a lion/dragon fusion monster.
Several Dragon Suits teamed up on it, tearing it apart with blades aflame with fire and lightning.
Mušmaḫḫū was a fusion of a serpent, lion and a bird.
Cinereal took this one, burying it in ash before roasting it alive.
Mušḫuššu was a dragon with the hind legs of an eagle, the front legs of a cat, a long neck and tail, and a tongue like a snake.
Morrigan, now dressed in a leotard and with upside-down bat wings emerging from the back of her waist and head, licked her lips. "It's body has gotten much more impressive, but does it still have the soul of a rabbit, I wonder?"
Mušḫuššu leaped toward her, forepaws outstretched and jaw wide.
Morrigan laughed.
As Mušḫuššu reached her, the delinquent queen of Makai split into two complete mirror images, on on either side of the monster.
Mušḫuššu's head swivelled around, trying to decide which of the two it should attack. Morrigan didn't wait. Both of her forms kicked out, and as she did so her wings changed into a series of spiked tails that pierced Mušḫuššu's body like spears.
In perfect unison, both Morrigans smoothly moved into a long-familiar series of attacks. Her wings became blades, spears, spikes from the ground, whatever she needed to soundly thrash the ancient anti-god monster.
She ended the combo with one final axe kick, and the two Morrigans became one again. She sauntered up to the stunned monster and lifted its head up to her own.
She kissed the monster, whose weak struggles faded as it shrivelled and dried up.
"Ah." She smacked her lips. "That was definitely not the soul of a rabbit. There really isn't anything better than a mother's cooking!"
The details of Laḫmu's appearance were impossible to make out because the creature was so hairy that the creature itself was hidden behind a veil of hair.
Armsmaster wasn't worried in the slightest, activating the plasma blade on his halberd.
Ugallu was a storm-cloud with a lion's head.
Myrddin raised his staff. "Yeah, I'm not playing around here."
Ugallu immediately pulled it's head back into its body as Myrddin started to rapidly draw runes in the air, causing concussive blasts to ravage the beast's gaseous form.
A moment's crackle through the cloud was all the warning the 'wizard' got before a lightning bolt shot out from Ugallu and toward him. Before he could do anything about it, the bolt suddenly splashed against a bronze shield that hadn't been there a second ago.
Myrddin blinked at the white-haired archer who had suddenly jumped in front of him, with the shield in turn floating in front of him. Unlike the other non-flyers, the archer was standing on the topside of his Dragon Suit rather than in the cockpit.
"Watch yourself." The archer chided, causing the shield to vanish with a gesture. "These are monsters that were created to slaughter an entire pantheon. Even though they failed, they still can't be taken lightly."
Ugallu cracked again, but before he could repeat his attack a gale-force wind suddenly slammed the creature into one of the stone altars.
"I know that." Myrddin grumbled, drawing more runes in the air. He lifted up a hand, and the baked earth that used to be Chaos Tide started lifting up from the ground up into a sphere. "But thanks for the save."
Enough of Ugallu's cloud-body was blown off that his head was visible again, which roared.
Myrddin took that as an opportunity to blow the compressed sphere of dried-out Tide into the monster's head and out the other side.
Uridimmu was a giant dog with a human's head.
Chevalier clenched his teeth. "Sorry, but you have to die." He said, hefting his cannon-blade with intent.
Girtablullû was a 'scorpion centaur' - the torso, head and arms of a human being were placed on the body of a scorpion in place of its head.
His lack of a ranged attack meant he was helpless as Rime rained down ice fractals from above.
Umū dabrūtu was also a monster with an unknown form, cloaked as it was in storm clouds.
Eidolon took this one, swapping one of his powers out for one that let him fire microwaves (the waves, not the appliances) from his fingertips and vaporising the creature.
Kulullû was effectively a merman, swimming through what little of the Chaos Tide Tiamat had replaced after the inferno.
The black mud did not protect it from the rail of screws Kumagawa sent raining from the sky.
Kusarikku was a centaur with the ears and horns of a bull.
This did not help him against Legend's lasers.
That left only Tiamat herself. As her 'children' died around her, she started to move, becoming more and more distressed. As the last of them died, she let out a great, bestial wail.
Alexandria could see the chains binding her arms and legs start to strain as the goddess turned beast suddenly fought against her confinement. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Alexandria saw Tiamat's form begin to grow and change, becoming even more beast-like.
Alexandria clenched her teeth, remembering Index's last piece of advice.
"Tiamat was eventually sliced in half, but she was actually killed when her belly was filled with wind and an invincible spear was used to pierce her heart. The closer you can match those conditions, the better your chances of this working are."
There was one more parahuman present, one who hadn't made any move to help at all. This wasn't because of any sort of cowardice or incompetence, but rather because they were a one-shot cannon.
Exalt was one of the most powerful aerokinetics in the world. It took him forever to build up a charge – days sometimes – but once he had one, he could even stagger an Endbringer.
Alexandria was pretty sure that was enough to make a god notice.
Tiamat's chains shattered, and she quickly swelled to twenty meters tall. She screamed, and Exalt recognised his chance. While her mouth was still open, he expended his charge – a city's worth of air was fired down her gullet in the form of air blades.
Tiamat's roar suddenly cut off as more air was forced down her throat than could actually fit down it. Her face, half-way transformed into something monstrous, twisted in what could only be described as discomfort.
This was it – their chance. Alexandria didn't know any parahumans who could produce 'invincible spears', so she had decided to substitute herself in. She'd performed the role of spearhead often enough.
Tiamat was still growing – still mutating – so she didn't waste any time, shooting down from the sky like a meteor impact. If Index's advice held true, then she'd be able to burst through Tiamat's skin and piece her heart, returning the salt-water goddess back to the afterlife.
Impact – and Alexandria could feel the familiar, if uncommon, sensation of flesh refusing to yield under her fist.
Tiamat swiped with a hand-turned-claw, and Alexandria could somehow feel her time-frozen flesh tear under her attack. In pain, she went flying through the air, but not under her own power. With a sudden impact, she slammed into one of the stone altars, breaking it in half.
"Alexandria!" Legend and Eidolon yelled in unison, both flying over to their downed ex-teammate. The rest of the group fired any and all ranged attacks they had into Tiamat, who was now fifty meters tall and still growing. With a ground-shaking thud, Tiamat slammed into the ground as she abandoned her two-legged stance for a four-legged one.
Legend arrived first, finding Alexandria clutching her side where the flesh had been raked by claws. There was no blood beyond the first initial spray, no progression of the injury, but as Alexandria writhed on the ground, clearly in pain, Legend caught a glimpse of intestine.
Eidolon arrived seconds afterwards, his hands already glowing green. He held them up to Alexandria's torn flesh, and the other two could hear him chanting "No no no no no…" under his breath.
Alexandria's flesh began to close up under the effect of Eidolon's power, but slowly. In fact, it seemed to be slowing down, Alexandria's immutability of flesh reasserting itself in the worst way.
"Not again!" Eidolon cursed.
Legend swore with considerably stronger language, and made to stand up. Alexandria's hand grabbed his ankle like a vice.
"Spear her through the chest." She rasped. "While the winds are still trapped in her belly. If she can get them out, Exalt won't be able to put them back."
Legend hesitated, but nodded and flew off.
Eidolon cursed again as Alexandria's flesh completely stopped healing, the wound still about seven centimetres wide. "No!"
"…stitches…"
Eidolon looked up in confusion. "What?"
Alexandria pointed back in the direction of the battle. "Her minions can hurt me. Make a needle from one of their bodies."
Understanding lit up his eyes (presumably, he was wearing a mask after all) and he flew off to do as suggested.
Meanwhile, Legend announced his return to the battle by firing a laser at Tiamat wider than he was tall. Tiamat took it without flinching, and Legend cursed again. He'd even taken the trouble to shape that laser like a spear and everything.
Tiamat had now reached the height of twenty meters tall again, this time on all fours. By now, she was beginning to look very much like a dragon with boobs – blood red wings had burst out of her shoulders and were now being used to blow massive gusts of wind at those attacking her from range.
The battle, which had progressed just as planned until now, was falling apart. Tiamat's range with her claws and teeth was growing, and her wings were deceptively effective weapons. Soon, she started knocking flyers out of the sky, who had to be caught by their fellows before they fell into the pool of Chaos Tide below her, which further increased her advantage.
Legend cursed. "No no no no!"
"Excuse me."
Legend turned, frustrated, to find a Dragon Suit carrying the as-yet unnamed archer. "Yes?"
"Do you think you could hold her still for a moment?" The archer asked. "I have an attack I rather can't afford to miss with."
Legend stared at the man for a second, before throwing up his hands. "Sure. Whatever."
"Thank you." The archer said, holding his hands in front of himself. "Trace on."
As the outline of a giant ornate spear began to form in the archer's hands, understanding and hope lit up Legend's eyes.
"Everybody clear!" Legend yelled, placing both hands together and producing several beams of white laser beams that crashed down into Tiamat and the area around her, freezing everything solid.
Tiamat writhed under the ice, which was steaming already just like it had against Godzilla. But Legend didn't let up – the instant he saw an area begin to be free of ice, he immediately redirected one of his beams and froze that area too.
But Tiamat was doing more than simply straining against the ice – as Legend watched, her form was mutating in a new fashion – her body growing redder and redder, hotter and hotter, and the ice was starting to melt faster than he could freeze it.
The archer's spear was fully formed now, and he stepped forward to the outside edge of the Dragon Suit, using the spear to draw back his bow like the world's largest arrow. Legend realised that, whether Tiamat was immobilised or not, the archer still planned to take the shot.
That was when something new started happening. Tiamat's body suddenly stopped changing, stopped growing, and started to flicker, her edges blurring like a bad TV connection. Tiamat still writhed, unable to scream with the wind lodged in her belly, and Legend suddenly realised that she wasn't the one responsible for this.
The archer next to him narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. Without a word, he fired.
The two of them had been sufficiently high up that it took several seconds for the spear-turned-arrow to reach Tiamat. Somehow sensing the attack, she lifted her monstrous head up, and opened up her mouth…
…which meant that the spear vanished down her gullet.
The archer stepped back from the edge of the Dragon Suit, and turned his back to the battle. "Gáe Bolg."
The blurring of Tiamat's form abruptly halted.
There was a small noise that escaped from her throat, almost like a burp.
Then Tiamat exploded, a giant red ball of energy shredding her from within.
The invincible spear had done it's work. Index's spell had kicked in.
Tiamat, the mother goddess of Babylonian mythology, was dead once more.
From his sniper's nest position 3 kilometres away from where the fight had occurred, 'Agent Timothy' finally lowered his binoculars. "Yikes. R&D's going to have one hell of party tonight."
Unlike when he had brazenly sat in on the Protectorate/PRT meeting, where he had worn business clothing, 'Agent Timothy' was now wearing a military uniform the same dark grey as the stone around him. Present on the same altar as him were another twelve people in the same uniform.
"Yes sir!" Agreed one of his comrades excitedly. "The long-range pinpoint Reality Anchors works a treat, sir! Gummed that mutation ability of hers right up, sir!"
"Sir!" Another one of the group, a woman wearing headphones that appeared to be plugged into a child's xylophone. "We've got conformation from Site-49. SCP-152 just updated – we have officially avoided a CK-class scenario."
'Timothy' shook his head. "The boys and girls working on SCP-270 never get enough credit. This is… what, the twenty-third time they've avoided a K-class?"
"As far as I'm cleared to know, yeah." She smiled.
"Not only that, but we've confirmed the theory that high-end Type Blue phenomena behaves identically to Type Green phenomena." 'Timothy' slapped the backpack-sized Reality Anchor to make his point. "The Protectorate can have all the glory. We just have to make it back to base with no incidents, and today will have been a really good day. Come on – the 'Way' won't stay open forever."
Eventually, of course, everybody had to go home. As Alexandria had previously noted, the Clairvoyant couldn't see into Tartarus, so the group had go back the same way they'd entered – through the portal back to Earth Pe. (Except for Morrigan, who seemed to have disappeared when no one was looking.)
As they flew up to the exit (which was placed at the top of a flight of stairs hundreds of meters high, and had therefore been safe from the surge of Chaos Tide), they passed a giant three-headed dog. Cerberus growled at them as they passed, but did not attack. He seemed to know that they weren't supposed to be there.
"Dragon can pull video footage from her Suits, right?" Legend said, eyeing one of the Suits. "Fighting something that dangerous with casualties that light might be the biggest morale boost we've had in years."
"I'm sure she can." Alexandria said, absently. The adrenaline (well, her Shard's emulation of it, anyway) was starting to wear off, and her bed was starting to call her something fierce. The 'Tiamat-minion-needle' had pushed back her immutability enough for Eidolon to finish healing her, and had gotten him all exited about maybe regrowing her missing eye, but Alexandria had told him firmly that that could wait until they were all safe and rested.
Blessed light suddenly shined in the dim light of Tartarus, signifying that they had reached the exit. The group headed upwards, eager to escape the jail dimension.
And as they headed out into the bright sunshine of a nondescript field somewhere in Earth Pe, every single member of the group froze.
Laying on the ground before them was a bloody pile of meat. It took several seconds before even the most observant of the group recognised it as a living being, and it took those who knew who she was and what she looked like to recognise it as Princess Celestia.
She'd been scalped – her horn was gone too – and there were bloody stumps where two of her legs and one of her wings were supposed to be. Horrifyingly, her tail was still trying to wave in an ethereal wind, but coated in fresh blood as it was it just looked like a bloody worm wriggling in it's death throes.
The group only realised she was still alive when one of her eyelids opened ever-so-slightly, and a word passed through her lips in a dry, pained, agonised voice:
"Rrrrrruuuuuunnnn!"
It was only then that they noticed the other. The girl in a pure white outfit that somewhat resembled a wedding dress, standing patiently facing the group. Neither the dirt from the ground nor the blood from the dying pony had touched her, as though it was afraid of soiling her purity.
Eidolon felt all three of his powers change to long-range teleportation powers.
"Hello, Alexandria." The White Queen greeted her as though they were old friends, fanning herself with Celestia's missing wing.
Most of the group prepared themselves for battle, but Alexandria stood, frozen, a 'deer-in-headlights' look on her face.
"It looks like you solved another problem without using me." The Queen continued, ignoring the group's preparations.
No.
Actually, it was more like she treated acknowledging the groups hostility as beneath her.
"I warned you not to do that."
"Now, now… that was rather pointless."
"After all, they are just about to fight the Queen, aren't they? Why would you extend yourself so much just to keep a few of them alive for only a few minutes longer?"
"…"
"Now, are you going to withdraw your support, or am I going to have to support Tiamat? I'd rather not run the risk of attracting the Queen's attention, but I will."
"…"
"It seems you do have some sense in you after all, you long-dead meddler."
Name: Red Player/White Player (Real names unknown)
Series: A Certain Magical Index
Disposition: Villain and Hero respectively
Location: Unknown
General information: Red Player and White Player are the code names of two unknown parahumans who appear to have the same or extremely similar powers and appear to be in constantly attempting to influence the world and counter the other's attempts at the same time. Originally, their conflict was restricted to Academy City on Earth Mem, but has since expanded out to encompass other Earths (including Bet, much to the frustration of the PRT).
Red Player uses their power to cause chaos and disruption for some unknown goal, and White Player uses theirs to counter those same actions.
Classification:
Master/Trump 7: Both Red Player and White Player appear to have the ability to influence the actions of humans at extreme range. This is not actual mind control - more similar to the influence exerted by a skilled manipulator. Both entities can 'manipulate' people at apparently any range.
In addition to the control, both Red Player and White Player can 'boost' the powers of parahumans they are influencing, allowing them to achieve feats they are normally incapable of (though there appear to be diminishing returns on this effect relative to the starting power of the parahuman). This allows the influenced parahumans to defeat powers they normally could not, like Imagine Breaker's negation or Accelerator's reflection.
Recommended strategies: Anti-Master tactics. The location of Red Player and White player is still unknown, and until they can be located all the PRT can do is put out the fires they start.
AUTHORISATION LEVEL CONFIRMED... UNLOCKING REMAINDER OF FILE
Contrary to the report above, Red Player and White Player were located shortly after they first started meddling on Earth Bet. Unfortunately, we can't get to them. Their powers aren't "influence at long range", they're "influence across time". Red Player will be born about 2000 years from now, and White Player has been dead for a similar amount of time. The two of them are reaching across the intervening years to meddle directly in the present (which is apparently the only time period they can influence).
Cauldron has contacted several time-related persons in an attempt to stop the problem at the source - the Doctor, the Clockwork ghost, Professor Paradox, and so on. Unfortunately, and aggravatingly, the fight between these two appears to be a very special case. White Player is affecting the future from the past, and Red Player is affecting the past from the future. As it stands, they are roughly matched in their attempts to influence the present. However, if one is stopped before the other, that player then immediately succeeds in their attempts to alter history, causing what we are assured is massive damage to the present time.
The only way to safely stop the both of them is from here, in the present, although the question of how we are still working on.