<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">The City</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Vespi</span><br/><br/>This was getting ridiculous. Vespi wheeled her bike (with Scarlet still in tow) around to find the Dayman embracing an apparently future version of himself, the city rebuilt, and three villains from an unrelated side plot suddenly making themselves related. All without any word from Geirhald still. That made her nervous – and lightning didn’t get nervous. Lighting was swift and sure, striking without warning and without mercy.<br/><br/>Sandstorms were equally unforgiving, she had to remind herself. They swept across the landscape in a dark, billowing clouds of so fine, individual grains were all but invisible. Yet, together, they formed an unrelenting wave of destruction. Geirhald was that unrelenting wave. He would see the mission through if for nothing else than that.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">No. He’ll do it for me.</span>The thought made her smile sadly.<br/><br/>A few other Storm Riders had pulled up beside her – a Rainstorm, a Wildfire, and an Avalanche – looking uncertain.<br/><br/>“We’re still running interference.” She forced the sharp crack of electricity back into her voice. “Until Geirhald confirms the success of the mission…we run interference.” Or until he fails. “That means those three” she indicated the Nightman, Horror, and Sark “are our new targets. We keep them occupied. Clear?” When they didn’t respond right away, she said again, “Are we clear?” A flash of lightning punctuated her words and made them nod vigorously.<br/><br/>“Then go!” She revved and sped off.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Horror</span><br/><br/>Horror, tired of being that guy who just lets things happen to him, decided to not be that guy who just lets things happen to him. “Stow it Sark,” he said airily. “Some of us were in stasis for a while. I’m sure the rest of my abilities will manifest quickly enough.”<br/><br/>He spied Fenris getting a little two comfortable with Cale. “Did you know, Sark, that before I was taken, I was revered as a god?” He snatched a few impossibly unsuspecting passers-by with a tentacle arm and pumped pure liquid horror into them. They mutated instantly, exploding and twisting this way and that until they looked like meaty skeletons walking upside down. And backwards. “Oh yes. The people of the Land of Stone and Sand thought I was some god or another come back to walk the earth. Course the local Pharaoh didn’t like that and had me mummified. That’s why I don’t have any internal organs anymore, you see. Anyway, I caused a plague when I was awakened.” He grinned amiably at Sark. “What have you done in your time?”<br/><br/>The Twisted constructions began to slither and squirm towards Fenris. The fastest one joined the shoulder-nuzzling. He made a sound that was almost a sob, dripping some kind of fluid onto Fenris’ hair. “Don’t worry…it’ll be…alright…” it moaned.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Sailor Solar</span><br/><br/>Sailor Solar giggled at the booty-pat, embar<span style="font-weight: bold">ass</span>ed flames spurted from his ears. “Looks like they’re beginning to march, my fine youthful self. That means it is time for you and I – me and me – you and you – to bring the Light!”<br/><br/>He spun that Solar Wand like a professional majorette and kicked his leg like a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. “Dayman…Ah AH aaaaahh…” he began to sing<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Jeremiah Lettucehead</span><br/><br/>Jeremiah pantomimed some kung fu moves before answering Alias. “Yeah, man. They tore up my homeland real good, you see? We kicked ‘em out – the Vegetabloid Undergrowth. Well, I guess we’re the Overgrowth now. I’m part of the Spores; we go around hunting the Purifiers, keeping them from interfering with other folks who didn’t do nothing.”<br/><br/>He blinked in surprise at the sight of the city reforming around them. “Whoa, baby. This is definitely some Purifier ish going down. Whaddya say, Scales? Let’s you and me go find the source of this noise and put the Purifiers out of…where are we…Stormfront? Yeah, let’s kick them out of this place for good!”<br/><br/>His place swooped down and landed beside him. “Seats two. You can work the guns.”<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Infiltration Team</span></span><br/><br/>Although mostly unharmed, Jereman Opheia was unexpectedly caught off guard by Izaak’s wind gust – and then Kayla’s kunai. He recovered, still maintaining the Invisible Air, but not enough to act before Kayla’s katana found its mark. The wind barrier kept it from his heart, but she managed to slip through much more than he had anticipated.<br/><br/>“You are much more powerful than I thought,” he growled. He still held Hurricane, but just staying alive had kept him from using it once more. “I do so despise ninjas. Atmospheric Pressure – twofold!” Suddenly the weight of two atmospheres pressed down on Kayla and Kayla alone. “That should hold you. Now, who’s left?” He fixed his eyes on Izaak. “The wind mage…” Geirhald recovered and went to stand by Izaak. “And the Fairy. But who burned a hole through my door?”<br/><br/>That’s when he finally noticed Ephantus – and cursed himself for having taken so long. “Of course. You.” He remembered Ephantus from his time with Project: Midnight. The odd machine hive-mind had a way of seeming to belong in whatever situation it put itself in, even as it stood out as a fox in a henhouse, a curiously apt metaphor, he mused wryly. “You’re not with…her, are you, Ephantus?”