Almighty, unbroken: Ultimatum (Juney, Thor, Nekro)

A rhythmic tapping could be heard along the street outside Ultima Media. A fine, expensive looking black and gold cane hit the pavement in a manner not unlike song. This was Nick's first time in the City of Angels, and to be frank, he didn't really understand why they called it that. It wasn't that he thought there should be more of an angel motiff; he wasn't dull, despite his age. No, he knew the title was just another way of saying the city was great. That, that's the part he couldn't quite understand. All he had seen was a horrid representation of what decadency can do to a civilized society. It reminded him of Paris not too long ago, actually.

That ended in revolution, in fact.

Regardless, Flamel's opinion of the city didn't matter. What mattered was the fact this building he so casually walked outside of was about to be the target of something huge. A spark would erupt from this act, and the fire that would spring forth was the same thing Lucius Alba claimed to want to stop. Rise said they wanted to take evolution slow, or at least go about it in a controlled manner. This, this was not control. This was not order. Lucius was about to unleash something on the world that would only end in disaster, not a peaceful transition of power.

Sure, Nicolas was probably betraying Lucius by doing this, but it's not like the man hadn't done the same to him. Besides, people's lives were in danger, and Lucius had lost his way. Perhaps he had let the rage of his daughter's death get the best of him, or perhaps he had finally lost his discipline in using the power he wielded. Either way, The Father of Alchemy wasn't about to stand by and watch.

Flamel walked through the front doors. The building was dead. It was a weekend, and the normally buzzing media skyscraper had only a few dozen workers on the bottom floor. That said, security was still doing their job. They eyed him suspiciously as he made his way to the front counter.

"Excuse me? Yes, I believe this building is at risk. The meeting upstairs must conclude, and we'll need to evacuate."


"Not the most inconspicuous ride, Doc," Sven said, leaning back in the passenger seat. His arms were behind his robotic head, and his purple optics stared at the people walking along the streets. Yes, he was aware of the fact he wasn't helping in the stealth department, but why try when this damn thing draws literally all the suspicion?

"I guess it doesn't matter. Let's just get in and get out. I have SO many things i could be doing that aren't this," The cloaked machine said, eyeing the two operatives he had been sent with. Dressler, the more arrogant, more crazy, more attractive, blonde Lucius, and Dabbler....... He hadn't come up with an insult with several adjectives for her yet.

"Don't ask me why he put you in charge. I mean, just look at you. Everything about you is setting off my 'can't be trusted, run away, children!' alarm. And yeah, I have one of those," Sven said, looking at Dressler. Whatever the Doctor had to say would simply be ignored. Sven had heard enough pretentious monologues to know how to tune them out.

It was at this point he just got bored, and decided to leave. Yeah, he could say it was because a certain uber powerful alchemist just walked into their target building, but he wouldn't. He just liked irritating the Doctor, and wanted to make his departure seem random.

Sven planned to go through a ground floor window, but before he could, the building's fire alarm went off. Apparently old man Jenkins tipped them off. That or somebody called the cops on the pedo van.

"Well, shit."

Today's Dabbler was fueled by Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip cookie dough ice cream, and several empty pints had littered the floor of the van. The little mutant demon sorcerer was in her standard witch attire, a black-and-yellow ensemble with a pointy wizard hat on top.

"ERRRP!" Dabbler let out a big burp, then kept scarfing down the delicious ice cream, only paying half-attention to what was happening. Something something take over a media tower? There'd be ice cream? Sounds good enough.

"Take Over. Wait that's a bad guy word. Am I a bad guy today? If I was a good guy I was stopping take overs. Unless it's a good guy take over of a bad place. Wait. Am I thinking? or talking out loud?" Dabbler looked at her teammates, who probably listened to her rambling to herself. She looked at the screen then outside.

"I guess I am. We want to be inside that place yeah?" Dabbler looked out a van window and at the ground floor lobby. The thing with those high priced buildings was all the wonderful line of sight their big curtain windows afforded. With gestures and incantations, minute wrinkles in reality began to manifest, and a glowing portal grew below the van.

"Hocus pocus, presto chango, get us inside the lobby-o!" She said, sparing a few seconds of concentration on the task at hand.

The van 'fell' into the portal, fell meaning the truck seemed to take a brief tumble and ended up on its side inside the lobby, Dabbler having deposited them right at the front desk. Whatever objects or equipment inside that wasn't secured in place would likely have found a new location inside the van.

"...Houston, we have lift off!" Dabbler exclaimed as she stood right side up, shaking off the empty ice cream pints off and standing triumphant inside the lobby. She took in all the shiny decor, now that she'd done her fair share. "Oooh I've never been inside a major news building before!"

It wasn’t every day one received news that the famous Nicholas Flamel was making a move. It was a piece of information that tended not to bode well for the world at large, let alone the magic community. Not due to Monsieur Flamel himself, but because he never showed himself unless there was the potential for something to go horribly wrong. Of course, this wasn’t the only reason Leon was currently sitting in the lobby of Ultima Media. They had also been invited to accompany Coraline on a trip to LA to visit one of her friends, as well as for ‘sweet hangs’. The timing was too perfect to ignore. After all, there were no such thing as coincidences.

Speaking of the devil, there he entered, as unchanging as ever. Not for the first time, Leon wondered what would finally do this man in. What flaw would be exploited to engineer the man’s doom. There certainly were plenty to choose from. Taking a deep breath, they stood up and approached their target, their demeanor morphing into one that was much more earnest and well, plucky.

"Mr. Flamel!" They said as they joined the man at the front desk. "What are you doing here? Oh, it’s me, Leon by the way. I work for Mr. Amaranthine, remember?" They grinned brightly, rocking back and forth on their heels as they awaited a response, only for two things to happen at once: the fire alarm went off and the sensation of a sudden schism of magic in their immediate vicinity. Something was coming. With a Word, they quickly threw a shield around themselves and Mr. Flamel before whirling around just in time to see a matrix of power rip a hole in the space above, depositing a… van? on top of them. It slid off the shield, hitting the front desk instead with a cacophony of noise and dust that soon revealed a rather peculiar looking woman surrounded by what looked like empty pints of ice cream.

Leon cursed under their breath, staring at the figure with a look of what could only be described as consternation. This was terrible. She was exactly the sort of person they tended to avoid like the plague. The type of person they made sure to keep very close tabs on, except apparently not close enough. They needed to get out of here before they were drawn into this mess, Nicholas Flamel be damned. They didn’t get stuffed into a human body to make a spectacle of themselves, and there was no doubt that with the Dabbler here, it would become one.

Withdrawing another spell from their cuff, they slid it over their face, activating the glamour with another Word. It was nothing major, presenting itself as a feeling of frission that stopped anyone from easily identifying who they were. A preventative measure, because they just knew it would be necessary. The Powers never made it easy for them, no matter their attempts otherwise.
Word Count: 498

This is Hell. If Hell exists, I'm in hell Dressler tossed around in his mind, a scowl on his face as he drove the white panel van to its destination. In tow with him for this particular mission were two people that he had quickly grown a healthy disdain for. The first, riding shotgun was Sven, Lucius' pet programmed with far too much of a personality. Multiple times through their ride Dressler questioned whether he had been sent with an actual malfunctioning machine as the object seemed designed to poke at the doctor. That or Lucius has decided to play a prank on me. Dressler shook his head at this as if it were the case he and Lucius would be having a very serious talk after this was all over.

The second individual he had been assigned to bring along was far more the anomaly. By Dressler's own observances she had no abilities aside from having what seemed a case of severe multiple personality syndrome. That, and she'd been frankensteined together, poorly, with at least half a dozen body parts. How a mentally deficient amputee was supposed to aid them in taking a broadcast station made absolutely no sense to him. She was a hindrance if nothing else. Pathetic creature, I should just put it out of its misery he thought as they pulled up to the station and loathsome creature let out a loud belch. Sven was quick to chime in as well telling Dressler that he was setting off some sort of "don't trust" alarm within him. Dressler clenched his teeth with an audible click, biting back the rage that had been steadily building in him for the entirety of the trip.

I sincerely doubt that you possess such a thing he eventually forced out between his teeth. And it was at right about that time that the machine decided it would be a good idea to leave the van and approach the front of the building. Lucius can deal with you later meddlesome thing he spat, eyeing the automaton as it made its way to the entrance. More than part of him hoped that the thing would be taken in by security, maybe they'd dismantle it. Now that was a pleasant thought, the first one of the day.

His spirits bolstered Dressler turned in his seat to the back of the van where the human jigsaw puzzle sat in a a heap of empty ice-cream cartons. You're going to stay here he ordered, speaking over her muttering and hand waving. His expression darkened into a scowl as he realized that she seemed to be in her own little world, not a single word of his absorbing into her feeble brain. Listen you blubbering idiot, I will not have you ruining this for us. Stay here, babble and writhe about to your heart's content and under no circumstances are you to... he was suddenly cut off by the sensation of falling and then the crash of the vehicle into the station's lobby floor.

Dressler's head began waving about madly, taking in his surroundings as the creature in the back stepped out in to the lobby. NO! Dressler managed to bark out at the thing as he thrashed out of the van. It made no sense, the creature did not possess anything that would allow it to create a portal to transport the van to its current location and yet here they were. If the fire alarm in the building were not already ringing then this bizarre situation would certainly have keyed the entire building int to the fact that something was going on down in the lobby.

You imbecile!! Dressler screamed as a ripple made its way across his flesh and his pupils narrowed to slits staring daggers at Dabbler. But his eyes quickly caught a second presence, two men standing at the opposite end of the counter that Dressler's van was now parked behind. The first seemed...mostly normal, no abnormalities in their genetic code their face however betrayed something bizarre. A sort of fuzz cast itself over their countenance, enough that Dressler could not make out any details in their appearance and his eyes seemed to strain against it. The other, an older man bore the marks of significant genetic alteration, specifically in his eyes and in the telomerase chains in his chromosomes. A satisfied smile split across his face as he looked between the two and he attempted to regain some semblance of his composure, though his seething rage for Dabbler's actions boiled in him just below the surface. This resulted in a sort of uneasy calm falling over him, as though he were a coiled snake that would strike out at any moment.

Ah, I don't believe we've met gentlemen Dressler addressed the two, clasping his hands together behind his back. I assume it's no coincidence that we find ourselves in the same place at the same time. He stepped forward a few paces, forcefully bumping in to Dabbler as he pushed past her to the front of the reception desk. However you can clearly see the company I've had to keep today and I'm sure you can understand that I'm not in the best of moods. He continued to force the smile on his face, every bit of will power him struggling to appear composed even as his flesh seemed to writhe and tremble in response to his rage. I'm not normally one for mercy, but I would suggest that you leave before this gets very, very ugly.

“Seriously though, congrats on the promotion again. You deserved it. I’m not gonna pretend I’m some news article aficionado, but your last article on Rise? That was some good shit. I love how you made it completely objective, yet somehow, they still came out the assholes.” At that, both Coraline and her friend snickered.

“Yeah, I’m sure they’re having a fit about it. But hey, even money can’t change the facts.” At that, they clinked their Smirnoff Ice’s together before chugging the rest down, Coraline going at a much slower pace. “Come on, hurry up! My grandma drinks faster than y—“ She said, only to be cut off by the fire alarm, which also caused Coraline to choke on her drink. “Oh my god are you ok??? Come on let’s get out of here.” Her friend said, worry suffusing her voice.

After a moment of coughing, Coraline nodded in agreement. “Yeah I’m fine. Let’s go before we burn to death or something.” She said, standing up and following her friend towards the stairs. “… Do you think it’s anything serious?”

“I doubt it… probably a prank or something…” her friend said with a dubious tone before attempting to break the tension. “Thank god I’m only on the fourth floor huh?”

“Oh god yeah can you imagine? Going down like 50 flights of stairs? I’d rather just burn to death at that point!” Coraline said with a smirk. The two girls burst out laughing at that as they entered the stairwell and began heading down.

OOC Note: kill me. also for future note, post order is - red, neko, me, thor, me
Word Count: 255

Nicolas had an unamused look on his face as Leon, someone he had briefly met a good while ago, seemed to show up out of nowhere. Now, it was not out of disrespect. Nick actually admired this one quite a bit. The issue here was the fact that this was going to get blown out of proportion if people like Leon, and in fact Nick himself, continued to get involved. The idea was to get in, foil whatever Rise had planned for this building, and get out. That could be jeopardized now with the inclusion of someone like the sorcerer. It was a problem, and Nick was about to protest it.

Of course, fate not wanting to be gentle, this problem was doubled down on almost instantly. A panel van, of all things, appeared in the lobby. It came completely out of the woodwork, if this building had woodwork. Luckily though, Leon managed to throw a shield up pretty quickly. The pair of them were unharmed, a least physically.

Nicolas sighed, clearly tired. This wasn't the sort of thing he liked to get involved in these days. He wasn't a spring chicken anymore.

"Yes, yes, I remember you. And i think the vehicle randomly appearing answers the question of why I'm here. Perhaps it's the reason you are as well," Nick said, golden eyes finally addressing Leon. They're little reunion was cut pretty short, however. Two Rise operatives, one Nick recognized, and one he couldn't quite place, stepped out of the van.

It was at this point Flamel's eyes fixed themselves on the Doctor. The monstrosity gave it's usual, probably mandatory pre-fight arrogant speech. Nick could only smile, finally amused by something today. No doubt Dressler was a formidable foe, but he had no idea who he was dealing with.

"Ah....... Doctor Dressler. I should have expected this," Nicolas said, side stepping the van a bit. The Father of Alchemy tapped his cane against the marble as he spoke. His posture was that of a nobleman, and his attitude was that of a general staring down his adversary.

"You are, after all, Lucius' favorite attack dog. While the Heads do the intricate work, and get all the glory might I add, you are relegated to simply gaining the means of broadcasting it. I wonder how being a grunt makes you feel." Nick was taunting the Doctor, that was clear. The alchemist reasoned that if the monster was angry enough at him, others would be safe, and of course Rise's mission would go unfulfilled. Yes, he was trying to occupy this threat. Hopefully Leon could do the same with the other.

"I cannot hope to beat them both on my own, Leon. If you stand by the innocent, you will stand by me today. I'll deal with the Doctor."



Having left the van, Sven was not teleported inside. He didn't much care though. He was given his instructions, and they were given theirs. While his target was the servers, Dabbler and Dressler's was the board meeting. While Red did want them to stick together for tactical reasons, Sven didn't see it as a necessity.

The alarm went oft, and seeing no reason to keep up the stealth act, Sven tossed a brick through a window. After that, getting in was as simple as walking in. The AI found himself in a maze of offices. People were screaming, of course. They always seemed to scream when they saw him these days.

Oh well.

Sven, using the buildings blueprints, began to casually walk the building in search if the server room. Unfortunately, it was on the very top floor. He could take the elevator, sure, but having hacked plenty of them, he opted instead for the stairs. This was going to take awhile.

DRESSLER

Dressler finally stopped whining and stepped out of the van next to Dabbler. He was absolutely furious, but what's done is done and all Dabbler could offer was a toothy grin and a pat on the shoulder. "Take a chill pill, Mary Shelly."

Now, Dabbler wasn't all that absent minded. She was pretty sure they were supposed to do some kind of take over, but she wasn't told they'd run into other magic users. So today was going to be a wizard dueling day was it.

"We're threatening them? Are they the good guys? Yeah we are threatening them!" Dabbler didn't so much ask Dressler as tell him what she was going to do. She cleared her throat with a few coughs and strutted in their opponent's direction, and took a dramatic bow.

"Beware do-gooders, for you face Dabbler! Immortal Hellbeast of the Styigan Realms!" Dabbler bowed, taking off her witch hat with one hand and opening two other hands to reveal the heterochromic demon eyes within them, gazing at each magician with pain and menace, having been torn from the heads of different demons and assimilated into Dabbler.

"Demonslayer. Grand Poobah of the Mystical Arts, Sixhundred and sixty-sixth arch Warlock of the Order of Mungkustrap. Mayor of a town by the Lake. Lover of Ben & jerry's Chocochip cookie dough. And I am here to fulfill my ambition of...."

Dabbler changes her voice to the scary demon voice. "...Offer up sacrifices to awaken Cthulhu."

FLAMEL

Dabbler poofed, stepping through her hellspace on a whim to cross the thirty or so feet distance between Nicholas Flamel and Dressler's overturned van. She began her assault on the magicians, working his ear off with her signature, high-pitched irritating rambling.

"YOU! You look familiar. I saw you once at a few wizard's house before their doors slammed into my face." Dabbler scrutinized Nicholas with her demon-eye-in-hand, and reached a startling conclusion, one to impress upon them the depth of her intellect and analytical skills. "Are you Harry Potter??? I've read ALL about you in that book with the teenage wizards! WOW you've really grown up! Are you an official Auror now?! Are you here to send me to wizard prison with those Dementors? I can dress the part of a death eater! A Nazi death eater, even! You know Back in the first book when you obtained the stone from the mirror did you ever..."

As Dabbler rambled on the screens in the lobby began to show disturbing images. In the grander scheme of magic, These were mere parlor tricks; 'cantrips' would be the technical term, yet Dabbler needed no incantations nor gestures, and affected several screens at once simply by talking. The screens flitted with recordings of Dabbler's rambling being repeated, sometimes sped up or slowed down, with focus on her face. Sometimes they showed alternate visions of dark fantasy- the listeners standing there, being murdered by their allies, or simply aging to dust. One by one screens were being haunted.

LEON

Dabbler poofed over to Leon when Nicolas didn't answer fast enough, and started working her ear next.

"You... I don't know you, but I think we could be like, Frenemies. Rivals. Can we be rivals? I should know your name. No! I should have some sort of demeaning nickname for you. Like Bat-brains. hmmm. Ginger. Are you Ron Weasely?" Dabbler asked, already mistaking Nicholas for Harry.

"Tell me your name. NAME! Quick Ron Weasely. Maybe you'll tell me if I do... THIS!" Dabbler began staring at Leon intently, and with one hand kept her eye open and with the other began slowly poking her eye. More a nuisance than a genuine threat. "TELL ME! Tell me. Tell me tell me TELL MEEE!" Dabbler was poking her eye really hard, seeing as it was starting to roll around in her socket like lazy eye.

Leon always got the feeling Flamel knew they were more than what they were pretending to be whenever they did business. Said feeling only intensified as the man fixed them with a rather piercing look, though his suggestion was incorrect. One couldn’t win them all. Before they could reply however, a movement out of the corner of their eye drew their attention to the new figure dragging themselves out of the van. A meta of some sort. A shape shifter they recognized from a certain broadcast. His form rippled in anger, as if something wild was barely restrained by a thin veneer of humanity. If one wanted to be poetic about it. Though once again with the assumptions. Humans always thought their little problems were the center of the universe.

Leon rolled their eyes at the threat being given as they began to pull out a teleportation spell, only for Flamel’s words to stop them. If this pillar of the magical community was defeated or even killed, the shockwaves would be rather disruptive to say the least. Also, they were put here to do Good, and as annoying as they thought this whole conflict was… there are no such thing as coincidences. The presence Dr. Dressler meant something much bigger was at play. One cannot save the world by only focusing on the environment and the arcane they suppose.

"Don’t you think working together would be better… I mean not much can get through this shield." They said earnestly, deciding to maintain their façade of being a semi normal college grad working for someone much more important than them. "Stronger together and all tha—" That’s when Dabbler began to ramble, interrupting Leon mid-sentence. They fixed the enemy magic user with a glare that turned into an eye roll at the theatrics. It seems He really did a good job on this one. Poor creature.

Any sympathy for her state quickly dried up though when she really began to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and etc. How does one say so much yet nothing at all? Maybe her true future was becoming a politician (Leon gave a little mental snrk at that). As she focused on Flamel, they glanced at the flickering screens with a look of mild interest. How quaint. One image in particular reminding them of their work on the Agragians. It had been fun, warping a species’ potential: sucking away any good they could have contributed to the universe until all that was left was a desire for destruction and war. They were still rather proud of exactly how far the Agragians fell (though they really shouldn’t be). Except of course Dabbler had to interrupt their little nostalgia session as she suddenly poofed up and began talking their ear off.

Said talking quickly became a screeching demand for their name, punctuated by her poking her eyeball because…persuasion? To be fair it probably would have worked on a regular human, which Leon was pretending to be. They winced at the sight, hurriedly reaching into their extradimensional pocket for a specific business card. "Here. You can call me Phosphor. I work for Helel Amaranthine. If you ever need anything related to the arcane and occult, he can help. For a price of course. We always welcome new business, especially for one as… illustrious as yourself." As they spoke, they poked the card through the shield. They also took out their phone, quickly texting a message to Coraline.

Get out.

She definitely wouldn’t want to get involved in this mess.
Word Count: 592
Total WC: 1090