[29th January 2011]
[Mount Justice, Happy Harbour, Rhode Island, United States of America]
Time seems to slow sometimes, the clock ticking down to doom; inevitable, unstoppable, and certain in its forward march. For a moment reality froze, horror, chaos, confusion, as power filled an enclosed space, a train came surging into view. Just a split second, a frozen moment, as the mind sped up but movement were like moving through molasses and...
~Tick~
...panic was a killer, just like overconfidence, insidious and merciless. For a moment, one after another...one leading into the other perhaps being the truth...a certain young mystic theurge, in certain realm, endured this sensation. Momentarily at least, a paranoid sort, in a world where a such a moment had always been feared, as without truly thinking he...cheated - As practitioners of magic were often wont to do in truth...
~Tock~
Suits and robes had created for holding such events, and fear was the mind-killer after all and conditions had been met as an arcane spell triggered a divine in the parlance of certain dimensions. Blessings of the Shrouded Lord of Nishrek as some would claim, the results of magical experimentation and psionic counter-measures others would say...
[Contingency Activate: Impervious Clarity of Mind]
In the space around the magic user others were moving too, or being moved, as the blaze power erupting from the Goddess in their midst slammed into them unseen. Limitations were...had been...in place upon such, but rage and other matters had overwhelmed sense, a beacon fire to the world, and momentary confusion faded along with those blocks. The young kyrptonian hybrid had been nearest, already in motion, and shielded somewhat from divine pressure driving others to their knees by this fact, and charms worn so the Goddess was stalled for just a moment. Time for one mage to cast...
[Silent Cast: Haste]
~Tick~
...and another to attempt a defense despite being thrown backwards into the air...but her wand was in hand as she flew, aiming...
[Pots!]
...failing as a Divine Being such as was before her was barely phased by such. Spell Resistance in effect, the attack barely noticed as the young sorceress slammed into a wall, and a punch of superhuman strength caught with drunken ease. Caught, and the thrower flung away with unthinking casualness as the Goddess took her first step forward...
~Tock~
Doom in a bikini as one before her thought, but that certain doomed mage turned his back and face from such a thing, arm extended. The Mage did not see another of his teammates efforts; water whips that disintegrated as striking an invisible sphere as another bare foot took a step forward. No, other matters had been brought into focus as calm replaced momentary panic...a single word spoken, power snapping at the click of fingers...
[Activate Magic Item: Refuge]
...and two children and a woman vanished from sight to lands beyond. Behind him the Mage felt, but did not yet see the further spike in anger and wrath from the Goddess. He did not need to see it, nor the horror upon the face of the Youngest Amazon, or the silencing of the Songbird with a simple gesture that froze her and several others like statues. No, that didn't matter, his mouth moving beneath the spell hardened mask, all that mattered was the focus and silent step of a divine foot upon cracking concrete as a amphora shattered and spilled its crimson contents...
~Tick~
To some it was spell synthesis, to others cheating the Mage would just call desperation to buy time. One hand wielding the divine, the other the winds of the arcane; one the shield and one the sword as divine eyes glowed with green lightning beneath golden hair. Hands glowed too, mouth moving in words of anger and more dangerously power; lashing out...
[Greater Dispel Magic!]
...green lighting dying, a moment, as in the Mage's other hand a scintillating sphere of light formed, glowing and shining in all colours before singing and shrieking in darkest depths of black...
[Maximise Spell] [Heighten Spell] [Empower Spell] [Intensify Spell] [Chromatic Orb!]
...flying through the shortening distance to strike true...
...necrotic and negative energy colliding with that of the Divine Made Flesh; Pain, Damage, Darkness...
~Tock~
...but not stalling her holy stride, eyes aglow and step purposeful as one step became two, became three, the distance closing in a moment too fast for even the staggered Speedster to see. Too fast for the Warrior Mage to block, the Pained Goddess's skin soot stained and clothing singed as one hand swatted aside the effort while the fist of the other smashing into the armoured chest with a...
[Conditions Met] [Contingency Chain Activate] [Targeted Spell: Flesh to Stone] [Cast Self: Iron Body]
...sound of metal into metal...[Flesh to Stone: Spell Failure] as the young mage was flung backwards to smash into the stone wall behind him, his attack spell shattering against the Goddess's Divine Might as she stepped forward once again...
~Tick~
...the fist striking again bones...ribs...shattering as armour buckled and masks cracked. Her strength was beyond human, impacable, Divine...as strong or stronger than a Man of Steel. Faster than Fastest Man Alive, and with more Magical Might than Wonder Woman; of course paranoia and preparation were a Wizard's trade...
[Conditions Met] [Contingency Chain Activate] [Cast Self: Heal] [Targeted Spell: Baleful Polymorph] [Targeted Spell: Holy Word] [Targeted Spell: Inflict Serious Wounds]
...though sadly the Divine Goddess was not mortal enough to be forcibly made vulnerable by being turned into a small, helpless, woodland creature. Of course such did hurt, drunken rage been as much over taken by concerned panic now that the nature of what she had attacked became clear to her clouded mind. How could she not as blows slammed home; the High Priest being smashed against the wall under frantic punches, as the necromantic and holy spell burned at the Divine. Of all the mortals present the danger was here, something she rarely faced and...
...It was too be no equivalent exchange; for one was a mortal now barely conscious and the other a Goddess of elder might...
~Tock~
The Clock Stopped. Time ran out.
...darkness descended upon the mage as the Goddess slammed his body into the floor before startling and looking around at the destruction around her. Still even as doom descended upon his broken body, and consciousness fled as death smiled and beckoned the mage worked his magic one more time. Flashing, burning, the runes ignited upon his blood soaked flesh and battered armoured robes. Nothing could be left for the foe to claim after all, not in the eyes of this dying mage at least...or in truth, when he had prepared such in the past.
[Contingency Activate...
--
Notes:
A good bit shorter than usual, and perhaps than I'd like, but I kind of wanted to keep this chapter fairly focused on the minute or so after Hera arrives and Sean acid's her to the face.