I'm on the fence about checking out The Marvels. I've heard it's good from some people and I trust them more than I trust Jason "FILM DESTROYER" InternetReviwer. I'll have an answer on Monday's chapter.
Which is…villain focused. Actually, these next few chapters are villain based.
Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Ben, Ruby and Kevin were all watching Sumo Slammers when it happened. "This show got weird." Kevin frowned. "I don't remember all this complicated stuff."
"Really? I thought Sumo Slammers: Hero Generation was pretty good." Ben said.
"For a few seasons. Really fell off after that main arc. Stupid executive meddling."
"Wait, what happened to Sumo Slammers?" Kevin asked.
"Well, the studio got bought out by a Japanese conglomerate that wanted to change the look and feel of the show. They wanted to go back to the more over the top, slapstick feel of the early seasons." Ben explained.
"Huh. I learned something today." Kevin nodded.
"You really did." Ben said. "Thank God we found a time for us to hang out. I kinda needed a break after-"
"Yeah yeah, been a crazy few weeks. We've all been there." Kevin huffed.
"If you think about it, Ben's kind of the odd one out. He's the only non-goth in the room." Ruby joked.
"Hey..." Ben frowned.
"What? It's true." Kevin said.
"W-well, in that case, Ruby's the odd one out because she doesn't have an Omnitrix!" Ben countered. Ruby gasped, betrayed.
"W-well... I- I-" Ruby stammered. "...Kevin doesn't have an aura!"
"Implying I need one." Kevin said. Suddenly, Kevin felt this weird feeling come over him. It felt like he was nauseated. "Ooh..."
"You good, Kevin?" Ben asked, before that same feeling overtook him as well. It hit Ruby moments after...
"What's...happening?" Ruby asked.
And in a flash of light, they vanished.
Right as the light faded, the door to the Atlas dorm opened.
"Ok guys, I got the..." Yang began, only to be greeted by an empty room, "snacks...you asked for. I wasn't even gone for ten minutes!"
Ben, Ruby and Kevin landed on the ground with a thud. Ben groaned, rubbing his head. "Ooooooooooooow..." He said.
"I feel sick." Ruby (who was notoriously never nauseous) grunted, holding her mouth.
"I'm gonna punch whoever did that." Kevin said.
"Punch me, then."
Ben's eyes widened as he heard the voice. "Gwen?" He looked over to see her, Team JNPR and two random people.
"So, total strangers are a-ok-?" Sun began.
"Not total strangers," Gwen corrected.
"Oh, hey Ruby!" Nora smirked and waved.
"Uh...hey, Nora. What's-?" Ruby began.
"Huh, so you can use it. Not to its fullest, obviously, but even a small usage is proof enough," Willa smirked, getting the trio's attention.
Ben turned around, and frowned. "Dunno what's going on, but I should probably start punching stuff." Ben activated the Omnitrix, as Neptune shook Sun's arm.
"Dude, do you NOT know who that is!?" Neptune asked.
"Uhh, no. Who is that?" Sun frowned, as Ben slapped down the Omnitrix. Bramble and metal grew up Ben's skin, with metal armor forming on his chest and 'horns' growing on his head. Ben flexed- Woodworker had taken his place.
"That's a new one." Gwen noted, as Ben formed a pickaxe in his hand.
"That's the alien kid!" Neptune said, shaking Sun like crazy. "Holy shit!"
"Yeah, yeah, I see him! Jeez." Sun shook Neptune off of him. "Hey! Ent dude!" Ben spun around, and gave Gwen a look.
"I just met them." She shrugged.
"And we're still unarmed! Think you could make some us weapons?" Sun yelled.
"Cover me, this could take a minute," Ben said.
Ruby and Kevin nodded. The former spun her trademark scythe, because of course she had that with her while hanging out, while the latter dialed up one of the "weapon" samples from the AntiTrix.
"Hey, does she look familiar to you?" Kevin said, slamming down the AntiTrix and letting one of his arms transform into a massive, brown-plated drill.
"A little. Kinda like Winter, right?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah. And I'm hoping looks are where the similarities end."
"You know I can hear you," Willa said, annoyed, "and while I don't know who Winter 'is,' something tells me we'd get along swimmingly."
Ruby and Kevin shared a look.
"Nahhhhh." Kevin said, as his hands whirred up and started spinning. Kevin leapt at Willa, before she erected a wall of crystals before her.
The drill slammed into the crystal wall and sparked as it began to bore through the barrier. The wall cracked gradually, surprising Willa little. While she was distracted with that, a red blur raced past Kevin to flank the doppelganger of the Atlesian elite. Without stopping, the blur deposited the Mistralian champion to Willa's left, while Ruby raced behind her and skidded to a stop.
To start things off, Ruby and Pyrrha both opened fire on Willa, hoping to catch her in a crossfire. The attacker covered her other arm in crystals and reshaped them from a blade into massive tower shields. She slammed them down on the ground just in time, letting the bullets spark against her bulwarks.
Ben quickly formed weapons for Sun and Neptune, a staff and a guando. The two boys were happy to take them. Even though they weren't theirs, the weapons still felt right in their hands.
"There's no guns, so you're gonna have to go melee only. Sorry about that."
"No sweat, wood guy. We got this." Sun said, as he rushed forward.
Perfect timing on their part as well. With a loud crack that got Willa's attention, the original wall she put up to stop Kevin shattered, letting the rest of the group charge Willa.
"Oh shit," Willa muttered to herself.
Nora bombarded the girl with grenades, as Willa tried that same 'cover with crystals' trick. Ben yelled as he threw his pickaxe at the dome- the pickaxe struck the crystals, and shattered it in pieces. Willa screeched as she was sent back by the explosion.
With an opening, Sun took the chance to show the others what he could do. He raced it and got close to Willa, spinning his newly acquired staff in his hands before landing a strike against the side of Willa's jaw. She staggered, only to stumble right into Sun's next strike; the monkey Faunus timed it perfectly to land one strike after another, landing hit after hit on the crystal-user.
Sun activated his Semblance, creating two clones of himself. One clone had his staff and one was barehanded- they barraged the opponent with attacks before ramming into them and exploding.
Willa staggered back from the clone's detonations. She was expecting some resistance, definitely, but she wasn't expecting to get beaten that badly in just a few seconds. She coated one of her arms in crystal again, this time configuring it into a jagged gauntlet, expecting Sun to take the chance to follow up on the attack. But it wasn't Sun who took the shot, but rather Neptune.
Neptune had blocked the blow with his spear. Neptune's eyes lit up, as he swung their weapon in a circular motion as they chased the retreating Willa around the battlefield in a flowing pattern, slicing everything that they came across. Even the hardness of the summoned crystals didn't matter. Neptune just shattered them like pieces of hard candy. With the two new guys handling things, the others had a bit of time to breathe.
"Woah." Ben said, a bit impressed, before looking to Gwen, "So, wanna tell me why you warped me across the world on my day off? I was watching Sumo Slammers."
"You're a fan of that!?" Nora gasped, eyes sparkling. "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT LATER!"
"Ok, that kinda makes up for it a little." Ben quipped.
"Short version is I found a locked magic book and there have already been two people who've tried to steal it. One of them looked like me, but...we might have killed her-" Gwen said.
"IN COMPLETE SELF DEFENSE!" Nora interjected.
"Eh, it happens." Ben shrugged. "Are you SURE she was dead though?"
"Positive." Gwen nodded.
"We...did kind of hit her with a super-charged ball of lightning. Don't think she had Aura either, which we had no way of really knowing, cause she had magic too!" Nora said quickly.
"Okay, as I've learned with magic- never do that!" Ben yelled. "Never assume she's dead! They will revive themselves with necromancy or some other BS!"
"Or they could just be unconscious instead of outright 'dead'," a voice that sounded like Gwen's said.
"Exactly!"
"Ben," Gwen said.
"...you didn't say that, did you?" Ben groaned.
"Nope."
The Gwen lookalike hovered above them, glaring down. Ben did a double take, as he looked at Gwen and the threatening sorceress.
"...I'm VERY confused now."
"Get used to that." Gwen threw balls of energy at her double, but her double caught them with ease. She crushed them in her hand, and absorbed them. Energy surged through her body, as she took a deep breath.
"Pathetic." She pointed a finger down at the group, and unleashed a powerful laser.
Only for a crystal wall to stop the laser.
"You idiot! Did you forget that we need that book intact?!" Willa yelled, having pushed Neptune back and countering another attack from Sun, "Do you want to risk his supremacy's wrath?!"
"Like I could destroy it," Guinevere scoffed.
"So, the book's what they need, huh?" Ben said, forming some axes. "See if there's anything that can enchant these bad boys."
"Right." Gwen said, flipping to a page filled with runes.
Willa growled and turned her attention back to Sun and Neptune just in time. She formed another crystal gauntlet on her other arm and grabbed both of the weapons that were coming down to strike her. Sun and Neptune looked on in shock as Willa lifted them up and over her head, before she turned and slammed them into the pavement.
"You have us at a bit of a disadvantage," the crystal-user half-heartedly complained, "I thought you hero-types were all about fair fights. So why don't I even up the number of players in this little game?" The crystal-user smirked and let the claws on her gauntlets extend outward before she lashed out. The claws then launched from her gauntlets and jabbed into the pavement, causing more crystals to grow from them.
"That doesn't look good." Kevin said, shifting his hands into Red Vox's hands. He launched a powerful burst of sound that caused some of the crystals to shatter. The low noise made the ground shake, much to the chagrin of Willa.
The crystals that remained unshattered, however, began to grow faster and faster.
"Wait...if this girl looks like Winter...you don't think she has similar powers, do you?" Ben asked, looking at his shoulder.
"I think you're kind of stretching it there!" Ruby called out as she dodged another barrage of magic blasts from Gwen's evil double. Kevin took aim at the sorceress and fired off a barrage of soundwaves, but she managed to weave through them expertly.
Of course, it was around then that Ruby heard something like a roar mixed with shattering glass almost deafen her. She turned to the source and her eyes widened in shock.
"Ben, you jinxed it!" the red-hooded huntress called out. Ben had finished the axes and turned to see a small horde of crystalline monsters. Among the more unique ones were a chimeric creature with the traits of a monkey, a big cat of some kind, with a snake for a tail, a massive dinosaur-like creature with small eyes and horns on its head and chin, two warriors that resembled the typical viking but were clearly corpses wearing their armor, and what seemed to be a car-sized weasel or ferret with massive scythe-blades for claws, like a raptor.
Ben held up his axes, and looked at the menagerie of beasts before him. "Okay, we try shattering a few, and if that doesn't work out, we run for the hills."
The weasel-creature rushed at Kevin before leaping into the air and seemingly began to fly. The creature lashed out with its scythe-claws and began cutting into Kevin from every opening it could.
"Hey wait a minute," Nora said, "She summoned draugr?"
"You know what these are?" Pyrrha asked, her attention jumping back to one of the undead vikings as it brought an axe down on her shield.
"Well, yeah. They're not so much zombies, but more revenants. Imagine if the spirit decided to hop back into the body after death and then rose out of the grave that way," the hammer wielder explained.
"That's...right...actually," Willa blinked a few times, "The 'airhead' of your group knows something?"
"Hey! I'm not an airhead! Besides, everyone has their own hobby or weird thing they know a lot about. For me, it's Norse mythology," Nora pouted.
"It's true." Ren said, putting a bullet through the head of the chimeric cat creature. "Her knowledge is so frighteningly specific and open at the same time."
"I'll say." Ben lobbed off the limb of the carsized weasel, sending it to the ground.
"Huh...reminds me of someone. Too bad she and I never really got along," Willa said, changing the shape of the crystals on her arm. While the others were dealing with either the crystal-beasts or the evil Gwen, Willa took the chance to duel with Ruby. Her once relatively generic crystal gauntlet had shifted to resemble the scythe-claw of the weasel. The crystal-user rushed in and swiped at Ruby, aiming for the huntress' neck. The shaft of Crescent Rose caught the blade instead, stopping the Winter duplicate's momentum.
Ruby smirked at Willa before spinning the weapon in her hands and knocking Willa off balance.
Ruby leapt through the air while rolling forward with Crescent Rose. Willa narrowly avoided where Ruby's scythe was to impale her- bingo. Ruby wanted that. She quickly followed up by firing a bullet from her scythe once she hit the floor. The bullet hit Willa in the chest, and began to electrocute her.
The counterpart screamed as the current surged through her body.
No Aura? Ruby thought to herself, seeing the damage just that one shot did to her, Ok, so they were right. Wonder if a lack of Aura's a common thing about magic users.
Willa stumbled backwards and Ruby rushed in to take advantage. Ruby spun around and curled herself up in her cape before she rocketed forward at high speeds, She began darting around the sorceress, slicing them multiple times with the resulting slipstream.
The crystal mage tried to shield herself, letting some of the slices scuff her crystal armor, leaving noticeable scratches. The armor itself held strong, though, protecting her, somewhat. Some cuts managed to bypass her defenses, chipping away at the bulwark and tearing into the mage.
Ruby manifested behind her and her eyes lit up. Her 'rose raid' hadn't worked as well as it should have, but it did give her some openings. Ruby shifted her scythe into its energy mode, and swung upwards sending a wave of ice traveling across the floor and freezing the ground beneath Willa's feet.
"Cryomancy?" Willa asked.
"Nope! Ice Dust!" Ruby smirked.
"That sounds stupi-" Willa began, before dodging under one of Ruby's scythe swings.
Willa slipped and fell on her backside. Ruby slammed her scythe into the ground, and froze her in place. Nora's eyes sparked. Ruby gave her the thumbs up.
"Shatter her if you can." Ruby said.
Nora yelled, as she ran and leapt up- she swung her hammer while firing a grenade from it, boosting the power of her strike.
The hammer came down with an explosive impact, seemingly shattering Willa to pieces. The evil Gwen, meanwhile, threw a massive energy saw-like glyph at Kevin, only for him to stop it with his own crystal-clad hands, courtesy of shifting to Black Ice.
Kevin pressed down hard, shattering the glyph into pieces. Neptune and Sun rushed past him, ready to blitz the sorceress. Guinevere rolled her eyes, and caught them in a telekinetic bind.
"Predictable aren't you?" she rolled her eyes and slammed them together. She looked over her shoulder to see Willa seemingly shattered and sighed.
"Fine then. Guess we're doing it the hard way, unless you want to give up the book now!" Guinevere yelled over to her earthly counterpart.
"Sure, since you asked so politely!" Gwen yelled, words drenched in sarcasm, as Ben ran into battle. The enchantments Gwen had placed on his weapons were about to be very useful. He tossed the axes at Guinevere and she threw up a shield in response, but the axes phased through the defenses and smashed into her body. One lucky axe even managed to hack off one of her arms.
Everyone gasped, and expected Guinevere to scream...no. Instead, she looked at her fallen arm. Her eyes lit up, and the arm began to glow from the wound. Her arm floated back over to her, and reattached itself. The wound vanished instantaneously.
"Any consolation, that wasn't painless. About as bad as a bee sting," Guinevere smirked.
"I mean, that can be painful if you're allergic!" Nora interjected.
"Shut up," the evil Gwen counterpart rolled her eyes.
Ben frowned as he held out his hands. The axes returned to him, thanks to the runes on them.
"Looks like I'll just need to aim better." Ben said. "Pyrrha! Gonna need an assist here!"
"On it!" Pyrrha yelled, focusing her attention on Ben's axes after battering away the crystal draugr. Nora jumped in and slammed her hammer down on it to shatter the recreation of the undead soldier.
Ben launched his axes forward- Pyrrha's polarity boosted their speed and aimed at the evil Gwen's head. Gwen quickly created a glyph in front of the axes- the axes went through the glyphs and multiplied into dozens of projectiles. Guinevere was battered and pelted with axes, but she didn't even throw up a shield this time. She endured the attack with ease.
"...that's kinda concerning," Nora said. Ben and Pyrrha exchanged a look, thinking the same thing. Why didn't she even try to stop that?
Guinevere's body looked like a murder victim's after all the axes stopped coming at her. Her limbs were battered, bruised, severed and her face? That was a nightmare even to describe.
"This doesn't hurt." Guinevere said plainly. The others watched in shock as her body started to heal from all of the wounds, like nothing ever happened.
"Well if we're just dropping the act," a familiar voice said. Nora went still from hearing that and turned around to see the crystal shards of Willa rejoin and reform into the crystal-user.
"How...how did you..." Nora stammered.
"If it was easy to kill one of us, we wouldn't have the positions we do," Willa smirked.
"Shit..." Ben said, gritting his teeth. Enemies able to come back from anything, with a near infinite power at their disposal. This battle would quickly turn into one of one sided attrition. They needed to get out of here, now.
"Well, as fun as this has been, we should really wrap this up. Guinevere, do you mind?" Willa asked.
"I don't mind one bit." Guinevere put her hands together, as a glyph formed underneath the group's feet.
"Uh, guys? The hell is going on!?" Sun yelled.
Gwen's eyes widened as she recognized the glyph. "Crap- it's an energy draining glyph! They're highly dangerous, usually fatal!"
"Annnnd I'm guessing we can't just jump ou-" Nora was about to ask, only for crystals to jut out of the ground to form a cage around each person.
"Just to shut you up. You've been more annoying than most." Guinevere said.
"Give her this, she at least knew about the draugr. Head's not entirely empty," Willa smirked.
Ben struggled within his cage. His arms were stuck in between crystals, as if to keep himself from transforming. Ben shook his body and huffed. The Omnitrix gave out, and reverted him back to human. "I swear- if I had Master Control!"
"Shame you'll never get to learn...whatever that is," Willa said, "Guinevere?"
As Ben struggled, Guinevere fixed her gaze on his face. Her face took on a vacant and bewildered look. It appeared for a brief moment that...no, it couldn't be.
"Beck?" Gwynevere enquired. Ben didn't reply; in fact, he was unaware that she was even speaking to him.
However, her shock was brief. Gwen experienced an odd, tingling sensation across her entire body. In a bright red flash, Gwen and the others disappeared into thin air.
"...Guinevere," Willa deadpanned, looking up to her ally.
"Don't look at me! I don't know how that happened!" Gwen's doppelganger defended.
"Ugh...why did he even partner me up with you..."
Gwen and the others made a less-than-perfect landing in a library. Nora had somehow smashed through a bookcase and left books all over the place, Ben's body was on top of one of the other still-standing bookcases.
"Owww." Pyrrha stood back up. She'd landed on Jaune, which had broken her fall. Still hurt though.
"What just happened?" Gwen said, looking around.
"Apologies." A voice said. "I'm not used to teleporting that many people."
"Wait...that voice..." Gwen took a moment to think back. She'd heard this voice before, several times in fact.
"Miss Tennyson, I do hope I managed to activate the spell in time. No last minute injuries," the voice said.
"From the crazy magicians? No. From being thrown into a bookcase...also, no, but it might bruise at worst," Nora joked a bit.
Ben shook his head and moaned. He remembered that voice since he had a good memory. It had been years since he heard it...
"That voice..." Ben said, looking over.
"And your cousin as well. How interesting," one of Gwen's professor's said, stepping into view.
"Isn't that the ancient history and artifact teacher?" Nora asked.
"Ancient Civilizations and Associated Antiquities is the proper name of the course, Miss Valkyrie, but Mister Tennyson here would know me better as Hex."
"Yeah. Once or twice, had to deal with rogue magic. Min wasn't around yet, and Gwen was busy, so...we called in this guy." Ben said, jumping down from the bookcase.
"You're Charmcaster's uncle." Ruby said. "I remember you, from the first time we fought her..."
"Maybe my wayward niece will throw open the doors in a few moments if the reunion keeps going this way," Hex said.
"Wayward's one word to use," Ben muttered.
"Wait. You know where she is?"
"We'll talk about that later." Kevin said. "Where the hell are we?"
Ren looked around. "Fredkin University Poe Library. Reserved for some older literature and more 'gothic' stories."
Gwen brushed herself off, and looked at Hex. "I didn't realize you were teaching here."
"And I was unaware that you were going here. Small world." Hex mused.
"So what? We've got our thing here and a secret society of magic users, too?" Nora asked.
"It's not a secret society. As far as I was aware, I was the only one with any sort of...occult knowledge. But, now I must ask...where is the book?"
"Please tell me you're not a bad guy this time," Ruby said.
"Not at all. But those you were fighting? Very much so. Their master, an even worse being," Hex cleared up.
"Why did one of them resemble me?" Gwen enquired.
"The other girl reminded me of Weiss' sister, if she was a tad bit more sadistic. Little curious on the story behind that." Kevin continued.
Hex took a deep breath. "A long time ago, Hope and I ran from a paradise ruined by war. That place was Ledgerdomain, a world filled with magic and beauty. I can only describe Ledgerdomain as a 'parallel' to our own Earth."
"What, like an 'else-world' kind of thing?" Ben asked.
"Hm...not the comparison I would've used, but somewhat apt. The only difference is that those from Ledgerdomain only share physical traits with those from this plane of existence. History, personality? Entirely different, not even a polar opposite," Hex further explained.
"That explains why that Guinevere girl resembled Gwen so closely. She's your Ledgerdomain version." Jaune stated. Gwen looked away.
"That's the craziest bullshit I've heard all day. You're pulling on my tail." Sun laughed.
Neptune glared at Sun, his eye twitching in irritation. "You were just teleported across the map and witnessed a dude transform into an alien." Neptune stated bluntly.
"And yet, you and those like you fight creatures attracted to negative emotions with said creatures being similar in form to real animals or outright mythical monsters," Hex countered.
"Yeah. That's totally believable." Sun shrugged. Ben reached into his pocket, and pulled out some lien. He handed it to Neptune.
"You deserve money for putting up with his logic." Ben said.
"I've dealt with this for way longer. Should have way more money than this," Neptune groaned.
"Now then, Miss Tennyson? The book," Hex held his hand out for it.
"...why did they want it?" Gwen asked. "And what was it doing in MY possession?"
"They want to deliver it to their master. Knowing him, the book contains some way to ensure his reign continues. As for why it's in your possession..." Hex mused, unsure on that himself.
"This master. He's the one who took over your home?" Pyrrha asked. One look from Hex told her everything, confirming that it was while also expressing sheer sorrow connected with this mysterious figure.
"As far as I know, Hope and I are the only survivors of his last attack. No other refugees made it through." Hex said.
"So...we're fighting minions of Sauron, then?" Sun half-joked.
"His name is Addwaitya and comparing him to a fictional villain like Sauron is grossly inaccurate. Sauron is tame in comparison."
"If the book is so important...here." Gwen passed it back to Hex. "I trust you'd know what to do with it more than I do."
Hex nodded and began flipping through the pages, looking for something.
"Many of the spells in here, while powerful, would not warrant this much of a response from that shelled tyrant," the mage said.
"...shelled?" Kevin asked.
"Addwaitya is an alien. A Geochelone Aerio. Quite a few have lived in Ledgerdomain. A powerful species when they know how to utilize their powers." Hex said. "Immune to magic, but they're usually a peaceful people. But I suppose every species has those outliers."
"Immune to magic and he conquered an entire dimension of magic users. That's...that's not ominous."
"It's been so long since I've seen my home, and I worry for the good men and women I left behind." Hex said. "But I can never go back."
"You're a renegade." Gwen said.
"No. I'm a coward." Hex frowned. "I ran to survive. I hide among the human race, a race of cowards. I am not only walking in that procession but also holding that banner."
"Mark Twain." Nora nodded. "Good author."
"Her knowledge is scaring me again." Kevin said.
"I'll be honest...not even I'm aware of the true extent of what knowledge she has," Ren admitted.
"Secret weapon. It always throws people off," Nora smirked.
"The book doesn't need to be guarded now. It needs to be destroyed." Hex said. "To protect both worlds."
"Destroyed? That might not be the best option," Gwen admitted.
"Why not? Don't tell me you'd risk learning something from the tome and accidentally stumble upon the summoning rite for one of the Old Gods?" Hex asked.
"First off, Old Gods?"
"Nevermind."
"Second off, my concern is aimed at how Addwaitya's agents will react. If they find out you did it, they might figure your head's a good consolation."
"She's got a good point." Sun said. "I like my head on my body, y'know."
"They did also say it wasn't easy to destroy. If you have a plan, may I ask what exactly you're suggesting?" Pyrrha asked.
"For now, gotta focus on my evil twin and her partner. Professor-" Gwen started.
"Just 'Hex' will do for now. Save the professor moniker for class," the mage interjected.
"Hex. Ok. Your spells, do you have anything that can animate something? Like, say, a statue?"
"Of course. Such a spell is trivi-" Hex began, but his eyes widened when he realized what Gwen was getting at, "Miss Tennyson, while risky, I can certainly say, this may work out in our favor."
"I don't follow here." Neptune said. "Why do you wanna animate a statue?"
"Good question." Gwen said. "Lemme explain…"
Gwen stood in the courtyard of the university, right in front of the famous Poe statue. Under her arm was the book, already glowing brightly. She looked above her to the left and saw Pyrrha give a thumbs up. To her right, Ben gave an affirmative thumbs-up as well. Everything was set. Gwen sighed, steeling herself for what was about to happen. Sure enough, without missing a beat, a portal ripped open the air on the other side of the courtyard. Hopping through it were Guinevere and Willa, accompanied by more of the latter's crystalline constructs. Eight more draugrs leapt through the portal and flanked the two sorceresses, while behind them, a massive brute jumped out and thudded to the ground. It was at least ten, maybe twelve feet tall, wielding a battle-axe one handed and using its other hand to carry a tower shield. The most striking feature was that the giant had no head whatsoever, its face seemingly on its chest of all places.
"Welcome to Fredkin University." Gwen said. "Unfortunately, no visitors are allowed after 9 PM. We'd ask school security to dismiss you, but they're not equipped for this."
"You're my counterpart." Guinevere said. "You've lived a life similar to mine."
"I may be." Gwen frowned. "Why do you bring that up now?"
Guinevere was about to say something, before Willa held her hand up to silence her.
"That's not important...is it?" Willa asked, her words taking on a threatening tone. She wanted this done and she wanted this quickly.
"It's not." Guinevere huffed, shaking her head, "Forget I said anything. Let's just get straight to the point, where's the book?"
"This book?" Gwen asked, holding it up. "Right here. You want it?"
"Yes. And if you try something...my friend here will free your head from its shoulders. Ever heard of a Xingtian?" Willa asked.
"I know a lot of mythology. Ogre with a face on its chest." Gwen said. "I don't fear that. It looks stupid."
"Would you prefer something a bit more intimidating? Like say," Willa mused for a moment, "A Nuckelavee? I've killed one of those before, nasty business."
Gwen shivered. "I'd rather stick with something silly looking than pure dread."
"...you're lucky Guinevere's terrified of it as well. Otherwise I would just summon it."
Even if she didn't say, Guinevere looked to Gwen with some thanks in her eyes.
"Now, about the book," Willa said.
"Yeah." Gwen said, holding it out. "Take it."
"…huh?"
"Take it. I've seen how you guys fight." Gwen said. "I can't stand up to it."
Willa narrowed her eyes a bit. She turned to one of the crystal draugr and gestured for it to retrieve the tome. It nodded back mindlessly and approached Gwen. It took a hold of the book and turned to return.
"Open it!" Willa shouted. The draugr froze and opened the book to see the pages inside.
The book…was blank. The draugr showed the book to his masters, who reacted just as poorly as you'd think.
"Deceiver!" Guinevere yelled.
"Oh! My bad. Must have been the wrong book!" Gwen smirked. She slammed her hands together and, emanating from her, a large, glass-like dome extended out, covering some of the roofs of the nearby buildings and the entire courtyard.
"Clever. Sound cancellation dome. Don't wanna wake someone up with your screams as I make the end slow?" Willa asked, crystals covering her arm and forming into a scorpion-like claw.
"Well, yeah." Gwen said. "I didn't want my cousin to wake everyone up…"
Ben stepped out from behind the statue, now Echo Echo. Willa and Guinevere stared at the creature.
"Your cousin turned into an imp." Willa scoffed.
"Yeah. A loud one."
"Loud enough to wake the dead?" Guinevere quipped.
"Loud enough to shatter every window here, at least," Ben said. He then split into six other Echo Echoes.
Guinever and Willa shared a look of confusion, totally unaware of what was about to happen.
"WALL. OF. SOUND!" the clones shouted in unison. Gwen covered her ears as the sound waves slammed into Addwaitya's agents. The crystalline creatures began to vibrate and shudder, their hearing not exactly at risk. Neptune appeared from behind a building, taking aim with his actual weapon, which he named Tri-Hard. It was some kind of boxy gray rifle with a light blue tube in the barrel. Blue energy gathered up in the rifle before rounds were fired.
The crystalline creatures exploded as the rifle's rounds collided with their forms, crystalline shards scattering across the ground.
"Bullseye!" Neptune called out, while Ben just grinned.
"Not so tough without an army now, are we?" Gwen yelled.
"WHAT?" Guinevere asked, her ears still ringing from the sonic assault.
Ben rushed at the two, and began to duplicate himself rapidly. Ben eventually dogpiled the two underneath a mountain of clones.
"Get...off of-!" Willa growled, more and more clones piling on top of the Winter look-alike. This was starting to get annoying. She began to build up power for a shockwave that would hopefully send all of the clones flying, but a quick sonic blast from one of the closer Echo Echo's broke her concentration.
Another Echo Echo leapt off the pile, and ran back to Gwen.
"Okay, they're restrained!" Ben yelled. "Do your magic, cuz!" Gwen's eyes began to glow, as her hands started to become surrounded by blue energy.
"Sonus solidum!" Gwen yelled, as a massive 'plate' of magic formed above the clones. The plate phased through the group, turning their silicon bodies into statues of some sort of heavy, unbreakable stones.
"Transmutation? That's new." Ben said.
Willa continued to thrash under the now stone mountain of clones, her body miraculously not crushed beneath it. Guinevere was knocked out from the pressure.
"DAMN IT!" Willa yelled. She may have to bring out the "big guns"…
"…Guinevere. I apologize." Willa said. "I may be of no use after this."
Of course, considering that the second mage was unconscious, that apology went unheard. Gwen was about to summon up mana handcuffs to throw on the two, but then she froze. Something was very wrong. Hex could sense it too, mana being channeled in a way that not even he recognized.
"What is this...energy?" Gwen asked, feeling the air become thick like jelly.
"...run." Hex said, looking at Gwen. "Run NOW."
"What?! But we have-!" Ben was about to counter, before seeing the increasingly intense light originating from Willa. The summoner grunted as more and more of her own mana was channeled into the spell. Some of it was siphoned off to Guinevere, who slowly regained consciousness under the stone pile.
"Foes long dead...and from bones long withered," Willa began to chant, "Here the call of...of a desperate summoner. A great beast of old...felled by heroes...return now, to spread new woes!" With that last word, the spell finished and unleashed a massive shockwave. Guinevere was somehow able to steel herself again the blast, even when the others were sent flying and the mountain of stone Echo Echoes was shattered to pieces.
Crystal shards were sent flying like shrapnel, almost burying themselves into the walls of the school buildings...and the backs of several of the heroes. Hex tried to stop the shrapnel, turning around to cast a spell but froze when he saw a shard racing towards his face. He closed his eyes and braced for an end...that never came.
Hex opened his eyes and saw that the crystalline shard had stopped mere inches away from impaling him right between the eyes. In fact, all the shards had stopped before they reached their targets. And as quickly as they launched out, they began to retract, like Clockwork had used his rewind ability.
Ben, however, was still Echo Echo. As the crystals retreated back to their origin point, they began to combine into a new shape, a very large shape. First, two clawed feet and legs slammed into the pavement of the courtyard, followed by four more as the crystals moved up to form the body. It was long and muscled, covered by a massive reptilian shell. A feline-like tail, long with a tuft of hair at the end, slammed into the ground as it wove its way past the shelled body. Finally, a lion's head formed at the base of a crystalline neck, letting out a deafening roar as the spell finished.
"What IS that?" Ben yelled.
"Casters have a powerful arsenal of spells...but specialized ones can release all their magic into one attack." Hex said. "This one just happens to be autonomous!"
Gwen grit her teeth. "Tell me this has a weakness, or say nothing."
Hex said nothing.
"Great." Gwen frowned.
"You actually have one..." Guinevere muttered as she looked up at the crystalline beast, "I thought you were exaggerating with this. You actually killed...a Tarrasque."
"Such creatures are rare…and you thought to end it, just to enslave it," Hex growled..
"That's just Willa's style," Guinevere said, slapping the thing's side. "Destroy them."
The lion head looked down at Guinevere and growled, as if it was warning her not to touch it. But, it didn't really have a choice in the matter when it came to its commands. The towering summoned roared and made a beeline for Gwen.
Ben slapped down the Omnitrix and swapped to Diamondhead. He made a massive wall of crystals before the beast, hoping to slow it down.
"GO!" Ben yelled, as they started to take off.
The wall lasted a grand total of three seconds as the Tarrasque steamrolled the barrier, sending the crystalline shards scattering across the stones of the courtyard.
"Gwen? Magic's not fucking fair," Ben deadpanned after seeing his usually tight defense trampled.
"I know!" Gwen yelled back.
Hex held up his hands, crossed his arms and clenched his fists. "Warrior of the beyond, hear my call- I summon thee. New Moon!"
A green, glasgow smiling avatar appeared from a glyph. "Strike the beast down."
"What!? That puny looking dude?!" Sun yelled. "What can he do?"
The avatar flew at the beast, and punched it. It made a weak 'clink' noise, as Ben groaned. "Your warrior of the beyond sucks!"
"No, it does not. Watch." The magician pointed at the beast. The beast looked like it was struggling to stand. "Avatar Full Moon controls gravity. And it just made the beast unable to move for a few seconds. Gives us ample time to run..."
"I think you forgot someone," Guinevere taunted before firing off a barrage of mana spikes at Kevin and Ruby. The former quickly blocked by morphing his arm into that of Twisted Sister, letting the needles shatter like glass against the armored hide, while the latter spun her scythe in front of her and shattered the needles that way.
Ruby and Sun both sped at Guinevere, the former aiming to slice her arms off. Guinevere mockingly held up her arms, knowing Ruby's plan already. Ruby sliced at her arms- they fell off, and Guinevere made no effort to react. Several powerful smacks from Sun's own weapon, a massive red and gold staff, slammed and batted around the evil mage. Nothing really seemed to phase her, not even when the staff separated into a dual pair of nunchucks. When one of them fired off a bullet into her body, that at least got her confused. The nunchucks of Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang were actually composed of dual lever-action shotguns.
"What kind of weapon…?" Guinevere asked.
"Like 'em? Designed these bad boys myself!" Sun said, landing one final blow before the mage was finished with these games. With a growl, Guinevere unleashed a horrid mass of tendrils spat out of her arm wounds and tangled up her attackers.
"Magic courses through my body...and that includes my veins." Guinevere said.
While the others were grossed out by this, especially Ruby and Sun since they were the victimized parties, Hex had a revelation. While she treated that as a normal thing, the elder sorcerer was wise enough to recognize dark magic side-effects when he saw them.
"BEN, PLEASE DO NOT JUST STAND THERE!" Ruby yelled, trying to cut her way free of the tangle of squirming veins. (Author's Note: That was just as gross to read as it was to write.)
Ben rushed in, and shifted into Nanomech. "Put her down, or I'll blast your face in!"
"Oh no, that's so intimidating," Guinevere rolled her eyes. The mage's severed arms began to shake, before the veins from the limbs shot out to try and entangle Ben as well.
"...I'm not bringing this up with them ever again," Doppler said.
"Cute." Ben said, as he shrank down. His hands formed massive blades, and she began to slice through the veins with ease.
"Dark sorcery...how apt that he would let you dabble in that with so little concern," Hex scoffed.
"He doesn't need to know." Guinevere said, as her limbs reattached with ease. "It won't kill him."
"But it might kill you. A native of Navota should be more than educated enough to understand the dangers of dark magic."
"How'd you-?"
"I speak from experience. Now then," Hex slammed his staff to the ground as a massive rune appeared under him, "One foe is enough to deal with and I would much rather focus on your comrade's summon."
"A little spelling contest, hm? Times have changed, old man. There's plenty of new magic, yet Earth is so limited with them." Guinevere said.
"There are safeguards for a reason. For instance," Hex held a hand forward, embers rising off his fingers, "Veins are incredibly flammable."
The elder mage snapped his fingers and several of Guinevere's vein-tendrils ignited.
Guinevere didn't flinch. The flames embraced her veins, and she remained still. "You don't get it...do you?"
Hex was unnerved by this woman. "What are you?"
"Someone far more powerful than you can imagine." She said.
"Hey, asshole! You forgot someone!" Kevin called out. Gwen had, unknowingly, pulled a page from Weiss' book, forming up the equivalent of a magical ballista with Kevin as the bolt. The drill of Twisted Sister's arm was already spinning up and ready to go. Before the strange monstrosity that Guinevere could react, Gwen fired. Kevin was launched at Gwen's dark counterpart, slashing through any tendril that tried to get in his way, before he slammed into Guinever's chest with the drill.
Guinevere once again didn't react. She stared at the drill going through her chest, and hummed. "It doesn't hurt."
"The fuck?" Kevin asked in shock.
"Magic is a funny thing, isn't it?" Guinevere said. "It can make the worst of pains just feel like a tiny itch."
"Not the first regenerating asshat we've had to deal with, though. How do you handle being burned from the inside out?!" Kevin yelled, as Twisted Sister's drill changed from being made of metal to Pyronite fire. The drill began to spin and spew flames into Guinevere's body.
Guinevere once again did not react. She held up her finger, and poked Kevin in the chest. "Bye."
Kevin was sent flying backwards at 100 MPH. He was only able to survive the impact against the wall by having Doppler deploy some of Eat the Rich's flesh around his body as an 'air bag'.
"What is her healing factor?" Kevin groaned.
Guinevere flipped some of her hair back. The runes I have on my body will protect me from anything. I don't fear death- in fact, I challenge it...
To come and take me herself.
Kevin, still dazed a bit from the impact, got back up to his feet and eyed Guinevere. If there was one thing he learned from Min it was that magic, no matter what kind it was, had a limit. He just needed to find her and survive to push past it.
Or find a way to work around it.
"Hope this works," Kevin said, before he slammed down on the dial of the Antitrix. At first, Kevin's body turned to vines, plant matter of some sort, giving off the impression that he'd change into Smashing Pumpkins, or maybe something from Savage Garden. The latter was partly correct. Some of the vines were covered by a white substance, almost like leather, and small speakers appeared on the lower vines.
"Soundgarden?" Doppler asked.
"Hey, it could work. Her magic works for physical shit, right? Nothing says a concentrated sonic scream in her ear won't cancel out," Kevin countered.
"Fair enough." Doppler said, covering his ears. Kevin slammed his arms into the ground, causing vines to grow all over. The vines surrounded Guinevere, and unleashed a powerful sonic blast.
The soundwaves slammed into Gwen's doppelganger, filling her ears and stunning her. Her hands went to cover her ears, trying to mitigate some of the damage as best she could.
"Come...on..." Kevin huffed, hoping to overwhelm this girl with pure sound.
The sounds grew louder and louder, more intense. More heads sprouted out of the ground, adding onto the cacophony.
And that's when Guinevere had enough. Her hands lit up, glowing with a sinister aura.
"SHUT! UP!" the Ledgerdomain counterpart yelled. She spun on the spot, taking her hands off of her ears and firing off concentrated beams of pure energy. The mana lasers sliced through the vines, speakers, and grown heads to put an end to Kevin's attack. But the bad news for Guinevere was that Kevin wasn't the only one to act. A pink orb of mana, courtesy of Gwen, slammed into her evil double and, instead of exploding, encased her within it, freezing her in place.
"Got...got her," Gwen said, maintaining her concentration on the spell.
"Paralysis bubble...effective, but only so long as the caster maintains focus," Hex explained to the non-magic users present.
"Ok, we got her. So what, do we just boot them back home?" Ruby asked.
"It's going to take a lot more than just a simple 'boot'." Hex said, pulling out a spell book. "This battle may need to change locations- this portal is going to open for a long while."
"Please...hurry," Gwen strained, "I am not that good...with this spell, yet."
Hex took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. "Porta aperta est, eos remitte. Remitte eos ad locum cui pertinent. Vere nolo eos in meo novo domo videre..." As he chanted the spell, the ground beneath them began to shift.
"Uhhh, is this supposed to be happening?" Sun yelled.
"Think so!" Kevin said.
"Just 'think so,' not 'know so?'" Sun countered.
"Look, magic's weird!"
"No SHIT Sherlock!"
"STOP YELLING!" Nora yelled, as the world around them seemed to be warping.
"Mr. Hex?! The trippy visuals are freaking me out!" Neptune yelled.
"Yes! GOOD!" Hex snarled back. "THAT MEANS IT'S WORKING!"
"And I thought Min's teleportation was-" Ruby began.
Before the red-hooded reaper could finish, there were several high pitched and energized zip sounds before everyone found themselves outside of the city, somewhere in the wilderness. If Hex had to guess, he'd say that he managed to teleport everyone, even the Avatar and the Tarrasque, about ten miles away from any nearby bystanders. Just them and these invaders now.
"-...weird," Ruby finished. She blinked a few times, realizing they were now all out in the middle of a forest.
"Oh god...I think I'm gonna be sick..." Neptune groaned.
"S-same...same here," Jaune agreed.
"You'll be fine!" Hex countered, "A little transportation at speeds unfathomable to modern science never hurt anyone!"
"You teleported us to the middle of the woods!?" Jaune yelled. "I thought we were sending them back to where they came from!"
"That...takes...more time!" Hex huffed. "Plus, if I used THAT spell, it could also teleport a large chunk of the college to Ledgerdomain!"
"As much fun as it would be to...ya know, visit another dimension, I am not ready for that trip, today!" Nora said.
"Gwen! How much longer can you hold her?!" Hex asked. The sorcerer's eyes were fixed on the still unmoving form of Willa, her body having been drained by that last spell. Good. No worries from her then.
"Y'know..." Ben frowned. "Looking at these guys up close, they kinda look like...people we know. The one in the bubble... Looks like Winter, doesn't it?"
Ruby paused. "Hey, yeah...it kinda does."
"I will explain everything when they are gone," Hex said. He raised his staff in the air and slammed into the ground. From the bottom of the staff, a rune drew itself around a large area, making sure to keep Willa and Guinevere within it. The mage's eyes began to glow as he began uttering words in a language that not even Gwen recognized.
"What is he doing?" Ren asked.
"I think he's actually gonna send them home...make sure they can't come back," Pyrrha answered.
"Good." Ben said. "Magic users are always pesky to deal with- always got one trick of their sleeves."
Willa could confirm this...
She wasn't as drained as Hex had hoped. She still had some strength left in her. Energy began to silently gather in her hand, just enough to make a dagger. She had one shot at this so the timing needed to be perfect.
"Die in hell, you traitor of a mage..." She muttered, as she tossed the knife as hard as she could.
The dagger flew right for Hex's throat and it would've sliced right into the mage, were it not for a burst of red rose petals rushing in front and seemingly taking the dagger with it. Ruby landed on the other side of Hex, icy dagger in hand. She tossed it off to the side and gave Willa a look of "Not so fast."
"You...he will hear of you. All of you!" Willa threatened.
"You mean this…Addwaitya guy?" Ben asked. "I'll beat him down if I have to."
"You...couldn't hold a candle to him." Willa frowned.
"We have bigger problems to deal with right now. So, tell him to take a number," Ruby snarked.
"Bigger? Oh, you deluded child...no one is greater than he who unified Ledgerdomain!" Willa hissed.
"Unified?" Ben said. "That's just the code word for 'he's a dictator'."
"He is a SAVIOR!" Willa screeched.
Ben rolled his eyes. "I've heard that line before."
The portal beneath Willa and Guinevere was ready now, signaled by the rune filling in at the middle with a bright purple energy. Bolts of energy lashed out into the air like the flames off a star's surface before they quickly faded out. The Avatar Hex had summoned faded away, releasing the angriest Tarrasque that had ever been summoned. The crystalline beast thrashed about before the rune pulled the monster through the portal. Willa, too weak to stand, was forced to watch as it sank down. Soon, she, too, slowly began to sink into the energy, being transported back to her own world.
"You...won't be safe...any longer, Brother of Spellbinder," Willa cursed. Hex paid her no mind, keeping the portal strong. Gwen lowered her own counterpart into the portal quickly but carefully. Guinevere quickly vanished into the purple light, back in her own world.
The portal zipped shut, sealing them back into their own dimension...for now. Hex dropped to the ground, and breathed heavily.
"Ugh...I have not used magic like that in a while."
Gwen fell to her knees as well, panting from exhaustion.
"That...that was...much more taxing than I thought," Gwen panted.
"Hey, take it easy," Nora said, kneeling next to her, "You did good."
"Crazy plan, cuz." Ben said. "Totally unlike you...and I'm all for it, to be honest."
"Of course you would be," Gwen smirked.
"No, like. Seriously. I mean it." Ben laughed. "I like that you're doing stuff like this now! You're totally stepping out of your comfort zone and stuff. You'd probably go more logical if not for these guys..."
"They've rubbed off on me. What can I say?" Gwen smirked.
"Yeaaaaaah, we bring the chaos!" Nora cheered.
"Back then, when you turned down joining us, I figured you had a good reason for it. Our personalities just didn't mesh...you just needed to find your own group." Kevin said.
"A-ah, yeah. Just...y'know." Jaune said. "We're...we're cool and everything."
"Heh, yeah, you guys are," Ruby smirked.
"O-oh! I, uh-" Jaune started.
"Just take the compliment, dude," Sun smirked, patting Jaune on the back.
"And you...I dunno who you are but...you seem nice." Ruby said. "If you're with Gwen, that means she tolerates you. That's good enough for me."
"Name's Sun. Friend here's Neptune. Sorry we never got to say hello before all this happened," Sun shrugged, "But better late than never right?"
"Eh, we're used to meeting people in weird circumstances." Ben said.
"I hope you're ok with staying the night," Gwen said, "Don't think I can muster the energy to teleport you back right now."
"Nor I. Returning those two to Ledgerdomain was...costly."
"...wellllll, since we are here..." Ben grinned. "Wanna resume our movie night with plus..." Ben counted the people in the group. "6...debatably 7 if Hex wants to join..."
"What were you watching?" Pyrrha asked.
"I...dunno, something Sumo Slammers related." Ben shrugged. "We can change it if you-"
Pyrrha's eyes lit up. "...Sumo Slammers?"
"Yeah, just some show we liked, we were showing it to Kevin-" Ruby explained.
"I...love Sumo Slammers." Pyrrha said.
"Wait what?" Jaune, Nora, Gwen, and Ben all asked in unison.
"What? Is that so surprising?" Pyrrha blushed a bit, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
"...favorite episode."
"Sumo For All, the one where the alternate Ishiyama's duel to settle who's the greatest in the multiverse."
"Favorite movie?" Nora asked.
"The Two Warriors, where Ishiyama and his mentor Yaginagi fight against a villain taking over a small, peaceful island."
"And you never said anything about this because?" Nora raised a brow.
"It just…never came up," Pyrrha rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
Ben breathed in.
"...Gwen. Protect this one the hardest." Ben said.
"Ok, so that's one extra," Ruby said, "Anyone else?"
"OH WE ARE SO WATCHING IT." Nora grinned, giddy.
"It would be good to relax a bit after...all this," Ren chimed in.
"So, uh...should we hitchhike back to your campus and get to watching?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah!" Pyrrha grinned.
"Apologies for the...distance," Hex said, still catching his breath, "And for having to decline. I'm afraid I have some research to begin. I need to know what he wanted with that tome...what specifically."
"It's fine. Besides, uh...I don't think you'd enjoy it." Gwen said.
"I wonder why." Hex sarcastically sighed.
"Hmmm...actually maybe I could speed us back? Or fly us?" Ben wondered, scrolling through some of his aliens.
"That will not be necessary." Hex said, holding up his hand. "I will transport you back."
"Won't that just drain your mana even more?" Gwen asked.
"I have many reserves."
"If you say so," Gwen said.
After a quick flash of energy, the group found themselves back at the campus, right in front of the Edgar Allen Poe statue.
"...teleporting is weird." Neptune said.
"You'll get used to it," Ben said, walking towards Gwen's dorm.
"Do I want to know how you're so used to it?" Sun asked.
"Chaos demon, transported to a pocket-dimension with an Ohio town in it, alien tech," Ruby listed off, "List goes on."
"You guys seem fun. You guys got any openings?" Sun asked.
"Sun, do not." Neptune chided.
"What? Sage and Scarlet-"
"Should also be here to vote on that kind of thing!"
"...I mean do you guys want to have nightmares about the town turned toybox?" Ruby asked.
"Toybox?" Sun asked.
"Well, dollhouse, but still. Fucking creepy," Kevin shivered.
"Like I said! You guys live a crazy life." Nora said. "And I want in sooooo badly."
"Hmmm...we'll see," Ben said.
"YES!" Nora cheered.